Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders stand together before the start of the Univision/Washington Post Democratic debate earlier this month. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
THE BIG IDEA:
— Bernie Sanders has momentum after a trio of wins in Western caucuses this weekend. The Vermont senator dominated Hillary Clinton in Washington State (73 percent to 27 percent), Hawaii (70-30) and Alaska (82-18).
#Hawaii shows #aloha to @BernieSanders with 70% of the vote #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/39MzRIhxRb
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) March 27, 2016
— Though Clinton remains the overwhelming front-runner to win the Democratic nomination, the results give Sanders a rationale to continue fighting through July and underscore lingering unease among base voters about the woman who will almost certainly be their standard bearer in the fall.
Sanders reiterated Sunday that he will not go quietly. Chuck Todd noted on “Meet the Press” that Sanders used to chastise his crowds whenever they booed Clinton. But the last time he did that was on Feb. 23. Asked why, Sanders said “no reason at all” before launching into an extended broadside against Clinton, from Iraq to Wall Street to fracking and campaign finance. Then he challenged her to agree to details for an additional debate.
Wisconsin, which votes eight days from now, is the next big prize. Bernie and Hillary are there today. As Anne Gearan notes, it shares borders with two states — Michigan and Minnesota — that Sanders won. The Badger State, however, also shares economic and demographic characteristics with Ohio and Illinois, Midwestern states that Clinton won.
But both campaigns are putting increasing focus on the 247 delegates up for grabs in New York, which votes April 19, and Pennsylvania, which goes one week later and has 189 delegates. Four other Eastern states also vote on the 26th: Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware (which offer a combined 195 delegates).
— The Sanders campaign hosted a block party to open its Brooklyn field office – not far from Clinton’s national headquarters – on Saturday. “Sanders plans an aggressive push in New York, modeled after his come-from-behind victory a few weeks ago in Michigan,” Philip Rucker reports. “He intends to barnstorm the state as if he were running for governor. His advisers, spoiling for a brawl, have commissioned polls to show which contrasts with Clinton — from Wall Street to fracking — could do the most damage to her at home.”
Hillary Clinton participates in a roundtable with Muslim community leaders at the University of Southern California last Thursday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Why Hillary is the front-runner in New York—
There are more minority voters: Clinton has won every state with a big African American and/or Hispanic population thus far, including Arizona last week. Sanders has dominated in states that are overwhelmingly white.
She represented the state for eight years in the Senate: “If [Sanders] sneaks up on her, then shame on the Clinton campaign,” David Axelrod told Rucker. “The city is a bastion of progressivism, and there should be pockets of Sanders supporters. . . . But I have to believe that the relationships she’s forged there in the last 15 years mean something.”
It’s a primary, not a caucus: Clinton’s median victory in primaries has been 23 points, and Sanders’s median victory in caucuses has been 26 points, Philip Bump tabulates. “There are only five more caucuses on the Democratic calendar, all of them very small contests and only two of them U.S. states: Wyoming, Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and North Dakota.” Everything else is a primary, which works to Clinton’s advantage.
Courtney Skinner, 5, sits on her dad’s shoulders at the Democratic Caucus in Juneau, Alaska, on Saturday. (James Brooks/The Juneau Empire via AP)
— But even if Hillary gets the nomination on the first ballot, the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia could be contentious. Or, at the very least, not the coronation that Denver was in 2008. The nastiness and coarseness of the attacks on the Republican side continue to overshadow the Democratic race. We talk constantly about the contested Republican convention in Cleveland. But Sanders’s willingness to go after Clinton even as the race becomes mathematically more difficult to win suggests that he and his supporters could make a scene.
Clinton still has a huge lead in the delegate hunt. She leads 1,243 to 975 among pledged delegates. When you factor in committed super delegates, she’s ahead 1,712 to 1,004. (Our tracker is here.)
Sanders expressed hope on CNN yesterday that “a lot of these superdelegates may rethink their position” when they come under increasing pressure from his supporters. “You have got superdelegates who are in states where we win by 40 or 50 points,” he told Jake Tapper. “I think their own constituents are going to say to them, ‘Hey, why don’t you support the people of our state, vote for Sanders?’”
