Paul Ryan keeps finding new ways to dodge questions about his inevitable Trump endorsement, and by June he’ll probably be resorting to hunching over, meekly lifting up an ear trumpet and squawking “WHAT?!?” Twitter ravaged the news networks for obsessing over Donald Trump’s plane, though to be fair, after MH370, it’s CNN policy to have cameras on all planes at all times. And Donald Trump’s butler called for President Obama’s murder, necessitating both a Secret Service investigation and a remake of Clue (Colonel Mustard in the Situation Room with a copy of "Art of the Deal"). This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, May 12th, 2016:
AMERICA WITNESSES REALLY BIZARRE COUPLES THERAPY SESSION - But at no point did America have to gesture at the box of Kleenex sitting atop the knock-off Ruhlmann coffee table. Igor Bobic and Matt Fuller: "The meeting between Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday seemed to have everything: protestors, a full media circus, a joint statement, even a post-meeting press conference with Ryan. But there was one glaring omission: the speaker’s endorsement of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. In .a joint statement, Ryan and Trump characterized the discussion as a 'positive step toward unification' and said they were 'totally committed to working together' to win back the White House in November...Ryan also mentioned that he and Trump discussed issues like abortion, the Supreme Court and 'self-government.' (According to Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong, they also discussed the tone of Trump’s campaign.)" [HuffPost]
TRUMP'S CONGRESSIONAL ALLIES SHOCKED TO LEARN CANDIDATE IS FLAKEY - Rachael Bade: "One of Donald Trump's top allies in Congress slammed the presumptive GOP nominee after he failed to meet with rank-and-file lawmakers backing his campaign during his ballyhooed trip to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) told POLITICO that Trump refused multiple requests to meet with members of Congress working to round up support for him in Washington. 'I think it would have been good of him' to meet with 'the first endorsers,' Hunter said, as well as those who've gotten on board more recently, Hunter said. 'There is no reason not to have as many people on your side as you can… and he missed a real opportunity here.'...His most ardent congressional backers, however, asked his campaign several times for a few minutes with the candidate, too. They thought it would energize the team running traps to whip support for him in D.C.. They also wanted Trump to meet with a core group of committee chairmen they thought would make for powerful future allies." [Politico]
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TRUMP AND GRAHAM: STILL FRENEMIES, BUT NOT ARCH FRENEMIES - If President Trump's first WHCD doesn't feature a video of him and Lindsey Graham riding a tandem bicycle in matching seersucker suits and beanies, we'll be sorely disappointed. Paul Kane: "Donald Trump must not be giving up on any Republican. On a day filled with tension over his meeting with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Sen. Lindsey Graham let slip a fascinating piece of news: The presumptive nominee reached out to the South Carolina Republican late Wednesday for what became a 15-minute phone conversation. It didn’t result in any endorsement, but Trump’s sharpest Republican critic on Capitol Hill said that the two men agreed to stop insulting one another. 'He won,' Graham said, calling Trump 'very funny' in their conversation. 'He obviously can take a punch.'" [WaPo]
BEN CARSON TO MAKE MOUTH NOISES IN DIRECTION OF FORMER COMPETITORS - This is just the thing Lindsey Graham needs to be won over. Jonathan Easley: "Ben Carson will personally reach out to all of the former Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump has vanquished to ask them to rally behind the presumptive GOP nominee. In an interview on Thursday, Carson said he’d lobby all of Trump’s defeated foes — even those who fought bitterly with Trump, such as Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham, and have said they won’t endorse or vote for him in the general election...Carson, who has become a jack-of-all-trades for Trump and a prominent member of his inner circle, spoke with Ryan days before that meeting in an attempt to lay the groundwork ahead of Thursday. A source with knowledge of the conversation said Trump was impressed by Carson’s outreach, and the two agreed he’d continue in that vein by reaching out to the former GOP presidential candidates." [The Hill]
A MURDER MOST FOUL - How was the "bombastic American real estate mogul and his conniving butler" storyline omitted from "Downton Abbey?" David Corn: "Anthony Senecal, who worked as Donald Trump's butler for 17 years before being named the in-house historian at the tycoon's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, has repeatedly published posts on his Facebook page that express profound hatred for President Barack Obama and that declare he should be killed...Though Senecal's Facebook page is public, this message could only be read by his Facebook friends. In an interview with Mother Jones, Senecal confirms that those were his words: 'I wrote that. I believe that.'" [Mother Jones]
Baby on board: "Sen. Ted Cruz's return to the Senate was spoiled by a photo showing his ride to work parked at an angle that took up two spots. Some took to Twitter to show how that scene reinforces the idea of the Texas Republican not being a likable person...Similarly, Cruz's fellow Texan, GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert set off a row after he was ticketed for parking his SUV in a spot reserved for National Park Service vehicles." [Roll Call]
NOT ABOUT TRUMP BUT STILL HORRIBLE: There have now been almost as many anti-Obamacare lawsuits as there have been Avengers movies, which is to say there have been too many. With Cristian Farias: "The ruling in House v. Burwell, which won’t go into immediate effect pending appeal, would have a devastating effect on the poorest Obamacare enrollees who receive financial assistance to limit their out-of-pocket health care costs. The key argument in the lawsuit then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) brought in 2014 is that the Obama administration unconstitutionally spent money on these so-called cost-sharing reductions because Congress didn’t appropriate the funds." [HuffPost]
GAS NEWS - Kate Sheppard: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday final rules that will crack down on methane emissions from the booming natural gas industry. Methane is a greenhouse gas that has much greater planet-warming potential in the short term than carbon dioxide. It is also a primary component of natural gas, and its release during the oil and gas extraction and transportation process hasemerged as a major concern as the U.S. has vastly increased its gas production. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — a process that uses a high-pressure blast of water, sand and chemicals to tap into gas contained in shale rock — has allowed the U.S. to unlock a lot more gas in recent years." [HuffPost]
THIS WILL BE THE SOURCE OF A THOUSAND BENGHAZI MEMES - Who can forget the time Susan Rice blamed Benghazi on a Running Man video. Ryan Reilly: "FBI Director James Comey once again suggested this week that the 'viral video effect' on police may be to blame for the rise in murders in some cities, tripling down on a theory that has put him in conflict with the Obama administration as well as criminal justice experts who don’t see any evidence of a connection between murder spikes and scrutiny of police. Citing conversations with law enforcement leaders, Comey contended that “marginal pullbacks by lots and lots of police officers,” as well as “changes in the way police may be acting and in the way communities may be acting in terms of how much information they share with police,” could be having an effect on homicide spikes." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here are some baby otters
METRO STILL BONED - "Every day thousands of commuters run late to work because of single tracking ghost trains. NBC Washington: "Metro is planning a 16-day closure of a stretch of the Blue, Orange and Silver lines after the Federal Transit Administration demanded immediate fixes from the transit system. Last week, Metro released a draft of its SafeTrack plan to focus on repairing certain parts of the system, which will lead to single-tracking and shutdowns in some areas over the next year. But the FTA told Metro in a letter Wednesday that it's going to need to shuffle its priorities and make immediate repairs to certain sections of track before beginning the SafeTrack plan." [NBC Washington]
COMFORT FOOD
- Tracing Steph Curry's career in GIFs.
- A Pluto-sized planet has been hiding in our solar system
- "This Is What Happened When I Ate a Mega-Dosed $500 Weed Sundae."
TWITTERAMA
@JoePerticone: Covering an airplane? That's not newsworthy. It's not a taco bowl or something
@NickRiccardi: Congrats if you had Secret Service Investigating Trump Butler on your 2016 bingo card today
@jonward11: "There's Donald Trump's plane at Reagan National Airport and we'll continue to monitor the takeoff of that plane." — Wolf Blitzer just now
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