Subject: DNC Clips 5.11.2016
From: "Price, Jenna" <[email-masked]>
To: "Price, Jenna" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 04:30:12 -0700

WEATHER: 66F, Cloudy

POTUS and the Administration

Obama’s Visit Raises Ghosts of Hiroshima<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/world/asia/hiroshima-atomic-bomb.html>

NEW YORK TIMES // DAVID SANGER

For decades, visitors to the ghostly dome in Hiroshima that stands like a sole survivor from the dropping of the atomic bomb there more than 70 years ago entered a world that mixed unspeakable tragedy with historical amnesia. The site, which President Obama will visit this month, reflected an almost universal Japanese view that the city was a victim of unnecessary brutality — parents and children incinerated, thousands killed and a generation poisoned by radiation. Yet museum exhibits nearby were largely silent on what led to that horror, a Japanese war machine that tore through Asia for a decade before the morning that changed the history of the 20th century.

North Carolina transgender battle could expand civil rights law<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northcarolina-lgbt-legal-idUSKCN0Y12OG?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reuters+Politics+News%29>

REUTERS // DANIEL TROTTA AND DANIEL WIESSNET

The legal battle over transgender rights between the state of North Carolina and the U.S. government has moved the country closer to settling one of the last frontiers in civil rights law. At issue is whether transgender people deserve the same federal protections that have been extended to groups such as blacks and religious minorities. Backers of the North Carolina law, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, say it will protect women and girls from predators. Transgender advocates say that claim is unfounded and ignores a modern understanding of people who identify with a gender other than the one assigned at birth.

White House prods Senate on Garland amid Republican blockade<http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-court-garland-idUSKCN0Y12NG?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reuters+Politics+News%29>

REUTERS // RICHARD COWAN AND LAWRENCE HURLEY

The White House pressed forward on Tuesday with its uphill battle to win Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, providing senators Merrick Garland's voluminous responses to questions about his background. The 141 pages of answers to standard questions posed to U.S. Supreme Court nominees, plus another 2,066 pages of appendices, filled six boxes that were wheeled into the U.S. Capitol building for reporters to see. "Now that we have this, let's have some confirmation hearings. We have never in my lifetime had a time when there's been a nominee for Supreme Court justice (that) they haven't been offered a hearing," said Senator Patrick Leahy, the 76-year-old top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Merrick Garland Completes Nominee Questionnaire for the Senate<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/10/merrick-garland-completes-nominee-questionnaire-for-the-senate/>

NEW YORK TIMES // EMMARIE HUETTEMAN

Judge Merrick B. Garland sent senators his responses to a nominee questionnaire on Tuesday as White House officials forged ahead with his stalled nomination to the Supreme Court. Traditionally a prerequisite to a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Garland’s questionnaire serves as a sort of exhaustive curriculum vitae. The committee promptly posted the 141-page document online. Because of Republicans’ continued opposition to considering Judge Garland’s nomination, however, the committee did not provide him with a tailored questionnaire to complete, as is customary for Supreme Court nominees. Instead Judge Garland filled out a standard questionnaire for nominees to lower courts. The document details his awards, speeches, news media interviews and more. His employment history dates to a summer job when he was in his early 20s on the re-election campaign of Representative Abner J. Mikva, an Illinois Democrat who later became chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the post Judge Garland now holds.

Obama’s Gorgeous Goodbye<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/obamas-gorgeous-goodbye.html?_r=0>

NEW YORK TIMES // FRANK BRUNI

In this twilight of his presidency, Barack Obama is unlikely to deliver much in the way of meaningful legislation. But he’s giving us a pointed, powerful civics lesson. Consider his speech to new graduates of Howard University last weekend. While it brimmed with the usual kudos for hard work, it also bristled with caveats about the mistakes that he sees some young people making. He chided them for demonizing enemies and silencing opponents. He cautioned them against a sense of grievance too exaggerated and an outrage bereft of perspective. “If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry, ‘young, gifted and black’ in America, you would choose right now,” he said. “To deny how far we’ve come would do a disservice to the cause of justice.” He was by no means telling them to be satisfied, and he wasn’t talking only or even chiefly to them. He was talking to all of us — to America — and saying: enough. Enough with a kind of identity politics that can shove aside common purpose. Enough with a partisanship so caustic that it bleeds into hatred. Enough with such deafening sound and blinding fury in our public debate. They make for entertainment, not enlightenment, and stand in the way of progress.

Opinions On Barack Obama’s Economic Legacy Don’t Have Much To Do With The Economy<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-economic-legacy_us_57325736e4b016f3789778f7>

HUFFINGTON POST // ARIEL EDWARDS-LEVY

President Barack Obama says his economic legacy is a lot better than he gets credit for.  “I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform,” he told The New York Times recently. “By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.” The public, though, doesn’t exactly agree. While the president’s approval rating on the economy is, on average, about as high as it’s been at any time since late 2009, it remains slightly underwater. Obama is the first president since 1960 who hasn’t seen his approval rating rise along with gains in consumer sentiment. In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, just one-third of Americans said that Obama made things better for the economy after the financial crisis. Another 37 percent said he made things worse, while 18 percent said he didn’t have much impact, and 12 percent weren’t sure.  Americans’ views of Obama’s effect on their personal financial situation is even more bleak. Just 18 percent thought that Obama has made things better for their own financial situation since he took office, with the rest largely split between believing that he made things worse and that he didn’t do much.

Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings Welcome Obama Visit<http://www.wsj.com/articles/survivors-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-bombings-welcome-obama-visit-1462944189>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // JUN HONGO

Survivors of the U.S. nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945 said Wednesday that they approve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to visit Hiroshima later this month, expressing hope that it will help curb nuclear proliferation. “Hopefully [Mr. Obama] will be able to meet the victims and hear their stories firsthand,” said Reiko Yamada, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. The 82-year-old Ms. Yamada was at a schoolyard in Hiroshima when the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945. The blast knocked her down as she was running toward a shelter, she said. “I saw bodies, and there were parents who lost their children, and children who never saw their parents again after that day,” she said in an interview. “I hope Mr. Obama will make his visit an opportunity to pledge that such tragedy will never happen again.” White House officials confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Obama would become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima. He will arrive May 27 after attending a Group of Seven summit meeting in Ise, Japan.

Justice’s reputation hangs in balance of Clinton probe<http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/279455-justices-reputation-hangs-in-balance-of-clinton-probe>

THE HILL // JULIAN HATTEM

No matter what decision federal prosecutors and FBI investigators make in the Hillary Clinton email probe, there is sure to be a public backlash from the left or the right. If Clinton doesn’t face charges, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Justice Department will certainly come under criticism from conservatives who will suspect President Obama’s administration of covering up for a former Cabinet member. Yet if charges are brought, Democrats are just as sure to question the motives of FBI Director James Comey, a Republican who worked for the Bush administration. The stakes are huge given Clinton’s status as the likely Democratic presidential nominee, underscoring the pressure on the Justice Department. Charges against her or her aides could wound her presidential bid, while silence would ease her path to the White House. “In this scenario, federal prosecutors are damned if they do bring a case and damned if they don’t,” said Justin Shur, the former deputy chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, who is now at the law firm MoloLamken.

Swing-state poll: Voters want Garland to get hearing<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/merrick-garland-supreme-court-223040>

POLITICO // NICK GASS

They may be split between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but registered voters in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania both favor President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Even more said they want the Senate to consider him before a new president takes office, according to a Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday surveying registered voters in the three states. Pluralities of voters said they approved of Obama’s nomination of Garland, announced a month after the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia. In Florida, 51 percent approved compared to 33 percent who disapproved and 16 percent who said they were not sure. Among Ohio voters, 47 percent said they approved, while 33 percent disapproved and 20 percent were not sure. In Pennsylvania, 52 percent said they viewed Obama’s nomination favorably, while 29 percent said they did not and an additional 19 percent were ambivalent. As far as whether the Senate should consider Garland’s nomination or wait until there is a new president in the White House, voters were more emphatic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has long maintained that Congress would not move forward with hearing or confirming a Supreme Court nominee in 2016 regardless of his or her qualifications.

