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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Protections For Transgender People In Landmark Ruling

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Dominic Holden/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Department of Education's interpretation of existing federal civil rights laws to protect transgender people against discrimination in education.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the department's interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which is that the law's ban on sex discrimination requires school districts to allow transgender people to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

The Gloucester County School Board, however, passed a policy that restricts students to restrooms reflecting their "biological gender." The transgender student who was targeted by the policy, Gavin Grimm, brought this lawsuit in federal court, seeking an injunction against enforcement of the board's policy.

The decision is a big victory for the Obama administration, which weighed in at the appeals court to support Grimm’s challenge, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has been making the case for protecting LGBT people under existing civil rights laws since 2012. The Education Department, for its part, has been pressing the Title IX interpretation with school districts since 2013.

The appeals court had heard the arguments in January, and Tuesday's ruling is the first such appellate ruling in the country on the Obama administration's policy — which it also has advanced regarding the sex discrimination ban under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among the states included in the 4th Circuit is North Carolina, which recently passed a law limiting restroom use in government facilities — including schools and universities — to that which corresponds with a person's "biological sex." The ACLU, which is backing Grimm's suit, also has brought suit against the North Carolina law.

The appeals court first held that the language of regulations implementing Title IX were ambiguous as to transgender restroom use and then finding that the department's interpretation of those regulations — allowing transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity — was a legitimate interpretation.

"We conclude that the Department’s interpretation of its own regulation ... as it relates to restroom access by transgender individuals, is entitled to ... deference and is to be accorded controlling weight in this case," Judge Henry Floyd wrote for the court.

The appeals court did not, however, grant the preliminary injunction Grimm is seeking, instead sending the case back to the district court to reconsider his request.

Judge Andre Davis — who agreed with Floyd's decision for the court, including the decision to send the preliminary injunction request back to the district court — did note that "this Court would be on sound ground in granting the requested preliminary injunction on the undisputed facts in the record."

Judge Paul Niemeyer, however, dissented from the appeals court decision, writing that the ruling "overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature for privacy and safety, which the separation of such facilities is designed to protect."

The appeals court — in a portion of the opinion joined by all three judges on the panel — also declined to reassign the case to another judge at this time. Grimm's lawyers had asked for the case to be reassigned because of comments previously made during the case by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Doumar — including calling being transgender a "mental disorder."

Floyd noted that, while Doumar's comments in court were "idiosyncratic," the appeals court concluded that "the district court’s written order in the case do not raise in our minds a question about the fundamental fairness of the proceedings."


So, Uh, Donald Trump's Plane Is Not Registered To Fly

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Trump's Cessna jet photographed in Iowa in January.

Andrew Harnik / AP

One of the private jets Donald Trump has used to travel between states while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination is not registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, records show.

As the New York Times first reported on Tuesday, the registration for the fixed-wing, multi-engine Cessna jet expired on Jan. 31 and has not been renewed. A FAA spokesperson also confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the plane's registration had expired.

But the plane has taken dozens of flights since then, according to records reviewed by the newspaper.

The 12-seat plane, which features the Trump family crest on its side, is registered to one of Trump's Delaware based corporations.

Under federal aviation regulations, flying with no registration can lead to a civil fine of up to $27,500, as well as criminal penalties, including fines of up to $250,000 and/or three years in prison.

As The Times reported, should the jet be involved in an accident, an insurance company could use the expired registration as a reason to deny a claim.

Trump in front of his Boeing 757 in Arkansas in February.

John Bazemore / AP

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Cessna is one of several aircraft owned by Trump, who often travels to rallies on his Boeing 757, which features his name emblazoned on the side and boasts 24-carat gold-plated seat belts.

Trump Campaign Paid A Breitbart Editor For Consulting Work

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's campaign paid Breitbart News national security editor Sebastian Gorka $8,000 for "policy consulting" last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The filings show that the payment to Gorka was made in October.

Gorka is a professor at Marine Corps University and is the chairman of Threat Knowledge Group, a national security consulting group. He appears frequently as a counterterrorism expert on Fox News.

Gorka has been repeatedly identified on Breitbart as Breitbart's national security editor, with an appearance on Monday on Breitbart's satellite radio show being the most recent example. Gorka has also written frequently for the site, though not since December.

Earlier this year, Gorka was reportedly caught trying to go through security at Reagan Airport in February with a handgun.

Gorka's wife Katharine Gorka is one of Ted Cruz's national security advisers. She also has written in the past for Breitbart and her Twitter bio is "Council on Global Security, Breitbart News."

Gorka did not return requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not return a request for comment.

Questions have increasingly been raised in recent months about Breitbart's close relationship with the Trump campaign, particularly in the aftermath of Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's manhandling of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. In the fallout over the incident, some with the site sided with the Trump campaign over its own reporter, leading to Fields and others quitting the organization in protest. During this period BuzzFeed News reported that a top editor at Breitbart had made inquiries about a possible job with the Trump campaign.

Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

How Bernie Sanders Raises All That Money

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Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Bernie Sanders is raising staggering amounts of money through the ActBlue fundraising site. Much of it comes from small donors.

How much did he raise through February?

$112,718,405.

When the 2016 election began, the idea was that big money from big donors would dominate the election. Instead, many candidates with robust super PACs have failed; Donald Trump has loaned himself money; and Bernie's raised more than $112 million (accounting for 82% of contributions to his campaign) through ActBlue, an online donation service for Democrats, specializing in small donors.

There is no precedent for Sanders' online fundraising. It's almost like a soda fountain — he presses the lever, and money comes flowing out. It may be the new standard for Democratic fundraising, or it may be a once-in-lifetime thing, that only a candidate who so thoroughly positions his candidacy against big money in politics.

But how does it work, exactly? We analyzed the data for all the donations made through ActBlue between April 30, 2015 and February 29, 2016, using Federal Election Commission data processed by ProPublica's FEC Itemizer.

The first thing we learned: The money bombs work. Sanders doesn't raise money in steady streams.

The first thing we learned: The money bombs work. Sanders doesn't raise money in steady streams.

BuzzFeed News

The spikes in the chart above illustrate a "money bomb" — a huge Sanders fundraising push with a fixed deadline — going off. The big spike in early January came from a Sanders New Year's fundraising drive. The huge spike in the middle of February came after Sanders raised $5.2 million in the 24 hours after he won the New Hampshire primary.

The second: There are a lot of people who really love to donate to Bernie Sanders again and again.

The second: There are a lot of people who really love to donate to Bernie Sanders again and again.

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

At least 29 Bernie donors have given at least 100 times through ActBlue, according to the data. They span the spectrum of Sanders' base, from professionals to students. Among the 29 are a college student, an art historian, a lawyer, a pharmacist and a federal employee. Six of the 29 are from California. Five are from Texas.

The 29 super donors are different from most Sanders givers — 53% of Sanders' donors on ActBlue give just once (at an average donation of $33.) The vast majority of Sanders' donors, 92%, donate less than $200.

The average overall of ActBlue donations is juuuust shy of the "twenty-seven dollars" Sanders talks about all the time. The real average is $26.87. (Presumably Sanders is talking about his overall donations in speeches, which includes donations that come in from other sources, but the ActBlue number is very close.)

"I'm living on Social Security, and usually I can give just $3," said Patricia Keljik of Mount Prospect, Illinois. "I wish I could give him a lot more."

