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Obama To Announce Supreme Court Pick: "I've Made My Decision"

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Pool / Getty Images

A statement from President Obama:

Today, I will announce the person whom I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

As President, it is both my constitutional duty to nominate a Justice and one of the most important decisions that I -- or any president -- will make.

I've devoted a considerable amount of time and deliberation to this decision. I've consulted with legal experts and people across the political spectrum, both inside and outside government. And we’ve reached out to every member of the Senate, who each have a responsibility to do their job and take this nomination just as seriously.

Please join me in the Rose Garden at 11:00am Eastern for my announcement.

This is a responsibility I do not take lightly. In considering several candidates, I held each to three principles that reflect the role the Supreme Court plays in our democracy.

First, a Justice should possess an independent mind, unimpeachable credentials, and an unquestionable mastery of law. There is no doubt this person will face complex legal questions, so it is imperative that he or she possess a rigorous intellect that will help provide clear answers.

Second, a Justice should recognize the limits of the judiciary’s role. With a commitment to impartial justice rather than any particular ideology, the next Supreme Court Justice will understand that the job is to interpret the law, not make law.

However, I know there will be cases before the Supreme Court in which the law is not clear. In those cases, a Justice’s analysis will necessarily be shaped by his or her own perspective, ethics, and judgment.

Therefore, the third quality I looked for in a judge is a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook. It’s the kind of life experience earned outside the classroom and the courtroom; experience that suggests he or she views the law not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly-changing times. In my view, that’s an essential element for arriving at just decisions and fair outcomes.

Today at 11:00am Eastern, I’ll introduce you to the judge I believe meets all three of these standards.

I’m confident you’ll share my conviction that this American is not only eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, but deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.

In putting forward a nominee today, I am fulfilling my constitutional duty. I’m doing my job. I hope that our Senators will do their jobs, and move quickly to consider my nominee. That is what the Constitution dictates, and that’s what the American people expect and deserve from their leaders.

President Barack Obama

P.S. If you’re looking for the latest on my Supreme Court nominee and the confirmation process in the Senate, check out @SCOTUSnom on Twitter. You’ll find all the facts and up-to-date information there.


Harry Reid: GOP Let An "Anti-Latino" Movement Fester Within Its Ranks

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Gerald Herbert / AP

MIAMI — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid will blame Republicans for creating Donald Trump and argue that "anti-Latino" policies and stances have become a hallmark of the embattled party, according to planned remarks he will make at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, obtained by BuzzFeed News.

"The Republican establishment has allowed a decades old anti-Latino movement to fester within its ranks," Reid will say in a speech titled "The Rise of Trump and the Progressive Response," pointing to an "anti-immigrant underbelly" as the most salient example of how the party has abandoned policy for "fear and resentment politics."

Reid had planned to make the speech on Wednesday. But President Obama's Supreme Court nomination scuttled those plans, and it is unclear when Reid's fiery speech will be made.

Reid, who is retiring and has delighted in taking on Republicans during his tenure, will also seek to lump all Republicans together. He will invoke not just Trump, but also hardline Iowa Rep. Steve King who endorsed Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney's "self-deportation" stance that hurt him in the 2012 election.

"Republican leaders looked on approvingly while extremists like Congressman Steve King used repugnant language against Latinos, such as likening DREAMers to drug mules," Reid will say.

"Together with well-organized anti-immigrant groups, Republicans have pushed through hateful legislation that allowed for warrantless arrests and made it a crime for Latinos to walk outside without their papers."

Reid has endorsed Catherine Cortez Masto, the former Nevada attorney general, who is seeking to become the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate, as his chosen replacement.

Obama Nominates Merrick Garland To The Supreme Court

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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Touting his extensive qualifications and strong past bipartisan support, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced in an emotional ceremony that he is nominating Merrick Garland, a chief federal appeals court judge, to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court — a nomination Republicans were quick to say would go nowhere.

"I've selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness, and excellence," Obama said in announcing Garland, the current chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.

"These qualities, and his long commitment to public service, have earned him the respect and admiration of leaders from both sides of the aisle," the president said.

Noting that he had consulted with both Democratic and Republican senators, as well as advocacy groups and bar associations, Obama described Garland as "uniquely prepared to serve immediately."

"This is the greatest honor of my life," an emotional Garland told reporters, his voice cracking. "For me there could be no higher public service than serving as a member of the United States Supreme Court."

"I know that my mother is watching this on television and crying her eyes out," the judge said.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

There will now be an actual person at the center of the fierce political debate over who should succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13, and who should appoint the successor. The Republican line that has emerged since Scalia’s death is that the November elections will enable the people to decide who they want nominating Scalia’s successor.

Obama called on senators to give his nominee a fair hearing. "I said I would take this process seriously and I did," he said. "I chose a serious man and an exemplary judge."

He added, "To suggest that someone as someone as qualified and respected as Merrick Garland doesn’t even deserve a hearing, let alone an up-or-down vote, to join an institution as important as the Supreme Court when two-thirds of Americans believe otherwise, that would be unprecedented."

“Fidelity to the constitution and the law has been the cornerstone of my professional life and it is the hallmark of the kind of judge I have tried to be for the past 18 years," Garland said. "If the Senate sees fit to confirm me to the position for which I have been nominated today I promise to continue on that course.”

Garland, 63, is a surprising pick from a president who has discussed his desire to remake the federal courts — both in terms of traditional diversity but also in terms of experiential diversity.

Garland has the quintessential Supreme Court nominee résumé. After growing up in Illinois, he attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School; clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan; became a partner at Arnold & Porter; and worked in the Clinton Justice Department, eventually overseeing the prosecutions of the Oklahoma City bombing and of the Unabomber.

