An unprecedented Twitter campaign to get young voters to the polls in the Golden State.

Michael Fiala / Reuters

FAIRFIELD, California — The Bernie Sanders crowds have always been full of young people. A crowd of around 1,200 in the unbearably sunny quad of Solano Community College here Friday featured many of those younger voters who Bernie has counted on to fuel his grassroots.

In California, the last big state on the Democratic nominating calendar, Sanders told his supporters there is only one way to feel the Bern one last time.

"If you hear that there is a large voter turnout, we will win. If you hear that there's a very large turnout, than we will win by a lot," Sanders told the crowd. "If you hear that there's a small voter turnout, we will lose. It's just the facts."

When it comes to young voters, Sanders' campaign is going all-out to identify and turn out an electorate often ignorant of primary voting rules and less-than-reliable on Election Day.

The rallies on college campuses are a part of that plan — so is a complicated Twitter-based outreach program that targets young Californians by finding out, in part, if they're fans of Drake or the Arctic Monkeys.

The program is part of Sanders' cutting edge digital outreach effort that has netted the Vermont senator millions in small donations and fueled a campaign that burst through all expectations.

For the first time, Sanders aides described the Twitter scheme, which a company source confirmed was a first for a presidential campaign.

The Sanders campaign is using Twitter target California with videos on topics like diversity, LGBT, and fracking. This week alone, more than 1 million of those young voters have watched a Sanders ad on Twitter, according to a company source.

Using paid Twitter advertisements in a political campaign is not new. And even as Snapchat grows in popularity, especially among the younger set, Twitter remains a way to reach a lot of people quickly.

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The picture was not taken at a Trump rally, but rather at a black family reunion in Cincinnati last year.

On Saturday morning, Donald Trump shared a tweet from a supporter that purported to show a black family on the "Trump Train."

"American Families For Trump: We need a common sense PRESIDENT," the caption attached to the photograph reads.

Twitter

The photograph was originally shared by @Don_Vito_08 on Saturday morning, just three minutes before Trump's tweet. A small watermark of the Twitter account's avatar is visible in the bottom right of the picture.

Twitter

In March, Trump was criticized for sharing an unflattering image of Heidi Cruz compared to his wife, Melania. That tweet and image also came from @Don_Vito_08.

Neither the Trump campaign nor @Don_Vito_08 responded to requests for comment from BuzzFeed News on Saturday.

Twitter

As many people on Twitter were quick to point out, the photograph first appeared last year on an article from Cincinnati, Ohio station WCPO about the Midwest Black Family Reunion in August.

The family in the photo are only identified as "the Perry family."

WCPO / Via wcpo.com

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Erin Schrode

WASHINGTON — Online anti-Semitic abuse has been on the rise this year, with many Jewish journalists and public figures becoming the targets of hate, often from self-identified Trump supporters.

Now, a congressional candidate in California is being targeted by anti-Semites.

Erin Schrode is a 25-year-old Democrat running an underdog campaign to unseat Rep. Jared Huffman in California’s second congressional district. Schrode said commenters on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi blog, posted her cell phone number and personal email, and said she had received a “deluge” of anti-Semitic abuse this week — and that she ultimately had to alert law enforcement to the matter.

The harassment began after several outlets profiled Schrode, who would be the youngest member of Congress if elected. California’s primary is coming up on Tuesday.

The harassment has been mostly online, Schrode said, though after her cell phone number was posted, she received a voicemail that was just the sound of someone hissing.

“Get out of my country, kike,” reads one message Schrode received. “Get to Israel where you belong. That or the oven. Take your pick.”

A post on the Daily Stormer, run by white supremacist Andrew Anglin (who has endorsed Trump), compares Schrode to a “disgusting hissing weasel.” The comments include several anti-Semitic caricatures and several of the trolls refer to Schrode as “it.”

Schrode said she had been advised to contact local law enforcement by a friend who is a security professional, and that “The FBI was contacted by multiple people on our behalf. I have been told that their local (California/San Francisco) offices have been made aware.” Schrode said she spoke with two local police officers on Saturday but that she is not filing a police report, because “ local police confirmed that the FBI are the ones who should handle this type of threats. The local police will do extra patrols in the area. And they are well aware, should anything occur here.”

An FBI spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

“It’s an attack on decent citizens,” Schrode told BuzzFeed News in a phone call, saying there’s “more and more anti-Semitism this election cycle.”

It’s “certainly not what I want to be dealing with four days before our primary, nor ever, for anyone for that matter,” Schrode wrote in an email.

The Anti-Defamation League has launched a task force to investigate anti-Semitic harassment against journalists, an issue has become more pronounced and widespread as the election cycle has progressed. Conservative journalists have posted for months about the vitriol they’ve received; writer Julia Ioffe had to file a police report after being inundated with it when she profiled Melania Trump; and New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman was similarly inundated after posting an essay by Robert Kagan arguing that Trump is a fascist.

“The anti-Semitic hate, much of it from self-identified Donald J. Trump supporters, hasn’t stopped since,” Weisman wrote in the Times. “Trump God Emperor sent me the Nazi iconography of the shiftless, hooknosed Jew. I was served an image of the gates of Auschwitz, the famous words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ replaced without irony with ‘Machen Amerika Great.’”

Trump has largely declined to condemn anti-Semitic abuse. Asked about the harassment of Ioffe, Trump told Wolf Blitzer, “I don’t have a message to the fans” last month.

Many of the attacks come from members of the newly empowered alt-right, a mostly online white nationalist movement that has been energized by Trump’s rise.

Clinton at Hueneme High School in Oxnard, Calif.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

OXNARD, Calif. — “Yesterday in San Diego, I had the opportunity to—”

Before Hillary Clinton could finish the sentence, or even mention the speech, the crowd in Culver City cut her off with cheers. Later that day, in Westminster, it happened again. And again in Santa Ana. And again in San Bernardino.

By the time she arrived here on Saturday in Oxnard, Calif. — her ninth stop since delivering Thursday’s major foreign policy address against Donald Trump — she seemed ready for the spontaneous applause that filled the gym at Hueneme High. As she spoke, a handmade sign popped up from the crowd: “Madam President," it read in thick red and black sharpie. “We were proud of your speech in S.D.”

In the days since San Diego, aides and supporters have said they see the speech "breaking through the noise," as one put it — and resonating on the trail to a degree Clinton hasn't seen in past efforts to draw sustained attention to Trump's failed businesses, for instance, or to his comments about profiting from the housing crisis.

Clinton and her aides were particularly gratified to see voters respond with recognition to the speech across California, where she and her husband are on a five-day breakneck schedule of roughly 40 combined events and retail stops.

When the audience in Westminster erupted into applause at mention of the speech, a surprised smile spread across Clinton's face. "Thank you! Well, thank you," she exclaimed. "I appreciate your paying attention, maybe watching it online."

Brian Fallon, Clinton’s national press secretary, described the speech as a watershed moment for the campaign.

“Sometimes in the face of a bully, even well-meaning people can find themselves cowed, if not outright joining ranks with the bully. Then someone comes along who is willing to stand up to the bully, and it is a restorative moment,” Fallon said. “She did that Thursday, and it has fundamentally altered people's outlook on the race."

During and after the address, campaign officials also observed higher than usual levels of engagement from voters online. Clips of the speech have been viewed nearly 4 million times on the campaign’s Facebook page, according to an aide, including nearly 600,000 views on Facebook live from San Diego.

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Facebook: video.php

The speech, aides also noted, received segments on all three nightly news broadcasts and drove cable coverage through the end of the week, save for the interruption of protesters that turned violent outside Trump’s rally in San Jose.

The speech also offered Democrats a clearer picture of how the campaign will attempt to define an “target-rich” opponent. Previously, Clinton's sometimes scattershot approach has drawn criticism from inside her world of support.

In conversations this week, campaign officials attributed Clinton's success in San Diego to a convergence of factors: a crisp, comprehensive message about the implications of Trump's words and proposals; a sharp, forceful case against his qualifications; and a reminder of "what presidential looks like," one aide said.

On stage, set against a backdrop of 15 flags, a teleprompter to her left and right, Clinton spoke in sweeping terms about American values and outlined a list of hypothetical scenarios that a commander-in-chief might face — decisions that can determine life, death, and the moral and ethical character of the country.

Clinton has mentioned the speech at nearly every one of the rallies and roundtable discussions she’s held since she arrived in the state on Thursday morning. Perhaps not since October, when she appeared at the Benghazi hearing and in her first debate against Bernie Sanders, has another event on the campaign trail had such an immediate impact on the narrative and momentum of Clinton's candidacy.

But the San Diego speech, with a setup befitting an appearance she might have made as secretary of state, seemed a more natural setting for the candidate. (After that first debate, one aide recalled this week, Clinton had no idea her performance was one that would stick with people. Offstage, she was taken aback when a staffer showed her the headline leading Politico's homepage, "Clinton crushes it.")

This time, “she knew,” the aide said, describing a 10-day process between Clinton, speechwriters Megan Rooney and Dan Schwerin, and foreign policy advisers Jake Sullivan and Laura Rosenberger, that left the candidate on Wednesday with a draft she felt she would “express herself as herself, but also really take it to him."

Clinton won't attempt to replicate the San Diego speech at every rally or campaign event, said Nick Merrill, Clinton's spokesman. He described the address instead as a "framework" to draw from as the candidate moves into a general election.

"This speech was about reminding people that there is only one president in this race, achieved by simply laying out what her opponent stands for, using his words. She presented that alongside an articulation of the American values that have made us who we are," said Merrill. "It was about laying down a marker, establishing a framework that we will point to as we go forward."

Clinton repeated the basic message from the speech at rallies over the weekend, telling voters she is "determined" to "expose Donald Trump’s lack of qualifications to be the president of the United States and the commander in chief."

The address in San Diego “outlined all of it,” she told a crowd at her rally in San Bernardino. “Because look, people are going to vote for whoever they decide to vote for. But I want there to be no mistake about what this man has said and what he has done and what it would mean to our country and the world.”

On Saturday in Oxnard, backstage after the event, aides presented Clinton with the sign praising her San Diego speech. The owner had come to the ropeline hoping for an autograph.

Clinton left her signature and a quick note: “Thanks!”

The voter, Irma, who came to Oxnard, Calif., praising Clinton's San Diego speech.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

WASHINGTON — After arguing 33 cases at the Supreme Court as the federal government’s top appellate lawyer, Donald Verrilli Jr. will be stepping down later this month. A major part of his legacy will be the role he played in helping to bring down the Defense of Marriage Act and bans on same-sex couples’ marriages across the country.

President Obama noted in his statement on Verrilli’s departure, “Thanks to his efforts … our children will now grow up in a country where everyone has the freedom to marry the person they love.”

A month after Obama nominated Verrilli to be solicitor general in 2011, then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he and Obama had concluded that DOMA’s ban on the federal government recognizing same-sex couples’ marriages should be held to be unconstitutional. Two years later, Verrilli was in front of the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to do just that. In 2015, he returned to the court to ask the justices to finish the job and declare state bans on same-sex couples’ marriages also to be unconstitutional.

Donald Verrilli Jr.

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

He was on the winning side of both of those cases, with powerful arguments that the two lesbian lawyers who argued the cases on behalf of same-sex couples, widows, and widowers praised on Thursday in the wake of the news that Verrilli would be leaving his office.

