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Bobby Knight endorses Donald Trump, says he's 'the most prepared man in history' to be president

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign. (all times Eastern):

6:50 p.m.

Renowned basketball coach Bobby Knight is throwing his support behind Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The former Indiana Hoosiers coach is appearing at a Trump rally in Indianapolis Wednesday night, where he’s hailing the real estate mogul as “the most prepared man in history to step in as president of the United States.”

Knight says “there has never been a presidential candidate prepared to the length that this man is.”

Knight is also addressing criticism that Trump isn’t “presidential” enough, saying, “I don’t know what the hell that means.”

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5:15 p.m.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer says Carly Fiorina is the perfect running mate for Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz — she calls them “mean and meaner.”

On a conference call Wednesday she told reporters Cruz wants to ship immigrants out and Fiorina “already shipped jobs out of America.”

The California Democrat faced Fiorina in a nasty Senate race in 2010.

She joked that having Fiorina back on the national stage reminds everyone she beat the former Hewlett Packard chief executive by 1 million votes in 2010 “and I love that.”

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra says he welcomes the three Republican presidential hopefuls to this weekend’s state GOP convention.

He says the won’t need ID to enter the state, but they should bring California values of hard word, innovation and diversity.

4:50 p.m.

Carly Fiorina says Ted Cruz’s presidential bid “isn’t over,” despite what some people may say.

The former technology executive was unveiled as the Republican presidential candidate’s pick for vice president on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

She charged at a Cruz rally that both GOP front-runner Donald Trump and leading Democrat Hillary Clinton “would be disastrous for this nation.”

She says of Trump: “He doesn’t represent me and does not represent my party.”

The 61-year-old Fiorina was the only woman in the Republican presidential field before leaving the race earlier in the year. She would be the nation’s first female vice president if Cruz is elected.

4:25 p.m.

Ted Cruz is calling his new running mate in the race for the GOP nomination an “extraordinary leader” who has “shattered glass ceilings” in business and politics.

Cruz introduced former technology executive Carly Fiorina, his pick for vice president, at a rally in Indianapolis Wednesday.

The announcement comes the day after Cruz lost five states to GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

The 61-year-old Fiorina previously served as the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, but has never held elected office. She was the only woman in the GOP’s crowded presidential field before dropping out of the race earlier in the year.

Cruz says Fiorina excelled in the “hard-scrabble” male-dominated business world.

4:15 p.m.

Donald Trump has picked up endorsements from 33 additional delegates in Pennsylvania, giving him a clear path to clinch the GOP nomination by the end of the primaries.

Trump now has a majority of the delegates awarded so far. He has to win just 48 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination and avoid a contested convention.

Trump won Pennsylvania, which guaranteed him 17 delegates. An additional 54 delegates were elected directly by voters — three in each congressional district. These delegates are free to support the candidate of their choice.

The Associated Press has confirmed that at least 33 of them plan to support Trump. They can, however, change their minds.

The AP delegate count:

Trump: 987.

Ted Cruz: 562.

John Kasich: 153.

Needed to win: 1,237.

4:05 p.m.

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have launched into a rhetorical scrum, with the Republican front-runner accusing at Clinton of playing “the woman’s card.”

“She’s got nothing else going,” Trump told supporters in New York after primary victories in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.

“And, frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.” He added in an immediate contradiction that “the beautiful thing is women don’t like her.”

Clinton, herself enjoying victory in four out of five of Tuesday’s Democratic primaries, retorted in Philadelphia, that “if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the ‘woman card,‘ then deal me in.”

4:00 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is 91 percent of the way to clinching the Democratic nomination.

Following her wins in four of five northeastern states, Clinton picked up 216 delegates. Bernie Sanders, who prevailed in Rhode Island, gained 163. Five delegates from Tuesday remain to be allocated, pending final vote tallies.

Clinton now has a total of 2,164 delegates when including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate. Sanders has 1,355.

Clinton is currently 219 delegates short of hitting the 2,383 needed to win. At her current pace, Clinton will clinch the nomination in early June.

That date could move up if she does better than expected in election contests next month or receives many more superdelegate endorsements.

3:05 p.m.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest is taking issue with Donald Trump’s assertion that foreign leaders are showing their lack of respect for President Barack Obama by declining to greet him at the airport when he visits their country.

Trump noted in his foreign policy address Wednesday that neither Cuban President Raul Castro nor Saudi King Salman met Obama on the tarmac. Trump says “it’s called no respect, absolutely no respect.”

But Earnest says it’s common for the president to be received by a lower level official so that the head of the government can later meet with the president more formally.

Obama recently returned from a three-nation trip, and Earnest notes that the leaders of United Kingdom and Germany, two strong U.S. allies, also did not meet Obama at the airport.

2:59 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has snagged a Senate endorsement.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said Wednesday that the Texas senator “is the only candidate who will change the way Washington works and restore the balance of power back to the American people.”

Gardner said it’s time for his fellow Republicans to rally behind Cruz to stop Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. He had formerly endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, whole-heartedly endorsed Cruz. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he supports Cruz to stop the front-runner, Donald Trump.

A fourth GOP senator, James Risch of Idaho, told CNN that he prefers Cruz over Trump and the third Republican left in the race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But he has not officially endorsed.

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2:10 p.m.

Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz has tapped former technology executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate in the race for the White House.

The Texas senator plans to formally unveil his pick for vice president Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis.

That’s according to a Republican with direct knowledge of the plan, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized speak before the official announcement.

Cruz is trying to generate momentum for his struggling campaign. GOP front-runner Donald Trump swept primaries in five Northeastern states on Tuesday.

Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from winning enough delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination before primary voting ends.

But he’s pushing to claim the nomination at a contested national convention in July.

The 61-year-old Fiorina endorsed Cruz earlier in the year after abandoning her own presidential bid. The former chief executive at Hewlett-Packard has never held elected office.

1:15 p.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he plowing forward with his efforts to become the Democratic nominee, despite a growing gap between him and front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Sanders spoke to a crowd of nearly 1,000 people during his first stop in Indiana at Purdue University in West Lafayette Wednesday ahead of the state’s May 3 primary.

He took swipes at Clinton, saying she supported international trade agreements and cited the recent move by air-conditioning giant Carrier to outsource more than 2,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. Sanders also criticized Clinton for taking campaign contributions from large corporate donors.

The visit was the first of two scheduled for Sanders in Indiana as he attempts to bolster support during the last full week before the state’s primary.

12:35 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump says he wants to “shake the rust off” American foreign policy and place a new, unyielding focus on what’s best for the U.S.

“America first will be the major and over-riding theme of my administration,” Trump says as he begins a highly anticipated foreign policy speech in Washington.

Trump is speaking from prepared remarks with the assistance of teleprompters — a rarity for the billionaire businessman who is known for his off-the-cuff style.

He says that the speech will focus on developing a new foreign policy direction for the country.

“It’s time to shake the rust off America’s foreign policy,” he says.

11:30 a.m.

A super PAC backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich is taking its case for his presidential nomination directly to delegates in an unusual web ad.

The 60-second spot entitled “Convention” features footage of confetti falling on Kasich that makes it appear as if he has already won the Republican nod. Kasich is third among three remaining contenders.

The spot reports the GOP nomination “goes to John Kasich!” A narrator reports delegates chose Kasich because they realized he was their best shot at winning against Hillary Clinton this fall.

New Day for America says the spot is part of “a multi-state digital delegate-targeting strategy” ahead of an anticipated contested convention. The ad was released Tuesday, before billionaire Donald Trump swept primaries in five more states.

11:00 a.m.

John Kasich is taking in stride the fact that he earned only five delegates in Tuesday’s five primaries, highlighting that he did better that rival Ted Cruz.

Kasich took second in Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut, while Cruz bested Kasich in his native state of Pennsylvania. Cruz gained three delegates. Trump, by contrast, gained 109.

Kasich’s campaign says it “remains true” that only the Ohio governor can defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Spokesman Chris Schrimpf says, “Like (Donald) Trump, Ted Cruz can’t defeat Hillary Clinton.”

The statement comes even as Kasich and Cruz have formed a fragile alliance aimed at depriving Trump of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination prior to the convention.

10:50 a.m.

Donald Trump’s rivals are running out of chances to stop him from clinching the GOP nomination by the end of the primaries.

Trump won more than 90 percent of the delegates at stake in the five contests on Tuesday. If Trump wins the Indiana primary next week, he will have a majority of the delegates awarded so far.

That would put Trump on a firm path to win the nomination, giving him more room for error in upcoming contests in Nebraska, Oregon and Washington State.

With 954 delegates, Trump has 77 percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.

The AP delegate count:

Trump: 954.

Ted Cruz: 562.

John Kasich: 153.

Needed to win: 1,237.

10:00 a.m.

Ted Cruz is trying to laugh off a basketball gaffe he made inside the gym made famous in the 1986 film “Hoosiers.”

At the campaign stop on Tuesday night, Cruz called the hoop a “basketball ring.”

Cruz on Wednesday joked that his high school basketball coach would have been horrified by what Cruz called a verbal “stumble.”

Cruz says, “I think my campaign team, after I messed up the reference to ‘Hoosiers,‘ I think they wanted me to run laps.”

Cruz has been ridiculed on social media for making the gaffe in basketball crazy Indiana. “Hoosiers” tells the story of an underdog high school basketball team that goes on to win the state championship.

9:55 a.m.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says in Indiana that he will be making a “major announcement” on Wednesday afternoon amid speculation he will name a running mate even though he trails front-runner Donald Trump.

Cruz says outside an Indianapolis restaurant that Indiana will play a major role in the campaign for the Republican nomination.

He is declining to say what his announcement will be but his aides have identified a “short list” of possible vice presidential candidates. A spokeswoman for Carly Fiorina has confirmed that the former business executive is among those being considered.

Fiorina dropped out of the Republican primary earlier this year and endorsed Cruz.

Cruz cannot get the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination but he’s trying to prevent Trump from crossing the delegate threshold and push the Republican race to a contested convention.

9:30 a.m.

Hillary Clinton is 232 delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination, when including superdelegates.

After winning four of five states Tuesday, she netted dozens more delegates than Bernie Sanders.

She prevailed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware, while Sanders won Rhode Island.

For the night, Clinton won at least 204 delegates to Sanders’ 146.

Based on just primaries and caucuses to date, Clinton now has 1,632 delegates compared to 1,299 for Sanders.

When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton’s total is at 90 percent of the 2,383 needed to win.

She now has 2,151 delegates to Sanders’ 1,338, according to the AP count.

There are still many delegates from Tuesday to be allocated, pending final vote tallies.

9:20 a.m.

Bernie Sanders’ movement for a political revolution is reaching a crossroads even as he is vowing to campaign against Hillary Clinton through the June primaries.

The Vermont senator says after losses to Clinton in Tuesday’s primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut that he will seek as many delegates as possible to “fight for a progressive party platform.” He acknowledges in an interview with The Associated Press that he has a “very narrow path” to the nomination.

He says he will fight for every delegate and says in the interview that “if I do not win” he will bring delegates to the convention who will fight for a progressive agenda.

Sanders won the Rhode Island primary and now has more than 1,300 delegates though he significantly trails Clinton.

6:50 a.m.

Will the real Donald Trump stand up? The presidential candidate, fresh off five Republican primary victories in the Northeast, says the Trump that people see on any given day depends on the political circumstances in play at the time.

He’s pushing back against suggestions that he should tone down his combative campaign style as he moves closer to clinching the GOP nomination.

In a phone-in interview Wednesday, the billionaire real estate mogul told CNN that “I may tone it down.” But he quickly added, “I may tone it up.”

Trump, who reportedly has been urged to show a more presidential demeanor on the campaign stump, said, “You have to be flexible. I will determine when I see how other people punch back.”

In the interview on CNN’s “New Day,” he showed no inclination to significantly alter the bombastic campaign style that has landed him within reach of the presidential nomination. “I’m not changing,” Trump told a news conference in Manhattan on Tuesday night.

6:40 a.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, buoyed by his clean sweep of Northeast primaries, is pushing forward with his charge that Democrat Hillary Clinton is “playing the woman card.”

Trump tells CNN’s “New Day” in a telephone interview Wednesday that “she does have the woman card” but said that “a lot of women don’t like Hillary, despite the card.”

Pressed on the issue, the billionaire real estate mogul said that Clinton, who won four of five primaries Tuesday and is closing in on the Democratic Party nomination, “is playing the woman card left and right.”

He said in the interview that “she didn’t play it” when she challenged Barack Obama for the party’s nomination in 2008. But he added, “She’s doing it more now. She’ll be called on it.”

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