Clinton initially nominated Garland for the D.C. Circuit in 1995, but his nomination initially stalled over a dispute not involving Garland himself. After being renominated in 1997, he was quickly confirmed on a 76–23 vote — with support from 31 Republicans — in a Republican-led Senate. Garland has served as the chief judge of the circuit since 2013.

In 2010, when Garland was under consideration for the vacancy created by Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement, SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein put the facts there — with a Democratic-led Senate — bluntly: “[T]o the extent that the President's goal is to select a nominee who will articulate a broad progressive vision for the law, Judge Garland would be a very unlikely candidate to take up that role.”

Over at National Review, the prospect of Garland’s nomination this time around was challenged by Carrie Severino, who pointed to the judge’s prior vote seeking to have the full appeals court reconsider a three-judge panel’s decision striking down a D.C. handgun ban ordinance as a sign that he is “not so moderate.”

In the days after Scalia’s death, his majority opinion for the sharply divided 5–4 Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller — striking down the handgun ban after the District had appealed the D.C. Circuit ruling in a decision holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms — was often pointed to as one of his most significant opinions.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Obama will now press an uphill — if not unlikely — battle to have Merrick Garland replace Scalia on the bench.

Garland’s nomination starts off differently than any other in modern American history.

Unlike any Supreme Court nominee since the practice began, the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have — along party lines — stated that they do not intend to hold a hearing, let alone a vote, on the nominee. The committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has wavered on this point.

As Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, acknowledged this past week, however, the committee was setting a “new rule” that “in the last year — at least of a lame-duck, eight-year term, I would say it’s going to be a four-year term — that you’re not going to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.”

The nomination also will be moving forward or, more likely (at least at first), be stalled in the middle of ongoing sharp presidential primary contests, as well as a looming general election fight for the presidency. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have strongly backed Obama’s prerogative to pick a nominee and criticized the Senate Republicans’ peremptory response to the vacancy. Conversely, both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, as Graham noted, have asked the Senate not to proceed on any Obama nominee for the vacancy.

After Obama's announcement, Grassley said he and his colleagues have no plans to change their positions, citing a desire for the public to weigh in. "A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics," he said. "The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice."

In a speech on the senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated Grassley's sentiments, adding that though he recognized Garland's merits, the decision not to hold a hearing was to do with the timing of the nomination, and not the nominee. "This is about a principal, not a person," McConnell said repeatedly.

Senator Orrin Hatch, who in the past supported Garland for election to the Supreme Court, said in a floor speech that Garland is "a good man" who "shouldn't be brought up in ... the most toxic" election season of his 20 years in the senate. Yet Hatch signaled that he was open to moving Garland's nomination into a lame duck session.

In a statement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who had been mentioned as a possible contender for the vacancy, praised Garland and urged Congress to confirm him. "His impeccable credentials, steadfast fidelity to the law and firm devotion to the public interest make him an outstanding choice to sit on our nation's highest court, where I am certain he will serve with integrity and wisdom," she said.

David Mack and Ema O'Connor contributed to this report.

After Failed Execution Attempt, Ohio Can Try Again

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Kiichiro Sato / AP

Ohio can try to execute an inmate for the second time, seven years after a failed attempt at inserting an IV, the state's supreme court ruled Wednesday.

In 2009, multiple executioners tried for two hours to set an IV into Romell Broom, who was sentenced to death for raping and killing a 14-year-old girl. Broom argued that attempting to execute him again would be cruel and unusual punishment, and would be "double jeopardy" — a violation of the Fifth Amendment.

But in a 4-3 opinion, the court held that the state can attempt to execute him again since the execution drugs weren't used in the initial attempt.

"There is no question that lethal drugs did not enter Broom's body," Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote. "In this case, because the attempt did not proceed to the point of injection of a lethal drug into the IV line, jeopardy never attached. Because there is no violation of the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy, the state is not barred from a second attempt to execute Broom's death sentence."

After one of the unsuccessful attempts, blood ran down Broom's arm, causing one of the executioners to rush out of the room, according to court documents. Another executioner was sweating profusely after several failed attempts, but they continued to try.

Ohio tried inserting the IV at 18 different injection sites — although the actual number of insertions is believed to be much higher, as the state re-used sites at different angles in a technique called "fishing."

Broom covered his eyes and began to cry from the pain. The regional director of Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction at the time, Edwin Voorhies, said it was the first time he had seen an inmate cry during the IV-inserting process.

A doctor attempted to insert the IV — disobeying the instructions of the warden to only observe the process — and struck bone, causing Broom to scream in pain.

The state deviated from its protocol in Broom's case, and in several other executions around this time, but the court said it did not amount to a constitutional violation.

"We agree that compliance with execution protocols is the best way to avoid the risk of severe pain, but deviation from a protocol is not an automatic constitutional violation," Lanzinger wrote.

"We are not convinced, however, that Broom has established that the state is likely to violate its execution protocol in the future."

A dissent authored by Justice Judith French argued there should, at least, be an evidentiary hearing.

"The evidence in the record, if believed, would establish that the state has repeatedly and predictably had problems establishing and maintaining access to inmates’ veins, that these problems are the result of medical incompetence on the part of the execution team members responsible for inserting IV catheters, and that the incompetence of the execution staff makes it more than likely that these problems will recur in future executions," she wrote.

In another dissent, Justice William O’Neill wrote that the "description of the state’s first attempt to put Broom to death chills me to the core. It is not only the rights of the defendant that are in play here. There are state employees who have tragically endured the personal trauma of unsuccessfully attempting to execute a fellow human being. And now we, as a society, are telling them, 'Do it again.'"

Although Ohio may attempt to execute Broom again, that doesn't mean it will happen anytime soon. The state has had problems obtaining execution drugs and is now sparring with the Food and Drug Administration over whether it can import sodium thiopental from overseas. The FDA maintains it would be illegal.

Read the opinion:


There Are Hours Of Audio Of Donald Trump's Nationally Syndicated Radio Show In The 2000s

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On “Trumped! With Donald Trump,” Trump commented on the feelings of fish, whether Democrats have better sex than Republicans, marijuana legalization, and more. But a spokesperson for one radio station told BuzzFeed News that they didn’t have permission to provide the audio.

The Demo

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Donald Trump had a nationally syndicated radio segment in the 2000s called "Trumped!," a brief daily vignette in which the Donald touched on a broad array of topics from whether fish have feelings to Larry Summers' speech on women and math. The segment hit the air in 2004, during the same period the real estate tycoon founded Trump University and other ventures currently under media scrutiny.

BuzzFeed News reviewed the show's website, but was unable to obtain audio clips. Most radio stations contacted said they hadn't archived it. However, a spokesperson for KIIS-FM in Los Angeles said, "We simply don't have the rights to clear this because it's no longer covered by fair usage."

The segment, which was syndicated by Premiere Networks and sponsored by Office Depot, lasted approximately 90 seconds and aired on hundreds of stations around the country. At its outset, Premiere billed "Trumped!" as "the biggest launch in radio history," and Trump himself was quoted in the New York Times suggesting the show would be "bigger than Rush Limbaugh." But like many ventures Trump attempted in the 2000s — Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, and GoTrump.com, to name a few — his radio show apparently failed to meet these lofty expectations and was ultimately discontinued, ending in 2008.

A spokesperson for Premiere Networks, who also said the company had not stored audio of the show, did not answer a question about why "Trumped!" was taken off the airwaves. The spokesperson further said that Premiere did not have the right to grant permission to use the audio.

A spokesperson for Office Depot was unfamiliar with the segment.

"I have no knowledge of the videos to which you're referring, any details regarding them, nor who'd be able to assist. Again, neither I nor any of the colleagues on my team were here during that time frame," she said.

The Trump presidential campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment, leaving it unclear who holds the rights to the audio.

Meanwhile, the show's website, which can be accessed as it appeared on certain dates through the summer of 2006, gives some sense of Trump's commentary, featuring descriptions of segments including "No More Viagra for Rapists," "Don't Hire Smokers," a chastity club in the Ivy League ("Can you believe it? Chastity?"), Michael Jackson's acquittal ("Stay out of the tabloids and, for goodness sake, don't say hello to those little boys"), and the ethics of fishing ("I believe it's painful for the fish"). But for the show's final years and on other politically salient topics mentioned on the site, such as the legalization of marijuana in Denver and Elton John's union to his partner under a new British law for same-sex couples, it is impossible to know what Trump said without access to the audio files.


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Grassley: I'm Not Surprised A U.S. Weapon Landed In El Chapo's Hands

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Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley Thursday said it was unsurprising that a gun lost by U.S. federal agents had wound up in the hands of Mexican drug lord El Chapo, and warned guns from the failed “Fast and Furious” program could be in circulation for another 100 years.

“It doesn’t surprise me one bit. There were about 2,000 guns that were under Fast and Furious, and we think that there’s only been 500 of them recovered. So these guns will be around for maybe a century killing people, you know?” Grassley told BuzzFeed News Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday the AP reported that the Justice Department had confirmed that one of the rifles seized earlier this year at El Chapo’s hideout in Los Mochis, Mexico, was one of more than 1,400 guns that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lost between 2009 and 2010.

Fast and Furious was a program designed to identify and arrest illegal gun runners: federal agents allowed suspects to purchase the guns in the hopes of tracing them to buyers. Instead, an estimated 2,000 guns went missing, and most — but not all — ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. In 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with a Fast and Furious gun.

Grassley, who had not yet been briefed on the El Chapo case, couldn’t say whether he will open new hearings into the program. But he slammed the administration’s unwillingness to cooperate with congressional investigators, who have been looking into the program.

“On hearings, you know what? They haven’t even cooperated with us on the investigations we’re doing, and we’d probably have answers to a lot of these questions that we’ve asked for,” Grassley said.

Sanders Campaign Manager On Whether Bernie's Campaign Is A Long Shot

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Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Top aides from the Bernie Sanders campaign promised Wednesday afternoon that things are about to dramatically change in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination contest.

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver and senior strategist Tad Devine took reporters questions about the state of the race hours after a disappointing Tuesday that saw Sanders win fewer delegates than Clinton and win no states, despite conditions about as favorable as they could be for a Sanders victory.

In the morning, NBC News calculated that Sanders would need to earn 65% of all the remaining pledged delegates to win the party's nomination, a feat "which is almost impossible under the Democrats' proportional system," according to the calculations.

BuzzFeed News asked Weaver if the Sanders campaign could be called a "long shot" from Wednesday forward.

"It is what it has always been, which is an uphill fight," he said. "This campaign from day one has always been an uphill fight, there's no doubt about it. We started with no infrastructure, no money, no name recognition outside of small area of the country."

Devine and Weaver sketched out their map for the future, which despite the long odds in terms of delegate math, they said was a path that favored Sanders. They promised Sanders would do well in upcoming western caucuses and primaries, including in the final state on the Democratic map in 2016, California. The campaign aides said Sanders would do well in New York, the state Clinton calls home and that she represented in the Senate.

Devine again returned to his often-repeated notion of the Democratic contest as a "dynamic" race. Things happen, he has said before, and he said Sanders intends to stick around until the end to take advantage of the way things change over the coming months.

Weaver said Sanders path will remain a tough one.

"It has always been an uphill fight and it continues to be," he said. "And it will continue to be an uphill fight until we pass the secretary in pledged delegates."

Trump Campaign Manager Denies Blacklisting Reporters

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“I have a great relationship with these people.”

William Philpott / Reuters

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Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, denied on Wednesday that the Trump campaign blacklists reporters who write critical stories about the candidate.

Politico alleged that the Trump campaign denied their reporter Ben Schreckinger a press credential on Tuesday after he wrote an in-depth profile raising questions about Lewandowski's past actions.

