Seth Wenig / AP

Hillary Clinton danced merengue in Washington Heights and played dominos in Spanish Harlem with one thing in mind: reminding Latinos in New York that she has known them — and worked for them — for years as the former senator from the state.

And while her numbers with Hispanic voters were lower than they have been in other states with large Latino populations, and lower than they were against Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton beat Bernie Sanders big in New York, garnering 63% of the Hispanic vote, according to exit polls.

Time appears to be running out for Sanders — he has to actually win major states by comfortable margins — but the results suggest his campaign has made some inroads with Latinos.

Clinton won more than 70% of Hispanic votes in Texas and then 69% in Florida. In Arizona she won by similar margins in large Latino districts.

And the numbers are also a drop from how she did against Obama in New York in 2008, the state with the fourth largest Latino population, when she beat him nationally 2-to-1 among Hispanics but decisively 73% to 26% in New York.

"We've effectively proven that the Clinton campaign's theory that Latino voters would provide a firewall is a great fallacy," said Sanders deputy political director Arturo Carmona.

The campaign pointed to Illinois, where it had perhaps it's most impressive showing with Latinos in a big state battling Clinton to a draw, as well as Nevada and Colorado where it did well with Hispanics.

Despite the loss in New York, the campaign sees a silver lining in its progress with Latinos.

"This bodes well for us, particularly for California where we will in fact win the Latino vote and the state," Carmona added.

The Clinton campaign noted that they were outspent by Sanders 2-to-1 in New York in Spanish-language media and said it is in good shape in California, noting the endorsement of the United Farmworkers, among other groups. The campaign argued that while Sanders staffers continually say they're going to win the Latino vote in key states, they have struggled to do so.

In the days leading up to the New York primary, Sanders staffers pointed to a NY1 poll showing the Vermont senator leading with Hispanics 55% to 38% in the state, though the poll only surveyed 83 Latinos.

Next up on the Democratic side are Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland — all with primaries on April 26, as well as the next major prize of Pennsylvania, with 189 available delegates.

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

Congressman Steve King of Iowa, a supporter of Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that there is a risk of the Republican Party splitting if Cruz were to defeat Donald Trump and win the nomination at a contested convention.

The congressman, appearing on the radio show Frankly Speaking, was asked if the Republican establishment might attempt to take the nomination from Cruz or Donald Trump at the convention in Cleveland.

King answered that he saw a risk if Trump loses on a second ballot and decides to run independently or tell his voters to not support the Republican nominee.

"The greater risk for the split of the party is say we get to the convention, nobody's got the 1237 and on a subsequently ballot, a second or subsequent ballot Ted Cruz wins the nomination –– which I would predict if there's a second or subsequent ballot," King said.

"If Donald Trump decides to say, take his ball and go home, or go run on an independent ticket, that would be what would split the party," he continued. "That's more likely than having the establishment take over in Cleveland because they just don't have the numbers among the delegates. If they're gonna take over, they have to essentially dupe the delegates to do that, and I don't think they're gonna be easily duped. These are astute people that are arriving in Cleveland."

Kena Betancur / AFP / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Donald Trump, asked what he would change from the beginning of his campaign until now, answered that he could have said fewer words and toned some of his words down.

"You hate to be put in that position. I guess, maybe I could have said a few less words or a few less things. Would have been helpful," Trump told Brian Kilmeade in an appearance on Kilmeade and Friends Tuesday morning. "But overall we're really happy, we're leading by a lot. We're leading by millions of votes and a lot of delegates and I'm happy."

"But I guess I could have toned a couple of words down or thoughts down, would have been nice," he continued.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Bernie Sanders is raising staggering amounts of money through the ActBlue fundraising site. Much of it comes from small donors.

How much did he raise through February?

$112,718,405.

When the 2016 election began, the idea was that big money from big donors would dominate the election. Instead, many candidates with robust super PACs have failed; Donald Trump has loaned himself money; and Bernie's raised more than $112 million (accounting for 82% of contributions to his campaign) through ActBlue, an online donation service for Democrats, specializing in small donors.

There is no precedent for Sanders' online fundraising. It's almost like a soda fountain — he presses the lever, and money comes flowing out. It may be the new standard for Democratic fundraising, or it may be a once-in-lifetime thing, that only a candidate who so thoroughly positions his candidacy against big money in politics.

But how does it work, exactly? We analyzed the data for all the donations made through ActBlue between April 30, 2015 and February 29, 2016, using Federal Election Commission data processed by ProPublica's FEC Itemizer.

The first thing we learned: The money bombs work. Sanders doesn't raise money in steady streams.

BuzzFeed News

The spikes in the chart above illustrate a "money bomb" — a huge Sanders fundraising push with a fixed deadline — going off. The big spike in early January came from a Sanders New Year's fundraising drive. The huge spike in the middle of February came after Sanders raised $5.2 million in the 24 hours after he won the New Hampshire primary.

The second: There are a lot of people who really love to donate to Bernie Sanders again and again.

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

At least 29 Bernie donors have given at least 100 times through ActBlue, according to the data. They span the spectrum of Sanders' base, from professionals to students. Among the 29 are a college student, an art historian, a lawyer, a pharmacist and a federal employee. Six of the 29 are from California. Five are from Texas.

The 29 super donors are different from most Sanders givers — 53% of Sanders' donors on ActBlue give just once (at an average donation of $33.) The vast majority of Sanders' donors, 92%, donate less than $200.

The average overall of ActBlue donations is juuuust shy of the "twenty-seven dollars" Sanders talks about all the time. The real average is $26.87. (Presumably Sanders is talking about his overall donations in speeches, which includes donations that come in from other sources, but the ActBlue number is very close.)

"I'm living on Social Security, and usually I can give just $3," said Patricia Keljik of Mount Prospect, Illinois. "I wish I could give him a lot more."

Keljik, 62, has contributed 144 times to Sanders, donating $705 overall.