Keljik, 62, has contributed 144 times to Sanders, donating $705 overall.

She said she usually gives when she gets an email from the campaign has a few dollars to spare. "When he needs it and asks for it, I give him what I can."

"He's speaking to people who don't have a lot, and we feel for the first time that somebody is speaking for us. The only thing we can do is to give what we can and that way the only people he is beholden to are us."

Alan McLemore, an attorney from Beaumont, Texas, believes Bernie Sanders is the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

So far, he’s given to Sanders’ campaign 101 times. His donations total around $2,600. McLemore said he signed up for automatic monthly donations through ActBlue and will sometimes make additional donations.

"When he sends an email for some special reason, then we'll give him some extra money," he said. "He's the only candidate in a long time who perfectly says what we believe. He just nails it.

McLemore said he plans to keep giving to Sanders if he wins the nomination, which he thinks could still happen. "He's got a much better chance than the corporate media are saying."

Xitij Shah, a sales engineer from Texas, has given the maximum $2,700 to Sanders' campaign through 200 separate donations.

Shah, who first started giving last May, decided in mid-July to start giving $1 each day to the campaign. But after Clinton's narrow win in Iowa, Shah sent Sanders $2,054 instead of continuing to give smaller amounts over a longer period of time.

"That's when I realized he could probably use that money now," said Shah, who keeps up with the Sanders chatter on Reddit and will be flying to New York soon to canvass for the senator.

"The main reason I support Sen. Sanders for president is that he is the most honest person running for president and he wants to get big money out of politics," he said. "I don't believe we can make serious change in this country without reforming how we run our elections, and to a greater extent, our democracy."

Shah also added that he didn't agree with everything Sanders has proposed, but a lot of his plans have already been tested. "For me, a lot of [Sanders' proposed] policy...I've seen done in other countries and those are the things that I wish the U.S. had," he said.

We wondered if the same group of dedicated people like this were just giving to Bernie Sanders a lot. But, actually, the universe of new Bernie donors actually has grown in recent months...

We wondered if the same group of dedicated people like this were just giving to Bernie Sanders a lot. But, actually, the universe of new Bernie donors actually has grown in recent months...

BuzzFeed News

There's that New Hampshire win again in February. One of the interesting things in the data is that, in November, when Clinton started to pull away from Sanders in polling before the race tightened again, the universe of donors didn't expand that much.

And Sanders has indeed raised an insane amount of money from the actual small donations — he's literally been given $10 about 1.4 million times.

And Sanders has indeed raised an insane amount of money from the actual small donations — he's literally been given $10 about 1.4 million times.

BuzzFeed News


Where does all this money come from? The most Bernie Sanders sounding places in the country.

Where does all this money come from? The most Bernie Sanders sounding places in the country.

Buzzfeed News

Crestone, Colorado, has the highest concentration of Sanders donors by zip code per capita outside of Vermont. Of the 1,173 people who live in 81131, 107 have donated to the Sanders campaign. The area is home to multiple spiritual centers and progressive ideals — the town's logo is a log cabin with solar panels, and Crestone's official "vision statement" calls for "a community committed to sustainable living practices and spiritual traditions."

The zipcode that includes Logan Circle, the neighborhood in Washington, D.C., is in the top five. Three zipcodes for Berkeley, California, are in the top 25 for donations per capita. The exclusive zipcode for Brown University is in the top 30.

Then there are big city neighborhoods that you'd totally expect: Downtown Portland (97214) and multiple zipcodes in San Francisco also rank near the top per capita.

And one of the centers of Bernie Sanders’ universe is in Seattle.

Turn the corner into Fremont, the neighborhood of this Northwest city with six of the highest per-capita Sanders donor concentrated zip codes in the country, and the first thing you see is an imposing statue of Vladimir Lenin.

It's the real thing, shipped to the "Artists Republic of Fremont" — motto: De Liberta Quirkas — from Slovakia after it was toppled by revelers celebrating the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

But the 16-foot monument to the most famous communist in history is actually a monument to capitalism: The statue has been for sale for years, the reported asking price $250,000.

It's a centerpiece of political debate, routinely defaced by vandals who spray Lenin's bronze hands with red paint to signify the millions who died under Soviet power. On the Sunday after Sanders swept the Washington state caucuses, the statue had "MURDERER" spray painted down the side in red.

Scattered in the blocks around the statue is the predictable eclectic mix of used bookstores, organic food stores, and a marijuana dispensary. The neighborhood is changing as Seattle sloughs off what's left of its 1990s chic for the expensive comfort food and brand consciousness of the 2010s. Not far from the Lenin statue was Roux, a New Orleans-themed eatery of the moment that features handcrafted cocktails and and Edison lightbulbs. It's a different side of Fremont — but no less Sanders country.

At the bar sipping a Manhattan and watching the NCAA tournament on his iPhone via Slingbox was Ryan Phillips, an employee at a large industrial firm in his 30s. Fremont is the only place he wanted to live in Seattle upon moving to the city from the Midwest. He embraced the culture going from "indoor kid" to avid outdoorsperson, as is the style of the city.

Phillips is a Republican. A Republican, who like just about everyone else in Fremont, would vote for Sanders if it came to it. "We're fucked," he said of his own party. Voting Republican is not an option so far this year he added.

All his friends give to Bernie, Phillips said. He hasn't given him any money but he broadly praised the Sanders effort — he likes that Sanders is honest, he said, and he likes that Sanders is direct.

Seattle is unabashedly liberal. There's a socialist on the city council who last year declined to publicly endorse Sanders because he's running as a Democrat. Everything is organic, everything is politically correct, there's that lefty earnestness that can be both grating and also produce real social change, and quickly.

Sanders’ headquarters in the city was set up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. (It was closed the night of Bernie’s massive win in the state. "Thank you guys," a local had written on a paper sign on the front door advertising the caucuses.)

It’s "weird" in Capitol Hill — LARPers everywhere on a recent Saturday night, dressed like anime and Star Wars characters — but the neighborhood is also in the midst of almost comically rapid gentrification.

A couple of blocks away, Amazon.com has built a new downtown headquarters complex that's changing the nature of the areas around it — with wealthy white people. Starbucks has a special showcase branch called the Reserve Roastery in Capitol Hill. People line up for an $11 cup of siphon-brewed coffee or a $40 half-pound of single-source Rwandan coffee roasted by bearded men dressed like brewmasters on the premises.

When the bartender at LTD, a beer and sports bar on the ourskirts of Fremont, overheard a conversation about the concentration of Sanders donors in the city, he rolled his eyes.

"Seattle," he said. "The ATM for Democrats."

Donald Trump On His Regrets: "Maybe I Could Have Said A Few Less Words"

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“Would have been helpful.”

Kena Betancur / AFP / Getty Images

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Donald Trump, asked what he would change from the beginning of his campaign until now, answered that he could have said fewer words and toned some of his words down.

"You hate to be put in that position. I guess, maybe I could have said a few less words or a few less things. Would have been helpful," Trump told Brian Kilmeade in an appearance on Kilmeade and Friends Tuesday morning. "But overall we're really happy, we're leading by a lot. We're leading by millions of votes and a lot of delegates and I'm happy."

"But I guess I could have toned a couple of words down or thoughts down, would have been nice," he continued.

Cruz-Backer Steve King: GOP Could Split If Cruz Defeats Trump At Convention

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“If Donald Trump decides to say, take his ball and go home, or go run on an independent ticket, that would be what would split the party.”

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

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Congressman Steve King of Iowa, a supporter of Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that there is a risk of the Republican Party splitting if Cruz were to defeat Donald Trump and win the nomination at a contested convention.

The congressman, appearing on the radio show Frankly Speaking, was asked if the Republican establishment might attempt to take the nomination from Cruz or Donald Trump at the convention in Cleveland.

King answered that he saw a risk if Trump loses on a second ballot and decides to run independently or tell his voters to not support the Republican nominee.

"The greater risk for the split of the party is say we get to the convention, nobody's got the 1237 and on a subsequently ballot, a second or subsequent ballot Ted Cruz wins the nomination –– which I would predict if there's a second or subsequent ballot," King said.

"If Donald Trump decides to say, take his ball and go home, or go run on an independent ticket, that would be what would split the party," he continued. "That's more likely than having the establishment take over in Cleveland because they just don't have the numbers among the delegates. If they're gonna take over, they have to essentially dupe the delegates to do that, and I don't think they're gonna be easily duped. These are astute people that are arriving in Cleveland."

Clinton Steady With Latinos, But Math Gets Tougher For Sanders After Big New York Loss

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Seth Wenig / AP

Hillary Clinton danced merengue in Washington Heights and played dominos in Spanish Harlem with one thing in mind: reminding Latinos in New York that she has known them — and worked for them — for years as the former senator from the state.

And while her numbers with Hispanic voters were lower than they have been in other states with large Latino populations, and lower than they were against Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton beat Bernie Sanders big in New York, garnering 63% of the Hispanic vote, according to exit polls.

Time appears to be running out for Sanders — he has to actually win major states by comfortable margins — but the results suggest his campaign has made some inroads with Latinos.

Clinton won more than 70% of Hispanic votes in Texas and then 69% in Florida. In Arizona she won by similar margins in large Latino districts.

And the numbers are also a drop from how she did against Obama in New York in 2008, the state with the fourth largest Latino population, when she beat him nationally 2-to-1 among Hispanics but decisively 73% to 26% in New York.

"We've effectively proven that the Clinton campaign's theory that Latino voters would provide a firewall is a great fallacy," said Sanders deputy political director Arturo Carmona.

The campaign pointed to Illinois, where it had perhaps it's most impressive showing with Latinos in a big state battling Clinton to a draw, as well as Nevada and Colorado where it did well with Hispanics.

Despite the loss in New York, the campaign sees a silver lining in its progress with Latinos.

"This bodes well for us, particularly for California where we will in fact win the Latino vote and the state," Carmona added.

The Clinton campaign noted that they were outspent by Sanders 2-to-1 in New York in Spanish-language media and said it is in good shape in California, noting the endorsement of the United Farmworkers, among other groups. The campaign argued that while Sanders staffers continually say they're going to win the Latino vote in key states, they have struggled to do so.

In the days leading up to the New York primary, Sanders staffers pointed to a NY1 poll showing the Vermont senator leading with Hispanics 55% to 38% in the state, though the poll only surveyed 83 Latinos.

Next up on the Democratic side are Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland — all with primaries on April 26, as well as the next major prize of Pennsylvania, with 189 available delegates.


Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights To More Than 200,000 Felons

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Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order on Friday restoring voting rights of felons who have completed their sentence.

Yamil Lage / AFP / Getty Images

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order on Friday morning allowing people convicted of a felony who are living in the state and who have completed their sentences to register to vote. The decision allows more than 200,000 people, most of them black, the opportunity to vote in the upcoming presidential election in November, in which Virginia is a key battleground state.

The order restores the right to vote, the right to run for office, and the right to sit on a jury to all people convicted of a felony — both violent and nonviolent offenders — living in the state who have completed their prison sentence and are not on probation or parole.

"I believe it is time to cast off Virginia's troubled history of injustice and embrace an honest, clean process of restoring the rights of these men and women," McAuliffe said on the steps of the Virginia capitol in Richmond before signing the order.

In his announcement, McAuliffe foreshadowed opposition to his executive action, which bypasses the state's Republican-led legislature. "I want to be crystal clear," he said. "There may be some individuals who will try to demagogues this issue and will make reckless accusations. Our action today does not pardon or change the sentence for any man or woman affected by this grant."

McAullife added that he consulted with Attorney General Mark Herring and legal experts and was confident that the order was well within his authority as governor. The order applies only to current qualifying individuals, and the governor is expected to periodically review and issue orders for those who have completed their sentences after April 22.

Watch video of his announcement below:


Ted Cruz Criticizes Fox News After Sean Hannity Dustup

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“Fox News has got to decide what stories they want to air and what stories they want to tell.”

Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

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Ted Cruz criticized Fox News on Friday for the way some of their on air hosts have covered the delegate selection process.

Cruz tussled with Fox host Sean Hannity earlier this week over his strategy to court unbound delegates.

"They know it's not true," when asked on the The Dom Giordano Program about the charge that his strategy was unethical. "Donald doesn't handle losing well and when we loses he cries and he screams and he whines and he curses and he insults everybody."

"So when Donald lost five states in a row that's when they began making up this nonsense about voterless elections," Cruz continued. "1.3 million people voted in those five states. More people voted in those five states than voted in the New York primary. In fact, though you'd never see this on Fox News, but I won more votes in Wisconsin than Donald Trump won in New York."

The Texas senator said he wasn't going to concern himself with how Fox News covered the race.

"Well listen, Fox News has got to decide what stories they want to air and what stories they want to tell," Cruz said. "I'm not going to worry about who they're rooting for and what surrogates they put on and what messages they push. I'm gonna focus on my own positive message."

Pro-Trump Delegate In Louisiana: The Process Wasn't Unfair To Trump

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Mark Makela / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump needs every delegate he can win — and when he hasn’t won them, especially at state conventions, he has threatened dramatic recourse, like the prospect of suing in Louisiana.

But a Trump-backing delegate in Louisiana has rebutted Trump's complaints, writing that Trump's campaign was "simply out organized" in the state.

Jennifer Madsen is a delegate committed to Trump in the 2nd district of Louisiana. On her Facebook page on March 30, Madsen wrote that “Trump’s Delegates are Not Being Stolen.”

"I am very sorry to say that the Trump Campaign was simply out organized," Madsen wrote. "Making phone calls to your fellow committee members isn’t fraud. That is how a Representative Republic works."

Trump’s complaints stem from the results of the primary election vs. the results of the delegate election.

He won the Louisiana primary with a plurality (41.8%) of the vote, but he and Ted Cruz both came away from it with 18 delegates each. But there are more delegates, as well. Marco Rubio won five, who are now freed up because he dropped out of the race, and there are an additional five unbound delegates. The Wall Street Journal reported that those 10 delegates were likely to go with Cruz. And at the state convention, no Trump supporters were chosen to fill Louisiana’s six spots on crucial committees at the national convention.

Trump threatened to sue over the delegate results from Louisiana, tweeting on March 27, "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."

Madsen, the Trump supporter, argued in her Facebook post that the there wasn’t much unfair about the process.