Asked about the incident, Lewandowski said, "I don't pick and choose which reporters come and don't come to events."

"That's just not my role in the campaign to be very clear," he told the John Fredericks Show, adding that there's just not enough room for all press that wants to come.

"I'm not trying to limit anyone's access to anything, that's not what we do," he added.

The Trump campaign has at times, as noted by Mother Jones, denied press credentials to National Review, the Des Moines Register, Univision, BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast, Fusion, Huffington Post, and Mother Jones, usually following critical stories.

Lewandowski, who has been accused of roughly grabbing a reporter and pulling her away from Trump at an event, said his relationship with campaign reporters is "amazing."

"I have honored to have the privilege of serving on this campaign and I go and talk to the media everyday, and I've got amazing relationships with those people," he said.

He added, "I am a person who is readily accessible to the media, I have a great relationship with these people."

Lewandowski noted that Trump uses his Twitter feed to go "directly to the American public" to "fight the press."


Trump Warns Of "Riots" If He Loses GOP Nomination At Contested Convention

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“I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before,” Trump told CNN Wednesday.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters Tuesday in Florida.

Gerald Herbert / AP

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Trump, who made the comments during a phone interview with CNN, said that even if he falls just short of the 1,237 delegates needed to cinch the Republican nomination outright, he would have the most, and so should still automatically become the nominee. If that didn't happen, he said, "I think you'd have riots."

"I think you would have problems like you've never seen before," Trump said. "I think bad things would happen."

He added, "I wouldn't lead it, but I think bad things would happen."

Trump currently has a commanding delegate lead over second-place challenger Sen. Ted Cruz. However, Tuesday's primary results — and in particular John Kasich's win in Ohio — increased the odds that no candidate will amass 1,237 delegates before the GOP convention in July.

If that happens, the candidates will have to battle for the nomination at the convention. That scenario also could theoretically open the door for an entirely different candidate to swoop in and win the nomination.


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Republican Congressman: Trump Not A Tough Guy, Has Never Thrown A Punch

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“In fact, he’s a germophobe and doesn’t stay in other hotels because he’s afraid he’s gonna catch germs.”

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / Via Facebook: RepKinzinger

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, mocked Donald Trump on Wednesday for his notorious fear of germs and said Trump talks a big game but has never thrown a punch.

Asked if Trump has ever thrown or taken a punch, Kinzinger, a former military pilot who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "No, I don't think so. In fact, he's a germophobe and doesn't stay in other hotels because he's afraid he's gonna catch germs. So he doesn't seem like a very tough guy to me. He just speaks very tough and he does that and he overpowers everybody when he talks."

The interview on The Roe Conn Show on Chicago radio, the host also suggested that Kinzinger might, like an American student caught stealing a political banner in North Korea, be sentenced to "15 years of hard labor" for criticizing Trump.

Kinzinger replied, "And he might tweet. He might tweet at me. Oh heavens. That's a tough guy, tweeting."

Trump On Ego: "People With Too Much Will Tend Toward Dictatorial Personalities"

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“People with no ego will have very little life force, and people with too much will tend toward dictatorial personalities.”

Fred Prouser / Reuters

Donald Trump says having an ego is important to success, but once warned that too much ego can lead to a "dictatorial personalities."

In his 2009 book Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life, Trump wrote:

"Having an ego and acknowledging it is a healthy choice. Our ego is the center of our consciousness and gives us a sense of purpose. People with no ego will have very little life force, and people with too much will tend toward dictatorial personalities. As with everything, keeping a good balance is important. Your ego can serve to keep your momentum moving forward. It can keep you vibrant and productive. It can keep your focus where it should be, which is on your work. After awhile, you won't have to tell people about your success because they'll already know about it. Do not disregard your ego."

Trump wrote the comments in the chapter of his self-help book "tell people about your success" where he said you should use your successes to your advantage, such as getting a good dinner table.

Trump also wrote in the book that Obama is a champion.

Black Lives Matter And Progressives Are Trying To Organize Against Donald Trump

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Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Black Lives Matter organizers are ramping up their plans to protest Donald Trump through the remainder of the presidential campaign and have begun cobbling together a coalition of civil rights and left-leaning advocacy organizations to bring a larger and more sophisticated movement to bear on the GOP frontrunner — and any politicians or corporations that are aligned with him.

The effort is in its infancy: A group of activists and strategists held their first conference call to discuss the push Tuesday evening. A second call with national progressive organizations is planned for Thursday evening, sources involved in the discussions said.

Protesters hope the organization bolsters already massive demonstrations against Trump amid a two-week long stretch of violent and tense confrontations at Trump’s rallies in Fayetteville, Louisville, Charlotte, and Chicago.

“A growing consciousness exists among people that reject this right-wing extremism,” Aislinn Pulley, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago, told BuzzFeed News. “The momentum that has surfaced against Donald Trump reflects honest responses from ordinary people who have to deal with the real consequences of the policies that he advocates for.”

While Illinois voted in its presidential primary election Tuesday, a national conference call was convened between movement leaders. A mix of progressives from around the country and from national organizations participated in the call, as well as BLM strategists, demonstrators, and messaging experts eager to figure out ways to assist.

One of the key issues discussed was the effectiveness of direct action protests at Trump events. Although the actions draw media coverage, two sources on the call said organizers worry that because Trump seems to be immune to shame, these protests simply put black activists in harm’s way but have little effect on Trump.

“It was tough to think about this idea that a black person goes to do an action at a Trump rally and gets beat up, and then it wasn’t exactly forcing a shift in the discussion about Trump we desired,” said one organizer, who asked BuzzFeed News to withhold their name from this story because they were still reaching out to groups. “It was almost annoying to watch.”

