182 days until Election Day

Convention Dates: Republican July 18-21 2016, Democratic July 25-28 2016

Weekly Headlines:

• John Kasich suspends campaign for President
• Ted Cruz suspends his campaign for President
• Donald Trump says wealthy may see tax increase

Press Clips:

The GOP’s 24 hour meltdown (Politico 5/8/16)

Donald Trump on Tuesday night assumed the mantle of presumptive nominee and declared: “We want to bring unity to the Republican Party. We have to bring unity.”

Three days later, the GOP is tearing itself apart. Friday brought another day of incredible division and revolt with Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham falling in line not behind Trump, but behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said a day earlier that he cannot yet support the brash real estate mogul as his party’s standard-bearer. Trump, instead of trying to make peace, lashed out. He fired off a vicious statement, calling Graham an “embarrassment” with “zero credibility.” Then he laced into both of his former rivals during his rally in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is continuing to campaign ahead of Tuesday’s primary, despite having vanquished the rest of the GOP field.

Donald Trump’s latest campaign shifts are not likely to be his last (LA Times 5/8/16)

One of the top reasons voters have flocked to Donald Trump’s campaign has been because the tough-talking businessman “tells it like it is,” polls have shown. But what, exactly, Trump stands for has become a shifting picture of policies and proposals that even he acknowledged Sunday may not produce the promised outcomes. It’s not just that the billionaire’s ideas are vague by traditional political standards: bring back jobs, build a “beautiful” wall, “make America great again.” The political newcomer does not appear grounded in an ideology beyond assuring that America is “winning.”

Hillary Clinton Says She Is Available for F.B.I. Interviews Over Emails (NY Times 5/8/16)

Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the F.B.I. had not asked to interview her as part of its inquiry into her use of a personal email server as secretary of state. But Mrs. Clinton reiterated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she would make herself available to law enforcement officials as necessary. The investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email practices and her handling of classified intelligence has shadowed her presidential campaign, and CNN reported last week that she was likely to be interviewed soon by the F.B.I. Mrs. Clinton said on Sunday that no meeting had been requested or scheduled.

Trump: My tax plan is negotiable (Politico 5/8/16)

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview aired Sunday his tax plan was negotiable, explaining that taxes for the wealthy needed to “go up” — a stance that appears to contradict what’s in his plan. “For the wealthy, I think, frankly, it’s going to go up. And you know what, it really should go up,” Trump said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” His said his tax plan, which would lower tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, would be the opening bid of a negotiation with Congress and that his numbers were a “Floor.”

Bernie Sanders rides ‘political revolution’ with thousands in N.J. (NJ.com 5/8/16)

He’s down but not out, and his supporters are charged up. The math isn’t on U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ side when it comes to securing the Democratic nomination, but thousands of eager supporters welcomed the underdog White House hopeful to New Jersey on Sunday and enthusiastically cheered on to “Light back and make a political revolution.” The cheers that filled the room and echoed off the walls of Rutgers University’s Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway turned into roars of support when Sanders preached Lighting income inequality, the war or drugs and racial discrimination. “We have come a very long way in the past year,” Sanders said. “Real change is coming to America.”

Nevada has option to vote ‘none of the above’ in 2016 presidential election (Las Vegas Now 5/4/16)

The presidential race has narrowed and the only candidates still vying for the nomination are Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Trump’s the only candidate in the race for the GOP, but for a lot of Republicans, he’s not their first choice. “I vehemently oppose our nominee in some of the comments and issues that he brought up during the campaign,” said U.S. Senator Dean Heller, R-NV. “Things he said about Muslims; issues he brought up about women and the Hispanic community — I just cannot agree with some of his positions, but I will tell you that I will not be voting for Hillary Clinton. I stated that early on, I will not be supporting a candidate that is nothing more than a third term of the Obama administration. So I will be looking else where in November.”

Trump: I don’t know how people make it on $7.25 an hour (Politico 5/8/16)

Donald Trump said in an interview aired Sunday he wants to see the minimum wage increased but would rather it be done by the states than the federal government. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s openness to increases in the minimum wage is a reversal from his previous stance that the minimum wage should not be raised, including when he famously pronounced during a debate last year that wages were “too high.”