Donald Trump starts the week on the verge of big delegate haul in New York’s primary Tuesday, but it does not sound like he’ll win many votes from contestants in an “American Dream Calendar Girls” pageant he once hosted.
Trump’s tumultuous trip toward either the White House or a ride back up that Trump Tower escalator he descended last year hit a new bump when the Boston Globe reported Sunday on a lawsuit in which the pageant’s co-founder and contestants alleged unwanted sexual advances, racism and misogyny by the celebrity businessman. Trump settled the 1991 suit. But he denied the allegations.
Trump lost out big again in local delegate fights Saturday, coming up short in Wyoming, Georgia, Kansas and Florida. But he still hopes his wins in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and California will help give him the delegates to win the GOP nomination on the first ballot in July.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton hammered Sen. Bernie Sanders, dispensing a fictional “Saturday Night Live” noogie and numerous real attacks as she prepares for what her backers expect will be a decisive win Tuesday and more victories in nearby northeastern states in coming weeks.
Trump, and Clinton, got good news Sunday from a CBS poll. It showed Trump up big in New York and in California. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, thwarted in New York by his attack on “New York values,” is working hard to beat Trump in the delegate-loaded western state.
Polls favor front-runners in California: Trump, who hopes to win almost all of New York’s 95 Republican delegates, will need every vote he can get after he was shut out of the delegate process in another western state Saturday. After Cruz won all 34 of Colorado’s delegates, prompting howls from Trump and his backers, the Texas senator captured all 14 in Wyoming’s convention, giving him 23 of the state’s 29 slots overall.
Trump only wins primaries: In Georgia, where Trump won the primary easily to earn most the state’s 76 delegates, Cruz won the election of supporters as delegates, assuring they will switch to support him on a second ballot after required vote for Trump on a first ballot. The voting prompted Trump backers to storm out, American flag in hand, from a party meeting Saturday, according to a local reporter.
Trump campaign cries foul: In rallies and television hits over the weekend, Trump and his aides denounced such results, arguing the GOP is rigging the nominating process against Trump.
“They keep saying ‘we didn’t change the rules,'” Trump said at a Staten Island rally Sunday. “They totally did. I came out in June, they saw I was going to win Colorado easily with the voters, which is most important, so they changed the rules and they took the voters out of it and they had the party bosses make the selection.”
“I don’t want to waste millions of dollars going out to Wyoming, many months before, to wine and dine and essentially pay off all these people, because a lot of it’s a payoff,” Trump said Saturday on Fox News. “They treat them, they take them to dinner, they get them these hotels, I mean the whole thing is a big payoff.”
But the Washington Examiner reported Sunday that Trump’s campaign in fact is offering to pay hotel and transportation costs for Nevada supporters who travel to Reno in mid May to participate in delegate elections.
Trump’s allegations prompted Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, for the second week in a row, to make the rounds on political shows Sunday. Priebus said he has done more television over two weeks than he has in two years to combat charges that the RNC is rigging the nomination process.
RNC Strikes Back: Priebus said he does not consider himself to be in a feud with the GOP front-runner and suggested Trump’s attacks are partly “hyperbole.” But the chaiman hit back at Trump’s threat that the party will face a “rough July” if they try to deny him their presidential nomination.
“There’s no room for threatening the delegates or the convention or anybody that would be going to our national convention,” Priebus said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Never apologize: The Trump’s campaign’s other weekend feud was with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski refused to apologize to Fields Sunday for grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Trump in a Florida incident in February that resulted in his arrest.
A video released by Palm County authorities showed the combative campaign manager lied when he claimed he “never touched” Fields. But Lewandowski was unrepentant Sunday, claiming on Fox News that he could not apologize to Fields because he had not met her.
Fields, appearing on CNN’s reliable sources, said both Lewandowski and Trump are still lying about the incident.
Hillary beats on Bernie: The Republican brawling overshadowed an increasingly bitter Democratic fight. After Clinton and Sanders shouted over each other during a Thursday night debate, “Saturday Night Live” mocked the exchange, with the fictional Clinton throwing Larry David’s Sanders into a headlock.
Sanders supporters protested a fundraiser hosted by George Clooney and others Friday and showered Clinton’s motorcade with $1 billions outside a Hollywood fundraiser on Saturday night. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Clooney said he agreed with Sanders that such events, including the $363,000 it cost to join him and Clinton at a table Friday night, are “obscene.” Clooney also said he could not argue with a protestor who told him: “You sucked as Batman.”
(One of Sanders’ own celebrity backers Danny DeVito, introduced the Vermont senator as Obi-Wan Kenobi on Sunday.)
But despite Sanders’ efforts, Clinton looked confident Sunday as she heads into the New York primary with a double-digit advantage and a polling edge in other upcoming delegate rich primary states like Pennsylvania, Maryland and California.
Clinton danced to Latin music in Washington Heights, declaring she was ready to tell Trump “basta,” Spanish for “enough.” She greeted enthusiastic backers at the rallies in Brooklyn and Staten Island Sunday. At a church in Westchester County, Clinton issued her latest call for stronger gun laws, an issue she appears to believe will help her in New York, upcoming primary states and in the general election. She ripped Sanders for waffling over a law restricting lawsuits against firearm makers and dealers.
“Guns are not the answer to anything,” Clinton told a congregation at Grace Baptist Church. “They are the answer to nothing except pain and heartbreak and ruined lives.”
Miscellaneous: Conservative pundit Erick Erickson said Sunday that he was recently hospitalized and nearly died due a condition that left his lungs “showered” with blood clots.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador left hundreds dead. Two earthquakes also struck Japan. Just last week, there were reports of two other large deadly earthquakes in Japan, where a magnitude-6.2 earthquake was followed by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
Oil-producing nations failed this weekend to agree to cut production, ensuring a continued market glut and low prices. The meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel in Doha, Qatar, ended early Sunday, without achieving its goal of a production freeze.
