HUFFPOST HILL - America Needs Me, Gary Johnson Says To Joint

Arthur Delaney
Updated

Duncan Hunter said Donald Trump "saying things about things is different than him saying what he’s going to do," which we think is a serious cry for help. The Trump campaign has only 30 paid staff, though it has a plan to conceal the deficiency with an elaborate weave. Today's the first anniversary of the Charleston church massacre, and it's hard to believe how much our society has changed since then, how we've grown and learned to put massacres behind us faster than ever. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, June 17th, 2016:

PAUL RYAN IS FOR DONALD TRUMP, BUT ALSO AGAINST HIM - It's very clever. Matt Fuller: "House Speaker Paul Ryan has limits to what he’ll accept from presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump — it’s just that, apparently, Trump hasn’t crossed that line yet. In a sit-down interview in his ceremonial Capitol Hill office on Thursday, Ryan told The Huffington Post that Trump does not have 'a blank check' with his endorsement. 'I don’t know what that line is,' Ryan said, 'but right now, I want to make sure that we win the White House.' Ryan originally withheld his endorsement of Trump in early May, citing a desire to have 'real unity,' not 'fake unity,' with the likely GOP nominee. Four weeks later, Ryan endorsed. But the speaker doesn’t seem to think he and Trump have found authentic harmony. 'It’s something that has to be worked at,' Ryan said, 'and we still got work to do.'" [HuffPost]

Tim Scott has a good video commemorating the Charleston massacre.

#NEVERTRUMP CROWD APPARENTLY STILL TRYING TO EXIST - Ed O'Keefe: "Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer’s party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP nominee. The moves come amid declining poll numbers for Trump and growing concerns among Republicans that Trump is squandering his chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Several controversies — including his racial attacks on a federal judge, renewing his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and support for changing the nation’s gun laws — have raised concerns among Republicans that Trump is not really a conservative and is too reckless to run a successful race." [WaPo]

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

Lockheed Martin has retained former House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) to lobby on defense spending, which is in no way unusual or upsetting. Move along.

BEHOLD THE SHORTLIST OF PEOPLE UNQUALIFIED ENOUGH TO BE TRUMP'S VP - Eli Stokols and Burgess Everett: "John Weaver, who served as the campaign strategist for Kasich’s presidential bid, was more blunt: 'I can't imagine a truly credible person agreeing to be his running mate, because it would be the end of his or her political career.' Ironically, the presumptive nominee’s own toxicity is making the job of finding a vice presidential nominee that much easier, because the short list is so short. Multiple high-level Republican sources said it is topped by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions a distant third and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin also in the mix." [Politico]

It's Newt Gingrich's birthday! We hope someone gave him the $4 million he still owes all the small businesses that provided signs and other stuff for his vain and hopeless 2012 campaign.

ENDORSING DONALD TRUMP SURE MAKES A GUY LOOK LIKE A COMPLETE MORON - Here's Mike DeBonis describing himself trying to talk to Duncan Hunter, who endorsed Trump and apparently lost his dang marbles: "The Post reporter asked him, 'So what should we believe when he says something? What should we believe when it comes out of his mouth?' 'What he said,' Hunter replied. 'But you just said you don’t necessarily believe what he says is what he’s going to do,' said the reporter. 'Right,' Hunter said. 'True. But him talking about things and saying things about things is different than him saying what he’s going to do. I think he’ll do what he says he’s going to do. I’m not trying to parse words; I think he’ll do what he says he’s going to do. But he says things about things that I don’t endorse, and I’m not going to try to articulate for him.'" [WaPo]

Jill Stein, Tim Black and Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) joined the HuffPost Politics podcast this week. Enjoy Ribble's reaction to Arthur's offensive campaign joke.

Haircuts: Arthur Delaney, Dave Jamieson, Samuel Levine, Zach Carter, Laura Barron-Lopez. Everyone's looking great, too.

