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2016 Democratic Primary Tag

As I noted in my post on the AP announcing that Hillary Clinton has clinched the nomination ahead of the California election, the November 2016 battle is ultimately between the elite media and average Americans. As predicted by many, the American press has started pressuring Bernie Sanders to stop his campaign entirely. This gem from the San Diego Union Tribune is just one example of many attempts to cajole Sanders voters into supporting Clinton.
This is why we urge Bernie Sanders to drop his now-futile challenge to Clinton for the Democratic nomination after the final primary next Tuesday in Washington D.C. At this stage, after a historic speech as a major party’s first presumptive female presidential nominee, Clinton shouldn’t have to spend her time and resources defending herself from Sanders and his allies.
But the California media has not mentioned that Clinton has not experienced smooth sailing they portray in their coverage.

I think it's safe to say that cat's out of the bag. A former tech aide to Hillary Clinton wants an immunity deal with the Department of Justice kept quiet. The DOJ is currently investigating Hillary's use of a private email account and home-brewed server while Secretary of State. Josh Gerstein for Politico:

A handful of primaries, yet another presumed party nominee, and other sundry tidbits from last night's news blast.

Democratic Primaries

Hillary declared herself the Queen of the World (basically) last night as she accepted the Democratic Party nomination, becoming the first woman to do so. She's also the first woman to do so while under Congressional and FBI investigation, but details shmetails. Clinton was projected to win primary contests in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, and California, leaving Sanders with a caucus win in North Dakota.*

My campaign field report series continues today with the Hillary Clinton speech in San Diego. The underlying reason for the event is that Clinton is barely clinging to a 2-point lead in California polling data, ahead of its June 7th primary. Based on my observations, the "national security address" at the Prado in Balboa Park was an utterly astonishing failure. Furthermore, the arrangements associated with her appearance show that if she does win, Clinton will extend the Obama imperial style of presidency. I will begin my analysis with crowd size comparisons:

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes's worth went from $4.5 billion to zero in a year after officials found her company failed at blood testing. Holmes founded the company in 2003 "with plans of revolutionizing the diagnostic test market." President Barack Obama named her as an ambassador for global entrepreneurship while the Clinton family propped her up at their Clinton Global initiative meeting last year. But Forbes has found that her stake in the company equals absolutely nothing. The company has faced "allegations that its tests are inaccurate" and investigations from government agencies. Plus their annual revenues equal less than $100 million.

A former State Department watchdog told Fox News that previous secretaries of state did not use a personal email address for official business. Leading Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claims over and over she did nothing wrong because her predecessors used personal email addresses. Howard Krongard, who served as inspector general of the State Department from April 2005 to January 2008, strongly disagrees:
“Certainly to my knowledge at least, Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice did not have a personal server. I certainly never either sent an email to one or received an email from one,” said Krongard, who served during Rice’s tenure. Further, he said, “I would have been stunned had I been asked to send an email to her at a personal server, private address. I would have declined to do so on security grounds and if she had sent one to me, I probably would have started an investigation.”

Supporters of Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders hopes the FBI swoops in and takes out front runner Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server. An inspector general report found that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke State Department rules when she opted to use a private email server for work. The FBI has an open investigation against Clinton, which has puzzled some supporters of Sanders like Julie Crowell:
Like many of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, Ms. Crowell, 37, said she hoped that Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state would eventually yield an indictment, and she described it as the kind of transgression that would disqualify another politician seeking high office. “She should be removed,” said Ms. Crowell, of Tustin, Calif., who attended a Sanders rally here on Tuesday and said she planned to vote for a third-party candidate if Mr. Sanders failed to overtake Mrs. Clinton and capture the Democratic nomination. “I don’t know why she’s not already being told, ‘You can’t run because you’re being investigated.’ I don’t know how that’s not a thing.”

I have long sensed that the 2016 California primary would be very memorable. Kemberlee Kaye just reported that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders may debate ahead of the California primary, as Hillary Clinton declined to debate Sanders recently. Hillary Clinton may want to rethink the non-engagement approach that led to this development, as Sanders is now closing the gap in recent polling.
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, conducted May 13 – 22 and released Wednesday, found: “Among Democratic primary likely voters, 46 percent support Clinton and 44 percent support Sanders. These voters include Democrats and independents who say they will vote in the Democratic primary. Clinton has a slight lead over Sanders among registered Democrats (49% to 41%)."

Bernie Sanders agreed to debate his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in a Fox News-hosted debate. Not surprisingly, Hillary declined. But what about a Sanders/Trump debate? On Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night, Trump said he was open to the idea of debating Sanders, provided a network paid them for their time and those remunerations went to charity. "If I debated him [Sanders] we would have such high ratings and I think we should take that money and give it to some worthy charity," said Trump.

If you've been following this election cycle, you're well aware that our current presidential primary/caucus setup is bunk. It's weird. It's complicated. It's arbitrary. And it's far more confusing than it ought to be. HBO's John Oliver also noticed the "erratic clusterf*ck" that makes up our modern presidential primaries. No, it's not suitable for work, but it is pretty darn funny:

The inspector general at the State Department says Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton broke federal email rules when she used a private server while she served as secretary of state. NBC News reports::
"At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department issues before leaving government service," says an audit by the State Department Inspector General, obtained by NBC News. "Because she did not do so, she did not comply with the [State] Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."

D.C. Democrats are discussing Debbie Wasserman Shultz's fate as DNC Chairwoman. The Hill reported Tuesday that Wasserman Schultz may be fired as DNC Chair before the national convention in July.
Democrats backing likely presidential nominee Hillary Clinton worry Wasserman Schultz has become too divisive a figure to unify the party in 2016, which they say is crucial to defeating presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in November.

Former Vice President Al Gore hasn't picked a horse in the 2016 race which wouldn't seem like a big deal if it weren't for the fact that he served with Hillary's husband for eight years. The New York Post reports:
Al Gore still won’t support Hillary Clinton Despite renewed pleas from Hillary Clinton’s desperate team that he endorse the former first lady, Al Gore on Monday again declined to support the Democratic front-runner.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders predicts that the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia could be "messy" as he presses his progressive platform planks: "Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle." If the upcoming California primary is any indication, the Democratic Party could get messier far sooner. Both former President Bill Clinton and Sanders held rallies in the San Diego area this weekend. Sanders' first rally had at least 10,000 attendees.

Bernie Sanders and his legion of loyal supporters do not like DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. That's been a well established fact for months but things just got real. During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Bernie Sanders announced support for Wasserman Schultz's primary opponent, Tim Canova and said she'd be stripped of her position if he was president. Ryan Lovelace of the Washington Examiner reports:
Sanders backs Wasserman Schultz's primary opponent In a stinging rebuke to Democratic leaders hoping to unite the Party, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Saturday he wants Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to lose to her primary opponent in Florida. A loss could effectively end her chairmanship of the DNC. Asked by CNN whether he prefers Wasserman Schultz or her primary opponent, Tim Canova, Sanders left no doubt about his desire to see the DNC chair defeated.

The new film "Hillary's America" is opening this summer right before the Democratic convention and so is a documentary called "Clinton Cash" which has an obvious focus. The New York Post provides an overview:
First look at explosive Hillary documentary, ‘Clinton Cash’ Hillary Clinton says that when she and her husband moved out of the White House 15 years ago, they were “dead broke.” Today, they’re worth more than $150 million. In the new documentary “Clinton Cash,” it becomes all too clear how the former first couple went from rags to filthy rich — with the emphasis on filthy.