Sanders does not want to be vice president – and Hillary would never offer that – but he’s made clear he wants a robust public debate over the Democratic platform. In an interview on the left-leaning web show “The Young Turks” last week, the democratic socialist seemed to outline a series of positions he’d want Clinton to stake out in exchange for his endorsement. Among them: a single-payer health care system, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, tougher regulation of the finance industry, closing corporate tax loopholes and ‘a vigorous effort to address climate change.’” (The Huffington Post has more.)
Progressive activist Robert Borosage thinks Philadelphia could be like the Democratic convention in Atlanta in 1988, when he was an adviser to Jesse Jackson’s campaign. “Respect must be paid,” Borosage wrote for Sunday’s Outlook section. “In Philadelphia, Sanders will … push for rule changes, particularly curbing the role of unelected superdelegates. He will seek floor votes on key issues in dispute. His ideas, in fact, will have the support of most of the delegates. And he’ll get a prime-time address to make his case.”
“The Clinton campaign would be well advised to embrace some of Sanders’s ideas and graciously endure public debate on others,” Borosage adds. “Floor debates on issues such as breaking up big banks, national health care, a $15 minimum wage and the right to a union may be inevitable.”
The challenge for Clinton is to beat Sanders in a way that does not alienate his supporters and to avoid drifting farther left to secure the nomination. Sometimes this will mean not forcefully responding to his attacks. That’s always easier said than done.
Relatives brings an injured woman to the hospital in Lahore. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
SAVAGE BARBARITY IN PAKISTAN — At least 60 were killed and more than 300 injured in Lahore after a suicide bomber targeted an Easter celebration at a public park. A Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility and said it deliberately targeted Christians. More from our Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad and Erin Cunningham in Kabul:
“Many children were among the dead … Witnesses to the carnage described body parts scattered in the wake of the attack. … In one case, four members of a single family were killed, a medic said. The only survivor was a 10-year-old boy, who was also injured.”
“A spokesman for the Jamaat ul-Ahrar militant group, which is an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, asserted responsibility in a telephone interview Sunday. ‘It was our people who attacked the Christians in Lahore, celebrating Easter,’ the spokesman said. ‘It’s our message to the government that we will carry out such attacks again until sharia [Islamic law] is imposed in the country.‘”
“Christians make up about 1 percent of Pakistan’s population but have maintained a larger presence in Lahore.”
“The top security official in the province, Haider Ashraf, said an initial forensic investigation into the attack concluded that the suicide bomber had packed more than 20 pounds of explosives in his vest. Ball bearings, typically used in bomb attacks to maximize casualties, were found at the scene.“
A girl who was injured in the blast is rushed to a hospital in Lahore. (EPA/Rahat Dar)
— In St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, worshipers were subject to tight security as they flocked to hear Pope Francis deliver his Easter address. Speaking to the crowd, the pope called terrorism a “blind and brutal form of violence.”
Pope Francis delivers the benediction at Easter Mass. (Reuters/Max Rossi)
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
— Italian police arrested a new suspect thought to have provided false documents to the Islamic State militants behind recent attacks in Brussels and Paris, Missy Ryan and Michael Birnbaum report. The 40-year-old, Djamal Eddine, was arrested in Salerno, and has been the subject of a Belgian arrest warrant since January. Belgian prosecutors, meanwhile, have charged another suspect linked to the attacks. The man, identified by authorities only as Abderrahmane A., has been in custody since Friday and faces charges of belonging to a terrorist organization.
— Two more Americans were confirmed dead last night, bringing the total number of U.S. citizens killed in the Brussels attacks to four. Justin and Stephanie Shults moved to Belgium in 2014. They were from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky. Both were accountants. (NBC)
GET SMART FAST:
Alaska’s Pavlof Volcano began erupting, sending ash 20,000 feet high and prompting flight warnings. (CNN)
The PEZ Candy Company abruptly canceled its annual Easter egg hunt in Connecticut after parents wreaked havoc on the event: one child suffered a bloody nose after allegedly being pushed to the ground by an adult. Others reported broken Easter baskets in the scuffle. (Hartford Courant)
An American Airlines pilot was arrested in front of passengers after failing a sobriety test ON THE RUNWAY, moments before the plane was scheduled to leave Detroit. (Peter Holley)
A man was charged with a DUI after veering off the side of the road and hitting a parked police cruiser in Virginia. The officer, who was sitting inside his car when it was hit, was not injured. (Michael Smith)
A Georgia man lost his leg after firing a semiautomatic rifle at a lawnmower that he’d packed with explosives. The man shot multiple rounds into the mower until it exploded, causing shrapnel to sever his leg below the knee. (Peter Holley)
A seven-year-old girl in Essex, England, died after a bouncy castle she was playing in blew away. Two adults have since been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence. (Yanan Wang)
Syria’s government seized Palmyra back from ISIS, inflicting a “mortal blow” after militant forces seized control of the city last year. The move is also a victory for Russia. (Hugh Naylor)
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel selected a new interim police superintendent to replace Garry McCarthy, who was fired after videos surfaced of a white police officer shooting an unarmed black teenager 16 times. (AP)
Hawaii lawmakers are trying to ban the sale of ivory and other wildlife parts, but they’re encountering heavy resistance from local merchants. (AP)
Robert De Niro canceled the screening of a controversial anti-vaccine film at the Tribeca Film Festival, one day after he’d defended including the movie. (Peter Holley)
Police in Anaheim, Calif., are investigating an apparent pipe bomb explosion. No injuries were reported in the afternoon blast. Some homes were evacuated. (The Orange County Register)
A skull found in L.A.’s Griffith Park belongs to a woman who was at least 20 when she died. Authorities are searching for more clues. They say she died “between one and ten years ago.” (Sarah Kaplan)
WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:
Hillary Clinton looks at her BlackBerry while at the Capitol in January 2009. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
— A deep dive into Hillary’s email set-up runs on the front page of today’s paper, by Robert O’Harrow Jr.
“The FBI is now trying to determine whether a crime was committed in the handling of that classified material. It is also examining whether the server was hacked. One hundred forty-seven FBI agents have been deployed to run down leads, according to a lawmaker briefed by FBI Director James B. Comey. The FBI has accelerated the investigation because officials want to avoid the possibility of announcing any action too close to the election.”
“The Washington Post reviewed hundreds of documents and interviewed more than a dozen knowledgeable government officials to understand the decisions and the implications of Clinton’s actions.”
Key takeaways:
“Clinton’s email problems began in her first days as secretary of state. She insisted on using her personal BlackBerry for all her email communications, but she wasn’t allowed to take the device into her seventh-floor suite of offices, a secure space known as Mahogany Row. For Clinton, this was frustrating. … She hated having to put her BlackBerry into a lockbox before going into her own office. Her aides and senior officials pushed to find a way to enable her to use the device in the secure area. But their efforts unsettled the diplomatic security bureau, which was worried that foreign intelligence services could hack her BlackBerry and transform it into a listening device.”
“Throughout, [those aides] paid insufficient attention to laws and regulations governing the handling of classified material and the preservation of government records, interviews and documents show. They also neglected repeated warnings about the security of the BlackBerry while Clinton and her closest aides took obvious security risks in using the basement server.”
“Few knew the details behind the new clintonemail.com address. But news about her choice to use her own BlackBerry spread quickly among the department’s diplomatic security and ‘intelligence countermeasures’ specialists. Their fears focused on the seventh floor, which a decade earlier had been the target of Russian spies who managed to plant a listening device inside a decorative chair-rail molding not far from Mahogany Row.”
Do as I say, not as I do: “On June 28, 2011, in response to reports that Gmail accounts of government workers had been targeted by ‘online adversaries,’ a note went out over Clinton’s name urging department employees to ‘avoid conducting official Department business from your personal email accounts.’ But she herself ignored the warning and continued using her BlackBerry and the basement server. … Specialists interviewed by The Post said her practices fell short of what laws and regulations mandated.”
Police in riot gear protect one of the memorials to the victims of the Brussels attacks, as right-wing demonstrators protest near the Place de la Bourse. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
— “How Belgian prisons became a breeding ground for Islamic extremism,” by Steven Mufson: “[Most terrorists] involved in the Paris and Brussels attacks first did stints behind bars for petty crimes, where they met proselytizers and appear to have acquired a new, lethal purpose … For the past year, Belgium’s Ministry of Justice has been planning to change a prison system that is widely seen as a ‘school for radicals.’ ‘The best solution for fighting radicalization,’ the ministry said last year, is ‘completely isolating radical individuals from the other detainees’ and prevent them from feeding other detainees ‘more of their ideology.’ Some feel that changing the culture of prison is difficult, as [many] youths ‘arrive alone, feel alone’ and that the older Muslim inmates ‘attract guys who want to become fuller members of the group.’ Asked whether prison changes prisoners, [longtime prison worker] Salmi Hedi responded, ‘Are they transformed, or have they been like that, and [simply] waiting to show themselves?’”
THE DAILY DONALD:
— In Mexico, residents celebrated the Holy Week by burning Donald Trump in effigy. Joshua Partlow in Mexico City: “Whom would you build, if you had to make a monster of mythical proportions? An evil equal to a biblical scourge? A traitor to be burned in effigy whose fiery demise would cleanse our corrupted souls? In Mexico, that would be Donald J. Trump. (J for Judas?). Or at least a 10-foot-tall papier-mache version of him: eyes wide, mouth agape, with a painted-on business suit and golden mane. On Saturday night, just as every year on the day before Easter, Mexicans gathered on street corners and church squares to celebrate the Holy Week and set fire to their Judases, a popular ritual in this heavily Catholic country. Those demons are typically forked-tongue devils and flaming dragons, and often, like this year, reviled politicians. … All this Judas-burning is a symbolic attempt to destroy evil, a night of catharsis by way of pyrotechnics.”
Ivanka Trump delivered her third child, Theodore James:
— A good profile of Ivanka — “The ‘Anti-Donald’ works to protect the billion-dollar brand” — just posted. From Mary Jordan and Jonathan O’Connell: “While her 69-year-old father bashes Chinese leaders for ‘ripping us off,’ Ivanka Trump shares a video on Instagram of her 4-year-old daughter singing a Chinese New Year song in Mandarin. With the elder Trump off running an increasingly polarizing campaign for president, Ivanka Trump has been stepping up her profile in the family’s real estate empire, where she is seen as the ‘anti-Donald’ protecting the family’s billion-dollar brand … Last week, while Trump was retweeting an unflattering picture Cruz’s wife, Ivanka was tweeting tasty recipes. It’s not easy to keep politics separate from business. Usually, though, it’s Ivanka’s burden to deal with trouble her father stirred up. And her approach — being the balm to her father’s sharp stings — appears to have paid dividends. Although Macy’s dropped her father’s line, the retailer continues to sell Ivanka’s products. When asked why Ivanka avoids political comment, a person who works for her said, ‘Both Republicans and Democrats buy Ivanka Trump.’”
SUNDAY SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
— The Cruz vs. Trump conflict, centered on their marriages, dominated the Sunday talk shows. The leading GOP candidates continued reacting to the National Enquirer story claiming Cruz has engaged in five extramarital affairs and indirectly sparred over who was responsible for launching attacks on the other’s spouse.
The Texas senator called the National Enquirer story a “tabloid smear,” alleging on Fox News Sunday that the accusations “came from Trump and his henchmen.” The Texas senator also slammed Trump for retweeting a side-by-side photo of his wife, Heidi, and Trump’s wife Melania meant to disparage Heidi’s appearance. “Attacks on a spouse have no place in politics,” said Cruz.
Trump categorically denied having any role in the Enquirer story, though he stopped short of condemning it. On ABC’s “This Week,” the front-runner said: “I have no idea whether it was right or not … They have a very good record of being right. But I have absolutely no idea.”
John Kasich said “families have to be off limits,” calling for rules and decency to govern the campaign. “You cannot have these attacks on families,” Kasich said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There’s got to be rules.”
