--- title: Morning Must Reads: May 21 description: Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the... canonical: https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-21T11:46:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T19:54:57.308Z article:section: Politics og:title: Morning Must Reads: May 21 og:description: Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the... og:url: https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Morning Must Reads: May 21 twitter:description: Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Morning Must Reads: May 21 (21 May 2015) by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 21, 2015 11:46 AM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 21, 2015 11:46 AM UTC Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the margin of error of zero. Sen. Rand Paul spoke for 10.5 hours on the Senate floor, while his campaign tried to build momentum online. And Pope Francis is [coming to Washington](http://time.com/3892048/pope-francis-goes-to-washington/) in four months and that has Democrats celebrating and many Republicans nervous, or worse. Here are your must reads: **Must Reads** Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the margin of error of zero. Sen. Rand Paul spoke for 10.5 hours on the Senate floor, while his campaign tried to build momentum online. And Pope Francis is [coming to Washington](http://time.com/3892048/pope-francis-goes-to-washington/) in four months and that has Democrats celebrating and many Republicans nervous, or worse. Here are your must reads: **Sound Off** [Why This Red State is Poised to End the Death Penalty ](http://time.com/3891199/nebraska-death-penalty/) It would be the first to do so since 1973, TIME’s Alex Altman explains [Pope Francis Goes to Washington](http://time.com/3892048/pope-francis-goes-to-washington/) TIME’s Elizabeth Dias on the politics of the pontiff’s upcoming U.S. visit [Rand Paul Bets the Campaign on ‘Filibuster’](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/rand-paul-bets-the-campaign-on-filibuster-118166.html?hp=t1%5Fr) The 10-hour show was accompanied by a major organizing and fundraising push from his presidential campaign (Politico) [Super PAC Backing Hillary Clinton is Struggling to Raise Money](http://www.wsj.com/articles/money-woes-for-clinton-super-pac-1432168562) The candidate has promised to fight against unlimited money in politics, but she needs it too (Wall Street Journal) [The Clintons And the Ponzi Schemers](http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/hsu-nemazee-ponzi-clinton?utm%5Fterm=.hfNZdEZP1#.kxzoGOB2qv) Questionable associations highlight Clinton access woes (BuzzFeed) [Fox News Just Made the Republican Primary More Exciting](http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/05/fox-news-just-made-the-republican-primary-a-lot-more-207462.html) Limiting the field to 10 candidates will narrow the field (Politico) [NSA May Need to Begin Winding Down Surveillance Program](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-division-puts-congress-on-brink-of-ending-nsa-surveillance-program/2015/05/19/e6ead8ba-fe60-11e4-805c-c3f407e5a9e9%5Fstory.html) A controversial spying program is likely to lose its congressional authorization (Washington Post) **Bits and Bites** “I’m not going to be in a witness protection program. I’m a Bush. I’m proud of it.” — Former Florida Gov. [Jeb Bush](http://time.com/3891134/jeb-bush-family/) on not fleeing from his liability of a last name “I’m reminded of the movie _The Blues Brothers_: ‘Jake, we’ve got to get the band back together again.’” — Sen. [Ted Cruz](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/05/21/meet-the-blues-brothers-of-the-senate/) loosely quoting the comedy classic as he backs up 2016 rival Rand Paul’s really long speech ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/"},"headline":"Morning Must Reads: May 21 (21 May 2015)","datePublished":"2015-05-21T11:46:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T19:54:57.308Z","description":"Good Thursday morning from Washington. Fox and CNN have set the criteria for the first Republican presidential debates, causing heartburn for candidates polling within the...","url":"https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3892106/morning-must-reads-may-21-2/","name":"Morning Must Reads: May 21 (21 May 2015)"}}]}] ```