NEWS AND OPINION:
’Right now Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are going nowhere,” says Fran Coombs, managing editor of the Rasmussen Reports Poll, which finds that both candidates have been mired in miserable limbo, each garnering an unchanging 40 percent of voter support for weeks.
“There remain an unusually high number of voters who prefer some other candidate or are still undecided. Undecideds in single digits are not unusual at this stage of the election season. But when nearly one-in-four voters say they’ll vote third-party or stay home, it’s time to wonder why,” advises Mr. Coombs. “Are they really looking for another candidate? Are they still trying to make up their minds between Clinton and Trump? Or are they just not telling the truth?”
The GOP convention is just six weeks away, the Democratic convention seven weeks.
“Republican hopes that Clinton will be indicted for trafficking in classified information on a private email server while secretary of state appear headed nowhere. 71 percent of Democrats, in fact, think Clinton should keep running for the White House even if indicted until a court determines her guilt or innocence. The mind boggles at the thought of a newly elected president who has been indicted but whose trial would have to be put off until after she left office since presidents can only be removed through impeachment,” says Mr. Coombs.
EAST COAST, WEST COAST
What will those Democratic presidential rivals do as primary results roll in Tuesday night? Sen. Bernard Sanders will remain in the Golden State, joining several thousand of his closest friends for an election night rally staged in a 35,000 square-foot airplane hanger in Santa Monica.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump endorses Renee Ellmers in North Carolina, shocking his supporters
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is bolting to New York City for her election watch party, to be staged at the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She is going for the showbiz touch: this is a spectacular event site with 70-foot ceilings, walls of glass and steel, dramatic views of water and skyline and eco-minded “organic air purification.” It is familiar territory. Mrs. Clinton was last there in April, facing off with Mr. Sanders at a CNN presidential debate.
ELIZABETH WARREN, JOE BIDEN: TOGETHER
More than one excited progressive voter has pondered a fantasy presidential ticket of Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. That particular pairing becomes a reality Thursday when the pair provide the opening act for the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s annual convention in the nation’s capital, at a hotel a few blocks north of the White House.
There should be some vigorous speechifying. “1,000 of the nation’s leading progressive lawyers, judges, law students, policymakers, scholars and activists to discuss critical legal and public policy issues,” the organization noted.
THE THREE-WAY NUMBERS
A new Investors Business Daily poll finds the Americans are expressing “widespread dissatisfaction” with presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. “In fact, little-known Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson gets a surprisingly large 11 percent of the vote when he’s included in the mix. The former New Mexico governor draws almost equally from Hillary and Trump — who get 39 percent and 35 percent, respectively, in a three-way race,” says poll analyst John Merline.
SEE ALSO: Republicans set to unveil election-year policy
Find some more choice numbers in the Poll du Jour at column’s end.
MR. MCCAUL’S NUMBERS
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has released his monthly “terror threat snapshot” for June, based on constantly updated findings from multiple sources. Here is what the Texas Republicans has to share, to cite a bare minimum:
There have been 800 Islamic-State linked investigation in all 50 states in the last two years. A dozen people have been arrested in 10 states this year for “plots to attack. ” Thirty percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been released have returned or are suspected of having returned to jihadi activity and other charges. Mr. McCaul says the situation “demands true leadership and a vision for a global order that secures us and our allies.”
Find the “snapshot” here
VIGILANT ABOUT NAZIS
A hearing of note for Tuesday: Actor Helen Mirren and former U.S. Ambassador to Austria and philanthropist Ron Lauder appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on a visceral issue that has troubled many for seven decades: the repatriation of art stolen by the Nazis before and during World War II.
Both will testify in support of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act — bipartisan legislation introduced in April by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, and Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is meant to help Holocaust survivors and their families recover the looted works. Also appearing: Monica Dugot, international director of restitution for Christie’s and Agnes Peresztegi, director of the Commission for Art Recovery, which reports that “tens of thousands” of items are still missing.
“The phrase ’never forget’ is more than a slogan. ’Never forget’ means working to right all the terrible injustices of the Holocaust, even if many decades have passed,” says Mr. Cruz.
“Seventy-one years after the end of the holocaust and Hitler’s terrifying regime, victims are still identifying possessions that have been missing all these years,” observes Mr. Schumer. “When a family discovers a piece of art that was stolen by the Nazis they deserve their day in court.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 63 percent of Americans say Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton “is not honest and trustworthy.”
• 62 percent say Mrs. Clinton should release transcripts speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs in 2013,
• 52 percent say the lucrative fees “raise concerns about Hillary Clinton as an ethical public figure.”
• 39 percent have a favorable impression of Mrs. Clinton.
• 39 percent would vote for Mrs. Clinton in a three-way race with Republican Donald Trump, who wins 35 percent, and Libertarian Gary Johnson with 11 percent.
Source: A Investors Business Daily/TIPP Poll of 908 U.S. adults conducted May 31 to June 5.
• Petty annoyances, chatter to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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