1. It smacks of presumptuousness. It does not seem principled but political, which goes against the Texas senator’s brand.

2. It is hard to see the announcement dominating more than one news cycle. Cruz lost all five states that voted on Tuesday, finishing in third place behind Donald Trump and John Kasich in four of them. It was quite Trumpian of him to change the subject with a bold stunt. Remember when Trump rolled out the Chris Christie endorsement the morning after his terrible debate performance in Texas? But it feels inevitable that Trump will say or do something today to upstage Cruz’s pick…

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3. How many Indiana Republicans are going to decide to vote for Cruz because he tapped Fiorina? Not that many, we’d guess. “Fiorina doesn’t appeal to Kasich voters,” the Manhattan Institute’s Avik Roy argues in Forbes. “For better or worse, Kasich has become the vessel of moderate Republican voters: the suburban, upper-income folks who prefer pragmatism to bomb-throwing. And Fiorina is, at least rhetorically, a Cruz-style firebrand. There’s also the fact that pragmatic conservatives tend to favor someone for veep who has deep experience in governing and legislating, something that Fiorina does not.”

Trump said on CNN last night that he believes Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will either endorse him or no one. The Fiorina rollout telegraphs that Cruz does not think he will get the backing of either Pence or Mitch Daniels, the former governor, both of whom would help.

4. This trick has failed every time it has been tried.

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In 1976, on the verge of losing the nomination to incumbent President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan announced Richard Schweiker as his running mate. It angered his core supporters, especially in the South, and did nothing to peel away any delegates from the Pennsylvania senator’s delegation, which was the goal. Schweiker became such a liability that he offered to drop out. Reagan kept him.

In 1952, Robert Taft told GOP insiders that he’d pick Douglas MacArthur as his running mate if nominated over Dwight Eisenhower. Time Magazine recalls that this led many to say MacArthur should be the nominee.

In 1992, trying to woo African American voters, Jerry Brown said before the New York primary that he’d pick Jesse Jackson as his vice president. But it hurt him badly with the state’s huge Jewish population, the New York Times noted. Bill Clinton won the primary, and then the nomination. Brown wound up finishing third, behind Paul Tsongas, in the Empire State.

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5. Fiorina cannot deliver California. The only political contest Fiorina has ever actually won is a 2010 Republican primary in California. But after losing to Barbara Boxer, she actually moved away from the state. I was in New Hampshire last year when a voter told Fiorina how much she loves California. The then-candidate awkwardly responded that she now lives in Virginia and hinted pretty strongly that she doesn’t like the state all that much.

“In spite of her California ties, Fiorina does not bring deep connections to activists in that state or elsewhere, with her time in California politics mostly unmoored from the state’s GOP establishment,” Sean Sullivan writes. “That makes her useful in terms of understanding the contours of a statewide campaign and television markets but hardly a rainmaker in terms of delegate accumulation.”

As Marty Wilson, who managed Fiorina’s 2010 Senate campaign, told the Los Angeles Times: “Is it a game changer? No, I don’t see it that way.”

6. Fiorina is not actually that talented as a surrogate. “In 2008, she botched her role as a McCain surrogate when she first said his vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, was unqualified to be the CEO of HP, and then added that McCain was, too,” notes Newsweek’s Matthew Cooper. “Her somewhat contorted point—nuanced would be kind—that running a corporation is different from being president got lost in what seemed like a massive diss on the running mates.”

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7. Her dismal tenure as CEO at Hewlett Packard, which included a scandal over spying on her board of directors, makes it harder for Cruz to attack Trump over his business record. “It doubles the size of the target. It basically opens the door for your opponents to attack your running mate,” Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney told The Wrap.

8. It deprives Cruz of the chance to name a stronger running mate down the road. Someone like Marco Rubio might have actually helped Cruz carry a state like Florida in November.

9. Cruz has lost a valuable bargaining chip at a contested convention. He might have wanted to create some kind of unity ticket with Kasich, but that possibility is now foreclosed.

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10. The mainstream media coverage this morning is pretty brutal and runs heavily negative. It is certainly not what the Cruz camp was hoping for. Reporters are grasping for various metaphors that make it seem like Cruz’s campaign is on the verge of failure:

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“This is a Hail Mary pass,” writes The Fix’s Chris Cillizza. “It, like the deal that Cruz and Kasich cut earlier this week, amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that if nothing changes in the race Trump is going to win. Could it work? Sure. Sometimes Hail Marys get caught. But usually they get knocked down and the other team starts celebrating.”

“Mr. Cruz’s decision … was the political equivalent of a student pulling a fire alarm to avoid an exam: It was certain to draw attention and carried the possibility of meeting its immediate goal, but seemed unlikely to forestall the eventual reckoning,” the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin, Matt Flegenheimer and Alexander Burns write on the front page.

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“Cruz’s veep selection looks like a half-court shot at the buzzer. That almost never works,” writes the Los Angeles Times’ George Skelton. “Fiorina did perform well in the debates, but couldn’t transform that into votes. And although Fiorina can be very pleasant in person, on the presidential trail she often came across as bitter and a bit mean — not exactly the counterweight Cruz should be looking for.”

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“A Fading Cruz Tosses a Hail Carly” is the headline on Fortune.

"Fiorina is Cruz’s latest desperate ploy” is the headline of the New York Post’s story.

Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said the move makes no sense on Bloomberg TV.

ABC News focuses on the unflattering comments Fiorina made about Cruz when she was a candidate. In that vein, Trump highlighted an old clip of Fiorina on CNN, saying: “Ted Cruz is just like any other politician: he says whatever he needs to say to get elected.”

What other reporters across the mainstream media are saying:

Politico:

The NYT:

-- The Wall Street Journal appears to be the only major outlet playing the move as shrewd. “Positioning himself as down-and-out isn’t necessarily the worst move for Mr. Cruz in Indiana, where the state’s tradition of revering underdogs is celebrated in the movie ‘Hoosiers,’” writes Reid Epstein. “James Bopp Jr., a former member of the Republican National Committee from Terre Haute, Ind., said Mr. Cruz’s naming of Mrs. Fiorina could help him win over business-minded Republicans in the Indianapolis suburbs who had been inclined to back Mr. Kasich before he abandoned the state on Sunday night. ‘She’s not a moderate, but she’s obviously a culturally upscale, successful businesswoman extraordinaire,’ Mr. Bopp said. ‘That has some appeal in the doughnut counties around Indianapolis that are packed with Republicans and upscale Republican voters.’”

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-- Flashback: Fiorina told Katie Couric she was being sexist last year when the anchor asked whether she was really campaigning to be vice president. “Oh, Katie, would you ask a male candidate that?” Fiorina said. “Yes, I would,” Couric replied. “To a male candidate that was polling at 1 percent, I would ask that question.” (Watch the video here.)

If you missed it, watch a 3-minute recap of last night's hour-long Cruz-Fiorina rally:

Democrats had a field day:

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

-- John Boehner absolutely unloaded on Cruz at Stanford last night. In an on-stage interview with Professor David M. Kennedy, the former Speaker said he would vote for Trump in November but not Cruz. “Lucifer in the flesh” is how Boehner described the senator, 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 bitch in my life.” From The Stanford Daily’s account:

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Boehner said he has played golf with Trump for years and that they are “texting buddies.”

“Early in the talk, the speaker impersonated Clinton, saying ‘Oh I’m a woman, vote for me,’ to a negative crowd reaction.”

“Throughout the talk, Boehner frequently referenced the Freedom Caucus as the ‘knuckleheads’ and ‘goofballs’ in Congress.”

-- The Commerce Department announced this morning that the U.S. economy slowed between the months of January and March, with the gross domestic product expanding at a paltry 0.5 percent pace. "That roughly matched the expectations of economists, who said the economy was hitting the brakes from the steady but unspectacular pace maintained over the last nine months," Chico Harlan reports. The GDP grew at a 1.4 percent pace in the last quarter of 2015."

-- The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will endorse John Kasich and Hillary Clinton today, the first time the group has waded into a presidential primary. It is a notable snub of the only Hispanic in the race. Javier Palomarez, the chamber's president and CEO, tells Ed O’Keefe in an interview that he knows Cruz from Texas. "This is not about being Hispanic," he said. "This is about selecting the best person for the job. … I’m heartbroken, heartbroken that I can’t endorse a Latino. … If you look at Ted’s divisive rhetoric about immigrants, it disqualified him from consideration. His inability to work within his own caucus, let alone with Senate Democrats, made it hard for us to consider him. He also pushed for the deportation of up to 12 million people."

-- John McCain has fired one of his fundraisers after a meth-lab was discovered in her home. The Maricopa Sheriff's Office identified one of two people arrested in a drug bust as 34-year-old Emily Pitha, a former member of the staff of retired Sen. Jon Kyl. She’s listed as the RSVP contact on McCain’s invites.

“A Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman said authorities were first alerted to possible drug activity at Pitha's Phoenix home by a parcel in transit from the Netherlands containing over 250 grams of MDMA – raw ecstasy," the Arizona Republic reports. "Detective Doug Matteson … said Pitha's boyfriend, 36-year-old Christopher Hustrulid, signed for the packaged when it arrived at their doorstep Tuesday afternoon. Detectives executing a search warrant at the home discovered an active meth lab, along with unspecified quantities of LSD, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, about $7,000 in loose currency, and counterfeit money."

A separate building on the property was found to have a hidden room that was to be used as a marijuana-grow facility..."

“Matteson said two children living inside the home -- ages 5 and 10 – ‘had easy access to all of (the) drugs and materials, even the bomb-making materials that were located in the back with the meth lab."

Statement from McCain manager Ryan O'Daniel: “The campaign immediately terminated any relationship with Ms. Pitha upon learning of her alleged involvement in the operation.”

-- John Kerry choked up as he discussed Vietnam at the LBJ presidential library last night. From Carol Morello in Austin: The Secretary of State had to pause to regain control of his emotions while recalling his 1971 testimony before a Senate committee after returning from the war. “I spoke of the determination of veterans to undertake one last mission,” Kerry said, “so that in 30 years, when our brothers went down the street without a leg or an arm and people asked why, we’d be able to say ‘Vietnam’ and not mean a bitter memory…’” He stopped, seeming to choke back tears before completing the thought.

In an onstage talk with Ken Burns, Kerry said he thinks constantly about the lessons of Vietnam when he is involved in peace negotiations. “I am now in a position of responsibility, to live my beliefs, to live my lessons,” he said.

Kerry rarely discusses his time as an anti-war protester. “His pointed remarks suggested that the poised, silver-haired diplomat who negotiates ceasefires and treaties, is just an evolution from the angry, shaggy-maned protester who posed the rhetorical question of how to ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake,” Morello writes.

“I’ll probably get in trouble for this,” Kerry said at one point, before arguing that veterans should be able to go anywhere, not just to government hospitals, for health care. ( , before arguing that veterans should be able to go anywhere, not just to government hospitals, for health care. ( Austin American Statesman

-- An airstrike in Aleppo destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing at least 14 staff and patients and threatening an already fragile cease-fire between rebels and government forces in the country. (Erin Cunningham)

-- Yale announced that it will NOT to change the name of Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, who defended slavery as a “positive good.” As part of a compromise, though, Yale will name a new residential college, opening in the fall of 2017, for Anna Pauline Murray, a lawyer and civil rights activist and the first black woman ordained as a priest in the Episcopalian church, Isaac Stanley-Becker reports. At Princeton, meanwhile, administrators bowed to protestors yesterday by saying they will remove a wall-sized photograph of Woodrow Wilson from a dining hall.

GET SMART FAST:​​

A federal judge sentenced Dennis Hastert to 15 months in prison, calling the former House Speaker a “serial child molester” and issuing a term harsher than the prosecutor's recommendation. "Some conduct is unforgivable no matter how old it is,” the judge wrote in a statement. ( "Some conduct is unforgivable no matter how old it is,” the judge wrote in a statement. ( Matt Zapotosky The FBI will not disclose to Apple how the agency hacked into the iPhone used by a San Bernardino terrorist, after paying north of $1 million for assistance from professional hackers last month. ( after paying north of $1 million for assistance from professional hackers last month. ( Elise Viebeck Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) derailed a bipartisan spending bill by offering a poison-pill amendment aimed at undercutting the Iran nuclear deal. ( Karoun Demirjian ) President Obama will travel to Flint, Mich., next week to spotlight the city’s public health crisis. (The Detroit News) Tennessee passed a law allowing counselors to refuse treatment to patients based on personal or religious beliefs. The legislation, signed by Gov. Bill Haslam , is part of a wave of bills that opponents say legalize discrimination against the LGBT community. ( AP ) HaslamLGBT Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he is pulling his state out of the refugee resettlement program, citing concerns with the vetting process.The federal government said the move will not affect its efforts. ( citing concerns with the vetting process.The federal government said the move will not affect its efforts. ( Niraj Chokshi Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) is “actively considering” a 2018 run against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D). “More power to him,” Brown replied. (The Marion Star) Venezuela imposed a two-day work week on public employees in an attempt to save power. A severe drought has crippled the country’s hydroelectric plant. ( A severe drought has crippled the country’s hydroelectric plant. ( Nick Miroff SpaceX plans to land an unmanned spacecraft on Mars as early as 2018 with the help of NASA, marking an “extraordinary collaboration” between public and private sectors in hopes of eventually getting humans to the Red Planet. (Christian Davenport) marking an “extraordinary collaboration” between public and private sectors in hopes of eventually getting humans to the Red Planet. The man who jumped the White House fence to evade authorities on Tuesday night had “minutes earlier” groped a female college student and robbed others of personal belongings, police said. ( police said. ( Peter Hermann A bill that officially designates the bison as America's “national mammal” is expected to pass Congress this week. (Elahe Izadi)

