The Note: Democrats Brace for Debate Battle in Brooklyn
— -- NOTABLES
--5 THINGS TO WATCH AT TONIGHT'S DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN BROOKLYN: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere -- or so they say. And now, after competing press releases and months of negotiations, the two Democratic presidential candidates have their chance to show which one of them is ready to make it all the way to the White House. A political subway series, if you will, ladies and gentlemen. Two (sort of) New Yorkers battle it out on the debate stage again just days before the Empire State votes on Tuesday, April 19. ABC's MARYALICE PARKS and LIZ KREUTZ highlight what to look for in tonight's faceoff: http://abcn.ws/22wjIRl
--A NEW YORK ONE-MAN UPMANSHIP: Will the real New Yorker please stand up? Over the past few weeks, Clinton and Sanders have showed off their New York City chops as they've campaigned across the five boroughs. Clinton -- who lives in Westchester County north of New York City, is a former senator with campaign headquarters based in Brooklyn. Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn, held campaign events in front of his childhood home and iconic locations such as Coney Island and Washington Square Park. Tonight at the debate, the two candidates could likely try to one up each other about who lays greater claim to the Empire State. MORE: http://abcn.ws/22wjIRl
--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: As we add the Republican National Committee to the list of Donald Trump's enemies, even as he works to take Megyn Kelly off that same list, it's worth remembering that Trump doesn't always choose his feuds wisely. He plays political poker, not chess – thus attacks on the pope tumble from his campaign, as a tactical, not strategic, response. This, though, is one time he might want to learn how the pieces on the chessboard move. He's not going to get RNC rules changed. His belittling of RNC leaders won't change the leadership, and almost certainly won't sway delegates. His arguments are feeding his grievances. His supporters will follow, and may even threaten delegates who aren't on his side. But – and recent Trump hires suggest that he gets this - the fight is already changing to one over delegates. Trump can adjust, or he risks losing further ground, on the ground.
POLLING NOTE
TRUMP'S UNPOPULARITY STAYS SKY HIGH; CRUZ HITS A HIGH IN NEGATIVE RATINGS. Donald Trump ranks as the most unpopular top-tier presidential contender in more than 30 years of ABC News/Washington Post polls, trailing only former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke among presidential candidates in any election year since 1984, notes ABC's GREGORY HOLYK. At the same time, the unpopularity of Trump's main rival, Ted Cruz, has reached its highest level yet this election cycle. Trump's seen unfavorably by 67 percent of Americans in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. That's unchanged from last month and slightly off his high, 71 percent unfavorable in an ABC/Post poll nearly year ago. http://abcn.ws/1T6735a
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL
with ABC's PAOLA CHAVEZ
TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER COREY LEWANDOWSKI WILL NOT BE PROSECUTED FOR ALLEGED INCIDENT WITH REPORTER: SOURCE. Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will not be prosecuted for simple battery following his altercation in March with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, a source familiar with the investigation confirms to ABC News. The state's attorney in Florida has decided not to move forward with criminal charges, says the source, adding the decision is expected to be formally announced Thursday, ABC's AARON KATERSKY and DAVID CAPLAN report. Lewandowski was charged with the misdemeanor March 29 stemming from a March 8 incident at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, police said. http://abcn.ws/1TSk1FX
BERNIE SANDERS STANDS WITH VERIZON WORKERS ON STRIKE. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who are on strike in New York City after the communications company and unions representing the workers failed to reach a labor agreement. “Brothers and sisters, thank you for your courage in standing up for justice against corporate greed,” Sanders told workers outside a Verizon store in Brooklyn, ABC's PAOLA CHAVEZ, VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and MARYALICE PARKS report. “Today you are standing up not just for justice for Verizon workers, you are standing up for millions of Americans who don't have a union.” He added, “I know you thought a lot about it and I know your families are gonna pay a price for going out on strike, but you have chosen to stand up for dignity, for justice." http://abcn.ws/1T4LrWW
BERNIE SANDERS KICKS OFF STAR STUDDED MASSIVE RALLY IN NYC'S WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK. Bernie Sanders descended upon Washington Square Park in Manhattan's Greenwich Village Wednesday night for one of his campaign's largest, outdoor rallies. The Sanders campaign estimated that more than 27,000 people attended the rally, making the event the campaign's third-largest rally, behind Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles. The NYPD would not verify the number of attendees. According to ABC's MARYALICE PARKS and DAVID CAPLAN, speakers included actress Rosario Dawson and filmmaker Spike Lee, both of whom are native New Yorkers. http://abcn.ws/1qqeeLK
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ‘RULES' DONALD TRUMP IS COMPLAINING ABOUT. Donald Trump has been questioning the deadlines set on the delegate acquisition rules, but Republican Party officials say they were set well before the nominating contests got underway earlier this year. Trump has repeatedly blasted the RNC for using "the rules" to keep him from earning enough delegates to clinch the nomination. However, the chairman of the RNC says that these complaints are coming far too late and that the rules have been the same since they were set last year. The rules in question are the state-level Republican Party rules that determine how each state's delegates are allotted. Those rules were set on a state-by-state basis, so the terms of the allotments and the dates when they were set differ. ABC's MEGHAN KENEALLY and KATHERINE FAULDERS have more. http://abcn.ws/1Q7RJ3q
HILLARY CLINTON ON DONALD TRUMP: ‘EVERYONE SEES THE BIGOTRY FOR WHAT IT IS.' Hillary Clinton slammed Republican front-runner Donald Trump during a campaign appearance in New York City Wednesday, saying, “Everyone sees this bigotry for what it is.” “Ugly currents that lurked just the below the surface of our politics have burst into the open. And everyone sees this bigotry for what it is, therefore it is up to all of us to repudiate it,” Clinton said during a speech on race at the annual National Action Network convention, where she was joined by Al Sharpton. ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI, PAOLA CHAVEZ and LIZ KREUTZ have more. http://abcn.ws/23FJDsr
DONALD TRUMP AND MEGYN KELLY ‘CLEARED THE AIR' IN MEETING. Donald Trump and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly -- who have had a long-standing feud stemming from the first Republican debate -- met Wednesday in Trump's office. A source close to Trump confirms the meeting happened late Wednesday morning, ABC's JOHN SANTUCCI and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI report. No further details or what was discussed were immediately available. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. http://abcn.ws/23viWdc
DONALD TRUMP CALLS TO ‘BRING BACK' PENN STATE COACH JOE PATERNO AS CLASHES ERUPT OUTSIDE. As Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of close to 8,000 Pennsylvanians, he thought it prudent to bring up an old hero from the state. "I know a lot about Pennsylvania, and it's great. How's Joe Paterno. We're gonna bring that back? Right?...How 'bout that whole deal?” Meanwhile, outside of the rally in Pittsburgh, hundreds of protesters gathered to protest Trump. Tensions ran high and obscenities flew from both sides when protesters and Trump supporters clashed after the rally let out. Video obtained by ABC News shows protesters being pushed to the ground by police after a skirmish erupted; another video shows a local reporter being shoved by an officer. ABC's CANDACE SMITH has more. http://abcn.ws/1N9uoni
TED CRUZ: TRUMP STAFFERS ‘ACTING LIKE UNION BOSS THUGS' TO EARN DELEGATES. Ted Cruz said Wednesday night that rival Donald Trump's campaign staffers are "acting like union boss thugs." The Texas senator made the comments during an Anderson Cooper-hosted CNN town hall meeting, during which Cruz claimed the Trump staffers are attempting to intimidate potential delegates heading to July's Republican National Convention. According to ABC's INES DE LA CUETARA, Cruz made the comment when Cooper asked him to respond to Trump convention manager Paul Manafort's comments that the Cruz campaign is using “Gestapo tactics" to win delegates. “It is bizarre," said Cruz. "Donald and his team, it's almost like they are subjects in a clinical course in psychology. The conduct they do, literally, they accuse others of doing." http://abcn.ws/23wi1ZZ
BERNIE SANDERS' BROOKLYN: A LOOK AT HIS OLD STOMPING GROUND. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has made his Brooklyn, New York, upbringing a regular feature of his stump speech. But the Brooklyn that Sanders knew as a resident there in the 1940s and 1950s is quite different from the one where he has been campaigning recently. His old schools are still there, and so are the buildings where he used to live, but the neighborhoods have changed along with some of the sentiments, ABC's MEGHAN KENEALLY has more. http://abcn.ws/1Sfyvk0
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS MARTIN O'MALLEY AND MIKE HUCKABEE MIGHT START A BAND. An unlikely pair of former presidential candidates paid a joint visit to Washington, D.C., Wednesday: Former Govs. Martin O'Malley and Mike Huckabee. Standing before a bus draped in red, white and blue flanked with bayonet-carrying American Revolution soldiers and Red Coats, the two discussed the third season of AMC's Revolutionary War drama "TURN: Washington's Spies" during their first joint appearance. The two former governors and 2016 primary candidates may hail from opposing political parties, but they have something else in common: both are amateur musicians with an affinity for the guitar, ABC's ALI DUKAKIS writes. ABC News caught up with the odd couple and asked about the possibility of a bi-partisan band now that both have retired from the campaign trail. WATCH: http://abcn.ws/1VWvV1E
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
BERNIE SANDERS GETS FIRST US SENATOR ENDORSEMENT. Bernie Sanders has snagged his first endorsement from a sitting U.S. senator, less than a week before the New York primary. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., penned an op-ed this morning in The New York Times endorsing his fellow senator for president, ABC's BRIAN MCBRIDE notes. "After considering the biggest challenges facing our nation and the future I want for my children and our country," Merkley wrote. "I have decided to become the first member of the Senate to support my colleague Bernie Sanders for president." http://abcn.ws/1Sfbk9u
WHO’S TWEETING?
@JenniferJJacobs: Jane Sanders on @Morning_Joe: I don't think anyone's going to get the pledged delegates that they need going into the Dem convention.
@TalKopan: Forget the primary - we may see a campaign for VP in a contested convention: http://cnn.it/1VYgfuH
@latimes: Celebrity endorsement tracker: Who's backing who in the 2016 race http://lat.ms/1N6Nqus
@edatpost: NEW THIS MORNING: Inside @TedCruz’s novel strategy for winning from behind http://wpo.st/xPPU1 (by @katiezez & @waposean)
@NorahODonnell: .@CBSNews poll out this AM shows #Trump still leads the Republican race - 42% of GOP voters nationwide support Trump