2 p.m. update: Hillary Clinton tackled topics ranging from gun violence to mental health during her Sunday afternoon rally at Douglass Park Gymnasium.

After apologizing to the roughly 100 people who were unable to get inside the packed facility, Clinton talked about the importance of this year's election. She said that the country will either move forward together, or be divided against each other.

"There is no more consequential election facing our country than this 2016 presidential election," she said.

Clinton said the three big tests facing the next president will be producing positive results, keeping residents safe and uniting the country.

"A woman who lost the nomination to the first African-American president is going to win the nomination because of African-Americans,” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster.

No group has rallied behind Mrs. Clinton as decisively as women of color, and their expanding roles in politics—as voters, officeholders and activists—has lifted her campaign in multiple ways.

Exit polls show turnout by black women in Democratic primaries is significantly higher than turnout by black men, in several cases more than double. And black women have overwhelmingly supported the former senator and secretary of state over rival Bernie Sanders—with 90% or more of them voting for her in some states. In New York, she took 79% of their votes on her way to an easy victory, the exit polls show.

The nation's largest Latino business group today announced that it is endorsing Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John Kasich for president, bypassing Ted Cruz, the only Latino left in the presidential race.

"Secretary Clinton has stood with the USHCC and the Hispanic community at-large for decades," USHCC president and CEO Javier Palomarez said in a statement. "For more than 40 years, Secretary Clinton has fought to ensure that those who are willing to work hard in America have the opportunity to get ahead and stay ahead."
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This is the first time ever that the group endorses any presidential candidate. USHCC advocates on behalf of the nation's more than four million Latino-owned businesses that together contribute $661 billion annually to the U.S. economy.

Earlier this year, at a union rally in Henderson, Nevada, Hillary Clinton introduced a new theme in her stump speeches.

"If we broke up the big banks tomorrow," Clinton asked, "would that end racism?"

Logically, it was an odd thing to say. After all, lots of things worth doing, even political things, won't "end racism."

But from a practical point of view, Clinton's gambit was brilliant politics. It effectively caricaturized Sanders as a one-note candidate too steeped in attacking billionaires to see the problems of people down on Main Street. And the line fit in a tweet, making it perfect for rocketing around the Internet.
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According to one study, about two-thirds of all subprime loans between 2000 and 2007 were made to people who already owned their homes. The targets were often elderly, in particular men and women of color. Visiting loan officers convinced these borrowers to use the homes they'd poured their savings into their whole lives as ATM machines.

The pitch was: refinance your home, and get a little extra spending money each month! Lots of people went for it. But there was mischief hidden in the fine print of many of these "refi" deals, which often quickly exploded. Before long, the now-departed agent's promises would evaporate into a toxic quicksand of debt, unforeseen penalties and foreclosure.

Like a lot of reporters who covered the crash era, I initially misunderstood the profound racial element in the subprime drama. This wasn't the S&L crisis or the Enron-era accounting scandals or even the Internet bubble, a speculative craze that devoured the savings of white Middle America.

Trump offered a few arguments for his electability in his Tuesday victory speech. He made the familiar case that he would attract votes from white, working-class men. He talked about traveling around New York and seeing hollowed-out industrial towns. He reminded his audience that Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he linked to the economic hardship among blue-collar workers. With his usual lack of detail, he insisted that he would force companies to stop outsourcing manufacturing jobs. Taking his populism in a slightly new direction, he made a play for Bernie Sanders voters, talking about how Clinton “is funded by Wall Street” and insisting that “The Democrats have treated Bernie very badly.” He also painted Clinton as incompetent. “She knows nothing about jobs, except jobs for herself,” he said. “She doesn’t have the strength, she doesn’t have the stamina…to deal with China or other things.” Trump predicted that he would put states such as New York in play in the general election.

This is a fantasy. It is highly unlikely that white working class Democrats who have not already defected to the Republican Party are likely to do so now. After reviewing survey data, political scientist Charlotte Cavaillé concluded that, rather than causing a defection of blue-collar Democrats into his camp, Trump is mostly benefiting from defections that have already happened. His only hope would be “dramatically increasing the turnout among the younger and politically unaffiliated white working class,” she concluded. Given that Trump is the least popular candidate among the general public, with poor favorability numbers even among white men, that probably would not be enough.

Trump would have to use gains among blue-collar voters to offset losses among minorities and women, among others. He did little to offer minority voters, particularly Latinos, a reason to change their feelings toward him Tuesday night, repeating his familiar talking points on immigration. But he did discuss women. As usual, he insisted that he would be great for women. But then he said this about Clinton: “The only card she has is the women’s card.” He insisted that she would not get 5 percent of the vote if she were a man. It is not clear whether he was trying to appeal to women or men. It could be that he wants to stoke resentment among men who see talk of women’s issues as inappropriate identity politics. But he could also be attempting to stoke resentment among women who feel as though Clinton expects them to vote for her based on their shared gender, a sentiment that circulated among some Sanders voters during the New Hampshire primaries. His conclusion hinted at the latter intent: “The beautiful thing is, women don’t like her,” Trump said.

Except women really don’t like Trump. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 69 percent of women view the GOP frontrunner negatively. His campaign appears to believe that he can turn his negatives around. But his numbers are historically bad. Trump may think that he can fool most of the people, but he has only shown that he can fool some of the people.

You believe that by withholding your support, you'll cause the Democratic Party to lose in November. You believe that should Hillary Clinton lose, it will be a sign that Bernie Sanders was the better candidate after all. You believe that if someone like Donald Trump wins, it will mean that the Democratic Party will get what it deserves. You believe that by not voting you are making a statement in defense of your candidate and his views. You believe that there is one candidate and one candidate alone in this race that represents you and will fight for you and if that candidate doesn't get his party's nomination then there is no reason to vote come November. And you believe that by making your choice, you are making a statement that you were right all along about your chosen candidate.

But that's not how politics works.

Politics is based off of the idea that you support a candidate either because you believe in both that candidate as well as their message. Were you truly inspired by Bernie Sanders' core messages? If so, it might then surprise you that Bernie Sanders' views are actually closely aligned with those of Hillary Clinton. Not only did Hillary and Bernie vote together 93% of the time in the Senate but Hillary actually agrees with Bernie's key issues of raising the minimum wage, moving us toward universal health care, making college more affordable, creating a plan to take on Wall Street, and declassifying marijuana to study its effects. Like Bernie, she supports marriage equality, wants to overturn Citizens United (the Supreme Court case was, after all, brought forth in an effort to spend money against her) and wants to pursue diplomacy first and foremost when it comes to any potential foreign policy issues.

Oh, but it's not Hillary's policies you don't like but it's the person? Odds are you've come to trust Bernie and not Hillary. Well then you'd be surprised to learn that Hillary is the most honest candidate running according to Pulitzer-prize winning Politifact.org. In fact, journalist Jill Abramson, who has frequently investigated Hillary Clinton for her alleged scandals, reached the conclusions that she is "fundamentally honest." A lot of what you hear about Hillary Clinton is unfortunately based off of twenty-five years of Republican smears. That whole issue of Goldman Sachs speeches? Started by none other than Glenn Greenwald's The Intercept. Hillary's "superpredators" comment? That quote was taken out of context from a speech Hillary gave in Keene, New Hampshire. Her ties to big banks on Wall Street? Contributions for this presidential cycle actually shows that the big banks simply aren't contributing large amounts to her campaign. Her big money fundraisers? That money actually is raised to help elect down-ballot candidates. Her excessive use of super PACs? Members of Hillary's own super PAC are saving $70 million for the general election because they know they will need every single cent to compete with Karl Rove and other big wig Republicans who will stop at nothing to bring her down.

Re: Nolan Finley’s April 21 Editor’s Note “Clinton is gone, and Flint forgotten”: As the mayor in question, I can assure you that Finley is the one not paying attention.

Hillary Clinton’s immediate response to the crisis wasn’t campaigning — instead, she called me to ask a simple question, “What can I do to help?”

And she followed through. She set up meetings with locals and took the time to explore workable solutions. Her senior campaign advisers have remained in constant communication with my office and have helped me establish Flint WaterWorks. This program offers jobs to Flint’s young adults, who will distribute clean water, healthy food, nutrition information, and other services to families in their community. Clinton’s help was essential in establishing the necessary partnerships and funding to make the Flint WaterWorks a reality.

And she has promised to make sure that this never happens again in another community in America. Just last week, Clinton released a detailed plan to fight for environmental justice, built off of her thorough understanding of Flint’s challenges and long record on these issues. Her plan would eliminate lead as a major public health threat and modernize drinking systems nationwide.
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Finley levels the absurd charge that Clinton’s supposedly diminished attention has put the federal funding Flint needs to the back burner. But she has roundly condemned the real culprit: a dysfunctional Congress which has held up desperately needed relief.

In her closing ad before Tuesday's East Coast primaries in five states, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is looking past the primaries with a message of unity.

Her new ad, "Love and Kindness," presents a positive message of coming together and protecting each other--a sign she is beginning to move toward unifying Democrats behind her candidacy for the general election.

"Let's break down barriers so we can all rise together," the ad says, in text running across the screen over footage of Clinton speaking and meeting supporters. "Do all the good we can in all the ways we can for all the people we can."

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders admitted Sunday that his campaign is battling uphill on NBC's Meet the Press. When host Chuck Todd asked Sanders whether or not he would call his campaign a success, even if it doesn't end in the Democratic nomination, the Vermont senator answered yes — and nodded to his position as the underdog.

"While we have a narrow path to victory, we're gonna fight through that path and we hope to win," Sanders said.

WASHINGTON: A nationwide grassroot body of Indian-Americans has been launched by Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton's campaign to support the former secretary of state, hinting that an Indian-American could also be appointed under her presidency.

The organisation named 'Indian-Americans for Hillary Clinton' (IAHC) was launched yesterday in a Maryland suburb of Washington by Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta.

Mr Podesta, who personally came down from the campaign headquarters of New York, told a gathering of Indian-Americans that relationship between India and the US would reach a new level after Clinton is elected as the president in the November elections.

"One of the things that she is committed to having a broad diverse cabinet than any administration. And I think, as Senator and as Secretary she showed that commitment by appointing Indian-Americans to positions of responsibilities and I think you should expect that as president of the United States," Mr Podesta said.