Donald Trump tried to show his "love" for Hispanics by eating a taco bowl, not unlike eating a Domino's Oreo Pizza to prove one's love of Italians. Republicans are having such a difficult time coming to grips with Donald Trump's ascendency you’d think the presumptive nominee was their gay child. And John McCain stumbled onto a brilliant fundraising tactic: conveying the urgency of your reelection by pointing to how dangerous your own party is. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, May 5th, 2016:
PAUL RYAN AND BEN SASSE UNOFFICIALLY KICK OFF 2020 BECAUSE LOL THIS CYCLE IS TOTALLY HOPELESS - Plus they'll get to run off of Speaker Becerra's tax-and-spend agenda, so they're happy to bide their time. Scott Wong: "Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he's 'just not ready' to support Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. Ryan made his stunning comments in an interview on CNN. He clarified that he cannot support or endorse the New York billionaire businessman right now. 'To be perfectly candid with you … I’m just not ready to that at this point. I’m not there right now,' Ryan said on CNN’s 'The Lead.' 'I hope to though and I want to. But what is required is to unify this party. And the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee. … 'At this point I’m not ready to jump in, but I hope we can get there.'" [The Hill]
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) is also not ready for Trump.
MITCH MCCONNELL THO: "I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee is now on the verge of clinching that nomination." [HuffPost]
A pity, as W's endorsement might have helped Trump win Utah: "For the first time since his own presidency, George H.W. Bush is planning to stay silent in the race for the Oval Office — and the younger former president Bush plans to stay silent as well. Bush 41, who enthusiastically endorsed every Republican nominee for the last five election cycles, will stay out of the campaign process this time. He does not have plans to endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, spokesman Jim McGrath told The Texas Tribune. 'At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics,' McGrath wrote in an email Wednesday. “He came out of retirement to do a few things for Jeb, but those were the exceptions that proved the rule.” His son Jeb Bush dropped out of the GOP presidential race in February. Bush 43, meanwhile, "does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign," according to his personal aide, Freddy Ford." [Texas Tribune's Jordan Rudner]
CHUCK GRASSLEY IS CRAZY - Brianne Pfannenstiel: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday he thinks Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, would nominate the 'right type of people' to the U.S. Supreme Court. Grassley noted that Trump has referenced Judge William Pryor on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 11th Circuit as the type of person he would nominate. Pryor was appointed by President George W. Bush. 'Based upon the type of people he’d be looking for, I think I would expect the right type of people to be nominated by him to the Supreme Court,' Grassley said." C'mon, man. [Des Moines Register]
OBAMA LETTING MORE PEOPLE OUT OF PRISON -Timothy Gardner: "U.S. President Barack Obama has commuted the prison terms of 58 people, nearly a third of whom were serving life sentences, the White House said on Thursday. Most of the convicts who will be freed early were non-violent drug offenders. Obama said in a blog post that 'it just doesn’t make sense to require a non-violent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison.'" Guess it made sense in the stupid-ass '90s. [Reuters]
Like HuffPost Hill? Then pre-order Eliot's book's, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government.
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
CLINTON MAY HAVE TO TESTIFY IN EMAIL INVESTIGATION - Cristian Farias: "A federal judge on Wednesday signaled that he may be willing to order Hillary Clinton to testify about the decision to conduct official business on a private email server while she served as secretary of state. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said in an order made public Wednesday that it “may be necessary” for Clinton to be deposed in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking unrelated employment records for one of her closest advisers while she was at the Department of State. The judge said “questions surrounding the creation, purpose and use of the clintonemail.com server must be explored” so that he may assess whether it was put in place to circumvent federal open-records laws. Prior to the revelations that the email server existed, Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, sued the Department of State to seek disclosure of the employment records of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, with an eye toward unearthing potential conflicts with private sector work Abedin engaged in while at the department." [HuffPost]
Enjoy vintage political coverage of Barry Goldwater's Republican primary victory.
STRAIGHT LEAKED EXPRESS - And, believe him, this guy had to spend six months with Sarah Palin -- he knows crazy. Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim: "Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters. 'If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,' McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by POLITICO. 'If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I've never seen in 30 years.'" [Politico]
Enjoy the latest fawning profile of a White House speechwriter.
CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR REID - Mike McAuliff: "Having Donald Trump lead the Republican ticket next fall is a boon to Democratic chances to retake the Senate, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday, vowing to do everything he could to make sure his party takes advantage. Democrats need to net four Senate seats to regain control of the Senate if they win the White House in November, and Reid pointed to a string of contests that he called 'competitive and more,' in part because of the real estate developer. Among them were contests for GOP-held seats in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Hampshire that already were expected to be hard-fought, but Reid also added Arizona, Missouri and Iowa to the mix. Those last three feature three of the bigger names on the Republican side of the aisle, with Arizona’s John McCain, Missouri’s Roy Blunt and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley." [HuffPost]
OH, GOD, THIS WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL -- TERRIFYING, BUT BEAUTIFUL - There's definitely a spot for LePage on the 2017 season of "The Apprentice." WMTW "Gov. Paul LePage hopes Donald Trump picks him to be part of his administration if he is elected to office. If not, he'll run against Angus King for U.S. Senate in 2018. That's what the governor said at his town hall meeting in Lewiston on Wednesday night. It would seem that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and the governor's wife, First Lady Ann LePage, are the only people who can stop LePage from running for Senate. 'I said earlier that if I'm not into the Trump Administration, I will be running against Angus King,' said LePage. 'Now, don't tell my wife. She hasn't said yes yet.'" [WMTW]
THRILL UP HIS … SOMETHING - Claudia Koener: "A hot mic caught MSNBC host Chris Matthews commenting Tuesday on Melania Trump’s appearance during live coverage of the Indiana primary. As Melania and Donald Trump took the stage Tuesday night following the Republican candidate’s victory, Matthews could be heard checking her out as other MSNBC contributors continue to discuss the primary. 'Did you see her walk?' the Hardball host said. 'That runway walk. My god, is that good. I could watch that runway show.' … A spokesperson for Melania Trump told Variety that she was successful as an entrepreneur, wife, and mother, in addition to her modeling career, and it was unfortunate the media portrayed her as anything less." [BuzzFeed]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a polite allegator.
ENDORSE - Blair Guild: "You’ve heard of Cards Against Humanity, the “party game for horrible people.” But now there’s Trump Against Humanity, “a party game about a horrible person.” The card game, created by Sid Lee Collective, is an unofficial expansion pack to Cards Against Humanity that adds actual Donald Trump quotes into the already raunchy deck. The back of the box reads: “The unofficial expansion pack with all the best words and casual racial slurs from the man himself.” Players can fill in the blanks of real-life Trump quotes such as 'Make _____ great again' or 'They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re _____' with some of The Donald’s favorite words like 'Mexicans' or 'Yuuuge.'" [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- What a $50 sandwich, without very fancy ingredients, looks like.
- The running man meme is getting weird.
- You're doing Cinco de Mayo wrong.
TWITTERAMA
@crulge: "look at Twitter and write articles about the same 20 tweets as everyone else" is a real job held by about 2,000 people
@chrislhayes: Just watched a video of Alex Jones debating Hitler with David Duke and now need some brain bleach.
@JuddLegum: How to pretend you aren't enabling Trump:
1. Not ready to support Trump "yet"
2. Supporting, but not endorsing
3. Not going to convention
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill).