The Note: Clinton-Lynch Meeting Reverberates
— -- NOTABLES
--TRUMP CALLS BILL CLINTON-LORETTA LYNCH MEETING: ‘SOMETHING THAT YOU DON’T DO’: In an interview with ABC News’ Tom Llamas yesterday, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump criticized a meeting that took place between former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch at a Phoenix, Arizona airport on Monday. Trump said that the meeting was “just something that you don’t do from an ethical standpoint. It’s something that is unheard of.” He added, “Nobody can even think where there’s a precedent,” ABC’s NOAH FITZGEREL reports. http://abcn.ws/293ZJVu
--LYNCH WILL ACCEPT FBI RECOMMENDATIONS IN CLINTON PROBE: Lynch is expected to announce later today in Aspen, Colorado, that she will follow and accept whatever recommendation the FBI and career prosecutors and investigators make regarding whether to bring charges in the Hillary Clinton email probe, a Justice Department official told ABC News. Lynch has decided that she will green light whatever recommendation comes from the FBI and senior career lawyers in the Justice Department, after a months-long investigation tied to Clinton's use of a private email server, ABC’s MIKE LEVINE reports. http://abcn.ws/29dziQR
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: What the heck were they thinking? Maybe they weren’t – and that’s the problem, of course. At the very least, the fact that a private meeting occurred between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton was the product of a series of major errors in judgment. The former president and his team made a massive political error – an utterly unforced one – in not realizing how such an encounter, even a brief one, would be perceived in the summer of an election year. The attorney general and her team miscalculated the optics and perhaps the legality of the situation in allowing any such discussion, when everyone knows the FBI in the midst of an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s handling of her emails. Lynch’s announcement that she would defer to the FBI’s recommendations on the case doesn’t resolve anything. (In what scenario would it have been alright for her to insert her judgment for the FBI’s?) Donald Trump gets a new and powerful talking point. Bill Clinton again shows how his immense value can easily be outweighed in the other direction. And Clinton campaign staffers in Brooklyn have every right to be as upset with all of this as career prosecutors in Washington.
THIS WEEK ON ‘THIS WEEK’: Is the Rust Belt Donald Trump’s most likely path to victory? Ohio senator and Clinton supporter Sherrod Brown and former Pennsylvania senator and Trump supporter Rick Santorum weigh in, Sunday on “This Week.” And, the Powerhouse Roundtable debates the week in politics with host of NPR’s Morning Edition Steve Inskeep, ABC’s Cokie Roberts, Wall Street Journal columnist and author of the new book “The Intimidation Game” Kimberley Strassel, and The Atlantic senior editor Alex Wagner.
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ
TRUMP SAYS HE'LL CONSIDER SUGGESTION TO REPLACE HIJAB-WEARING TSA AGENTS. Donald Trump waded once again into familiar territory Thursday: controversy, stemming from comments involving the Muslim faith. During a question-and-answer session following a trade policy-themed town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire, audience member Cathie Chevalier asked, "Why aren’t we putting our military retirees on that border or in TSA? Get rid of all these hibi-jabis they wear at TSA?" Chevalier continued, "I’ve seen them myself. We need the veterans back in there to take it. They fought for this country and defended it, they’ll still do it." Trump seemed to affirm the idea, telling her he would consider her suggestion, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH notes. "You know, and we are looking at that," he said. "And we are looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things." http://abcn.ws/299309e
TRUMP JOKES ABOUT 'MEXICAN PLANE' 'READY TO ATTACK.' It's a bird, it's a plane... No, it's "Mexican plane...getting ready to attack." This was the bizarre joke that Donald Trump tried to bring in for a landing during a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Thursday, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH writes. When a plane flew overhead during a discussion on Mexico, Trump jested: "In fact that could be a Mexican plane up there they’re getting ready to attack." http://abcn.ws/296cteF
CHRISTIE BEING VETTED AS POTENTIAL VP PICK FOR TRUMP. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is being vetted as a possible vice presidential pick for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to two ranking Republican officials. Despite Christie going through the vetting process, the two ranking Republican officials told ABC News they doubt Christie would ultimately be Trump’s pick. Christie endorsed Trump for president in February, just weeks after suspending his presidential campaign, and has been a surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail. ABC’s JOSH MARGOLIN has more. http://abcn.ws/29bs53z
TRUMP WANTS TO USE ‘OBSOLETE’ NATO TO FIGHT ISIS. Donald Trump said that he would be open to using NATO forces to fight ISIS despite blasting the alliance in the past as "obsolete," he told ABC News’ Tom Llamas Thursday. “I like the idea of using NATO and also neighbors that aren’t in NATO and take them out. You gotta take them out,” Trump said ahead of a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire. ABC’s PAOLA CHAVEZ and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI note Trump has been critical of NATO in the past, calling it “obsolete” and “expensive” in an interview on “This Week” in March. In the interview with Llamas, Trump acknowledged that he has not released the details of his plan to defeat ISIS because “everybody’s watching.” http://abcn.ws/298pbeW
POSSIBLE HILLARY CLINTON VP PICK UNDER SCRUTINY FOR PAST GIFTS. During the eight years in which Sen. Tim Kaine served as the lieutenant governor and governor of Virginia, he disclosed that he accepted more than $160,000 worth of gifts. The gifts, which were legal and mostly travel to and from political events, could now come under a harsher spotlight now that Kaine is reportedly one of the top contenders to become Hillary Clinton’s running mate. ABC’s ALI WEINBERG reports a spokesman defended the Democrat’s actions while he was in the Virginia statehouse in Richmond, Thursday. “Sen. Kaine went beyond the requirements of Virginia law, even publicly disclosing gifts of value beneath the reporting threshold. He’s confident that he met both the letter and the spirit of Virginia’s ethical standards,” the spokesman said in a statement. http://abcn.ws/298pBWb
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
OBAMA EXPECTED TO HIGHLIGHT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH CLINTON ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL NEXT WEEK. President Obama is set to hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton in the swing state of North Carolina next week after sitting out the primary until the former secretary of state became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee earlier this month. The president has described his mood as "fired up" about talking with voters, adding that he "cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary." Obama is expected to campaign quite a bit for Clinton, particularly in the fall, and brings a unique perspective, having competed against her in the 2008 primary before working closely with her as his secretary of state, ABC’s JOSH HASKELL notes. http://abcn.ws/297t5FL
WHO’S TWEETING?
@thehill: JUST IN: Trump: GOP asked me to speak every night at convention http://hill.cm/270HCqh
@McCormickJohn: Clinton Spending Roughly $500,000 a Day on TV Ads, Trump Zero: http://bloom.bg/29iUcAd
@Isikoff: Trump pal Barrack told CNN on 6/2 he had $32 mill in pledges for pro-Trump superpac. So far, only $2 mill collected. http://yhoo.it/29gH10L
@costareports: From today's paper w/ @ktumulty: WaPo confirms that Gingrich & Christie are being vetted by Trump http://wapo.st/29gaCZE
@sahilkapur: NEW: Trump's Errors Stymie Efforts to Use Supreme Court to Rally Conservatives http://bloom.bg/29xh9vu