Democrats

Harry Reid Says GOP Is to Blame for Donald Trump as Republicans Distance Themselves From Front-Runner<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harry-reid-gop-blame-donald-trump-republicans-distance/story?id=39006890>

ABC NEWS // MEGHAN KENEALLY

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid had some strong words for not only Donald Trump but also for members of the so-called Republican establishment, whom he accused of "waffling" about the party's presumptive nominee. The Senate minority leader blasted his Republican colleagues during a speech on the Senate floor Monday, arguing that Trump's expected nomination comes after years of work by a party that Reid says excluded groups of voters. "He's no accident. His nomination is not some mistake. Donald Trump is the natural evolution of a party that spent eight years honing a platform that is anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-Obama and anti-working people," Reid said.

Democrats all in on Hispanics vs. Trump<http://thehill.com/latino/279428-democrats-using-trump-to-court-latinos>

THE HILL // RAFAEL BERNAL

With Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Democrats see a chance to turn Hispanic voters away from the Republican Party this election — and perhaps for years to come. They are seizing on every opportunity to fan the flames, with an eye toward winning the White House, taking back the Senate and cutting into the GOP majority in the House. "I’m going to make every Republican that I work against eat a Trump steak and make sure they know it was made by Donald Trump," said Chuck Rocha, president of Solidarity Strategies, a Hispanic political consulting firm that runs campaigns for Democrats nationwide. Surveys indicate Trump has enormous ground to make up with Hispanics as he shifts toward the general election. In a recent poll by America’s Voice and Latino Decisions, 79 percent of Hispanics said they had an unfavorable view of the businessman, who famously launched his campaign talking about Mexico sending criminals into the U.S.

Democrats Unsure New Puerto Rico Bill Will Fix Their Issues<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-05-10/democrats-unsure-new-puerto-rico-bill-will-address-their-issues>

BLOOMBERG // BILLY HOUSE

U.S. House Republicans say they are on track to release a new draft of their Puerto Rico debt bill, but Democrats are skeptical that it will address most of their objections. "I have some thoughts that the concerns that have been raised by the secretary of Treasury and by Democrats in the House and the Senate are still not addressed in a way that might lead us to support the bill," the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said Tuesday. Hoyer added that he hasn’t yet seen the revised draft. Sharing Hoyer’s assessment is Representative Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, which is managing the bill, according to his spokeswoman, Diane Padilla. Grijalva is in Puerto Rico for meetings with officials on the island.

Senate Dems to airlines: Stop charging bag fees<http://thehill.com/regulation/transportation/279425-senate-dems-to-airlines-stop-charging-bag-fees>

THE HILL // TIM DEVANEY

Senate Democrats are urging airlines to let passengers travel with their bags for free. This would save time for travelers and cut down on long wait lines, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wrote Tuesday in a letter to a dozen airlines. “Stop charging checked bag fees during the coming summer months, the busiest travel season of the year,” they wrote. The airlines began charging fees for passengers to check their bags about a decade ago to help cover rising fuel costs, but now that gasoline prices have declined this is no longer necessary, the senators argue. “Many customers seek to avoid the fee and instead have adapted by carrying their luggage onto the aircraft,” the senators wrote.

Jim Justice Wins Democratic Nomination for West Virginia Governor<http://www.wsj.com/articles/jim-justice-wins-democratic-nomination-for-west-virginia-governor-1462938515>

ASSOCIATED PRESS //

Billionaire Jim Justice won the Democratic nomination for West Virginia governor, holding off challenges from two other candidates Tuesday. Mr. Justice defeated former U.S. attorney Booth Goodwin and Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler and will face Republican state Senate President Bill Cole in November. Mr. Cole had no opposition in the GOP primary. According to unofficial returns, Mr. Justice had about 51% of the vote to 27% for Mr. Goodwin and 23% for Mr. Kessler. Mr. Justice spent $2.1 million before the primary and had at least a seven-fold money advantage, with about $2 million of his own money and $683,700 in donations. A theme of his advertising has been reviving the Greenbrier resort, which he bought out of bankruptcy in 2009 in southern West Virginia. Mr. Justice, 65 years old, said his candidacy wasn’t about personal gain, status, ego or money, and that he was the only candidate equipped to beat Mr. Cole, a Bluefield car dealer. The Republican Governors Association has spent $600,000 on TV ads to boost Mr. Cole’s name recognition. During a speech Tuesday night at the Greenbrier resort, Mr. Justice reiterated his commitment to doing everything he could for the state.

Bernie Sanders Inspired This Progressive To Challenge A Democratic Incumbent<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-oregon_us_57323332e4b096e9f092f077>

HUFFINGTON POST // SAMANTHA LACHMAN

A progressive House candidate is tying himself as closely to Bernie Sanders as possible in the hopes that it will help him pull off a major upset against a relatively conservative Democratic incumbent in Oregon next Tuesday, foreshadowing a way in which the independent Vermont senator’s political revolution may continue after the presidential primary has concluded. Dave McTeague served as a state representative in Oregon’s legislature before working as the executive director of the state’s chiropractic examiners board. He’s challenging Rep. Kurt Schrader, who is serving his fourth term as the representative for Oregon’s 5th district. Schrader is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition for conservative Democrats and has one of the most conservative voting records for a Democrat in the House. As a superdelegate, Schrader is backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the party’s convention this summer.

Dems brush off polls showing close Clinton-Trump race<http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/279449-dems-brush-off-polls-showing-close-clinton-trump-race>

THE HILL // NIALL STANAGE

Democrats on Tuesday brushed off polls showing Hillary Clinton in a dead-heat with Donald Trump across three crucial general-election states. Most Democratic strategists insist that it is very difficult to see a path to the White House for Trump, given his low approval ratings with a number of crucial groups, particularly Hispanics. They also cast a skeptical eye on polls conducted at this point in the election cycle. “It’s May — and I’m pretty sure no general election was ever decided in May,” laughed one Democratic strategist, who asked to remain anonymous. Jim Manley, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that, in politics, “there is always reason to be nervous.” “But folks shouldn’t read too much into these polls. There is a long way between now and November, and I continue to believe that Donald Trump is highly radioactive when it comes to the general election,” he said. One poll released by Quinnipiac University on Tuesday showed Clinton four points adrift of Trump in the key state of Ohio, which has voted for the winner of every presidential election from 1964 to the present day. The same organization’s new polls also showed her leading him by just a single point in Pennsylvania, which has not voted for a Republican since 1988, and by the same margin in Florida.

Wasserman Schultz’s liberal challenger set to announce $1M haul<http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/florida/2016/05/8598873/wasserman-schultzs-liberal-challenger-set-announce-1m-haul>

POLITICO // MARC CAPUTO

Tim Canova, the upstart liberal who’s challenging Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her congressional seat, is about to become a million-dollar candidate. Fueled by small-dollar donors who give to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Canova said that, by the weekend, he’ll be on pace to have raised $1 million since he officially entered the race Jan. 7.  The source of the money is a point of pride for Canova, who was criticized last month by Wasserman Schultz for getting out-of-state donations. “We have more donations in the State of Florida than Debbie Wasserman Schultz. This is a reflection that our progressive message is spreading here in South Florida,” Canova, who first announced his cash haul on WPLG Local 10 in Miami, told POLITICO Florida via email late Tuesday. Wasserman Schultz’s campaign couldn’t be reached. The surprising big-dollar Democratic primary between the party leader and the liberal political newcomer has transfixed political observers in Florida and Washington, and is widely seen as a proxy fight between Sanders and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Republicans

Republican leaders remain divided ahead of key Trump-Ryan meeting<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-leaders-remain-divided-ahead-of-key-trump-ryan-meeting/2016/05/10/cc700412-16e5-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html>

WASHINGTON POST // PAUL KANE AND MIKE DEBONIS

National Republican leaders remained sharply divided Tuesday over the likely coronation of Donald Trump as the party’s standard-bearer, foreshadowing a lengthy battle in the two months leading up to the presidential nominating convention in Cleveland. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) dug in for a protracted discussion with Trump after last week’s stunning declaration that he was “not there yet” on embracing his party’s likely presidential nominee. Ryan’s ambivalence raised the stakes on his meeting with the businessman slated for Thursday at the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill. “It’s going to take more than a week just to repair and unify this party,” Ryan said in an interview Tuesday with the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald F. Seib, broadcast online by Facebook. “If we just pretend we’re unified without actually unifying, then we’ll be at half-strength in the fall, and that won’t go well for us.”

Paul Ryan Plans to Talk With Donald Trump on How to Unify GOP<http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ryan-plans-to-talk-with-donald-trump-on-how-to-unify-gop-1462909941>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // KRISTINA PETERSON

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday acknowledged tensions within the Republican Party at the end of its turbulent presidential primary and said he hoped meetings this week with presumptive nominee Donald Trump would help the GOP reach authentic unity, rather than have to “fake” it. “We shouldn’t just pretend our party is unified when we know it is not,” the Wisconsin Republican said Tuesday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal streamed live on Facebook. “We can’t fake it, we can’t pretend. We have to actually unify.” Mr. Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking GOP official, jolted the Republican Party last week when he said he wasn’t ready to back Mr. Trump after weeks of pledging to support GOP voters’ pick for the presidential nominee. Mr. Trump is scheduled to talk with Mr. Ryan, as well as with senior House and Senate GOP leaders, in a trio of meetings Thursday morning at party headquarters near Capitol Hill.

Ryan: Trump and House Republicans are not far apart on taxes<http://thehill.com/policy/finance/279466-ryan-trump-and-house-republicans-are-not-far-apart-on-taxes>

THE HILL // NAOMI JAGODA

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that he thinks that House Republicans and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump have similar views on taxes. House Republicans "feel very strongly about principles of tax reform, the goal of which is to lower tax rates, to get cronyism out of the tax code, to have comprehensive tax reform for families, small businesses, and to stop playing engineer in the code up here in Washington and let people keep more of their money and do what they want with it,” Ryan said on "The Michael Medved Show." Trump "did put out a plan that did do this, so I don't see that we're real far apart on that," Ryan (R-Wis.) added.

Senate GOP tries to ignore Trump<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-223029>

POLITICO // BURGESS EVERETT

As the Donald Trump phenomenon threatens to swamp the GOP’s argument that it’s the party of good governance, Mitch McConnell is trying to re-energize his divided troops by burying the Senate deep in the nuts and bolts of running the nation. Rather than trying to make a splash to distract from the presidential race, the Senate majority leader is focusing on the staid and beleaguered congressional spending process. It’s a move that reflects McConnell and his leadership’s broader belief that voters want a stable Congress, not a flashy one. With his narrow majority under siege in November, McConnell is digging through the procedural playbook to try and pass annual appropriations bills that have been neglected for 22 years. They face a steep path to becoming law with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) proposing a tough amendment on Iran and House conservatives reluctant to deal with fiscal legislation that, in their view, simply spends too much. But McConnell wants to prove Democrats wrong and show that Republicans can keep Congress running more smoothly than they ever did.

Ted Cruz stalls on endorsing Trump<http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/279460-ted-cruz-stalls-on-endorsing-trump>

THE HILL // ALEXANDER BOLTON

Ted Cruz repeatedly declined to endorse Donald Trump for president on Tuesday as he returned to the Senate for the first time since dropping out of the presidential race. The Texas senator, who finished second to Trump in winning 565 delegates in the GOP primary, according to The New York Times’s delegate tracker, said there is plenty of time to make a decision on an endorsement. “There are two and a half months until the Republican convention, six months until the general election,” Cruz told reporters crowded outside his Russell Building office. “There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination who they’re going to support,” he continued, saying it would be incumbent on Trump to convince pro-Cruz voters to support him in the general election.

NC Senator: Congress Should Stay Out of Bathroom Issue<https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/nc-senator-say-congress-stay-bathroom-issue>

ROLL CALL // NIELS LESNIEWSKI

North Carolina's senior senator said his state's Gov. Pat McCrory is "off base" in calling for congressional intervention to resolve a state dispute over restroom access for transgender people. “I've never seen Congress get involved in judicial matters and this is turned over to the court system now,” Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr said Tuesday. “So, I think the governor's off base.” The North Carolina law, House Bill 2, forbids transgender individuals from entering a bathroom that does not correspond to their gender identity at birth. After the Justice Department notified North Carolina last week that its new state statute could violate the federal Civil Rights Act, McCrory filed a lawsuit Monday, asking the federal courts to intervene. The Justice Department counter-sued later in the day.

Senate GOP pressures Trump over Supreme Court<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-supreme-court-merrick-garland-223026>

POLITICO // SEUNG MIN KIM

Some of Donald Trump’s toughest GOP critics in the Senate are pressuring the presumptive Republican nominee to reveal more information about the type of justices he would nominate for the Supreme Court — and force the mercurial candidate to bolster his conservative bona fides. As the protracted political battle over Merrick Garland’s nomination shows no signs of letting up, Democrats are increasingly invoking Trump and questioning whether GOP senators are comfortable with allowing the billionaire business mogul to make lifetime Supreme Court appointments. But key Senate Republicans say they, too, have questions about whom Trump would select to the nation’s highest court, and are urging him to offer more details.

Republicans Wait for Ted Cruz to Get Back to Work<https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/republicans-wait-ted-cruz-get-back-work>

ROLL CALL // NIELS LESNIEWSKI

Prolonged applause greeted Ted Cruz when he entered his Russell building office for the first time since returning from his ill-fated run for the White House. But the GOP senator from Texas knows full well that's not the reception he's going to get from Washington at large, or even some of his Senate colleagues. "It is great to be back in the welcoming embrace of Washington," Cruz joked to a gaggle of media before entering his office. By the time he showed up a bit after 4 p.m., a dozen still cameras and no fewer than seven video crews had joined a score or more of print journalists, a press corps ensemble that included Capitol Hill regulars campaign stalwarts. In interviews, his Senate Republican colleagues seem to be taking a trust but verify approach to their returning colleague, with several senators saying they need to figure out if Cruz intends to get down to the business of being a lawmaker.

House committee unveils $575 billion defense appropriations bill<http://thehill.com/policy/defense/279450-house-committee-unveils-575b-defense-appropriations-bill>

THE HILL // REBECCA KHEEL

A draft defense appropriations bill released Tuesday evening in the House would provide war funding only through April 2017, a tactic that has drawn opposition from Democrats and the Pentagon. Still, Republicans say using the war funding for base requirements allows for increased training, facility repairs and new equipment that would make for a stronger military. “In an increasingly dangerous and rapidly changing world, we must guarantee that our military and intelligence community have the capability to defeat barbaric Islamic terror groups and deter aggressor-nations, like Russia, Iran, China and North Korea,” defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) said in a written statement.