“Once the U.S. stopped defending DOMA, it was amazing to see the power of the U.S. and its moral authority wielded on behalf of doing justice by LGBT people,” Mary Bonauto, the lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders who argued alongside Verrilli in April 2015 on behalf of those same-sex couples, told BuzzFeed News.

Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer who argued on behalf of Edith Windsor in her challenge to DOMA that went before the justices, praised Verrilli’s dedication to the cases.

“From the minute that it became a possibility that ours was going to be the case that was going to be taken up by the Supreme Court, it was absolutely clear to me that Don was not only the incredible lawyer and advocate that everyone knows he is, but that he had this deep-seated, personal commitment to doing justice in our case and on this issue,” Kaplan told BuzzFeed News on Thursday.

That was seen nowhere more clearly than in the brief filed on behalf of the United States in the 2015 marriage cases, known as Obergefell v. Hodges. The brief, filed on March 6, 2015, was an exceptional document signed by 16 attorneys at the Justice Department — led by Verrilli.

“The United States has a strong interest in the eradication of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” the brief began in its notice of the “interest of the United States” — the reason for its filing of a brief in the case. Of the state bans, Verrilli and the lawyers, on behalf of the United States, wrote, “There is no adequate justification for such a discriminatory and injurious exercise of state power.”

As striking as the brief was, Bonauto said, “[E]ven more, Solicitor General Verrilli’s oral argument was incredibly powerful.”

Dana Verkouteren / AP

After saying it was “simply untenable to suggest that [same-sex couples] can be denied the right of equal participation in an institution of marriage, or that they can be required to wait until the majority decides that it is ready to treat gay and lesbian people as equals,” he concluded his argument bluntly: “Gay and lesbian people are equal. They deserve the equal protection of the laws, and they deserve it now. Thank you.”

The administration’s movement on the issue — specifically, to owning governmental discrimination in the DOMA case — was a key takeaway for Bonauto of the past five years.

“One of the things I particularly appreciated about the briefing was the U.S. owning its vast role in discriminating against gay people and acknowledging that these decades of discrimination and persecution were wrong,” she noted.

In the brief submitted by Verrilli and the Justice Department in United States v. Windsor, the government lawyers wrote, “Gay and lesbian people have suffered a significant history of discrimination in this country. No court to consider the question has concluded otherwise, and any other conclusion would be insupportable.” Noting the “regrettable history of discrimination against gay and lesbian people in a variety of contexts,” the brief specifically called out some of the federal government’s own prior discriminatory policies.

Roberta Kaplan, left, with Edith Windsor

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Those arguments, of course, could only be conceived of coming from the government once it stopped defending DOMA — a decision announced by then-Attorney General Eric Holder on February 23, 2011.

“Really, from the moment that that happened, I think we all felt — certainly, I and Edie felt — that they had our back,” Kaplan said. And while Verrilli didn’t take over as solicitor general until June of that year, he was nominated by Obama for the top spot in January of that year and already had been working in the White House counsel’s office.

A year later, in May 2012, Obama himself came out for marriage equality, at least as a policy preference. By the time Windsor’s case and the case challenging California’s Proposition 8 were before the justices the next year, the ground had shifted dramatically. The Obama administration was not yet arguing in favor of a nationwide constitutional right to marriage equality, however, and the briefing in the cases was more limited than some advocates would have liked.

“Obviously, their brief didn’t say everything it would say if I wrote their brief, but we didn’t expect it to do that — and I think no one could expect them to do that,” Kaplan said of the DOMA case brief from the administration.

Regardless of those minor strategic disagreements — disagreements that were had even among LGBT rights advocates — Kaplan held out strong praise for Verrilli and the lawyers on the case.

“They could not have been greater allies or more collaborative,” she said. “And, personally, with me, as someone arguing a case in the Supreme Court for the first time, which is not exactly a walk in the park, Don could not have been more supportive—or kinder, really.”

Mary Bonauto

Lauren Victoria Burke / AP

Bonauto echoed that, noting how Verrilli personally attended one of her moot arguments — when lawyers have other lawyers act as judges and drill them with tough questions in preparation for big cases like Obergefell.

“We had open lines of communication, starting with a meeting in February, right up to the time of argument,” Bonauto said.

“[W]hen the rubber hit the road, there was absolutely no doubt that they were there for us, that they were behind us,” Kaplan said of Verrilli and the Justice Department lawyers.

In his oral arguments in Obergefell on April 28, 2015, Verrilli invoked the human dignity of gay and lesbian couples to argue for their right to marry.

“The opportunity to marry is integral to human dignity,” Verrilli said. “Excluding gay and lesbian couples from marriage demeans the dignity of these couples.”

Two months later, Justice Anthony Kennedy would echo those comments in his opinion for the court. In the oft-cited conclusion to his opinion, he wrote of the same-sex couples before the court: “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

“I was for something, but I wasn’t for what we have right now.”

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Donald Trump admitted on Sunday that he supported some type of U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011, but qualified that he never supported "strong intervention."

Trump has claimed throughout the campaign that he would have opposed the Libyan intervention in 2011 and that the country would be better off if Muammar Qadhafi were still in power. As BuzzFeed News first reported earlier this year, Trump, on his blog and in appearances on cable news, pushed for intervening in Libya in 2011 on humanitarian grounds.

"I was for something, but I wasn't for what we have right now," Trump told CBS' John Dickerson on Face the Nation Sunday.

"I didn't mind surgical," Trump continued. "And I said surgical. You do a surgical shot and you take him out. But I wasn't for what happened. Look at the way — I mean look at with Benghazi and all of the problems that we've had. It was handled horribly"

"I was never for strong intervention," he added. "I could have seen surgical where you take out Gaddafi and his group."

The admission comes after several months of distortions about his earlier position on the intervention. Two weeks ago, the Republican nominee told MSNBC's Morning Joe that he wouldn't have intervened in Libya. In a Republican primary debate earlier this year, Trump also claimed to have never even discussed the subject of Libya before the intervention.

Trump now characterizes the intervention as a failure of President Obama's foreign policy, something he uses to pan Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. Clinton strongly supported the intervention as a member of the administration.

No Latino or Muslim judges should be allowed to hear cases involving Trump, according to the Republican nominee for president.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Following days of lashing out against an American-born judge of Mexican heritage, Donald Trump said a Muslim judge should also be recused from hearing any case against him because of his policies.

In an interview with Face The Nation that aired Sunday, Trump repeated his criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump University.

"I say he's got bias," he told host John Dickerson. "I want to build a wall. I'm going to build a wall."

"This judge has treated me very unfairly, he's treated me in a hostile manner. And there's something going on."

Curiel, a judge in the Southern District of California, was born in Indiana to immigrant parents.

The wealthy businessman's attacks on Judge Curiel have earned him criticism from House Speaker Paul Ryan and prominent lawyers.

Asked by Dickerson if Trump would feel a Muslim judge would not treat him fairly due to his proposal to ban Muslims entering the United States, Trump said, "It's possible, yes. Yeah. That would be possible, absolutely."

Trump was also asked Sunday about Hillary Clinton's harsh critique of him during a speech on Thursday that her advisers say has motivated supporters.

"It was a whole, you know, written out by professionals, and just shot after shot. It was supposed to be foreign policy and it was really Trump policy. And she got it all wrong," he said.

He promised that if elected he would have his attorney general investigate Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, even if the ongoing FBI investigation finds no wrongdoing.

Trump also said U.S. Army generals leading the fight against ISIS "don't know much."

"Do you still feel like you know more about ISIS than the generals?" Dickerson asked.

"Well, they don't know much, because they're not winning. That I can tell you. Now, I think they're not winning for a different reason. I think Obama's hurting them."

Following comments unearthed by BuzzFeed News, Trump also admitted that he had in fact supported some type of U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011, despite his recent claims to the contrary.

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A preview of Thursday’s No One Knows Anything: The BuzzFeed Politics Podcast.

Stephen Lam / Reuters

SACRAMENTO, California — In a community college gym near the California state capital building here Sunday, Hillary Clinton made one of her last stops in the Golden State before voting in the last major contest on the Democratic calendar begins.

Buoyed by a new focus on Donald Trump and primary contest math has all but guaranteed her nomination, Clinton has shifted to the general election.

The rise of Trump, and close of primary voting, is forcing Democratic voters who took a strong stance against Clinton and felt the Bern to make a choice. What to do in November?

After a primary battle that surprised the Clinton-supporting Democratic establishment and put the outsider Sanders much closer to the nomination than even the Vermont senator ever predicted that it would, there is rampant speculation among Democrats about what the Bernie supporters will do next. Polls have shown the vast majority of Sanders supporters will back Clinton against Trump, but the loud #BernieOrBust movement on social media has left some to speculate whether a significant portion of Sanders backers will ever unify with the Democratic nominee.

Hours away from Clinton's rally, Sanders was stumping in Southern California to try and pull out an upset win that his team says will keep the Sanders campaign afloat. Sanders has consistently promised a new phase for his campaign after California focused on superdelegates, the Democratic party officials who can vote their conscience for nominee (the vast majority of them are backing Clinton). Bernie recently vowed his campaign will carry on, all the way to a "contested convention."

Sanders' determination to stay in until the technical end of the Democratic primary — weeks past the phase where voters make their choice — has grated some Clinton supporters. They worry Sanders will make it hard for Clinton to keep her focus on Trump.

Thursday on No One Knows Anything: The BuzzFeed Politics Podcast, we'll take a look back at the Democratic primary. Our reporters have been crisscrossing California this week talking to Democratic voters about Sanders, Clinton and Trump. Many of those voices will appear in the podcast.

Here's what 13 Sanders supporters at rallies across the northern part of the state told No One Knows Anything they'd do in November if their general election ballot reads Clinton vs. Trump.

Who will you vote for in November?

"[Green Party candidate] Jill Stein. I don't see myself voting for someone I don't believe in."

Are you worried supporting a third party candidate will help Trump?

"At that point, I think it's not really my fault. If it does end up being Trump [in the White House,] that will probably strengthen the opposition party, if anything."

Who will you vote for in November?

"I'm pretty sure it's going to be Hillary vs. Trump. I'm going to vote for Hillary because she's the lesser of two evils. She's qualified at least, you know, being a politician and doing the work, and sat in the seats and talked to the people and not just, you know, being a billionaire reality TV star."

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Mark Makela / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Historically, Democrats have waited until after there’s a nominee to start significant black voter mobilization efforts. Typically, it begins just a few weeks out from Election Day.

So far, some state parties and campaign operatives are starting to do more robust outreach efforts, the Democratic National Committee is set to unveil a leadership council focused on the issue, and the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities has tasked two veteran black media operatives with targeting Donald Trump.

But with Trump on the ballot — and Barack Obama off it — some Democrats want the serious general election efforts to begin a lot earlier, and worry that they aren’t.

"Many of the political committees and campaigns seem to be a standstill when it comes to planning and moving money into programs that will turnout base democratic voters,” Quentin James, a Democratic strategist said. “Coming out of the 2012 cycle, we saw African-American voters cast ballots at a higher rate than white voters for the first time. I'm not a rocket scientist, but it seems a smart strategy would be to double down on turning out that demographic."

“People are tired of the last-minute money,” one well-connected Democrat said, alluding to a trend in recent years to put resources into black outreach beginning in the fall. “That is a huge concern and they don’t want that. They want see that early investment. It needs to happen on the ground and now.”

