GOP ESTABLISHMENT THAWS TOWARD TRUMP

CNN Politics: Nightcap View this email in your browser April 28, 2016 by Eric Bradner  Welcome to the CNN Politics Nightcap and good Thursday evening from Evansville, Indiana, where Donald Trump was campaigning with Bobby Knight. Now out of politics, John Boehner told everyone how he really feels about Ted Cruz. Jeb Bush spoke for the first time since departing the 2016 race. And in Indiana, there are signs that the effort to stop Trump is faltering. Also brand new today: The CNN Politics app! Your bartender is Eric Bradner. The tip jar: nightcap@cnn.com. Albatross no more? GOP establishment thaws toward Trump The same Republican insiders who were once dead set against Donald Trump -- such as Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who once called Trump an "albatross" -- are suddenly singing a different tune, CNN's Manu Raju and Deirdre Walsh report. "I think he could change the electoral map in ways we haven't seen before," Cornyn said when asked whether he was worried about Trump's impact down ticket. "This disrupts the usual Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal paradigm, and I think we don't know how this will all play out. I think it will be OK." He's not alone in accepting Trump as the GOP standard-bearer. "Many of us who have expressed concerns are reconciling ourselves to the fact that in all likelihood he will be the eventual nominee," said Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker called Trump's foreign policy speech earlier this week "very thoughtful" -- and the two spoke on the phone Thursday morning, Trump told a crowd in Evansville.  John Boehner calls Ted Cruz 'Lucifer in the flesh' John Boehner is free from the rhetorical shackles that come with the House speaker's gavel, and he's revealing how he really feels about Ted Cruz -- the man who pushed conservatives toward a shutdown under Boehner's leadership. "Lucifer in the flesh," Boehner told Stanford's David Kennedy, a history professor emeritus, according to the Stanford Daily. "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b---- in my life." Boehner also said he was "texting buddies" with Donald Trump and friends with former House colleague and fellow Ohioan John Kasich. Cruz hit back. He told reporters: "The interesting thing is I've never worked with John Boehner. I don't know the man," Cruz said. "Indeed, during the government shutdown, I reached out to John Boehner, to work with him to get something meaningful done. He said, 'I have no interest in talking to you.'" And then Cruz raised funds on Boehner's comments, telling supporters in an email: "When it comes to standing up to the Washington Cartel -- who do you trust? Donald Trump and John Boehner or Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina?" More from CNN's Tom LoBianco and Deirdre Walsh. Brand new today: The CNN Politics app Did you hear? CNN Politics has a brand new app! Go download it. It's awesome. The app tracks the latest polling, delegate, voting and fundraising data behind the 2016 race. It features personalized alerts and notifications, as well as data-driven stories and visualizations. Buzzing Ted Cruz made political hay out of John Boehner's insults, arguing that they're more evidence that he's the true fighter in the race. He told reporters in Indiana that Boehner had allowed "his inner Trump to come out." Straight Up "I've learned never to say never. But this was my chance. This was the chance, and I ran into a storm." -- Jeb Bush to CNN's Jamie Gangel, admitting that 2016 was likely his only chance at being elected president.   Last Call In first interview, Jeb Bush calls for contested convention A reflective Jeb Bush said he had no regrets about his failed presidential bid, saying in his first interview since leaving the race that Donald Trump could still lose the nomination fight. "There's a possibility that he won't get 50% on the first ballot," Bush told CNN's Jamie Gangel. "And if he doesn't do that, there are a whole lot of people who don't believe he's the proper guy." The question Jeb wouldn't answer: Bush wouldn't say whether he would support Trump as the nominee in November, though he added there's no way he would vote for Hillary Clinton. When asked repeatedly how he would vote if Trump became the nominee, Bush responded, "I'm hopeful he won't be." Bush had harsh words for the press, which he labeled an "accomplice" of Trump and blamed for a "despicable," ratings-driven approach to news. Bush said that he could have done little to change the outcome in a wild presidential race. "I've concluded that whatever mistakes I made -- and I certainly made them -- probably wouldn't have changed the outcome. Because I'm not going to change who I am," he said. "It gives me some comfort." Is the Cruz-Kasich divide-and-conquer deal backfiring in Indiana? Bloomberg's Michael C. Bender and Mark Niquette report from the site of a canceled John Kasich event -- which some Hoosier Kasich supporters didn't know was canceled -- that Ted Cruz isn't easily consolidating all voters who might be hesitant about Trump. The money quote: “People who were supporting Kasich have been coming into the office to pick up Trump signs,” said Laura Campbell, Republican chairwoman of Hamilton County, where residents earn more money than anyone else in the state. “People are not happy here with that alliance.” Cruz's Indiana strategy is to throw everything -- including a running mate -- against the wall and see what sticks. From CNN's Theodore Schleifer and myself. Merkley: Sanders should drop out if ... A big story from Manu Raju: Bernie Sanders' lone supporter in the Senate says the Vermont senator should end his presidential campaign if he's losing to Hillary Clinton after the primary season concludes in June, breaking sharply with the candidate who is vowing to take his insurgent bid to the party convention in Philadelphia. In an interview with CNN, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley argued that the party should be united heading into the July convention. He added that if Sanders has no viable path to the nomination after the final round of primaries in June, he should concede to Clinton. He said that Sanders should follow the model employed by Clinton in 2008, who dropped out in June of that year and pledged her support to Barack Obama. "Secretary Clinton, then senator, said, 'OK, I had the discussion across America. I'm ready to pivot and work together.' And Obama reached out, and she reached out, and that should be a model for us to follow," Merkley said outside of the Capitol. "I think after California, June 7, is about the time it would be appropriate -- all states will have weighed in by then. It will then give them five weeks to work together" before the convention. Asked if that meant he believed Sanders should drop out if he has no viable path to the nomination after the June primaries, Merkley said, "Yes." Tipsy A young man asked Ted Cruz to sign his copy of the "The Communist Manifesto." Cruz caught onto what was happening -- but he did it anyway, appending a note: "Millions have suffered because of this." Closing Time "Clinton Cash" has been made into a movie, and will premiere in the United States on the week of the Democratic National Convention. ... President Barack Obama had praise for Bernie Sanders' small-dollar fundraising operation. Paid Content Share Tweet Forward