Snapshot from the trail: Supporters thank Ted Cruz at Texas GOP convention
Megyn Kelly gets her rematch with Donald Trump in a prime-time showdown
Here’s a spoiler about Megyn Kelly’s upcoming interview with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
She does not make him cry.
Viewers might expect some tears to flow because cable news star Kelly’s first prime-time special, “Megyn Kelly Presents,” on Fox’s broadcast network (Tuesday, 8 p.m.) is produced by Bill Geddie. For years, Geddie oversaw TV news legend Barbara Walters’ high-rated in-depth interviews with celebrities who often reached for the Kleenex by the end of the conversation.
“I’m glad I didn’t cry,” Kelly said with a laugh during a recent conversation at her office atFox News headquarters in Manhattan.
Welcome to a Bernie Sanders Wiccan ritual
Attending a rally for Bernie Sanders usually involves long lines and security screenings, but that wasn’t the case at an intimate, informal event Friday evening supporting the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign in a park here.
Instead of metal detectors, entrance required burning ceremonial sweetgrass.
Participants were “smudged,” meaning the smoke from the sweetgrass was wafted over them before they could enter the sacred circle and begin a Wiccan ritual to support Sanders ahead of Oregon’s primary on Tuesday.
“Welcome to the ‘Feeling the Bern ritual,’” Leigha Lafleur, 41, told the gathering as she prepared to lead them in the “amplification of positive energy of Bernie Sanders and the progressive movement.”
Hillary Clinton releases Web ad slamming Donald Trump over taxes
Hillary Clinton has joined a chorus of Democrats and Republicans who in recent days have assailed Donald Trump for not releasing his tax returns.
And, now, she’s using advertising to amplify her message.
In a Web video released Saturday titled “What’s Donald Trump Hiding,” her campaign notes the several instances in which the billionaire businessman has said he would release his taxes, but then has backtracked.
On Friday, when asked by a reporter about his tax rate, Trump dismissed the question, saying, “It’s none of your business.”
Every major presidential candidate since Gerald Ford in 1976 has released tax returns, which show sources of income, donations to charity and investments.
Trump says he doesn’t plan to release his tax returns until an audit of his finances is completed, which could come after the November general election.
As Clinton jabs Trump over his lack of transparency, the former secretary of State faces her own scrutiny over paid speeches — some in the six-figure range — to Wall Street firms.
Her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with Trump and others have called on her to release transcripts of the speeches.
For her part, Clinton has said she will release transcripts only when other candidates do so as well.
Mega donor Sheldon Adelson backs Donald Trump
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who mostly sat on the sidelines during the Republican primary, endorsed Donald Trump this week, vowing financial support to the presumptive GOP nominee as the presidential race enters the general election.
His contributions will likely be funneled through one of a handful of pro-Trump super PACs now being created, because, unlike individual campaign contributions, there is no cap to how much a person can donate to outside groups.
“The alternative to Trump being sworn in as the nation’s 45th president is frightening,” Adelson, alluding to Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, wrote in an op-ed published by the Washington Post.
In 2012, Adelson, who owns Las Vegas Sands, spent about $92 million on Republican candidates. He was an early supporter of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, before then tossing his support to Mitt Romney, the eventual Republican nominee that year.
Last fall, Trump mocked Adelson on Twitter, saying he wanted to give “big dollars” to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida so he could “mold him into his perfect little puppet.” Since then, the two have met in person and discussed various topics, including Israel’s security, an important issue to Adelson.
So far this election cycle, Trump, himself a billionaire through real-estate, has mostly loaned his campaign money, while assailing candidates who have benefited from super PACs.
Yet as the campaign moves toward the general election -- one that could cost more than a $1 billion -- Trump has said he will begin holding fundraisers and has softened his rhetoric about super PACs.
“I know that people maybe like me and they form a super PAC, but I have nothing to do with it,” Trump said on NBC News recently. “So we’ll see what happens.”
Hours-long lines, goofs with ballot materials. Why can’t Arizona hold elections?
When the Supreme Court threw out major elements of the Voting Rights Act three years ago, Maricopa County in Arizona moved quickly to lower the cost of holding elections.
Among its first moves was to reduce the number of polling centers from 200 to 60. With fewer locations, the state allowed voters to choose any polling station in the county. The hope was to make voting more convenient and encourage more people to cast their ballots by mail.
It hasn’t turned out that way.
The result: stories of having to wait five hours to vote in the March primary election for president, a call to impeach Arizona’s secretary of state, three lawsuits and a Justice Department inquiry.
The GOP establishment would thrive under President Trump
Within moments of seeing Donald Trump‘s happy tweets following his meetings with Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and other congressional leaders, I had an epiphany: A Trump presidency would not bring a political insurrection, it would be a golden age for establishment Republicanism.
For months, conservative pundits have been fixated on Trump’s deviations from conservative orthodoxy while liberal commentators have had a jolly time bringing to light the wackos and white supremacists among his supporters. Everyone in the media has hung on his every insult and hyped a supposed civil war in the Republican Party between the cynical, sold-out Old Guard in Washington and Trump’s angry, fed-up, blue-collar rebels. But now that the smoke has cleared from the primary election battlefield, we find the presumptive GOP presidential nominee easily finding common ground with the Republican speaker of the House and the Senate GOP leader.