The Edge: Trump’s Magic Number
The presumptive GOP nominee has earned enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination.
Today in One Paragraph
Donald Trump has earned 1,239 delegates, which is enough to officially secure the GOP nomination, and during a speech, Trump said he’d follow through on his offer to debate Bernie Sanders—for a fee. The U.S. House of Representatives voted against a water and energy appropriations bill due to a controversial LGBT rights amendment. And the Baylor University board of regents demoted President Ken Starr over the school’s handling of recent sexual assault allegations against members of the school football team.
Top News
It’s...Still Trump. Donald Trump has officially scored the number of delegates necessary to be considered the GOP presidential nominee, according to a CNN delegate count. The businessman has been the presumptive nominee for several weeks, but he has now surpassed the 1,237 delegates required to secure the position. (MJ Lee, CNN)
The Donald Names His Price. “I’d love to debate Bernie, but they have to pay a lot of money for it," Trump said at a speech in Bismarck, North Dakota, setting his terms after he agreed to debate Bernie Sanders on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night. “If we can raise for maybe women’s health issues or something, if we can raise $10 or $15 million for charity," he said. Responding to the prospect of a debate, the Sanders camp tweeted “Game on.” (Paul Singer and Eliza Collins, USA Today)
On the Hill. Members of the House of Representatives killed a bill appropriating funds for federal water and energy spending. The bill’s defeat was due largely to Republican opposition to a Democratic amendment that would have made it illegal to award government contracts to businesses that discriminate against LGBT people. Speaker Paul Ryan is coming under fire for overseeing legislative procedures that have seen otherwise uncontroversial measures caught up in partisan fighting. (Rachael Bade and John Bresnahan, Politico)
Baylor Removes Starr as President. The Texas university sidelined the school’s president, Ken Starr, and suspended its football coach after a report was released criticizing the university’s “fundamental failure” in handling sexual-assault allegations against its players. Starr, the former White House independent counsel known for leading the investigation into the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, will stay on as chancellor at Baylor, according to a statement from the university. (Dana Farrington, NPR)
Tomorrow in One Paragraph. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump will campaign in California. And President Obama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, Japan.
Follow stories throughout the day with our new Politics & Policy page. And keep on top of the campaign with our 2016 Distilled election dashboard.
Top Read
This is how a revolution ends: its idealism tested, its optimism drained, its hope turned to bitterness. But if Bernie Sanders’s revolution has run aground in California, which will be one of the last states to vote in the Democratic primary on June 7, he was not about to admit it here, where thousands gathered on a sun-drenched high-school football field of bright green turf. The Atlantic’s Molly Ball on the Vermont Democrat’s waning primary campaign.
Top Lines
GOP Peacemaker. As the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus has made it his mission to rebuild the GOP. But Donald Trump’s candidacy has thrown a wrench in the system and now threatens to destroy everything Priebus has worked for. (Joshua Green, Bloomberg)
Do Libertarians Have a Chance? While chaos ensues within the Grand Old Party, many prominent Republicans are shifting alliances. Could this finally be the year for Libertarians? (Brian Doherty, Politico)
5 Steps for Sanders. At this point, Sanders is better off attempting to build a progressive legacy rather than continuing his fight for the Democratic nomination, argues The American Prospect’s Peter Dreier. Here’s how he should do it.
Top View
When Do Polls Matter? With about five months to go before the presidential election, national polls show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton neck and neck in national popularity. These charts show why it’s probably too early to care. (Josh Katz and Kevin Quealy, The New York Times)
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-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey)