The Lid: Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… Legendary Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight will campaign with Donald Trump in Indianapolis on Wednesday, meaning media will not only need to deal with possible verbal abuse but also the potential that a chair gets hurled into the press riser.
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‘16 from 30,000
Here’s a fun trip down memory lane… On this day in 2012, after Mitt Romney’s sweep in a series of northeastern primaries, the Republican National Committee officially referred to the Massachusetts governor as the party’s “presumptive nominee.” Flash forward to today, and Donald Trump might be poised for a similar Romney-esque sweep in the northeast, but we are still far from an equivalent moment GOP unity, with John Kasich and Ted Cruz in what appears to be a somewhat uneasy agreement to try to rob Trump of that 1,237 “magic number” of delegates by coordinating their efforts in upcoming states.
And here’s something worth watching in Indiana - the state where the Kasich/Cruz alliance begins: Voting has been going on in the state for almost THREE WEEKS. According to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office, more than 60,000 Republican primary ballots had already been requested by Friday, before Kasich announced that he would not be campaigning in the state. That’s twice the equivalent GOP ballot requests at this time in 2012. Combine that with the fact that a) Kasich is still on the ballot and b) he actively said TODAY that he still wants Indiana voters to support him, and we could have a recipe for a vote that is still majorly split in the Hoosier State, regardless of what the non-Trump candidates have to say about it.
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
- That was quick: The Kasich-Cruz alliance seems to already be showing cracks, NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell writes.
- In Kentucky, anti-Trump forces again dominated the delegate selection process, NBC’s Perry Bacon writes.
- Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich are working together to stop Donald Trump. The question now: How do the outside groups supporting them help execute the strategy?
- Ted Cruz’s campaign already has a shortlist of potential VP candidates, and Carly Fiorina is on it.
- Trump and Clinton are running strong in Pennsylvania, according to results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll.
- And from First Read this AM: Why the Kasich-Cruz alliance could backfire.
FOR THE RECORD…
“I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion."
Donald Trump on John Kasich
TOMORROW’S SKED
Voters will be voting! It’s primary day in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.
