Victoria Jones created and edits Quick Morning News. She is chief White House correspondent with Washington DC-based Talk Media News, where her insight and analysis are made available to over 400 news talk radio stations around the country and internationally.
Quick News
Trump-Ryan spat: Dueling phone calls
Trump attacks Hillary Clinton: “Enabler”
Convention chair: Sanders supporters must “behave”
NC bathroom law: Deadline looms
West Point probes black female cadets’ raised fist photo
• Donald Trump said on NBC he was “blindsided” when House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) withheld an endorsement from him “because he spoke to me three weeks ago, and it was a very nice call,” Trump said. “I was doing well. He called me, I think, to congratulate me about New York.” But a spox for Ryan said that such a call never took place
• Brendan Buck, a spox for Ryan, said in an email: “They talked in March about our agenda but not since then.” Trump spox Hope Hicks said “Ryan disputed the time of the call, not the call itself.” She added: “I believe this took place in late March.” (impossible as Trump described as the New York primary was 19 April – wiggle room as Trump said “I think”)
• The March phone call has also been a matter of dispute. Trump has said publicly that Ryan had called him, but Ryan, who had been critical of Trump’s more divisive comments (Muslims etc) said he was responding to a request for a call by Trump (Trump always claims to initiate – noticed?)
• Trump and Ryan are expected to meet in Washington on Thursday. (it’s a long time until Thursday) In a separate interview with ABC, Trump downplayed the need for Republican Party unity: “I think it would be better if it were unified. I think it would be. There would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.” (meaning?)
• Trump stopped short of calling for Ryan to step down from his role as chair of the Republican national convention, but there could be consequences if Ryan continues withholding his support. “I will give you a very solid answer, if that happens, about one minute after that happens, OK?” Trump said
• But former Gov Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) didn’t wait to trash Ryan. On CNN, she predicted Ryan would be “Cantored,” a reference to former Rep Eric Cantor (R-Va), who was in line to be speaker before losing reelection in a GOP primary to an outsider in 2014
• Donald Trump claimed on ABC that under his plan, taxes on the wealthy are “going down. But by the time it’s negotiated, they’ll go up. We’re going to submit the optimum. That’s what I’d like to get and we’ll fight for it. But from a practical standpoint, it’s going to get renegotiated. And in my opinion, the taxes for the rich will go up somewhat.” (CNN, me)
• At rallies in Oregon on Friday and Washington on Saturday, Donald Trump suggested that the Clintons weren’t in a position to question his treatment of women. “There was nobody that was worse, nobody than Bill Clinton, with women,” Trump told a Spokane crowd (that Trump lunch with rumor and innuendo peddler Ed Klein is already paying off)
• “She’s married to a man who was impeached for lying,” Trump said of Hillary Clinton. “He was impeached for lying about what happened with a woman. And she’s gonna take ads about little Donald Trump? I don’t know. I don’t think so.” (will she take out ads about his philandering? doubtful)
• Describing Hillary Clinton as a “nasty enabler,” he added, “Some of these women were destroyed, not by him, but by the way the Hillary Clinton treated them after everything went down.” Over the years, several people close to the Clintons have described her as involved in efforts to discredit a string of women who made accusations against Clinton (evidence is elusive)
• Clinton campaign spox Brian Fallon said in an email, “In a week in which Donald Trump … cited his attendance at the Miss Universe pageant in Russia as proof of his foreign policy experience, of course he wants to try to change the subject. Hillary Clinton doesn’t care what he says about her.” (Trump claimed on Fox News: “I know Russia well” then cited the Miss Universe contest)
• Democrats have made clear that they plan to resurrect in ads Trump’s comments over the years, including those on the Howard Stern show belittling women for their appearance. Saturday, Trump brought back his feud with Rosie O’Donnell: “Who the hell wouldn’t speak badly about Rosie O’Donnell? She’s terrible. She’s terrible.” (knows his followers eat that stuff up)
• Sen John McCain (R-Ariz) on CNN on Sunday called on Donald Trump to apologize to veterans.”When he said, ‘I don’t like people who were captured,’ then there’s a body of American heroes that I’d like to see him retract that statement – not about me, but about the others.”
Convention Chair: Sanders Supporters Must “Behave”(Hill, Bloomberg, NYT, me)
• Former Gov Ed Rendell (D-Pa), chairman of the upcoming Democratic national convention, said in a radio interview that supporters of Bernie Sanders have to “behave themselves” when the Vermont senator loses the nomination to Hillary Clinton as he laid out his vision for the convention
• “Bernie’s gonna have his name placed in nomination; we’re gonna have a roll call; there’s gonna be a demonstration in support of Bernie; he’s gonna lose the roll call,” Rendell said. “His supporters have to behave and not cause trouble. And I think they will, and I think Sen Sanders will send them a strong message.” (condescending and stupid – build bridges, instead)
• Sanders heads to Atlantic City, NJ, today, which has been hard hit by the decline of its dominant industry, gambling. Failed GOP 2016er Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ) has refused to extend aid to the city unless lawmakers approve giving the state unprecedented control over its operations and the ability to change labor contracts
• Clinton said Sunday on CBS that no one from the FBI has reached out to her “yet” over an interview about her email server. “I made it clear that I’m more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime.” She said she had erred in setting up a private server but said she “always took classified material seriously.” (not enough that it didn’t slip through multiple times)
• Clinton said she had received an influx of interest from Republicans in recent days, as the party’s reservations about installing Donald Trump in the presidency sink in. “I don’t think it’s personal so much as rooted in their respect for the office and their deep concern about what kind of leader he would be.”