DELANEY DOWNER - Stunning essay by Kim Stradone from Virginia: "I am the lady you judged for buying groceries with her SNAP card. I am the lady who raised her two sons with no child support. I am the lady who wore clothes from Goodwill while making sure her children had nice new clothes. I am the lady who has always had an excellent credit score…. I am the lady who used to live in a very nice neighborhood in the suburbs…. I am the lady who was terrified when she found out that her liver disease had progressed to full-blown cirrhosis in just two years…. I am the lady who has lost everything and is now homeless. I am the proud proud lady who has had to swallow her pride and ask for help from friends, family and the government." [HuffPost]

Like HuffPost Hill? Then pre-order Eliot's book's, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government.

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

DONALD TRUMP IS NOT EVEN TRYING - Thomas Beaumont and Steve Peoples: "Trump is largely outsourcing what's typically called a campaign's ground game, which includes the labor-intensive jobs of identifying and contacting potential supporters. Ed Brookover, recently tapped to serve as the Trump's liaison to the RNC, says the campaign is making progress on adding its own staff in key states. The campaign estimates it currently has about 30 paid staff on the ground across the country. 'There are some holes,' Brookover said. 'There are fewer holes than there were.'" [Associated Press]

Trump tweeted a chart of himself losing to Hillary Clinton as part of his clever strategy to not win the election.

UNITY - Jake Sherman: "Hillary Clinton will hold a fundraiser with the entire House and Senate Democratic leadership next week, the first event of its kind for the presumptive Democratic nominee. The event will be held June 21 in Washington, and will feature Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.)." [Politico]

REPEAL AND REPL- LOOK, A SQUIRREL! - Has there ever been a can kicked down the road more than the Obamacare "replacement" has? Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn: "What we already know from news reports -- and history -- is that the contents of the House GOP proposal likely will be cribbed from previous Republican health care plans…. Because these ideas are all old and warmed over, they’ve all been analyzed ad nauseam, which makes it possible to evaluate the Ryan-backed plan -- or at least get a sense of its general impact -- before it even comes out." [HuffPost]

ATTEMPTS TO PROFIT FROM OPIOID EPIDEMIC HIT SNAG - A whole lot of Americans are hooked on prescription pain pills and/or heroin, but there aren't enough places to get treatment. Enter the private sector! Ryan Grim: "Drug treatment is now big business, and a wave of consolidation is sweeping the industry, as private equity firms and publicly traded companies look to cash in on the surging rates of addiction. Federal regulators, meanwhile, are pushing to reform the very nature of the services offered by treatment centers. How the addiction industry faces up to all these changes will help set the course of drug treatment for years to come." [HuffPost]

JIM CLYBURN IS VERY TOLERANT - Emma Dumain: "The day after Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly said he wanted to 'slap' U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn for his position on the nation’s gun laws, the South Carolina Democrat offered a withering reply. 'Tolerating haters is the story of my life,' Clyburn said in a statement to The Post and Courier Friday. The third most senior House Democrat and highest-ranking black lawmaker in Congress, Clyburn grew up in the segregated South. He was heavily involved in the civil rights movement and has countless stories to share of his confrontations with racially motivated hatred and violence. O’Reilly immediately came under fire from Democrats and allies of Clyburn for threatening on live television to inflict physical harm on an elected official, even if in a hyperbolic capacity." [PostandCourier.com]

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - This is the best political satire of the week.

GARY JOHNSON HASN'T SMOKED WEED IN LIKE, ALMOST TWO MONTHS - He revealed his pot abstention in an interview with Susan Page: "'I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 29 years because of rock climbing and the notion of being the best that you can be, and in that same vein I've stopped using marijuana of any kind.' For how long? 'It's been about seven weeks,' he says, a decision to abstain that he would continue as president, if elected. 'I want to be completely on top of my game, all cylinders.'" There's really only one kind of marijuana -- the kind that gets you high -- but okay. [USAToday]

COMFORT FOOD

- Eighth grader does awesome presidential impersonations.

- Dads competing to see who can stack the most Cheerios on their babies.

- A truck carrying deli meat collided with a truck carring bread.

TWITTERAMA

@SchreckReports: On the phone with a former Trump adviser: "I bet if someone offered him $150 million to drop out, he would."

@BillKristol: Done. Dinner in NY Monday, private room at Daniel, reservation under name of @Reince. 15 billionaires, $10m each.

@michaelschaffer: Really, Oxford University Press?


@mollyesque: "Yes ma'am, it's Representative Harold Watson Gowdy III. But you can call me Trey."


Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill).

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.