She said she usually gives when she gets an email from the campaign has a few dollars to spare. "When he needs it and asks for it, I give him what I can."

"He's speaking to people who don't have a lot, and we feel for the first time that somebody is speaking for us. The only thing we can do is to give what we can and that way the only people he is beholden to are us."

Alan McLemore, an attorney from Beaumont, Texas, believes Bernie Sanders is the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

So far, he’s given to Sanders’ campaign 101 times. His donations total around $2,600. McLemore said he signed up for automatic monthly donations through ActBlue and will sometimes make additional donations.

"When he sends an email for some special reason, then we'll give him some extra money," he said. "He's the only candidate in a long time who perfectly says what we believe. He just nails it.

McLemore said he plans to keep giving to Sanders if he wins the nomination, which he thinks could still happen. "He's got a much better chance than the corporate media are saying."

Xitij Shah, a sales engineer from Texas, has given the maximum $2,700 to Sanders' campaign through 200 separate donations.

Shah, who first started giving last May, decided in mid-July to start giving $1 each day to the campaign. But after Clinton's narrow win in Iowa, Shah sent Sanders $2,054 instead of continuing to give smaller amounts over a longer period of time.

"That's when I realized he could probably use that money now," said Shah, who keeps up with the Sanders chatter on Reddit and will be flying to New York soon to canvass for the senator.

"The main reason I support Sen. Sanders for president is that he is the most honest person running for president and he wants to get big money out of politics," he said. "I don't believe we can make serious change in this country without reforming how we run our elections, and to a greater extent, our democracy."

Shah also added that he didn't agree with everything Sanders has proposed, but a lot of his plans have already been tested. "For me, a lot of [Sanders' proposed] policy...I've seen done in other countries and those are the things that I wish the U.S. had," he said.

We wondered if the same group of dedicated people like this were just giving to Bernie Sanders a lot. But, actually, the universe of new Bernie donors actually has grown in recent months...

BuzzFeed News

There's that New Hampshire win again in February. One of the interesting things in the data is that, in November, when Clinton started to pull away from Sanders in polling before the race tightened again, the universe of donors didn't expand that much.

And Sanders has indeed raised an insane amount of money from the actual small donations — he's literally been given $10 about 1.4 million times.

BuzzFeed News

Where does all this money come from? The most Bernie Sanders sounding places in the country.

Buzzfeed News

Crestone, Colorado, has the highest concentration of Sanders donors by zip code per capita outside of Vermont. Of the 1,173 people who live in 81131, 107 have donated to the Sanders campaign. The area is home to multiple spiritual centers and progressive ideals — the town's logo is a log cabin with solar panels, and Crestone's official "vision statement" calls for "a community committed to sustainable living practices and spiritual traditions."

The zipcode that includes Logan Circle, the neighborhood in Washington, D.C., is in the top five. Three zipcodes for Berkeley, California, are in the top 25 for donations per capita. The exclusive zipcode for Brown University is in the top 30.

Then there are big city neighborhoods that you'd totally expect: Downtown Portland (97214) and multiple zipcodes in San Francisco also rank near the top per capita.

And one of the centers of Bernie Sanders’ universe is in Seattle.

Turn the corner into Fremont, the neighborhood of this Northwest city with six of the highest per-capita Sanders donor concentrated zip codes in the country, and the first thing you see is an imposing statue of Vladimir Lenin.

It's the real thing, shipped to the "Artists Republic of Fremont" — motto: De Liberta Quirkas — from Slovakia after it was toppled by revelers celebrating the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

But the 16-foot monument to the most famous communist in history is actually a monument to capitalism: The statue has been for sale for years, the reported asking price $250,000.

It's a centerpiece of political debate, routinely defaced by vandals who spray Lenin's bronze hands with red paint to signify the millions who died under Soviet power. On the Sunday after Sanders swept the Washington state caucuses, the statue had "MURDERER" spray painted down the side in red.

Scattered in the blocks around the statue is the predictable eclectic mix of used bookstores, organic food stores, and a marijuana dispensary. The neighborhood is changing as Seattle sloughs off what's left of its 1990s chic for the expensive comfort food and brand consciousness of the 2010s. Not far from the Lenin statue was Roux, a New Orleans-themed eatery of the moment that features handcrafted cocktails and and Edison lightbulbs. It's a different side of Fremont — but no less Sanders country.

At the bar sipping a Manhattan and watching the NCAA tournament on his iPhone via Slingbox was Ryan Phillips, an employee at a large industrial firm in his 30s. Fremont is the only place he wanted to live in Seattle upon moving to the city from the Midwest. He embraced the culture going from "indoor kid" to avid outdoorsperson, as is the style of the city.

Phillips is a Republican. A Republican, who like just about everyone else in Fremont, would vote for Sanders if it came to it. "We're fucked," he said of his own party. Voting Republican is not an option so far this year he added.

All his friends give to Bernie, Phillips said. He hasn't given him any money but he broadly praised the Sanders effort — he likes that Sanders is honest, he said, and he likes that Sanders is direct.

Seattle is unabashedly liberal. There's a socialist on the city council who last year declined to publicly endorse Sanders because he's running as a Democrat. Everything is organic, everything is politically correct, there's that lefty earnestness that can be both grating and also produce real social change, and quickly.

Sanders’ headquarters in the city was set up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. (It was closed the night of Bernie’s massive win in the state. "Thank you guys," a local had written on a paper sign on the front door advertising the caucuses.)

It’s "weird" in Capitol Hill — LARPers everywhere on a recent Saturday night, dressed like anime and Star Wars characters — but the neighborhood is also in the midst of almost comically rapid gentrification.

A couple of blocks away, Amazon.com has built a new downtown headquarters complex that's changing the nature of the areas around it — with wealthy white people. Starbucks has a special showcase branch called the Reserve Roastery in Capitol Hill. People line up for an $11 cup of siphon-brewed coffee or a $40 half-pound of single-source Rwandan coffee roasted by bearded men dressed like brewmasters on the premises.