(Asked whether the DNC had plans to mobilize black voters in particular, spokesperson said "traditionally, the nominee hires field staff via the coordinated campaign, and diversity is taken into consideration.")

Operatives see an imperative with Trump — and an opportunity for the party. Polls have indicated that Trump is currently deeply unpopular with black voters. President Obama, whose birth certificate was once the subject of Trump’s conspiracy fanning, has been critical of the candidate. Other stories have been either been reported or revisited over the last year, as well, like Trump’s decision to take out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five — the five teens who were later exonerated for the rape of a banker in a Central Park — in New York newspapers.

One popular opinion in D.C. for getting started early: Trump on the ticket has put some states in play for Democrats. And some state parties have already begun mobilizing black voter efforts.

The Georgia Democrats, said to be among the furthest along in the country, have 16 new paid staffers — and more beginning as soon as this week — who are working on a new field effort, dubbed "New Day GA", to turn out the party's base in November.

Marlon Marshall, the Clinton campaign’s director of state campaigns and political engagement, and senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan have briefed the Georgia Democrats, telling operatives inside the party that the Clinton campaign considers it a "Tier 2" state — not a swing state (Tier 1), but one the campaign will be watching as potentially winnable.

"We're developing an infrastructure that's built within the state party and built to last," Michael Smith, communications director for the Democratic Party of Georgia told BuzzFeed News. "Georgia is in play this year, and we aren't waiting around or wasting any time. The work has already begun."

An Ohio Democratic Party official said they have about 70 paid staffers on the ground, where the party is trying to elect former Gov. Ted Strickland to the U.S. Senate against Sen. Rob Portman. (Republicans have about 25 staffers in Ohio.) The state party contends their outreach to black voters is year-round — bolstered by Nina Turner, the party engagement chair and a prominent Bernie Sanders backer — and has, for instance, focused heavily on voter access.

But black Democrats want to see a more coordinated effort that ties together the national committees and the outside groups. For its part, the DNC will soon announce its African-American Leadership Council and embark on a multi-state tour to warn black voters of what’s at stake in the general election.

The council — designed to strengthen influence of black Democrats inside the party and curry favor with donors — will help the DNC “identify key leaders and activists who can help us with engagement, strategic development, and outreach within the larger African-American community,” Marilyn Davis, the director of community engagement at the DNC, told BuzzFeed News. The surrogates will be zeroing in on voting rights, the Supreme Court vacancy, affordable college education, and an argument about the threat Trump poses should he win the White House.

Some critics think there hasn’t been enough coordination so far between those kinds of party efforts and, for instance, the NAACP — which has its own GOTV, voter education, protection, and registration effort. “No one knows what their plans for the DNC, how all of this is going to mesh together,” the prominent Democrat said. “Yes, Sanders is still in the race and that can make things difficult, but [we’re not asking Clinton] to take over the DNC. There is a sense that people feel that waiting until after the convention is too late. There need to be some investments now.”

“This ain’t Obama on the ballot,” said a Democrat putting pressure on the DNC and campaigns to start earlier; the Democrat requested anonymity so as to not be seen as being openly critical of the party. “The fact is what you have is a real movement in Black Lives Matter and a lot of them say they aren’t going to vote. Take that and the education we need on voter protection and the right kind of voter ID you need to vote, it's [clear] this needs to happen early and not later.”

“It just feels like right now that we’re in a holding pattern,” said another Democrat with close ties to black donors.

(Davis said that the DNC is currently working with the other Democratic entities — the DGA, DSCC, DCCC, and others — to incorporate black outreach plans together, in addition to hiring Dejuana Thompson as director of black outreach, “to help us build and mobilize a grassroots program in the states.”)

Some of that coordination will require some finality to the Democratic nomination, which even though Clinton is all but assured to be the nominee, is still unresolved. Inside the Clinton campaign, Marshall, Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement, is respected on turnout and engagement efforts, as is Brynne Craig, the campaign’s deputy political director who was a former national field director at the DCCC. The campaign has begun hiring in the states and at campaign headquarters.

Outside the Clinton campaign, a pair of black media consultants are now advising Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton super PAC, on how to paint a negative portrait of Donald Trump’s personal character and career.

Cliff Franklin and Jeff Johnson are working with Priorities on all its advertising, and playing an "even larger role" in advertising that focused on black voters, Barasky said. Franklin’s Fuse Advertising served as a key component to both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and Johnson, a former producer and host for Black Entertainment Television who is the principal of JIJ Communications, are teaming up to develop the ads.

Franklin and Johnson are working with Priorities on all its advertising, and playing an "even larger role" in advertising that focused on black voters, Barasky said.

Jarvis Stewart, a black Democratic strategist, praised the super PAC's general early move. "The actions of Priorities also show an understanding of how important down-ballot elections are to the party," he said. Now that most primaries are over candidates are looking for ways to elevate their name ID with independent and even some Republican voters before November."

The strategists plan to zero in on the seriousness of his potential presidency and what they contend is his deliberate decision to draw in white supremacist elements of the American electorate. The strategists will also focus on his record as a business leader, questioning the number of black executives he’s hired or have served on his company’s board of directors.

“The great thing about this candidate is you don't have to characterize him as anything — all you have to do is tell the truth,” Johnson said. There remain questions of how he’s run his businesses, Johnson said, as well as fairness over his wages to people of color, and general business dealings. "With Trump, there's this misnomer that you're creating a caricature [representative] of some ideal. Well our job is to tell the truth about who he's been.”

Franklin acknowledges a particular challenge: Even if Trump was something of a neutral figure to some black Americans, black people have always “appreciated” Trump’s business acumen, even amid increased scrutiny concerning his status as a billionaire, and the fact he's not entirely self-made. They want to change that perception. “He's spewing words and policies that’s in opposition to [black] values,” Franklin said. “Our [challenge] is to use messages and platforms to speak with truth and clarity for what is at stake for black voters. It's going to come with authenticity and clarity about who Donald Trump is.”

