The Trail 2016: One Heck of a Pivot

Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races. 

Donald Trump has long said it’ll be easy for him to be presidential; that once he crushes his competitors in the Republican primary he will transform instantly into a character more closely resembling Honest Abe Lincoln.

But changing from Primary Donald to General Election Donald is proving easier said than done. 

Trump is trying to keep the base who loves him happy while appealing to the Republican leaders he’ll need to raise money and build a proper campaign. He’s already drifted to the center on taxes and the minimum wage, and on Wednesday he appeared to subtly soften his tone on his most controversial policy – his proposed ban on foreign Muslims entering the United States. 

But as you’ll see when you read tonight’s story from The Hill’s Scott Wong, Trump has a long way to go to get congressional leaders to feel even remotely comfortable about his place at the top of the ticket. In separate stories, Wong and Alex Bolton take us inside the deliberations surrounding Trump’s Thursday meetings with House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Republicans. Come back tomorrow for the latest on Trump’s Capitol Hill meetings. 

And stay on TheHill.com tonight and tomorrow for more from the campaign trail. Ben Kamisar and Jonathan Easley have a great piece on the fight for third party candidates to get on the general election debate stage. And Niall Stanage asks the question that’s puzzling most every politico: What does Bernie Sanders want?

 

RACE TO 1600 PENN

WHO ME? The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Elizabeth Warren won’t rule out the possibility of being picked as Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Warren made more news Wednesday by launching a tweetstorm against Trump, accusing him of treating women with contempt. 

DEPT. OF UH OH: The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports: The head of the FBI appeared to challenge Hillary Clinton’s characterization of the federal investigation into her private email server. 

TAXING TRUMP PART I: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Mitt Romney called Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns “disqualifying” for the White House. Trump told The Associated Press he doesn’t plan to release his returns before the November election, saying “there’s nothing to learn from them.” Meantime, Trump clarified on Wednesday that he will release his tax returns once his audit is completed, not after the election. 

TAXING TRUMP PART II: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Hillary Clinton hit rival Donald Trump for refusing to release his tax returns, vowing to “find out” why the presumptive Republican nominee has been hesitant to make the records public. Piling still more pressure on, a pro-Clinton super-PAC is launching a new website, TrumpReleaseYourReturns.com 

NO SURRENDER: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: During an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Bernie Sanders huffed at the idea that Clinton is being unduly burdened as she deflects attacks in the primary from Sanders and Trump. “Please do not moan to me about Hillary Clinton’s problems,” Sanders said. 

PLAY NICE: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she “cautioned” both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders “to be mindful of the tone” they use. “We’re going to need to be able to reunify,” the party leader said.

 

ODDS AND ENDS:

THOSE DARN HOT MICS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera was caught on a hot mic late Tuesday blasting Bernie Sanders’s win in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary. “So annoying — this guy is so annoying,” he said of Sanders as the independent Vermont senator made his victory speech in Salem, Ore. 

STROKING THE BELTWAY: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports:  In a new op-ed written just a month before the District of Columbia’s Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton backed the push to grant statehood to D.C. and lambasted “right-wing ideologues in Congress” for meddling in its affairs. 

CRUZING TO 2018: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Ted Cruz says he will run for reelection to the Senate. The Texas Republican, who lost to Trump in this year’s presidential primaries, is up for Senate reelection in 2018.

 

POLL POSITION

TRUMP TIGHTENS: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are about even in a head-to-head match-up for the presidency, a new national poll released Wednesday finds. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton with 41 percent support to Trump’s 40 percent. Nineteen percent of voters are still undecided. 

BLAME THE SPEAKER: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: Nearly half of Republican voters disapprove of Paul Ryan’s performance as House Speaker, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling.The poll also found that 45 percent said they would be less likely vote for a Senate candidate who supported Trump. 

NOTHING TO SEE HERE: The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports: Democrats brushed off polls showing Hillary Clinton in a dead-heat with Donald Trump across three crucial general-election states.

 

THE DAILY TRUMP

INCONVENIENT ENDORSEMENT: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: The white nationalist mistakenly selected by Donald Trump’s campaign as a California delegate is praising the presumptive GOP nominee as the “real deal” and a “refreshing change” to politics. 

TRUMPONOMICS: The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: Trump has tasked two conservative economists for help in revamping his tax plan to reduce the amount it would add to the deficit, Politico reported Wednesday. The news outlet reported that the Trump campaign has enlisted CNBC host Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation to lead the effort. 

COLD PEACE: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Megyn Kelly says she called a truce with Donald Trump so the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would stop publicly insulting her. “I just wanted to stop,” she said in this week’s issue of People. “You’d get past an incident and then it would start again. It was really shocking. 

NO REGRETS: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Donald Trump on Wednesday said he doesn’t regret the controversial comments he made about prisoners of war last summer, suggesting it led to a rise in his poll numbers.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Really? That’s the best you could come up with? Come on. I thought Donald Trump said he was a guy that was good with words.”

— Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump calling her “Goofy Elizabeth Warren.”

 

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

KNIFE’S EDGE SENATE: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Senate races in three battleground states — Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania — are nearly deadlocked, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

DIRTY LAUNDRY: The Hill’s Scott Wong reports: A routine meeting of liberal Democrats grew heated on Wednesday when Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) went after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over ethics charges dogging Grayson as he vies for the Senate. 

MONEYED UPSTART: Politico reports: Tim Canova, the upstart liberal who’s challenging Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her congressional seat, is about to become a million-dollar candidate.

 

MONEY WATCH

TRUMP’S FUNDRAISING BEGINS: The Washington Post reports: An ambitious fundraising effort that aims to collect as much as $1 billion to support presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee is taking form, with plans to kick off an aggressive schedule of finance events in Los Angeles at the end of this month. 

GOLD IN THOSE POLLS: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is fundraising off swing-state polling that shows his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, without a strong lead over presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

 

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern) 

Bernie Sanders holds a rally in Billings, Mont., today at 9 p.m. 

Donald Trump is the keynote speaker on tonight for the Nassau Republicans’ annual Patriots’ Reception on Long Island, N.Y.  His son Eric Trump will be a guest on “The Kelly File” at 9 p.m. tonight on Fox News. 

On Thursday, Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton holds three campaign events in Kentucky. In Owensboro at 11:30 a.m., Frankfort at 2:30 p.m., and Prestonsburg at 7:45 p.m. 

Bernie Sanders will campaign tomorrow in South Dakota with rallies in Rapid City rally at 3 p.m. and Sioux Falls at 8:30 p.m.

 

TWEET OF THE DAY 

dear lord i adore u https://t.co/fvhH58DzeL

— Rosie (@Rosie) May 11, 2016

— Comedian-actress Rosie O’Donnell, whose battle with Donald Trump came to a head in last August’s GOP debate when Fox News’s Megyn Kelly said he called some women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.” Trump replied: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”

 

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: Jonathan Easley, Ben Kamisar, Jonathan Swan, Lisa Hagen. 

Sign up to receive The Trail | 2016 overnight newsletter here.