When the bartender at LTD, a beer and sports bar on the ourskirts of Fremont, overheard a conversation about the concentration of Sanders donors in the city, he rolled his eyes.

"Seattle," he said. "The ATM for Democrats."

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's campaign paid Breitbart News national security editor Sebastian Gorka $8,000 for "policy consulting" last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The filings show that the payment to Gorka was made in October.

Gorka is a professor at Marine Corps University and is the chairman of Threat Knowledge Group, a national security consulting group. He appears frequently as a counterterrorism expert on Fox News.

Gorka has been repeatedly identified on Breitbart as Breitbart's national security editor, with an appearance on Monday on Breitbart's satellite radio show being the most recent example. Gorka has also written frequently for the site, though not since December.

Earlier this year, Gorka was reportedly caught trying to go through security at Reagan Airport in February with a handgun.

Gorka's wife Katharine Gorka is one of Ted Cruz's national security advisers. She also has written in the past for Breitbart and her Twitter bio is "Council on Global Security, Breitbart News."

Gorka did not return requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not return a request for comment.

Questions have increasingly been raised in recent months about Breitbart's close relationship with the Trump campaign, particularly in the aftermath of Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's manhandling of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. In the fallout over the incident, some with the site sided with the Trump campaign over its own reporter, leading to Fields and others quitting the organization in protest. During this period BuzzFeed News reported that a top editor at Breitbart had made inquiries about a possible job with the Trump campaign.

Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump's Cessna jet photographed in Iowa in January.

Andrew Harnik / AP

One of the private jets Donald Trump has used to travel between states while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination is not registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, records show.

As the New York Times first reported on Tuesday, the registration for the fixed-wing, multi-engine Cessna jet expired on Jan. 31 and has not been renewed. A FAA spokesperson also confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the plane's registration had expired.

But the plane has taken dozens of flights since then, according to records reviewed by the newspaper.

The 12-seat plane, which features the Trump family crest on its side, is registered to one of Trump's Delaware based corporations.

Under federal aviation regulations, flying with no registration can lead to a civil fine of up to $27,500, as well as criminal penalties, including fines of up to $250,000 and/or three years in prison.

As The Times reported, should the jet be involved in an accident, an insurance company could use the expired registration as a reason to deny a claim.

Trump in front of his Boeing 757 in Arkansas in February.

John Bazemore / AP

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Cessna is one of several aircraft owned by Trump, who often travels to rallies on his Boeing 757, which features his name emblazoned on the side and boasts 24-carat gold-plated seat belts.

Dominic Holden/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Department of Education's interpretation of existing federal civil rights laws to protect transgender people against discrimination in education.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the department's interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which is that the law's ban on sex discrimination requires school districts to allow transgender people to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

The Gloucester County School Board, however, passed a policy that restricts students to restrooms reflecting their "biological gender." The transgender student who was targeted by the policy, Gavin Grimm, brought this lawsuit in federal court, seeking an injunction against enforcement of the board's policy.

The decision is a big victory for the Obama administration, which weighed in at the appeals court to support Grimm’s challenge, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has been making the case for protecting LGBT people under existing civil rights laws since 2012. The Education Department, for its part, has been pressing the Title IX interpretation with school districts since 2013.

The appeals court had heard the arguments in January, and Tuesday's ruling is the first such appellate ruling in the country on the Obama administration's policy — which it also has advanced regarding the sex discrimination ban under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among the states included in the 4th Circuit is North Carolina, which recently passed a law limiting restroom use in government facilities — including schools and universities — to that which corresponds with a person's "biological sex." The ACLU, which is backing Grimm's suit, also has brought suit against the North Carolina law.

The appeals court first held that the language of regulations implementing Title IX were ambiguous as to transgender restroom use and then finding that the department's interpretation of those regulations — allowing transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity — was a legitimate interpretation.

"We conclude that the Department’s interpretation of its own regulation ... as it relates to restroom access by transgender individuals, is entitled to ... deference and is to be accorded controlling weight in this case," Judge Henry Floyd wrote for the court.

The appeals court did not, however, grant the preliminary injunction Grimm is seeking, instead sending the case back to the district court to reconsider his request.

Judge Andre Davis — who agreed with Floyd's decision for the court, including the decision to send the preliminary injunction request back to the district court — did note that "this Court would be on sound ground in granting the requested preliminary injunction on the undisputed facts in the record."

Judge Paul Niemeyer, however, dissented from the appeals court decision, writing that the ruling "overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature for privacy and safety, which the separation of such facilities is designed to protect."

The appeals court — in a portion of the opinion joined by all three judges on the panel — also declined to reassign the case to another judge at this time. Grimm's lawyers had asked for the case to be reassigned because of comments previously made during the case by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Doumar — including calling being transgender a "mental disorder."

Floyd noted that, while Doumar's comments in court were "idiosyncratic," the appeals court concluded that "the district court’s written order in the case do not raise in our minds a question about the fundamental fairness of the proceedings."

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Donald Trump's spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, said he has been practicing more discipline recently by cleaning up his tweets in hopes of being the Republican nominee.

"Oh absolutely , I think you've probalby noticed the Twitter feed lately," Pierson said on Breitbart News Radio on SiriusXM Tuesday morning when asked if Trump would more disciplined.

"Mr. Trump in the beginning had to take on 17 candidates, all the special interests, and so he had to come out swinging with everything he knew –– and keep in mind this is a first time politician. Donald Trump has only been a politician for 10 months. He's never been politically correct, he's never guided by focus groups and by polling, or any of those things a lot politicians use just to tell people what they want to hear the way they want to hear it."

Pierson remarked Trump was very truthful and upfront early in the campaign as reasoning for his lack of a filter, but now, she said the campaign team was moving towards the general election.