For Republicans in Congress, does ‘pro-life’ extend to fighting Zika?<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-republicans-in-congress-does-pro-life-extend-to-fighting-zika/2016/05/10/43b4bfac-16ed-11e6-9e16-2e5a123aac62_story.html>

WASHINGTON POST // DANA MILBANK

Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, has called himself “pro-life” since he came to Congress a decade ago. This month, he’s proving it. Buchanan last week announced his support for President Obama’s request for $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus — a decision he based in part on “new research revealing that Zika eats away at the fetal brain and destroys the ability to think.” He’s right about that. The mosquito-borne virus is going to cause thousands of babies in this hemisphere to be born with severe birth defects, and Zika is on the cusp of devastating the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico and of spreading to the southern United States. Untold numbers of the unborn are being irreversibly harmed. And yet the supposedly pro-life majorities in both chambers of Congress have done nothing with Obama’s request, more than three months after he made it in early February. Republicans demanded that the administration repurpose money that was supposed to have been spent fighting Ebola, and the administration did so even though that virus has resurged in Africa. Now, the congressional delay is hampering our ability to monitor the spread, to test possible victims and to prepare a vaccine.

Senator Demands Answers From Facebook on Claims of ‘Trending’ List Bias<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/technology/facebook-thune-conservative.html>

NEW YORK TIMES // NICK CORASANITI AND MIKE ISAAC

The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee demanded on Tuesday that Facebook explain how it handles news articles in its “trending” list, responding to a report that staff members had intentionally suppressed articles from conservative sources. In a letter, the chairman, Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, asked Facebook to describe the steps it was taking to investigate the claims and to provide any records about articles that its news curators had excluded or added. Mr. Thune also asked directly whether the curators had “in fact manipulated the content,” something Facebook denied in a statement on Monday. “If there’s any level of subjectivity associated with it, or if, as reports have suggested that there might have been, an attempt to suppress conservative stories or keep them from trending and get other stories out there, I think it’s important for people to know that,” Mr. Thune told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s just a matter of transparency and honesty, and there shouldn’t be any attempt to mislead the American public.”

Defiant Ted Cruz Returns to the Senate<http://www.wsj.com/articles/defiant-ted-cruz-returns-to-the-senate-1462922786>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // JANET HOOK

Ted Cruz returned to the Senate from the presidential campaign trail Tuesday, confronting anew the colleagues whose dislike for him became a badge of honor in his campaign as a political outsider. Speaking to a throng of reporters as he returned to his Capitol Hill office for the first time since he suspended his campaign, the Texas senator again refused to endorse the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. He seemed emboldened by his unexpectedly strong showing in the race, not humbled by losing, and showed no interest in being more accommodating to the Washington establishment he campaigned against. “If fighting for the American people makes you an outsider in the Senate, then I will happily remain one,” said Mr. Cruz, who suspended his campaign last week following a resounding defeat in the Indiana primary. Still, Mr. Cruz—in his comments to reporters and earlier in an interview with conservative talk host Glenn Beck—hinted he would leave open the door to restarting his campaign if circumstances changed dramatically.

Paul Ryan is stuck in a Trump trap<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/paul-ryan-donald-trump-223025>

POLITICO // JAKE SHERMAN AND RACHAEL BADE

Paul Ryan knows he’s in a squeeze. The Wisconsin Republican has spent two decades building a brand as a serious conservative with a friendly demeanor, who totes budget charts to town halls and is more prone to a back slap than a back stab. But in the last year, Donald Trump has seized control of the Republican Party, throwing verbal daggers in every direction, and offering little in terms of policy specifics as he waltzed through the GOP presidential primary. They aren’t speaking different languages. They are from different planets. Ryan has never had a job outside of Washington; Trump hasn’t ever worked in Washington. But now Ryan is having to contend with a reality: Trump is the party’s nominee, and there is nothing he can do about it.

Senate growing impatient for Puerto Rico bill<http://thehill.com/policy/finance/279443-senate-growing-impatient-for-puerto-rico-bill>

THE HILL // PETER SCHROEDER

Senators are growing impatient with the House’s prolonged effort to pass legislation on Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. House Republicans are hoping to regain momentum for their Puerto Rico bill Wednesday, when Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) will unveil a reworked version of the measure. But while the Senate is willing to let the House take the lead, lawmakers in the upper chamber made clear Tuesday they are not willing to wait forever. “We should move quickly to help Puerto Rico,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “We’ve been waiting for the House, but I would hope the Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle — I know our side would — would act if it looks like the House is tied in a knot.” Legislation addressing Puerto Rico’s debt woes has been delayed several times in the House. Island officials have been calling on Washington for a fix for nearly a year, and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) vowed action on the matter by March 31 after it was not addressed in a year-end spending bill.

House Is Set to Vote on 18 Bills to Address Opioid Addiction<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/11/house-is-set-to-vote-on-18-bills-to-address-opioid-addiction/>

NEW YORK TIMES // DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

House Republicans have scheduled votes this week on 18 bills aimed at addressing the scourge of opioid addiction that health experts and policy makers say has taken root across America. The bills include measures intended to make it easier for doctors to treat patients addicted to opioids, as well as to give law enforcement officers greater authority to interdict drug trafficking. There are also measures that would offer greater protections for veterans and for children affected by the opioid epidemic, and that would require the federal government to conduct studies evaluating the nation’s capacity for treating opioid addiction. Another measure requires a study of good Samaritan laws aimed at shielding from criminal or civil liability health care providers and law enforcement officials who help to treat opioid addicts with “overdose reversal” drugs. The House bills are expected to be approved and then packaged together, at which point they would need to be reconciled with similar legislation adopted in the Senate.

2016 Democrats

Bernie Sanders Wins West Virginia, Prolonging Race With Hillary Clinton<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/bernie-sanders-west-virginia.html?ref=politics&_r=0>

NEW YORK TIMES // TRIP GABRIEL

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont captured the West Virginia primary on Tuesday, forcing Hillary Clinton to continue a costly and distracting two-front battle: to lock down the Democratic nomination and to take on Donald J. Trump in the general election. Mrs. Clinton has a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates, which Mr. Sanders’s victory, one week after he won Indiana, did little to narrow. But by staying in the race, as he has vowed to do until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July, Mr. Sanders continues to tug Mrs. Clinton to the left. This week, after long resisting Mr. Sanders’s call for a single-payer health care system, Mrs. Clinton embraced allowing people as young as 50 to buy into Medicare. In Oregon, which votes next week, Mr. Sanders appealed to unpledged superdelegates, who can cast votes as they please at the convention, to rally behind him as the stronger opponent to Mr. Trump.

Bernie Sanders Wins West Virginia Democratic Primary<http://www.wsj.com/articles/west-virginia-primary-presents-another-bernie-sanders-speed-bump-for-hillary-clinton-1462922091>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // PETER NICHOLAS AND BYRON TAU

Bernie Sanders defeated front-runner Hillary Clinton in West Virginia on Tuesday, regaining momentum and leaving some of Mrs. Clinton’s backers uneasy that her path to the Democratic presidential nomination figures to be rocky to the end. “I’m always uncomfortable when she loses,” said New Hampshire state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, a Clinton supporter. “Every time [Mr. Sanders] presents himself and presents his story, more people start talking about him. And that goes on and on.” On the Republican side, presumptive nominee Donald Trump easily won primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska. The New York businessman no longer has any opposition, having cleared the once-crowded GOP field. Still, he continues to campaign in primary states, pursuing the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the party nomination.