"National Delegation officers and Committee Members were elected by the National Delegates immediately after the State Convention," Madsen wrote. "This wasn’t a secret meeting. The time to elect officers has been part of the LAGOP’s rules since October 2015 and is posted on the LAGOP’s website. The State Trump Chairman and Co-Chairman for Louisiana were in attendance. Again, there was no notice from Trump Campaign encouraging our National Delegates and Alternates to attend. This is not the LAGOP’s job to organize each campaign. We did not organize as well as we could have."

On her Facebook page, Madsen criticized Trump's lawsuit threat, writing, “I am not sure who Trump thinks he is going to sue. However, threatening to sue someone is a poor way to get them to vote for you.” She added in a comment, "The State Party is not responsible for how unbound delegates vote. It is their choice. Does he plan on suing the delegates?"

Speaking to BuzzFeed News on Friday, Madsen said "I would like to say that the system we have now is the most fair system the LAGOP has ever seen."

"My main goal with that was to try and dissuade some of the anger towards the state party," Madsen said. "When this election's over, it’s going to be the same names and faces on team Cruz and team Trump that are going to be fighting bad policies in the the state legislature."

An at-large Trump delegate, Michael Duke Lowrie, shared Madsen's post to his own Facebook page and said "Awesome explanation to the supposed LAGOP delegate problem." And an at-large Trump alternate delegate, Wayne Ryan, also commented on Madsen’s post, as well, saying "The Trump team was caught off guard by the whole process." Lowrie and Ryan didn't immediately return requests for comment.

The Trump campaign has repeatedly run into problems in the delegate allocation process, an important part of a presidential campaign and something that is particularly important this year with the prospect of a possible contested convention. Trump has recently made efforts to professionalize his operation, hiring veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort to run the delegate efforts, but the move came too late to salvage losses in states like Colorado and North Dakota.

Cruz is trying to pick up every delegate he can in an effort to hold Trump under the 1237 necessary to win the nomination outright. If no one hits that number by the end of the primaries, the nomination will be decided at the convention.

A Trump spokesperson didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Maryland Democrat Suggests Party Is Discounting Her Because Of Her Race

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Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — If you ask Rep. Donna Edwards, the polls and the newspapers — and even, on some level, people in the Democratic Party — have it wrong.

Days before the Maryland Democratic primary, in which the congresswoman hopes to defeat her colleague in the de facto race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Edwards told BuzzFeed News that it’s misleading to poll this close to election day, sharply critiqued recent Politico and Washington Post pieces about her candidacy — and said that the suggestion within her own party that she is unqualified is racially coded.

Edwards’ race against Rep. Chris Van Hollen was always considered a challenge, but she has proved far more competitive than expected, keeping even with him in many polls. On Thursday, however, a Monmouth poll in the state put Edwards down double digits to Van Hollen.

She’s not worried about the poll, she said, casting it as misleading.

“A poll at this stage with a pretty volatile electorate is very unpredictable,” Edwards said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “That poll came in the middle of early voting, and it seems odd to [conduct] a poll while people are actually casting their votes.”

The poll landed the same day as Politico reported that Edwards has pressed Congressional Black Caucus members about why more haven’t endorsed her candidacy over Van Hollen’s. Only several members have endorsed Edwards, who would be only the second black Democrat in the Senate currently, and the only black woman. She disputes the premise that she’s been pushing the issue of why there haven’t been more endorsements: “No it was not [accurate], actually,” she said, though she did confirm that she had met with some members at a “private breakfast.” She said she’s been meeting with members for a long time, noting that members have donated to her campaign and helped connect her with their donors.

A running line in both the Politico story and the Washington Post’s endorsement of Van Hollen is the charge that Edwards is difficult to work with on Capitol Hill — a charge that she and her campaign have argued vehemently against.

"I don't talk to reporters off the record,” she said of the sources who spoke to Politico, and were quoted anonymously. “If I have something to say I say it on the record because I'm not ashamed for my name to be attached to it."

Recently, some Democrats have been making their frustrations with her known publicly.

"The choice in this election is very clear," Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly told the Associated Press, for instance. "It is whether the people of Maryland want somebody who can be effective, or somebody who's going to bask in her own feelings of moral superiority because of various and sundry factors, and effectiveness has nothing to do with it."

On Friday, her campaign organized a press call in which leaders described narratives that Edwards is ‘difficult’ or ‘ineffective’ as racially coded. Edwards is offended by the suggestions that she is unqualified for the Senate, though she did not specify who had called her unqualified for the job.

“I thought the Republican Party was full of dog whistles but the Democratic Party has a foghorn," Edwards said. "As a sitting member of the House as the Ranking Democrat on one of our committees in the House, as the co-chair of our steering and policy committee sitting at the leadership table with Leader Pelosi, as former chair of the bipartisan women's caucus, a lawyer: How dare they describe me as unqualified?”

Edwards has a reputation for her strong progressivism and fluency with activist elements not often seen in Senate campaigns — her candidacy is essentially infused with intersectional feminism.

Some have critiqued her emphasis on her race and gender on the trail — a suggestion amplified, though not necessarily started, by the Van Hollen campaign. Linda Plummer, June White Dillard, and Tessa Hill-Aston, all present or former presidents of NAACP chapters in Maryland, issued a joint statement through Van Hollen’s campaign in April.

“Chris forges deep and lasting relations with a diverse range of people and organizations, represents their interests, and secures the critical resources that move Maryland forward,” the statement read. “It is not about race, gender, creed, or color — it is about a person. And that person is Chris Van Hollen."

Edwards' campaign maintains she's not talking about her race and gender so much to garner votes, so much as it helps her lead in to her life experiences as a single mother — and informs voters about the issues she’d fight for in the upper chamber.

Edwards defended her campaigning style as symbolic of the diversity of the Democratic Party. "I'm dumbfounded by Democrats who don't see the value of race and gender as part of a mix of who we are on public and private lives,” she said. “It's sad to have Democrats using terms like ‘identity politics’ — those are not our words. Those are the words of the right.”

“When I began this race I decided that I was going to run as who I am: I am a black woman. There is no hiding that, nor would I want to. And one of the reasons I am a Democrat is because I believe in the idea of a big tent and that each one of us has something to contribute."

Edwards maintains she's run on her record and a discussion about the issues, calling the tone of some of the personal attacks as "sad and shocking.” She is also focused on a goal: winning a race she thinks is much closer than recent polls show.

The Post endorsed Van Hollen last month, calling him a "gifted legislator," and the better candidate who "could contribute meaningfully to breaking Washington’s legislative logjam." The endorsement, which praised Edwards in parts, also offered a critique of her office's constituent services.

Edwards said the critique is "bogus," and had sharp words for the Post, the local paper for Maryland’s D.C. suburbs.

"If you look at what's been said, even on the editorial pages of the Washington Post, which purports to be a newspaper, that they identified people I've provided poor constituent services to, for example,” she said. “I look at the people that we have served, thousands of people who have contacted our office for things as random as disability claims to veterans claims to Social Security.”

"I don't understand that, and I think it's pretty shameful,” she continued. “And to think about people who have come to our offices who were on the verge of losing their homes because banks and predatory lenders had their way with Prince George’s County. We tried to save their homes. We couldn't save every home, but we sure tried in the face of banking and mortgage institutions that were behaving very badly toward my constituents."

Edwards noted she’d been re-elected three times in her district, “with some of the highest percentages of any member of our delegation in Maryland. I don’t think that would have happened if I had been providing poor services to the constituents of Prince George's County.”

Her main contention, though, is that she’s been discounted by Democrats within the party and the media. "This notion that there is somebody out there who is born for the job or who is a natural fit or the chosen one in my view is just not acceptable in a Democratic society,” she said, “and in a party where people should have to earn the respect of voters in Maryland."

This Trump Backer Wants To Know Your Address (Don't Worry, He Probably Won't Show Up)

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Livestream

The viewers who tuned in to Donald Trump’s victory speech this week on the night of the New York primary probably didn’t pay much attention to the unassuming guy perched behind the billionaire’s right shoulder. With his gray hair, dark suit, and muted perma-smirk, he blended into the human backdrop that had been arranged behind the candidate — nodding thoughtfully, clapping on cue, and dutifully shuffling out of the way when Trump turned around to high-five a black preacher.

To a national audience who didn’t know his name, he was likely a forgettable fixture of the onscreen entourage — just as the campaign would have it. But as his fellow New Yorkers know all too well, Carl Paladino is no easily controlled henchman.

The Buffalo construction magnate surprised no one when he formally joined the Trump campaign until last month as state co-chair. A notorious loudmouth in New York politics, his public persona was already well adorned with the trappings of Trumpism. He once ran for governor promising to “clean out Albany with a baseball bat.” He has a long history of feuds and flame wars, and a documented penchant for racist internet memes. He routinely says things like “I’ll take you out, buddy” without a trace of irony.

He believes, proudly, that he is cut from the same cloth as Trump.

“I have an affinity for the man and his nature. I feel like I’m the same kind of person,” Paladino told me in an interview Tuesday. “We think alike. We don’t fear. We are men who enter the arena.”

In a way, both men are throwbacks to a certain political style that was dominant in the New York of the ‘70s and ‘80s — aggressive, authoritarian, and with an articulated ethnic view of politics that can seem jarringly out of place in 2016. On the campaign trail, Trump fires up big crowds with this retro alpha-male routine. But the schtick is ill-suited for the “arena” he’s now entering, where the game is to wrangle delegates, and navigate complex party rules.

Trump has taken steps in recent weeks to adapt to this new stage of the race. He hired a speechwriter, and is learning to read from a teleprompter. He’s elevating veteran political strategists to build out a professional operation, and sidelining the rough-and-tumble scrappers on his staff. This week, he even dispatched his new chief strategist to meet and make peace with the Republican National Committee — a rare diplomatic foray for the bomb-throwing candidate that suggests he is ready to start playing the inside game.

But the domestication of the Donald won’t be that easy. For decades, he has surrounded himself with men like Paladino — a retinue of mini-Trumps who treat every task like a battle that can be won only with bravado and blunt force. Such theatrical thuggishness may have been effective in the era of backroom shakedowns and party bosses, but today’s politics is suffused with irony and live-cast on Twitter — and tough-guy threats are more likely to get mocked than they are to make delegates and congressmen cower in fear.

“It doesn’t matter to me what some lame idiot says about me. You can’t hurt me.”

Paladino crashed into this reality during the run-up to the New York primary. With a landslide all but assured, he embarked on a mission to browbeat the state’s Republican officeholders into endorsing Trump — or else. He singled out politicians who tried to stay on the sidelines, and threatened grave consequences for their “cowardice.” And in mid-March, he sent an ominous “open letter” giving an ultimatum to the nine House Republicans from New York.

"This is our last request that you join 'Trump for President' and try to preserve what's left of your pathetic careers in government,” Paladino warned. “Whatever you do, staying neutral is not an option.”

But only two of of New York's House Republicans ended up backing Trump. The rest paid Paladino no heed, largely ignoring or dismissing him in public while privately sniggering about his cartoonish mafioso tactics. He was ultimately forced to walk back his threats.

Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser who now supports Ted Cruz, said he doubts the billionaire will be inviting Paladino to join him on the campaign trail outside of New York, where his network of conservative activists in the state was valuable enough to keep him around. Some of Trump's advisers are deeply wary of Paladino's antics, Nunberg said, likening the dynamic that of "the very attractive girl in high school who will let a dork do her homework, but never appear with him in public."

"Do you think Donald Trump is going to have Carl Paladino as part of his administration?" Nunberg said. "Will Donald campaign with Carl during the general if he's the nominee? I don't think so."

Of course, whatever Trump might do tomorrow, we're nearly a year into his campaign. And, as for Paladino, he doesn't appear eager to ratchet down his rhetoric the way Trump's team might like — especially not to placate the media.

"I can appreciate the torture that [Trump] takes from a press that doesn't understand us,” Paladino told me. “Most of them are young, irresponsible punks, and they haven’t seen anything else in life, and they don’t like us saying what we think.”

He added, “And you’re one of them.”

It was a few hours before the primary polls closed in New York, and Paladino had called me from Manhattan, where he would be attending the campaign’s victory party that evening at Trump Tower. Like his candidate, Paladino seems existentially incapable of resisting a reporter’s interest — but he wanted to be clear that he didn’t trust me anymore than he did the rest of the press.

“You’ve gotta get me right in your hit piece,” he said at one point in our conversation.

When I asked how so, he insisted I make one thing clear for the record.

“It doesn’t matter to me what some lame idiot says about me,” Paladino said. “You can’t hurt me.”

Hiroko Masuike / Getty Images

Paladino, 69, spent most of his career as a hard-charging developer, building a real estate empire in western New York that eventually earned him a personal net worth of $150 million. After dabbling in politics for years as a hobbyist, he mounted a mad-as-hell tea party bid for the governorship in 2010, and stunned the New York GOP when he snatched the nomination away from an establishment stalwart.

His carnival-like campaign that year seemed to play out in an endless procession of outlandish, tabloid-tailored controversies. One day Paladino was beating back questions about a real estate transaction involving his ex-mistress; the next, he was taking fire for anti-gay comments he’d made to a gathering of Orthodox Jews. When someone leaked a trove of emails he had forwarded to his buddies over the years, they included pornographic videos, a graphic bestiality photo, and a handful of racist memes, like a video of an African tribal dance titled “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal.” Paladino ultimately lost the race disastrously by 30 points — but not before cumulating his own grassroots following. With a vaunted email "boom list" of 50,000 conservatives, he quickly carved out a perch for himself as an outspoken anti-establishment gadfly.

The first time I ever heard from Paladino was on Valentine’s Day 2014.

At the time, Trump was making noise about running for governor of New York — and Paladino, who’d met the billionaire just months earlier, had emerged as one of state’s most vocal Trump-for-guv boosters. Some in conservative circles were skeptical of Trump’s intentions given his long history as a political tease, but Paladino aggressively vouched for him in public and behind the scenes, insisting he was serious.

After I quoted Trump, in a BuzzFeed News profile, talking dismissively about the idea of a gubernatorial bid, Paladino emailed me to share his thoughts on the piece.

His note was admirably concise: “Big joke. Fuck you asshole.”

I wrote back asking him to elaborate on his critique, but no response came.

Paul Manafort, Trump's new chief strategist, and Ben Carson at an RNC gathering.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Speaking to about 100 members of the Republican National Committee this week in Florida, Trump's chief strategist Paul Manafort reportedly promised that his candidate was honing a more palatable persona for the general election. "The part he's been playing is evolving," Manafort said, assuring party officials that "the negatives are going to come down, the image is going to change."

There is reason to question whether Trump really can keep his reflexes in check, and rein in an act he's been performing for decades on the national stage. But even if he pulls it off, will the thoroughly Trumpian aides and allies in his orbit all follow suit?

Last month, after Trump’s campaign manager was charged with battery for roughly grabbing a female reporter, I decided to check in with Paladino. It had been about two years since I'd last heard from him, and I wanted to get his reaction to the news.

I emailed the same two questions we were putting to all of Trump’s top surrogates: Should the campaign manager be fired? And was this news causing him to reconsider his support for the candidate?

Paladino did not like this line of inquiry. He wrote back, “McCay [sic], your question reeks of suggestion. You are off the reservation” — and then provided a colorfully cranky quote in defense of the campaign.

Ten minutes later, he sent an odd follow-up: “McKay, I look forward to meeting personally.”

I didn’t respond right away, so he emailed me again: “What’s your address and phone?”

Unsure of how exactly to interpret this request, I replied with the location of BuzzFeed’s Manhattan offices, and offered to give him a tour next time he was in town. Later, when I asked him during our interview to explain the cryptic emails, he made clear he was trying to find out where I lived.

“I like to know people’s addresses,” he told me.

Why?

“So that when you come knocking on my door, I can come knocking on yours.”

I laughed. He didn’t.

What do you mean? I asked. Could you give me an example?

“I like to know people’s addresses ... So that when you come knocking on my door, I can come knocking on yours.”

He replied instantly: "Fred Dicker."

Dicker, a veteran New York Post reporter, famously confronted Paladino on the 2010 campaign trail about his claim that Democratic opponent Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his wife when he was married. Video of the contentious exchange, which went viral at the time, shows Paladino growing increasingly angry as the reporter aggressively demands to know whether he has evidence behind his accusation. The video ends with Paladino jabbing a finger at the reporter and growing, "I'll take you out, buddy."

Did Paladino ever make good on that threat?

“He and/or his henchmen certainly did,” Dicker told me.

In the wake of the viral exchange, Dicker said, someone created an anonymous website accusing him of being a “child abuser.” His inbox was flooded with death threats, and his personal address was published online.

“One day, I came home and there was a picket line in front of my goddamn house,” Dicker recalled.

He said the harassment was bad enough that Albany police had to assign a special patrol to his neighborhood. Meanwhile, the Post hired 24-hour private security to travel with him until the threats died down.

“It was all very unpleasant,” Dicker said.

When I relayed the reporter's account to Paladino, he called Dicker a "lying creep," and denied any involvement in what had happened to him. “One thing about me, you’ll never see me lie,” he said. “If I had anything to do with that, I would probably be proud of it.”

Paladino still seethes over how the Post repeatedly sent photographers during the campaign to the home of his young daughter and her mother (a woman with whom he’d had an affair). The girl was 10 years old at the time, and the tabloid’s intrusions frightened her. And though Dicker says he had nothing to do with these stakeouts, Paladino is convinced he’s to blame.

Yet, curiously, when I asked Paladino what he had done to get back at Dicker, he demurred. “What does ‘take him out’ mean?” he mused. “It’s a term that’s generally [used] when you don’t like somebody, and you’re in the heat of the moment.”

He went on hemming and hawing like this for a little while. Then, all at once, he snapped back into character.

“Will I get back at him? Yeah, I’ll get back at him some day. I’ll choose when, and how. But I’ll do everything I can to make his life miserable.”

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Trump has gotten remarkable mileage out of the threats he’s tossed around during this campaign. He threatens to run as a third-party candidate if the GOP doesn’t treat him nicely. He threatens riots at the convention if he’s robbed of the nomination. He has threatened enough lawsuits during this election cycle to spend the rest of his life in litigation.

To many in New York politics, Paladino's posturing is reminiscent of a guy who brags endlessly about how much he can bench press, but then fakes an injury when you offer to spot him. As one Republican put it, “He’s all bluster and no teeth.”

When Rep. Elise Stefanik, a 31-year-old Republican congresswoman from upstate New York, declined to make a primary endorsement, Paladino tried to make an example out of her. He lobbed personal attacks at her in the local press, and sent out an email blast seeking to recruit conservative primary challengers from her district.

“Clearly she’s a fraud … 80% of her constituents want Trump and she gives me the bull that she is too focused on her district to consider endorsing in the presidential primary,” Paladino wrote in the email. “She needs to learn what treachery means.”

The point was to scare her and her colleagues into submission. Instead, the email was greeted with great amusement inside Stefanik’s re-election campaign.

“It was a joke,” said one Republican strategist with ties to New York. “Poorly written, no message, and it includes this huge photograph of Carl himself.”

When the email first landed in their inboxes, a source said, Stefanik’s advisers burst into laughter.

As they suspected, Paladino’s email had no discernible impact. Two days after he began targeting Stefanik, all 12 Republican committees in her district announced they were officially endorsing her.

Paladino now claims he never said Stefanik and the others would necessarily face retribution from him. “If you read carefully,” he told me, it’s clear he was simply warning them of the blowback they could face from voters if they turned their backs on Trump. “It was for their own good,” he insisted.

Paladino believes his crusade to pressure the state’s Republican officeholders had been an overall success — and, sure enough, he did help bring on board Reps. Chris Collins and Tom Reed. (Collins, who gave Trump his first congressional endorsement, actually cited Paladino's threats and "formidable" email list in a text to colleagues, which was promptly leaked.) But he conceded that he couldn't guarantee the others would face the wrath they deserved.

“I don’t have that kind of magic,” Paladino lamented. “If I did there would be bodies all over the place. I’m just one guy.” For a moment, he sounded almost wistful.

After about 40 minutes, the conversation wound down, and I thanked him for his time. Before hanging up, I asked if he still wanted my address.

“No,” Paladino replied. “I don’t give a fuck about your address.”

Donald Trump Thinks Men Who Change Diapers Are Acting "Like The Wife"

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“I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids.”

Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images

"Do you actually change diapers?" host Anthony Cumia asked Donald Trump on the Opie and Anthony show in November 2005.

The then-59-year-old businessman, whose wife Melania was pregnant with his fifth child and her first, responded bluntly: "No, I don't do that."

"There's a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife, and you know, there's a lot of husbands that listen to that," Trump added. "So you know, they go for it."

"If I had a different type of wife," Trump said, laughing, "I probably wouldn't have a baby, ya know, cause that's not my thing. I'm really, like, a great father, but certain things you do and certain things you don't. It's just not for me."

The interview — one of many reviewed by BuzzFeed News — reveals a man with an extremely traditional view on the responsibilities a man and a woman have when raising a family. That view has already come under attack by an anti-Trump group, with one of his comments in a 2005 Howard Stern interview appearing in an ad from the super PAC Our Principles.

"I mean, I won't do anything to take care of them. I'll supply funds and she'll take care of the kids. It's not like I'm gonna be walking the kids down Central Park," Trump said in the interview. He repeated the same sentiment to Stern two years later, saying, "Melania is a wonderful mother. She takes care of the baby and I pay all of the costs."

