09:11 PM Ron FournierLink
The first sign that Donald Trump was reading somebody else’s words came at the very top of the speech, when he said his nomination “is not a testament to me.” Humility? Graciousness? It takes a village.
09:10 PM Andrew McGillLink
Hillary Clinton has won New Jersey, CNN projects. Perhaps not much of a surprise: She led Sanders there by more than 20 points in pre-election polls. That’ll likely give her the lion’s share of the Garden State’s 142 delegates. (Still too early to call in North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico, where polls just closed.)
09:04 PM Ron FournierLink
TV pundits say Donald Trump will “pivot” tonight. Such shallow, silly political-speak ignores the fact that you can’t pivot away from your character—not with a speech, not with an ad, not with staff shakeup. Not nowadays.
This is how I put it Monday while explaining why GOP leaders can’t “distance themselves”(another journalistic trop) from their presidential nominee:
Trump can’t make “course corrections.” This is not 1992: He can’t “soften” his views or “shift” to the center. There is no pivot from depravity in the 21st century—not when voters are a few keystrokes removed from everything a politician has said or written or done.
09:01 PM Priscilla AlvarezLink
Polls have closed in New Mexico and South Dakota, while voters gather to caucus in North Dakota. New Mexico and South Dakota primaries are too early to call, according to NBC.
08:58 PM Yoni AppelbaumLink
TRUMP.
You can find the name emblazoned on luxury skyscrapers, plastered on jets, affixed to Vodka—and, lately, on thousands of campaign signs. One place you won’t find it? On his latest venture.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a new chain of hotels, aimed at younger, tech-savvy consumers, won’t bear the mogul’s brand:
The company hasn’t yet unveiled what it will be called, but does say it will avoid using the Trump name to head off any possible confusion.
“We want to reserve the name Trump only for luxury and never want to confuse customers or owners of the difference in a four- and five-star property,” Trump Hotels Chief Executive Eric Danziger said.
That’s possible, of course. But as the Journal also notes, this is the rare branch of the Trump empire that isn’t just a licensing deal— it’s the family’s own money on the line. Three of Trump’s children hold the title of executive vice president in the business. And so it’s fair to wonder if they were worried that the golden Trump name might be getting a little tarnished.
A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 70 percent of voters under 35—the young, tech savvy consumers who’d be booking these hotel rooms—held unfavorable views of Trump. It may be the case that there is, after all, such thing as bad publicity.
08:48 PM Nora KellyLink
President Obama is expected to endorse Hillary Clinton for president. He’s expected to do so soon. But how soon?
At a White House press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested that the president planned to “withhold judgment” before Democratic voters in New Jersey and California had cast their ballots. He declined to give specifics when asked if Obama would endorse Clinton if Bernie Sanders stayed in the race till the convention—or if he’d weigh in once a candidate secured a majority of delegates.
But that was before the AP called the nomination for Clinton Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon, the timeline for an Obama endorsement looked ever so slightly more clear. Earnest said it’s possible the president could comment on Clinton before he leaves on a trip for New York.
If he waits, there are “several possible opportunities” in his schedule for “maximizing the impact” of his endorsement, the AP reported:
On Wednesday, he’s due in New York City to address donors at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Clinton’s home state. He’ll also tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” a favorite with the coveted young demographic, for the show set to air Thursday night.
The news will likely be followed by a first joint appearance before long.
Choosing the setting and timing is delicate diplomacy for the White House. Officials are trying to negotiate as gentle an ending as possible to what has become a contentious primary, hoping not to alienate Sanders’ most passionate voters.
Obama will be gentle for now. But he’s expected to offer aggressive advocacy for his former secretary of state. Obama has a decent amount of political capital these days, with approval ratings in the low 50s. As one political scientist told me last month, his surrogacy for Clinton will have meaning “because he’s not only the sitting president, but he’s essentially the titular head of the party.”
08:36 PM Clare ForanLink
CNN projects that Donald Trump is the winner of the New Jersey Republican primary. That, of course, is no surprise. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has an early lead in the Democratic primary though at this point only 1 percent of the vote is in.
08:33 PM Yoni AppelbaumLink
“I jokingly say if you’re running for president you shouldn’t be allowed to use teleprompters,” Donald Trump said in August. In January, Trump bragged, “I don’t use teleprompters.” His aversion to scripted remarks became such a feature of his candidacy that when, in March, he used a teleprompter in a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he was graded on a curve—given rave reviews for managing to deliver a pre-written speech, a skill even candidates for municipal auditor are expected to have mastered.