• Officials said Sunday they reached a turning point in fighting an enormous wildfire that devastated Canada’s oil sands town of Fort McMurray amid cooler temperatures and light rain. Watch massive flames in this video as well as firefighters battling the blaze (AP)
• Gov Pat McCrory (R-NC) said the federal govt gave the state an “unrealistic” deadline to respond to a letter informing him that the state’s bathroom law violates the Civil Rights Act. “It’s the federal govt being a bully.” McCrory is expected to answer by today’s 5 pm deadline. He said that he was “discussing all of our legal options, all of our political options.”
• The Justice Dept sent a letter to the governor that says the law violates protections against workplace discrimination based on sex. It gave the governor until today to confirm “that the State will not comply with or implement HB2.” The state and the University of North Carolina could lose millions of dollars in federal funding
• Many people and businesses in support of LGBT rights condemned the law, which requires transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. A spox for the DoJ said Sunday that there were “ongoing” discussions after officials “received requests from multiple parties for an extension of the deadline”
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• “Well, I’m not going to publicly announce that something discriminates, which is agreeing with their letter, because we’re really talking about a letter in which they’re trying to define gender identity.” He said. He added that there’s no clear definition of gender identity. McCrory said he doesn’t have authority to change the laws as the governor of North Carolina
• Chris Wallace asked how many cases there have been in the last year where people have been convicted of using transgender protections to commit crimes in bathrooms. “This wasn’t a problem!” McCrory replied. “This is the Democratic Party and the left wing of the Democratic Party.” Wallace: “Have there been any cases of this?” “Not that I’m aware of,” McCrory admitted
• A spox for Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor and the state’s AG, said: “Gov McCrory signed HB2 into law in the dark of night after passing it in just 12 hours, and now complains when he’s given five days to defend it.” Cooper has refused to defend the law in federal court
• BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team are being expelled from North Korea after being detained over their reports highlighting aspects of life in the capital, Pyongyang. Wingfield-Hayes was questioned for eight hours by North Korean officials and made to sign a statement (BBC)
West Point Probes Black Female Cadets’ Raised Fists Photo (AP, Army Times, me)
• The U.S. Military Academy has launched an inquiry into whether a photo showing 16 black female cadets in uniform with their fists raised violates military restrictions on political activity, spox Lt Col Christopher Kasker said Saturday
• The fists-up image, which circulated online, led some observers to question whether the women were expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests over police killings of unarmed black men. The Army Times said several readers had written in to say they believed the cadets were breaching a DoD policy on partisan political activity (snitches)
• But Mary Tobin, a West Point graduate who knows the students, said they were simply celebrating their forthcoming graduation as a shared accomplishment, like a sports team raising helmets after a win. “It was a sign of unity,” Tobin, a 2003 graduate, said. The cadets didn’t anticipate how their gesture would be interpreted and the attention it would draw, Tobin said
• The raised fist has served as a symbol of power and resistance for various political movements and causes. The gesture has caused controversy before, including when black American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos lifted gloved fists in black power salutes during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics
• “Their frame of reference is: ‘Right now, we’re getting ready to graduate in three weeks, I’m standing here with my sisters … We outlasted a lot of people, black or white, male or female,'” Tobin said. Black women cadets are rarities at West Point, where about 70% of students are white and about 80% are men (black women getting all uppity…)
• London’s new Labour Party mayor was sworn in on Saturday and said, “My name is Sadiq Khan and I’m the Mayor of London” to wild applause. Khan criticized the campaign run against him by Conservatives as “straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.” Conservatives repeatedly questioned whether London would be safe under the control of Khan, a Muslim (Reuters)
• With his likely final visit to Japan as president scheduled this month for a G7 meeting, the WH is deciding whether President Obama will visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in WWII, killing 200,000. No American president has ever visited the cities, because of concerns such a trip would suggest a U.S. apology for the attacks
• In 2009, Obama said he would be “honored” to visit the cities during his presidency. But the calculus for a visit is complicated. Political opponents have often falsely accused him of undertaking an “apology” tour of world capitals in his first year in office, so anything that even hints of atonement would feed that criticism (but does he even care when they think at this point?)
• Some historians says the bombings were unnecessary and even criminal, while others argue they saved American lives and those of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians who would have perished in an American invasion. Older Americans tend to view the bombings as necessary, while younger ones see them as far more problematic
• In 2007, Fumio Kyuma, Japan’s defense minister at the time, referred to the bombings as “something that couldn’t be helped.” A secret 2009 State Dept cable released by Wikileaks in 2011 quoted a top Japanese diplomat as calling a visit to Hiroshima “premature” and any apology a “nonstarter.”
• Obama and his closest advisers are often disdainful of what they see as the think-tank consensus in DC about how the U.S. should behave on the world stage. In a speech in Prague in 2009, Obama said: “As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the U.S. has a moral responsibility to act.”