Trump's five children — Ivanka, Eric, Donald, Tiffany, and Barron — have been a highly visible part of his presidential bid and have all publicly praised their father as a parent. But Trump has described himself as hands-off, and, in the same 2005 interview with Howard Stern, expressed disdain for his ex-wife Marla Maples suggesting he walk their daughter, Tiffany, down the street.

"Well, Marla used to say, 'I can't believe you're not walking Tiffany down the street,' you know, in a carriage," Trump said. "Right, I'm gonna be walking down Fifth Avenue with a baby in a carriage. It just didn't work."

Trump added of his current wife, Melania: "She would take great care of the child without me having to do very much."

And in 2007, again in an interview with Stern, when asked if he stays home with his infant son Barron, Trump admitted that hands-on parenting has never been his "thing."

"It probably should, but it never has," replied Trump.

Here is Trump in his own words:

Trump in April 2005 said on The Howard Stern Show that he would simply supply the funds and wouldn't do anything to care for his children.

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Ted Cruz Compared Transgender People To Donald Trump Dressing Like Hillary Clinton

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“Even if Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he shouldn’t be using the girls’ restroom,” Cruz said at a campaign rally in Indiana.

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

In campaign stops over the weekend ahead of Tuesday's primary elections in six states, Ted Cruz bashed Donald Trump for his opposition to North Carolina's anti-LGBT bathroom bill.

Trump came out against the bill, which bars transgender people from certain bathrooms, on Thursday, saying people should use the bathroom "they feel is appropriate."

At a rally in Lebanon, Indiana, on Saturday, Cruz said he wanted to give an analogy that was "real, real simple for the folks in the media who find this conversation very confusing."

"So let me make things real simple: Even if Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he shouldn't be using the girls' restroom," the Texas senator said.

Cruz laughed and apologized to the audience for giving them a mental image of "Donald in a bright blue pantsuit."

This isn't the first time Cruz has attacked Trump over the North Carolina state law that says individuals must use the public restroom that corresponds with their birth certificate gender.

Last week Trump told the Today show that North Carolina has been punished economically for enacting the law. He added that there were very few complaints about transgender people using whichever bathroom they deemed appropriate before the law went into effect.

"People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble," he said.

Later that day, while campaigning in Maryland, Cruz responded, "Let me ask you, have we gone stark raving nuts?"

"I'm the father of two little girls," Cruz said. "Here is basic common sense: Grown adult men, strangers, should not be alone in a bathroom with little girls."


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Cruz And Kasich Announce They're Making A Deal To Stop Trump

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WASHINGTON — The Cruz and Kasich campaigns announced on Sunday that they are ceding key upcoming states to each other in an effort to stop Donald Trump from winning enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

The statements announcing the coordination came minutes apart on Sunday night, both saying that Ted Cruz will focus on Indiana and allow John Kasich to focus on Oregon and New Mexico. The campaigns are also encouraging allies to do the same. The coordination between the two campaigns marks a new level of anti-Trump activity — and is a tacit acknowledgment that neither of Trump's competitors have a path to win the nomination outright.

Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement:

"To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead. In other states holding their elections for the remainder of the primary season, our campaign will continue to compete vigorously to win.”

Kasich chief strategist John Weaver said in his own statement:

"We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana. In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well. We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns. We expect to compete with both the Trump and Cruz campaigns in the remaining primary states.”

Both Cruz and Kasich had previously shown little indication that they would team up. Cruz has in recent weeks repeatedly referred to Kasich as a "spoiler," and just two days ago the main super PAC backing Cruz announced it would spend against Kasich in Indiana. And Cruz's campaign predicted in a March 15 memo that Cruz would earn a majority of the delegates in New Mexico.

The hope among conservatives working against Trump has long been for more strategic voting and campaigning. Tim Miller, an adviser to one of the anti-Trump groups, Our Principles PAC, had a brief response to the news on Sunday night: "Encouraging. See you in Cleveland."


In 1987 Interview, Trump Said Things Had Gone "Very Bad" For Reagan

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“Unfortunately.”

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Republican frontrunner Donald Trump revealed in 1987 that his view of the Reagan administration had soured near the end of the president's second term.

"Well, I'm a Republican and the Reagan administration was doing a great job for the psyche of this country after we went through the catastrophe previous to that, but the last couple years have been really bad for the Reagan administration," Trump said on Phil Donahue's show. "Unfortunately."

Throughout the Republican primary Trump has compared himself to Reagan and presented himself as Reagan's heir. "He wasn't a true, hardline conservative," Trump said last month. "But he was a conservative person, a conservative president. He was a great president."

Donahue had noted Trump had turned down hosting a fundraiser for Democrats after being asked by Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright. The host said Trump's father exemplified the private-public partnership in building housing for low income people.

"But Phil, you just don't have the programs anymore, you used to have a lot of government programs," interjected Trump. "I built a lot of that housing."

The Donald noted you couldn't afford such government programs which he said was "desperately needed," while the U.S. was spending money on foreign military bases overseas.

In 1991, Trump slammed Reagan on the Joan Rivers Show for driving up the deficit and the tax policy changes passed near the end of his presidency.

Trump's comments today in part, reflect, his more thematic view of Reagan. He like Reagan not so much for the things he did, but the attitude he brought to the Oval Office.

"I mean, Ronald Reagan, to me, was a great president," said Trump on Larry King Live in Oct. 1999. "And, whether you are liberal or you're conservative, people really view him as a great president. He'll go down as a great president and not so much for the things he did, it's just, there was a demeanor to him and a spirit that the country had under Ronald Reagan that was really phenomenal. And, you know, there was just a style and a class, and that a big part of the president, I mean, that's a really big part of being president. Ronald Reagan had it."

Trump: Kasich's Eating Habits Are "Disgusting" And The Cruz Alliance Is "Pathetic"

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At a Rhode Island rally on Monday, Trump called the alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich a collusion that shows “how pathetic they are.”

Donald Trump on Monday called the deal between Ted Cruz and John Kasich to keep him from securing the nomination "weak and pathetic."

Donald Trump on Monday called the deal between Ted Cruz and John Kasich to keep him from securing the nomination "weak and pathetic."

Brian Snyder / Reuters

At a rally in Rhode Island, Trump slammed the Cruz–Kasich alliance — in which the two campaigns plan to cede key upcoming states to each other in an effort to stop Trump from winning enough delegates to get the nomination — that was announced Sunday night.

Trump called the alliance "a collusion" that showed how weak and "pathetic" the candidates are.

"If you collude in business or in the stock market they put you in jail," Trump said. "But in politics, which is a rigged system, you're allowed to collude. And actually I was happy because it shows how weak they are, how pathetic they are."

Trump said that it took two longtime politicians to try and beat him "and yet they're way behind me."

"When I heard [the announcement] I loved it," he said. "It shows they're just getting killed."

Trump went on to say he had a new catch phrase for Kasich — "One for 41," as he had won only one race in 41 states.

"I laugh, especially with Kasich as he's going nowhere," Trump said.

"This guy takes a pancake, and he's shoving it his mouth," Trump told the cheering crowd. "It's disgusting."

Trump later added, "I never saw a guy eat like this. I told my son not to watch...'little bites, little bites.'"

The Republican frontrunner also compared Kasich to a stubborn child.

