Progressive Breakfast: It's Too Late for The GOP to Stop Trump, But Not For Progressives

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MORNING MESSAGE

Terrance Heath
It’s Too Late for The GOP to Stop Trump, But Not For Progressives
Republicans stood by as Trump’s political rallies morphed into events that were just one pitchfork and torch away from becoming lynch mobs ... Trump has brought right-wing racism into the mainstream of the Republican Party ... It wasn’t until former Obama advisor Van Jones clashed with Trump apologist Jeffrey Lord on CNN Tuesday night that someone pushed back, hard ... As Jones demonstrates, racist and revisionist rhetoric such as Lord’s must first be confronted and called out for what it is.

GOP DEBATE NIGHT

Megyn Kelly will again question Donald Trump. NYT: “…Trump will be at center stage, fending off attacks from his remaining rivals and questions from what could be fairly described as his least favorite moderating team.”
Romney to deliver speech today ripping Trump. Bloomberg: “‘Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,’ Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, will say … ‘He’s playing the American public for suckers.'”
GOP divides over Trump. W. Post: “.. top Republican donors and strategists laid plans for a multimillion-dollar assault on the front-runner … Ground zero is Florida … But other Republicans yielded to Trump … William J. Bennett, a Reagan education secretary, said he could not support the anti-Trump movement … 50 conservative foreign policy experts … issued an open letter calling Trump unfit …”
GOP senators feel impotent. W. Post: “Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, a Rubio supporter, summed up congressional Republicans’ dilemma this way: ‘From a group that has about, what, nine percent favorables right now, for us to go tell people how to vote, probably don’t make that much difference, frankly.'”
The Hill lists: “22 Republicans who won’t back Trump as nominee.”
Some call for third-party candidate. NYT: “Two top Republicans, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, said this week that they would not vote for Mr. Trump in November … William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, said he would work actively to put forward an ‘independent Republican’ ticket if Mr. Trump was the nominee, and floated Mr. Sasse as a recruit.”
Some hope fractured field can lead to brokered convention. The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein: “The goal is to splinter the vote enough to prevent Trump from acquiring the 1,237 delegates he needs … This last ditch strategy implicitly acknowledges that Trump is likely to arrive in Cleveland with the largest delegate haul—but bets that the convention will reject him anyway if he falls below an absolute majority. Ordinarily that would be a recipe for civil war. But Trump’s critics justifiably think civil war is equally likely if he’s nominated.”
Trump releases a health care plan. The Hill: “… the plan emphasizes that ObamaCare will be fully repealed, including the mandate … Trump’s main ideas for a replacement are to allow health insurance to be sold across state lines and permit people to make tax-free contributions to Health Savings Accounts … [He] calls for allowing drugs to be imported from overseas to increase competition and drive down prices”
Rubio bets it all on Florida. W. Post: “Florida and its 99 delegates are Rubio’s last best hope … The billionaire businessman is ahead by a double-digit margin in Florida … A spokeswoman said [Jeb] Bush has no plan to back his former protege.”

HILLARY TURNS TO TRUMP

Hillary focuses on Trump in NYC speech. NYT: “Mrs. Clinton made only glancing references to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her opponent for the Democratic nomination, and did not mention his name during an evening rally at the Javits Center in Manhattan … ‘There has been a lot of finger-pointing and insults going on over there in their primary,’ Mrs. Clinton said. ‘Now maybe people think that’s entertaining, but I tell you, this is serious business … boy, does it matter when you are the president, about what you say when the whole rest of the world hears you.'”
Sanders campaign targets big states. Bloomberg: “The Sanders campaign held a press breakfast on Wednesday to argue that superdelgates and even pledged delegates can switch allegiance depending how the race is unfolding, and that upcoming contests in states such as Michigan, California and New York present an opportunity to show that Sanders can still win.”

IOWAN COULD GET SCOTUS NOD

WH vets Iowa judge for SCOTUS. NYT: ” President Obama is vetting Jane L. Kelly, a federal appellate judge in Iowa, as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court, weighing a selection that could pose an awkward dilemma for her home-state senator Charles E. Grassley, who has pledged to block the president from filling the vacancy … In a Senate floor speech in 2013, Mr. Grassley effusively praised Judge Kelly, a longtime public defender, just before she won unanimous confirmation to her current position…”
Abortion case divides Supreme Court. CNN: “The liberal wing of the Supreme Court on Wednesday was sharply critical of a Texas law [that] could shutter all but about 10 clinics in the state … Justice Anthony Kennedy … asked questions of both sides. At one point he suggested that the Court might remand the case back to the lower court to develop a fuller record … the court could end up in a 4-4 split — which would allow the Texas law to take effect but not set a national precedent. If the court is split, justices could also ask for re-argument next term.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's Future. more »

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