Dems must denounce rioters

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Is Clinton's rhetoric stoking violence on Trump trail?

Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. provides insight on 'Fox & Friends'

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Buzz Cut:
• Dems must denounce rioters
• Ryan knuckles under
• Power Play: Hillary’s tarnished Golden State?
• Time for a change

DEMS MUST DENOUNCE RIOTERS
Politicians aren’t necessarily responsible for the actions of their supporters. But they are certainly responsible for denouncing misconduct undertaken on their behalves.

When two Donald Trump fans beat and urinated on a Hispanic vagrant in Boston last year, Trump was criticized for not denouncing their behavior swiftly and thoroughly enough.

So where are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the riots that took place Thursday outside of a Trump rally in San Jose, Calif.?

Trump has been regularly flayed for failing to disavow the ugly minority of his supporters – the white nationalists, Klansmen and woman haters – for their online misconduct or endorsements.

Journalists spent weeks exploring the violence of Trump supporters after a man responded to Trump’s calls for violence against protesters by sucker-punching a woman in the face.

Perhaps Trump deserves opprobrium for the tacit acceptance of hate.

But what about a woman pelted with eggs and garbage for supporting Trump? What about rioters attacking police, hurling rocks, burning American flags and even allegedly slapping a horse?

Depending on your point of view, the boiling cauldron of racially-charged hate that is spilling into the streets this election cycle may be more the fault of one politician or party than another. But neither side is blameless.

After decades of politicians relentlessly racializing American politics, usually with code words and subliminal messages, we find ourselves transported back 50 years to real riots, real violence.

Democrats should swiftly, loudly and unequivocally condemn this behavior, if not from a spirit of civic virtue, then at least out of self-interest.

It’s hard to imagine anything these protesters could do to help Trump’s cause more than these oppressive, thuggish tactics.

By living down to the worst claims made by Trump and his supporters, the rioters give credence not only to the idea that immigrants are lawless but also that Trump’s idea of rough justice is warranted.

What Democrats want is for the focus to be on what Clinton was talking about on Thursday: that Trump is an abnormal human being unfit for the normal duties of the presidency.

Her speech was all the more brutal for its calm, well-reasoned power. This was not her screaming at a rally, this was her being the adult in the room. And Trump had better come up with something better than what he’s dishing out if he wants to correct his deficiencies with college-educated voters.

But if those same voters decide that these are abnormal times that call for abnormal men and measures, Clinton’s potent putdowns might not matter so much.

WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
NYT: “Scientists have done well in scouring the DNA of humans to track our origins to the African continent. But the ancient origins of an animal that is an honorary member of many human families has remained in doubt: We still don’t know where dogs came from. A group of scientists who are in the middle of a grand examination of canine fossils and modern DNA proposed Thursday to turn the whole conversation on its head. Suppose dogs didn’t evolve in one place, they suggested, but two. What if domestication of ancient wolves happened in both Asia and Europe — different wolves, different people? Laurent Frantz and Greger Larson of Oxford University and an international team of scientists who are all part of a dog domestication project run out of Oxford, made the new argument in a paper published in the journal Science.”

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POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
General Election: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +1.5 point
Generic congressional vote: Democrats +2.2

RYAN KNUCKLES UNDER
Paul Ryan tried to marginalize his endorsement of Donald Trump by announcing it in his small, hometown newspaper and issuing it at the precise moment that Hillary Clinton began her highly publicized bombing raid on Trump’s character and fitness for office.

Ryan succeeded in marginalizing much more than that.

As Trump could have taught him, walking away from a deal empty-handed means diminished status at the next negotiation. After a month of high-minded-sounding objections about Trump’s policies and particularly his tone, Ryan simply signed on the dotted line.

Ryan deposited his Trump endorsement like an XXX video rental dropped in the store return slot and will get a similar portion of glory for so doing.

