Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos.... Tom Brady, Donald Trump and Kanye West are all having pretty good weeks, which is a great reminder to our children and our children's children to believe in themselves, follow their dreams and screw the haters, we guess.
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’16 AT 30 THOUSAND
Reince Priebus finally got his loyalty pledge, with Donald Trump displaying his Sharpie-penned signature for hordes of reporters to see at Trump Tower today. We’ve got two questions: 1) Does he take at least a short-term hit for it? Much of Trump’s appeal has been his willingness to flagrantly disregard anything that smells of party orthodoxy, which is pretty much personified in Priebus and the RNC. Some Trump supporters on conservative talk radio today were NOT happy with his decision to pull the trigger. And 2) What are the odds that he breaks it? He said today that he doesn’t foresee ripping the document up, but there’s absolutely nothing binding about it that would keep him from forging ahead if he decided that was in his best interest. If anything limits him from breaking his promise, it’s the emphasis he’s put himself on his skillful contracts and his negotiating ability.
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
- Donald Trump has signed the Republican National Committee's pledge to endorse the eventual GOP nominee in 2016 and forgo a run as a third-party candidate in the general election, one of us (!) writes.
- A former Hillary Clinton staffer who helped set up her private email server has vowed to invoke the Fifth Amendment after being subpoenaed by a congressional committee.
- About 61.6 million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. That's about 21 percent of the population over five years of age. One of us reports on why it matters.
- The Republican presidential field is showing a split over what to do with the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, NBC’s Alex Jaffe writes.
- State Department lawyers are asking for a single federal judge to oversee common issues in lawsuits seeking emails from Clinton, NBC’s Pete Williams reports.
- Donald Trump said Kanye West loves him.
- And from First Read: Another reminder of how the email story is out of Hillary's control.
CAMPAIGN QUICK READS
CLINTON: The former Clinton aide who helped her maintain her private server did not talk to the FBI or State Department either, Yahoo reports.
And longtime Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills was on the Hill today for a closed-door testimony about Hillary Clinton’s email practices and the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
BUSH: He went after Donald Trump hard in New Hampshire today, the Washington Post writes.
CARSON: More good news for Ben Carson: He beats Trump in a head-to-head matchup.
FOR THE RECORD…
“Trump is my all-time hero.”
-- Donald Trump quoting something he said Kanye West said.
TOMORROW’S SKED
Andrea Mitchell interviews Hillary Clinton. Clinton then heads to Puerto Rico to campaign.
Marco Rubio also travels to Puerto Rico to campaign.
Bernie Sanders campaigns in Iowa.