The Note: Numbers and Negatives

ByABC News

May 23, 2016, 8:55 AM

 -- NOTABLES

POSTPRIMARY RALLY BOOSTS TRUMP. Numbers from an ABC News/Washington Post poll out yesterday shows a close contest in presidential election preferences, with Republicans lining up behind Donald Trump as their party’s presumptive nominee while the continued Democratic race is keeping Hillary Clinton’s side more unsettled. Greater voter registration among Republicans is one factor: Clinton’s 6-point lead among all adults (48-42 percent in a general election matchup) switches to essentially a dead heat among registered voters (46 percent for Trump, 44 percent for Clinton). Regardless, the contest has tightened considerably since March, when Clinton led among registered voters by 9 points. Trump’s enhanced competitiveness reflects consolidation in his support since his primary opponents dropped out, and it comes despite significant challenges to his candidacy. ABC’s GARY LANGER has more: http://abcn.ws/258ZfoP

TRUMP’S ENHANCED COMPETITIVENESS COMES DESPITE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES TO HIS CANDIDACY. Fifty-eight percent of Americans call him unqualified to be president, 60 percent see him unfavorably overall, 76 percent think he doesn’t show enough respect for those he disagrees with, and 64 percent say he should release his tax returns (with most feeling strongly about it). Clinton has challenges of her own: 53 percent of Americans (and 57 percent of registered voters) see her unfavorably, making this a matchup between the two most unpopular likely presidential candidates in the history of ABC/Post election polls, dating back to 1984. http://abcn.ws/258ZfoP

ANALYSIS – ABC’s RICK KLEIN. “We are stronger together,” Hillary Clinton declared on “Meet the Press.” It’s a general-election message with primary consequences for Clinton, as she faces the inconvenience of a primary opponent even after the race against Donald Trump has begun. That challenge is freshly relevant, with an ABC News/Washington Post poll finding Clinton’s lead against Trump erased. Trump enjoys a 46-44 lead, powered in part by the nearly 1 in 4 liberals who say they would support Trump over Clinton. That brings us back to the Democratic primary. Clinton is putting the onus on Bernie Sanders to decide what he wants to fight for and begin the kind of outreach that would result in his endorsing Clinton, whose lead is insurmountable. But what’s flowing in the other direction? Clinton and the Democratic Party leadership remain at war with a man who keeps on winning primaries. By all accounts, Trump has done more outreach to Paul Ryan than Clinton has to Sanders. Democrats are indeed stronger together, but getting there is a challenge both campaigns need to work toward achieving.

LAST WEEKEND ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI

BILL CLINTON SAYS HE WON'T MENTION TRUMP (THEN MENTIONS HIM THREE TIMES). Former President Clinton rarely mentions his wife's political rivals by name, usually referring to Bernie Sanders as "her opponent" and to Donald Trump as "the other guy," but yesterday he told a crowd of Hillary Clinton supporters in Delano, California, that he has plenty of attack lines for Trump, ABC’s MATTHEW CLAIBORNE notes. To the crowd’s disappointment, Bill Clinton said he would not deliver them — but then he did anyway. "Now look, I got a lot of applause lines. I could make you boo Mr. Trump. I'm not interested in that. Not today," Clinton said as he casually leaned against the lectern. "I want you to think about what you need. And I want you to think he may be a ruder version of what’s going around in the world." http://abcn.ws/1TQQubj

SANDERS: AMERICAN PEOPLE SEE HILLARY CLINTON AS ‘LESSER OF TWO EVILS.’ Sen. Bernie Sanders said one of the reasons he is staying in the race is that he does not want Americans "voting for the lesser of two evils." He added that he will use Clinton's low favorability ratings as part of his case to Democratic Party superdelegates that they should back him over her, ABC’s MARYALICE PARKS reports. "We need a campaign, an election, coming up which does not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked. I don't want to see the American people voting for the lesser of two evils," the senator told ABC’s GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS. Asked by Stephanopoulos whether he would describe Clinton as the lesser of two evils against Donald Trump, Sanders responded, "No, I wouldn't describe it, but that's what the American people are saying." http://abcn.ws/1TO3MW4

SANDERS ALSO SAYS CLINTON IS ‘JUMPING THE GUN’ ON NOMINATION TALK. Sanders told ABC’s GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS that he thought Hillary Clinton was “jumping the gun” when she said recently that she was undoubtedly going to be the Democratic nominee. Sanders pointed to his recent victories in Oregon, West Virginia and Indiana as evidence that she was getting ahead of herself and added, “We're going to have to do very, very, very well in the remaining nine contests. I think we have a shot.” http://abcn.ws/1TnNp8g

NOTED: SANDERS BOOSTS WASSERMAN SCHULTZ PRIMARY OPPONENT. Sanders is taking his increasingly pitched fight against the Democratic Party establishment straight to the top of the party, with an endorsement of Tim Canova, a South Florida law professor challenging Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in her congressional district's primary. "Clearly, I favor her opponent," Sanders told CNN in an interview over the weekend. "His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz's." According to ABC’s BENJAMIN SIEGEL and MARYALICE PARKS, Sanders told CNN that he wouldn't support Wasserman Schultz's leading the Democratic Party if he is elected president. http://abcn.ws/1s3Lnhs

CLINTON SAYS SHE’S LOOKING BEYOND POLITICIANS IN VEEP SEARCH. Hillary Clinton says she’s looking beyond just politicians as she begins her search for a potential running mate. “I think we should look widely and broadly,” the Democratic presidential candidate said on “Meet the Press” Sunday when asked about her vice presidential search. "It’s not just people in elective office. It is successful businesspeople. I am very interested in that.” ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ has more. http://abcn.ws/1OH5NS7

CLINTON FIRES BACK AT TRUMP FOR NRA REMARKS. Hillary Clinton fired back at Donald Trump Saturday night for comments he made to the National Rifle Association, in which he spoke in favor of open carry laws and accused her of wanting to take away the right to bear arms — a position she has not taken. In return, Clinton accused Trump of pandering to the gun lobby and for calling for "dangerous" gun policies, ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ notes. "This is someone running to be president of the United States of America, a country facing a gun violence epidemic, and he's talking about more guns in our schools," the Democratic presidential front-runner said during remarks at the Trayvon Martin Foundation's third annual Circle of Mothers Dinner in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. http://abcn.ws/1WJa7st

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CLINTON SURROGATE CALLS TRUMP A ‘TRAIN WRECK.’ The Clinton campaign has made it clear that neither former President Bill Clinton nor Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton will engage in a name-calling war with Donald Trump, but that does not mean that their surrogates won't do the punching on their behalf, ABC’s MATTHEW CLAIBORNE writes. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a rumored potential vice presidential pick for Hillary Clinton, Saturday introduced Bill Clinton to a crowd of 1,500 people in Southern California. During his 10-minute introduction, Perez called Trump a "train wreck for America." Perez even speculated that a Trump administration would rename the White House. "I wouldn't be surprised if in the first 100 days of a Trump administration the first executive action would be to rename the White House the Trump House, because it's all about him," Perez said. http://abcn.ws/1sxcKAA