SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

TRUMP IN CRISIS – FROM FOX:  Donald Trump said Monday night he's ready to run "a different kind of campaign" while explaining his decision to fire campaign manager Corey Lewandowski earlier in the day.  The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly in an interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" that Lewandowski was "a good man" who helped him run a "small, beautiful, well-unified campaign" during the primary season.  "We're going to go a different route," Trump said.  He added that he plans to ramp up campaign operations heading into the general election phase of the campaign, and that he may even have some cabinet picks in place before the Republican National Convention in July.  I'm cautiously encouraged that Trump now realizes he's sinking – that the games have to end, that his campaign cannot continue to be a mom and pop store.  The Republican convention starts July 18th, less than a month from now.  There's a revolt building within the party to deny Trump the nomination.  That revolt will grow if the polls continue to drop.  But if Trump can show real seriousness in the next four weeks, he might head off the backlash against him.

BLUNDER – Attorney-General Loretta Lynch was on a number of talk shows yesterday explaining that the FBI would publish transcripts of the Orlando killer's telephone calls to 911 the night of the massacre, but would redact any references to Islam.  There was an immediate uproar from press and public, and Lynch eventually backed down, publishing full transcripts of some phone calls, with nothing held back.  Lynch wound up looking foolish and embarrassed, and properly so.  The full transcripts confirm the killer's stated devotion to ISIS and the Islamist cause.  The American people deserved to read them.  Maybe there's the start of a recognition that this political correctness that is cursing us cannot go on. 

AND NOW THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:   Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a speech Monday that the Orlando terrorist attack demonstrated the urgency of defeating the Islamic State terrorist organization, drawing a clearer connection between radical Islamic terror and the massacre than others in the Obama administration.  The killer of 49 people at a gay nightclub pledged allegiance to ISIS in calls with negotiators and described himself as a soldier of the caliphate.  Second time in a week that a high Obama official seemed to distance himself from the official line, that ISIS (Or ISIL, which Obama prefers) is on the run.  The first dissenter was CIA Director John Brennan.
Now comes Ash Carter.  We've just had a major terrorist attack in the United States.  If there is another, linked to ISIS, it could have a profound impact on the presidential campaign.  There is just so much deceit the American people can take.

June 20, 2016