Clinton wins Nebraska Democratic primary<http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/clinton-wins-nebraska-democratic-primary-223042>

POLITICO // NICK GASS

Hillary Clinton won the Nebraska Democratic primary on Tuesday, but she’s not getting any delegates out of it. The Associated Press called the race in favor of Clinton, whose victory amounts to mere expression of preference but could serve as a boost to the Democratic front-runner's argument that she is a more electable candidate in open contests, particularly as she looks to pivot to the general election against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. The candidates’ delegates to the Democratic National Convention were awarded in the state’s March 5 caucus. Bernie Sanders won the caucuses by 15 percentage points, receiving 15 delegates to Clinton’s 10.

Hillary Clinton's primary quagmire<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/hillary-clintons-primary-quagmire-223033>

POLITICO // GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI

Hours before the West Virginia polls closed Tuesday, Hillary Clinton’s top fundraisers got a memo from campaign manager Robby Mook. The message: Even if Bernie runs the table in the remaining states, he still can’t win. It’s a well-known point by now, but it’s still one Mook needed to make as Clinton sputters toward the finish line, loaded down with the baggage of recent losses in Indiana and West Virginia and the prospect of a few more losses still to come. This wasn’t the way the Democratic primary was supposed to end. Clinton may have turned her focus to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, but at the same time her campaign is forced to continue fighting a rear-guard action against Bernie Sanders, who shows no sign of surrender. After going dark on television for several weeks, the former secretary of state is suddenly investing in television advertisements in Kentucky — a state that should have been in her wheelhouse. Deep into the primary schedule, Clinton is forced to reckon with almost weekly results highlighting her relative weaknesses with white men and young voters, and she’s only gradually been able to increase her swing state travel. All the while, Trump sharpens his day-to-day critiques of her.

Released Emails Show Use of Unclassified Systems Was Routine<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/clinton-emails-routine-practice.html?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // STEVEN LEE MEYERS

On the morning of March 13, 2011, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, wrote an urgent email to more than two dozen colleagues informing them that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were sending troops into Bahrain to put down antigovernment protests there. Mr. Feltman’s email prompted a string of 10 replies and forwards over the next 24 hours, including to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as the Obama administration debated what was happening and how to respond. The chain contained information now declared classified, including portions of messages written by Mr. Feltman; the former ambassador in Kuwait, Deborah K. Jones; and the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan.

Hillary Clinton Backs Income Limits on Parents’ Costs for Child Care<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/10/hillary-clinton-backs-income-limits-on-parents-costs-for-child-care/?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // THOMAS KAPLAN

Appealing to working parents buckling under financial pressure, Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that families should not have to pay more than 10 percent of their income on child care. “If we’re going to say we are for family values, then we need to value families,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech at a health center while campaigning in Kentucky, whose Democratic primary is next Tuesday. In Kentucky, Mrs. Clinton said, a family with both parents earning minimum wage has to spend about 20 percent of its income on child care, while a single parent earning the minimum wage has to spend 40 percent of his or her income. Mrs. Clinton did not spell out how she would ensure that families’ costs would not exceed 10 percent, although her campaign said her plan to limit costs would include subsidies and tax relief.

Hillary Clinton Takes a Step to the Left on Health Care<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/hillary-clinton-health-care-public-option.html?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // ALAN RAPPEPRORT AND MARGOT ANGER-KATZ

For months during the Democratic presidential nominating contest, Hillary Clinton has resisted calls from Senator Bernie Sanders to back a single-payer health system, arguing that the fight for government-run health care was a wrenching legislative battle that had already been lost. But as she tries to clinch the nomination, Mrs. Clinton is moving to the left on health care and this week took a significant step in her opponent’s direction, suggesting she would like to give people the option to buy into Medicare. “I’m also in favor of what’s called the public option, so that people can buy into Medicare at a certain age,” Mrs. Clinton said on Monday at a campaign event in Virginia. Mr. Sanders calls his single-payer health care plan “Medicare for all.” What Mrs. Clinton proposed was a sort of Medicare for more.

Hillary Clinton Says She’s Weighing Medicare for 50-Year-Olds<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/05/10/hillary-clinton-says-shes-weighing-medicare-for-50-year-olds/>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // LAURA MECKLER

Hillary Clinton has spent months berating rival Bernie Sanders for proposing a single-payer, government-run health-care plan, sticking to her more modest proposals aimed at lowering costs and saying she has no interest in another nasty legislative battle over health care. Now, as she tries to close out her primary contest against the Vermont senator, she is floating a new idea: allowing people as young as 50 to buy into Medicare, the health plan that serves those ages 65 and up. Mrs. Clinton briefly mentioned the idea during a conversation in Virginia on Monday with parents of young children. She also repeated her support—seldom voiced—for a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers on the health care exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act.

In Louisville, Clinton Attacks Trump on the Minimum Wage<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/trackers/2016-05-10/in-louisville-clinton-attacks-trump-on-the-minimum-wage>

BLOOMBERG // SAHIL KAPUR

Hillary Clinton went after Donald Trump during a speech Tuesday at Family Health Centers in Louisville, Kentucky, previewing her general election message by assailing him for having said wages are "too high." "There are real differences between what I believe—what we believe—and what the presumptive Republican nominee believes," she said. "Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and argued that Americans are being paid too much, not to little. He’s even talking about getting rid of the federal minimum wage and leaving it to the states, to the mercy of Republican governors who’ve already cut wages for state workers." Clinton was referring to a November Republican debate when the New York real estate developer said, "Taxes too high, wages too high, we're not going to be able to compete against the world." On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, Trump said he was changing his position, which he didn't flesh out other than to say "people have to get more" wages.

A lot of Donald Trump supporters voted for Bernie Sanders today<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/10/early-w-va-numbers-show-4-in-10-sanders-backers-prefer-trump-over-clinton-and-trump-over-sanders/https:/www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/10/early-w-va-numbers-show-4-in-10-sanders-backers-prefer-trump-over-clinton-and-trump-over-sanders/>

WASHINGTON POST // PHILIP BUMP

In 2008, West Virginia's Democratic primary electorate was one of the most conservative and least liberal in the country. A fifth of Democrats who voted in the state's primary that year identified as conservative, according to exit polls, putting it in a select group with Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi (where a quarter of the Democratic electorate identified that way). In 2012, the state's Democrats demonstrated their displeasure with the incumbent Democratic president by voting heavily for a guy who was serving time in prison. Keith Judd got over 40 percent of the vote; West Virginia, once a solid blue state, backed Mitt Romney that year by nearly 27 points. This year, the state's Democrats exerted their independence in another way. Preliminary exit polls -- numbers that will be re-weighted as votes start coming in -- suggest that more Democrats who are voting for Bernie Sanders on Tuesday are likely to support Donald Trump in November than Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton may have lost West Virginia by a landslide. The truth is, she doesn't need it<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/10/hillary-clinton-west-virginia-lost-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary>

THE GUARDIAN // LUCIA GRAVES

Hillary Clinton’s resounding loss in West Virginia on Tuesday may not mean much for her delegate count, but that there’s plenty to worry those concerned with optics. After all, just eight years ago she beat Obama in the overwhelmingly white state of West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of the primary season. This year it was she who lost in a landslide to Bernie Sanders. The trouble for the Clinton naysayers here is that she doesn’t need to win over white America to become the next president. She doesn’t even need to come close. In 2012 Obama lost white men to Mitt Romney 35 to 62. He also lost white women 42 to Romney’s 56. Clinton’s numbers with women will likely be better, and the proportion of the electorate that’s white has gotten smaller since 2012. Trump may well beat her handily among white people. But, quite simply, if Clinton keeps her command with minorities and women, it won’t matter.