Johnson said he predicts Trump, a “master at getting people to believe he is who he wants them to believe he is,” will call his on “superficial dealings” he has with famous black people. “Let’s not just talk about Omarosa, or some black preachers.”

The strategists didn’t elaborate on what aspects of Trump’s history would be subject to ads, but they did maintain there wasn’t a lot treatment needed. “All we have to do is just point it out. The Central Park 5 is one of many things we can bring up. That his father was affiliated with the Klan is another,” Franklin said. “It's a long campaign.”

Still, the strategists acknowledge that little has been able to stick Trump. “He really has been Teflon Don during this process,” Franklin said.

Johnson believes Obama will play a significant role in helping defining Trump. “There are people who are looking to hear what he’s going to say,” Johnson said. “It’s important to hear from him...he’s been in that job for eight years, his perception of him as a person and a pot president is going to play a role.”

“The messages have to stick. It’s chess not checkers, and there’s been a lot of checker playing. We need to play chess,” Johnson said.

Added Frankin, “What we don’t want to feel in December is how we wished we could have mobilized the black vote.”

The Supreme Court building on June 6, 2016.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday morning announced that it will hear challenges to the death sentences of two people on Texas' death row, Bobby James Moore and Duane Buck.

Moore's case presents a question about how Texas allows people to prove that they are intellectually disabled, which the justices have repeatedly said renders a person ineligible for the death penalty.

The court turned aside a request to consider a second, potentially groundbreaking question from Moore about whether it is unconstitutional to execute a person who has spent more than 35 years on death row.

The second case, brought by Duane Buck, presents a question about what happens when a capital defendant's own trial counsel calls an expert witness at sentencing who testifies that the defendant's future dangerousness is increased because he is black — and how challenges to that trial counsel's decision should be addressed by the courts.

The cases will be heard in the Supreme Court's upcoming term, which begins in October.

The question about delay has regularly been turned down by the court over the past 20 years. In the initial orders from the court on Monday morning, it appeared the court would be considering both of the questions in Moore's case. A little before noon, however, the court issued a "corrected order list," which reflected that the court would not be considering the delay issue.

The delay issue is a question that Justice John Paul Stevens first wrote was a noteworthy issue in 1995. Stevens wrote, in Clarence Allen Lackey's case, that "the importance and novelty of the question presented" by Lackey's case "are sufficient to warrant review by this Court," but that "those factors also provide a principled basis for postponing consideration of the issue until after it has been addressed by other courts." At that time, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that he agreed the question was an "important undecided one."

The Supreme Court repeatedly has, since then, turned down consideration of inmates' claims on the issue — often referred to since as a Lackey claim — over the objection of Stevens and Breyer.

In 2009, dissenting from a denial of certiorari in a claim brought by Cecil Johnson, Stevens, joined by Breyer, dissented from the court's decision not to hear the case, writing that is was "[m]ost regrettabl[e]" that "a majority of this Court continues to find these issues not of sufficient weight to merit our attention."

Since Stevens' retirement, Breyer has continued to voice his view that the court should consider the issue.

“I would prefer to see the Cavs win the championship then to give the Republicans an extra two weeks to prepare for their convention.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in the state, said in a radio interview over the weekend that he hopes the Cleveland Cavaliers participation in the NBA Finals complicates the planning for the Republican National Convention.

The Cavaliers performance in the NBA finals could delay access to the Quicken Loans Arena for those planning the RNC.

"Well, it's going to be the Cavs, obviously," the former governor told WAKR radio this weekend. "And get what this going to do if they go all the way to the end? It's going to throw a monkey wrench into the plans, I understand, for the Republican convention."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you," the host interjected.

"Well, I appreciate the community's enthusiasm for the convention. A lot resources are going to come in. I hope it's a wonderful experience for everybody, including local folks. But, I would prefer to see the Cavs win the championship then to give the Republicans an extra two weeks to prepare for their convention."

Strickland said he didn't care if the series went the maximum "as long as the Cavs are the ultimate winners."

A spokesman for the governor told BuzzFeed News to stop emailing the governor’s personal email address.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AFP / Getty Images

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declined this weekend to comment on Donald Trump's comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump said was incapable of presiding over the fraud case against Trump University because of a conflict of interest caused by his "Mexican heritage."

BuzzFeed News sent several emails to Christie's personal email asking for comment on Trump's comments. A Christie spokesman, Brian Murray, then emailed BuzzFeed News asking BuzzFeed News to no longer to email the governor's address.

"If you need to contact Gov. Christie or obtain any type of response from him on any official matter, please contact me and my staff," said Murray. "Please discontinue directly emailing the governor's front office."

Asked for comment on the matter, Murray declined.

"If and when the governor comments on these matters, we can let you know. When he does avails, he tends to field questions like this. Right now, I have nothing for you."

Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that Judge Curiel's "Mexican heritage" and membership in a Latino lawyers' association presented an "absolute conflict" in the case. "I'm building a wall. It's an inherent conflict of interest," Trump said to the Journal.

Christie famously defended Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim man he nominated for a seat on the New Jersey Superior Court of Passaic County in 2011 when fringe right-wing commenters accused the judge of being a terrorist sympathizer.

"They are criticizing him because he is a Muslim American," Christie said at the time. "Sharia law has nothing to do with this at all — it's crazy! It's crazy. The guy's an American citizen."

“It totally goes against our whole model of being an American.”

Benjamin Myers / Reuters

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a radio interview on Monday that Donald Trump's attack on a federal judge's heritage goes against "being an American" and goes down a road that will destroy America.