Tonight, the teleprompters return:
TelePrompTers set up for @realDonaldTrump election night remarks tonight pic.twitter.com/vIzPsKpqVg
— Noah Gray CNN (@NoahGrayCNN) June 7, 2016
The Republican backlash against Trump’s attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel has left him on the defensive. He’s been uncharacteristically quiet, and as I noted before, his public statement on the matter sounded as if others had a large hand in its composition.
This is the bind in which Trump now finds himself. He’s succeeded in part by dominating the news cycles, kicking up controversy and then, instead of addressing it, kicking up some fresh controversy to eclipse it. But even in his own party, many felt his attacks on Curiel were plainly racist, and beyond the pale. And so he’s doing things he usually avoids: keeping a low profile, issuing half-hearted apologies, and sticking to scripted remarks. It may help him quell the controversy, but at the price of abandoning his favored tactics.
It’s the trouble with a candidate whose signature strength is his willingness to speak his mind: What if the things it contains turn out to be abhorrent to a majority of voters, and too much even for the leaders of his own party to stomach?
08:26 PM Russell BermanLink
With the polls closing in New Jersey, a Clinton campaign official sent reporters an email previewing her remarks later in the night. After celebrating the history-making nature of her victory, Clinton “will contrast her vision of breaking down barriers and being stronger together with the divisive, destructive and dangerous vision of Donald Trump,” the official said. Clinton also plans to “congratulate Senator Sanders and his supporters on the campaign that he has run.” In other words, don’t expect her to explicitly call for him to end his campaign; the implication will be obvious.
08:16 PM Nora KellyLink
It’s all over for Representative Renee Ellmers in North Carolina. After three terms in Congress, she’s just been defeated by George Holding, her colleague in the House. With a little less than half the votes reported, Holding had secured 54 percent of the vote, and Ellmers had roughly 22 percent. A third candidate, Greg Brannon—who’d recently run for Senate and lost—was in between, with about 24 percent. When it called the race moments ago, Decision Desk HQ noted that she’s the “first incumbent Republican congressperson to be primaried this year.”
08:12 PM Russell BermanLink
A few thousand people packed into Clinton’s primary-night rally in Brooklyn were ready to scream as soon as the polls closed in New Jersey. Holding aloft small American flags handed out by the campaign, they counted down the seconds as if they waiting for the ball to drop on New Years Eve. The “too early to call” projection from MSNBC, playing on a big screen with the sound on, made for a bit of a deflating moment as the crowd went quiet.
08:09 PM Clare ForanLink
Bernie isn’t backing down. In an interview on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Sanders insisted that even if Clinton wins a majority of pledged delegates and superdelegates, he’ll keep trying to convince superdelegates to switch allegiances. Holt attempted to ask whether Sanders would be defying the will of the people. Sanders preferred to put it as “defying history.”
Here’s a transcript of the exchange:
LESTER HOLT: If in fact, Hillary Clinton wins the majority of pledged delegates on top of what she’s done with super delegates, does that end your campaign?
BERNIE SANDERS: Well, what–as I tried to indicate–super delegates are different than pledged delegates. Super delegates have a very important decision to make.
LESTER HOLT: Are you going to try to turn them?
BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah, we are. We’re on the phone right now.
LESTER HOLT: You’d be defying history? You’d be defying the will of–
BERNIE SANDERS: Hey–
LESTER HOLT: –the will of the voter, right? (LAUGH) Hillary Clinton–
BERNIE SANDERS: Well, defying history is what this campaign has been about.
There are other signs as well that Sanders is looking past tonight’s primary contests to what’s ahead. Earlier in the evening, the campaign sent out an email that appears to be aimed at Washington, D.C. area supporters asking them to commit to voting when the district holds its Democratic primary on June 14. “At every turn of this election, we have shocked the political establishment with our success,” the email reads, “Let’s shock them once again in D.C. next Tuesday.”
08:06 PM Nora KellyLink
The polls are closed in New Jersey. Before the AP named Hillary Clinton the presumptive nominee last night, New Jersey’s results, the first likely to be reported tonight, were expected to push her over the edge. For now, however, the race is too early to call, according to CNN.
07:52 PM Nora KellyLink
The polls just closed in North Carolina, where voters weighed in on House and state Supreme Court races. The election was rescheduled, as Andrew noted earlier, and turnout was expected to be low. One race to look out for is the one in the state’s second congressional district, where two sitting members of Congress have faced off. It’s unusual that two representatives—in this case, George Holding and Renee Ellmers—would be competing for the same seat, but it’s a product of North Carolina’s recent redistricting.