"Now that we've winnowed the field down, you've seen the campaign team is growing, preparing for a general election. He's getting ready to do a lot more policy speeches, a lot of people are looking forward to that," Pierson said. "And he does understand and recognize...a transition is occurring because Mr. Trump has been finally been able to navigate that balancing act of being a politician and taking on essentially the world."

Layne Murdoch / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

Donald Trump Jr., in a radio interview on Monday, likened the Republican delegate system that determines who wins the presidential nomination to something out of communist China.

"Since when should the presidential candidate for the Republican or any other party for that matter to be the president of the United States — when should they have to cater to small group of delegates as suppose to what the will of the people actually is," Trump told Sean Hannity. "I mean, that's almost mind boggling. I mean, I feel like we're living in communist China, it's ridiculous."

Trump Jr. said the delegate selection system meant you have to be a member of the political establishment to win.

"They've been wining and dining these people for years, and it does set it up so that you almost have to be establishment, and I can see that," said Trump Jr. "All the establishment guys, they all want to think that they can be president whether they're qualified or not. Whether they have the temperament or not. Whether they all have the ability or not, they all want to sit there, that's why they're writing their big checks, so they can get a seat at the table."

Trump Jr. said his father gave a voice to the people by working outside the system and took aim the Republican National Committee for disenfranchising voters.

"The RNC and everyone has been pushing this for year, 'you got to watch all the debates because your vote counts and your vote matters. Oh, guess what it actually doesn't we were just kidding."

Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A coalition of progressive groups is asking the Congressional Black Caucus to overhaul the way its political arm operates, according to an open letter shared with BuzzFeed News.

“The members of the Congressional Black Caucus need to stand up to the corporate lobbyists that currently make up the majority of the Political Action Committee’s board,” the open letter reads. “Between donors and board members, the committee is under the influence of some of the companies and industries with the worst track records of abuse and exploitation of Black people.”

The letter’s signees include Color of Change, Black Lives Matter, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Million Hoodies for Justice.

The letter takes issue with the PAC’s corporate board, and its ties to private prisons and big tobacco lobbies. Before the South Carolina primary, the CBC PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, following the endorsements of many individual CBC members over the past year.

Rashad Robinson, Color of Change’s Executive director called the political action committee’s relationship to corporations “a danger to Black communities when it allows lobbyists from dangerous industries like private prisons and Big Tobacco to make decisions about who represents black people.”

Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said, "It’s time for the CBC to put the power in the hands of black people, their constituents, the ones who bankroll their paychecks. It’s time for them to stop playing politics and start doing their jobs."

"Our communities depend on leaders in Washington that will protect them against corporate entities such as private prisons, detention centers, and others that harm and exploit us,” Opal Tometi, the executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration said.

Dante Barry of Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, said the CBC PAC “aligns itself with private prisons, big tobacco, and anti-worker companies that don't work to ensure that Black lives matter.”

In February, Color of Change slammed the PAC for its non-endorsement of Donna Edwards in the Maryland Senate race.

Here's the letter in full:

Dear Congressional Black Caucus Member,

We are writing to ask you to take immediate action to restore the reputation of the Congressional Black Caucus by pushing for changes to the board of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee that would end the dominance of corporate lobbyists in its decision making. The board should be lead by people accountable to Black folks, including elected officials and representatives from organizations representing the interests of Black people, not lobbyists paid to wield corporate power. I'm also asking you to insist that the board cut ties with funders from the private prison lobbyists, the tobacco industry, and the National Restaurant Association, just three of the worst corporate sponsors of the PAC.

Black people have struggled for centuries to build political power that represents their interests in the face of deep racial inequalities. One of the most challenging obstacles to Black political power has been the increasing power that corporations wield in the political process through political contributions and lobbying. We were appalled to learn that the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBC PAC) is yet another example of the expansion of corporate power at the expense of Black people.

Although its name indicates that the CBC PAC is lead by elected Black leaders, its board is dominated by corporate lobbyists. In addition, the CBC PAC is largely funded by corporate lobbyists and Political Action Committees. Between donors and board members, the committee is under the influence of some of the companies and industries with the worst track records of abuse and exploitation of Black people.

As you know, the Congressional Black Caucus has been known as the 'Conscience of the Congress' for decades. When it represents the interests of Black communities, it can be a moral force driving the nation in the direction on inclusion and equity. However, with its political action committee under corporate influence, it becomes a shell for business interests that not only have no commitment to Black people, but a vested interest in our disenfranchisement.

Black people and our allies in the fight for racial justice are in an unprecedented moment where we are building power and holding elected officials and candidates accountable in very real ways. Whether it be protesters in the streets, online activism or Black voters turning out in historic numbers in recent elections, Black folks are speaking clearly and using our voices to call for change. That voice should not be watered down or drowned out by corporate influence.

Please act now to rally your colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to end the corporate dominance of the CBC PAC board.

Thank you,

Black Lives Matter

ColorOfChange

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration

The Campaign for Media Justice

Black Lives Matter Sacramento

Black Lives Matter Rockland Alliance

Black Lives Matter Bay Area

Black Lives Matter NYC

Black Lives Matter Tampa Bay

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — The eight-member Supreme Court was closely divided on Monday morning when it heard arguments over several states' challenge to the Obama administration's 2014 immigration executive action known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

The policy would grant deferred action — a decision not to seek removal of unauthorized immigrants — to the parents with no criminal record of those who are Americans or have permanent legal status. Along with that, the program provides for work authorization and limited benefits — primarily, Social Security — for those granted deferred action.

The states — joined by the House of Representatives — argue that such a policy runs contrary to existing immigration law and, as such, is an illegal policy.

While the justices appeared split 4-4 on conservative-liberal grounds over whether DAPA itself and its effects are ultimately legal, Justice Anthony Kennedy signaled an openness to dismissing the case on standing grounds — a ruling that this lawsuit was not the proper way to bring such a challenge.

The Obama administration has maintained that the states, led by Texas, lack standing to bring this challenge because the injury Texas claims — costs related to issuance of drivers licenses to those granted deferred action — is speculative. The states and House, however, respond that there has to be a way for courts to review such a significant policy decision if, as they argue, it is an illegal action.

On Monday, the four more liberal justices pressed questions about standing, while also attempting to pin down the two lawyers arguing against the policy — representing the states and the House — on exactly what it was that they believed was impermissible about the administration’s DAPA action.

The liberal justices pinpointed the primary concern raised by the states as the work authorization and provision of limited benefits to those granted deferred action under DAPA. The work authorization in DAPA, however, flows from an existing regulation that allows the government to grant work authorization for certain immigrants.

Justice Anthony Kennedy asked at multiple points whether the proper case wouldn’t instead be one challenging the Obama administration’s application of that earlier regulation. Kennedy suggested that such a lawsuit, brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, could argue that the Obama administration expanded the use of that earlier regulation so much that it, effectively, changed the regulation.

If the states had challenged the DAPA that way, they would have been able to challenge the effects of the executive action while avoiding one of the administration's stated concerns. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. argued on Monday that a ruling finding that the states here have standing "would invite a flood of litigation" from states challenging federal actions whenever there is an indirect effect on their budgets.

If the justices are uninterested or unable to reach a majority ruling based on standing, however, Monday's arguments suggested the justices could split 4-4 on the question of whether the Obama administration's DAPA actions, including the work authorization and benefits provision effects, run contrary to current law. Such a ruling would leave the current injunction against the program in effect, with the practical result of dealing a loss to the Obama administration.

On that merits question, Justices Kennedy and Samuel Alito, along with Chief Justice John Roberts, appeared very skeptical of the administration's action. Kennedy at one point said that whole process "seems backwards," with the administration effectively defining the limits of its own discretion.

Although Justice Clarence Thomas didn't speak up at arguments, as is his general practice, he would be expected to side with his conservative colleagues on the matter.

Nir Elias / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a radio interview on Monday, said it would "make sense to him" that pro-Bernie and anti-Hillary forces were the reason a racially-tinged joke he made at an event last week generated controversy.

Appearing on Ebro in the Morning on Hot 97, the mayor was asked if outrage over the joke was the result of "anti-Hillary fervor and the pro-Bernie fervor."

"I would think that makes sense, because otherwise I can't figure out," de Blasio answered. "I just can't figure it out. I mean Chirlane was on one of the shows on the weekend, and they asked her and she said, 'guys, it was a satire. The whole thing was a satire.'"

During a skit at the political roast show Inner Circle, Hillary Clinton asked de Blasio why it took so long for him to endorse her. The mayor said he ran on "CP time," in reference to the phrase "colored people time," a stereotype about people of color constantly running late.

"Sorry, Hillary, I was running on CP time," de Blasio said at the event.

"I don't like jokes like that," responded Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., who also took part in the skit.

"Cautious politician time," Clinton responded. "I've been there."

Bernie Sanders has spent a lot of time recently roaming around his old hometown of Brooklyn trying to gather votes for the April 19 primary, where he's down in the polls. His campaign used the opportunity to leverage Sanders' celebrity supporters.

youtube.com

Justin Long, Josh Hutcherson, and Mark Ruffalo shot issue-focused videos for Sanders his campaign is calling "PSAs." They also star documentarian Matthew Cooke.

youtube.com

youtube.com

youtube.com

View Entire List ›

CNN / Via go.cnn.com

Michelle Fields, a former reporter for conservative website Breitbart News, on Sunday questioned the integrity of a Florida state attorney who declined to prosecute Donald Trump’s campaign manager — even though police had charged the campaign manager with misdemeanor battery for forcefully grabbing Fields’s arm at a Trump campaign event in March.

“The entire situation seems a little sketchy,” Fields told CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday.

Fields said the prosecutor and his wife had ties to Trump, including visiting his Florida estate, and she alleged the prosecutor relied on a Trump campaign ally as an expert in forming the decision to decline to proceed with the charges.

“I think the prosecutor’s decision, the way they handled this whole situation, was unprofessional,” she said. “I just don’t agree, obviously, with their decision.”

Fields also skewered Trump and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, saying their attempts to discredit her story and initially deny the altercation happened — later revealed on video — amounted to defamation.

“Corey lied. Trump lied. They defamed me,” she said. “And they went on this huge smear campaign against me.”

On March 8, Fields attended a Trump event at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as a reporter for Breitbart. When she tried to approach him, Lewandowski grabbed her arm. She later posted photos of bruises on Twitter.

Trump's campaign initially denied that the altercation happened, saying she had made it up.

After Fields took her case to authorities, the Jupiter Police Department released a video from surveillance cameras showing Lewandowski reaching for and grabbing Fields, and said they would charge Lewandowski with misdemeanor battery.

But Palm Beach County Florida State Attorney David Aronberg on Thursday announced he would not pursue those charges because he lacked enough evidence.

“Although the facts support the allegation that Lewandowski did grab Miss Fields’ arm against her will … there is sufficient evidence to presume his innocence,” said Aronberg, who added “any contact was incidental and that is not contemplated under the simple battery statute which requires an intentional and unwanted touching.”

The Trump campaign and Lewandowski had praised the decision, maintaining that Lewandowski had not erred.

In her interview on Sunday, Fields questioned the relationship between Trump and Aaronberg’s wife, Lynn, who runs a public relations firm.

Her firm’s website features a photo of Lynn Aaronberg with Trump, alongside promotional text that says that Mrs. Aronberg is "capitalizing on strong relationships." Both members of the couple two have visited Trump's estate repeatedly, Fields said.

Donald Trump is seen with Lynn Aronberg in those photo of the website of Lynn Aronberg Public Relations.

Via lynnaronberg.com

"If I was a prosecutor and my wife was trying to monetize her relationship with Donald Trump — and it's right there on her website — and I’m partying all the time at Mar-a-Lago, I would recuse myself from the situation in the case," said Fields.

Further, Fields said the prosecution did not involve an independent source when deciding to not press charges. She claimed the prosecutor instead used "an expert that the Lewandowski camp gave to them."

Gossip Extra quoted David Aronberg as saying in March, “I know Donald Trump, I’ve been at Mar-a-Lago a bunch of times." However, David Aronberg also said that his relationship with the wealthy Republican contender was not an issue in the case — pointing out that he is a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton for president.

With charges off the table, Fields said she would not rule out a defamation lawsuit against Trump and Lewandowski. “I think they were trying to defame me and I think it shows malice,” she told CNN.

The Trump campaign, David Aronberg, and Lynn Aronberg did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ requests for comment on Fields’s allegations.

Watch the interview:

youtube.com

Bernie Sanders at the Vatican on Friday.

Angelo Carconi / AP

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders met with Pope Francis during a lightning visit to the Vatican on Saturday morning, but he said his visit to the Holy See did not signify a papal endorsement of his campaign.

“I conveyed to him my great admiration for the extraordinary work that he is doing all over the world in demanding that morality be part of our economy,” Sanders told reporters on his flight back to New York , according to the New York Times.

Sanders arrived in Italy on Friday, having been invited to a conference on social justice and economic issues organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies.

Prior to his leaving, questions had swirled over whether the Vermont senator would have the chance to meet the Pope, whom he has cited as a role model on matters of poverty and the environment.

On Friday, the pontiff had sent a handwritten note to those attending the conference, apologizing that he would not be able to meet with them due to a scheduling conflict involving his trip to the Greek island Lesbos.

But the two met at 6am at the Vatican City guesthouse, according to NBC News, along with Sanders' wife, Jane, and his campaign economic advisor, Jeffrey Sachs. No photos of the meeting were taken in accordance with the rules of the guesthouse, the New York Times reported.

"Today certainly was the highlight of the trip," Sanders told NBC, describing the pope as "one of the great leaders in this world."

The Pope later told reporters aboard the papal plane the meeting was not a political act.

"When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," he said. "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist."

Sanders acknowledged that his decision to attend the conference would cut into time campaigning ahead of a crucial primary in New York on April 19, but believed the Vatican invitation to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"I am a great admirer of Pope Francis and when I received this invitation, I believe that I would've kicked myself for the rest of my life if I did not attend a conference here in the Vatican to deal with issues that have been important to me for decades," he told NBC News.

He denied, however, that he was trying to seek a papal endorsement by attending the conference.

Also present at the conference was Evo Morales, the socialist leader of Bolivia, with whom Sanders was photographed sharing a warm handshake.

Pool New / Reuters

Sanders acknowledged that he did not agree with all of the Catholic Church’s teachings on some social issues such as same-sex marriage, but lauded the Pope for his role in changing attitudes over others, like the environment.

He told reporters that Pope Francis’ encyclical (a letter sent to all bishops in the church) on creation “played a profound role in turning many people’s minds around about the urgency of the moment in terms of dealing with climate change,” according to the Catholic News Service.

Shortly after his meeting with Sanders, Pope Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos to visit an immigration detention center. He then took three Syrian refugee families, a total of 12 people, back to the Vatican.

LINK: Pope Francis Is Taking 12 Refugees Back To The Vatican Following His Visit To Lesbos

Scott Olson / Getty Images

For a man who once tried to trademark the phrase "You're fired," Donald Trump seems awfully eager these days to cast himself as a loyal boss.

With his campaign reeling from tactical blunders and his inner circle gripped by infighting, the billionaire has spent weeks defiantly rejecting calls to fire his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski — and, often in the same breath, touting that decision as proof of his own personal character.

"Folks, look, I'm a loyal person," Trump said last month in a CNN town hall after Lewandowski was arrested for allegedly grabbing a female reporter. "It would be so easy for me to terminate this man, ruin his life, ruin his family.”

If the talking point originated as damage control, Trump quickly transformed it into a proactive pitch for his candidacy. Before long he was bringing up l'affaire Lewandowski unprompted at his rallies, and seizing the chance to spin it whenever the subject came up in interviews.

"I will be very loyal to the country," he said on Face the Nation.

"I will be loyal to Wisconsin," he proclaimed in Milwaukee.

During a meeting with Jewish activists and reporters this week in New York, Lewandowski informed Trump that the charges had been dropped. “Oh, good,” the candidate reportedly responded. “Now tell my friends from, in some cases, Israel, how loyal was Mr. Trump to you?”

“More than I could possibly fathom,” Lewandowski replied. “I am so grateful.”

This narrative has taken hold among Trump's aides, fans, and Twitter followers, who deploy it with the reverence of a mob family describing the code of omertà. As Lewandowski recently put it to New York magazine, "This campaign, above all other things, is about loyalty."

But if a bone-deep belief in personal loyalty really is the guiding principle in Trump's decision-making, it hasn't always been that way. A review of the billionaire's tumultuous, decades-long career — including interviews with former employees, aides, and confidantes — suggests that Trump's dedication to even his closest allies can wear thin, particularly at moments of professional crisis. Far from a tight-knit family of blood brothers, The Donald's inner circle has been purged and repopulated many times over the years. Devoted workaholics burn out and flame out. Longtime alliances end with lawsuits and tabloid sniping. Sometimes reconciliation follows, sometimes grudges endure — and rarely does Trump refuse to bury the hatchet when it's good for the bottom line.

A presidential campaign isn't real estate or reality TV, but the attention on Trump — and the expectations for him to perform — have never been more intense. As the Republican frontrunner scrambles to beat back a late surge from the GOP's anti-Trump forces amid an escalating power struggle inside his own campaign, the coming months will no doubt be chaotic and unpredictable for Trump and his team. Who will get his loyalty, and who will get kicked to the curb?

You don’t have to reach too far back for an example of Trump abandoning a faithful staffer. Just last summer, his nascent campaign fired Sam Nunberg — a young New York operative who had spent years working as Trump’s political adviser — after Business Insider published old racist Facebook posts he had written.

In a recent interview, Nunberg said he pleaded with his boss not to fire him. Trump had actually cut him loose once before, in 2014, after Nunberg arranged for him to be interviewed by BuzzFeed News, and the resulting profile displeased the billionaire. In that case, Nunberg said, he had chosen to "fall on his sword" to help Trump save face — and he was rehired the next year. This time, he believed Lewandowski had personally leaked the Facebook posts in an effort to oust him. (The campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but Lewandowski has denied this.)

Nunberg now notes that even though Al Sharpton found it in his heart to forgive him for the racist posts, his longtime boss was less generous. And while he ultimately accepted Trump's decision, Nunberg was hurt when the campaign announced his termination with a press release that called him a "low-level, part-time consultant."

“Why would Trump even approve that statement?” Nunberg asked, eight months later.

As for Trump’s decision to stand by his current campaign manager amid a much greater public backlash, Nunberg is skeptical that the decision was motivated solely by principle.

“It seems to me it’s a convenient argument,” he said. “Donald is very superstitious, and I can see him [saying], ‘I’m winning with this guy, I don’t give a shit.’ [Trump] can certainly be loyal, but it’s selective.”

Of course, not every lieutenant who makes it to the inner sanctum of Trump Tower gets so unceremoniously defenestrated. Some key aides, in fact, never lose their perch. Keith Schiller, a retired NYPD detective who runs security for Trump, has held the job for 17 years. Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime secretary and gatekeeper, has been with him for more than 25 years. In private and in public, both of them gush about their boss's generosity and extol his virtues with what seems like genuine affection.

In other cases, Trump has shown a tendency to toss aside top employees — even those who share his DNA — when he's under extreme pressure (or, perhaps, looking for a scapegoat). In 1990, when the disastrous opening of the Taj Mahal Casino threatened to unravel Trump's Atlantic City casino empire, he aimed his fury at his younger brother, Robert, who worked on the project. According to a 1991 book written by a former Trump executive, the magnate angrily berated Robert in front of other employees.

“I thought you could handle this,” Trump said. “I must’ve been out of my mind. I let you make recommendations. I’m sick and fucking tired of listening to you.”

Robert immediately departed the casino seething, according to the book, saying, “I don’t need this.”

Trump’s critics said he was trying to throw his brother under the bus to cover up for his own failures. True or not, the episode reportedly put a lasting strain on their relationship.

“I think that he showed some disloyalty when he blamed his brother and the managers over at the casinos for the problems with the casinos,” said Barbara Res, a former executive in the Trump Organization. But, she reasoned, Trump's company was on the brink of bankruptcy and his financial problems were spiraling. "He was not himself.”

At the same time Trump's business was tanking, the tawdry details of his breakup with his first wife, Ivana, were being smeared across the New York tabloids. Charged with the unenviable task of preserving the celebrity businessman’s image was Howard Rubenstein, a veteran PR man who had worked for Donald for 17 years, and before that represented his father, Fred Trump.

Rubenstein's talents were legendary — Rudy Giuliani later hailed him as “the dean of damage control” — but tamping down coverage of a juicy celebrity divorce proved all but impossible. Incensed by the nasty headlines that were piling up, Trump abruptly axed his longtime publicist one day, giving notice of the decision in what USA Today called a “curt letter.”

“There was a time when he was upset with everybody,” Rubenstein told BuzzFeed News more than two decades later. Still, as far as he could recall, the rift "lasted no longer than it took the letter to arrive."

Whatever Trump's personal feelings about Rubenstein's performance, it appears he either got over it or determined there was little value in holding a grudge against someone who traveled in the same elite Manhattan circles that he did. By the mid-2000s, the two were once again enjoying a mutually beneficial relationship. When Rupert Murdoch needed help finding a temporary rental in the city, Rubenstein connected him with The Donald. And while Trump eventually hired the publicist's son, Richard, to represent him, the elder Rubenstein proved in his interview with BuzzFeed News that he still has the talking points down.

“I find him to be one of the most loyal persons I’ve dealt with in my 62 years in my own business,” Rubenstein said, adding that “if you’re loyal in terms of integrity and honesty, he will show you integrity.”

While Trump's own track record of personal loyalty might be mixed, there is no question that he demands it from his employees. To work directly under Trump is to cede virtually all of your time and attention to serving him. Even after falling out bitterly with Trump, some ex-employees recall the highs and lows of the experience with a certain degree of fondness.

As Blanche Sprague, one of Trump's former executives, told the Washington Post in 1987, "To work for Donald you absolutely have to love him, because he will absolutely drive you crazy. There are days when I could cheerfully bludgeon him to death. He starts calling you at 6 in the morning and finishes at 11 at night."

Sprague, whose stylistic similarities to her boss were noted in the press in the '80s, was a key figure in the early days of The Donald's empire-building. Perhaps inevitably, their productive relationship ended in a firing, and then a flurry of litigation, and eventually a high-profile volley of insults, accusations, and hyperbole. At one point, Trump claimed that Sprague's fiery behavior had directly caused 63 employees to leave his company.

(Sprague declined to comment for this story, though in a decidedly Trumpian move, she accused BuzzFeed News of running stories "based on tidbits that they picked up from the street,” and advised a reporter to “take your career out of the street.”)

In interviews and speeches, Trump is fond of name-dropping his many famous "friends" (Tom Brady, for example, or Don King) — a rhetorical tic that makes it difficult to identify his actual friendships. But by virtually all accounts, one of Trump's closest friends early in his career was Roy Cohn. An infamous attorney and ex-aide to Joseph McCarthy, Cohn served as a mentor to Trump through much of the '70s and '80s. He hooked the young tycoon up with his powerful New York political connections, and exploited relationships with the mayor and others to help deliver for Trump the Commodore hotel, a decrepit teardown above Grand Central that he transformed into the Grand Hyatt. Trump held up his end of the friendship as well: When Cohn was facing disbarment in the mid-'80s, Trump testified on his friend's behalf as a character witness. For a while, according to Vanity Fair, the two men spoke "15 or 20 times a day."

Then Trump found out Cohn was HIV-positive.

He moved swiftly to cut ties with his mentor, seeking out new attorneys and transferring his legal business to them. The sudden rejection stunned Cohn. Commenting on the betrayal, Cohn reportedly said, "Donald pisses ice water."

“I don’t know how he found out that Roy was HIV positive, and then it was like, boom, gone,” recalled Susan Bell, Cohn’s longtime secretary, in an interview. “Which was kind of shocking because they were friends. But who knows Donald’s motives? I assume he didn’t want to associate himself with somebody tainted.”

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

Ted Cruz says he will not ban dildos and other sexual toys if he becomes president.

In a Mother Jones story earlier this week, it was revealed that Cruz defended a state ban on the sale of dildos as Texas's solicitor general.

"There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship," a brief co-authored by Cruz read.

Cruz, asked by WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa if he would ban "the sale of sexual toys, dildos, or anything that sexually stimulates you," answered that he would not.

"Look, of course not, it's a ridiculous question, and of course not," Cruz told Sliwa on Friday. "What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business and it's none of government's business."

Full interview:

w.soundcloud.com

View Entire List ›

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

w.soundcloud.com

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia says there's growing concern among her colleagues that if Donald Trump becomes the party's nominee, it will jeopardize Republican senators facing tough races for re-election.

"Absolutely there's concern, and so I think the focus you'll see from most senators and probably me as well is to try to get our senators re-elected to retain the majority because holding the majority in the Senate I think is important for the country," Capito told WRNR radio on Friday morning when asked if senators were concerned about Trump affecting their chances of winning down ballot.

"Certainly, it's important for me as a good Republican, so I'll pick a couple races, states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, that have incumbent Republican senators who I think are very good. Sen. Portman, Sen. Toomey, and Sen. Ayotte in New Hampshire," she continued.

Capito said Republicans in states where the final results are often close would be most negatively impacted by a Trump nomination.

"There's a lot of independents, there's a lot of Democrats in those states and you have to swing voters and that swing them from independents over to the Republican side," she said. "I think there's a real concern that Donald Trump would be a detriment to that at the top of the ticket. So, that's why you see them working extremely hard, raising a lot of money, and also distancing themselves in a lot cases from a lot of his comments. And I think that's what they need to do to try to win their individual races, but you can only win by two points, that's when whoever's at the top can really make an influence on your race."

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

A former strategist for a pro-Donald Trump super PAC is working on a book about her experiences, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The author, Stephanie Cegielski, wrote a widely-shared essay for XoJane last month denouncing Trump and describing her time working for a now-defunct super PAC supporting the candidate.

Cegielski's agent, Ryan Harbage of the Fischer-Harbage Agency, said he had already brought her book proposal to publishers "and immediately have booked meetings with several top publishers who are keen on the project. The plan is to release the book right before the RNC convention, which as you know is an extremely short schedule for book publishing."

Harbage wouldn't specify which publishers are interested in the book but said "I can tell you that a majority of the big five commercial publishers have scheduled meetings with the author."

In Cegielski's essay, she wrote of her disillusionment with the candidate, claiming that Trump did not actually want to be president — "The Trump camp would have been satisfied to see him polling at 12% and taking second place to a candidate who might hold 50%" she wrote. "His candidacy was a protest candidacy." Cegielski urged his supporters to reconsider backing him.

Though the essay's headline identified her as Trump's "Top Strategist-Turned-Defector," Cegielski actually did communications for the Make America Great Again super PAC, which shut down in October as questions were being raised about the PAC's close ties to the campaign. Trump disavowed super PACs supporting him in October.

"Stephanie met with all of the Trump campaign people many times over several months, before she started at the super PAC," Harbage said. "There will be many newsbreaks in the book. Like the essay, it will recount her first-person experience."

Cegielski's book would not be the only Trump-related book to come out before the election is even over. The Washington Post announced earlier this week that it was working on an investigative book called Trump Revealed which is scheduled to be published in August. The New York Post reported that the advance for that book is $500,000, a figure Harbage said he expected to be "at least" the size of his client's deal.

The working title for Cegielski's book is Trump Card: How Donald Played America.

Cegielski tweeted an apology this week for working to support Trump, saying "I should have been a better woman and role model. I'm sorry."

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Obama will meet with several top recording artists Friday afternoon to discuss two of the administration's fourth-quarter priorities, a senior administration official told BuzzFeed News.

Obama will hold a roundtable discussion criminal justice reform and the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, the administration official said. Obama, along with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and My Brother's Keeper Task Force Chair Broderick Johnson, will meet with Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Chicago's Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, Common, Wale, and Busta Rhymes.

"Over the past few months, many of these artists have lent their voices and platforms to promoting these issues," the official said. "Many of these artists have found ways to engage on the issues of criminal justice reform and empowering disadvantaged young people across the country."

The White House selected the artists because each "found ways to engage on the issues of criminal justice reform and empowering disadvantaged young people across the country" through their artistry or nonprofit work.

Keys is spearheading an effort to urge Congress pass criminal justice reform legislation. J. Cole, a Fayetteville, N.C. native, has established the Dreamville Foundation and has built his career on inspiring fans to achieve their dreams, the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary.

Janelle Monae has been a vocal advocate for voting rights; Common is a My Brother's Keeper partner, and Busta Rhymes will participate in an effort to reform the nation's prisons.

Wale, who has spoken about his time spent in a detention as a youth, attended First Lady Michelle Obama's "Beating the Odds" Summit last year.