First Read: The Democratic Race Isn't as Close as You Think It Is  —  First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.  —  The Democratic race isn't as close as you think it is

White House Watch: Trump 42%, Clinton 37%  —  Donald Trump has now grown his lead over Hillary Clinton in Rasmussen Reports' first weekly White House Watch survey.  —  Trump earns 42% support to Clinton's 37% when Likely U.S. Voters are asked whom they would vote for if the presidential election were held today.

EXCLUSIVE: David Koch Pledges Millions To Gary Johnson's Presidential Bid  —  Billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch has pledged “tens of millions of dollars” to help bankroll the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, according to a source within Johnson's campaign.

Chaos in House after GOP votes down LGBT measure … The House floor devolved into chaos and shouting on Thursday as a measure to ensure protections for members of the LGBT community narrowly failed to pass after Republican leaders urged their members to change their votes.

New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren't offended by Redskins name  —  Nine in 10 Native Americans say they are not offended by the Washington Redskins name, according to a new Washington Post poll that shows how few ordinary Indians have been persuaded by a national movement to change the football team's moniker.

Okla. Senate approves bill barring doctors from performing abortions  —  Oklahoma lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.  —  The Republican bill, which has been called …

60 Minutes' Morley Safer dies at 84  —  Longtime CBS newsman Morley Safer of “60 Minutes” and Vietnam War reporting fame dies at 84  —  Morley Safer, the CBS newsman who changed war reporting forever when he showed GIs burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers and went on to become …

R.I.P., GOP: How Trump Is Killing the Republican Party  —  Donald Trump crushed 16 GOP opponents in one of the most appalling, vicious campaigns in history.  His next victim?  The entire Republican Party  —  Indianapolis, Indiana, May 3rd, 2016, a little before 8:30 p.m. Texas …

PC feminists misfire again, as fearful elite media can't touch Donald Trump  —  A boastful, millionaire New Yorker liked the company of beautiful women?  This is why NYT can't lay a glove on Trump  —  Zap!  If momentum were a surge of electromagnetic energy, Donald Trump against all odds has it now.

The Most Disturbing Thing About My Meeting With Mark Zuckerberg  —  Yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet with some of the senior staff at Facebook, including the CEO and COO.  I found the meeting deeply disturbing — but not for the reasons you might think.

Donald Trump Wanted A White-Versus-Black Season Of “The Apprentice”  —  A decade before he launched his presidential bid, Donald Trump was a reality TV sensation in search of a new gimmick for the upcoming season ofThe Apprentice.  In the summer of 2005, he thought he had found it …

New evidence shows Rolling Stone rape hoaxer created her ‘rapist’  —  We already knew that “Jackie,” the woman who told Rolling Stone she was gang-raped at the University of Virginia, likely fabricated the attack.  But new evidence shows that she created an email address for her fake attacker after the alleged attack occurred.

Exclusive: James O'Keefe Outs Himself in George Soros Investigation  —  Project Veritas founder and pioneering investigative reporter James O'Keefe has revealed exclusively to Breitbart News that he has been forced to abandon an ambitious undercover investigation into billionaire left-wing …

Shadow Banks Clinton Flags as Risky Put Millions Into Her Run  —  Clinton targets shadow banking in Wall Street regulatory plan  —  Blackstone, Centerbridge Partners among Clinton donors  —  Hillary Clinton has vowed to be tougher on Wall Street than any other presidential candidate …

Waldorf Man Indicted for Illegal Transport of Explosives, Illegal Possession of a Machine Gun and Child Pornography Offenses  —  Greenbelt, Maryland - A federal grand jury indicted Caleb Andrew Bailey, age 30, of Waldorf, Maryland late yesterday on various charges.

Theranos Voids Two Years of Edison Blood-Test Results  —  Company led by Elizabeth Holmes withdraws all Edison results from 2014 and 2015, issues tens of thousands of corrected blood-test reports  —  Theranos Inc. has told federal health regulators that the company voided two years of results …

Trump Campaign Announces Expanded Role For Paul Manafort  —  Donald Trump will change the role for one of his campaign's top advisors, ABC News has learned.  —  Sources within the campaign said that Trump will name Paul Manafort to the new role of Campaign Chairman and Chief Strategist.

Say what?  State lawmaker tries to add age, weight limits for strippers in Louisiana  —  BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) - A state representative proposed - then pulled - a measure in the state House Wednesday that would have required strippers in Louisiana to be no older than 28 and weigh no more than 160 pounds.

This is how fascism comes to America  —  Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Post.  —  The Republican Party's attempt to treat Donald Trump as a normal political candidate would be laughable were it not so perilous to the republic.