Kasich suspends his GOP presidential campaign

Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday suspended his Republican presidential campaign, ending his underdog bid and hinting at a life perhaps beyond elected office.
“As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith that the lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life,” Kasich said in Columbus, Ohio.
In a subdued, roughly 15-minute speech, Kasich first thanked his wife Karen, then other family members, staffers, volunteers, Ohio residents and those who contributed to his campaign.
“Nobody has ever done more with less in the history of politics,” Kasich said about his team. “We just got up every day and did the best we could.”
An underdog from the start, Kasich held on to become the last candidate standing against front-runner Donald Trump, despite his inability to win any contests beyond Ohio.
His decision to end his campaign comes a day after his other remaining rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, announced that he was suspending his own campaign.

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Trump now has a clear path to the nomination. 
Touting his two terms as governor and 18 years in Congress, Kasich failed to gain traction with GOP voters in a race dominated by Trump's ability to seize on the electorate's anger and disdain of political insiders.
Kasich tried to pitch himself as the best Republican to take on Hillary Clinton and tried to take the GOP primary race to a contested convention.
Kasich, 63, now plans to return to Ohio, where his second term as governor ends in 2018.
He made no mention in the speech of Trump or any of the other 2016 presidential candidates, instead focusing on the inspiration he drew from Americans while on the campaign trail and on economic policy.
“The people of this country changed me,” Kasich said. “They changed me with the stories of their live.”
Kasich called economic growth “imperative” to the success of the country because, he said, “It gives people the opportunity to realize their hopes and dreams in life. … Some missed this message, it wasn’t sexy.”
As the race grew increasingly nasty on both sides, Kasich largely maintained his vow not to run a negative campaign, saying to voters that he would not "take the low road to the highest office in the land." 
The governor originally had planned to speak with reporters Wednesday morning at Dulles airport in northern Virginia.
However, Kasich failed to show up and his campaign later confirmed that he was not coming.

Kasich placed last in the GOP Indiana primary Tuesday night, though his campaign initially said it would keep going.
A Republican candidate needs 1,237 pledged delegates to secure the nomination.
Trump has not yet reached that number.

Former presidents Bush plan to sit out 2016 general election

The last two Republicans to hold the White House do not plan to endorse the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, this year. 
Spokesmen for George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush told The Texas Tribune Wednesday that the 41st and 43rd presidents will stay on the sideline this time. 
George W. Bush's personal aide, Freddy Ford, said that his boss "does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign."
"At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics," Bush 41 spokesman Jim McGrath wrote in an email to the website. "He came out of retirement to do a few things for Jeb, but those were the exceptions that proved the rule."
According to the Tribune, the elder Bush has endorsed every GOP presidential nominee since losing his 1992 re-election bid to Bill Clinton. George W. Bush also campaigned on behalf of Sen. John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. 
Both Bushes campaigned heavily for Jeb Bush earlier this year, but he dropped out after disappointing results in the first three presidential contests. Neither former president made an endorsement during the rest of the primary season, though George W. Bush was recorded last year telling donors "I just don't like" Sen. Ted Cruz. 

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The younger Bush has also taken veiled jabs at Trump, telling a South Carolina audience in February that "we do not need someone in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration."
"Strength is not empty rhetoric," Bush also said at the time. "It is not bluster. It is not theatrics. Real strength, strength of purpose, comes from integrity and character. And, in my experience, the strongest person usually isn't the loudest one in the room."
Trump also attacked George W. Bush during the run-up to the South Carolina primary, blaming the former president for failing to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The real estate mogul also said Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 was "a big, fat mistake" and claimed his administration "lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none."

