The Note: The Speaker Speaks
— -- NOTABLES
--RYAN VOTING FOR DONALD TRUMP: House Speaker Paul Ryan yesterday said he would vote for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in comments that his spokesman later said could be characterized as an "endorsement." In a column in the Janesville Gazette, Ryan said that Trump, the GOP's presumptive nominee, can help House Republicans enact their election-year policy agenda if he becomes president, ABC’s BENJAMIN SIEGEL notes. “I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall,” Ryan wrote in the Op-Ed. The Wisconsin Republican made the decision endorse Trump earlier this week, after initially withholding his support. http://abcn.ws/1Y53aRK
--WHAT RYAN SAID: "It’s no secret that he and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind," Ryan wrote in the piece. "But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement." The message of support comes just days before the speaker is expected to lay out the first proposal in his “Confident America” policy agenda. “For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I—and my House colleagues—have invested so much in through the years. It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead. Donald Trump can help us make it a reality,” Ryan wrote. http://abcn.ws/1Y53aRK
--WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Trump is expected to return to Washington this month for meetings with the House Republican conference and his early supporters on Capitol Hill. http://abcn.ws/1Y53aRK
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Donald Trump has said enough offensive things in enough offensive ways that it’s easy to lose the capacity for outrage. Even for Trump, though, his latest utterances about the federal judge assigned to a case brought against him deserve thought and scrutiny. Saying that a judge has an “inherent conflict of interest” because of his Mexican heritage – not because of any business or personal interest in the stakes of the case – is making a judgment on qualifications simply based on race. It’s a fanciful notion that would upend centuries of jurisprudence and American tradition. The fact that such a concept is being floated – and not in a coded or hypothetical way – is precisely why so many Republicans are offended and even terrified about the fact that Trump will be the Republican nominee for president. Coming just hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan put his intellectual heft on the line in supporting Trump is awkward for Ryan, and just about any other conservative who has grudgingly come to terms with Trump. It’s one thing to recognize the ways in which Trump is giving voters what they want. It’s another to pause and recognize how he’s sometimes been doing it.
THIS WEEK ON ‘THIS WEEK’: After her toughest critique of Donald Trump yet, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton comes to “This Week” Sunday. Then, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair and Trump supporter Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN comes to “This Week.” Plus, ABC News contributor and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman and Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist go head-to-head on economic policy in the presidential race. And, the Powerhouse Roundtable debates the week in politics with Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, Republican strategist and CNBC contributor Sara Fagen, and host and managing editor of TV One’s “News One Now” Roland Martin.
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ
TOP CLINTON ADVISOR SAYS THE PRIMARY IS OVER. While Bernie Sanders is vowing to fight for the Democratic nomination all the way to the convention, a Clinton campaign strategist says the Democratic primary is effectively over -- and the only people who don’t realize that are a small group of Bernie Sanders die-hards, ABC’s JORDYN PHELPS writes. “Here’s what’s not in doubt: That at some point Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton will have a majority of pledged delegates. Number one, she’ll have a majority of delegates overall, and a significant majority in the popular vote,” senior Clinton strategist Joel Benenson said in interview with ABC’s JONATHAN KARL and RICK KLEIN on the ABC News “Powerhouse Politics” podcast. “That’s why everybody in the party, except for a small group of people, are acknowledging that she will be and is the presumptive nominee in the Democratic Party,” Benenson said. http://abcn.ws/1O7nNKY LISTEN: http://apple.co/21V9721
VIOLENCE BREAKS OUT AT TRUMP RALLY IN SAN JOSE, PROTESTERS HURL EGGS, THROW PUNCHES, INTIMIDATE SUPPORTERS. Donald Trump's rally in San Jose, California, Thursday night was marred by violence by anti-Trump supporters, who targeted the event's attendees and police. The San Jose Police Department said it "made a few arrests" following the rally, and an officer was assaulted. A spokesperson said Thursday night, "As of this time, we do not have specific information on the arrests made. There has been no significant property damage reported." Trump's foes surrounded the San Jose Convention Center, where scuffles broke out between them and Trump supporters. Some of the altercations were physical, resulting in bloody injuries. ABC’s CANDACE SMITH, JOHN SANTUCCI and DAVID CAPLAN have more. http://abcn.ws/1VAGCaO
BILL CLINTON TAKES VEILED SWIPE AT TRUMP. President Bill Clinton made a speech that took a veiled swipe at Donald Trump, only uttering his name once yesterday in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In recent weeks, Trump has made it clear that he plans to attack the former president from the podium and online about his personal life, according to ABC’s MATTHEW CLAIBORNE. Clinton, though, has shied away from retaliating in the same way but has opted for a more veiled approached. "When people practice the politics of personal destruction, it works, until it doesn’t,” said Clinton. http://abcn.ws/1VAiIfF
SANDERS LOOKS TO WOO SUPERDELEGATES IN LONG SHOT BID FOR NOMINATION. Bernie Sanders said Thursday that it was all about California. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton is likely to secure the requisite number of delegates before polls close, Sanders said the most populous state in the union had a right to weigh in on the Democratic Party’s nomination. "You know what, I’m an old-fashioned guy. I kind of think that democracy is a good idea," Sanders said. Even if Sanders were to win a significant number of the pledged delegates in the large states that vote next week, he would then need to convince a few hundred superdelegates to switch their allegiances from Clinton in order to win the nomination. The Senator said they will spend time after next Tuesday lobbying those top party players before they place their votes at the Democratic National Convention in July, ABC’s MARYALICE PARKS reports. Sanders said his campaign had starting contacting superdelegates and would continue to do so “on a more individual basis” after the big primaries next week. http://abcn.ws/1UyvLvN
CLINTON CALLS DONALD TRUMP ‘TEMPERAMENTALLY UNFIT’ TO BE PRESIDENT. Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump as "temperamentally unfit" to be president in a speech, Thursday. "It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin," Clinton said. "Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different. They are dangerously incoherent. They're not even really ideas -- just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies," she said. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY and LIZ KREUTZ report, Clinton went on to slam Trump for "praising dictators like Vladimir Putin" and picking fights with allies like the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the president of Mexico and Pope Francis. http://abcn.ws/20VSEeD
TRUMP GIVES CONFLICTING ANSWERS ABOUT TRUMP UNIVERSITY HIRING. In a 2013 interview with ABC News and a deposition last December, Donald Trump offered two very different answers about how personally involved he was with hiring at his now-closed Trump University. ABC’s JOHN SANTUCCI, CANDACE SMITH and KATHERINE FAULDERS note, the University is the subject of three pending lawsuits in California and New York where plaintiffs have accused Trump University of being a sham. http://abcn.ws/1TYpgCo
CLINTON’S FORMER IT STAFFER TO PLEAD THE FIFTH IN COURT DEPOSITION IN EMAIL LAWSUIT. Bryan Pagliano, the former U.S. State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights at a June 6 deposition in D.C. District Court, his lawyers say. ABC’s JUSTIN FISHEL and LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN report, Pagliano’s Monday deposition is set in a lawsuit over public records brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch, regarding the operation of Clinton’s server and the employment status of one of her top aides. “Mr. Pagliano is a non-party caught up in a lawsuit with an undisputed political agenda,” his lawyers said in a court filing, obtained by ABC News. http://abcn.ws/1Y4Coce
6 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT PROSPECTIVE THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE DAVID FRENCH. “Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate - -an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance,” “Weekly Standard” editor Bill Kristol teased ahead of Memorial Day. Then Wednesday, Kristol revealed on Bloomberg Politics’ “With All Due Respect“ that he hoped the white knight candidate who could provide voters with an alternative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would be David French. French is a staff writer for the National Review who holds conservative views and has never held or ran for political office. ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI has more on the man whose name has been floated for an independent candidacy. http://abcn.ws/25zus4V
WHO’S TWEETING?
@Timodc: Paul handled a tough situation about as well as he could. But let's not try to sell this farce that Trump will support House agenda. Absurd
@ABCLiz: "I want your support, so that I can come out of CA strong, so that when I go toe to toe with Donald Trump..." Clinton says in El Centro
@TheBradMielke: .@BernieSanders just picked up another superdelegate. Martha Fuller Clark from NH is backing him for his "progressive agenda."
@ryanstruyk: The Quinnipiac poll yesterday showed that voters think Clinton is "better prepared to be president" than Trump: 56-35 percent.
@amyewalter: Latest polls show tight race,but plug in demographic data from polls & HRC wins more Electoral votes than Obama http://cookpolitical.com/story/9654