SANDERS CONFRONTS REALITY:

-- Bernie's campaign is laying off “hundreds” of campaign staffers across the country as the calendar winds down. Sanders was careful to stress he will remain in the race through the party’s convention this summer. But many see the layoffs as a sign of acceptance from Sanders, who appears to be pivoting to run a more progressive and issue-based campaign. The campaign said it would have cut back field staff no matter what happened Tuesday. A spokesman would not specify how many people are being let go, but he said that 325 to 350 people will remain on the payroll. (John Wagner)

Sanders nodded to his dwindling fortunes on the campaign trail. "We are in this campaign to win, but if we do not win, we intend to win every delegate we can, so that when we go to Philadelphia in July we are going to have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen," he said during an Indianapolis rally.

The math: Excluding superdelegates, "he'd need to win about 65 percent of what's left in order to pass Clinton ... In the Democrats' proportional system of distribution, that's simply not going to happen," Excluding superdelegates, "he'd need to win about 65 percent of what's left in order to pass Clinton ... In the Democrats' proportional system of distribution, that's simply not going to happen," Philip Bump writes.

-- In an interview with The Post’s John Wagner, Sanders said he might start talking “a little more about Trump”: “Not only the degree to which he insults people, but his economic agenda of giving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to billionaire families like his own.” Sanders said he would like the DNC to lean on all states to open up their primaries to independent voters, who have been a bedrock of Sanders’s coalition when they are allowed to participate. And he would like to see fewer superdelegates: “I think we’ve got to rethink that. Right now, one-fourth of [Clinton’s] entire delegate count is superdelegates. That’s too much. … It is really very hard for a candidate who does really well among ordinary people, who wins primaries and caucuses. You’re starting off with the establishment candidate having 20 percent of the delegates.” (Read the full interview here.)

-- The Narrative: In an election defined by anti-establishment energy and anger, the two parties are diverging as Republicans embrace an outsider and Democrats line up behind a quintessential insider. Philip Rucker, Dan Balz and Paul Kane on A1: “The successes of Trump and Clinton underscore important nuances in the sentiments coursing through the two parties. While voters in both share a frustration with the state of the nation’s economy and politics, Republicans blame their own leaders as much as anybody and are eager for a radical fix, whereas Democrats still believe their elected leaders can bring change from within.” As the front-runners begin to pivot towards a general election, each faces far different challenges: Trump, who has tapped into GOP frustrations more than any other candidate, must now unite his fractured party ... “Clinton must demonstrate that a politician with deep establishment roots can channel voters’ simmering anxiety over economic conditions and their dissatisfaction with political elites.”

-- Another takeaway from Tuesday's primaries, via Paul Kane: “The sheer amount of money poured into Senate primaries in Pennsylvania and Maryland — $30 million in Democrat-on-Democrat spending — along with the vitriol of the intraparty attacks begs the question about how unified Democrats will be in November. The establishment triumph demonstrates that Democrats have not drifted anywhere close to the upside-down world of Republican primaries … But the unusually caustic nature of the two Democratic slugfests in Pennsylvania and Maryland showed that liberals, particularly well-funded outside groups, are willing to engage in similar death-match tactics to their conservative counterparts.”

TRUMP MARCHES ON:

-- Trump said “America First” would be the “major and overriding theme” of his foreign policy, Karen DeYoung and Jose A. DelReal report: In a speech yesterday, “Trump charged Obama with direct responsibility for chaos in the Middle East, China’s rise and Russia’s hostility, along with a string of international ‘humiliations.’”

