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April 7, 2016
Top Stories
Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton Isn’t ‘Qualified’ To Be President
The Gist: During a Wednesday rally in Philadelphia, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president, responding to comments from the former secretary of state criticizing Sanders’ recent interview with the New York Daily News.
Ex-Staffer: Wisconsin GOPers Cheered Voter ID Bill For What It ‘Could Do For Us’
The Gist: A former top staffer for a Republican legislator in Wisconsin suggested this week that GOP legislators were motivated to pass the state’s tough photo voter ID law because they believed it would help them at the ballot box, an account he expanded on in a Wednesday interview with TPM.
RNC Chair: We’ll Make Sure Unbound Delegates At Convention Are Safe
The Gist: Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, on Wednesday night said that he would make sure that the delegates at the party’s nominating convention in July are safe, responding to threats from an ally of Donald Trump.
From The Reporter’s Notebook
TPM’s Tierney Sneed talked to a former staffer of a Wisconsin GOP legislator who said Republicans there cheered a 2011 voter ID law for what it “could do for us.” The staffer’s boss, then-state Sen. Dale Schultz (R) voted for the bill, but eventually became a vocal critic of GOP-backed voting restrictions. Schultz voted against a 2014 bill to cut back early voting and he accused his fellow Republicans of “trying to suppress the vote.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Elections aren’t fundamentally about rules and bylaws. They’re about legitimacy. For a series of partly historically contingent reasons, starting about fifty years ago we switched to a system which is in effect a national primary nomination election, albeit run state by state. Two or three generations of Americans have been trained to that reality, that understanding of how things are supposed to work. I simply think that tossing out the whole primary voting process at the convention will be a bridge too far. I’m not saying it shouldn’t happen or can’t happen. I’m saying I don’t think they can pull it off and have a party to speak of to run in November.”
Say What?!
“You cut Medicaid, so I couldn’t get Obamacare! You’re an asshole! You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”
– A woman publicly shamed Rick Scott at a Starbucks in Florida.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Then here comes this guy. Super successful. He got ahead when we couldn’t. He must know something. This guys starts talking about deporting these people. Things were better before they came, they will be better with them gone. When black people show up at the grocery store, I am powerless. When they show up at his rallies, he tosses them out on their ass. Puts them in their place, where they were when things were good for me. In the past, sure he gamed the system. Now he is going to game the system for us. And even if he doesn’t, our worst case scenario is status quo PLUS he calls bullshit on everything. He says the things I think but can’t say in public without being called a racist or a sexist. Best case scenario, he does what he says. He gets rid of what I perceive as the problem which will then reset things to how they were. When things were great for me. Maybe he can make things great for me again. The others have talked the talk and then let us down. This guy scares the shit out of those people, so maybe, just maybe, he will walk the walk. And if it all burns down around me, who cares. It already has. What do I have to lose? That is Trump’s appeal in a nutshell. With the right eyes, you can see him as their version of Sanders.”
Related: Fox News tried to make a Trump-Sanders debate happen.
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What We’re Reading
Gerald Foos bought a motel in order to watch his guests having sex. He saw a lot more than that. ( The New Yorker)
The afterlife of O.J. Simpson. (The New Republic)
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