After West Virginia, Bernie Sanders Has A Problem, But So Does Hillary Clinton<http://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-west-virginia-july-philadelphia-donald-trump-458323>

NEWSWEEK // MATTHEW COOPER

Don’t let Bernie Sanders's win in West Virginia fool you: Hillary Clinton is way ahead in terms of pledged delegates and overall votes. She is much farther ahead of Sanders than Barack Obama was of her in 2008—or to go back further—Walter Mondale was ahead of Gary Hart in 1984. Look at it this way: Hillary is close to clinching the nomination. Sanders needs more than 900 to nail it. Yet as West Virginia showed, Hillary is in trouble. She can’t increase her support with young voters, white men and other groups that have so far eluded her. Compare her to Trump who ran up big victories in the Mid Atlantic and Indiana, where he grabbed hold of wealthier suburbanites and evangelicals. Clinton hasn’t closed the deal, and there’s not much indication that she can before the Democratic convention in July.

Clinton's coal gaffe likely hurt in West Virginia<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279464-clintons-coal-gaffe-likely-hurt-in-west-virginia>

THE HILL // JONATHAN SWAN

Hillary Clinton's campaign gaffe about putting coal miners out of work likely hurt her badly in West Virginia, a primary she lost to Bernie Sanders on Tuesday. More than 60 percent of voters in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary who identified themselves as belonging to coal miner households voted for Sanders, according to MSNBC exit polls. Just 30 percent of coal miner households voted for Clinton in West Virginia's Democratic primary. It's a big slide for the former first lady, who won the state by a huge margin over Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primaries. But she seems to have lost a good deal of affection among the state's white working-class voters. West Virginia has deep economic and psychological ties to the coal industry, and Clinton didn't help herself when she said earlier this year, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”  She tried to repair her mistake, saying her comments had been taken out of context given that she is determined to help coal workers who lose their jobs as the economy rapidly modernizes. Clinton used her $30 billion government bailout to help coal miners and their families deal with the fallout from the U.S. economy’s transition toward renewable energy sources.

Both Disliked, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Accentuate the Negatives<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-campaign-character-negative.html>

NEW YORK TIMES // TRIP GABRIEL

Voters weary of the taunts and insults of the 2016 primary season may pine for a White House campaign about issues. But the Hillary Clinton versus Donald J. Trump showdown is almost sure to disappoint them. It has quickly deteriorated into a scorched-earth contest about personality and temperament, with each side exploiting voters’ strong dislike of the other candidate. “We have an explosive environment with two extremely negative candidates,” said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster. “This is going to be a race to the bottom. It’s who can drive up the negatives the most.” Mr. Trump accused Mrs. Clinton over the weekend of abetting her husband’s infidelities by seeking to tarnish his accusers. He labeled her a “nasty, mean enabler.” The Clinton campaign taunted Mr. Trump as “Dangerous Donald,” meant to raise fears of him gaining control of America’s nuclear arsenal, a charge soon to be echoed by more than $100 million in negative ads from a “super PAC” that successfully tarnished the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

With West Virginia Victory, the Beat Goes On for Bernie Sanders<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/11/with-west-virginia-victory-the-beat-goes-on-for-bernie-sanders/>

NEW YORK TIMES // MAGGIE HABERMAN

The delegate math remains tough, but for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the revolution lives on for another day. Mr. Sanders won the West Virginia primary on Tuesday night, a decisive win over Hillary Clinton in a state where the coal mining industry has been hampered by President Obama’s environmental policies. Donald J. Trump also won in the state, as well as in Nebraska, although his two remaining rivals left the race last week. Mrs. Clinton won West Virginia over Mr. Obama in 2008. And Mr. Obama received a primary challenge there in 2012 from a Texas felon who won some counties there. The politics of the state have been hard to cleave away from racial lines. But Mrs. Clinton struggled in the state, not just because of her alliance with Mr. Obama, but also because of her missteps in discussing the coal industry. A comment, lifted out of context but clunky nonetheless, about the coal industry and people being put out of business followed her there, and she faced protests from coal workers during campaign stops. Primaries are not necessarily bellwethers for how candidates will fare in a general election. But Mrs. Clinton will have work to do with white working-class voters in the fall in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania.

Why Can't Hillary Clinton Lock Up the Nomination?<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/482229/>

THE ATLANTIC // CLARE FORAN

Bernie Sanders may be on the verge of a winning streak. After defeating Hillary Clinton in the Indiana Democratic primary, the Vermont senator notched a win in West Virginia on Tuesday, and appears well-positioned for a victory in the upcoming Oregon primary. That will allow Sanders to claim momentum. It’s also likely to help the campaign pull in a fresh flood of small-dollar donations from energized supporters. Still, none of that changes the fact that Hillary Clinton has effectively sealed off a pathway to the nomination for Sanders. To get technical, it is no longer mathematically possible for Sanders to win enough pledged delegates in the remaining primary contests to win the nomination. On top of that, Clinton holds a commanding lead in superdelegates, a pool of influential Democrats made up of elected officials and party leaders. So why hasn’t Clinton managed to dispatch her Democratic rival? The senator’s populist message of tackling income inequality and taking on Wall Street has inspired an ardent following. Voters are animated by a wide array of concerns, and the choice to stand with a particular candidate is a personal decision. But to understand why support for Sanders hasn’t dried up despite the long odds he faces, it may be helpful to describe a spectrum of voters. There are the realists, the casual fans, and the defiant die-hards.

2016 Republican

Despite Divide, Trump Still Needs His Party<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/despite-divide-trump-still-needs-his-party.html?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // JOHN HARWOOD

The billionaire business tycoon Donald J. Trump established a winning pattern in Republican presidential primaries. He’d rip his rivals, then take a softer tone after he had beaten them. “I like everyone once it’s over,” he said last week. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, too many Republicans have so far refused to reciprocate. Unless he can change their minds, defections from within his own party will prevent him from ever becoming competitive in a general election against the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Misgivings among Republican leaders dominated Mr. Trump’s first week as his party’s presumptive nominee. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, both the former presidents Bush, and the recent Trump rival Jeb Bush have all declined to back him. But their objections merely represent symptoms of Mr. Trump’s potentially crippling ailment: Though he managed to knock out all his primary rivals, he hasn’t won over enough rank-and-file Republicans to win in November.

Trump narrows list of potential running mates to '5 or 6 people' <http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-running-mate-223022>

POLITICO // BRIANNA GURCIULLO

Donald Trump told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that he has whittled down his shortlist of possible running mates to "five or six people." The presumptive GOP nominee told the AP that Chris Christie, who will serve as Trump's transition team chairman, is still in the running. Trump said he wants a vice president who knows about "getting things through" Congress and who isn't in business like himself. "For the most part, they've been vetted over the last 20 years," Trump said about the politicians. While Rick Perry and Sen. Bob Corker haven't ruled out serving as Trump's choice, others including Ben Carson, Joni Ernst and Marco Rubio have been dismissive.

Trump backs Ryan as convention chairman<http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/trump-id-love-for-ryan-to-stay-and-be-chairman-223037>

POLITICO // DANIEL STRAUSS

Donald Trump said he would "love" for House Speaker Paul Ryan to remain as chairman of the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland. "I'd love frankly for him to stay and be chairman," Trump said during an interview with Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday night. Trump and Ryan are scheduled to meet Thursday to try and squash tensions that broke into public view last week when the House speaker said he was not ready to endorse the presumptive GOP nominee. In response, Trump then said he was "not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda." On Monday, Ryan said he would step down as chairman of the convention if Trump asked. “He’s the nominee. I’ll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention,” Ryan said.

Trump: Obama data operation 'overrated'<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279453-trump-my-best-investment-is-my-rallies>

THE HILL // REBECCA SAVRANSKY

Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would only spend "limited" money on data operations that track potential voters, arguing President Obama's 2012 operation was "overrated." "My best investment is my rallies," the White House hopeful said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The people go home, they tell their friends they loved it. It's been good." Obama's data mining was seen as a key to his success in bringing out voters in 2012, but Trump downplayed it during the interview. "Obama got the votes much more so than his data processing machine," he said. "And I think the same is true with me."

Donald Trump Has Another Brush With a White Nationalist<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/10/donald-trump-has-another-brush-with-a-white-nationalist/?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // MAGGIE HABERMAN

Donald J. Trump’s campaign aides said that because of a technical glitch, a well-known white nationalist leader was included on a list of California delegates that they submitted to the secretary of state’s office. It was the latest flap over support that Mr. Trump has received from a white nationalist figure; he was criticized for declining to disavow the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support in February despite being asked to repeatedly in an interview if he would do so. Mr. Trump later said, “I disavow” regarding Mr. Duke, and he rejected more recent statements from Mr. Duke that invoked anti-Semitism. The list of prospective delegates for California, where the primary is on June 7, initially included the white nationalist leader William Johnson, who heads the American National “super PAC.” His inclusion was first reported by Mother Jones. In a statement, the Trump campaign’s California state director, Tim Clark, said that the list was submitted on Monday to be certified by the secretary of state.

Donald Trump’s Chief Fundraiser Is an Unorthodox Choice<http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-chief-fundraiser-is-an-unorthodox-choice-1462923708>

WALL STREET JOURNAL // REBECCA BALLHAUS, RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN AND BEN FRITZ

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is facing a general-election tab that could exceed $1 billion, has tapped to raise that money a businessman with ties to two industries traditionally important in campaign finance, Wall Street and Hollywood, but with uncertain loyalties to Mr. Trump. Steven Mnuchin, the chief executive of the Dune Capital Management fund and a longtime banker, will serve as Mr. Trump’s national finance chairman, the campaign announced last week. A former Goldman Sachs executive who has since helped arrange billions in financing for studios in Hollywood, where he now lives, Mr. Mnuchin is an unorthodox choice. He isn’t an experienced political fundraiser, an attribute typically coveted by a presidential campaign; he has donated to more Democrats than Republicans; and his Rolodex includes current and former colleagues who might prove reluctant to donate to Mr. Trump.

Anti-Donald Trump Forces Gear Up For Third-Party Challenge<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-third-party-challenge_us_5732392de4b016f3789758e7>

HUFFINGTON POST // SAM STEIN AND IGOR BOBIC

Top Republican strategists this past week have stepped up a frantic effort to lay the groundwork for a third-party presidential run, even as elected officials within the party begin to make their peace with Donald Trump. The effort is admittedly a long shot, according to aides directly involved in it. But they insist it’s not as impossible as some members of the GOP and the press perceive it to be. In particular, these aides have begun exploring the idea of suing states over their deadlines for ballot access so they can be afforded more time to field a candidate and gather signatures. Additionally, they are discussing the possibility of launching an entirely new political party rather than latching onto an existing one, since doing so would provide easier passageways for getting on the ballot. “The ballot deadlines are doable, avoidable or hackable,” said Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican operative who has turned his Twitter feed into a loathe-fest of Donald Trump.  “This is real. There is an actual pathway here,” he said. “I think we will know in the next week to 10 days [if this can work], and I think the probability is higher than most people think.”

Trump wins Nebraska Republican primary<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-wins-nebraska-republican-primary-223039>

POLITICO // NICK GASS

Donald Trump has won the Nebraska Republican primary, according to three separate news networks. Despite being the only Republican candidate left in the race after Ted Cruz and John Kasich both suspended their campaigns last week, Trump kept up his pace on the campaign trail. Before traveling to the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington, Trump stopped over in Omaha last Friday night. Trump’s victory in the state comes despite fierce opposition from freshman Sen. Ben Sasse, one of the first Republicans to come out against the party’s presumptive nominee. Nebraska awards its 36 delegates on a winner-take-all basis.

Trump wins West Virginia Republican primary<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-wins-west-virginia-republican-primary-223034>

POLITICO // NICK GASS

Donald Trump has won the West Virginia Republican primary, according to three separate news networks. Though he is the only candidate left running on the Republican side of the race, Trump rallied supporters in Charleston last Thursday. While there, Trump laid into Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for her comments in March that she would work to “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” West Virginia elects its 34 delegates directly on the primary ballot.

Trump closes in on official nomination delegate count<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279472-trump-closes-in-on-official-nomination-delegate-count>

THE HILL // LISA HAGEN
Donald Trump is only about about 100 delegates short in the remaining GOP contests to formally clinch the Republican presidential nomination. As of early Wednesday morning, The Associated Press had only awarded the presumptive nominee three out of West Virginia’s 34 delegates, but results show him with nearly 77 percent of the vote. If he is awarded all 34 delegates, that total, along with Nebraska’s winner-take-all 36 delegates, would put him just 99 delegates shy of the 1,237 needed to officially clinch the nomination. The real estate mogul typically delivers a victory speech on primary nights, but his campaign instead sent out a statement thanking voters in both states. "It is a great honor to have won both West Virginia and Nebraska, especially by such massive margins,” Trump said in a statement. These were the first primary contests since Ted Cruz and John Kasich exited the GOP race last week. Earlier on Tuesday, Cruz floated the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he won Nebraska’s primary, though he said he didn’t expect to take the contest. Indeed, Cruz was on his way to losing by more than 40 percentage points.

Trump strategist calls him 'the head of the Republican Party'<http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/trump-chief-strategist-manafort-trump-is-now-the-head-of-the-republican-party-223036>

POLITICO // DANIEL STRAUSS

With GOP leaders divided over whether to support their presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump's chief strategist on Tuesday night declared the New Yorker the "head of the Republican Party." "The Republican Party is a composition of the members of the party and not just the leadership, and he went out there and again he was the largest vote-getter in the history of primaries," Paul Manafort told MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "So he is not just the titular head, but he is the head of the Republican Party, as far as the voters are concerned." While Reince Priebus runs the Republican National Committee, Manafort said Trump's primary victories and his status as presumptive nominee make him chief of the party. "He ran everywhere, he won everywhere, and I think tonight's numbers as well show that the Republicans are happy with their nominee," Manafort said on the night Trump won the Republican contests in West Virginia and Nebraska.

Donald Trump’s Campaign Trail May Take Detour to Scotland<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/10/donald-trumps-campaign-trail-may-take-detour-to-scotland/>

NEW YORK TIMES // MAGGIE HABERMAN

Donald J. Trump is going to spend his time in the coming weeks before the Republican Party’s nominating convention in July considering a running mate, musing potential Supreme Court picks — and, possibly, heading to Scotland for a ribbon-cutting. Mr. Trump is considering whether to travel to Scotland in June for the unveiling of the renovated Trump Turnberry, a famous golf course that he acquired in 2014 and which has hosted championships. “We just did a massive renovation of the whole place,” Mr. Trump said in an interview this week. “We’re having an opening in June, and the question is, will I fly over, cut the ribbon and fly right back, or not.” Such a trip could have advantages, particularly if Mr. Trump was able to schedule meetings with European officials to add a presidential patina. But it would also take him off the campaign trail in a heated battle over the economy and jobs. Such foreign trips taken by presidential nominees, if they include ceremonial stops and meetings, can be fraught with peril. Mitt Romney’s trip to Europe in 2012 was pockmarked with troublesome encounters and negative headlines. So was a trip taken by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey in late 2014.

Trump launches tax plan rewrite<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-taxes-tax-reform-223041>

POLITICO // SHANE GOLDMACHER

Donald Trump’s campaign has enlisted influential conservative economists to revise his tax package and make it more politically palatable by slashing the $10 trillion sticker price. Their main targets: Lifting the top tax rate from Trump’s original plan and expanding the number of people who would have to pay taxes under it. Trump’s initial proposal, rolled out with fanfare at Trump Tower in Manhattan last September, has been in the spotlight since he became the presumptive Republican nominee last week and promptly declared that it was only a starting point for any negotiations with congressional Democrats, should he become president. But it turns out Trump’s team is open to revamping it far sooner than that; the campaign last month contacted at least two prominent conservative economists — Larry Kudlow, the CNBC television host, and Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation and a longtime Wall Street Journal writer — to spearhead an effort to update the package. “What we’ve been trying to do is help advise him a little bit to try to reduce the cost of the plan” and still encourage economic growth, Moore said in an interview.

Trump’s Miss Universe Foreign Policy<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/trumps-miss-universe-foreign-policy.html?ref=opinion>

NEW YORK TIMES // THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

O.K., it’s easy to pick on Donald Trump’s foreign policy. But just because he recently referred to the attack on the World Trade Center as happening on “7/11” — which is a convenience store — instead of 9/11, and just because he claimed that “I know Russia well” because he held a “major event in Russia two or three years ago — [the] Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event” — doesn’t make him unqualified. I’m sure you can learn a lot schmoozing with Miss Argentina. You can also learn a lot eating at the International House of Pancakes. I never fully understood Arab politics until I ate hummus — or was it Hamas? And, by the way, just because Trump’s big foreign policy speech was salted with falsehoods — like “ISIS is making millions and millions of dollars a week selling Libyan oil” — it doesn’t make him unqualified. The New York Times Magazine just profiled one of the president’s deputy national security advisers, Ben Rhodes, reporting how he and his aides boasted of using social media, what the writer called a “largely manufactured” narrative, and a pliant press to, in essence, dupe the country into supporting the Iran nuclear deal. The Donald is not the only one given to knuckleheaded bluster and misrepresentation on foreign policy. Life is imitating Twitter everywhere now.

After Trump, the GOP may need a better voting system<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/after-trump-the-gop-may-need-a-better-voting-system/2016/05/10/203ca80c-16eb-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html>

WASHINGTON POST // KATHLEEN PARKER

It should be obvious to all by now that Donald Trump knows nothing of what he speaks. His disastrous economic ideas are but the latest in a litany of nonsensical proposals. And still, his supporters — that Republican base so carefully nurtured by the very GOP operatives and politicians who now find its members so distasteful — proclaim his supremacy with such bracing observations as “Well, at least he’s got [spheres],” or “At least he speaks his mind,” or “At least he doesn’t suck up to anybody.” These selections from the morning mail share a common element — “at least” — which seems apt enough, though “the least” seems more to the point. Trump was the least of so many Republican candidates, including people who offered governing experience, knowledge and even, in some cases, wisdom.

Trump says he'll let Trump be Trump<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-new-york-times-interview-223044>

POLITICO // NOLAN D. MCCASKILL

Donald Trump says he won’t change his tone as he turns toward a general election match-up against Hillary Clinton, likening his appeal to a winning baseball team or a hit Broadway musical. “You win the pennant and now you’re in the World Series — you gonna change?” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday. “People like the way I’m doing.” Doubling down on that notion, the real estate mogul said he had a “mandate from the people” to continue being who he is, a free-speaking political outsider who's drawn historic turnout and knocked out 16 opponents in the Republican primary.

Editorials/Op-Eds

After Conventions, a Debt to Donors<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/after-conventions-a-debt-to-donors.html>

NEW YORK TIMES // THE EDITORIAL BOARD

This year the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia will be bankrolled entirely with money from corporations and wealthy individuals. Not since the Watergate era, when a $400,000 pledge to the 1972 Republican convention from ITT Corporation was linked to a favorable outcome for the company in a federal antitrust decision, has this happened. Industries with business before the federal government have long found opening their checkbooks for the conventions to be one of the most efficient means for influencing an incoming administration and Congress in one quick action. Come July, some of America’s best-known companies will pay to celebrate the nomination of Donald Trump, whose racist rants have in the past caused NBC, Macy’s and Nascar to distance themselves from him. Progressive political groups like ColorOfChange.org and Credo Action are pressuring Coca-Cola, Walmart, Microsoft, Facebook and Google to cut off money for the Republican gathering. But the protest against Mr. Trump doesn’t address the deeper problem of corporate influence over both parties.

Trumponomics 101: Our view<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/10/donald-trump-economy-west-virginia-primary-editorials-debates/84197542/>

USA TODAY // THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Donald Trump constantly boasts about his amazing business skills and Wharton education, insisting they'd translate into brilliant and effective public policy. Voters who cite the economy as their biggest concern have helped propel the billionaire businessman toward the Republican presidential nomination. But even a cursory look at Trump's fiscal proposals makes them seem less like inspired financial engineering than something scribbled on the back of a bar napkin just before closing time. Even by the standards of presidential candidates, who typically try to skate by on vagueness and phony math, Trump’s constantly shifting plans are in a category by themselves. Start with the basics: How would Trump handle the federal budget, with its chronic mismatch between revenue and spending? The plan Trump put out last year would turn that gap into a chasm.

Pressure to Close the Pay Gap<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/pressure-to-close-the-pay-gap.html?ref=opinion>

THE NEW YORK TIMES // THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The strong case for the rule requiring companies to report the gap between the pay of the chief executive and everyone else keeps getting stronger. The original rationale for the rule, mandated under the Dodd-Frank financial reforms of 2010, was that excessive executive pay encouraged corporate recklessness, fostered economic instability and deepened income inequality. Disclosure, which will begin in 2018, was intended to create public pressure on corporations to rein in executive pay. Pressure is now building in other ways. The chief executive of Norway’s $870 billion oil fund — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — told The Financial Times recently that excessive executive pay had become a fundamental issue and that the fund would soon set forth principles it expects the 9,000-plus companies in which it holds stakes to follow.

Memo to Bushes, other GOP holdouts: Get on the Trump Train<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/presidential-campaign/279356-memo-to-bushes-other-gop-holdouts-get-on-the-trump>

THE HILL // DARRELL ISSA

To hear the political media put it, Republicans all across the country are seething with rage, shaking their fists at each other and determined to drive the GOP apart. Talk about the wish being the father to the thought – and the reporting. Four months on the campaign trail stumping in seven states for Sen. Marco Rubio revealed to me that while Republicans are full of disappointment about Washington, it took the form of an upbeat and resolute determination. I met and observed thousands of voters during the primary. I didn’t see one outburst. While many voters told me they had different first choices than Sen. Rubio, there was one frontrunner they wouldn’t consider voting for in November. Donald Trump? Not even close. Hillary Clinton.

What Mr. Obama Can Say at Hiroshima<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/what-mr-obama-can-say-at-hiroshima.html>

NEW YORK TIMES // THE EDITORIAL BOARD

President Obama added a couple of firsts to his list of achievements when he became the first sitting president to visit Myanmar and, later, Cuba. He will add another at the end of this month when he visits Hiroshima in conjunction with the Group of 7 leaders meeting in Japan. Though the White House is playing down expectations, the visit gives him a significant opportunity to offer some tangible new initiatives to advance his vision of a nuclear-free world — a major goal at the outset of his administration that has since faded against a host of other foreign policy challenges. Apart from an appearance in 2010 by an American ambassador, John Roos, and Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to Hiroshima early last month, senior American officials have conspicuously avoided the war memorial for the 200,000 people who lost their lives in the two nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war in the Pacific. Given the 70-year alliance between Japan and the United States that has flourished since the end of the war, Mr. Obama’s decision to visit the memorial seems well overdue.