Reality check: There is no evidence that Cruz ever attacked Trump’s wife, no matter how many times Trump keeps perniciously claiming it happened. (Philip Bump)
— National security experts slammed Cruz’s plan to increase surveillance of Muslim communities after last week’s Brussels attacks. “To send inflammatory messages could actually have an unintended consequence,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
— John Kerry called 2016 campaign talk about Muslims and torture an “embarrassment” to the U.S. “It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness,” the secretary of State said on Face the Nation. “Some of the questions — the way they’re posed to me — it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
— House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) lambasted Obama’s trip to Cuba, saying on Fox News Sunday that the president’s time would have been better spent rooting out terrorist cells than hanging out with a “known financer of terrorism.”
MORE ON THE REPUBLICAN RACE:
— “A member of Chris Christie’s inner circle confirmed the governor took time from his 30th wedding anniversary vacation in Florida to help Trump with ‘debate prep’ at the real estate mogul’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach on March 9, a day ahead of the last Republican debate in Miami,” NJ.com reports.
— “Though Mr. Cruz has adjusted his public tone, calling for party harmony and appealing to ‘our better angels’ in a moment of political discord, senior Republican officials say Mr. Cruz has made little effort to repair relationships, particularly in the Senate,” the New York Times’s Jonathan Martin and Matt Flegenheimer report. “Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican senator and Mr. Cruz’s fellow Texan, privately lobbied Mr. Cruz to attend a Senate Republican luncheon in the Capitol and soothe feelings, according to a Republican strategist briefed on the request. But after a CNN report in which some Republican senators suggested that Mr. Cruz apologize to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whom Mr. Cruz called a liar on the Senate floor, Mr. Cruz’s campaign became irritated and backed off a peacemaking lunch. Mr. Cruz and Mr. McConnell have still not spoken, according to an aide to Mr. McConnell. ‘I’m not sure there’s anything to apologize for,’ Jason Johnson, Mr. Cruz’s chief strategist, told reporters recently.”
— New poll finds most Americans disagree with Trump on NATO: A Morning Consult survey in the field through this weekend, with a sample of 2,071 registered voters nationally, found that three in 10 say the U.S. should increase its commitment to NATO and half say it should keep its current commitment to NATO. Just 5 percent said the U.S. should decrease its commitment, and 4 percent said the US should withdraw entirely from NATO. Two in 10 said they had no opinion either way. On funding: 21 percent of registered voters say the U.S. should increase funding, one in six say the U.S. should decrease funding and four in 10 say the U.S. should keep funding about the same. “There aren’t huge party differences,” pollster Kyle Dropp emails the 202 about his survey. “Fourteen percent of Republicans say the U.S. should decrease its commitment or withdraw entirely, compared with only 4 percent of Democrats.”
Trump supporters are most negative: A quarter of Trump’s supporters say the U.S. should decrease funding for NATO. Ten percent of Trump backers think the U.S. should “decrease its commitment” and 8 percent say the U.S. should “withdraw entirely.” Cruz’s supporters are also quite skeptical of the alliance. Republicans are also twice as likely as Democrats to say the U.S. should decrease funding (23 to 10 percent).
— In California, Trump leads Cruz among registered Republicans by 7 points (37-30) in a USC/Los Angeles Times poll, with Kasich at 12 percent. Among likely voters, however, the poll shows a virtual tie between Trump and Cruz (36 to 35 percent). The difference illustrates how a low primary turnout could boost Cruz to a victory over Trump, though delegates will be awarded in the June primary by congressional district.
Trump wins nearly half (48 percent) of voters who think immigration is a “crisis” in the Golden State, followed by Cruz at 29 percent and Kasich at 8 percent. Seven in 10 California Republicans approve of Trump’s proposed ban on travel to the U.S. by Muslims.
A quarter of Republican voters said they would refuse to vote for Trump in November. Almost one-third of Cruz supporters said they would not cast a ballot for Trump, while only half of Trump backers hold a favorable opinion of Cruz.
SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:
— ZIGNAL VISUAL: Cruz has gained momentum in Wisconsin ahead of next Tuesday’s primary. Here is a word cloud that includes all stories, broadcasts and tweets that mention Trump and Wisconsin over the past week. See how large Cruz looms in Trump’s cloud:
Trump defended his standing among women:
The media is so after me on women Wow, this is a tough business. Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2016
The press is going out of their way to convince people that I do not like or respect women, when they know that it is just the opposite!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2016
Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz-Lawsuit coming
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2016
And he said he “alone” can stop violent jihadism:
Another radical Islamic attack, this time in Pakistan, targeting Christian women & children. At least 67 dead,400 injured. I alone can solve
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2016
From CBS’s reporter embedded with Trump:
Someone erected a tombstone for Trump in Central Park this weekend. https://t.co/qSceJ6ob7z pic.twitter.com/hgKS2CAsYn
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 28, 2016
On Trump coverage: @cnn aired Trump speech, promo-ed another pic-in-pic.”Trump” name/face appears on screen 7 times! pic.twitter.com/sCYjYX0d3m
— Andrew Reeves (@ajreeves) March 27, 2016
Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis’s food delivery person is #FeelingtheBern:
Even my food takeout is lobbying me for #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/TTTNgBLxLV
— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) March 27, 2016
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) posted this image in honor of Bernie Sanders:
A friend of Bernie Sanders. pic.twitter.com/fimHST4fHo
— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) March 27, 2016
After a bird landed on Sanders’s podium at a rally:
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Lots of Easter celebrations across the political world. Cruz dyed Easter eggs with his daughters:
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) dug into some crawfish:
Sen. Angus King (I-Me.) spent Easter morning with a congregation on the slopes:
Here’s what other members of Congress were up to with their families:
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) celebrated his birthday with a hamburger cake:
GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:
— New York Times, “How the GOP elite lost its voters to Trump,” by Nicholas Confessore: “The story is one of a party elite that abandoned its most faithful voters, blue-collar white Americans, who faced economic pain and uncertainty over the past decade as the party’s donors, lawmakers and lobbyists prospered … While the party was drawing more of its money from an elite group of the wealthy, it was drawing more votes from working-class and middle-income whites. Between 2008 and 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, more lower-income and less-educated white voters shifted their allegiance to Republicans.”
— Wall Street Journal, “Republican Party Rift in North Carolina Mirrors Feud at National Level,” by Valerie Bauerlein: “An outsider who was elected chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party is in a feud with party brass—a fight mirroring tensions in the national GOP and hampering state party activity during an election year. Chairman Hasan Harnett was barred from party headquarters last week after pushing to reduce the cost of a [convention ticket], saying the fee amounts to a ‘poll tax.’ The GOP committee censured Mr. Harnett, citing eight ‘violations’ of party rules, and [began] circulating a petition in a procedural step toward Harnett’s removal. Many North Carolina Republicans see the party infighting as an esoteric issue … But Harnett allies say traditional GOP leaders are tone-deaf. ‘Grassroots, Tea Party conservatives in the state are really, really angry,’ said [resident] Eric Haynes. ‘I feel like they don’t want us in the party.’”
HOT ON THE LEFT
“Thousands Petition To Allow Guns At Republican Convention For ‘Safety,’” from HuffPost: “Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to allow guns at the Republican National Convention. The Change.org petition, which had more than 26,000 supporters, claims that the arena’s weapon ban makes those who attend the RNC in July ‘sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers and criminals.’ ‘Cleveland is consistently ranked as one of the top ten most dangerous cities in America,’ the petition states. ‘By forcing attendees to leave their firearms at home, the RNC [is] putting tens of thousands of people at risk both inside and outside of the convention site.’”
HOT ON THE RIGHT
“Obama plays at least 46 full days golf,” from the Washington Examiner: “President Obama, fresh from his whirlwind spring break trip to Cuba and Argentina, hit the links for some R&R Saturday, playing his 281st round since becoming president. That is slightly more than three quarters of a year of days playing the presidential sport for Obama. The president typically plays for at least four hours, sometimes longer, putting his time at over 1,100 hours golfing, or at least 46 full 24-hour days.”
DAYBOOK:
On the campaign trail: Three candidates are in Wisconsin. Here’s the rundown:
Clinton: Madison, Milwaukee, Wis.
