With Ted Cruz and John Kasich out of the race, Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton's campaign wasted no time switching to general election mode, releasing a web video criticizing Trump. But Clinton didn't do it in her own words; the ad is a compilation of unkind things Trump's fellow Republicans have said about him during the party's nomination campaign.

It's harsh. Mitt Romney calls Trump a misogynist, Marco Rubio claims he's the most "vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency," and Jeb Bush says Trump needs therapy.

It looks like the Clinton campaign isn't going to let any of the #NeverTrump Republicans forget that stance anytime soon.

Update: 9:30 pm ET, May 4, 2016: Hillary has released a second ad that is even spicier than the first.

John Kasich is dropping out of the Republican presidential race, two sources familiar with the plan confirmed to CNN.

Kasich's decision came after he improbably became the last challenger to Donald Trump, who emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee Tuesday night when Ted Cruz dropped out.
Even before winning his home state of Ohio in March, Kasich was facing pressure to get out of the race, with no clear path to victory. His campaign never became more than a spoiler run, designed to keep Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before a contested convention.
But he was not yet ready to quit. Kasich had fundraisers scheduled in the Washington area Wednesday, and was on a plane at the Columbus airport when he had a change of heart.


After having the plane taxi back from the runway, according to one source close to Kasich, he then called four of his closest friends, and said, "My heart is not in this." The source said that his friends then told Kasich that if his heart is not in it, he ought to do what he needs to do.

A trending hashtag on Twitter admonishes the Democratic frontrunner: #DropOutHillary. This is a perfect example of the demeaning, condescending, unfair treatment to which Hillary Clinton is subjected.

Hillary Clinton is winning. She is the front runner. She has a commanding lead in pledged delegates, in superdelegates, in votes. Bernie Sanders’ path to the nomination is virtually nonexistent, contingent upon an exceedingly unlikely scenario in which Hillary does not reach the requisite number of pledged delegates before the convention and a majority of superdelegates inexplicably abandon a thoroughly vetted and extremely qualified front runner.

Barring some extraordinary set of circumstances, Hillary will be the Democratic nominee.

No other front runner with such a clear path to the nomination would be subjected to this sort of belittling suggestion to drop out.

Even Trump, a wildly unpopular candidate with his own party leaders, has not been publicly admonished to drop out. The “Never Trump” campaign doesn’t presume to tell him that he should drop out.

This dynamic will surely be familiar to a lot of women. It is familiar to me. An eminently qualified woman being told to step aside to make room for a less qualified man? Been there, heard that.

I’m going to bet that I’m not the only woman who has a problem with people telling a woman who’s winning, and has the best shot to be the first female president, to drop out to make way for a male candidate who is losing and who has nowhere near her level of experience, competency, and preparedness.

It’s not clear whence started this hashtag, but whether it was Sanders supporters or Republican opponents, the message is the same: A woman who is positioned to win should curb her ambition and go home.

This is intolerable. And I have a competing message for them: #KeepWinningHillary.

After losing five out of six primaries over the last two weeks, Bernie Sanders was eager to win Indiana. While Hillary Clinton shifts her focus to Donald Trump and the general election, the Vermont senator made a real effort in the Hoosier state, investing nearly $400,000 in television advertising – Clinton spent literally $0 – and holding multiple event to rally the faithful.

The good news for Sanders is that his efforts were successful enough to deliver a primary victory. The bad news for Sanders is that the delegate math required him to win by a huge margin, and that didn’t happen. MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald reported overnight:
Every time the [Democratic] race seems headed to the finish, voters decide to extend it, as they did in Michigan in March. But that could change now that Ted Cruz has dropped out and Donald Trump has effectively secured the Republican nomination, putting Hillary Clinton squarely in the billionaire’s sights.

Sanders’ win does nothing to knock Clinton off her glidepath to the nomination, since the few delegates he picks will barely dent her massive 300-plus pledged delegate lead. But it will be a much-needed fundraising and momentum boost to a fading candidate who has pledged to stay in the race until the Democratic National Convention in July, even though his only path to victory involves improbable landslides and fanciful schemes to flip superdelegates.
It’s a dynamic that causes endless frustration for Sanders’ die-hard supporters. He’ll win a race, which raises his backers’ hopes, only to learn soon after that the victory wasn’t significant enough to change the broader circumstances.

So let’s be more specific about Sanders’ quantitative challenge. The senator can try to win the nomination by convincing party insiders to overrule the will of the voters, but even Sanders’ top aides recognize this is unrealistic. The other avenue is catching up to Clinton among pledged delegate – he’ll need roughly 66% of those still available – by racking up some big wins in the calendar’s remaining contests.

How big? If Sanders won each of the remaining primaries and caucuses by 30 points each – an improbable task, to be sure – he’d still come up short. That’s how significant his current deficit it. None of this, by the way, factors superdelegates into the equation. I’m referring only to pledged delegates, earned exclusively through nominating contests decided by rank-and-file voters.

Unfortunately for his ardent fans, this equation includes Indiana, where he prevailed last night with a six-point victory, but where he needed a win that was vastly larger if he intends to catch up to the rival he trails. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a modest win in Indiana actually leaves Sanders worse off than he was 24 hours ago – it was not only too narrow a victory, it also shrinks the number of remaining opportunities he’ll have to close the gap.

I suppose the obvious question is why Sanders and his supporters seemed so pleased last night if the results were actually discouraging. The answer, of course, is winning beats losing. A victory in Indiana will lead the Sanders campaign to once again return to his activist base for more fundraising, touting last night as a morale booster for the whole team.

But the underlying arithmetic nevertheless remains stubborn.

Salter is hardly alone among Republican operatives and policy hands expressing disgust with Trump. But he may the highest profile one yet to say he’d support the likely Democratic nominee instead.

“The GOP is going to nominate for President a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it’s on the level,” Salter tweeted Tuesday, adding Clinton’s slogan: “I’m with her.”

McCain was one of Trump’s first targets last year after entering the presidential race, when the the reality TV star criticized the senator for being a prisoner of war in Vietnam. McCain has been critical of Trump as well as Sen. Ted Cruz, but said he would support the Republican nominee either way. McCain’s Democratic Senate opponent has cut an ad hitting Mccain for that.

Salter, who voted for Sen. Marco Rubio in the Virginia primary, has said on Facebook that he would vote for Clinton over Trump. On Super Tuesday in late February, he called Trump a “Fascist quoting, friend of the Klan.”

But Salter’s comments takes on new significance now that it is no longer a hypothetical question and Trump is on a glide path to the nomination.

?@AlGiordano AlGiordano Retweeted Lance Mannion
I've been hearing from a lot of Sanders supporters this week who are reality based & ready to join forces.AlGiordano added,
Lance Mannion @LanceMannion
.@AlGiordano has an explanation but I don't think Bernie people want to hear it.
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Rian FikePurple RainTina RauBrandy PriceinterpretingallDave GJennifer WilliamsLorie Cavintamarjot
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Say Yes ?@shtym 10m10 minutes ago
@AlGiordano TBH majority of Bernie supporters ready. Unity being stymied by the candidate himself, surrogates, and Weaver.
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Eric Bogan ?@bogan3253 11m11 minutes ago
@algiordano AMEN!