5.10.16 West Virginia, Nebraska Primary TP's
Topline Message:
*         With his lock on the Republican nomination, Donald Trump has ensured that his Party's problems won't be limited to convention chaos -- he's going to force GOP races big and small across the country to have to own his ugly, divisive and dangerous rhetoric all the way to the general election.
*         That's why the party faithful -- from senior leaders to the voters of Nebraska and West Virginia today -- have started to fret publicly about their party's deepening divides, and stumble with no real strategy for embracing their divisive and dangerous standard bearer. Democrats, on the other hand, have shown in state after state that our voters are excited about our primary, and optimistic about both of our candidates.
*         But we're not taking anything for granted, we're going to hold Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot accountable for their repeated promises to drag our country right back to the reckless policies that were in place where we were in 2009 when the last Republican president left office; when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month; and when countless Americans lost their homes and savings. The American people can't afford to let a Republican into the White House.
Key Points
*         Today Ted Cruz refused to throw his support behind Trump, adding his name to the growing list of GOP leaders distancing themselves from the party's nominee - a list that includes former presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain, and the entire Bush family, who all said they won't attend their own convention this year.
*         And as we look toward Trump's upcoming meeting with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan this Thursday at the RNC, it's clear that any signs they'll show of camaraderie on the way out will be purely cosmetic.
*         That division isn't just happening at the top --- it's visible all the way down to the grassroots of the Republican Party. In exit polls today, just ten percent of Republican voters in West Virginia and three percent in Nebraska said they think their party is united.
*         While Republican candidates across the country up and down the ballot are tearing out their hair trying to decide between standing beside Trump -- the dangerous and reckless candidate they created -- or avoiding their own convention to distance themselves, Democrats are poised to ride enthusiasm and support for our candidates into November.
*         In contest after contest, Democratic voters are reporting their enthusiasm for both of our candidates, while Republicans report that their primary has divided their party.
*         The national trend favors Democrats, who have seen in exit polls week after week that our voters are excited about our primary.
o    In Indiana last week, three-quarters of Democrats said they've been energized by the nomination contest, while nearly six in ten Republicans said they think their party has been divided.
o    In Pennsylvania the week before, the story was the same, as it was in New York the week before that, and Wisconsin before that.
*         Democrats are building the infrastructure for the general election, and we're doing it with voters enthusiastic because they see our candidates have the right ideas to build on the progress of the last seven years.
*         We've seen a record 74 straight months of private-sector job growth creating over 14 million new jobs, and 20 million people have health care who didn't before. We must elect a Democrat as our next president to keep America on the right track and moving forward.
Divisive, Reckless and Dangerous:
Donald Trump Lacks the Judgment or Temperament to be President
Donald Trump's recklessness would hurt our economy, diminish our standing in the world, and make our communities less safe. Trump is divisive and dangerous, and he lacks the judgment and temperament to be president.
*         Trump's impending nomination is a reminder that for years the Republican Party has elevated extreme voices, using divisive campaigns that sought to exploit unfounded fears for political gain.
*         Just like Republicans in Washington have done for years, Trump is only looking out for himself. His plans would benefit those at the very top and economists have predicted that his policies could cause a global recession. He would drag our country back to where we were when the last Republican president left office, when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. The American people can't afford to let Trump bully his way into the Oval Office.
*         Trump has already damaged America's relationships across the globe. His record of denigrating women has only gotten worse throughout this campaign. His divisive rhetoric has made our communities less safe. And his business record is riddled with embarrassing failures that make it clear the American people can't afford to let him get anywhere near the White House.
National Security: Even as a candidate, Donald Trump has damaged America's relationships across the globe. In the White House, he would undeniably make America less safe.
*         Donald Trump has no foreign policy experience and rather than seeking the advice of well-respected experts, Trump relies on his own misinformed ideas and in his own words, on his "good brain."
*         Trump has falsely claimed that he knows "more about ISIS than the generals" and recommended that the U.S. military commit international war crimes.
*         Trump's threat to pull back from our most important military alliances
like NATO, pull aid from our allies like Israel, and his gushing praise for dictators would put our country on a dangerous path.
*         Trump has refused to rule out using nuclear weapons on European territory, and wants to allow countries that don't currently have nuclear weapons to get them, reversing long-held goals of international nuclear disarmament.
Wrong on Women: Donald Trump has a decades-long record of denigrating women and promoting misogyny. His policies would make it harder for women to make their own choices when it comes to their health care or their career.
*         Trump once said you had to  treat women "like s**t" and has spent decades doing so himself by calling women names - "fat pig," "slob," or "bimbo" - and saying a man needs a woman to support him at home rather than always be "griping and bitching."
*         Trump would take away a woman's right to make her own healthcare choices and has said women who had abortions should be punished - but not the doctors that performed them - and opposed exceptions for health of the mother because he thought women would use a cold as an excuse to have an abortion.
*         Trump thinks ensuring equal pay for women should just be left up to "the marketplace" and once suggested family leave policies should actually be scaled back and noted pregnancy was "an inconvenience for a business." Trump complained that when he employed mothers, they were not giving him "100 percent."
Divisive and Dangerous: Donald Trump exploited racial anxieties and cultural fears in the pursuit of getting elected - to the point where his rallies have sparked violence against people of color, protestors, and the media.
*         Trump spouts hateful and dangerous lies about Muslims and called to surveil mosques, to ban Muslims from entering the country and to create a database of all Muslims in America - including U.S. citizens - and could not answer when pressed on how this would be any different from Nazi Germany.
*         Trump called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and criminals and said they brought disease into the country, said you needed to check if Native Americans were "real Indians," and claimed that a "well-educated black has a tremendous advantage" - but apparently not an advantage in finding housing in Trump properties, because in the 1970s, the Trump Organization was sued for discriminating against Blacks and Puerto Ricans.
*         Trump has been endorsed by former  KKK leader David Duke, and his candidacy has been used as a recruiting tool for the white supremacist movement, which is no surprise since Trump refused to disavow David Duke and the KKK four times in one interview.
*         Trump has fostered violence against protestors at his rallies, suggesting that a Black Lives Matter protester maybe "should have been roughed up," promising to pay the legal fees if someone would "knock the hell" out of a protester and reminiscing about the old days when a protester would be "carried off on a stretcher."
*         Trump repeatedly threatened the First Amendment by calling to "open up" libel laws so he could sue reporters whenever they printed a story he did not like, made it a practice of banning media outlets he did not like from covering his rallies, and thought "closing" parts of the Internet was a rational strategy to combat ISIS.
Reckless on the Economy, Making Millions at the Expense of Hardworking Americans: Though he plays the part of a wealthy and successful businessman, Donald Trump's real life record is a reminder that he would endanger the entire global financial system and promote policies that hurt everyday Americans.
*         Despite his tough talk on trade deals and the loss of American jobs, Donald Trump manufactured his clothing line in countries he rails against, like China and Mexico - a reminder that he made millions at the expense of American workers and on the backs of foreign labor.
*         His Trump "University" fleeced thousands of Americans simply looking to get ahead.
*         Trump's businesses have repeatedly gone bankrupt, leaving investors, contractors and small businesses holding the bag for his bad business decisions.
*         Trump's unfounded predictions
of recession under President Obama and warnings against investing in the stock market are reckless.
*         Economists have actually predicted Trump's policies could start an international trade war and even destabilize the global economy
.
*         Trump's tax plan would overwhelmingly benefit the rich while costing the country $9.5 trillion to implement -- more than any other Republican plan proposed. It also violates his pledge to eliminate the national debt.
*         Trump actually said at one of the Republican Party's debates that wages were "too high" and opposed raising the federal minimum wage
*         Trump wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would jeopardize health care for 20 million Americans who've been able to get coverage under Obamacare.
How Democrats Will Win
Republicans couldn't unite against Trump and failed to stand up to him during their primary because they were playing to the same extreme base of their party. Democrats will be united and hold Donald Trump accountable every day until November 8th.
*         Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been clear they'll work hard in November to ensure we don't let a Republican like Trump drag our country backward.
*         While we recognize that any campaign will see the intensity level rise down the stretch, we expect our candidates to maintain a tone that helps us build toward the general election.
*         Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have drawn sharp differences with one another, but overwhelmingly they've been focused on substance and how to best move America forward.
*         Because the Party's platform is a statement of our values, the DNC is committed to an open, inclusive and representative process. Both of our campaigns will be represented on the Platform Drafting Committee, and just as we did in 2008 and 2012, the public will have opportunities to participate.
*         Democrats know that we're stronger when more voices are heard, and when we stand together to move our country forward, we'll see that in Philadelphia at our convention.


I am out of the office today with limited email access, I will respond as promptly as I can, thank you.


