For all the intensity and escalation of the last 72 hours, the biggest tell isn’t the canceled event in Chicago, the protestor rushing the stage in Dayton or the stunning announcement from Trump this morning that he wants to cover the legal bills of the supporter who sucker punched a protestor late last week in Fayetteville. The biggest tell is hiding there in plain sight and yet oddly out of view. Donald Trump realized that he needed to tamp down the heat of his campaign going into last week, not to forestall violence or do the right thing but for a very specific tactical reason. He is on the brink of securing the Republican nomination. But to have a nomination that is worth anything he needs at least the acquiescence of GOP party stakeholders. He told us as much. Thus the repeated calls to unity, the more sedate debate performance and even the rather bizarre invocations of the ‘two Donald Trumps.’ But that’s not how it’s ended up. And it’s important to consider why.
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In case you missed it over the weekend, my look at the last 96 hours and where this is going: “Someone Will Die“.
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Liz McMillen, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, will join the Hive (sub req) on Thursday March 17th to discuss all things related to higher education. Topics can include the value of a college degree, the cost of college, student protests, sexual assault on college campuses and who/what college is for. McMillen became editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education in August 2011. Previously, she worked for the Associated Press in Philadelphia and later attended the University of Durham on a Rotary International Fellowship.
McMillen will be taking questions on Thursday March 17th — drop them in now or join us at 1 p.m. EST on the 17th!
Katherine Krueger walks us through the strange Breitbart implosion over Trump.
Welp, Paul Ryan’s office suggests he can’t do much to stop Trump because Ryan is the chair of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and must remain neutral.
Donald Trump has apparently decided it is not a good idea to pay the legal fees of violent extremists at his rallies who he encourages to beat protestors. And he’s told us this in the form of claiming he never said he wanted to in the first place.
Live election results in all the states tonight over to the right on our front page.