As I reported in a story published earlier today, Ellmers has taken heat from outside conservative groups, like Americans for Prosperity, for being, essentially, too liberal. These groups have actively campaigned against Ellmers, who was elected to Congress on a tea-party platform but shifted to the center on some issues. She was bolstered over the weekend by an endorsement from Donald Trump, the first and only congressional endorsement he’s given this primary season. The conservative organizations dissing Ellmers also aren’t big fans of Trump, but it’s not yet clear how much of an effect either side will have on voters:
Tuesday’s North Carolina primary could hypothetically offer the first glimpse of a “Trump bump.” Ellmers is fighting off multiple opponents in her primary race, which is turning out to be a virtual proxy war between pro- and anti-Trump forces. …
[H]aving Trump’s support could potentially give her cred among voters with an independent streak, who would appreciate her occasional centrism. After all, anti-Trump groups repeatedly targeted his spotty conservatism in the primary, but those efforts did not hurt him with supporters, many of whom were new to primary voting.
Trump’s iconoclasm may not have damaged him, but the question is: Will Ellmers’s track record hurt her in the end?
07:46 PM Sacha ZimmermanLink
Vis-a-vis Andrew’s note about Ted Cruz and his still passionate supporters writing him in: Cruz has a good argument for taking the nomination next cycle. After Mitt Romney’s defeat in 2012, the general Republican assessment was to expand the party—Latinos, Millennials, etc. Clearly that plan has gone spectacularly wrong. If Trump loses in November, Cruz will have a strong case for returning the party to its conservative roots in 2020. He would have the evangelicals locked up of course. But more: He would have serious name recognition. It worked for Romney, John McCain, and Bob Dole—three men who came in second place the cycle before they earned the nomination. Cruz gave Trump a run for his money—folks might think, maybe he should have been the nominee…And if Cruz holds out and refuses to endorse Trump, he will have an edge over, well, almost everyone else in the Republican Party as they all capitulate to the Trump juggernaut. Cruz can return to his moralizing, which for a Texan is a total sweet spot. Sure, people hate him, he’s awkward, and he plays dirty—but who would have thought that Paul Ryan would stake his reputation on Trump while Ted Cruz stood on principle? (If he indeed does decide to stand on principle—even cynical principle.)
07:37 PM Priscilla AlvarezLink
Donald Trump may be the presumptive Republican nominee, but not everyone is on board. A few weeks ago I spoke with Republican voters who were disappointed with Trump’s surge. “I don’t believe conservatives that say they’re conservative and are jumping on the (Trump) bandwagon,”said Mary Rasar, a 50-year-old Cruz supporter who lives in California. Rasar voted for John McCain and Mitt Romney even though they weren’t her preferred picks. That won’t be the case this year. “I’m not going to vote the lesser of two evils. The two evils we have our equal,” she said, adding that she would still back Cruz and change her party affiliation when the election is over.
The businessman-turned-presidential candidate has enjoyed a large swath of support across the country, but he’s also complicated the relationship between party identification and party allegiance in the process. As Andrew noted, some voters are still holding out hope for former presidential candidates. And that may not be totally surprising. According to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month, 59 percent of American voters view Trump as “somewhat unfavorable” or “strongly unfavorable.” Trump is still expected to pick up votes in today’s primaries, but perhaps not everyone that submits a ballot will be happy about it.
07:20 PM Andrew McGillLink
With Trump the all-but-nominated nominee, it doesn’t seem like Republican voters in California have much of a choice today. But four other Republicans are still on the ballot—Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Jim Gilmore. Cruz was in the news today, telling reporters he’s still “assessing” whether he can support Trump. “I think voters are going to do that from now right until Election Day, and I’m giving it time and watching and assessing,” he said.
Some of his supporters have a different plan. Last week, former Cruz spokesman Ron Nehring tweeted a picture of his mail-in ballot, which he had filled out for Cruz. He was joined today by scores of others tweeting their support for the Texas senator with the hashtag #CruzCrew. Several explained they were seeking to give Cruz as much firepower as possible in case of a contested convention. Their work is unlikely to pay off: Betting markets put the chance of a contested convention at just 10 percent, and the possibility of a Cruz victory at a low 2 percent.
07:00 PM Emma GreenLink
In a little over an hour, polls will close in New Jersey. As The Press of Atlantic City pointed out on Tuesday, the ever-maligned Garden State kind of got robbed. “For the first time in more than 30 years, it appeared New Jersey’s late-in-the-process primary today would get to play a key role in deciding a presidential candidate,” the paper wrote. “But then history happened.”
“History,” of course, refers to Monday night’s report that Hillary Clinton already has enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination. The more interesting hard feelings, though, might be on the Republican side. Trump has history in the state, and not just because he may have cast a spell on its governor.
The reporter Brent Johnson had a good article back in October about the era of Trump in Atlantic City. By 1990, the real-estate magnate had opened three casinos; the bankruptcy filings started within a year. The takeaway seems to be that Trump’s legacy is mixed: He raised the city’s profile, but he also caused job losses and other economic hardships.
Of a possible Trump return, the former Atlantic City mayor Jim Whelan said this: “A, it’s not going to happen. And B, I don’t know that any one person is going to come in the door and turn things around all by themselves.” Depending on what happens in November, Trump could soon be charged with turning around a lot more than a hard-on-its-luck gambling town.
06:28 PM Russell BermanLink
Hillary Clinton plans to party tonight, regardless of whether she wins California, and regardless of whether Bernie Sanders bows out of the race. Clinton is holding her event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the site of the final Democratic debate earlier this spring, about a mile from her campaign headquarters. Her campaign is billing the final primary-night rally as a celebration of Clinton becoming the first woman to win the presidential nomination of either major party, and she is unlikely to wait until the votes are counted in California to kick off the event.
She will be introduced to the stage with this new video heralding her achievement and the progress of women’s rights in the century since they won the right to vote. The video features the voices of other prominent female politicians, including Ann Richards, the former Texas governor, and Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.
For Clinton, the moment will carry an additional piece of historical symmetry, as it comes eight years to the day after she conceded the 2008 nomination fight to Barack Obama.
[embedded content]
05:56 PM Elaine GodfreyLink
For days, Trump has faced criticism for questioning the impartiality of federal judge Gonzalo Curiel because of his Mexican heritage. Some Republicans have tried to criticize the candidate’s comments while maintaining that he is not, in his heart of hearts, an actual racist. But an Iowa Republican has decided he’s had it with the Grand Old Party.
State senator David Johnson said he’s suspended his party membership, citing Trump’s “racist remarks and judicial jihad” as the last straw. The Guardian
reported that Johnson is the first elected official to leave the party over Donald Trump, although it’s possible others have done the same more quietly. The 65-year old senator changed his voter registration from Republican to “No Party,” telling The Des Moines Register, “I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot.”
Johnson also said he hoped the remarks would force prominent Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to rescind their endorsements of Trump. Maybe they still will: This afternoon, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, one of the more vulnerable Senators up for reelection this year, announced he would no longer support Trump. It’s possible we’ll see more of these un-endorsements leading up to the convention.
05:24 PM Andrew McGillLink
One state you won’t see on television election maps tonight is North Carolina. But the state is indeed holding an election today, a do-over for congressional contests after a federal court ordered the North Carolina legislature to redraw several painfully gerrymandered districts. The timing of the court’s decision in February, a month before the primary, forced officials to split the state’s Election Day in two. The presidential vote was held in March, as planned, and the congressional vote was postponed until today.
Presidential politics have still come up. As Nora notes, Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Representative Renee Ellmers, whose race has become a “virtual proxy war between pro- and anti-Trump forces.”
05:02 PM Nora KellyLink
Candidates go to great lengths to get out the vote. They hold big rallies to pump up their supporters, or go door-to-door in small towns for a more personal touch. Sometimes, they just go to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, a Democrat who’s running for Congress in California’s 24th district, cut the ribbon at a new franchise location that opened up in her city this morning, the Los Angeles Times reports. Grasping giant pink scissors, Schneider called for a “sweet, sweet story” for the new spot.
Referencing the opening, the Times called today’s primary election the “second-biggest thing happening in Santa Barbara.” And for good reason: Dunkin’ Donuts can be found in no less than 32 countries, but this new location is Santa Barbara County’s first.
The ribbon-cutting is probably one of many city spots at which Schneider will appear today as she encourages her constituents to head to the polls. Given her response to the long line outside Dunkin’ this morning, it sounds like she has more work to do. “If only voter turnout was that great,” she said.
04:31 PM Yoni AppelbaumLink
Breaking a day of silence—no press conferences, no television interviews, not even so much as a blustery tweet—Donald Trump this afternoon issued a statement. It began:
It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.
Fear not, gentle reader. Trump hasn’t been abducted; he’s been under the protection of the Secret Service since November. But it seems safe to assume that these words, issued in his name, are not of his own composition. A Monday report from Bloomberg, which quoted Trump—“The people asking the questions—those are the racists,” Trump said. “I would go at ’em.”—had a certain subtle Trumpian je ne sais quoi that this latest missive somehow lacks.