Cruz: Altoona, Rothschild, Wis.
Kasich: West Salem, Madison, Wis.
At the White House: It’s the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. President Obama attends and speaks. In the evening, Obama delivers remarks at the Toner Prize Ceremony. Vice President Biden speaks at an event for Rep. Patrick Murphy in Miami, then departs for D.C.
On Capitol Hill: The Senate and House are both on recess this week.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The Republican Party remains a party of protest. It continues to struggle to demonstrate that, on the national level, it can be a true governing party.” — Dan Balz, in his Sunday column
NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:
The doppler this morning
— Early showers this morning will give way to a somewhat pleasant afternoon. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “The week’s first cold front zips through early, with some scattered showers. By mid-morning, they should be moving away, making way for gradual clearing during the afternoon. As the sun emerges, temperatures pop up well into the 60s.” The rest of the week should be pretty nice.
— The teenager killed Saturday on a Metro station platform was shot in front of his mother and two younger sisters, a relative said last night. From Michael Laris and Martin Weil: The youth, who was identified as Davonte Washington, 15, was a quiet young man, who ‘didn’t party’ and ‘didn’t do drugs,’ said his grandfather, Victor Leonard, in an interview. He was on his way to get a haircut for Easter when he was shot at the Deanwood station in Northeast Washington. … The two sisters who saw the attack were 6 and 9 years old. … Washington was a freshman at Largo High School in Prince George’s County and a member of Air Force Junior ROTC there. … According to a preliminary investigation, the teenager apparently was involved in a conversation that escalated into an argument. At some point, the other individual is believed to have drawn a gun and fired, D.C. police said. No arrest has been reported.”
— The University of Virginia men’s basketball team lost to Syracuse 68-62, ending their tournament run.
— The Wizards beat the Los Angeles Lakers 101-88.
— Starbucks will begin serving wine at four locations in the Prince William County area, rolling out an expended “Evenings” menu that features craft beers and small plates of food. A few hundred locations nationwide are slated to begin selling alcohol this year. (Jonathan Hunley)
— Longtime patrons and former employees are mourning the loss of a Fairfax City Baskin-Robbins, which was forced to close its doors after 54 years due to an upcoming highway project. (Steve Hendrix)
Gladys White Jordan receives the Monroe Medal. (Reza Marvashti, courtesy of the University of Mary Washington)
— “Denied because of her skin color, a civil rights advocate returns to campus to be honored,” by T. Rees Shapiro: “As a young black girl in the 1950s, Gladys White Jordan saw how privilege was largely determined by skin color. Her mother, a maid, kept house for the president of the University of Mary Washington, which served as the selective women’s college of the University of Virginia. Jordan dreamed of attending Mary Washington. But when Jordan’s mother spoke to the president, he told her he had no interest in accepting an African American woman … Now, more than half a century later, the school that once turned her away is honoring her with one of its most prestigious awards. On March 14, Jordan received the school’s Monroe Medal, which acknowledges ‘extraordinary career achievement used to benefit humanity and society.’ ‘People need to take the initiative to do something,’ Jordan said. ‘You might fail, but your failure can open doors for others. We don’t succeed at everything, but suppose no one tries, suppose no one had applied.’”
— Maryland lawmakers are weighing legislation to address gender pay inequities in the state. The median annual salary for Maryland women is $50,481, or 85 percent of the median salary for men in the state. In Gov. Larry Hogan’s office, it is just 68 percent. (Fenit Nirappil)
VIDEOS OF THE DAY:
A couple got engaged at the Cherry Blossom Festival:
Check out the history of the White House Easter Egg Roll:
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A black mailman was apparently handcuffed by white, plainclothes NYPD officers after he yelled at them for nearly hitting him with their car. Asked about this incident, the department said only that “the matter is under internal review.”
In San Francisco, a British tourist was attacked by a man trying to rob him (he later died):
The Rolling Stones played a free concert in Havana:
A sketch comedy group rewrote Hamilton to criticize Trump (warning: adult language):
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Finally, check out Easter egg versions of this year’s biggest figures in pop culture (from Comedy Central):
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