After Some Tough Headlines, Donald Trump Celebrates His Good News

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/us/politics/donald-trump-news-conference.html

Version 0 of 1.

No other candidate in modern history has captured news attention with a virtual snap of the fingers.

And after a difficult week and yet another campaign shake-up, Donald J. Trump commanded the cable news stage as he announced in North Dakota that he had secured the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination.

Mr. Trump seemed thrilled at a hastily called news conference that cable networks teased for over a half-hour before he began speaking. He basked in the glow of knowing he had done what most pundits and his rivals had predicted could never happen.

Was the focus the energy policy speech he would deliver right after the news conference? Nope, it was whether he was serious when he said he would be willing to face Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a debate. The answer appeared to be yes and no. Mr. Trump may not be serious about debating Mr. Sanders, but he is clearly serious about seeking to elevate him over Hillary Clinton in their primary race, which is mathematically almost impossible for Mr. Sanders to win.

Mrs. Clinton, phoning into cable networks for interviews late in the afternoon, continued to face questions about the State Department inspector general’s report that said she had not sought permission to use a private email server. She said that she thought it had been allowed, but that she also would do it differently if she could do it over again.

What drew the most attention, however, was her response to a potential Sanders-Trump debate, which she said was not a serious possibility. And so it went in the final week before the unofficial start of summer, with Mrs. Clinton facing difficult headlines, and Mr. Trump choosing to drown them out.