Trump has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump University, has a conflict of interest in the case because of his "Mexican heritage" and membership in a Latino lawyers' association.

On the The John Gibson Show on Monday, Gingrich said, "Well, first of all, what we know about general numbers and about an individual are, it totally goes against our whole model of being an American."

"We don't judge you as part of a group," continued Gingrich. "That would be to suggest blacks can't get a fair white judge, whites can't get a fair black judge. Asians can get a fair judge unless they're Asian and by the way, Asian means if you're Chinese, it has to be a Chinese judge because Vietnamese, while they're Asian, aren't Chinese. Once you go down that road, you destroy America."

"So you can't take a group definition and apply it," said Gingrich. "If there are things this judge has done that are wrong — and I think there are — you know you can pound him into the ground as a judge who did the following things. But that's taking on an individual, it's not taking on an entire ethnic group."

Eric Gay / AP

Hillary Clinton's campaign is bringing on Gregory Bell, who is leaving the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he served as director of speechwriting for HUD Secretary Julian Castro, an oft-rumored vice presidential candidate, according to three sources with knowledge of the hire.

Bell will serve as a speechwriter under director of speechwriting, Dan Schwerin.

While Castro is known to do a lot of writing for his speeches himself, Bell, whose tenure at HUD predates Castro, took the lead on all of his major speeches, with the two working closely together.

A source who worked with Bell said he and Castro have a great relationship.

"I don't know if people should read anything into it for VP consideration though I think they will anyway," said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

"Right now, they're focused on the nomination and frankly the next big thing on the plate is party unity," she added.

Clinton is expected to wrap up the Democratic nomination Tuesday as hundreds of delegates are at stake in states including California and New Jersey.

In October, Julian Castro took the stage at a splashy Latinos for Hillary event, where he stood on stage with Clinton and said in Spanish that “the difference between her and the Republican candidates is that she respects the Latino community.”

He has said that the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is "demonizing immigrants."

Bell who is leaving HUD this week previously served as a speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Commerce and the comptroller's office in New York City.

“And they need to be happy they’re only getting spanked and not executed, because there is seething rage out in the country for those who have fought to help some of these guys get elected.”

Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in a radio interview on Friday that establishment Republicans should be happy that they are not being executed by angry voters.

"Who made it possible for Obama to have the Iranian deal, full funding for Obamacare, Planned Parenthood funding? Republicans did that," Huckabee, a Trump surrogate, said on The Sean Hannity Show.

"And they're getting what they justly deserve, they're getting spanked," he continued. "And they need to be happy they're only getting spanked and not executed, because there is seething rage out in the country for those who have fought to help some of these guys get elected, and they get there and they surrender to Obama and people are sick of it. And I think that's why we've seen the spirit of this election, and frankly Donald Trump gives me great comfort. I tell people, 'I don't have any hesitation going out there and genuinely supporting Donald Trump.'"

Huckabee also attacked Mitt Romney for his opposition to Trump, falsely claiming that he was the first governor to bring same-sex marriage to America and marched in gay pride parades (the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban when Romney was governor, but he opposed the ruling).

"I find it especially off-putting that he is the one who has led the 'Never Trump' movement, and I just feel like that he has really soiled himself by taking such a harsh position," Huckabee said.

AP images

Last week, news about the Republican National Committee's struggles hit in quick succession.

First, the RNC's Hispanic media director left to work on down-ballot races because of discomfort with Donald Trump.

Then, the person filling the role, Helen Aguirre-Ferre — a seasoned journalist and commentator — had spent months slamming Trump for his comments about Latinos and immigrants, violence at his rallies, and past positions out of step with conservative values.

But Aguirre-Ferre wasn't the only person approached for that job, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. Mario Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, was spoken to regarding the role. He decided it wasn't a good fit, the source said.

The RNC denied this to BuzzFeed News. "The only person we considered and offered the position to was Helen Aguirre-Ferre," an RNC official said. "No one even came close to her experience and qualifications."

Lopez said he is in constant contact with the RNC and said different topics come up but declined to discuss his conversations with the RNC. But he criticized Trump's latest crusade against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a Mexican-American from Indiana, who is presiding over cases against Trump University. Trump has said the judge is biased against him because of his heritage and Trump's plan to build a wall along the border.

"It's clear what I think about Trump," Lopez said. "The latest thing on that judge is beyond the pale and very much calls into question any of his so-called attempts at trying to right the ship with Latino voters."

The RNC also reached out to a second operative — Joe Culotta — regarding Hispanic outreach in Florida, he said. Culotta said the party's message was that it is staffing up now that a nominee is in place.

"That means I have to go on the record to defend Trump. He’s a ticking time bomb and you have to defend that," said Culotta, who is currently working freelance public relations for state Senate candidates in Florida.

Trump's attempts to reach Hispanic voters have yet to materialize in a meaningful way. On May 5, Cinco de Mayo, he tweeted a picture of himself grinning with a taco bowl from Trump Tower Grill, adding that he loves Hispanics. Since then he sent a low-production video message to the largest Hispanic evangelical group in the country, blasted New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as a bad governor, and attacked Curiel.

Trump has also not answered requests from national Latino organizations that have asked him to speak at their summer conventions and refused multiple interview requests from Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo, which reach most Hispanic homes.

The RNC has stood apart from Trump on engaging Latino voters, putting in place a program since 2013 to pour resources and staffers into key states with an eye towards 2016, but now is dealing with whether Trump has completely trampled on those efforts, turning back any progress that had been made.

Part of that challenge includes staffing experienced Hispanic operatives that don't abhor Trump and the direction he has taken the Republican Party.

Some Republicans say the behind-the-scenes intrigue doesn't matter because, in the end, Aguirre-Ferre is a 25-year communications veteran and particularly qualified to take the reins of the Hispanic media operation.