Ben Wikler, the Washington director of MoveOn.org, which circulated an online petition before the fracas at a Trump rally in Chicago, said Trump is a “five-alarm fire for Democracy,” which is why his group has committed to coordinating marches, calling on people to denounce him and mobilizing voters to cast votes against him. Wikler said a key part of the organizing is coalition building: MoveOn.org will engage immigrants, Muslims, undocumented people, and blacks. “Really, anyone in Trump’s crosshairs,” he said.

“It’s an early moment in the national progressive movement, but I think there’s a sense in the progressive world that has been watching in horror but hasn’t yet jumped in the fray that it’s time now to jump in with both feet.”

The effort to try and bridge the gaps that have long separated progressive movements isn’t exactly new: In the late '90s and early 2000s, for instance, labor organizers and environmentalists tried and failed to create a dynamic “Blue Green” coalition on climate change issues.

Similarly, civil rights groups and environmentalists have long struggled to find a way to come together on environmental justice issues, with varying degrees of local success but so far no serious national presence.

For years, racial justice organizations and other left leaning groups have had a tense relationship. Older, more established progressive groups chafe at the more urgent, radical approaches of groups like BLM, while Black Lives Matter activists complain that other groups — like the environmental movement and women’s rights movement — are largely run by white people and don’t adequately work with communities of color.

But Trump’s rhetoric and meteoric rise has spurred an urgency work out their differences.

“This moment requires us to find to ways to work together,” said Rashad Robinson, the executive director of the progressive advocacy group Color of Change, whose co-founder, Van Jones, has passionately condemned Trump’s rhetoric on CNN. “While differences may exist, we’ve still got to leverage multiple strategies, from news and media outlets giving us 24-hour coverage of Trump rallies because it’s good for business, to Republican leaders who still support him if he is their party's nominee, to the corporations like Coca-Cola who still align their brand with Trump's hateful movement.”

As Black Lives Matter continues to coalesce into a coherent national movement, one of the biggest challenges facing BLM organizers is a lack of resources, something they hope the new coalition can help address as it relates to Trump, ranging from direct action and media training to help dispatching pundits to TV and radio.

And there’s another resource activists say they’re in desperate need of: white people. Specifically working-class whites, whom they believe they can make common cause with and, more importantly, could help undercut Trump’s appeal to that demographic and that in the future it won’t “just [be] black folks out in the muck,” a source on the call said.

"Black people, immigrants, and people of color are putting their bodies on the line to disrupt Trump and the racism he uses to mobilize his supporters. White people need to grab our families, friends, and communities and follow their lead,” said Todd Zimmer, a North Carolinian who was a part of an action at the Trump rally in Fayetteville, and is one of driving forces behind the Stop Trump National Network Facebook page. “It’s time to shut Trump down, especially since he is counting on white voters to win the election.”

“White people need to take inspiration from movements like Black Lives Matter and Not One More and work to end racism. All together we can make this country great for everyone, for the first time."

Beyond Trump, activists are also setting their sights on Sen. Ted Cruz, and anyone else they view as either supporting or profiting from Trump’s angry, populist rhetoric.

“Do you have to start taking Cruz more seriously, too? It’s something we’re asking ourselves,” one organizer said. “It’s not same rhetoric, but his policies are just as dangerous and crazy.”

For Robinson, it’s not just about going after Trump. He said the organization will go after corporations it feels is enabling him. “In partnership we’ll focus on all the institutions and individuals putting profits or political party over our nation's future.”

Bernie-Backing Liberal Group Apologizes For Saying Hillary "Won The Confederacy"

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Under a barrage of criticism from Democrats, a progressive group supporting Bernie Sanders for president has retracted, and apologized for, describing Hillary Clinton's victories in the South as winning "the Confederacy."

But the Progressive Democrats of America's attempt to apologize on Twitter ended with PDA getting more criticism and eventually publicly attacking some of those critics with, among other things, suggestions that Clinton supporters upset about the Confederacy line were hypocrites.

The controversy began when PDA, a small liberal group founded in 2004 out of the remnants of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's and former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich's progressive insurgent presidential campaigns, wrote in an email that "Hillary won the Confederacy, now the rest of the country is primed to go for Bernie."


A screenshot of the email that buzzed around Twitter Thursday.

Via Twitter: @pdamerica



The group was an early booster of Sanders' presidential campaign and continues to boost him ahead of the upcoming western primaries. A PDA official did not respond to a request for comment.


Chris Wallace On Trump Skipping Debate: Policy "Isn't His Strong Point"

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“Let’s face it, when it comes to the details of policy, it isn’t his strong point.”

Kris Connor / Getty Images

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Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said in a radio interview on Wednesday that he understood why Donald Trump pulled out of the now-cancelled debate that would have taken place next week, saying policy isn't Trump's strong suit.

"I don't think it's an illogical move from him," Wallace said on the radio show Kilmeade and Friends. "If I were Trump or I were Trump's campaign manager, I would say, there have been a dozen debates, he appeared in 11 of them. I don't think he will pay the price at all now that the debate has been canceled."

He continued, saying, "I don't think it's necessarily the best venue for him. Let's face it, when it comes to the details of policy, it isn't his strong point. His strong point is kind of his gut, visceral, broad brush picture appeal as opposed to well let's drill down into the fine point of this."

Wallace said he didn't understand Kasich's decision to pull out of the debate once Trump announced his intention to skip, especially given that Kasich has complained about not getting enough speaking time in prior debates.

"Kasich has whined in every debate about how he doesn't get called on," he said. "If he had said, 'yes, I will be in that debate,' we would have held the debate. And he and Cruz would have had two hours to debate policy."

Wallace said it was possible Kasich was eyeing the vice presidential nomination.

"Maybe he is thinking let's keep that avenue open as a possible running mate, he said. "I know he has denied it, that he would ever be the vice president."

Sheldon Adelson's Israeli Newspaper Keeps Featuring Donald Trump

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Israel Hayom

Israel Hayom, the Israeli newspaper owned by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has featured Donald Trump three times on its cover in the last week.

The latest example: an interview with Trump led the paper yesterday, conducted by Israel Hayom's columnist Boaz Bismuth. In the piece, Trump is interviewed at Mar-a-Lago, telling Bismuth that his candidacy is "tremendous news for Israel. Your friend is leading in the primaries. I've always been your friend."

Not only has Israel Hayom repeatedly highlighted Trump, but Adelson himself has publicly accepted the idea of Trump as the nominee. Earlier this week, Israeli reporter Tal Schneider reported that Adelson, regarding Trump's candidacy at an gala honoring Rudy Giuliani in February, responded, "Why not?"

“Trump is a businessman. I am a businessman. He employs a lot of people. I employed 50,000 people. Why not?” Adelson reportedly said.

Adelson, who spent $20 million on Newt Gingrich during the 2012 primary and went on to back Mitt Romney, has sat out this election so far. For a long time he was said to be favoring Marco Rubio, while his wife Miriam was partial to Ted Cruz, but the Adelsons didn't financially back either of those candidates, and now Rubio is out of the race.

These signals coming from Adelson-world don't necessarily mean Adelson will offer his financial support to the Trump campaign or to an entity supporting him. But they could mean that he's unwilling to oppose him, just as the Republican Party establishment is more desperate than ever to stop Trump from clinching the nomination.

What makes this strange is the fact that Trump does not align with Adelson's strong pro-Israel views. Trump has said that he's "neutral" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and unlike his rivals has not promised to end the Iran nuclear deal on day one, though he has said the current one was badly negotiated.

Adelson's political adviser didn't respond to a request for comment.


Even Lindsey Graham Knows It's Weird That He's Backing Ted Cruz

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Alex Wong / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham has rarely held back in his criticism of Ted Cruz, but the South Carolina Republican said his endorsement of Cruz on Thursday shows what he's willing to do to try to save the party from Donald Trump.

"This is an odd moment," Graham told a few reporters in the Senate. "I'll be the first to say it. It's an odd alliance, but it's an alliance I feel comfortable with given my choices."

Graham will be hosting a fundraiser for Cruz in Washington on Monday on the sidelines of the pro-Israel group AIPAC's conference. Earlier this year, Graham described picking between Trump and Cruz as a choice between "being shot and poisoned."

"The bottom line is that I'm very passionate about my nation," Graham said on Thursday. "I'm very passionate about my party. People can take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've come to conclude that Mr. Trump is not a Republican. He's an interloper. That he's jumped into this race and it's all about Trump. His foreign policy is gibberish. He's appealing to our darker side and Ted Cruz is a much more reliable Republican than Donald Trump."

"On the positive side with Ted, I do think he's a good friend of Israel, that he would repeal and replace Obamacare, and he would pick a reliable conservative to be on the Supreme Court."

Graham added that although Republicans might lose in 2016 with Cruz as the nominee at least the party won't be destroyed.

"If we give the banner of the Republican Party to Donald Trump, we tarnish it maybe forever. That might be the end of the Republican Party as I know it. We could lose in 2016 and still be a viable party. If we nominate Donald Trump, I don't think if we're a reliable party in terms of conservatives anymore."

Graham said he didn't talked to John Kasich before making his decision because he's convinced the Ohio governor doesn't have a path to the nomination.

"Do I think Ted Cruz is the most electable person? No, I think John Kasich is more electable... Ted's going to be the most viable alternative. I see him as the best able to stop Trump and get to 1,237. It is an outsider year. John Kasich is good governor and a great friend. I wish he could do better, but it's not John's fault."

Donald Trump's Marital Advice: Divorce "Griping And Bitching" Wives

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“If he doesn’t lose the ballbreaker, his career will go nowhere.”

Hai Do / AFP / Getty Images

Count the thrice-married Donald Trump as not a fan of martial therapy. In his book The Art of the Comeback, released in 1997, The Donald offered this advice: Divorce your "griping and bitching" wife.

Who needs nagging, asked The Donald.

"Often, I will tell friends whose wives are constantly nagging them about this or that that they're better off leaving and cutting their losses," wrote Trump. "I'm not a great believer in always trying to work things out, because it just doesn't happen that way. For a man to be successful he needs support at home, just like my father had from my mother, not someone who is always griping and bitching. When a man has to endure a woman who is not supportive and complains constantly about his not being home enough or not being attentive enough, he will not be very successful unless he is able to cut the cord."

Trump had just divorced his second wife, Marla Maples, who he began an affair with while married to first wife, Ivana.

In 2003 appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Trump said he married Maples because she got pregnant with their daughter, Tiffany.

"At the time it was like, 'Excuse me, what happened?" Trump stated he said to Maples when learning about the pregnancy. "And then I said, 'Well, what are we going to do about this?'"

"She said, 'Oh, are you serious? This is the most beautiful day of our lives,'" Trump said Maples responded.

"I said, 'Oh great.' So I said, 'Do you want to get married?'"

Later in the chapter, Trump discusses telling a friend who said his wife said he was "working too and too long and wasn't devoting enough time or energy to her" to divorce his wife.

"If he doesn't lose the ballbreaker, his career will go nowhere," Trump wrote.

How Donald Trump Bent Television To His Will

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Brian Blanco / Getty Images

Staffers at the five major television networks are grappling with what role their organizations may have played in amplifying Donald Trump's successful campaign of insults, generalizations about minority groups, and at times flat-out lies.

Conversations with more than a dozen reporters, producers, and executives across the major networks reveal internal tensions about the wall-to-wall coverage Trump has received and the degree to which the Republican frontrunner has — or hasn't — been challenged on their air.

Two network sources also confirmed the unprecedented control the television networks have surrendered to Trump in a series of private negotiations, allowing him to dictate specific details about placement of cameras at his event, to ensure coverage consists primarily of a single shot of his face.