Conservatives like Philip Klein are savaging Ryan. And the nominee is bound to hold Ryan in even lower esteem than he does those who emigrated to Trumpghanistan early on. All Ryan’s 28-day run of “Hamlet” got him was scorn.

Ryan’s real choice all along was either to step down as speaker or obey his party’s nominee. So Ryan is obeying.

For Ryan to do so even as Trump says a federal judge’s Latino ethnicity makes him unfit to hear a fraud suit against him shows that Ryan wasn’t that serious about his objections in the first place.

Ryan said he hopes “the campaign improves its tone as we go forward and it’s all a campaign we can be proud of.” But didn’t Ryan just teach Trump exactly the opposite lesson?

POWER PLAY: HILLARY’S TARNISHED GOLDEN STATE?
A new USC/LAT poll shows it’s going to be a close contest in next Tuesday’s California primary and may be the last stand for Bernie Sanders. He is assuredly going to fall short of the required delegates even if he takes the Golden State, but will he keep his promise and go all the way to the convention in July? Will the Democratic split continue? Sanders could make Clinton vulnerable to Republican opponent Donald Trump by staying in the race, but quitting could further aggravate his supporters who are already feeling burned from the tough primary season. MoveOn.org’s Washington Director and Bernie supporter, Ben Wikler, and Democratic strategist and Hillary supporter, David Morey, weigh in to Chris Stirewalt.

[Watch Fox: Senior Political Correspondent Mike Emanuel gets the latest from California.]

Trump backtracks on Martinez attacks - Santa Fe New Mexican: “In a stunning reversal of rhetoric and tone, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday said he respects New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and wants her endorsement. Trump’s comments in a phone interview with The New Mexican came just days after he castigated Martinez in front of 8,000 people in Albuquerque…‘I’d like to have it,’ Trump said in a phone interview when asked if he wanted Martinez’s support. ‘I respect her. I have always liked her.’”

Fox News Sunday - Guests include Trump enthusiast and veep shortlister Newt Gingrich. Watch “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.

#mediabuzz - Host Howard Kurtz breaks down the week’s media news with guests including Laura Ingraham and Molly Ball. Watch Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

RACE NOTES
Bloomberg-backed gun control group endorses Hillary - NYT

Charlie Cook talks about the potency of partisan identification for Democrats - National Journal

Matthew Continetti warns the GOP to pay attention to good economic and Obama polling numbers - Free Beacon

Buuuuut…new jobs data may be an ill omen for Dems - AP

Billionaire backers lining up for Trump super PACs - USA Today

Mitch McConnell says Trump’s continued attacks on GOP a ‘mistake’ - Time

Obama adviser lashes out over questions on deleted State Dept. briefing footage - Fox News

WITHIN EARSHOT
“Donald Trump will peel [Hillary Clinton’s] skin off in a debate setting. And actually he’ll peel it off this evening.” – Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an appearance on “Your World with Neil Cavuto”

TIME FOR A CHANGE
This being the end of graduation season, you may have had heard or are bracing yourself for a speech of rolling profundities or excruciatingly pithy pragmatism. The commencement address is one of the last forms of oratory still celebrated in America, and while most are banal, there are still some wonderful moments. This year’s address to Penn graduates from Lin-Manuel Miranda, for one.

But just in case you didn’t attend a commencement this year, or if you did and the address you heard sounded like a speech-length motivational poster (but made more excruciating by the prickles of sweat collecting at your collar), here is perhaps the finest example of the form in recent memory, author David Foster Wallace’s 2005 speech at Kenyon College:

“This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship. Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”

You can listen to the whole thing – which has come to be called “This is Water” – here. And you ought to think about doing so, since we are always, always in transition in this transitory life.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I thought the content of it was rather devastating.  It was an entire 6 months accumulation of opposition research.  Had one of the Republican challengers took to Trump in a nomination, delivered it, it would have had tremendous effect. The problem is … she delivers it and you’re looking at her you think, this is the worst person the Democrats could have chosen to deliver the message.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

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Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Sally Persons contributed to this report. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.