When Trump lets others do his speaking for him, it’s usually a sign that things have gone horribly wrong. In this case, his overtly racist comments were denounced by Speaker Paul Ryan (“a textbook definition of a racist comment”) and led Illinois Senator Mark Kirk to rescind his endorsement (“Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world”).
Perhaps a chastened Trump will now decide to defer to seasoned political handlers, as he works to shore up crumbling support. But given that even this statement managed to blame the media for his self-inflicted wounds—“it is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued”—it’s far more likely that he’ll soon resume tweeting, and find some way to drown out the present concern beneath some fresh controversy.
04:27 PM Chris HaughLink
California voters aren’t just choosing between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton today. As is ritual in the Golden State, they’ll also consider a statewide ballot initiative.
Currently, state law prohibits the California State Legislature from denying its suspended members a paycheck. Proposition 50, an anodyne initiative that appears on the statewide ballot today, would amend the state’s constitution and allow lawmakers to revoke a suspended colleague’s salary with a two-thirds vote.
In some ways, Prop. 50 marks the start of a new era. California is in the middle of a century-long experiment with direct democracy. The state has had citizen-sponsored initiatives appear on its ballots since the early 20th century. However, the process has recently gone through changes. Lawmakers raised the filing fee for a proposed initiative from $200 to $2,000 last year. And in 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation allowing an initiative to be struck from the ballot if a compromise could be reached on the issue ahead of the election.
Sacramento’s work to limit the process appears to have come to little avail, however. November’s ballot may well feature the most initiatives of any election since 2000, due in part to lower than normal voter turnout in 2014. (The number of signatures required to get an initiative on the ballot is tethered to turnout in the latest gubernatorial cycle.) November initiatives will likely ask voters to consider issues like prison reform, the death penalty, and condoms in adult films. As of Monday, four measures have qualified. Fourteen or more could follow.
For now, California voters only have to decide whether or not to pay lawmakers accused of wrongdoing.
03:55 PM Nora KellyLink
As anticipated, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cast his ballot for Donald Trump earlier this afternoon. Local channel News12 reports that both Christie and his oldest son, Andrew—who just graduated from Princeton University—are Trump delegates.
Trump and Christie have a complicated relationship. Before the governor dropped out of the presidential race, he’d criticized the presumptive Republican nominee quite a lot—hitting him on his border-wall plan, calling him a “carnival barker,” and knocking his level of experience. But after he left the race, Christie quickly changed course. He endorsed Trump, appeared at his side at events, and was named the head of Trump’s White House transition team. All along, Christie’s support for Trump has seemed at once surprising, given his past criticism, and totally natural. The two East Coasters share similar rhetorical qualities, so it’s perhaps no surprise they can get along. Christie was the tell-it-like-it-is candidate before Trump stole his thunder.
But unlike Trump, Christie seemed to have limits—except, apparently, today. As he talked to reporters at his polling station, Christie defended Trump’s recent comments on the federal judge handling the Trump University lawsuit. Trump has said repeatedly that the judge cannot fairly preside over the case because of his Mexican heritage.
Calling the controversy over Trump’s claims a media-driven “kerfuffle,” Christie said he would not respond to questions regarding whether Trump was being racist. He framed Trump’s claims as not atypical: “There are always going to be conflicts regarding civil lawsuits. People are always going to express their opinions,” he said. “Those are Donald’s opinions and he has the right to express them—the same way anybody else has a right to express any of their views regarding how they are treated in the civil or criminal courts in this country. That’s part of what free speech is all about.”
Christie’s argument may be a subtle nod to his tenure as a federal prosecutor—he seems to be saying he’s heard similar accusations before. But even if that’s true, Christie probably hasn’t heard them from a nominee of a major political party.
03:36 PM Clare ForanLink
The revolution isn’t over yet. Bernie Sanders just gave two additional congressional candidates his blessing. In a fundraising email, Sanders is asking supporters to open their wallets for Eric Kingson and Paul Clements. Kingson is a New York Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, while Clements is a Michigan contender for a U.S. House seat. The email reminds supporters to donate money to an array of other congressional contenders Sanders has already endorsed. And it makes a lofty promise: “If you stand with them—like we have stood together throughout this campaign—we’re going to transform the Democratic Party, and we are going to transform this country.”
03:06 PM Vann R. Newkirk IILink
While much of the rest of the country is attempting to make voting as difficult as possible, California’s primaries provide a look at just what might happen when a state does the reverse. Over the past few years, the Golden State has expanded automatic registration efforts at DMVs, heavily promoted mail-in ballots, developed mobile apps for registering to vote, and increased polling locations. In many ways, California is the model state for liberal voting reforms.
How might those reforms actually impact turnout? California actually experienced record low turnout in the 2014 midterm election, and some attribute a downward trend to changing demographics. Older, whiter voters vote more often, and California is becoming less white and younger.
However, a surge in registration and huge early and mail-in turnout in today’s primaries provide hope of a turnaround for the state. About half of all the people who voted in the previous presidential primaries submitted ballots before election day, and over 600,000 voters registered in the past two months.
Turnout and voter motivation are tricky things to measure. Could an increase in voting simply mean reforms are finally taking hold and engaging more people of color in the process? Could there be some special motivating effect for or against any of the candidates? Is this the Trump effect? It is likely impossible to disentangle any of these effects from each other when discussing turnout, especially with the noisiness of primary races, but perhaps the main lesson is that large numbers of people are availing themselves of the expanding options in how to vote and how to register to vote.
02:33 PM Andrew McGillLink
Last night at around 11 p.m., the Associated Press declared Hillary Clinton the winner of the Democratic nomination. Or rather, in very careful language, it said a majority of superdelegates had indicated privately they would support her at the convention. To Bernie Sanders’s supporters, it amounted to the same thing, and they are not pleased.
That the AP made the projection at all would have ticked off the #BernieOrBust crowd no matter what, who maintain, correctly, that the superdelegates’ endorsements are not final until the national convention in July. But the news organization published on the eve of the California primary, which even the Vermont senator himself likely considers his last real shot at this thing—and that was unforgivable.
This morning, Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept published a short column that’s since been upvoted nearly 2,000 times on the “SandersForPresident” Reddit page, and shared countless times on Twitter:
This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization — incredibly — conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter.
Greenwald certainly does not support Clinton, whom he’s called “Wall Street-enriched,” “multiple-war-advocating” and “despot-embracing.” But as a journalist, he’s avoided giving direct support to Sanders. Regardless, his piece is now the symbol of the Sanders camp’s rage.
02:15 PM Clare ForanLink
Hillary Clinton has increasingly turned her attention to the general election. Her campaign announced on Tuesday that she will visit Ohio and Pennsylvania—general election battleground states—at the start of next week. In a press release, the campaign said Clinton will “lay out what is at stake in November” during the trip and “discuss her vision for an America that is stronger when it is united.”
Last week, Clinton made the case that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, delivering a sweeping foreign policy address that was heavy on criticism of the GOP presumptive nominee and comparatively light on policy specifics. That seems to be the overarching message she will carry through until November.
Clinton can’t afford to ignore the Democratic primary, of course. Politico reports that she is preparing to deliver a victory speech on Tuesday night that will make a plea for party unity. The question now is, what will Bernie Sanders, and Trump for that matter, do in response?
01:49 PM Emma GreenLink
What could be worse than having your primary on a Tuesday at the end of the season after candidates in both parties have already locked up their delegate counts and secured the nomination?
Being South Dakota on that Tuesday, voting alongside California.
On the Democratic side, South Dakota has 20 bound delegates and five superdelegates. Republicans have 29 bound and zero unbound. As the Argus Leader, the newspaper of Sioux Falls, points out, California “has 20 times more delegates than the Mount Rushmore State.”
All of this means South Dakota is pretty much doomed to be ignored on election day. “Will South Dakota get any national attention?” a primer article from the Argus Leader asks. “It’s highly unlikely. Associated Press estimates show Clinton needs 26 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination and New Jersey Democrats will likely push her over that threshold Tuesday night. Due to their eastern location and time zone, that result will likely come before South Dakota’s.”
The political reporter Dana Ferguson offers similar thoughts on Twitter:
.@politico doesn’t list SD as one of 8 places to watch today, but I’ll have your news from today’s primary https://t.co/9KrbKV6Bju
— Dana Ferguson (@bydanaferguson) June 7, 2016
On one hand, this election cycle has already been long, and it’s not even in the home stretch. Previous primaries have made or broken nominees, especially on the Republican side—one by one, they were picked off by voters in places like Indiana and New Hampshire. It’s hard for Tuesday’s races not to seem a bit anti-climactic.
But also: Voting matters! And South Dakota matters. The United States government was specifically designed to protect low-population states like South Dakota—the 45th most populous state in the union. Congress doesn’t just have a House of Representatives that gives proportional representation; it also has a Senate, in which each state gets the same amount of say.
If one thing can cheer the state’s voters, perhaps it’s this: They don’t live in North Dakota, which is also voting today, but has even fewer residents.
12:52 PM Emma GreenLink
As more Democratic leaders pile on to endorse Hillary, it’s interesting to look at what messages the Sanders campaign has been pushing in the lead-up to Tuesday’s primaries. A lot of his ads echo messages that have been present through the campaign: income inequality, the criminal-justice system, education, etc.
