Subject: Stitch — Trump on the Hill, Trump's Secretive Ways, Reid: 'I want you to lose'
From: Jonathan Allen <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 13:38:35 +0000
List-Id: dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8fmc list <dff5dea186e38c29c57ca6f8f.326717.list-id.mcsv.net>

** WHAT'S THE STITCH?
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Stitch is a morning news speed-read highlighting the work and insights ofNewsmakers that is followed by a daily chat on hot political topics.

**
TODAY'S SIDEWIRE CHAT:
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* 10:45 a.m. ET — LAUREN WEBER, the morning email editor at the Huffington Post, joins Stitch to talk about the aggregative arts and the politics of the day.

** EPIC SIT-DOWNS: TRUMP, RYAN AND A BUNCH OF OTHER DUDES
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OK, not really that epic. But TV trucks did arrive on the 200 block of E Street NE in D.C., around the corner from the entrance to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, when it was still pitch-black outside Thursday morning — and that was the later of the two chats.

The Donald was scheduled to meet separately with House Republican and Senate Republican leaders as part of his effort to unite the GOP behind his presidential candidacy, and he arrived for his meeting with the House folks shortly after 9 a.m.

Expectations for the confabs were set pretty low going in, with Republicans predicting that House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has not yet endorsed Trump, would not be an immediate convert to the cause. KEVIN SHERIDAN, who was Ryan's communications director on the Romney-Ryan ticket in 2012, explained to PAUL KANE of the Washington Post in a Sidewire chat yesterday why Ryan has held back so far.
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"On a gut level I think he just wanted to pause. He’s not alone. There are millions of R's right now asking themselves the same question and given the viciousness of the campaign want to understand how/if we can all move forward to defeat Hillary."

—Kevin Sheridan / Sidewire Chat with Paul Kane (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/5d9a1f4fa3ac42e2482cf353333c4081/commentary/ef58e3c8-d8f7-41c1-85f4-8de367cf3dfd)

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Click here (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/5d9a1f4fa3ac42e2482cf353333c4081)  for their full conversation.

DANNY DIAZ, the campaign manager for Jeb Bush, said Republicans and allied groups are going to give Trump some room on policy because of his newfound clout.
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"I think people are observing what is taking place in a very turbulent environment. We want to beat Hillary. It doesn't hurt Trump that yesterday it showed Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida could potentially be competitive...Life is such that if a candidate is doing well people will give him/her leeway, and if not, quite obviously, they will be more critical. Some of this remains to be seen and we will just need to monitor how things develop going into the convention.

—Danny Diaz / Sidewire Chat pt. 1 (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/cbbb47a05d29d3cb3a80066c2ca55bff/commentary/cac07a5f-13ab-4426-8491-93a086050842) , pt. 2 (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/cbbb47a05d29d3cb3a80066c2ca55bff/commentary/b8b6b7f2-c667-4708-9e92-63f105bf5aba)

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Click here (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/cbbb47a05d29d3cb3a80066c2ca55bff)  for that full conversation.

MY TWO CENTS, for what their worth, are in a Roll Call column that argues Ryan will ultimately back Trump but that he's already won. Notice Trump's been playing nice the last few days after he and his surrogates hurled some threats at Ryan.
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"Ryan accomplished a few things here: He signaled to Trump, establishment Republicans and the general public that he’s nobody’s patsy or punching bag; he earned favor with his colleagues by giving them cover to take their own time on Trump; and he’s reminded everyone — including Trump — that he’s the guy who has actually united the party’s factions at the federal level. ... The truth is neither man is powerful enough to knock the other out, and both would emerge from a fight bloodied and weakened."

—Jonathan Allen / Roll Call (http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/trump-ryan-wins-looks-like-hes-losing#sthash.zYaJylZm.dpuf)

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** TRUMP'S SECRETIVE CAMPAIGN
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IF THERE ARE TWO THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN CONSISTENT about Donald Trump's approach to running for president, it's these preferences: He doesn't want to take any position that can't be reversed at a moment's notice and he doesn't want to leave any kind of paper trail.
* His campaign has policy statements on just seven issues (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions) .
* He told the AP (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/087bc8bc5028405c80fa20cea70be877/ap-interview-trump-narrows-vp-list-he-moves-general)  that he won't release his tax returns until after the election unless an audit is complete before then, ignoring decades of past practice.
* His top policy adviser, Sam Clovis, said yesterday that he's open to rewriting entitlement laws but won't come up with a plan until after he's elected, as Richard Rubin reports in the Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-adviser-says-hes-open-to-entitlement-program-changes-1462997756) . Interestingly, Clovis said "the budgetary discipline that we’ve shown over the last 84 years has been horrible" — suggesting the last good steward was Herbert Hoover.
* He is now saying that his call for banning Muslims from entering the U.S. was "just a suggestion (http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/05/11/trump-muslim-ban-temporary-hasnt-been-called-for-yet-just-a-suggestion/) ."

The irony is that Trump is at once the most accessible candidate in modern presidential campaign history and a cipher.