US Judge: Clinton may be ordered to testify in records case

A federal judge said Wednesday he may order Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton to testify under oath about whether she used a private email server as secretary of state to evade public records disclosures.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan signed an order granting a request from the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to question six current and former State Department staffers about the creation and purpose of the private email system. Those on the list were some of Clinton's closest aides during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat, including former chief of staff Cheryl D. Mills, deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin and undersecretary Patrick F. Kennedy.
Also set to testify is Bryan Pagliano, the agency employee who was tasked with setting up the clintonemail.com server located in the basement of the New York home Clinton shares with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Pagliano has previously refused to testify before Congress, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Based on what might be gleaned in those interviews, which are to be conducted over the next eight weeks, Sullivan says in his order a sworn deposition from Hillary Clinton "may be necessary."
That raises the possibility that Clinton could be ordered to testify in the midst of the presidential race. A campaign spokesman did not respond Wednesday to messages about whether Clinton would oppose any order to testify.
At issue is whether the State Department conducted an adequate search of public records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch in 2013 seeking records related to Abedin's outside work as a paid consultant for the Clintons' charitable foundation and a financial advisory firm with ties to the former first couple.
The department's initial search did not include the thousands of emails Clinton exchanged with her aides, including Abedin, using private email addresses. The department said it didn't have access to those emails at the time.

 Questions asked during the depositions are to be limited to the circumstances surrounding the 2009 creation of Clinton's private email system, including why she chose not to use a government account.

Sullivan said ordering depositions is appropriate in legal cases where a federal agency "may have purposefully attempted to skirt disclosure under FOIA."
"In sum, the circumstances surrounding approval of Mrs. Clinton's use of clintonemail.com for official government business, as well as the manner in which it was operated, are issues that need to be explored" to evaluate the adequacy of the department's records search.
There have been at least three dozen civil lawsuits filed, including one by The Associated Press, over public records requests related to Clinton's time as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
The FBI also is investigating whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton's email server was mishandled. The inspectors general at the State Department and for U.S. intelligence agencies are separately investigating whether rules or laws were broken.
Critics of Clinton's decision to rely on the private server have suggested that it potentially made her communications more vulnerable to being stolen by hackers, including those working for foreign intelligence agencies.
Clinton has acknowledged in the campaign that her home-based email setup was a mistake, but insists she never sent or received any documents that were marked classified at the time.
In response to public records requests, the State Department has released more than 52,000 pages of her work-related emails, a small percentage of which have been withheld because they contain information considered sensitive to national security. Thousands of additional emails have been withheld by Clinton, whose lawyers say they contain personal messages unrelated to her government service.

Russian Putin Cartoon

Carter sends message to Moscow: US ready to 'defend our allies'

STUTTGART, Germany –  Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in Germany to usher in a new U.S. military commander for Europe, used the opportunity Tuesday to send a blunt warning to Moscow not to provoke the NATO alliance – after recent encounters in the air and on the high seas. 
"We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake – we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us," Carter said at the U.S. military's European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.
Carter expressed a desire not to start a new Cold War with Russia – or a "hot" one. 
But he said Russia seeks to "erode" the peaceful order Europe and the rest of the West have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War. 
Carter, in vowing the U.S. would defend its allies, warned Russia is increasing its submarine patrols to the North Atlantic. He did not specifically mention the recent "barrel rolls" by Russian jets over U.S. military aircraft in the past few weeks but accused Russia's leaders of "nuclear saber-rattling" and putting the world at risk in the process. 
The Obama administration’s resolve to take on Russia remains a matter of dispute. President Obama was caught on an open microphone in 2012 assuring then-President Dmitry Medvedev he’d have more “flexibility” on the issue of missile defense after the election. Russia, under Vladimir Putin, later defied U.S. warnings with its takeover of Crimea and military involvement in Eastern Ukraine – and has complicated U.S. efforts in Syria with its intervention there.  
Carter this week traveled to Germany for the installation of Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti at the helm of U.S. European Command. There are more than 60,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe, significantly less than during the Cold War, when more than 200,000 soldiers were stationed mostly in Germany.
Carter said Tuesday the Pentagon has pledged $3.4 billion in next year's budget, quadruple the spending from last year, to beef up NATO's eastern flank with its allies. Carter said a new armored brigade would be heading to Europe, though officials told Fox News it would not arrive until the end of 2017.
Carter said the increase in funds would support an additional U.S. Air Force F-15 squadron, more U.S. special operations forces to train in Europe, and more submarine-hunting aircraft to counter increased Russian submarine activity.
"Russia’s aggressive actions only serve to further its isolation, and unite our alliance," he said.  
Russia does not see it that way. Officials in Moscow believe the United States has violated a 1997 treaty that says NATO cannot amass forces along the border with Russia. The treaty does not specify how many forces are permissible.
En route to Germany on Monday, Carter told reporters the United States is considering putting more forces in Eastern Europe, but is waiting to consult with NATO officials before any final decisions are made. Carter said up to four battalions, or some 4,000 soldiers, could be added to Eastern Europe. 
A handful of NATO defense officials will be on hand for a counter-Islamic State meeting Wednesday with Carter in Stuttgart.
Despite some tough talk about Russia, Carter indicated he’s willing to work together in the future: "We’ll keep the door open for Russia. But it’s up to the Kremlin to decide."  
One example Carter used about past U.S.-Russian cooperation was Moscow's willingness to allow the United States and NATO to use a supply corridor in northern Afghanistan in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the start of combat operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
That corridor has since been closed by Russia. 
In his remarks, the outgoing U.S. commander of European Command, Gen. Philip Breedlove, a career fighter pilot, said his career is ending where it began, with Russia in his sights.
"My career started here in a Cold War trying to keep the peace. I think my career is now ending here trying to prevent a Cold War and continue to keep the peace," he said.
His replacement, Scaparrotti, was asked about Russian jets buzzing U.S. Navy ships and aircraft, when he was on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"Should we make an announcement to the Russians, that if they place the lives of our men and women on board Navy ships in danger, that we will take appropriate action?" committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., asked. 
"I believe that should be known, yes," Scaparrotti said.

Trump clinches, Cruz bails and the media face a new Republican reality

Donald Trump, mocked and minimized by the media for months, dismissed by the pundits as a fringe character, is now the de facto Republican nominee.
While I took him seriously from the beginning, I have to pause and remind myself that a non-politician, a billionaire real estate guy, just beat all these senators and governors and took control of the GOP.
In the end, Indiana was an anticlimax. The only surprise was that Ted Cruz, who vowed to fight on to the convention, abruptly dropped out.
Cruz didn’t mention Trump in his passionate withdrawal speech. Trump called him a hell of a competitor.
Trump spoke in an unusually soft voice, as if the gravity of what he had just accomplished was suddenly weighing on him. He said we are going to love and cherish each other. The street fighting New Yorker disappeared, at least for an evening.
In retrospect, since Cruz was obviously weighing a withdrawal, it’s hard to understand why he went so thermonuclear in the final 48 hours.

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 Trump’s victory in a state that the prognosticators once said was fertile ground for Cruz was forecast by media polling, but the loss of drama was more profound than that. The Hoosier state, famous for what Cruz called its basketball rings, was no longer deemed a must-win for Trump.
In fact, news organizations had concluded that Trump had a clear path to the magic 1,237 even if he lost Indiana.
It would be easy to attribute Trump’s win to momentum, and the way he rolled through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island clearly gave him a winner’s aura.
Cruz’s rough week, in which every real or perceived stumble was magnified by the media, also played a role.
By early Tuesday morning, cable networks were using such phrases as “The Donald on the brink” or “Cruz facing his Waterloo.”
But what devalued the Indiana contest were days of coverage on how the members of a crumbling Republican establishment were reluctantly embracing Trump, or at least resigning themselves to his nomination.
The papers were filled with quotes from GOP honchos saying they wanted to avoid a contested convention, that it was time for the party to unify, and that maybe Trump wasn’t so bad after all. Reporters tracked down Cruz delegates who said they were thinking of switching to Trump.
Some voices in the party, the conservative media and the #NeverTrump movement continued to warn that his nomination would be suicidal. But there was a sense that the thing is wrapping up.
The media started covering Cruz with the relentless negativity reserved for a candidate who is seen as sinking. He is wrong that the media are in the tank for Trump, but it is true that he’s been unable to catch a break.
It started with the doomed Kasich deal and the long-shot Fiorina move. Then he had to deny being Lucifer. By the time Carly fell off a stage the other day, the pundits were ripping Cruz for not rushing to rescue her.
 Perhaps nothing symbolized his rocky road more vividly than his engaging a Trump supporter in a lengthy debate captured by the cameras. It was an obvious attempt to create a moment, and I thought it took some verve. But the pundits jeered, calling it cringe-inducing. And there was something sad about Cruz saying “I treated you respectfully, sir” to some sign-carrying who retorted with “Lyin’ Ted” and “Are you Canadian?”
The senator indeed seemed desperate when he called Trump, whose first divorce was tabloid fodder, a “serial philanderer” who once spoke of venereal disease as his Vietnam. (And Trump wasn’t exactly statesmanlike in repeating a National Enquirer report saying Cruz’s father was standing next to Lee Harvey Oswald when JFK’s killer was murdered.)
But now Cruz has bowed to the tyranny of math.
For a few brief, shining moments, journalists thought they were getting a brokered convention. Now, even though Hillary lost Indiana to Bernie Sanders, they’re getting a Trump-Clinton race. And the general election begins today.
Click for more Media Buzz.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Fox News projects Sanders to win Indiana Democratic primary

Fox News projects Sen. Bernie Sanders will win Indiana’s Democratic presidential primary, scoring an upset victory against front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“The Clinton campaign thinks that this campaign is over, I’ve got some bad news for her.” Sanders told reporters at a press conference Tuesday evening. “I think we can pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.”
Clinton had led Sanders in pre-election polls, but it appears that not enough of her supporters actually turned out to vote for her Tuesday.
He said he has an "uphill climb" to the nomination but he's "in this campaign to win and we are going to fight until the last vote is cast."
Sanders said he wants to debate Clinton in California.
 “I sense a great deal of momentum,” said Sanders. “I sense some great victories coming.”

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The Vermont senator is far behind the former secretary of state in the delegate count. He won't win by a large enough margin Tuesday to keep Clinton from collecting at least some delegates.
Clinton entered the night with 91 percent of the delegates she needs to become the first woman nominated by a major party.
Sanders called himself the “strongest candidate to prevent Trump from becoming president.”
“I think we have a path toward victory, although it is a narrow path.”
Despite a significant trail in the Democratic primary, Sanders said Sunday he will stay in the run until the end.
“We intend to fight for every vote and every delegate remaining,” Sanders said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., before heading to campaign events in Indiana.
Sanders has brought in about $26 million in April in his primary challenge to Clinton, a steep decline from the $46 million he raised in March, raising questions about whether he can sustain his powerful online money machine as his path to the nomination has substantially narrowed against Clinton.

Cruz suspends campaign, clearing Trump path to GOP nomination

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz cleared the path Tuesday night for Donald Trump to claim the Republican presidential nomination, suspending his underdog campaign following a crushing defeat in the Indiana primary – allowing the billionaire businessman to effectively leave the raucous primary behind and turn his attention squarely to the general election.
“We’re gonna win in November,” Trump said.
John Kasich’s campaign said the Ohio governor would remain in the race until a candidate reaches the necessary 1,237 delegates. But with Cruz ending his bid, Trump would appear on a glide path to hitting that, having vanquished almost everyone in what was once a 17-person field – and now within easy reach of the party mantle, an outcome some pundits and power-brokers once refused to even contemplate.
Cruz announced his decision to dismayed supporters in Indianapolis.
“I said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz said.   
While a Trump-Hillary Clinton match-up now appears inevitable, Sen. Bernie Sanders kept the race alive on the Democratic side Tuesday night by pulling off a projected upset victory in Indiana.

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“I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over,” Sanders said, adding that he has “bad news” for her.
Sanders said he expects “more victories in the weeks to come” though he admitted he has an “uphill climb” to the nomination.
But on the GOP side, while Kasich remains in the race and Trump still could face drama at the party convention in Cleveland, GOP Chairman Reince Priebus declared him the presumptive nominee Tuesday night, as did Clinton.
Trump addressed supporters at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday night after his seventh consecutive victory in Indiana.
He called Cruz "one hell of a competitor," calling his decision to drop out of the race "brave."
He also said that while he wasn't sure if Cruz likes him, he praised his former rival as a "smart" and "tough guy" who had an "amazing future" ahead of him.
Trump then turned his attention to his likely Democratic opponent, saying, “We're going after Hillary Clinton."
The New York billionaire criticized Clinton's recent comments about the coal industry. He says she wants to close mines and he promised to help coal miners get back to work.
During his concession speech, Cruz told dismayed supporters the path to victory had been closed.
"I've said I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory; tonight I'm sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed," Cruz told the somber crowd in Indianapolis.
Cruz campaigned aggressively in Indiana, but could not overcome Trump.
“With a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign. … But hear me now, I am not suspending our fight for liberty," Cruz said. 
Fox News projected Trump has the winner shortly after the polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Trump has 53.2 percent of the vote.
Tuesday’s primary capped off a bitter and personal clash between Trump and Cruz with both accusing the other of being an unhinged liar.
As soon as the race was called, Trump demanded Cruz exit the primary race, tweeting that ““Lyin’ Ted” should “stop wasting time & money.”
Earlier in the day, Trump rehashed claims on Fox News that Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, appeared in a 1963 photograph with John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald -- citing a report first published by the National Enquirer.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being, you know, shot," Trump said on Fox & Friends. "Nobody even brings it up; I mean they don't even talk about that."
Responding, Cruz called his father his "hero," and labeled Trump an "amoral" liar. He also described Trump as a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon.”
Cruz went into the Indiana primary vowing to fight on even if he lost.
Prior to Tuesday’s contest, The Associated Press had Trump leading the delegate count at 996, Cruz in second with 565 delegates and Kasich with 153. To secure the Republican nomination, a candidate must have 1,237 delegates going into the national convention in July.
Though Trump cannot clinch the nomination with a big win in Indiana, his path toward securing the delegates he needs gets much easier. A Hoosier State win also gives Team Trump more wiggle room in the campaign’s final contests.
Trump has devoted more time to campaigning in Indiana than he has to most other states, underscoring his eagerness to put his Republican rivals away and shift his attention to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Indiana emerged as a must-win state for Cruz and the “Stop Trump” movement to block Trump from locking up the Republican nomination.
In an attempt to stack the odds, Cruz and Kasich recently announced an alliance to deny the billionaire businessman the delegates he needs to win.
Cruz and Kasich agreed to cede upcoming primary contests to one another. Kasich would stand down in Indiana while Cruz would do the same in Oregon and New Mexico, which hold their primaries May 17 and June 7.
Cracks in communication about the tactical team-up were visible almost immediately. When Kasich was asked about the deal’s message on April 25 and what his Indiana supporters should do he said, “I’ve never told them not to vote for me. They ought to vote for me.”
Cruz also tried to reenergize his campaign by naming former businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his running mate. He rounded out the week with an endorsement from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
Like Trump, Cruz knows how critical Indiana is to keeping his hopes alive for the GOP bid – and his campaign has worked hard to recreate his prior Midwestern wins.
The Texan travelled across the state on a tour bus and has spent most of his time reaching out to large groups of politically engaged evangelical Christians – a demographic he dominates.
While barnstorming Indiana, Cruz also sharpened his opposition to transgender rights for Americans and has publically attacked both Trump and Clinton for supporting North Carolina’s controversial new anti-LGBT law.
According to the Associated Press delegate count, Clinton went into Tuesday’s contest with a commanding lead over Sanders. Clinton has 2,165 delegates compared to Sanders’ 1,357. A Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to shore up the party’s nomination.
So far, Clinton has secured 91 percent of the delegates she needs to win the nomination. That means, even if she loses every single remaining primary, she can still win the nomination.
Neither Clinton nor Sanders spent Tuesday in Indiana. Sanders made stops in Kentucky while Clinton focused on West Virginia and Ohio, a key general election battleground.