Network officials say the ratings have borne out commercial incentives to devote their campaign coverage to largely unfiltered streams of Trump talking. Trump's presence in the race has also been good for local television stations who reap the benefits of increased spending on advertisements. CBS CEO Les Moonves quipped that Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS, that’s all I got to say.”

But many inside the networks are growing increasingly disturbed with what they’ve helped create.

“As a programmer, it’s an easy decision, people watch it,” said one producer. “As an American, I’m sort of troubled by it, because I feel like we contribute to it.”

While there are journalists who have aggressively challenged Trump — notably Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, NBC News’ Chuck Todd, and CNN’s Jake Tapper — much of the coverage, including broadcasting his rallies and events live in their entirety, has been uncritical and even unfiltered, some of it conducted by interviewers unwilling or unable to provide much more than a platform for the candidate.

Several network and cable news staffers rationalized the amount of Trump coverage as a response to the demand of the viewers and as accurately reflecting his position in the race.

It’s an argument CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, has made publicly. When asked if he felt responsible for Trump’s rise, he reportedly told reporters at a lunch this week that “the frontrunner of the party is always going to get a disproportionate amount of attention.”

Some blamed the other Republicans in the race for being unwilling to attack Trump publicly. Many are unsure of how to cover a candidate like this — one seemingly immune to the traditional expectations of honesty and respect for democratic norms — in this medium.

The symbiotic relationship between television news and Trump began, innocently enough, as a summer fling. The cable networks found their answer to the typically slower summer news cycle the moment Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy to a lobby full of onlookers, some of them paid actors. Producers at several networks said they initially treated his candidacy as a joke, albeit a highly entertaining one.

Trump’s rallies became must-see daytime and primetime television on cable, pre-empting regularly scheduled newscasts and driving the day-to-day news cycle. Even when he was embroiled in controversy, Trump’s availability to the media for interviews, either on camera or by phone, shocked producers accustomed to dealing with difficult-to-book candidates.

As one veteran producer said, “He’ll throw a hand grenade in, and then will come on to us to talk about it.”

Over the next several weeks, Trump threw several hand grenades: calling Mexicans rapists and murders, questioning John McCain’s status as a war hero, and insisting that he’d build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.

At the first Republican debate in early August, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly confronted Trump with several offensive remarks he had made about women in the past. He spent the next several days attacking her on Twitter, and told CNN’s Don Lemon in a phone interview, “She’s got blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

Later in August, after a brief lull in his insults, Trump again attacked Kelly on Twitter, prompting Fox News Chair Roger Ailes to issue a statement demanding Trump apologize. Trump responded by saying, “I do not think Megyn Kelly is a quality journalist.”

“It’s the Megyn Kelly effect,” said one MSNBC producer. “If you push back too hard, it will only hurt you. It’s only going to hurt your show, your brand, your image, because for some reason, Donald Trump is more impervious to these attacks than a typical politician.”

By summer’s end, Trump had emerged as a dominant force in the race. CNN, according to Zignal Labs, did 2,159 reports on Trump between the time he announced in June and mid-September.

Trump fever continued into the fall, even as challenges emerged between the networks and the Trump campaign over press access at the candidate’s rallies. After several incidents of Trump campaign aides threatening to revoke credentials for reporters who left the fenced-in press pen, representatives from ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, and CNN organized a conference call with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to negotiate access.

According to two sources familiar with the call, the Trump campaign, citing security concerns from Secret Service, dictated to the networks that their camera crews could only shoot Trump head-on from a fenced-in press pen.

Under the Trump campaign’s conditions, camera crews would not be able to leave the press pen during Trump’s rallies to capture video of audience reactions, known in the industry as “cutaway shots” or “cuts.” Networks would also not be able to use a separate riser set up to get cutaway shots.

The terms, which limit the access journalists have to supporters and protesters while Trump is speaking, are unprecedented, and are more restrictive than those put on the networks by the White House or Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which has had Secret Service protection for its duration.

Facing the risk of losing their credentialed access to Trump’s events, the networks capitulated. They did, however, get one concession: When Trump finishes speaking, one person with a camera is allowed to exit the press pen to capture him shaking hands on the ropeline while he exits. That footage is then shared among the networks.

When Trump complains that the media does not “turn the cameras” to show the size of his crowds, it's because, unless they turn or zoom out the head on camera, there is no separate angle to show the crowd.

Trump’s campaign took on an increasingly dark posture as the year ended. He falsely claimed that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey had celebrated the 9/11 attacks in the streets and called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration into the country, citing his concerns that some could be terrorists. Meanwhile, tensions within CNN about the amount of coverage the network had devoted to Trump began to spill over. According to three sources within the company, CNN’s Zucker was confronted by a staffer at an internal town hall about Trump coverage. His answer, according to these sources, was similar to one he has given publicly: The coverage simply reflects Trump’s position as the frontrunner in the Republican race for president.

Not everyone at the network agrees. “The higher-ups say it’s because he’s the Republican frontrunner,” one CNN source said. “I think he’s the Republican frontrunner because we’ve given him so much coverage.”

Coverage only intensified as Trump solidified his frontrunner status with victory after victory. Again, his willingness to appear on TV, especially by phone, made him a regular presence on the network morning shows and Sunday political shows. Notably, CBS News is the one news division that does not regularly conduct phone interviews with the candidate.

But as Trump continues his march toward the Republican nomination, the networks are now grappling with reality — Trump is here to stay, and the coverage has to change.

An MSNBC producer said there is growing pushback at the network among the left-leaning primetime hosts and staffs to not give Trump free airtime.

Another MSNBC source maintained that there is a way to cover Trump on TV: to provide context, something the source conceded is often lacking. “Don’t just cover it like pay-per-view, with people hoping to see blood. Cover it as a political phenomena … you have to give explanatory context,” the source said.