DEMOCRATS ARE SEIZING on the tax returns, as Hillary Clinton did on the campaign trail yesterday.
In a Medium post (https://medium.com/@PatrickJMcHugh/what-is-donald-trump-hiding-a6240cb08950#.x78yq8f1u) , Priorities USA Deputy Executive Director Patrick McHugh lays out the case that there's a lot for Trump to hide by keeping his tax filings private, including:
* His actual income
* How much he gives to charity
* The rate he pays and how much his own tax plan would benefit him
* Whether he has financial ties to unsavory organizations
* How much he's made from Trump university and other branded ventures

Those who would vote against Trump have better reasons to do sothan him withholding his tax returns. Traditionally, the overall lack of transparency about what he truly believes and his own record could hurt a candidate who is running on his willingness to speak truths.

But, as MARK LEIBOVICH pointed out in TRACY SEFL's "Central Time" Sidewire Chat yesterday, Trump has defied traditional political rules and created new standards, including what if anything constitutes an error on the campaign trail.
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"I think Trump in a way has made HIMSELF gaffe-proof because he's created such a normalized expectation that he will say questionable things and get away with it. He's manufactured his own low standard and permission structure."

—Mark Leibovich / Sidewire 'Central Time' (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/8efc52549f4a1c829bb7530504823eb2/commentary/b402dda9-c328-46b8-bea3-35d49fc9d902)

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** TRIVIAL PURSUITS
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ABOUT TODAY
Maria Theresa, one of history's most powerful women, was crowned Queen of Bohemia — the most hipster of all regal titles — on this day in 1740. No word on whether the QUEEN of BOHEMIA ever RHAPSODIZED (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ) .

ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT SPORTS TODAY
Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer tied a Major League record last night by striking out Detroit Tigers batters 20 times last night. Said Scherzer, "Strikeouts are sexy. And to be able to punch out 20, it’s sexy.”

ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
As the Cannes film festival gets under way, Ronan Farrow is slamming Hollywood elites (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/my-father-woody-allen-danger-892572)  for working with Woody Allen.

YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA
Sal Weir was the first to correctly respond that Alexander Hamilton founded the New York Post, which was then called the New York Evening Post.

TRIVIA LEADERBOARD
The standings after two days of keeping track:
Bob Shrum - 1
Sal Weir - 1

TODAY'S TRIVIA
Courtesy of Sal: Which major party presidential candidate, and publisher, died before the electoral vote was cast?

Send answers to [email-masked]. The first person to respond correctly wins the affirmation of being right and the responsibility of posing tomorrow's trivia question.

WHAT TO DO WITH NEWS TIPS AND CORRECTIONS
Please send them to [email-masked].

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** REID TO FELLOW DEMOCRAT ALAN GRAYSON: 'I WANT YOU TO LOSE'
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If there's a Democrat who is as despised by his own party on Capitol Hill as much as Ted Cruz is by his, it's Florida Rep. Alan Grayson. You'll remember Grayson for calling an adviser to the Fed chairman a "whore," for comparing pre-Obamacare health care in the U.S. to the holocaust and, most recently, for an ethics investigation into whether he's improperly running a hedge fund from his House office.

For all these reasons, it's no surprise that the Democratic establishment in Washington prefers his rival, Patrick Murphy, in a Senate primary in Florida. Even with all that context, what SCOTT WONG & MIKE LILLIS reported for The Hill about Harry Reid's exchange with Grayson behind closed doors yesterday was still kind of shocking.

Reid was meeting with the House-based Congressional Progressive Caucus when Grayson verbally accosted the Senate minority leader over Reid's call for Grayson to respond to the ethics charges by resigning. Grayson quickly learned that if you tangle with Reid, you get a political gut punch.
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"Shame on you. It’s not true."

—Alan Grayson / The Hill (http://thehill.com/homenews/house/279573-dems-meeting-boils-over-with-reid-grayson-spat)

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"It is true, and I want you to lose."

—Harry Reid / The Hill (http://thehill.com/homenews/house/279573-dems-meeting-boils-over-with-reid-grayson-spat)

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The Huffington Post has a more complete transcript (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-alan-grayson_us_57338862e4b012a8b93411ea)  that includes Grayson going all Destiny's Child (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgd6MccwZc)  and challenging Reid to "say my name" at the start of their exchange.

If Grayson wins the Democratic nomination, he may not get much help from national Democrats.

** BONUS: MORE SIDEWIRE CHATS
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DEB SAUNDERS hosted her debut "Talk Me Off the Ledge" chat withROB STUTZMAN as a featured guest and contributions from REED GALEN, DOUG HEYE, JUSTIN THOMAS RUSSELL and others. They focused on what California Republicans should do in their upcoming primary. Click here (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/55d0cf754c48f7dad0b6602d676baf8a)  for that chat.

JAY BROWN from the Human Rights Campaign walked us through the opposition to North Carolina's "bathroom bill" and talked a bit about what it's like for a transgender man to use the men's room for the first time. Click here (https://sidewire.com/politics/dashboard/articles/c69ade96ef86119fd7e7d7d67445536f)  for that chat.

THE BIG QUESTION

How should each side define victory in Trump's meetings with Hill leaders today?

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