Outgoing call to +1 (202) 769-8381 (Other)
Duration: 17 Minutes 46 Seconds
+1 (202) 769-8381
Other:  +1 (202) 769-8381
Microsoft Lync


Today on the Internet
The Digital team produced a quiz
that went live today that quizzes you on how much you know about Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories. Check it out below.
Content to Share
Twitter
RT @TheDemocrats
: How much do you know about Donald Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories?  pic.twitter.com/9eZxkvIt4r
RT @DWStweets:
Today's my 5th anniv. as @TheDemocrats Chair. I'm so proud of all the progress we've made as a nation in that time. It's an honor to serve.
Facebook
Democratic Party
: How much do you know about Donald Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories?
What's Trending
Twitter
#CincoDeMayo
#YNWA
Liverpool
#1YearSince1989WorldTour
James Blake
Facebook
#DropOutHillary
: Hashtag Campaign Aims to Get Hillary Clinton to Quit Presidential Race
Instagram
: Facebook Gives $10,000 to 10-Year-Old Finnish Boy for Finding Flaw on Photo Sharing App
#NBARecord
: Cleveland Cavaliers Set 3-Pointer Record With 25 in Game 2 Against Atlanta Hawks
100 Years – The Movie You Will Never See
: Film Set for 2115 Release to Be Showcased at Cannes
Google
Liverpool 3-0 Villarreal (agg 3-1) UEFA Europa League
RESULT: Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana net second-half goals
#FeudSeason2
: 9 showdowns Ryan Murphy should tackle next
Los Angeles man guilty in 10 'Grim Sleeper
' serial killings
The Possibility Of Donald Trump Becoming President Alarms Mexico
Until tomorrow,
Julie
Digital Assistant
@thomp_julie


Gaggle Here
Rally Here
From: "Bennett, Eric"
>
Date: Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 12:42 PM
To: Comm_D
>
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Nothing really new from the rally. Now working in his decision to choose Carly as his VP into his stump.
Also hit Trump for not outlining his plan to defeat ISIS yesterday during his foreign policy speech.
From: Haxo, Chris
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 12:09 PM
To: Research_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Fiorina Intro
·         I’ve been called Cruella de Ville
·         Only one bathroom in the bus
·         Daughters respect that cruz has to work on the bus
·         His daugthers love emojis
·         We have emojis for political opponents
·         Cruz is consistent, principles, policies, values, generosity and love to/for family, faith for god
·         My mother taught me what you are is gods gift to you and what you make of it is your gift to god.
·         Secretary to CEO only possible in the US because of the constitution.
·         Human nature doesn’t change. Founders knew we all had potential. Power concentrated is power abused.
·         Rights/liberties come from god, cannot be taken away by man or government.
·         Constitution is about restoring power.
·         HRC/HT two sides of same coin, agree on healthcare, agreed on abortion, they like raising taxes and Obamacare
·         DT buys influence, HRC sells influence
·         John Boehner, Speaker of House, didn’t get anything done
o    Is buddies with DT “texting and golfing buddies”
·         This fight for the soul of the party, future of our nation
·         Gotta have people standing with you for a tough fight, had no doubt when I voted for him.
·         Fight for us!
From: Bennett, Eric
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 12:06 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Cruz: the energy and excitement is encouraging. Indiana will play a decisive, pivotal role. Eyes of the entire country is looking to Indiana.
Do we want to nominate a candidate that yells, curses and screams or do we nominate someone with a positive, hopeful and optimistic message.
Says that the reaction to Carly has been very positive. Touts her record from going to secretary to CEO. Goes on to discuss how she’s prepared to do the job, having the judgment and character to lead.
Cruz: Donald and Hillary are flip sides of the same coin. Hillary has made millions selling influence and Donald has made billions buying influence.
On how to combat criticism that naming a running mate is desperate. Also Boehner’s comments:
Cruz: it surprises no one that Donald’s response is yelling insults. He insults anyone and everyone he encounters. It is certainly unusual to make a VP announcement early. The reason for making the announcement is to unite the party. We are fractured and if we’re fractured—we lose. It’s also important for the people of Indiana to know what they’re going to get. Trump and HRC are virtually indistinguishable. Goes on to talk about policy positions Trump and Hillary are the same on.
If the Republican party allows the choice to be between two big government liberals, we will have failed. Hits Donald Trump’s campaign manager for being run by lobbyists.
Donald wants this race to be over because he cannot earn a majority. Indiana will be a pivotal state for the entire country.
Notes how Trump is almost 70 years old and cannot name one time he was stood up to Washington.
On John Boehner: he allowed his inner Trump to come out. If you’re wondering who has stood up to Washington, Boehner has made it crystal clear. Boehner described Trump as his texting and golfing buddy. Trump gave Boehner’s superPAC 100,000 dollars. Also notes how Trump has donated to other Democrats.
Cruz: I’ve never worked for John Boehner. I don’t know the man. If I’ve ever said 50 words to the man, I’d be surprised. During the shutdown, I worked with John Boehner – I tried to reach out to him and he rejected me. When John Boehner calls me Lucifer, he’s directing that at you. Talks about how Boehner is angry with him for standing up to Washington. Boehner is angry that the American people are holding him accountable.
Cruz: what made Boehner mad is that I led a campaign to hold Washington accountable.
On the Cruz-Kasich alliance – there is no alliance. Kasich and I made the determination where to focus our resources would be a disaster. John Kasich made the decision to withdraw to Indiana.
Cruz: it’s not surprising that Donald Trump is attacking Hillary Clinton for being a woman. He has a problem with strong women.
Goes on to talk about how HRC was a disaster as secretary of state. Hits Trump for donating to the Clinton Foundation. There’s a reason why HRC came to Trump’s wedding. Trump and Clinton are flip sides of the same coin.
Talks about how there should be a debate.
Stream cuts out.
From: Haxo, Chris
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 11:56 AM
To: Bennett, Eric; Research_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Fiorina on the youtube stream now introing cruz
Gaggle notes
·         Humbled honored to accept running mate
·         HRC/DT two sides of the same coin
o    DT donated to DCCC, Boehner
·         80% say gov is incompetent and corrupt
·         Fearless fighter who understand that power is too concentrated
From: Haxo, Chris
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 11:36 AM
To: Bennett, Eric; Research_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Gaggle up now.
From: Bennett, Eric
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 11:06 AM
To: Research_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Gaggle coming up
H/t Chris

From: Bennett, Eric
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:54 AM
To: Research_D
Subject: RE: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Here:
From: Bennett, Eric
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:30 AM
To: Research_D
Subject: Video Request: Cruz in Fort Wayne, IN
Rally with Ted Cruz & Carly Fiorina
Thursday, April 28
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Grand Wayne Convention Center
120 West Jefferson Boulevard
Fort Wayne, IN 46802


Pls make sure Ryan is up to speed on this.  I haven't talk to him today and I'm at my daughters end of year performance until 9 pm tonight.
- TP
On May 6, 2016, at 6:14 PM, Miranda, Luis
> wrote:
Got it!
Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Leah Daughtry
>
Date: 05/06/2016 6:11 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: April Mellody
>, "Miranda, Luis"
>
Cc: Patrice Taylor
>, Tracie Pough
>, Debbie Wasserman Schultz
>
Subject: FINAL STATEMENT
Approved by DWS for background distribution by Luis and April … let me know if you have question.
The rules governing our process for appointments to convention standing committees were established in 2014 long before any candidates declared and follow the same process that have governed these appointments for many cycles.  The co-chairs of all of the committees and the At-Large members were elected by the DNC Executive Committee members in January 2016. That meeting was open to the public and all of the campaigns were participants in that process.
The overwhelming remainder (87%) of the Standing Committee membership is elected by each state’s National Convention Delegates after being nominating by the presidential campaigns, proportional to each campaign’s percentage of the state wide vote.
The Platform drafting committee is a subcommittee of the larger platform committee. Those members have not yet been named but the appointments will be made in consultation with both campaigns, as has been the case in past cycles.  Both campaigns are fully aware of our process.


Looks good - Just made a couple small eds
From: Jefferson, Deshundra
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 5:16 PM
To: RR2
Subject: FW: Please read
Importance: High
Ready for research:
For Planning Purposes
April 2
7
, 2016
April 26, 2016
Contact: DNC Press – 202-863-8148
*MEDIA ADVISORY*
TOMORROW
, April 27
th
at 9:00 AM ET
: Democrats Host Media Call To Discuss The Status of Voting Rights in North Carolina
On Tuesday, voting rights activists filed an announced they would appeal of a U.S. District Court’s decision to uphold North Carolina’s overly burdensome election law, H.B. 589. The law imposed a number of new restrictions including eliminating same-day registration, reducing the early voting period and imposing strict new photo ID requirements that have made it harder for millions of North Carolinians to vote.
Make no mistake, these are efforts by Republicans to intentionally silence the very groups that disagree with their extreme policies.
While Republicans continue to defend laws to limit voter turnout, Democrats have gone to court in Arizona and beyond to reverse the culture of voter discrimination. This was echoed in North Carolina today, as voting rights activists filed plan to file an appeal of the onerous H.B. 589 decision. Democrats across the country will continue to defend the right to vote -- the most fundamental of our rights.
Tomorrow
, CBC Chairman Representative G.K. Butterfield, Representative Alma Adams and DNC’s National Director of Voter Expansion Pratt Wiley will discuss the restrictions of North Carolina’s H.B. 589 and how Democrats are working to expand access to the ballot box leading into the general election.
WHO: CBC Chairman Representative G.K. Butterfield, Representative Alma Adams and the DNC’s National Director of Voter Expansion Pratt Wiley
WHAT: Media Call
WHEN: TOMORROW
, April 27
th
at 9:00 AM ET
RSVP: Please email Rachel Palermo, PalermoR@dnc.org
for dial-in information
###
Sent from my iPhone


Watch here
From: Sarge, Matthew
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 9:03 AM
To: Kauffman, Nathan
Cc: Comm_D; DJTspeaks@hillaryclinton.com
Subject: RE: Video request: Trump on Fox and friends at 8:30
Trump on Fox and friends
Leading HRC in the polls?
- Bernie Sanders says she has bad judgment
- Unlike Sanders, "I will pickup on the emails big league"
HRC criticizing you on guns background checks and guns in schools?
- I don't want guns in classrooms
- But some teachers should have guns
- Trained teachers should have guns
NRA endorsement?
- I was honored.
- Tough endorsement to get
GOP donors opposition?
- Special interests know they won't have access to me
- Pete Ricketts endorsed me. So not whole Ricketts family
NYT story?
- NYT is a failing newspaper
- Dishonest
Self-funding?
- Special interests won't control me
- Helping raise money for down ballot
Bernie Sanders/DWS?
- 30%+ of Sanders voters will support me
- We agree on trade
________________________________
From: Sarge, Matthew
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 8:45 AM
To: Kauffman, Nathan
Cc: Comm_D; DJTspeaks@hillaryclinton.com
Subject: Re: Video request: Trump on Fox and friends at 8:30
Trump on Fox and friends
Leading HRC in the polls?
- Bernie Sanders says she has bad judgment
- Unlike Sanders, "I will pickup on the emails big league"
HRC criticizing you on guns background checks and guns in schools?
- I don't want guns in classrooms
- But some teachers should have guns
- Trained teachers should have guns
NRA endorsement?
- I was honored. Tough endorsement to get
GOP donors opposition?
- Special interests know they won't have access to me
- Pete Ricketts endorsed me. So not whole Ricketts family
NYT story?
- NYT is a failing newspaper
- Dishonest
Self-funding?
- Special interests won't control me
- Helping raise money for down ballot
Bernie Sanders/DWS?
- 30%+ of Sanders voters will support me
- We agree on trade
On May 22, 2016, at 8:10 AM, Kauffman, Nathan
> wrote:
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump
)
5/22/16, 7:58 AM
I will be interviewed on @foxandfriends
at 8:30 A.M. Enjoy!
Download
the Twitter app
Sent from my iPhone


