By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; mallen@politico.com) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; dlippman@politico.com)
BREAKING – “Afghan government confirms Taliban leader’s death” – Reuters: “The death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour could trigger a battle for succession and deepen fractures that emerged in the insurgent movement after the death of its founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, ... more than two years after he died. Saturday's strike, which U.S. officials said was authorised by President Obama and included multiple drones, showed the United States was prepared to go after the Taliban leadership in Pakistan.” http://reut.rs/1TvYCk3
DRIVING THE DAY -- AP: “Obama arrives Hanoi 1:10 p.m. EDT.”
--“Obama's 'apology' complex: Why this president sees himself as a force for confronting complicated truths about the past,” by Politico’s Isaac Dovere in Hanoi: “Seven years after kicking off his presidency with a famous outreach to the Arab world speech in Cairo, skipping Israel, Barack Obama is about to bookend it with one of his last big trips on Air Force One, landing first here in Vietnam and then on to Hiroshima. ... He and his White House aides call it ‘reckoning with history.’” http://politi.co/1VeRyef
SIREN: Off embargo at 9 a.m. – NBC’s Mark Murray: “Clinton’s advantage over Donald Trump has narrowed to just three points [46%-43% among registered voters, with margin of +/- 3.1 points], resulting in a dead-heat general-election contest with more than five months to go until November, according to ... a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. ... In April, Clinton held an 11-point advantage over Trump, 50 percent to 39 percent, and had led him consistently by double digits since December. ...
“Sanders leads Trump by 15 points, 54 percent to 39 percent. ...
“Clinton holds the edge among African Americans (88 percent to 9 percent), Latinos (68 percent to 20 percent), women (51 percent to 38 percent) and those ages 18 to 34 (55 percent to 32 percent). Trump ... is ahead among whites (52 percent to 36 percent), seniors (52 percent to 41 percent), men (49 percent to 40 percent) and independents (42 percent to 37 percent).” http://nbcnews.to/1QukjPy
--ABC’s GARY LANGER, on ABC-WashPost out at midnight: “Clinton’s 6-point lead among all adults, 48-42 percent in a general election matchup, switches to essentially a dead heat among registered voters, 46 percent for Trump, 44 percent for Clinton. ... [T]he contest has tightened considerably since March, when Clinton led among registered voters by 9 points. ...
“[Trump is seen unfavorably by 60% of Americans and Clinton by 53%], making this a matchup between the two most unpopular likely presidential candidates in the history of ABC/Post election polls, dating back to 1984.” http://abcn.ws/1W9Xlm8
“STRONGER TOGETHER” -- HILLARY CLINTON to Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” when he asked “the big idea of your candidacy”: “Look, we are stronger together. We are stronger together, in facing our internal challenges and our external ones. We are stronger together if we work to improve the economy. ... We are stronger together when we have a bipartisan, even nonpartisan foreign policy that protects our country. And that provides a kind of steady, strong, smart leadership that the rest of the world expects from us. ...
“I know that ... slogans come and go ... But when I look at where we are in our country together, we need to unify the country. We are stronger together, when we act on a set of plans and priorities that will ... benefit ... the American people.”
MAUREEN DOWD, “Weakened At Bernie’s”: “I’ve talked to several former Clinton and Obama White House aides who don’t enjoy checking in with the joyless Clinton campaign in Brooklyn. ‘It’s the Bataan Death March,’ one says. Hopeful acceptance of Hillary has shifted to amazed disbelief that she can’t put away Bernie. ... Hillary’s Bataan Death March is making Republicans reconsider their own suicide mission with Trump. More are looking at Clinton’s inability to get the flashing lights going like her husband, and thinking: Huh, maybe we’re not dead here. Maybe Teflon Don could pull this off. ...
“Hillary can’t generate excitement on her own so she is relying on fear of Trump to get her into the White House. And Trump is relying on fear of everything to get him into the White House. So voters are stuck in the muck of the negative: What are you most afraid of?” http://nyti.ms/1WIMQ9A
SUNDAY BEST -- Sen. Sanders, in Las Cruses, N.M., to Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” re primary challenge for House seat of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, by law professor Tim Canova: “Well, clearly I favor her opponent. His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman-Schultz’s. And let me also say this: with all due respect to the current chairperson, if elected president, she would not be reappointed to be chair of the DNC.”
EPIC “SNL” COLD OPEN – “Larry David’s Bernie Sanders Has Beers With SNL’s Hillary”: “Hillary,” played by Kate McKinnon: “Well bartender, I’ve done it! I’ve won the nomination. Well, no, I haven’t: I keep losing states. But mathematically, I’ve done it! To math!” ... Bartender: “I’m actually closing up the bar. That means you too, sir.”
“Sanders”: “No freaking way! I’m not going anywhere. I can stay here as long as I want.” Bartender: “Senator Sanders, I’m sorry. The night is over.” Sanders: “No, no, it’s not over! It’s not over til I say it’s over.” “Hillary”: “Oh, hello, Senator Sanders. I didn’t see you behind me -- so far behind me you couldn’t catch up.” 6-min. video, with great final scene http://bit.ly/1swEWn9
SPOTTED: On Saturday morning, Justice Elena Kagan eating a muffin, sipping a coffee and enjoying a book at Uprising Muffin in the ultra-hip Shaw neighborhood ... Rep. Jared Polis at the vegan hot spot “by Chloe” in NYC’s Greenwich Village, enjoying a late afternoon lunch with his partner ... The former and current Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Army, Generals Ray Odierno (retired) and Mark Milley, chatting after West Point graduation yesterday. Both are also West Point grads. Pic http://bit.ly/25fW3eG
COMING ATTRACTIONS – “Trump, Clinton gird for epic battle over guns ... already tearing into each other over the Second Amendment,” by Sarah Wheaton in Louisville: “[H]er full-throated advocacy for gun control is unprecedented for a Democratic presidential candidate (and for her, for that matter), and Democrats down ballot are increasingly following her lead. While she has not called for abolishing the Second Amendment, as Trump has charged, she’s pushed hard for ... expanded background checks. She has made exposing the gun industry to liability a central plank of her Democratic primary campaign against Sanders ...
“It’s a clear shift in tone and emphasis from 2008, when she described herself as a pro-gun churchgoer after Barack Obama was caught on tape criticizing working-class people who ‘cling to their guns and religion.’” http://politi.co/1WILBXX
--“Cameron: I’d meet Trump, but his Muslim comments are wrong” – London/AP: “Prime Minister David Cameron said ... it was ‘a very dangerous thing to say’ because it makes no distinction between the peaceful Muslim majority and a minority of extremists. ... Cameron's office said no formal invitation has been made, but it’s customary for prime ministers to meet both ... presidential nominees if they visit Britain.” http://apne.ws/1U73oVh
DAVID IGNATIUS column from Baghdad, on WashPost op-ed page, “How the U.S. fights the Islamic State”: “The military power that the United States can mobilize is daunting: We visited a warehouse packed with 37,000 sets of body armor and 32,000 M-16 rifles that will be airlifted to the Iraqis. We saw command centers that fuse intelligence from scores of drones ...
“America’s military strength remains overwhelming, even after the tests of the past decade, and the emerging campaign almost surely will gradually disable the Islamic State. The problem, as nearly every commander here will acknowledge, is that U.S. military might cannot make a broken Iraq work as a nation.” http://wapo.st/1YO7raj
AP FOR MONDAY PAPERS – “Acapulco Under Siege: Police, soldiers swarm Mexico’s Acapulco, killings continue,” by Mark Stevenson: “The upsurge in killings has made Acapulco one of Mexico's most violent places, scaring away what international tourism remained and recently prompting the U.S. government to bar its employees from traveling here for any reason. In response, Mexico has lined the city's coastal boulevard with heavily armed police and soldiers, turning Acapulco into a high-profile test case for a security strategy that the government has used elsewhere: When homicides spike, flood the area with troops.” http://apne.ws/1s2yvIk
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“The Watergate Hotel’s Renovation Isn’t Afraid to Embrace Its Scandalous Past,” by Stephanie Green in Vanity Fair: “The hotel long associated with political disgrace—and that we’re still naming scandals after—leans into its reputation.” http://bit.ly/1TvL35A
--“On the Front Lines of the Abortion Wars,” by Kayla Webley in Marie Claire: “Dr. Colleen McNicholas zig-zags across the Midwest—considered an ‘abortion desert’—to provide women with care that's harder and harder to come by. In part two of Marie Claire’s series on reproductive rights, she takes us with her.” http://bit.ly/256K1kh
--“As Women Scorned,” by Lauren McKeon in Hazlitt: “We’re supposed to follow a certain narrative when our partners leave us. What happens when we flip the playbook? ... Being un-wifed is supposed to be the worst thing that ever happened to us as adult women, and society expects us to act accordingly.” http://bit.ly/1OQIuL6
--“Monopoly’s New Era,” by Joseph Stiglitz in Project Syndicate: “In today’s economy, many sectors – telecoms, cable TV, digital branches from social media to Internet search, health insurance, pharmaceuticals, agro-business, and many more – cannot be understood through the lens of competition. In these sectors, what competition exists is oligopolistic, not the ‘pure’ competition depicted in textbooks.” http://bit.ly/1XFyGp4 (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“Austin, Indiana: the HIV capital of small-town America,” by Jessica Wapner in Mosaic Science: “In Austin, Indiana, widespread drug use led to the single largest outbreak of HIV in the United States. Jessica Wapner asks if a new approach to public health can rescue the town.” http://bit.ly/256HF53
--“Death by GPS,” by Greg Milner in Ars Technica: “Why do we follow digital maps into dodgy places?” http://bit.ly/1svDy4a
--“The True Story of the Booze, Bullfights, and Brawls That Inspired Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises,” by Lesley M. M. Blume in June’s Vanity Fair: “Ernest Hemingway’s debut novel gave a voice to the Lost Generation—often by lifting it directly from his affluent expat circle in post-war Paris. A new book by Lesley M. M. Blume [out June 7] recounts the scandalous trip to Pamplona that inspired Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, and the characters from literature’s greatest roman à clef.” http://bit.ly/25e4erQ ... Pre-order -- $21.29 on Amazon http://amzn.to/1OEzeV9
--“How Factory Farms Play Chicken with Antibiotics,” by Tom Philpott in the May/June Mother Jones: “And the inside story of one company confronting its role in creating dangerous superbugs.” http://bit.ly/1OQIg6O (h/t Longform.org)
--“The Most Successful Female Everest Climber of All Time Is a Housekeeper in Hartford, Connecticut,” by Grayson Schaffer in Outside magazine: “Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Everest more than any other woman—and now she’s on the mountain trying for her seventh summit. So why doesn’t anyone know her name?” http://bit.ly/1OEvhj0 (h/t Longreads.com)
--“How Kids Learn Resilience,” by Paul Tough in June’s Atlantic: “In recent years, the idea that educators should be teaching kids qualities like grit and self-control has caught on. Successful strategies, though, are hard to come by.” http://theatln.tc/1OQIKJZ
OUT AND ABOUT: Last night was a surprise birthday party for Director of CIA Public Affairs Dean Boyd, whose age is surprising enough that wife Valerie billed it as “Dean’s [REDACTED] Birthday Party.” It was a dangerous mix of college friends, work friends, and journalists who took over the upstairs loft at MXDC. SPOTTED: It’s classified.
BIRTHDAYS: Jay Carney is 51 (Prime tip: Claire, Hugo James, Della Claire) ... Jon Ward is 39 (h/t Ali, Ben Chang) ... Bernie Shaw is 76 ... Richard Deems Keil, senior media relations adviser at ExxonMobil in Dallas, the pride of Rochester, N.Y., celebrating at the Byron Nelson golf tournament in Irving, Texas (h/ts John King, Peter Simmons Watkins and Josh Deckard) ... Peter Gosselin (hat tip: the Best Coast) ... Robin Toner would have been 62 ... Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is 59 ... Tom McMahon of New Partners (h/ts Jon Haber and Teresa Vilmain) ... former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw is 76 ... Jimmy Ryan, former chief counsel to Harry Reid and the Ryan of Elmendorf | Ryan (h/t Steve) ...
... T. Boone Pickens is 88 … Florian Eder, Managing editor of expansion and author of Morgen Europa, POLITICO’s German-language newsletter on EU politics, celebrating in Brussels (h/t the sharpest dresser in Brussels) ... Greg D’Alba … Joe Pompeo, media reporter for POLITICO ... former Congressman Richard H. Baker, President and CEO of Managed Funds Association (h/t Anthony Coley) ... Peter Gosselin ... Alex Dilley, senior associate at Hamilton Place Strategies ... Geminia Di Martino, matriarch of the Di Martino family … Anthony Reyes, comms for Cal. Senate leader Kevin de Leon and a US Treasury, MSNBC and NBC News alum … Matt Butler, chief of staff at the Democratic National Convention Committee, alum of Kerry ‘04, Cantwell ‘06 and Dodd ‘08 alum and the pride of Columbus (h/t Michael Meehan) … Jennifer Garson, tech to market program manager at DOE ... Victoria Din, chief of staff for commercial and business affairs at State and a Commerce alum … Lila Rose, deputy executive director for National Democratic Redistricting Trust and a DCCC alum …
... former California GOP chairman Ron Nehring, most recently national spokesman for Ted Cruz … John Michael Gonzalez of Peck, Madigan, Jones and Stewart …Philip Rubin, senior advisor to the President of Haskins Laboratories in New Haven and at Yale, who has led the White House neuroscience initiative ... Hugo Schwyzer is 49 ... Kelly Cullinane, a Manager at the Electric Infrastructure Security Council (hubby tip: Scott) ... Bryan Petrich, special assistant for Sen. Mark Kirk (h/t Alex Gangitano) ... Politico’s Audrey Degregorio ... Hallie Golden, legislative relief reporter at the AP in Salt Lake City and a NextGov and Washingtonian alum (h/t Rebecca Nelson) ... Peter Kaplan, research associate at The Aspen Institute ...
... Jim Popkin, who runs the Seven Oaks Media Group, a former NBC News reporter and senior producer ... Reuters alum Paige Gance ... Emma Kaplan, on Nancy Pelosi’s member services team ... DNC alum Charlie Johnson, now doing finance for Hillary in Southern California ... Christiane Klint, membership and global relations manager of the International Press Institute ... Austin M. D. Quick, a Tom Demmer alum ... Brandon MacGillis, comms. officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts ... Jessie Mangaliman, regional media relations manager for NorCal at Kaiser Permanente... Kevin Davitt ... Chad M. Barth, politics and gov’t Manager at Eventbrite and an RNC alum, is 38 ... Brian Weeks, the pride of Beloit, WI AND a proud new papa! ... Linda Crawford, Lindsay Fogel ... Marat Washburn (h/ts Teresa) ... Melanie Froyen … Gene Fynes, web editor at WashPost ... Osha Gray Davidson ... singer Charles Aznavour is 92 ... conductor Peter Nero is 82 ... retired MLB All-Star pitcher Tommy John is 73 ... Naomi Campbell is 46 ... Olympic gold-medal speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno is 34 ... actress Camren Bicondova (“Gotham”) is 17 (h/ts AP)
DESSERT – “Jussie Smollett of ‘Empire’ learns from prank tweet,” by AP’s Nicole Evatt in L.A.: “‘Empire’ co-star Jussie Smollett recently caused a social media storm after tweeting a cryptic message that implied he may be leaving the show. ‘I was thinking like my little core group of amazing fans would be like, “What?” But it just went so much further. Like there were calls about it and Lee (Daniels) was getting death threats about it,’ Smollett said ... [F]ans can chill out — he’s going nowhere.” http://apne.ws/1WKmV1S