But he’s also started speaking in overtly religious terms, a bit of a departure from past interviews in which he’s squirmed away from questions about God and faith. This ad calls on Americans to consider their moral lives—and a moral way of going about politics. He also condemns attacks on religious liberty:
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Maybe he’s gotten the Francis bug after his Roman holiday. Maybe he’s trying anything and everything in these last waning days of his campaign. After all of this is over—when he’s conceded, or after the conventions, or even after the general—it will be interesting to see what comes of his legacy, and what Bernie felt was most important to say in his last days standing as a Democratic presidential candidate.
12:12 PM Priscilla AlvarezLink
California has the largest share of Latino eligible voters in the country. And ahead of the state’s primary, Latino voter registration spiked. NBC reports that “according to Political Data Inc., a California data company that tracks voter registrations, the Latino surge in registrations is huge and higher than the increase in voter registration seen in the 2012 (or) 2008 primaries.” The article cites a number of reasons for the increase, including Donald Trump’s controversial rhetoric and a significant portion of Millennial voters in the state.
In fact, a Pew Research Center analysis released in April found that 26 percent of Hispanics in the United States are between the ages of 18 and 33. Pew’s findings align with a long-running trend in the country, as the Hispanic population has always been one of the youngest. In 2016, the divide in age within the population may yield different results for each age group. Young voters, for example, are more likely to flock to Bernie Sanders. In California, Latino voters are split evenly between Clinton and Sanders, according to a May survey.
11:39 AM Clare ForanLink
Nancy Pelosi said something else noteworthy in her Good Morning America interview endorsing Hillary Clinton. The House minority leader called the possibility of a woman vice presidential pick “fabulous.” When asked by George Stephanopoulos what she thought of Elizabeth Warren joining Clinton as a running mate, Pelosi replied: “We’ve had two men over and over again for hundreds of years. I think that two women—whoever they may be—that would be fabulous as well, but Hillary Clinton will choose the person that she feels most comfortable with.”
The nod from Pelosi arrives on the heels of reports that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is quietly advocating for Warren as a VP pick. It also follows a report from The Boston Globe that “Senate Democrats may have found an avenue to block or at least narrow GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s ability to name a temporary replacement and prevent the Senate from flipping to a Democratic majority if Warren were to leave the chamber.”
It’s not hard to see why Warren might be tempted to join the Democratic ticket if Clinton asks, as the role might give her even more authority to pursue a progressive agenda. But Warren would inevitably put her influence and reputation on the line if she accepted an invitation to run as VP.
11:19 AM Andrew McGillLink
For East Coasters glued to the television for election returns, California’s three-hour delay will be torturous enough. The state’s polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific, meaning projections won’t begin in earnest until at or after 11 p.m. Eastern. But tallying the votes could take even longer. California residents voting by mail must drop their ballots in the mailbox today, but they’re given a three-day grace period for their paperwork to arrive at the county election office. The New York Times notes that only 70 percent of California’s votes are typically counted by noon the day after the election, and in a contest potentially as close as this year’s Democratic presidential primary, the question of which candidate won could remain open for some time.
10:50 AM David A. GrahamLink
Donald Trump and his backers are fighting a two-front war: On the left is Hillary Clinton, the newly named presumptive Democratic nominee. And on the right are members of the Republican Party, including those who have endorsed Donald Trump.
During a press conference about poverty Tuesday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who quietly endorsed Trump last week, was asked about Trump’s claim that federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not fairly judge the Trump University case because of his Mexican heritage. An increasing number of Republicans have criticized Trump’s comments, but few quite so bluntly as Ryan, who called them “indefensible.”
“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like a textbook definition of a racist comment,” he said. (Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska tweeted almost exactly the same thing Monday.)
Moments later, Jeffrey Lord—a former Ronald Reagan aide who has become Trump’s go-to voice on CNN—fired back.
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“Let me make no bones about it: Speaker Ryan is wrong and Speaker Ryan has apparently switched positions and is now supporting identity politics—which is racist. I mean, I’m astonished,” Lord said.
Incredulous host Carol Costello asked him if he was really calling Ryan a racist. “I am accusing anybody, anybody who believes in identity politics, which he apparently now does, of playing the race card. The Republican establishment is playing this. Senator McConnell is playing this. These people have run and hid and borrowed the Democratic agenda of playing the race card. It is wrong,” he said.