This is great journalism.
From: "Berns, Jeremy"
>
Date: Saturday, May 14, 2016 at 7:47 AM
To: Comm_D
>
Subject: NYT: Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private

Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private
Donald J. Trump had barely met Rowanne Brewer Lane when he asked her to change out of her clothes.
Donald was having a pool party at Mar-a-Lago. There were about 50 models and 30 men. There were girls in the pools, splashing around. For some reason Donald seemed a little smitten with me. He just started talking to me and nobody else.
He suddenly took me by the hand, and he started to show me around the mansion. He asked me if I had a swimsuit with me. I said no. I hadn’t intended to swim. He took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit.
–Rowanne Brewer Lane, former companion
Ms. Brewer Lane, at the time a 26-year-old model, did as Mr. Trump asked. “I went into the bathroom and tried one on,” she recalled. It was a bikini. “I came out, and he said, ‘Wow.’ ”
Mr. Trump, then 44 and in the midst of his first divorce, decided to show her off to the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla. “He brought me out to the pool and said, ‘That is a stunning Trump girl, isn’t it?’ ” Ms. Brewer Lane said.
Donald Trump and women: The words evoke a familiar cascade of casual insults, hurled from the safe distance of a Twitter account, a radio show or a campaign podium. This is the public treatment of some women by Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president: degrading, impersonal, performed. “That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees,” he told a female contestant on “The Apprentice.” Rosie O’Donnell, he said, had a “fat, ugly face.” A lawyer who needed to pump milk for a newborn? “Disgusting,” he said.
But the 1990 episode at Mar-a-Lago that Ms. Brewer Lane described was different: a debasing face-to-face encounter between Mr. Trump and a young woman he hardly knew. This is the private treatment of some women by Mr. Trump, the up-close and more intimate encounters.
The New York Times interviewed dozens of women who had worked with or for Mr. Trump over the past four decades, in the worlds of real estate, modeling and pageants; women who had dated him or interacted with him socially; and women and men who had closely observed his conduct since his adolescence. In all, more than 50 interviews were conducted over the course of six weeks.
Their accounts — many relayed here in their own words — reveal unwelcome romantic advances, unending commentary on the female form, a shrewd reliance on ambitious women, and unsettling workplace conduct, according to the interviews, as well as court records and written recollections. The interactions occurred in his offices at Trump Tower, at his homes, at construction sites and backstage at beauty pageants. They appeared to be fleeting, unimportant moments to him, but they left lasting impressions on the women who experienced them.
What emerges from the interviews is a complex, at times contradictory portrait of a wealthy, well-known and provocative man and the women around him, one that defies simple categorization. Some women found him gracious and encouraging. He promoted several to the loftiest heights of his company, a daring move for a major real estate developer at the time.
He simultaneously nurtured women’s careers and mocked their physical appearance. “You like your candy,” he told an overweight female executive who oversaw the construction of his headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. He could be lewd one moment and gentlemanly the next.
In an interview, Mr. Trump described himself as a champion of women, someone who took pride in hiring them and was in awe of their work ethic. “It would just seem,” he said, “that there was something that they want to really prove.”
Pressed on the women’s claims, Mr. Trump disputed many of the details, such as asking Ms. Brewer Lane to put on a swimsuit. “A lot of things get made up over the years,” he said. “I have always treated women with great respect. And women will tell you that.”
But in many cases there was an unmistakable dynamic at play: Mr. Trump had the power, and the women did not. He had celebrity. He had wealth. He had connections. Even after he had behaved crudely toward them, some of the women sought his assistance with their careers or remained by his side.
For Ms. Brewer Lane, her introduction to Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago was the start of a whirlwind romance — a heady blur of helicopter rides and high-end hotel rooms and flashing cameras.
“It was intimidating,” she said. “He was Donald Trump, obviously.”
Boarding School ‘Ladies’ Man’
It started at the New York Military Academy, a small, severe boarding school 90 minutes north of New York City. Strictly enforced rules prohibited girls from setting foot on the all-boys campus unless it was a special occasion. And on those special occasions, young Donald Trump paid careful mind to the kind of girls he brought to school. They had to be gorgeous — 10s, in his future parlance.
“Donald was extremely sensitive to whether or not the women he invited to campus were pretty,” recalled George White, a fellow student in the class of 1964.
“For Donald,” he added, “it’s display.”
He steadily built an image as a young playboy amid the deprivations of a single-sex military school, where most boys craved but rarely enjoyed the company of a girl. By senior year, his classmates had crowned him “ladies’ man” in the yearbook, a nod to the volume of his dates.
He wasn’t bringing the same girl. He had a variety of girls coming up. Donald was bringing in very pretty women, very sophisticated women and very well-dressed women. You could always tell they were of a higher class.
–George White, high school classmate
Asked how he had earned the “ladies’ man” title, Mr. Trump at first demurred. “I better not tell you — I’ll get myself in trouble,” he said. He later elaborated, saying he had “a great feeling” and “a great like” for women.
The Alpha Trump
Mr. Trump grew up with an influential role model for how to deal with women: Fred C. Trump, his powerful and unyielding father.
The elder Mr. Trump exerted control no matter how big or small the decision, as Ivana Zelnickova learned over dinner one night in the late 1970s. Her boyfriend, Donald Trump, had invited her to join his siblings and parents at Tavern on the Green, the ornate restaurant in Central Park.
When the waiter came to take orders, Ivana made the mistake of asking for what she wanted. Fred Trump set her straight, she recalled in a previously unpublished interview with Michael D’Antonio, the author of “The Truth About Trump.”
Fred would order steak. Then Donald would order steak. … Everybody order steak. I told the waiter, “I would like to have fish.” O.K., so I could have the fish. And Fred would say to the waiter: “No, Ivana is not going to have a fish. She is going to have a steak.” I said, “No, I’m going to have my fish.” And Donald would come home and say, “Ivana, why would you have a fish instead of a steak?” I say, “Because I’m not going to be told by somebody to have something which I don’t want.”
–Ivana Trump, ex-wife
Mr. Trump defended his father’s conduct. “He would’ve said that out of love,” he said. If his father had overruled her fish order, Mr. Trump said, “he would have said that only on the basis that he thought, ‘That would be better for her.’ ”
The elder Mr. Trump did not hide his more traditional views on gender. When his son hired a woman, Barbara A. Res
, as his head of construction in the 1980s, Fred Trump was mystified and annoyed.
Fred did not like the idea that Donald had hired me. “A woman?” Donald told me that. But I could tell by the way Fred treated me. He used to say that all the time: “You don’t know what you are talking about.” When I would complain to Donald about Fred, he would say, “Fred didn’t want me to hire you or didn’t think it was a woman’s job.”
–Barbara A. Res, former Trump executive
Mr. Trump said it was a different era. “My father,” he said, “probably never would have seen a woman in that position.”
Mr. Trump still holds up his parents as models, praising his stay-at-home mother for understanding and accommodating a husband who worked almost nonstop.
“My mother was always fine with it,” he said, recalling her “brilliant” management of the situation. “If something got interrupted because he was going to inspect a housing site or something, she would handle that so beautifully.”
“She was an ideal woman,” he said.
The Company of Women
With his purchase of the Miss Universe Organization, Mr. Trump was now in the business of young, beautiful women.
They craved his advice and approval, a fact he seemed to understand well.
Temple Taggart, the 21-year-old Miss Utah, was startled by how forward he was with young contestants like her in 1997, his first year as the owner of Miss USA, a branch of the beauty pageant organization. As she recalls it, he introduced himself in an unusually intimate manner.
He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, “Oh my God, gross.” He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like “Wow, that’s inappropriate.”
–Temple Taggart, 1997 Miss Utah USA
Mr. Trump disputes this, saying he is reluctant to kiss strangers on the lips. But Ms. Taggart said it was not an isolated incident.
At the gala celebration after the show, she said, Mr. Trump immediately zeroed in on her, telling her how much he liked her style and inviting her to visit him in New York to talk about her future. Soon enough, she said, he delivered another unwelcome kiss on her lips, this time in Trump Tower. After boasting of his connections to elite modeling agencies, he advised her to lie about her age to get ahead in the industry, she said.
“ ‘We’re going to have to tell them you’re 17,’ ” Ms. Taggart recalled him telling her, “because in his mind, 21 is too old. I was like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ ”
His level of involvement in the pageants was unexpected, and his judgments, the contestants said, could be harsh. Carrie Prejean, who was 21 when she participated in the Miss USA contest in 2009 as Miss California, was surprised to find Mr. Trump personally evaluating the women at rehearsal. “We were told to put on our opening number outfits — they were nearly as revealing as our swimsuits — and line up for him onstage,” she wrote in her memoir, “Still Standing.”
Donald Trump walked out with his entourage and inspected us closer than any general ever inspected a platoon. He would stop in front of a girl, look her up and down, and say, “Hmmm.” Then he would go on and do the same thing to the next girl. He took notes on a little pad as he went along. After he did this, Trump said: “O.K. I want all the girls to come forward.” …
Donald Trump looked at Miss Alabama.
“Come here,” he said.
She took one more step forward.
“Tell me, who’s the most beautiful woman here?”
Miss Alabama’s eyes swam around.
“Besides me?” she said. “Uh, I like Arkansas. She’s sweet.”
“I don’t care if she’s sweet,” Donald Trump said. “Is she hot?” …
It became clear that the point of the whole exercise was for him to divide the room between girls he personally found attractive and those he did not. Many of the girls found the exercise humiliating. Some of the girls were sobbing backstage after he left, devastated to have failed even before the competition really began to impress “The Donald.”
–Carrie Prejean, 2009 Miss California USA
Mr. Trump, in an interview, said he would “never do that.” Such behavior, he said, would bruise egos and hurt feelings. “I wouldn’t hurt people,” he said. “That’s hurtful to people.”
A Preoccupation With Bodies
Mr. Trump was not just fixated on the appearance of the women around him. He possessed an almost compulsive need to talk about it.
Inside the Trump Organization, the company that manages his various businesses, he occasionally interrupted routine discussions of business to opine on women’s figures. Barbara Res, his construction executive, remembered a meeting in which she and Mr. Trump interviewed an architect for a project in the Los Angeles area. Out of the blue, she said, Mr. Trump evaluated the fitness of women in Marina del Rey, Calif. “They take care of their asses,” he said.
“The architect and I didn’t know where he was coming from,” Ms. Res said. Years later, after she had gained a significant amount of weight, Ms. Res endured a stinging workplace observation about her own body from Mr. Trump. “ ‘You like your candy,’ ” she recalled him telling her. “It was him reminding me that I was overweight.”
Her colleague Louise Sunshine experienced similar observations from Mr. Trump when she gained weight. But she saw it as friendly encouragement, not a cruel insult. “He thought I looked much better thin,” she said. “He would remind me of how beautiful I was.”
Whenever possible, Mr. Trump wanted his visitors to see his most attractive employees, as Ms. Res learned.
We had a big meeting once. I grabbed one of the women in the office and sent her in to get lunch orders. Donald said, “Not her.” She didn’t look great. He got another woman to take the lunch orders. That was purely about looks. He wanted the people in that room to think that all the women who worked for him were beautiful.
–Ms. Res
Mr. Trump frequently sought assurances — at times from strangers — that the women in his life were beautiful. During the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, he sat in the audience as his teenage daughter, Ivanka, helped to host the event from onstage. He turned to Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee, Miss Universe at the time, and asked for her opinion of his daughter’s body.
“ ‘Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?’ ” Ms. Lee recalled him saying. ‘I was like, ‘Really?’ That’s just weird. She was 16. That’s creepy.”
Ms. Brewer Lane, who dated Mr. Trump for several months in 1990 and early 1991, said it did not take long for him to solicit her view on the attractiveness of two of his previous romantic partners, Marla Maples and Ivana Trump.
He did ask me, on a scale of 1 to 10, what I thought of Marla. I thought that was very boyish of him. He asked me the same thing about Ivana. I said, obviously, she is your wife. A beautiful woman. What could you say but a 10? I am not going to judge your wife.
–Ms. Brewer Lane
Mr. Trump said he did not know Ms. Brewer Lane very well, despite dating her. “I wouldn’t have asked anybody about how they rate other women,” he said.
Kissing, and Telling Everyone
He liked to brag about his sexual prowess and his desirability as a date, no matter who was around.
Barbara J. Fife, a deputy mayor under David N. Dinkins, New York’s mayor in the early 1990s, was not especially close to Mr. Trump. But that did not stop him from telling her why he was in such a hurry one day as he sat in her office at City Hall.
“I have this great date tonight with a model for Victoria’s Secret,” Ms. Fife recalled him telling her.
“I saw it as immature, quite honestly,” she said.
At his office in Trump Tower, Mr. Trump seemed eager for his colleagues to hear about his new companion, Ms. Maples. When The New York Post feasted on her supposed satisfaction with him in bed, captured in the headline “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had,” Mr. Trump was unabashed, Ms. Res said.
He absolutely loved that. He waved it around the office. “Did you see this?” Everyone who worked there were kind of horrified. We all thought it made him look bad. He didn’t.
–Ms. Res
Mr. Trump denies boasting about the headline. He seems more bashful these days, saying he cannot recall how many women he has dated. “Not as many as people would think,” he said. “I’m not somebody that really loved the dating process.”
Women as Trusted Colleagues
To build his business, Mr. Trump turned to women for a simple reason: They worked hard — often harder than men, he told them.
When Mr. Trump hired Ms. Res to oversee the construction of Trump Tower, he invited her to his apartment on Fifth Avenue and explained that he wanted her to be his “Donna Trump” on the project, she said. Few women had reached such stature in the industry.
He said: “I know you’re a woman in a man’s world. And while men tend to be better than women, a good woman is better than 10 good men.” … He thought he was really complimenting me.
–Ms. Res
He entrusted several women in his company with enormous responsibility — once they had proven themselves worthy and loyal. Ms. Sunshine had little experience in real estate, but as a top campaign fund-raiser for Gov. Hugh Carey of New York, she had fulfilled a lifelong wish for Mr. Trump: She secured him a vanity license plate with his initials, DJT, which adorned his limousine for years.
It’s something he had wanted since his father bought him toy cars. By some gift of God, I was able to obtain it for him. He was beyond thrilled. And I became the woman in his life who could do no wrong. And he became the man in my life who was going to be my mentor.
–Louise Sunshine, former Trump executive
Ms. Sunshine worked for Mr. Trump for 15 years, becoming a major New York real estate figure in her own right. Ms. Res remained at the company for 12 years, left after a disagreement over a project and then returned as a consultant for six more years. Both expressed gratitude for the chances Mr. Trump had taken on them.
In a rough-and-tumble industry thoroughly dominated by men, Mr. Trump’s office stood out for its diversity, recalled Alan Lapidus, an influential architect who designed the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City.
He is a lot more complicated than the cartoon character. The top people in his company were women, like Barbara Res. For any company to hire a woman as chief of construction was actually startling. I don’t know of a single other developer who had a woman in that position. The respect for women was always there. That’s why, in spite of the comments he makes now — and God knows why he says these things — when he was building his empire, the backbone was women.
–Alan Lapidus, architect
Dismissive Nicknames
To women who had climbed to positions of power outside his company, Mr. Trump’s behavior could feel like a jarring throwback.
Alair A. Townsend was for a time the highest-ranking woman inside New York’s City Hall during the Koch administration, with the title of deputy mayor for economic development. But when Mr. Trump called her, she said, her position seemed less relevant to him than her gender.
He was dismissive. It was always, “Hon,” “Dear.” Things he wouldn’t have said to a man. It was designed to make you feel small. And he did that repeatedly.
–Alair A. Townsend, former deputy mayor
It was an unthinking habit when he interacted with women, colleagues said. “At Trump Tower,” said Ms. Res, his longtime colleague, “he called me Honey Bunch.”
Wife and Partner, and Regret
No single figure better encapsulated the paradoxes of Mr. Trump’s treatment of women in the workplace than his first wife, Ivana.
He entrusted her with major pieces of a corporate empire and gave her the titles to match. She was the president of Trump’s Castle, a major casino in Atlantic City, and the Plaza Hotel, the storied complex on Central Park South in Manhattan. “She ran that hotel,” Ms. Res said. “And she ran it well.”
But he compensated her as a spouse, not a high-level employee, paying her an annual salary of $1 for the Trump’s Castle job, according to her tax documents. And he grew to resent her outsize role. By the end of their marriage, Mr. Trump wrote in his 1997 book, “The Art of the Comeback,” he regretted having allowed her to run his businesses.
My big mistake with Ivana was taking her out of the role of wife and allowing her to run one of my casinos in Atlantic City, then the Plaza Hotel. The problem was, work was all she wanted to talk about. When I got home at night, rather than talking about the softer subjects of life, she wanted to tell me how well the Plaza was doing, or what a great day the casino had.
I will never again give a wife responsibility within my business.
–Donald J. Trump, presumptive Republican nominee
He seems to have kept his word. His current wife, Melania, has marketed her own lines of beauty products and jewelry. But Mr. Trump remains mostly uninvolved in her work. After calling it “very successful,” he struggled to describe it.
“What is it on television with the sales?” he asked. “What do they call that? Not Home Shopping, the other one.”
Accusations and Denials
Once his first marriage started to collapse, Mr. Trump faced his most serious allegations of aggression toward women.
When “Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump,” by the journalist Harry Hurt III, was released in 1993, it included a description of a night in which Mr. Trump was said to have raped Ivana in a fit of rage. It also included a statement from Ivana that Mr. Trump’s lawyers insisted be placed in the front of the book. In the statement, she described an occasion of “marital relations” during which “I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited toward me, was absent.”
“During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me,” the statement said. “I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
Mr. Trump denied raping Ivana, and she did not respond to a request for comment. After the allegation re-emerged in the news media last year, Ivana said in a statement
, “The story is totally without merit.”
In the early 1990s, Jill Harth and her boyfriend at the time, George Houraney, worked with Mr. Trump on a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, and later accused Mr. Trump of inappropriate behavior toward Ms. Harth during their business dealings. In a 1996 deposition, Ms. Harth described their initial meeting with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower.
Donald Trump stared at me throughout that meeting. He stared at me even while George was giving his presentation. … In the middle of it he says to George, “Are you sleeping with her?” Meaning me. And George looked a little shocked and he said, “Well, yeah.” And he goes, “Well, for the weekend or what?”
–Jill Harth, former pageant promoter
Mr. Houraney said in a recent interview that he was shocked by Mr. Trump’s response after he made clear that he and Ms. Harth were monogamous.
“He said: ‘Well, there’s always a first time. I am going after her,’ ” Mr. Houraney recalled, adding: “I thought the man was joking. I laughed. He said, ‘I am serious.’ ”
By the time the three of them were having dinner at the Oak Room of the Plaza Hotel the next night, Mr. Trump’s advances had turned physical, Ms. Harth said in the deposition.
“Basically he name-dropped throughout that dinner, when he wasn’t groping me under the table,” she testified. “Let me just say, this was a very traumatic thing working for him.”
Ms. Harth, who declined to comment, gave the deposition in connection with a lawsuit that alleged Mr. Trump had failed to meet his obligations in a business partnership. Mr. Trump settled that case but denied wrongdoing. Ms. Harth withdrew her own lawsuit against Mr. Trump alleging unwanted advances, but she has stood by her original claims.
Mr. Trump said it was Ms. Harth who had pursued him, and his office shared email messages in which Ms. Harth, over the past year, thanked Mr. Trump for helping her personally and professionally and expressed support for his presidential candidacy.
Defending His Record
Mr. Trump says the world misunderstands his relationship with women.
He sees himself as a promoter of women — a man whose business deals, like the purchase of the struggling Miss Universe pageant, have given them untold opportunities for employment and advancement. “Hundreds and hundreds of women, thousands of women, are the better for it,” he said.
He has groomed his daughter, Ivanka, to run his company. And as a chief executive, he said, he admires women for a work ethic that can exceed that of the men around them. Mr. Trump recalled a telling exchange with a female worker.
I’ve said, “Why don’t you go home and take it easy now, just go relax.” “No, Mr. Trump, I have to finish this job.” And I said, “Boy, you really are a worker.” And it would just seem that there was something, that they want to really prove something, which is wonderful.
–Mr. Trump
Several women who have held positions of power within the Trump Organization in recent years said they had never known Mr. Trump to objectify women or treat them with disrespect.
“I think there are mischaracterizations about him,” said Jill Martin, a vice president and assistant counsel at the company. Ms. Martin said Mr. Trump had enthusiastically supported her decision to have two children over the past five years, even when it meant working from home and scaling back on business travel.
“That’s hard with women lawyers,” she said. “For me, he’s made it a situation where I can really excel at my job and still devote the time necessary for my family.”
After competing in the 2009 Miss USA pageant, Laura Kirilova Chukanov, a Bulgarian immigrant who lived in Utah, met with Mr. Trump in his New York office and explained that she wanted to make a documentary about her home country. Mr. Trump encouraged the project and followed through on a promise to put her in touch with his production company.
“He genuinely wanted to know what I wanted to do with my life and how he could help,” Ms. Chukanov said.
A Damaging Critique
But when Mr. Trump lost confidence in women, he could inflict lasting damage on their lives.
After Alicia Machado won the 1996 Miss Universe title, something very human happened: She gained weight. Mr. Trump did not keep his critique of her changing body quiet — he publicly shamed her, she said.
I told the president of Miss Universe, a very sweet woman, I said I need some time to recuperate, to rest, to exercise, to eat right. I asked them to bring me a doctor to help me — to have a special diet and get exercise, and they said yes. They took me to New York, installed me in a hotel. The next day, they took me to the gym, and I’m exposed to 90 media outlets. Donald Trump was there. I had no idea that would happen.
I was about to cry in that moment with all the cameras there. I said, “I don’t want to do this, Mr. Trump.” He said, “I don’t care.”
–Alicia Machado, 1996 Miss Universe
Mr. Trump said he had pushed her to lose weight. “To that, I will plead guilty,” he said, expressing no regret for his tactics.
But the humiliation, Ms. Machado said, was unbearable. “After that episode, I was sick, anorexia and bulimia for five years,” she said. “Over the past 20 years, I’ve gone to a lot of psychologists to combat this.”
Sent from my iPhone


Is she available any evening next week in the 8PM hour EST?
Pablo Manriquez
Democratic National Committee
Phone: 202.572.5488
Email: pablo@dnc.org
web: democrats.org
Twitter: @Pablo_DNC


Great, thanks. We're making some tweaks and running the traps.
[SigDems]
Luis Miranda, Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
202-863-8148 - MirandaL@dnc.org
- @MiraLuisDC
From: Domino, Cate
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 6:16 PM
To: ContentApprovals_D; Walker, Eric
Cc: Miranda, Luis
Subject: Approval: Marshall Medium
Let us know what you think
TITLE: Democrats are ready for the general elections, thanks in part to joint victory funds
BYLINE: Brad Marshall
When I started working at the Democratic National Committee, the office was smaller, the computers were bigger, and if I wanted to talk through campaign finance, it meant blocking off a couple hours and going out for coffee.
Since then, there have been a whole lot of changes. But one thing that stayed pretty constant? We are still using joint victory funds to make sure that every Democrat has the resources they need to succeed in November.
This year, we have established joint victory funds with both the Clinton and the Sanders campaigns, which is exactly what we did with the Obama campaign in 2012, with both the Obama and Clinton campaigns in 2008, with the Kerry campaign in 2004, and you get the picture. Under these agreements, our candidates can fundraise simultaneously for their campaigns, for the DNC, and for the state parties that do so much work to support down-ballot Democrats. And yes, these funds are absolutely allowed by the Federal Elections Commission.
[IMAGE
Caption: DNC CEO Amy K. Dacey on the trail for John Kerry in 2004]
There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation about the joint victory funds, so I want to correct a few points.
1. Joint Victory Funds are building our general election nest egg
Millions of dollars that we have earmarked for the general election are sitting in the bank, ready to be distributed to state parties (and, for what it's worth, to the DNC) once the general election is officially underway. You may have heard that state parties are only keeping 1% of the money being raised by Joint Victory Funds, but that's misleading. It ignores the money that is being kept safe for general election needs. As more coordinated campaign offices - home bases for Democrats working and volunteering for presidential, statewide, and local candidates - are established, that money will pay for staff and office space.
[IMAGE
Caption: VP Biden brings pizza for campaign staff and volunteers]
2. Joint Victory Funds pay for resources the state parties need
You probably know that the DNC manages a massive amount of voter data that everyone from our presidential campaigns down to candidates running for local office can leverage in their races. But that costs a lot of money, and the staff and vendors who manage that data are paid by the DNC. The DNC is also building the tools and staff to manage complex rapid response, communications, and digital organizing needs - again, we pay for it, and give the tools and resources to down-ballot Dems.
[IMAGE
Caption: Organizers for President Obama's 2008 primary campaign]
3. Joint Victory Funds are legal
It might sound strange coming from the guy who manages the Democratic Party's money, but I believe that putting commonsense limits on the amount of money any one person can give to a candidate or political party is good for our democracy. And that's also one of the good things about joint victory funds - they have a lot of legal limitations in place that help to keep the amount of money we raise under control and ensure that every dollar gets reported.
But you don't have to trust me: Dr. Rick Hasen is an expert in campaign finance and election law and a professor at  University of California, Irvine School of Law, and he has responded to criticism of the DNC's use of joint victory funds by saying, in short, "legally, this seems weak."
The general election will be here before we know it, and I'm resting easier knowing that we have built the tools and saved the money we need to come out of the gate as strong as possible. If you care about electing Democrats, you should feel that way, too.
Brad Marshall is the Chief Financial Officer of the Democratic National Committee


Randi Weingarten: Donald Trump's Rhetoric Has Contaminated Schools
By Andrew Ujifusa
on May 5, 2016 3:53 PM

Forget Donald Trump's plans to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education or allegations of fraud against Trump University: The real estate executive has already poisoned public schools, according to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, by fostering a toxic environment that encourages bullying.
In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Weingarten blasted the real estate executive for his "xenophobia" and his "promotion of violence." And she said that it's too late to turn back the clock on the negative effect he's already had on public schools.
"My point is, he's already done tremendous damage to education," Weingarten said during a conference call with reporters. "He's created an environment of scapegoating and demonizing. It is influencing children and it is influencing behavior in schools. It is making it much, much harder for us." [electionslug_2016_126x126.jpg]
Is there anything to back up Weingarten's assertion? Last month, my colleague Evie Blad covered a survey conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center showing that most teachers say their students-many of them Muslim or the children of immigrants-have expressed fears about their fate after the election
. And 40 percent said they're afraid to teacher their students about the election. However, that survey was not scientific.
There have also been reports of incidents like Donald Trump's name being chanted by fans
at a Wisconsin high school soccer game, along with "build that wall" and racial slurs. (Trump has pledged to halt illegal immigration from Mexico by building a wall along the southern border, and by making the Mexican government pay for it.) But in general, it's hard to statiscally identify exactly how Trump has or has not broadly influenced the climate of public schools.
Make no mistake, Weingarten and Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, who was also on the call, blasted Trump for his other positions on education too. Weingarten said she was not surprised that one of Trump's high-profile surrogates is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who has said teachers' unions need a punch in the face
.
"What we're seeing is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party be anti-teacher and anti-public education," the AFT president said.
Donald Trump hasn't taken many in-depth positions on K-12 during the campaign. But he has taken a few (relatively) clear positions on K-12
. He wants to eliminate the Common Core State Standards-something the federal government cannot do. And as Weingarten noted, he's said he wants to either severely cut or eliminate the Education Department-at the same time, he declared in March that education is one of the top three priorities for the federal government
.
You might remember that both the AFT and the National Education Association moved pretty quickly to endorse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. That did not sit well with some members of the two unions, who thought that there ought to have been more consideration of Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
So it's not surprising that Weingarten in particular would come up swinging against Trump quickly and vigorously, now that he's the presumptive nominee.
TJ Helmstetter
Deputy Director of Regional and Specialty Media
Democratic National Committee
202.863.8022 - desk
973.464.9224 - cell
HelmstetterT@DNC.org


Sad. But good for this issue! I think we should be okay. Going into a meeting for a few hours and waiting to hear one thing back from the WH, but then will close the loop with you this evening.
Graham M. Wilson | Perkins Coie LLP
Direct. +1.202.434.1638
-----Original Message-----
From: Miranda, Luis
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 4:45 PM
To: Wilson, Graham M. (Perkins Coie)
Subject: RE: Heads up...
Do you mean at the White House?
We were all Special Exempted Service but I was NOT a Commissioned Officer and I was not senior enough to have to fill out PFDs. Even by the end I only made I think $82. Very sad.
My joke was that I wasn't a Senior Administration Official but I played one on TV.
-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson, Graham M. (Perkins Coie)
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 4:24 PM
To: Miranda, Luis
Subject: RE: Heads up...
Also - can you confirm whether or not you were a "Senior Employee"? If you don't know, I'll need to know your salary level to confirm. Senior Employees are subject to more restrictions.
Graham M. Wilson | Perkins Coie LLP
Direct. +1.202.434.1638
-----Original Message-----
From: Miranda, Luis
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 3:21 PM
To: Wilson, Graham M. (Perkins Coie); Dacey, Amy; Lindsey Reynolds; Tracie Pough; Kate Houghton; Bauer, Bob (Perkins Coie)
Cc: Paustenbach, Mark
Subject: RE: Heads up...
Sure. I'll give you a call.
-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson, Graham M. (Perkins Coie)
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 3:20 PM
To: Miranda, Luis; Dacey, Amy; Lindsey Reynolds; Tracie Pough; Kate Houghton; Bauer, R
Cc: Paustenbach, Mark
Subject: RE: Heads up...
Plus Bauer for awareness.
Do you want to give me a call to go over the details on the timeline of when you left the WH, and then who you spoke to at the WH, when you spoke to them, and what you spoke to them about, we can confirm whether there are any issues here under the ethics pledge or statutory post-employment restrictions.
Graham M. Wilson | Perkins Coie LLP
Direct. +1.202.434.1638
-----Original Message-----
From: Miranda, Luis
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 3:09 PM
To: Dacey, Amy; Lindsey Reynolds; Tracie Pough; Kate Houghton; Wilson, Graham M. (Perkins Coie)
Cc: Paustenbach, Mark
Subject: Heads up...
Republicans are looking for anything to mess with us on, so the Washington Examiner today at the White House briefing tried to bring me up as an example of someone who left the White House and then lobbied --- allegedly against the Administration's stated policy -- on Cuba.
The White House flagged it for me. They're not going to engage any further so I have to get back to the reporter and knock it down. To be clear, I didn't lobby during my consulting tenure. I provided public affairs services, strategic communications and press engagement. To the extent I was in touch with the White House, it was to be supportive of what the White House was already doing. Any lobbying was handled by my clients without me.
I'll keep you posted if anything else develops, but it is a bogus story. Here's the exchange from today's White House press briefing:
**Draft**
Susan, I'll give you the last one.
Q    Thank you, Josh.  Two things.  While you were out here in the briefing, it seems like CNN -- I'm looking on Twitter here so I can't be quite sure -- is reporting that U.S. officials are saying that the early belief is that a bomb brought the plane down -- the Egypt airplane down.  I'm wondering if you can confirm that they've found wreckage and whether that -- if you could confirm that U.S. officials are believing this is a bomb.
MR. EARNEST:  Well, I saw some of that reporting before I walked out here and I don't have an intelligence assessment to share at this point.
Q    Okay.  The second question is a little more complicated.  I'm wondering if -- I know that at the beginning of the administration the President really stressed the importance of not including lobbyists coming into the administration -- there were some exceptions.  But does he feel the same way about it when -- does he have the same concern when officials leave the administration?  That when they become lobbyists, do they need to sign up and be transparent about that disclosure?
MR. EARNEST:  Well, Susan, I don't have the details in front of me, but I know that some of the restrictions that the President put in place on his first day in office didn't just apply to individuals who might be considering employment in the federal government during the Obama administration; there were also commitments that incoming administration officials had to make about limiting their lobbying activities after leaving government.  And so there are prohibitions, or at least limitations, that apply to former Obama administration officials.
Q    Does the White House advise people leaving, do they remind them of that and their requirements?  Is there a process --
MR. EARNEST:  Yes, there is -- as part of the out-boarding process, you're reminded of the commitments that you've made on the way in that would limit your job prospects on the way out.  And look, many people have raised concerns about how historically there's been a revolving door between the federal government and K Street.  And the President's efforts, again, that he initiated on his first day in office were to close that revolving door, both in terms of the impact it has on people seeking to enter the government, but also based on restrictions that individuals committed to on their way out.
Q    It's not just K Street that these individuals are going to.  I'm wondering if the -- anybody left the White House that went to go on and lobby on behalf of engagement in Cuba, if -- and they're contacting administration officials, should they have registered to lobby?
MR. EARNEST:  Well, again, I assume -- it sounds now like you're asking about a specific case, and why don't we just walk through the details and -- help you understand how the rules might apply in a particular case.
Q    Sure.  Luis Miranda left the White House.  He went to the ** Group.  He did, from what I understand, engage in contacting the White House on that issue repeatedly, and from what I understand there's no lobbying disclosure records to show for that.  I have written about this, but we've talked about a lot -- there's been a lot of discussion about the Iran narrative this week, but there hasn't been a lot of discussion about the -- and the timeline -- and there hasn't been a lot of discussion about the Cuba timeline and what -- the transparency on those negotiations.  That's why I'm asking.
MR. EARNEST:  Okay.  Well, look, we can take a look and see if we can provide you some additional information.  It sounds like -- I'm not sure that any of that disclosure would apply to the administration, but we can take a look.
Q    To Luis Miranda specifically?
MR. EARNEST:  Well, he doesn't work here anymore.
Q    Right, so that's why --
MR. EARNEST:  So maybe you should go ask him.
Q    Right, I've tried to contact him and -- ** I've tried to contact him.
MR. EARNEST:  Okay.
Q    Is it important for the White House to have some level of -- on the Cuba issue to have had some level of surprise on that issue?  Or I mean, is it the President's right and the White House's right to -- and the State Department -- to engage in diplomacy behind the scenes before announcing a major initiative like trying to normalize relations with Cuba or another country?
MR. EARNEST:  Yes, I think that's entirely appropriate.  And that certainly has applied to other diplomatic breakthroughs that have been -- that the United States has benefitted from in just the last couple of years.  And when we were negotiating to secure the release of Americans who were being unjustly held in Iran, that was not something that we discussed extensively in the past.  When the United States was working behind the scenes with China to get them to make some significant commitments to fight carbon pollution in their country, that I think -- the results of those negotiations I think were a surprise to many in the public, but the United States enjoyed significant benefits as a result.
Those kinds of negotiations, that kind of diplomacy is often most effective when it's done behind the scenes, as you described it.
Thanks, everybody.
________________________________
NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you have received it in error, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.
________________________________
NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you have received it in error, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.
________________________________
NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you have received it in error, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.


Just kidding Joe requested this earlier. Disregard!
> On Apr 28, 2016, at 8:13 AM, Vinocur, Claire
wrote:
>
>


Student loan issues could be thorn in Ted Cruz's appeal to young voters
[GOP 2016 Cruz Senate_Garc.jpg]
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) –  When Ted Cruz kicked off his White House bid at Liberty University, he told the crowd "y'all can probably relate" to the $100,000-plus in student loan debt he ran up in college and paid off only a few years ago. Since then he's appealed for support from college seniors who are piled with student loans and scared about the prospects for getting out of debt.
But Cruz hasn't offered a plan to cut the cost of college and, in the Senate, opposed letting millions of Americans reduce their student loan payments. While working previously as a private lawyer in Houston, Cruz helped represent a lender who went to the Supreme Court to keep an Arizona man from avoiding interest payments on his student loans by filing for bankruptcy.
Cruz's half-sister, Roxana, borrowed about $35,000 before graduating from medical school at Boston University in 1991, then defied years of court orders in two states before finally settling the case by paying more than $64,000.
None of this helps the Texas senator's appeal with young voters. Many turned out for the Iowa caucuses won by Cruz, but Republicans under 30 generally haven't voted in significant numbers in many states since then. On average Cruz has been supported by 27 percent of those under 30 across all states with exit polling, compared with 30 percent for Republican rival Donald Trump.
Student loans can be a thorny issue for candidates. Trump has offered few ideas for easing student debt except to say the federal government shouldn't profit from such loans. Democrat Hillary Clinton came out last summer with a $350 billion plan to make college more affordable, only to be widely mocked after she asked on Twitter: "How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less." The other Democrat in the race, Bernie Sanders, has gone the furthest on the issue with an expensive plan for free college education.
Alessandra Gennarelli, a University of Texas sophomore who is co-chairwoman of Millennials for Cruz, says the candidate's own struggle with college debt helps people relate to him and she's not bothered that he doesn't have a plan to lower college costs. "The main thing is fixing the economy," she said.
Cruz wrote in his autobiography that he relied heavily on student loans in college at Princeton while working two jobs, making $7.50 per hour at the campus video service and twice that at the tutoring company Princeton Review. Things got easier after he graduated from Harvard Law School. Before joining the Senate in 2013, Cruz was a private attorney in Houston where he made $1.7 million in salary and bonuses during his final year.
There, Cruz opposed Francisco Espinosa, an airline baggage handler who incurred more than $13,000 in debts to attend technical school in Arizona but then filed for bankruptcy — proposing to pay back the principal of his loan over time but not roughly $4,000 in interest.
Cruz helped represent Espinosa's lender and objected to bankruptcy protection because the original judge had not included a finding that paying back the loans with interest was an "undue hardship."
A brief co-signed by Cruz argued that excusing interest payments could "open the floodgates" and let others duck debts including "taxes, domestic support obligations, drunk driving personal injury and death liabilities and criminal fines and restitution."
The case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 9-0 against Cruz's side. Charles Wirken, an Arizona attorney who also represented the lender, said, "We didn't really care about (Espinosa's) $20,000. It was the millions and millions and millions of dollars at stake in other bankruptcies."
"If people could go to school, borrow money — tens of, or hundreds of thousands of dollars — and then just turn around and ... dash into a bankruptcy and get it discharged, that would have substantial consequences," Wirken said. He contended, despite the high court's unanimous decision, that Cruz was "on the side of the law and rules."
Cruz's half-sister spent years on the wrong side of her student loan. Court records showed that Boston University sued Roxana L. Cruz in June 1999 for failing to pay $34,735 in student loans and attorney's fees. That November, the Boston Municipal Court ordered Cruz to pay nearly $38,000, but she didn't comply until Boston University sued her again in 2007, this time in New York, where she was then living. She settled the case the following January for nearly $64,300 including more than $26,000 in interest that had accrued on the original borrowed amount.
Roxana is the daughter of Ted Cruz's father, Rafael, before he married Ted's mother. Now a physician in the Dallas suburb of Greenville, Texas, she has declined to speak to reporters. Cruz's campaign also declined to answer questions about the case.
In the Senate, Cruz opposed efforts in 2014 and last year to let millions of borrowers refinance student loans at lower interest rates. He and other Senate Republicans teamed up to defeat Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's proposals because they would have been paid for by increasing taxes on rich Americans — setting increased minimum rates for people making over $1 million.
Like us on Facebook
[
Follow us on Twitter
[ & Instagram
[
Sent from my iPhone


Bob Sutton, chairman of the Broward County GOP Executive Committee in Florida, voiced confidence that Clinton would be easy to defeat in a debate - with a comment not likely to endear him to some female voters.
"I think when Donald Trump debates Hillary Clinton she's going to go down like Monica Lewinsky," he said.
Trump's 'woman's card' comment escalates the campaign's gender wars
By Anne Gearan and Katie Zezima April 27 at 7:44 PM
Donald Trump's accusation that Hillary Clinton is playing the "woman's card" and would be a failed candidate if she were a man touched off a contentious debate about gender politics and sexism that seems likely to define the presidential election as much as any issue.
While celebrating sweeping victories in five Republican primaries Tuesday night, Trump mocked the qualifications of the Democratic front-runner, saying she would be a bad president who lacks "strength." The remarks seemed a preview of a general-election strategy to use Clinton's potential to be the first female president against her.
"Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card," Trump said in a news conference at Trump Tower. "And the beautiful thing is, women don't like her."
That was a significant expansion of Trump's by-now-familiar claims that Clinton is unqualified - and one that made New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's wife, standing behind Trump before the TV cameras, appear to grimace.
It also crystallized the question of how the nation will reckon with its first presidential election between a man and a woman. What was once subtext - latent sexism in American life and the question of what is and is not off-limits when contemplating a woman as commander in chief - is now a full part of the political conversation.
"What's shaping up is a battle for the ages," said David Brock, a Clinton confidant who heads the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record.
"You've got one candidate who is vying to be the first woman president and is embracing the historic nature of her own candidacy, and on the other hand, you've got Trump, who represents a kind of retrograde social structure of the past" that is blatantly sexist, Brock said. "There's no better foil for Hillary."
Clinton allies and the campaign itself have been startled by what some call Trump's unsubtle line of attack, which stands in dramatic contrast with the more subtle presence of race in President Obama's historic election eight years ago.
But most Clinton allies consider the newly escalated gender wars of 2016 a helpful point of comparison that she can use to rally women's support and show how each candidate might behave as president.
"They might make flashy headlines, but Trump's comments aren't a joke," the campaign wrote Wednesday. "Hillary can handle these attacks. Millions of women shouldn't have to."
As if to validate the importance of female voters and Trump's weakness with them, GOP rival Ted Cruz on Wednesday announced that he was choosing Carly Fiorina as his running mate. Both Cruz and Fiorina criticized Trump and his rhetoric.
In television interviews Wednesday, Trump dismissed critics who called the election-night remarks sexist.
"It's not sexist. It's true. It's just a very, very true statement. If she were a man, she'd get 5 percent. She's a bad candidate. She's a flawed candidate," Trump said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "She's not going to do very well in the election, and I look forward to showing that."
He also made fun both of Clinton's delivery on the stump and of the social niceties - or political taboo - that says you're not supposed to make fun of that.
"I haven't quite recovered - it's early in the morning - from her shouting that message," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "And I know a lot of people would say you can't say that about a woman because, of course, a woman doesn't shout, but the way she shouted that message was not," and with that Trump broke off with a dismissive, "eww."
"I guess I'll have to get used to a lot of that over the next four or five months," he added, while also saying that he expects to do well with female voters.
Some responses on Clinton's behalf were outraged and some mocking. And some sought to raise money from what Clinton allies see as an unappealing glimpse into both Trump as a Republican standard-bearer and a slice of the GOP electorate that is receptive to language and viewpoints other politicians have been schooled to avoid.
"Women still face too many barriers - a president shouldn't be part of the problem. Comments like Trump's set us back," Clinton said in one of a blizzard of Twitter messages about the remarks Wednesday.
The real estate mogul has won female voters on average by 10 percentage points over his rivals in primary contests this year. On Tuesday, he won by more than 20 points among female voters in Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
But Trump's successes in winning Republican women has not translated to popularity with women or men in the broader electorate, where he continues to be deeply unpopular.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released this week found 66 percent of likely women voters nationwide have an unfavorable view of Trump, compared with 48 percent who have a negative opinion of Clinton. Among men the two are closer - 57 percent see Trump negatively while 61 percent say the same of Clinton.
"He continues to paint women with a broad, reductive brush, which may be a great strategy in appealing to his very particular audience of primary voters who have found his offensive tone endearing," said Stephanie Schriock, who heads Emily's List, a group that promotes and funds Democratic women running for office. "But in a general election, it is really difficult to shift from the place where he is to being presidential."
Women are far more likely to have intensely negative views of Trump. A Washington Post-ABC News poll this month found 64 percent of women feeling "strongly unfavorable" toward Trump, compared with 41 percent of men.
Trump has consistently trailed Clinton, as well as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, in general-election matchups. The USA Today/Suffolk University poll found Clinton leading Trump by 11 percentage points, fueled by a 21-point lead among women. Women have historically leaned more toward Democrats than men have, but Trump's deep unpopularity with women threatens to diminish his Republican support.
Despite the potential for a gender gap in which more women decamp the Republican Party, many Trump supporters see him as the stronger general-election candidate, particularly when facing Clinton.
Bob Sutton, chairman of the Broward County GOP Executive Committee in Florida, voiced confidence that Clinton would be easy to defeat in a debate - with a comment not likely to endear him to some female voters.
"I think when Donald Trump debates Hillary Clinton she's going to go down like Monica Lewinsky," he said.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, said Clinton is poised to benefit from Trump's unfavorable ratings and any gap between women and men voters. Clinton has been embracing her gender, something that could further endear her to women.
Clinton strategists think women are likely to be the key to a general-election victory for the former secretary of state, including independent and moderate Republican women motivated to vote for the first female president or because they are turned off by Trump or his chief rival, Cruz.
Clinton has built a 2016 campaign focused on issues of keen interest to female voters, including equal pay, health care and paid family leave. Her economic plan promises to "lift up participation in the workforce - especially for women."
After deliberately playing down her gender in her loss in the 2008 race, Clinton now talks freely of her own experiences in the workplace and in politics. She often speaks of breaking "that highest, hardest glass ceiling" by being elected president, and she jokingly tells audiences that after more than 200 years and 44 male presidents, "It's time." She also gushes about being a grandmother and jokes about coloring her hair.
Walsh said women tend to vote not based on gender, but on sets of issues including economic security. Trump, she said, has been playing his own gender card, by trying to paint himself as the stereotypical strong - and male - presidential candidate.
But Ryan D. Enos, an associate professor of government at Harvard University, said it remains a real possibility that Clinton could lose votes because she is a woman.
"It's not clear how much of that would be generated by Trump saying all this stuff and how much would be generated because some people don't want to vote for a woman," Enos said.
Enos said that if Trump is the Republican nominee, people could choose to vote for him because of party affiliation despite what he has said about women. And no matter who the Republican nominee is, if Clinton is the Democratic nominee, the election will probably be about gender.
"It's unprecedented enough to have a woman running anyway. I think in a certain respect this would be an election about gender politics one way or the other," he said.
Jose DelReal in Indianapolis and Emily Guskin in Washington contributed to this report.

Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
W: 202.863.8148
paustenbachm@dnc.org


Versus the GOP? Not really…he typically shoots down any oppo we pitch, no matter how legit. Even Holly couldn’t gift him legit Hispanic scoops that diminished Rubio and Jeb and/or built us up. We’ve spoken candidly about this with him before. His beat is Hispanics. On a personal level, he’s convinced we’re full of shit when it comes to his beat. Some reasons why —
He’s got a universe of consultants we always say we’ll hire and never do who see him as their top media POC for venting their version of real talk. These are the core of his sourcing this election cycle.
The GOP establishment has more than double the number of Hispanics we do proportionally and more than that in real numbers. He tends to hang out with Hispanics when he’s made the rounds this cycle. Ergo he hangs out with them and not us. What do they talk about? Us supposedly being full of shit when it comes to Hispanics.
After petitioning us for a 18 months for our diversity numbers, for some genius reason we gave the scoop on Alida’s data request to Darren Sands who, looking out for his boy, let him co-write it into a hit piece.
He finds it amusing that Hispanics never get to talk on the record with him. That we seem to need “an adult in the room” as it were, to talk to Buzzfeed. GOP-side there are over a dozen reliable Latina operatives who pitch, staff, spox, selfie, follow-up quickly and attentively with their every request. He’s a hero over there.
To wit — to him, he has exactly zero reasons to play nice with us. Make sense?
On May 11, 2016, at 6:34 PM, Walker, Eric
> wrote:
Does he EVER do this sort of shit about the republicans?
#.sr72VVd1x
Eric Walker
walkere@dnc.org
732-991-1489
@ericmwalker
Pablo Manriquez
Democratic National Committee
Phone: 202.572.5488
Email: pablo@dnc.org
web: democrats.org
Twitter: @Pablo_DNC


Just following up on this ---- I would appreciate getting TPs as soon as possible. I've been able to find clips of Ruth Guerra on television, but if you all have anything more, send it over.
Thanks in advance,
- - -
Sheyla A. Asencios
Deputy Political Director, Florida Democratic Party
o: 850-222-3411
c: 407-485-4408
e: sasencios@fladems.com
t: @sasencios
________________________________________
From: Pablo Manriquez [pmnrqz@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 9:37 AM
To: MattiC@dnc.org; Mark Paustenbach
Cc: Luis Miranda; Eric Walker; Sheyla A. Asencios; Max Steele
Subject: Al Punto - Sheyla vs Ruth
Hi Team. Tomorrow in Miami Univision pre-tapes Al Punto with Ruth Guerra from the RNC and Sheyla Asencios from the Florida Democrats. Sheyla is copied here. Can we get her some Ruth Guerra clips to review as well as some combative messaging points on Donald Trump.
My sense is that if Ruth talks about GOP's national program and Sheyla sticks to Florida toplines, we'll lose the segment badly because Ruth's numbers will look bigger. Further, as Ruth has a practiced narrative on HRC, we should really really go hard on the reality that the RNC = Trump.
Adding, Luis, Walker, & Max Steele for awareness. Al Punto's audience is about 330k as I recall.
Here to help. Thanks!
Sent from my iPhone


Eric Walker, Deputy Communications Director for the DNC
Thank you for joining us for this on-the-record call today. On Monday, a U.S. District Court upheld challenges to North Carolina's overly burdensome election law, H.B. 589. Quite simply, H.B. 589 was intended to make it harder for minorities, women, students, and the elderly to vote.
The Republican Party seems to believe their path to victory lies in restricting access to the ballot box, and Republican-led state legislatures are leading the charge in key battleground states across the country.
We are pleased to have CBC Chairman Representative G.K. Butterfield, Representative Alma Adams, and the DNC's National Director of Voter Expansion, Pratt Wiley, on today's call to outline the hurdles that North Carolinians face, and the challenges that lay before us in the ongoing fight for voting rights.
I would now like to turn the call over to CBC Chairman Butterfield who has been on the forefront of the fight for civil and voting rights.
CBC Chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield
It is deeply disturbing that as our nation moves forward, one of the country's major political parties is attempting to drag us backward. We should not have to re-litigate yesterday's battles or continue a fight we have previously won.
North Carolina's so-called Voter Information Verification Act, or H.B. 589, reversed a generation of electoral progress in my home state. Passed in the wake of the Supreme Court gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the bill eliminated same day voter registration, rolled back early voting by a full week, and imposed new requirements for voters to show a government-issued photo ID before being permitted to vote.
Supporters of the law argue that this bill was a necessary tool in the imaginary fight against voter fraud. At the time this bill was passed, the North Carolina State Board of Elections identified only two instances of potential voter impersonation in a 10-year period. Then House Speaker Thom Tillis even acknowledged in an interview that fighting so-called voter fraud was not the primary reason for passing the bill.
This purely partisan law was passed without any support from Democrats because its intent was clear from the very beginning - to systematically limit access to the polls in order to sway elections.
I sent Governor Pat McCrory a letter urging him to reject this onerous bill. Instead, he signed it into law. The Governor and those who advocated for this egregious law should be ashamed of themselves.  I know many of the good people of North Carolina are ashamed.
While we are certainly disappointed in the U.S. District Court for upholding this law, I strongly believe that the courts and the American public will ultimately understand what these types of laws do - in both cause and effect. Restrictive voting laws make it harder for minorities, women, students, the elderly and working parents to vote.
I have stood on the front lines of the fight for civil rights, as a participant in the 1963 March on Washington and as a former civil rights attorney. Voting is our most fundamental right - and one that for too long was kept out of the reach of far too many Americans.
It is said that those who do not know their history are destined to repeat it. The legacy and history of the civil rights movement is still being written, and we are continually adding new chapters to include the fight for full equality under the law for all Americans. I have not, and will not, sit idly by and allow others to erase our hard-fought gains. I applaud the work that voting rights activists are doing in the courts and in our communities in order to continue the fight. I intend to do my part in the halls of Congress so that no vote is cast in vain, and that no voices within our electorate are silenced.
With that, I now turn the call over to my friend and colleague, Alma Adams.
Rep. Alma Adams
Thank you, G.K.
It's deeply troubling that North Carolina had one of the highest voter participation rates in the country before H.B. 589 was signed into law. As G.K. noted, the law rolled back early voting periods, eliminated same-day registration, and imposed restrictive photo ID requirements for no other reason than to make it harder to vote.
Not everyone can take off time from work or school on a Tuesday to vote. Not everyone has a caregiver or can take a break from being a caregiver on a Tuesday to vote. Not everyone can drive to the polling location when another location is closer to one's home or children's school.  When we limit the ways that people can vote, we are hurting the low-wage workers with two jobs, the single mother who goes to work early each morning and picks up her children late at night, and the widower without a car who relies on his grown children to get to the polls.
There was a time in our not too distant past, when only a few blacks were able to cast a ballot across the South. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and being asked to count marbles in a jar were among the tactics used to prevent African-Americans from voting.
While we need not count marbles in a jar, modern barriers to voting have been erected in their place. From North Carolina to Wisconsin to Arizona, Republican-led state legislatures have taken steps to make it harder to vote.
I have heard very little from the Republican Party when it comes to protecting our most fundamental of rights, but I have witnessed what they are willing to do in order to win elections. If the Republican Party or any party wants my vote, they have to earn it.
This law would not have passed muster if it were subject to federal pre-clearance. Since a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 was invalidated, we have seen numerous states enact these types of burdensome laws.
No one should ever take for granted their right to vote, nor should anyone seek the take that right away.
[SigDems]
Deshundra Jefferson, Southern Regional Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
JeffersonD@dnc.org
| (202) 863-8112


I get that and will ask but I'm getting very different claims from different people on how this all went down (for instance I'm still trying to verify that the Sanders people submitted Intel
Sent from my iPhone
> On May 8, 2016, at 12:27 PM, Miranda, Luis
wrote:
>
> Off the record, you should request it from them, we don't divulge private communications from our candidates. However, since they raised it as an issue it would be surprising if they didn't send it to you.
> ________________________________________
> From: Daniel Strauss [dstrauss1987@me.com]
> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2016 12:25 PM
> To: Miranda, Luis
> Subject: Deep background question
>
> Hey
>
> So we want to see the list of committee appointments the Sanders   Folks submitted just to verify it was mostly staffers and ineligible figures. That possible with no fingerprints attached?
>
> Sent from my iPhone


Edits below
From: Walsh, Tom
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2016 1:28 PM
To: Miranda, Luis; Paustenbach, Mark; Walker, Eric; Banfill, Ryan; Freundlich, Christina
Subject: RE: Just in case - Draft DWS Kasich drop-out statement
Looping in Christina
From: Walsh, Tom
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2016 12:46 PM
To: Miranda, Luis; Paustenbach, Mark; Walker, Eric; Banfill, Ryan
Subject: Just in case - Draft DWS Kasich drop-out statement
For Immediate Release
May X, 2016
Contact - DNC Press 202-863-8148
DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz's Statement on Governor Kasich's Announcement that he is Suspending his Campaign for President
"With Governor Kasich out of the race, any remaining hope the GOP had of concealing their true colors behind his comparatively friendly-faced candidacy has evaporated. But make no mistake, the extreme policies he has long fought for are virtually indistinguishable from those of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the modern Republican Party.
[Two examples of shitty things he did as governor]
"For years, Republican leaders have employed a cynical, divisive political strategy to compel voters to vote out of distrust, suspicion and hate - rewarding those at the top and denigrating women, minorities, the LGBT community and more in the process. The result is the cynical, divided, bickering Republican base we see now. Today, the only energy left in the Republican primary isn't for anything, and their final contest is already shaping up to be a bitter, petty battle with one camp against Trump, and the other against Cruz.
"The contrast couldn't be more stark. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are fighting for the American people - for higher wages, for more opportunity, for a level playing field and for a brighter future. That's why Our voters are energized, enthusiastic, and optimistic because our candidates are committed to moving America forward. And that's why we're going to win on Election Day in November."
###


Starting chain
__________
Shu-Yen Wei
Northeast Press Secretary
AAPI & Women's Media
Democratic National Committee
207-512-0005
weis@dnc.org


Reminder: Luis has arrival time for Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” tomorrow at 10AM EST at the Fox News studio located at 400 North Capitol NW. Please reply or text if you need anything else for this booking. Thanks!
On May 6, 2016, at 8:32 PM, Manriquez, Pablo
> wrote:
What: TV – FOX BUSINESS “SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES”
When: Sunday, 8 May at 10:20AM EST
Where: Fox DC Bureau (400 N Capitol)
Format: Live
Who: Maria Bartiromo
Topic: State of the Race; Dem Campaigns news of the day; Bernie in OR & WV. Articles for prep:  //
Contact: Shavon, 718 687 8203, shavon.white@foxnews.com
TIMELINE
Arrival Time: 10AM EST
Makeup: Yessir
Hit Time: 10:20AM EST
Cleared: 10:30AM EST
Plus Mark, Walker, Rachel for awareness.
Pablo Manriquez
Democratic National Committee
Phone: 202.572.5488
Email: pablo@dnc.org
web: democrats.org
Twitter: @Pablo_DNC
Pablo Manriquez
Democratic National Committee
Phone: 202.572.5488
Email: pablo@dnc.org
web: democrats.org
Twitter: @Pablo_DNC


I think this is good if it holds.
Greg gets to post at like 9pm Sunday for the next day's front page, she does New Day in the AM and then Andrea in the afternoon?
Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
202.863.8148
paustenbachm@dnc.org
> On May 20, 2016, at 7:26 PM, Miranda, Luis
wrote:
>
> So what do you think if I tell her this?
>
> "There is a lot of reporter interest and plenty of outlets are chasing the story after the Ann Gearan story claimed the DNC would be offering concessions, but so long as you haven't called the people you'll be appointing to confirm they will definitely be on, we can probably hold it, work the story over Saturday and Sunday, and have our roll out on Monday morning. If the campaigns told these people they would definitely be on, then it will be pieced together more quickly. For a Monday roll out we would want a call with Cummings and a reporter tomorrow or early Sunday, with your calls to the members to confirm their appointment on Sunday afternoon."
> ________________________________________
> From: hrtsleeve@gmail.com [hrtsleeve@gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 20, 2016 6:36 PM
> To: Miranda, Luis; Tracie Pough; Banfill, Ryan
> Subject: Platform drafting rollout
>
> Luis, I do want to go with the Monday morning WP/New Day/Andrea Mitchell plan for the rollout. I asked Leah to hold and said I would be happy to talk to her. She is concerned it will leak before then but I think we can mostly keep it contained.
>
> Please let me know what you think.
>
> DWS
>