They cite her work as host of a national radio show on Univision America Radio, a local public affairs show in Florida, and her relationships at the networks, all while serving as a surrogate, spokesperson, and media trainer throughout her career.

Still, the headaches concerning Hispanic staffers don't seem to be over for the RNC yet. As BuzzFeed News previously reported, another party operative has plans to leave because of Trump.

“I’ve always supported conservative principles, but when I look at the things I align with, they do not align with Trump," the staffer said at the time.

And as Trump attacks figures like Martinez and Curiel, many Republicans have found that the decision to endorse him won't be temporary.

"With the internet these days, those quotes are going to be stuck on the internet forever," Culotta said. "I just didn’t want my name attached to these quotes in the future."

The GOP Spent Years Building A Latino Outreach Project—Is Trump About To Destroy It?

“This is a choice that many Americans are not happy with.”

Gary Cameron / Reuters

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Asked on Monday if the general election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was a "lesser of two evils election," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell answered yes.

"Well, it just is," McConnell said on the Wells Report on 660AM. "That's an honest answer. This is a choice that many Americans are not happy with. But it is the choice."

Earlier in the interview, McConnell criticized Trump for alienating Hispanic voters.

"I don't think writing them off is smart politics," said McConnell. "We saw what the Goldwater vote against the civil rights bill of 1964 did for Republicans with African-Americans. I'd hate to see that happen with Latinos."

McConnell said the election is a choice between Trump and Clinton, and though he disagreed with Trump's tone and comments, he'd be supporting him.

"I think he needs to change to win," McConnell said.

Joshua Roberts / Reuters

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday delivered his harshest rebuke of Donald Trump's attack on a federal judge's heritage, calling the presumptive Republican nominee's comments the "textbook definition" of racist.

Although disavowing Trump's comments, Ryan stood by his endorsement of Trump, saying the House GOP has a better chance of getting their policies enacted with Trump than with Hillary Clinton.

"I disavow these comments. I regret those comments he made," Ryan said at a press conference to unveil his proposal to combat poverty.

He went on to say, "claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It's absolutely unacceptable.

"But do I believe that Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not. Do I believe that Hillary Clinton is going to be the answer to solving these problems? I do not. I believe we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day ,and we have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her. But I do absolutely disavow his comments. I think they're wrong. I don't think they're right-headed, and the thinking behind it is something I don't even personally relate to, but at the end of the day this is about ideas. This is about moving our agenda forward and that's why we're moving the way we're moving."

Trump in recent days has renewed his attack on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing the civil fraud case against Trump University. Trump has said Curiel could not be impartial in his case because of his "Mexican heritage."

“I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal.

The attack has led several prominent Republicans to denounce Trump's comments, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“The allegations that he is [racist] are absolutely contrary to every experience I’ve had with him over the past 14 years.”

CNN

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cast his ballot for Donald Trump on Tuesday in his state's Republican primary contest, telling reporters the presumptive GOP nominee was not a racist despite his comments against an American-born judge of Mexican descent.

"I know Donald Trump, I've known him for 14 years, and Donald Trump is not a racist," Christie said. "The allegations that he is are absolutely contrary to every experience I've had with him over the past 14 years."

Trump's assertion that Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot remain impartial in hearing a case against the now-defunct Trump University because he is of "Mexican" decent (Curiel is the son of Mexican parents, but was born and raised in Indiana) has drawn scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike. On Sunday, he went further and said no Muslim judge could hear a case involving Trump because of his proposal to temporarily ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States.

Earlier on Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump's remarks were the "textbook definition of a racist comment."

"I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It's absolutely unacceptable," Ryan said, although he declined to withdraw his endorsement of Trump.

Christie told reporters in Mendham Township that Ryan was "entitled to his opinion."

"I am sure, if I sat back and thought about, that there would be times I would think that there would be things that he said that he shouldn't have said," Christie said. "Quite frankly, he's admitted that over time there were things that he's said that he shouldn't have said."

"But that happens to anybody in politics who speaks their mind. If you have this many microphones and cameras in front of you on a regular basis and you're not a pre-programmed, robotic politician you're going to make some statements at times you'll wish you could take back."

The governor said he found it refreshing that Trump was "not reading from a script."

Christie endorsed Trump in February after dropping out of the Republican race.

"If we've got questions other than the judge kerfuffle, I'm happy to answer them, otherwise I'm moving on," Christie said.

Contacted repeatedly over the weekend by BuzzFeed News, the New Jersey governor declined to comment on the Trump University case. A Christie spokesman subsequently told BuzzFeed News to no longer email the governor's personal address.

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“She patiently explained to the good senator that her personal views on the issue were meaningless; a federal judge’s job is to uphold the law as it is written, not to interpret from the bench based on his or her personal views.”

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Republican leaders have widely rebuked Donald Trump for his attacks on the heritage of the federal judge hearing the case against Trump University.

In a little known anecdote, Trump once defended his sister, federal court judge Maryanne Barry Trump, when then New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith questioned how his sister's personal opinion on abortion would factor into her decision making on the bench.

Trump unequivocally said it wouldn't matter because her job was to uphold the law.

"When my sister Maryanne Trump Barry, one of the brightest and most capable people on the federal bench, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing on her elevation to a federal judgeship in the Third Circuit Court, Smith insisted on asking her views on abortion," Trump wrote in his book The America We Deserve.

"She patiently explained to the good senator that her personal views on the issue were meaningless; a federal judge's job is to uphold the law as it is written, not to interpret from the bench based on his or her personal views. Maybe if my sister had spoken more slowly."

Trump declared Smith was "inarticulate, unqualified, and, according to several members I know, about the dumbest guy in the U.S. Senate."

Trump has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump University, has a conflict of interest in the case because of his "Mexican heritage" and membership in a Latino lawyers' association.