For now, though, Trump appears to have succeeded in persuading the weakened television networks of the questionable premise that that they need him — by playing them off one another.

“If the competition's on Trump, then we’re staying on Trump,” said one top producer.

John Stanton contributed to this report.


Trump Heaps Praise On CNN Boss All Throughout His Books

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We now go live to the bromance that is Jeff Zucker and Donald Trump.

Think Like A Billionaire

CNN president Jeff Zucker has said it wasn't his role to build up or take down a president campaign.

Zucker, asked in December if he thought Donald Trump was a demagogue, said CNN's role didn't include taking a position on that either way but was to broadcast what a candidate puts out there. The CNN chief called such views "editorializing" in a way CNN does not.

"There have been people who have asked about the amount of coverage that Trump gets," Zucker said at a talk at the Paley Center for Media when asked about his role in perpetuating Donald Trump's rise and if he thought Trump was a demagogue. "I don't think it's our role to editorialize the way you are in asking me the questions."

"I think, I think, I think that is your opinion," Zucker continued, when asked if it was editorializing or just fact to say Trump was a demagogue. "I'm not taking a point of view, I don't think it's our role to take a point of view. I think it's our role to report what he says, what he does, to fact check what he says, what he does. Really it's not our role to build up a campaign or to take down a campaign. It's our role to be skeptical of what every candidate puts out there and says. I think that's the role. It's not our role to editorialize the way I think that some of those comments are."

A review of records, specifically Trump's books and past speeches show just how close Zucker and Trump have been. Zucker, greenlit The Apprentice as head of NBC and receives a near thirty mentions in Trump's books since 2004. In Trump speeches across the years, The Donald often praised Zucker for approving the show and mentions how great the NBC chief thought it was.

Trump's 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire includes 20 references to Zucker (often with glowing praise) and carries Trump's view of their day-to-day interactions. Trump's book even includes a picture of the two intimately posing for a photo with Trump calling Zucker a "total dynamo."

"Right before I went on the air, the brilliant head of NBC, Jeff Zucker, told me he was already receiving instant reports that the audience watching our program was going to be huge," wrote Trump. "That wasn't exactly what I needed to hear before appearing on live national television, but it turned out to be a truly exhilarating experience."

In another instance, again with Trump calling Zucker brilliant, Trump recounts Zucker making a pilgrimage to Trump Tower to ask Trump to host SNL.

"One day in late March 2004, Jeff Zucker, the brilliant president of NBC, called to make an appointment to see me at my office. I knew something big must be up for him to pay a personal visit," Trump writes. "He said, 'I'd like to see you.' So he arrived at my office and said, 'Donald, do me a favor. Host Saturday Night Live.' I like and respect Jeff a great deal, and we'd been experiencing a tremendous success with The Apprentice, so I couldn't say no."

That 2004 SNL episode featured a parody version of Zucker, played by Jimmy Fallon, groveling.

"I'm the only thing they've got on this network that's any good now," Trump says in the skit.

After introducing parody shows such as Fruits and Nuts and Law and Order, Queer Squad, an exasperated Zucker finds himself saying, "You're right, you're the only thing we have on this network. Thanks so much. I'm fired."

According to Trump, Zucker told Trump the show was great, they headed to the after party which ran until the early morning.

"After the show, I signed some photos for the crew, including one that will hang in the hallowed halls of Saturday Night Live for all time. It was a night to remember. Both Lorne Michaels and Jeff Zucker seemed pleased with the show, and I thanked them for a wonderful experience," writes Trump. "We all left for the aftershow party. For the record — and this may be a record — I got home at 6 a.m. on Sunday. Just in time to get up and read my newspapers and start a new day . . . and to top it all, the ratings turned out to be great!"

Trump's 2007 book Think Big and Kick Ass also contains some fond anecdotes involving Zucker. Zucker called Trump on his birthday, for instance.

"Then I get another call at about seven o'clock from the president of NBC, Jeff Zucker, who had the guts to go with The Apprentice in the first place," wrote Trump. "He said, 'Donald, I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday.'"

Even Trump was a little shocked with the early morning birthday wish.

"Then my wife, Melania, rolled over and said, 'Who was that?' I said, 'Some people from NBC wishing me a happy birthday.' She said, 'Happy birthday, darling!' Can you believe that? The heads of NBC wished me a happy birthday before seven in the morning?"

Later, Trump wrote, Zucker heaped more praise on The Donald. Trump even let Zucker get away with a dig on his hair.

"Not long after, Zucker, who's now CEO of NBC Universal, spoke at a big meeting and said something I will never forget, because Friends was in its last season, and The Apprentice followed Friends. He said very, very nicely, 'Donald Trump may not have hair as good as Jennifer Aniston, but he's got great ratings.' I didn't mind that he made a crack about my hair because everyone else does."

Ben Sasse: GOP Has Become A "Hollow, Vacuous Reed" That Allowed Trump To Takeover

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“What we need is a real recovery of a core set of identity and a core set of principles about what the Republican Party stands for.”

Gary Cameron / Reuters

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Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska says his party has become a "hollow, vacuous reed" that allowed Donald Trump to launch a hostile takeover.

"I think Republican Party has been, sadly, a very hollow, vacuous reed," Sasse told KLIN radio on Thursday. "And you've got a frontrunner who's been able to wage pretty much a hostile of most of party because it wasn't clear what most of the principles of the Republican Party really were. Unfortunately, what we need is a real recovery of a core set of identity and a core set of principles about what the Republican Party stands for."

Sasse has said he will not vote for Donald Trump if he's the Republican nominee. Sasse also ruled out a third party run, but said if the party rallies around Trump, he believes other candidates will enter the race.

"I hope that something different happens in the Republican Party, but my guess is, if that doesn't happen, and there is some consolidation around the current frontrunner, my guess is that you are going to see other candidates in the race, but it's not going to me," he said.

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