Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - September 8, 2015
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- In an interview with the Daily Caller published on Monday, Donald Trump discussed several foreign policy issues. He stated the United States “lost a lot of credibility” when it did not back the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, when he was ousted in 2011, supported opening relations with Cuba and said he would treat the Iran nuclear deal like any other contract and “police” it. (Daily Caller)
- Hillary Clinton will release her campaign finance reform plan this week. The Huffington Post reported, “Clinton’s proposals include a handful of actions she could influence immediately if she won the White House. She promised to issue an executive order requiring all government contractors to disclose their campaign contributions, including to outside groups that currently do not disclose donors. She said she also would advocate for the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring all publicly traded companies to disclose their political spending, including undisclosed outside spending, to their shareholders.” (The Huffington Post)
- According to Bloomberg, Ted Cruz is expected to play a principal role in efforts to force a government shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded. Cruz “is rallying the faithful behind the same strategy as led to a two-week hiatus of government services in October 2013, when he led the party in holding up a government funding bill in a quixotic attempt to strip money for Obamacare.” (Bloomberg)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Joe Biden appeared at a rally in Pittsburgh on Labor Day to speak about income inequality. He said, “The tax code’s not fair. It’s simply not fair. The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share. There used to be one America.” He added that Bernie Sanders was “doing a hell of a job” and demurred when the crowd called for him to run. “You’ve got to talk to my wife about that. I’ve got to talk to my wife about that,” he said. (Reuters, Christian Science Monitor)
Lincoln Chafee
- Along with Bernie Sanders, Lincoln Chafee spoke at the annual AFL-CIO breakfast in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Labor Day. (WMUR 9 ABC)
Hillary Clinton
- When asked by the Associated Press on Monday why she would not apologize for using a private email server, Hillary Clinton responded, “What I did was allowed. It was allowed by the State Department. The State Department has confirmed that.” She also noted she did not believe the investigation had damaged her campaign. “It's a distraction, certainly. But it hasn't in any way affected the plan for our campaign, the efforts we're making to organize here in Iowa and elsewhere in the country. And I still feel very confident about the organization and the message that my campaign is putting out,” Clinton said. (The Chicago Tribune)
Martin O’Malley
- Marilyn Mosby, a state’s attorney for Baltimore, suggested on Sunday that a surge in violence in the city could be attributed to “failed policies” established when Martin O’Malley was mayor of Baltimore. (ABC 2 News)
- Iowa Senator Rich Taylor (D) endorsed O’Malley on Monday. (Daily Gate City)
- O’Malley encouraged the growth of the labor movement in the United States on Monday, saying, “If we're going to give our children a future with more opportunity rather than less, then we have to make the sort of choices our parents and grandparents made. Like raising the minimum wage, and raising it to $15 an hour, however and wherever we can. Choices like paying overtime pay for overtime work, and making it easier for people to bargain collectively for better wages for all of us." (Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders released a statement on Monday to commend President Obama for issuing an executive order requiring paid sick leave for employees of federal contractors. Sanders said, “We have got to end the international embarrassment of the U.S. being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee paid leave to workers. Not only do workers need paid sick leave, they also need at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave and at least two weeks of paid vacation. In the richest country on earth, no one should force mothers to go back to work days or weeks after giving birth.” (Bernie Sanders for President)
- According to Fortune, Sanders’ campaign in New Hampshire has grown from 4 paid staffers to 37 since early August. “The campaign Sanders is building on the ground in New Hampshire is playing catchup with the spontaneous organizing supporters are already doing. Staff who have come on in New Hampshire say that the energy for Sanders is already there, the question is how to harness it,” the article notes. (Fortune)
Republicans
Ben Carson
- Hot Air highlighted on Monday the absence of matchups between Ben Carson and Hillary Clinton in recent polls. Speaking of Sunday’s NBC News/Marist survey of New Hampshire voters, for example, Hot Air questioned why pollsters matched Clinton with Bush who was polling at 6 percent instead of Carson who had 22 percent support. (Hot Air)
- Speaking of Kim Davis, the Kentucky County clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs, Carson said, “When she took the job, the Supreme Court hadn't made this ruling. If they had, she might not have taken this job. So, I think they have a responsibility to accommodate her.” (CBS 12 News)
- In an interview with Breitbart on Monday, Carson advocated for school choice. He said, “As a country, we should be focused on promoting a quality education for everybody like we once did. We should focus on the things that work. We know that there are a lot of private schools and charter schools that work. We also know that a lot of our inner-city public schools do not work. We need to do everything we can to provide parents with choice.” (Breitbart)
Chris Christie
- In an interview with the Conway Daily Sun, Chris Christie said he would be more aggressive when handling China’s presence in the South China Sea. "If I were president, they would have exceeded the limits of my patience at this point. The fact that this president will not fly over these artificial islands in the South China Sea or sail our ships within 12 miles is a de facto acknowledgment that they have jurisdiction over something they don't have jurisdiction over. I'd fly Air Force One over it." (Conway Daily Sun)
- Christie said of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, “[W]hat I would do with this woman is to move her to another job where this is not an objection for her. Because you have to follow the law. And the law has to be these licenses have to be issued. If she has a religious objection, we should move her to another job inside the government.” (The Washington Times)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz released a statement on Labor Day condemning the Obama administration for “stifling growth and opportunity.” He said, “But with strong Presidential leadership, we can turn things around quickly: we can eliminate onerous regulations, repeal Obamacare, simplify the tax code, and welcome job creation in every sector – from energy to manufacturing to agriculture. We can champion hardworking Americans. If we stand together for working men and women, we will reignite the promise of America.” (Ted Cruz for President)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina suggested on Monday she was the only candidate assertively criticizing Hillary Clinton. “For heaven's sakes, I actually wish Mr. Trump would throw a little more heat Hillary Clinton's way. I feel sometimes as though I'm the only candidate who's consistently been critical of her,” Fiorina said. Speaking to Clinton’s employment of Bryan Pagliano, a State Department staffer, to work on her private email server, Fiorina added, “[T]hat actually takes a lot of work and lot of effort. And so I don't think it's plausible for her to say, 'Oh, I wasn't paying any attention.' She clearly was paying attention.” (Politico)
Jim Gilmore
- The Washington Post published a profile of Jim Gilmore on Monday calling him “the hermit candidate of 2015.” According to the Post, “Gilmore says he is not in this race to sell a book or raise his profile in national politics. He wants to win. His plan is to get as much exposure as he can free, by appearing as a talking head on cable TV. In those short bites, he can talk about his policy ideas: lowering tax rates, strengthening the military, offering some illegal immigrants a path to legal status but not citizenship.” (The Washington Post)
Mike Huckabee
- Discussing his planned rally for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, on Tuesday, Mike Huckabee said, “The purpose of it is to show support for Kim and also to let the world know that it is unacceptable to put a person in jail without bail because she followed her conscience. And not only that, but she followed the only law that is in front of her.” (Politico)
John Kasich
- CBS News published a profile of John Kasich on Tuesday highlighting his faith-laden stump speech in the predominantly secular state of New Hampshire. Dante Scala, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, said, “New Hampshire voters, including Republican voters, don't typically gravitate towards an overtly religious candidate. However, I think there's a difference between how Kasich conveys it and the way that a religious Ben Carson or Santorum conveys it." (CBS News)
Rick Perry
- Rick Perry will speak at the 44th Eagle Council, a gathering of hundreds of conservatives hosted by Phyllis Schlafly in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday. (FOX 2 News)
Marco Rubio
- At a town hall event in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, Marco Rubio said he would reimpose sanctions on Iran on his first day in office “[I] will ask Congress to increase them, and I will back it up by the credible threat of military force. This agreement is not a treaty. It’s not binding on the next administration,” Rubio said. (The Post and Courier)
- In an interview with Boston Herald Radio, Rubio said he was “open to” the United States accepting thousands of refugees escaping the Syrian Civil War and the Islamic State. “We’ve always been a country that has been willing to accept people who have been displaced and I would be open to that if it can be done in a way that allows us to ensure that among them are not ... people who are part of a terrorist organization. The vast and overwhelming majority of people who are seeking refuge are not terrorists, of course, but you always are concerned about that.” (Boston Herald)
Donald Trump
- The New York Times profiled Republican Party strategists concerned that Donald Trump’s rhetoric around immigration and race was damaging the party. Speaking of Trump’s criticism of Jeb Bush speaking in Spanish, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said, “Knocking somebody because they have the skills to reach out to another community that has plenty of conservatives is political malpractice. If we’re going to be a majority party in the 21st century, we’re going to have to be a multiracial, multiethnic and inclusive party.” (The New York Times)
- Trump will be interview by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday following “a highly unusual two-week absence” from any appearances on the network. (CNN)
- Trump’s authorized biography, Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, will be released on September 22, 2015. It will feature stories of Trump’s time in a military academy, which Trump suggested was so rigorous that he felt he “was in the military in the true sense because [he] dealt with those people.” (The New York Times)
- In an interview with The Economist, Trump criticized Caroline Kennedy for her performance as ambassador to Japan. He said, “Who is our chief negotiator [in Japan]? Essentially it is Caroline Kennedy. I mean give me a break. She doesn’t even know she’s alive.” (New York Daily News, The Economist)
Scott Walker
- On Monday, Scott Walker said collective bargaining was “not a right, but is an expensive entitlement.” His comments followed President Obama’s Labor Day speech where the president alluded to Walker, criticizing his labor and national security positions. Obama said, “He is bragging about how he destroyed collective bargaining rights in his state, and says that busting workers prepares him to fight ISIL. I didn't make that up!" (CBS News)
- Walker said he was considering instituting criminal penalties against anyone who defrauds the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a public-private job creation agency. “The bottom line is we want absolute accountability to the taxpayer, so any way we can do that is worth looking at,” Walker said. (Madison.com)
- According to the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Wisconsin had the highest unemployment rate for African-Americans in the nation in 2014. (Madison.com)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards