Trump zeroes in on Indiana
Donald Trump is predicting he can knock rival Ted Cruz out of the Republican presidential race by winning Tuesday's primary here, and recent polling shows he's in good shape.
Both Trump and Cruz are hitting the campaign trail hard in Indiana, making appearances Sunday and several more planned for Monday. Trump will hold two rallies the day ahead of the primary, in Carmel and South Bend. Cruz is holding five events, with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence -- who recently endorsed him -- joining him for at least two appearances.
Donald Trump
to be Republican nominee
92%
live odds
Will the odds go up or down?
The campaigning comes as recent polling shows Trump with a double-digit advantage over his competition in the Hoosier State, thought to be the last stand for Cruz, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to block the businessman's path to winning the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright and avoid a contested convention.
President Barack Obama, meanwhile, took aim at all the presidential candidates during his final White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington.
Here's a look at the latest from a weekend in politics that included drama in Arizona and California and Malia Obama's college choice:
Donald Trump: We can't allow China to 'rape our country'
Trump ahead in Indiana
If Cruz's ability to stop Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates it takes to clinch the Republican nomination hinges on Indiana, the latest polling is especially bad news for the Texas senator's campaign.
Trump has 49% support to Cruz's 34% and John Kasich's 13% in the Hoosier State, per an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey released Sunday.
RELATED: Trump: An Indiana win will seal nomination
If the poll is right, tweeted conservative anti-Trump pundit Erick Erickson, "not only is the primary process over, the GOP is too."
He followed up: "South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, said on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that he's advising Cruz to continue even if he loses Indiana -- saying the party is in the midst of a 'civil war.'"
RELATED: Graham: Trump would lead to 'another 9/11'
Trump was asked if he'd knock Cruz out by winning Indiana on "Fox News Sunday."
His answer: "Yes, it's over."
"Indiana is so important and we have to win it," Trump said later to a crowd of approximately 1,500 people packed into a theater later Sunday in Terre Haute, Indiana. "If we win Indiana, it's over."
One big challenge for Cruz: Conservative talk radio -- a powerful, unified force against Trump in Wisconsin -- isn't rallying to Cruz's side in Indiana.
"The audience is pretty damn smart, and they're not coming to me to tell them what to do," Tony Katz, a conservative talker who hosts WIBC's morning show and has interviewed Cruz several times in recent days, said.
RELATED: Indiana talk radio isn't giving air cover to Ted Cruz
Cruz is shifting his emphasis to California, and looking for a rationale to remain in the race even if he loses Indiana. On Saturday, he spent a day away from Indiana -- taking his announced running mate Carly Fiorina with him to California for the GOP convention there.
WHCD: Obama through the years
Obama's mic drop
President Barack Obama saved his best jokes for his last White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night.
He ended the night with a Kobe Bryant-esque mic drop and comment: "Obama out."
RELATED: White House Correspondents' Dinner: Obama's 10 best lines
Here are some of his best lines:
On paid speeches and the new $20 bills: "If this material works well, I'm gonna use it at Goldman Sachs next year. Earn me some serious Tubmans."
A line Hillary Clinton will like: "Next year at this time, someone else will be standing here in this very spot. And it's anyone's guess who she will be."
Cribbing Bernie Sanders' favorite refrain: "We've got the bright new face of the Democratic Party here tonight, Mr. Bernie Sanders! Bernie, you look like a million bucks. Or to put it in terms you'll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each."
Poking Donald Trump: "There's one area where Donald's experience could be invaluable, and that's closing Guantanamo. Because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground."
Balancing act: Clinton outreach to Sanders' supporters
Sanders' $26 million April haul
Bernie Sanders raised $25.8 million in April -- short of his campaign's hauls of $44 million in March and $43.5 million in February.
The latest numbers could keep the Vermont senator ahead of Hillary Clinton -- who has not yet released her April figures -- in the Democratic fundraising race.
RELATED: Sanders' $26 million April haul a dip from past months
But the dip from the previous month comes as the contest approaches its last states to vote, with Sanders increasingly trailing Clinton in votes, pledged delegates and overall delegates, and suffering defeats in five out of six recent East Coast primaries, including New York.
His campaign hasn't said how much cash Sanders currently has remaining in his campaign's bank. That amount typically comes when he files his federal reports on the 20th of each month.
A defiant Sanders has insisted he'll continue through California's June 7 primary in a bid to win -- or at least carry as much influence as possible into the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
At a Sunday afternoon news conference in Washington, Bernie Sanders described it like this: "A tough road to climb, but not an impossible road to climb."
Sanders made clear, yet again, he has no plans to get out of the race before all the votes are cast in June. But he proceeded to make the argument that super delegates from states he won should back him.
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