Lord’s comment is confusing—to what end would Republicans play “the race card” against a candidate who they have endorsed? But Lord’s line of attack does follow closely on a report released Monday. According to Bloomberg, Trump spoke with surrogates on a conference call, shredding a memo from his own campaign asking surrogates to steer clear of the Curiel issue. Instead, the candidate told them they should accuse anyone who brought it up of being the real racists. The upshot: one of the Trump campaign’s top surrogates calling the Republican speaker of the House, a Trump endorser, a racist on national TV.
10:10 AM Andrew McGillLink
Most folks outside of California will focus on how Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders fare in the state today. But Golden State voters will also pick two candidates to advance to the general election to replace retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer—and the way things are looking, both contenders might be Democrats. Thanks to a 2010 California constitutional amendment that effectively threw away factional distinctions in primaries, the two primary candidates with the most votes will press forward to the general election, even if they’re from the same party. That means state Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats and leading the primary field, might be running against each other again in November. That puts party unity in short supply in California, which has already endured a bruising contest between the two Democratic presidential candidates. (And before you ask: No, this new law doesn’t apply to the race for president.)
09:42 AM Nora KellyLink
Speaking of remaining neutral: The Associated Press reported Monday night that Al Gore, the former vice president, is the last superdelegate from Tennessee to remain uncommitted. He, of course, knows presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton well; Gore served in her husband Bill’s administration before running for president in 2000. His spokeswoman did not give the AP a reason for why he’s holding out. But a report from Politico late last year offers some clues:
Gore’s reticence, his friends and allies say, is in part to maximize his own leverage on fighting climate change. But his repeated demurrals also reflect a complicated relationship with his former boss’s wife that dates back more than two decades. While Gore and Hillary Clinton may not be enemies, they’re not exactly close friends, either.
The article details, via anonymous former White House aides, a rivalry between the two “baby boomer policy wonks” that was further challenged by Clinton’s Senate bid, which allegedly distracted from his presidential race.
In a May interview with NBC marking the 10th anniversary of his climate-change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Gore demurred when asked if an endorsement was forthcoming. Though he did hint that he had been courted. “I’ve gotten signals that you can interpret that way,” Gore said.
09:07 AM Russell BermanLink
Well, that was quick. Mere hours after the Associated Press anointed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, the former secretary of state received the endorsement of Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, first woman speaker, and California superdelegate. “I’m a voter in California, and I have voted for Hillary Clinton for president of the United States and proud to endorse her for that position,” Pelosi said Tuesday on Good Morning America. The Democratic leader had remained neutral during the primaries, but like that of President Obama, her endorsement of Clinton was seen as a matter of when, not if.
The fight for the Democratic presidential nomination is effectively over. As the AP reported Monday, Hillary Clinton has secured enough delegates to win. Tuesday’s primaries will only confirm her victory—whether Bernie Sanders likes it or not.
As voters head to the polls in California, New Jersey, and four other states, Clinton is poised to pad her now-insurmountable lead with dozens of additional delegates. The question is whether Sanders will accept his loss. Both he and his campaign have sent out conflicting signals about whether the Vermont senator intends to acknowledge Clinton’s victory or continue his campaign into the Democratic convention in Philadelphia next month. His only hope is that an indictment or other scandal would swing the support of superdelegates who are now behind Clinton.
The trouble for Sanders is that Clinton has already effectively been crowned the winner. Ahead of the final primaries, the AP said its count of pledged delegates and superdelegates who are “unequivocally” behind Clinton had given her the nomination. The race in California is a close one, yet even a narrow Sanders victory would amount to little more than a bee sting for Clinton, embarrassing as it might be. Polls also show her with a comfortable lead in New Jersey. All signs suggest the former secretary of state plans to claim the title of presumptive nominee during a primary-night speech in Brooklyn. And in a leak that seemed aimed squarely at Sanders, The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that President Obama could make his long-awaited endorsement of Clinton some time this week and was eager to begin campaigning on her behalf. (In a separate but possibly related announcement, NBC said Obama would be making his first appearance with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show this Thursday.)
Sanders said on Sunday that he would push for a contested convention in Philly, but on Monday he appeared to back off that position, telling reporters that the campaign would “assess where we are” after Tuesday. And in a statement late Monday night, the Sanders campaign criticized news organizations for “a rush to judgment” and said it would work to persuade superdelegates in the coming weeks. Donald Trump doesn’t have anything have at stake in these primaries, but true to form, he’ll try to steal the spotlight with his own election-night press event at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York.
In all the drama with Sanders and Trump, it’s easy to lose sight of the historical significance of Clinton’s achievement. Eight years after her surprising loss to Obama, the former first lady, senator, and secretary of state will be one step away from the presidency and the first woman to lead the ticket of either major party.
—Russell Berman
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