"I want it, mommy — I don't care," Trump said, mocking Kasich. "I want it, daddy — I don't care."

Trump also took aim at Cruz, calling the Texas senator "a basket case" who was "stuttering and stammering" while talking about the economy.


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Washington Redskins Ask Supreme Court To Hear Trademark Case

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Elsa / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Washington Redskins on Monday afternoon asked the Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the constitutionality of the trademark law provision that allows a trademark to be barred if it "disparages" others.

Lawyers for the team, defending its "Redskins" name, announced the move in a filing at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, days after the federal government filed a petition at the Supreme Court in another case raising the question of the constitutionality of the disparagement clause.

The case comes out of the 2014 decision of the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the registrations of the Washington team. A district court in Virginia upheld the decision, and the team has appealed to the 4th Circuit.

The team challenges the disparagement clause as violating the First and Fifth amendments, and also argues that their case "is better situated" to resolve the questions about the constitutionality of the clause.

The Obama administration filed its request for review in the other case, Lee v. Tam, on April 20. In that case, the full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held that the disparagement clause violates the First Amendment.

Read the filing:

Hillary Clinton’s New Favorite Line: “Donald Trump And Ted Cruz”

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Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA — She mentions their names interchangeably. She describes their campaigns, their rhetoric and proposals, as equally offensive and equally dangerous. And she warns against them both in the general election.

"Here’s what I want you to understand about Trump and Cruz…”

When I hear Donald Trump and Ted Cruz talk about international issues…”

I will not let someone like Donald Trump or Ted Cruz say what he is saying…”

It's a subtle but significant shift for Hillary Clinton as she moves to secure the Democratic nomination and begin the work of defining the Republican opponents more broadly. In the days leading up to last week’s New York primary, where her 16-point victory came as a major setback to Bernie Sanders, Clinton began incorporating Ted Cruz into lines she’s been using against Donald Trump for weeks. On the night she won New York, she used Cruz’s name for the first time in a primary night speech. And in the days since, Clinton has hardly mentioned one candidate without the other.

“Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are pushing a vision for America that's divisive and frankly dangerous,” Clinton told the crowd in New York, citing the GOP’s approach to tax policy and abortion alongside the respective proposals by Trump and Cruz to ban Muslim immigration into the United States and to police Muslim-American neighborhoods.

Inside campaign headquarters, officials still view Trump as their likely opponent come November. The references to Cruz come less as a comment on his chances than part of a recent effort by Clinton to widen her critique of Trump, frame the field of candidates around the same “dangerous” and “divisive” platform, and position their “extreme candidacies” as a product and reflection of the larger party.

Trump and Cruz, Clinton has stressed to recent crowds, aren’t just outliers. “It’s really important that you tell all your friends,” she told a small group of volunteers last week at a phone-bank in New York, “they’ve got to pay attention to what the Republicans are saying. It’s not just Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. What they are saying is what most of the Republican elected officials believe.”

Clinton made this case in more aggressive terms late last month during a speech on the Supreme Court, arguing that these so-called “extreme candidacies” had risen from the GOP’s own “extremist tactics,” “obstruction,” and “recklessness.”

“It wasn’t long after Sen. McConnell said his number-one goal was to prevent the president’s reelection that Donald Trump started his racist campaign to discredit the president’s citizenship — remember the birther movement? — and Ted Cruz embarked on his strategy of holding the government hostage to get his way.”

“Trump didn’t come out of nowhere,” she said. “These things are connected.”

But while she extends her attacks on Trump and Cruz, casting their campaigns as symptomatic of the larger party, Clinton has also played up her history of working collaboratively with Republicans and promised to bring the country together.

The two lines of rhetoric can produce seemingly conflicting moments on the campaign trail: In the course of a stop through Rhode Island on Sunday, Clinton spoke at one turn about working with “lots of Republicans,” about the need to start “listening to each other” and find “common ground” — and at another nodded in approval as the crowd broke into boos over a line about Trump and Cruz as “snake oil” salesmen.

“I think that’s the right reaction!” she said with a laugh.

Aides have said that Clinton will increasingly embrace the role of “unifier” as the general election draws closer. On Monday, the campaign released a television ad titled “Love and Kindness,” which features backstage footage of Clinton — hugging supporters, meeting with the families of gun violence victims — as captions like “Let’s stand together” appear and a female vocalist sings, “Spread a little hope and love now.”

But beyond these early contours, campaign officials have yet to work out a day-to-day plan for engaging with the Republican candidates. Even as Clinton has dropped Sanders nearly altogether in recent days from her stump speech, the campaign remains occupied with the primary.

“The party that can get to work defining the other nominee first always has a big advantage,” said Joe Trippi, the veteran Democratic strategist. With Sanders, “the problem isn’t his attacks,” he said. “The damage he’s doing is denying her the ability to turn and define the Republicans when she could be doing that from here on out.”

Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until the California primary on June 7, but has sent mixed signals over how aggressively he intends to go after Clinton. At some rallies this week, campaigning in advance of Tuesday’s five primaries, Sanders barely mentioned Clinton. At others, he dipped back into some of his sharper lines of attack, criticizing her policy record (“Time after time after time, she has waffled”) and her $225,000 speeches to financial firms (“Not a bad day’s work”).

Clinton aides have reasoned that this Tuesday’s primaries should mark the effective expiration date on arguments that Sanders still has a path to the nomination. The April 26 states — Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island — leave Sanders with 13 remaining contests. These include California, the primary’s biggest pledged-delegate payout, but also the relatively paltry offerings of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and several less populous states in the Upper Midwest.

“After April 26, there simply is not enough real estate left for Sen. Sanders,” Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, told reporters last month.

Still, aides have repeatedly stressed that they’re prepared to keep going.

“We do think that it is certainly within his right to go all the way,” Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director, told reporters the night of Clinton’s New York victory. “We hope that at the end of the contests, she will lead the popular vote, she will lead pledged delegates, and at that point, they will have to explain to you how they believe they can win the nomination going into the convention.”

But how would she do both until then, one reporter asked? How would the campaign contend with Sanders and at the same time prepare for the Republicans in November?

“We already are,” Palmieri answered.

Supreme Court Sides With Demoted Worker In First Amendment Challenge

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court expanded protections for government workers on Tuesday, deciding that the First Amendment bars an employer from demoting an employee that the employer believes is engaged in protected political activity — even if the employee actually isn't doing so.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the 6-2 majority opinion for the court, finding in favor of Jeffrey Heffernan, a former police detective who was demoted after he was seen picking up a campaign sign of the mayor's political opponent.

While he was demoted because the leadership of the police department believed this meant Heffernan was "involved" in the opponent's campaign, he was not. Instead, he was merely picking up a yard sign for his sick mother.

While the First Amendment has been understood to protect against such demotions when a worker actually is engaged in protected political activity, as Breyer wrote, the question in Heffernan's case was whether that protection extended to situations in which the employer "incorrectly believed" the employee was engaged in such activity.

"We conclude that ... the government's reason for demoting Heffernan is what counts here," Breyer wrote. "When an employer demotes an employee out of a desire to prevent the employee from engaging in political activity that the First Amendment protects, the employee is entitled to challenge that unlawful action under the First Amendment and 42 U. S. C. §1983—even if, as here, the employer makes a factual mistake about the employee’s behavior."

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, dissented.

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