People are playing Pokemon Go at Arlington National Cemetery, dishonoring all the drone operators who keep us free. Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton, which is going to come back to haunt him when she’s indicted. And in 2008, Donald Trump said Hillary would be a good president, though that was before he read about Vince Foster on that website with the big green font and photos of celebrities with stars of David on their foreheads. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, July 12, 2016:
BERNIE ENDORSES HILLARY - Hillary and Bernie looked like a pair of in-laws someone had maliciously seated together at a family dinner. Mollie Reilly: “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president. ‘Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process, and I congratulate her for that,’ Sanders said. ‘She will be the Democratic nominee for president and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States.’ Sanders thanked those who voted for him during the Democratic primary ― especially the people of New Hampshire, where he got his first primary win, and his home state of Vermont. He also warned against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, arguing the business mogul would be bad for working families, calling Trump’s economic policies ‘reckless.’ Sanders slammed Trump’s anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim comments, claiming the GOP hopeful would divide Americans.” [HuffPost]
DIEHARD BERNIE FANS NOT TAKING THIS TOO WELL - Though one recent survey shows Sanders supporters shifting to Clinton, not all of his boosters were convinced. “Senator Sanders had to play ball with a political machine and in many ways chose a noble path, considering he could have easily torn down this machine at the convention,” emailed H.A. Goodman, a widely read pro-Sanders blogger whose takes on the senator’s electoral inevitability went viral and, in some quarters, provoked genuine amusement. “I will always love Bernie, and respect all he’s done to make a positive impact in the world and within the Democratic Party,” Goodman added. “However, neocons and Henry Kissinger are on Clinton’s team, and I feel Clinton is lying about the TPP and the notion she’d ever put Wall Street bankers in jail, along with other concerns. Since I feel Clinton is more militant than even Trump, and since she voted for Iraq and just recently advocated sending American ground troops abroad, I actually view Trump as the lesser evil.” Goodman added that he would vote for the Green Party’s Jill Stein or perhaps write in Sanders when he casts a ballot in November. “I truly fear Clinton,” he said. [w/ HuffPost’s Sam Stein]
OBAMA SPEAKS AT DALLAS MEMORIAL - Jon Herskovitz and Jeff Mason: “President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised Dallas police officers including the five slain at a protest against police violence last week for saving lives during the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement in almost 15 years. ‘We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professionally,’ Obama told a memorial service for the slain police officers. ‘They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn.’ ‘And when anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased or bigoted, we undermine those officers we depend on for our safety,’ Obama added...Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, also addressed the packed hall, where five chairs were empty of people, holding folded American flags, in memory of the slain officers.” [Reuters]
George W. Bush sort of danced during the ceremony.
DELANEY DOWNER - @ArlingtonNatl: We do not consider playing “Pokemon Go” to be appropriate decorum on the grounds of ANC. We ask all visitors to refrain from such activity.
DOUBLE DOWNER - The Holocaust Museum is also an inappropriate venue for “Pokemon Go.”
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DAVID DUKE: NOW IS MY CHANCE - Gideon Resnick: “David Duke says he is getting ready to run for Congress. The former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and ex-candidate for Louisiana governor told The Daily Beast he is heavily leaning towards challenging Rep. Steve Scalise. Scalise is the No. 3 Republican in the House who reportedly once called himself ‘David Duke without the baggage’ and spoke at a white nationalist group that Duke founded. ‘I’ve very seriously set up an exploratory committee to run for the United States Congress against Steve Scalise,’ Duke said. ‘I expect to make a decision in a few days’ ahead of the July 22 ballot deadline.” [Daily Beast]
TRUMP ONCE CONTRADICTED HIMSELF, PT. 213,004,672 - Michael Rothford and Mark Maremont: “Donald Trump is attacking Hillary Clinton these days, but eight years ago, in the midst of the 2008 Democratic primary race, he said she would ‘make a good president’ and a lot of people thought pairing her with Barack Obama would be a ‘dream ticket.’ His kind words for Mrs. Clinton came in a previously unreported clip from ‘Trumped!,’ a syndicated radio feature that aired from 2004 to 2008 and consisted of a daily commentary of about 60 seconds from the real-estate mogul...In the early 2008 broadcast on Mrs. Clinton, aired as she and Mr. Obama still were dueling for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Trump said that ‘at least one member of [Mr. Obama’s] team said Clinton would make a good vice president. Well, I know her, and she’d make a good president or a good vice president.’” [WSJ]
GINGRICH OUT AT FOX AHEAD OF POSSIBLE VP PICK - The moon base it might be … [lifts hands to mouth] … happening! Paige Lavender: “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is no longer a contributor to Fox News, the network announced Tuesday.Gingrich most recently joined Fox News as a contributor in October 2015 after a stint as a contributor on CNN. Fox suspended its previous contract with Gingrich in May 2011, and he announced he would run in the GOP presidential primary shortly after. He dropped out of the race one year later. CNN reported earlier this week Gingrich has been “actively lobbying“ to be presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate.” [HuffPost]
GOP REGULARS SKIPPING CONVENTION - We won’t be! Please email us with all of your free booze offerings! Alex Isenstadt: “Many GOP regulars are skipping Cleveland entirely. (“I would rather attend the public hanging of a good friend,” says Will Ritter, an up-and-coming Republican digital strategist who worked on the three previous conventions.) And among those who are making the trek, there’s an overwhelming sense it won’t be fun at all. At a time when many Republicans are deeply dissatisfied with their nominee, pessimistic about their prospects for victory in the fall and alarmed about the direction of their party, there’s a reluctance about attending the convention more typically reserved for going to the DMV, being summoned for jury duty or undergoing a root canal...Those who are going often say they’re doing so out of a sense of obligation — to meet with clients or to hold meetings before making a beeline back to the airport. As the Republican Party prepares to nominate a figure who is registering historically high disapproval ratings, some don’t want to advertise their presence in Cleveland. “Don’t use my name,” said one senior party strategist. “I don’t want anyone to know I’m there.” (A few days after the interview, the strategist got back in touch, having decided not to go, after all.)” [Politico]
THE 90s WEREN’T THAT GREAT - Mike McAullif: “It’s not just Pokemon that’s made a comeback from the ‘90s. Members of Congress brought back the Monica Lewinsky scandal Tuesday in a hearing with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, apparently frustrated with Lynch’s answers about Hillary Clinton’s email. Lynch was on Capitol Hill for a regular Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice, but Republicans on the committee were almost all interested only in FBI Director James Comey’s recent decision not to seek a prosecution of the former secretary of state over her unusual email setup…’I couldn’t help being reminded when the whole thing ― especially over the last week ― of something that I was involved in, in this very committee 18 years ago,’ a frustrated Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) told Lynch. ‘At the time it was Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton who was in trouble. He was accused of sexually harassing a number of women and then he lied under oath about it. Committed perjury.’” [HuffPost]
CONGRESS REALLY GETTING THE GUN THING COMPLETELY WRONG - Kristina Wong: “A small group of Marine color guards were delayed from proceeding to a ceremony on Capitol Hill on Monday afternoon where they were scheduled to perform over concerns with their ceremonial drill rifles. The Marines had arrived at the Capitol with two rifles that were inoperable and unable to be loaded, but were still delayed at least 20 minutes while Capitol Police verified the rifles were inert. A handful of Capitol Police were at the scene on Monday, which took place at the south entrance of the Cannon Building. Three Marines had entered and were waiting inside the building, while one Marine stayed at the entrance just inside the building with the rifles in their carrying case.” [The Hill]
MUSLIM CHILDREN HARBOR PERFECTLY REASONABLE FEAR OF TRUMP - Sam Stein: “Last month, The Huffington Post convened a roundtable with Muslim students and educators at the Mastery Shoemaker Charter School in Philadelphia. During the course of the conversation, the group was asked: How many believe that if Trump were elected president, they would end up having to leave the country, either voluntarily or forcefully? More than half of the room raised a hand. After a bit of explanation, a student named Husnaa, who had been sitting quietly in her chair, spoke up. ‘I see it differently, because I think about Japanese internment camps,’ she responded, her words measured and precise. ‘They could keep us right here and put us all in the same place and make us suffer. I see that as a lot more plausible than shipping us out into the ocean. Round up all the Muslims, start with where,’ she trails off a bit. ‘I don’t like to think about that.’ Internment camps.” [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a very talented bird.
HILLARY IS WORSE THAN SINKHOLES, APPARENTLY - Now there’s a bumper sticker. Jim Malewitz: “Sheriff George Keely’s truck bobbed as he cruised down a particularly warped and cracked stretch of county road...The two gaping sinkholes, which sit between the small towns of Wink and Kermit atop the largely tapped out Hendrick oilfield, aren’t new. Wink Sink No. 1 ― more than a football field across and 100 feet deep when it collapsed ― turned 36 years old last month. It’s more massive cousin to the south, Wink Sink No.2, swallowed a water well, pipelines and surrounding desert back in 2002... fears are relative in this county of crunched budgets, rattlesnakes and too many road deaths in other, less remarkable circumstances. ‘We don’t lose sleep over it,’ Keely said. ‘The catastrophic event I’m most concerned about is if Hillary Clinton becomes president.’” [Texas Tribune]
COMFORT FOOD
- “This is just not where I saw myself at 27-years-old” ― one woman’s anti-Pokemon rant.
- Scientists are using drones and M&Ms to save endangered ferrets.
- NBC goes behind-the-scenes of six iconic political ads.
- An Australian company faked a number of prominent viral videos.
TWITTERAMA
@daveweigel: “We’re gonna win so much you’re gonna get tired of winning” is an aphorism that will survive this campaign.
@elisefoley: I just meant to write “don’t listen to me” and accidentally wrote “don’t listen to men” instead. Still works.
@MEPFuller: Looks like they’re gonna award the congressional baseball game trophy during this vote series.
Congress: Getting stuff done.
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