It’s been a hard, sad news week, and we could all use a happy weekend. We’re going to look at some of the presidential candidates’ reaction to Orlando, but don’t worry — we’ll cheer you up at the end with an ad from the anti-Trump super PAC “Americans Against Insecure Billionaires with Tiny Hands PAC” (yes, it’s a real thing).
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Orlando reaction from your (presumptive) general election candidates
The fight against terror was back on the main stage this week after a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton used the shootings to talk about what they would do to take out the Islamic State and more. Some highlights:
On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to congratulate himself “for being right on radical Islamic terrorism” and said President Obama should resign and Clinton should drop out of the race for not using the term “radical Islam.”
Clinton said she would use the term “radical Islam,” to which Trump gleefully said that was because of me! Then Clinton and Obama gave speeches that said this fight over the terminology is stupid because calling them “radical Islamists” won’t actually help stop them.
On Monday, Trump seemingly implied that Obama was somehow involved in the massacre, saying on Fox that the president “doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands.” When he was asked to clarify his comments that night on Boston radio’s Howie Carr Show, Trump said, “we’ll let people figure it out.” Then, when The Washington Post wrote a story about what he said, Trump banned them from covering his future events.
Trump took up a new crusade: being the best for the LGBT community and accusing Clinton of being harmful because of her policies on refugees. “Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs,” he tweeted Tuesday. Noteworthy: Trump does not support gay marriage, and Clinton does (and she came out with a video Friday to remind everyone of Trump’s previous statements on the matter).
It’s only been a year
This week marked Donald Trump’s one-year anniversary of the wildest campaign ride ever. But maybe we should have known. After all, Trump announced his candidacy after slowly riding (not walking) down an escalator. The anniversary came in the midst of a bad couple of weeks for Trump. But even as reports of drama between his campaign and the Republican National Committee swirl (RNC Chairman Reince Priebus attempted to shoot that down Thursday) and Republicans struggle to defend some of Trump’s more controversial statements, the billionaire can at least feel confident that he beat out 16 other people and is now the presumptive nominee.
Want to relive the whole beginning moment by moment? Time has his announcement speech in its entirety.
Paul Ryan might not like much Trump says, but #noregrets
The speaker of the House spoke with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday shortly after a member of Trump’s campaign said that Republicans should be supportive of Trump or “shut the hell up” and Trump said he may have to go at it alone. But Ryan just shrugged it off and said this is our new reality.
“I don’t look back. I don’t have second thoughts. Obviously he’s said and done things that I don’t agree with since I did this,” Ryan said. And he echoed something he’s been saying for awhile: I don’t agree with everything Trump says, but I tell him, so it’s cool.
“Do I wish he would say and do things differently? Of course I do, but that’s not in my control. And so that’s not something I can spend my time worrying about,” he said.
News from the trail
Trump turned 70 this week: 70 quotes from over the years (USA TODAY)
Hillary Clinton tells USA TODAY she’ll call Trump unfit to handle economy (USA TODAY)
Zoltan Istvan 2016: Let’s make Americans immortal (Reno Gazette-Journal)
Conservative Hispanics want to be able to support Trump — they just have some requests (USA TODAY)
Trump’s tiny hands are back
Remember that whole thing where Marco Rubio said Trump had small hands and Trump LOST IT. He told The Washington Post (back when he still liked them) his hands aren’t small and in fact, he “buy(s) a slightly smaller than large glove, OK?”
Well, there’s a super PAC dedicated to those small hands (they’ve had a little drama with their name), and the ad, “Release the Measurements,” is hilarious.
