HUFFPOST HILL - NRA Endorses Trump; Armed Man Immediately Shot Outside White House

Today, Donald Trump addressed the NRA, in what is almost certainly a run-up to some sort of Reichstag Fire. There, he loudly touted the utility of teleprompters and reversed his past position on gun control. The only thing that could get fawning coverage of the speech off cable news was a shooting outside the White House, because life is pain. And Hillary Clinton's campaign doesn't know how a Venn diagram works, which is concerning for their ability to turn red states at least somewhat purplish. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, May 20th, 2016:

NRA ENDORSES LOUD STRONG GUY - Who saw THAT coming? Christina Wilkie: "The National Rifle Association on Friday endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying that gun owners and supporters must unite to block presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 'The damage that would be done by [Clinton’s] policies and her Supreme Court picks would destroy individual freedoms, and therefore destroy the America we all love,' said the group’s top lobbyist, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Affairs. 'We cannot let that happen. We have to unite, and we have to unite right now.' The endorsement came after a fiery speech by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, the group’s longtime leader. LaPierre railed against Clinton, promising that she would strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights. Trump took the stage after Cox.The NRA’s Trump endorsement came earlier than previous NRA presidential endorsements, which typically take place later in the election cycle. And it wasn’t always a sure thing. Unlike most Republican candidates for national office, Trump endorsed a ban on assault weapons earlier in his career." [HuffPost]

Here’s a fun fact, by the way: Donald Trump once tweeted: “President Obama spoke for me and every American in his remarks in #Newtown Connecticut.”

TRUMP AGAIN PRETENDS TO HAVE POLICY POSITIONS FAVORABLE TO CURRENT AUDIENCE - Jeremy Diamond: "Calling the endorsement a 'fantastic honor,' Trump dove right into attacking Clinton, saying the Democratic presidential front-runner 'wants to abolish the Second Amendment.' 'We're not going to let that happen,' Trump said. 'We're going to preserve it, we're going to cherish it.' Trump's claim reiterated a statement he made earlier in the month, though on Friday, he suggested that Clinton would take away gun rights via the Supreme Court. 'If she gets to appoint her judges, she will abolish the Second Amendment,' Trump told an enthusiastic crowd. 'In my opinion, that's what she's going to go for.'" [CNN]

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SPEAKING OF GUNS! Phil Helsel and Pete Williams: "A man was shot outside the White House grounds after approaching a checkpoint with a gun and refusing commands to drop it, officials said. The White House was placed on lockdown after the shooting near 17th and E streets. The shooting was reported shortly after 3 p.m. 'He was carrying a gun — it was a silver gun in clear sight, walked through the fence line,' Larry Samples, who was on E and witnessed the shooting, said. 'They immediately tried to stop him and came up to him,' Samples said. 'Yelled at him multiple times ‘stop, stop, stop.’ He kept ignoring him.' The man who was shot, identified only as a white male, was shot in the chest by a member of the Secret Service Uniformed Division, a federal official said. D.C. Fire and EMS said the person who was shot was transported in critical condition. Officials said the man was brandishing the gun and was shot after refusing several commands to drop it. No one else was hurt." [MSNBC]

PAUL RYAN JUST MUDDLING THROUGH THIS WHOLE TRUMP THING, WAITING FOR YEAR TO END - Matt Fuller: "House Speaker Paul Ryan doesn’t want to talk about Donald Trump. Except when he does. But definitely not when he doesn’t. Huh? The Wisconsin Republican has struggled to maintain consistency on his self-imposed policy of not answering questions about 2016 or the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Ryan has promised to take a stand when he sees something that 'runs counter to who we are as a party and as a country,' as he did with Trump’s call to ban Muslims, Trump’s slow effort to denounce former KKK leader David Duke, and the violence at Trump rallies. That’s a noble policy, of course. But Ryan’s refusal to speak out on so many other occasions leaves him open to easy criticism: Does he not think Trump adequately crossed the line other times? When he was asked about Trump’s comments on women — decades of calling them 'bimbos,' a 'beautiful piece of ass,' or saying their success on his show, 'The Apprentice,' was 'dependent on their sex appeal' — Ryan could barely contain his excitement over shutting down CNN producer Deirdre Walsh, telling her that he wasn’t going to get into 'the day-to-day, up-and-down of this campaign.'" [HuffPost]

THE POWER OF ELITE FAVOR-TRADING COMPELS YOU! - According to reports, all it took for Donald Trump to win over skeptical Senate Republicans was his mighty list of Supreme Court nominees. What was the secret ingredient that made this list so successful? “Nearly everyone on Trump’s list has close ties to Republican senators.” That’s right, Trump made sure his list featured the friends and family of prominent GOP senators. Why if this anti-establishment outsider candidate offers up more brash moves like this, who knows how deeply he’ll change Beltway culture? [HuffPost's Jen Bendery & Sam Stein]

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (WHICH YOU CAN’T) - Politico’s Annie Karni takes a deep dive into the Clinton family business -- getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to give speeches to randos! -- and emerges with fun details. Apparently, when you pay Bill upwards of $285,000 you get "a dose of the full unplugged Bubba.” A great highlight from one of Bill’s stemwinders: “I learned that the weight, combined weight, of all the ants on Earth is greater than the combined weight of all the people on Earth. That’s sobering.” Maybe the Clintons don’t release the transcripts because they know this oratory belongs under glass at the National Archives? [Politico]

Another highlight: “I never loved another man more than I loved Yitzhak Rabin. I can't even describe how I felt about him.” Huh? But they are paying you five times the median income to do precisely that!

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TODAY IN HEADLINES THAT ARE REASSURING, BUT EVEN STILL, YOU KINDA NEVER WANT TO SEE THEM ANYWAY - “China denies exporting human meat to African supermarkets.” [The Straits Times]

DACA DOXXING ON THE DOCKET - U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, a chill guy who’s not at all acting out of ideological animus about White House immigration policy, has ordered the federal government to “hand over a list of certain [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients in the 26 states that sued over Obama’s immigration programs.” That list -- which would include names, addresses, and other contact information -- would then be handed over to state authorities, exposing the DACA enrollees to their depredations. HuffPost’s Elise Foley: “They [haven’t] done anything wrong — they just applied for a government program in the same way hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers have done since the [DACA] program started in 2012.” [HuffPost]

Hillary Clinton released the worst Nenn diagram of all time.

ANYBODY REMEMBER KIM DAVIS? The Kentucky county clerk who made news this past year for refusing to permit gay marriage in her fiefdom is -- I guess the preferred term is “speaking out?” -- to Frank Wright, the president of the D. James Kennedy Ministries. Apparently, she’s still upset with the fact that LGBT applicants always came to her office, brandishing the Supreme Court’s ruling in their favor: “They wanted to shove that paper down my throat and make me eat it for my dinner.” Without suggesting a wine pairing? Rude. [Right Wing Watch]

THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN COFFEE INSTAGRAMS: CNN headline: “Is this the world’s most Instagrammed coffee?” Sure, why not? Did you want us to check for you or something? [CNN]

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Enjoy hating this trailer for a new show about millenial content creators.

THE CREDIT INDUSTRY SEEMS SO SOBER AND CHILL RN - What’s up with the credit card industry today? I see we got “steady economic conditions and an improving job market.” Cool, cool. “U.S. credit-card balances are on track to hit $1 trillion this year.” Okay...does that seem a little high? “That sum would come close to the all-time peak of $1.02 trillion set in July 2008, just before the financial crisis intensified.” Oh! Uhm… “In addition, lenders have signed up millions of subprime consumers who previously weren’t able to get credit.” What could go wrong? [Wall Street Journal]

COMFORT FOOD

- 56 million people have watched this woman trying on a Chewbacca mask. You should too.

- A Rihanna fan twerking her nose to "Work."

- Woman plays virtual reality zombie game, loses her damn mind.

- A voter's guide to Westeros.

TWITTERAMA

@jimantle: Wayne LaPierre is French for Wayne The Pierre.

@elisefoley: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love this Headline Construction

@unlikelylad: Oh god. This is awful.

HANG IT THE RIGHT WAY AROUND.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.