He offered few specifics, but said as president he would “reward friends, punish enemies — including ‘very, very quickly’ destroying the Islamic State — and reexamine whether international institutions and alliances served U.S. interests.”

Many of Trump’s incendiary views were absent: “There was no mention of Mexico, let alone the construction of a wall … Although he spoke vaguely of a ‘pause for reassessment’ of immigration policy overall, he did not repeat his pledge to stop all Muslims from entering the country or his acquiescence to the spread of nuclear weapons.” GOP experts described Trump’s address, the first of what his campaign said will be several formal policy addresses, as “contradictory."

-- Trump broke the 50 percent mark in pledged delegates with his Tuesday night wins. “[His] surprisingly big wins meant that he closed in on 1,237 more than would have been expected, and dropped his magic number -- the percentage he still needs to win -- to about 56 percent,” Philip Bump reports.

-- The Donald won at least 39 of the unpledged Pennsylvania delegates, according to a tabulation by Ed O'Keefe and Katie Zezima . Though official tallies won’t be known until the party convention in July, unofficial delegate numbers appear to be breaking substantially in Trump’s favor.

“ Trump won every congressional district in the state, earning him at least 14 votes from delegates who said they would vote for the winner of their district.”

“Trump aides said Tuesday that they were expecting to win votes from at least 34 unpledged delegates. Unlike in other states where Trump has struggled to cultivate would-be delegates, he hired a state director, Ted Christian, who began recruiting potential candidates in December.”

“Cruz supporters won at least four delegate seats, even though the senator’s campaign had recruited 26 supporters to run. Even Cruz’s state director came up short in his bid to win a seat.”

-- Florida Gov. Rick Scott called on the “Stop Trump” movement to disband: After endorsing Trump last month, he urged Republicans to accept "the inevitable.” “Trump is going to be our nominee, and he is going to be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President," said Scott, a possible VP pick for The Donald. (Tampa Bay Times)

-- Two senators who earlier backed Rubio got behind Cruz: Colorado's Cory Gardner and Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey.

-- But Trump got basketball coach Bobby Knight to introduce him at his Indianapolis rally.

WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:

-- “Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed prepared to overturn the 2014 corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and perhaps make it harder for prosecutors to bring charges against politicians who provide favors for their benefactors,” Robert Barnes reports. “Justices on both sides of the ideological divide expressed concern about federal corruption laws that could criminalize what they variously called ‘routine’ or ‘everyday’ actions that politicians perform for campaign contributors or supporters who have provided them with gifts.”

“ For better or for worse, it puts at risk behavior that is common,” said Justice Stephen G. Breyer , who along with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suggested that the federal corruption laws are so vague that they might be unconstitutional.

“Besides suggesting the law might be unconstitutional, the justices questioned whether instructions given to the jury that convicted the McDonnells were proper and whether there was sufficient evidence to warrant the convictions.”

“The hearing on McDonnell was the court’s last oral argument of the term, so a decision in the case might not come until the court nears the completion of its work at the end of June.”

-- “U.S.-Russia cooperation frays as Syria truce falls apart,” by Karen DeYoung: Barely two months after the U.S. joined Russia to forge a partial cease-fire in Syria, cooperation between them, including on a long-term political solution to Syria’s civil war, is rapidly eroding. “Russia … accused the administration of ‘appeasing’ its regional partners by ignoring the presence of terrorists among opposition forces it backs … Noting Obama’s decision to send an additional 250 Special Operations troops to the separate war against the Islamic State in Syria, despite pledges of no U.S. ‘boots on the ground,’ a Foreign Ministry spokesman asked sarcastically whether they were deploying barefoot. Inside the administration, there is growing dissension over whether to call Russia out for acting in bad faith."

-- The White House will today unveil a series of new initiatives to improve the way the federal government collects payments on student loans. From Danielle Douglas-Gabriel: “Government agencies are working together to provide the 43 million Americans with student debt more transparent information about the terms of their loans. The Obama administration has given Americans more repayment options so they can avoid default, expanding income-driven plans that require little to no money from people in dire straights, yet the amount of people severely behind on their debt remains stubbornly high. And lawmakers questioned whether student loan servicers are doing enough to keep borrowers current. These companies are paid millions by the federal government to essentially keep people out of default, but GAO researchers found when they reach out to delinquent borrowers, the information is often inconsistent – and 70 percent of people in default actually qualified for a lower monthly payment through an income-based plan.”

-- “At Virginia home of President Monroe, a sizable revision of history,” by T. Rees Shapiro: "For decades, tourists visited the home of James Monroe outside of Charlottesville, and encountered the quaint -- if not underwhelming -- residence. The plantation known as Highland has stood in contrast to Jefferson’s palatial manse … Monroe himself even described his humble abode as a ‘cabin castle,’ and historians interpreted his modesty as a latent expression of his roots as the son of a wood craftsman. But an archeological discovery on the property is rewriting the legacy of Monroe and the place he called home. It turns out that the home preserved on the estate — and marketed for years as the residence where the president laid his head — is in fact a guest quarters. … In other words, the (real) home of Monroe was more castle than cabin and likely ‘in the same order of magnitude’ of Jefferson’s Monticello, said Sara Bon-Harper.”

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

Trump (literally) stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) led off the criticism of Trump's foreign policy speech:

Some, on the other hand, liked it:

... including the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee!

Mark Halperin, who praised the speech, got into an argument with Jon Favreau and John Podhoretz:

After a White House spokesman said Tom Cotton couldn't differentiate between heavy water and sparkling water, Cotton tweeted this:

Twitter though that Cotton, a Harvard graduate, was getting a little full of himself:

One of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's sons got a new pet:

The Racing Presidents did the moonwalk:

DAYBOOK:

On the campaign trail: The field is starting to move west. Here is the rundown:

Sanders: Springfield, Ore.

Trump: Evansville, Ind.; Costa Mesa, Calif.

Cruz: Fort Wayne, Elkhart, South Bend, Ind.

Kasich: Portland, Medford, Ore.

At the White House: President Obama celebrates Passover with a seder dinner. Vice President Biden departs Washington for Rome.

On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to work on the energy bill. The House meets at 12 p.m. for legislative business.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The lawyer for Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French national of Moroccan origin suspected of involvement in November's terrorist attacks in Paris, called his client “a little jerk” in an interview with the French daily Liberation. Sven Mary said Abdeslam has "the intelligence of an empty ashtray — an abysmal emptiness." He said Abdeslam "is the perfect example of the [Grand Theft Auto] generation who thinks he lives in a video game." (Ishaan Tharoor)

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

-- What happened to our beautiful spring temperatures? The Capital Weather Gang forecasts another chilly day ahead: “Clouds hang tough throughout the day as we are trapped in the moisture channel that defines the meeting place of cooler air in the Northeast and spring warmth to our south. Showers are possible, intermittently, throughout the day, with the steadiest activity favored in the afternoon. Northeast breezes are barely noticeable but highs in the mid-to-upper 50s are chilly enough on their own.”

-- The Nationals lost to the Phillies 3-0.

-- Metro’s Red Line faced more power problems, prompting a second round of service delays just days after an electrical fire frightened passengers. (Paul Duggan and Dana Hedgpeth)

-- Metrobus operators racked up record numbers of traffic-camera tickets and speeding violations in 2015. Records show the drivers were found speeding 120 times last year -- more than double the 27 times in 2014. (Luz Lazo)

-- D.C. leaders are exploring the feasibility of providing free WiFi throughout the city to help out an estimated 150,000 residents without access to the Internet. (Perry Stein)

-- D.C. Public Schools are handing out bottled water to elementary students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary after the building’s water sources spewed out a brownish-colored water. The water is now clear, but officials verified that students will continue to drink bottled water until tests come back showing there are no problems. (Perry Stein)

-- Baltimore police shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy carrying a BB-gun “replica” of a semiautomatic handgun. The shooting comes days after the anniversary of the funeral of Freddie Gray. (Clarence Williams)

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

Here's a roundup of the best Trump jokes from the 2011 White House correspondents' dinner:

Our Dan Zak rounded up "the best joke told by every president, from Obama to Washington."

Amy Schumer criticized Congress's approach to dealing with women's health in this comedy sketch:

Kids explained to Buzzfeed what makes a good president:

Carly Fiorina sang on "The Tonight Show" last September too:

Another flashback: Here’s Fiorina’s famous Demon Sheep ad from 2010, produced by Fred Davis:

Jimmy Fallon walked through the pros and cons of the latest season of Game of Thrones:

Bernie Sanders shot hoops with NBC's Chris Jansing:

Here's a sneak peek at some of the uniforms that will be worn at the Summer Olympics:

This autistic boy's reaction to Coldplay might make you teary:

The trailer for the upcoming "Snowden" movie was released: