Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - April 20, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Wednesday's Leading Stories
- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the big winners in yesterday’s primary elections in New York. Trump won the Republican primary with 60.5 percent of the vote. John Kasich came in second place with 25.1 percent, and Ted Cruz came in third place with 14.5 percent. Trump picked up 89 delegates, and Kasich picked up three. Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders 57.9 percent to 42.1 percent. She picked up 139 delegates, and Sanders picked up 108. (Ballotpedia, CNN)
- Trump's only loss of the night came in Manhattan, which Kasich carried by roughly three points.
- Exit poll data shows that Trump outperformed his rivals with nearly every major demographic in the state, including voters who identified as "very conservative."
- According to exit poll data, Clinton outperformed Sanders with women, older voters, and non-white voters. African-Americans, who made up 22 percent of the New York electorate, supported her over Sanders, 75 to 25 percent. Sanders, on the other hand, performed well with younger voters, particularly voters between the ages of 18 and 24 who supported him over Clinton, 81 to 19 percent.
Polls
- Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 58 percent to 33 percent among like Maryland Democratic primary voters, according to a Public Policy Polling poll released on Tuesday. Donald Trump leads John Kasich 43 percent to 29 percent among Maryland Republican primary voters. Ted Cruz follows with 24 percent support. (Public Policy Polling)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- After winning the Democratic primary in New York on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said to supporters, “Today, today, you proved once again, there’s no place like home. … In this campaign, we’ve won in every region of the country, from the North to the South to the East to the West. But this one is personal.” (The New York Times)
- During an interview with US Weekly on Tuesday, Clinton criticized NASA for shooting down her childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. She said, “When I was a girl, I wrote to NASA to ask if I could become an astronaut. They wrote a very polite letter back saying they didn’t take girls.” According to The Huffington Post, “Clinton has told the story many times before, calling the alleged rejection ‘infuriating.’” (The Huffington Post)
Bernie Sanders
- After reports of “the city Board of Elections...stripping more than 125,000 Democratic voters from the rolls” surfaced yesterday, Bernie Sanders said, "It is absurd that in Brooklyn, New York -- where I was born, actually -- tens of thousands of people as I understand it, have been purged from the voting rolls. Sanders’ spokesman Karthik Ganapathy said, "From long lines and dramatic understaffing to longtime voters being forced to cast affidavit ballots and thousands of registered New Yorkers being dropped from the rolls, what's happening today is a disgrace.” (CNN)
- Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan commented on the criticism, saying, "We're not finding that there were issues throughout the city that are any different than what we experience in other elections." According to CNN, “Of the 126,000 Democratic voters taken off from the rolls in Brooklyn, Ryan said 12,000 had moved out of borough, while 44,000 more had been placed in an inactive file after mailings to their homes bounced back. An additional 70,000 were already inactive and, having failed to vote in two successive federal elections or respond to cancel notices, were removed.”
- According to Quartz, Federal Election Commission reports show that “Google employees have donated over $200,000 to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, making Google the number one employer for Bernie Sanders donors.” In addition, “four out of the top five employers of Sanders donors are tech industry giants: Microsoft comes in at number three, followed by Apple and Amazon.” (Quartz)
Republicans
- According to The Washington Post, there is one group of Republican “elites” who like both Ted Cruz and Donald Trump: “the elites most devoted to cutting income and corporate tax rates at the top of the scale.” Arthur Laffer, “the godfather of supply-side economics, who last year co-founded an advocacy group to push presidential candidates to adopt his preferred tax policies,” said, ““How could you have two better candidates than Cruz and Trump? You can’t get a better primary than this, from my perspective.” (The Washington Post)
- On Tuesday, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe," “I hate Ted Cruz, and I think I’ll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination. Now, having said that, I think you’re going to see Donald Trump scoring a big victory tonight. I have not endorsed Donald Trump. In fact, I actually voted by absentee ballot for John Kasich.” He added, “I think he’s [Kasich] a real possibility, but I also — the likelihood is Donald Trump is going to get the nomination. I want Donald Trump to know that if he wants the support of Republicans, he’s gotta get more substance. He’s gotta really learn what he’s talking about and can’t just be talking off the top of his head and making reckless charges.” (Politico)
Ted Cruz
- On Tuesday, conservative talk-radio host Sean Hannity asked Ted Cruz to explain his delegate strategy because Hannity claimed his listeners are concerned and confused “by the delegate processes and how Cruz can persuade Trump delegates to vote for the Texan on a second ballot [at the Republican Convention].” Cruz replied, "The only people asking this question are hardcore Donald Trump supporters.” An irritated Hannity then asked, "Senator, why do you do this? You’ve got to stop. Every time I have you on the air, and I ask a legitimate question, you try to throw this in my face. And I'm getting sick of it!” Cruz responded by criticizing Trump’s campaign. Cruz said, "I cannot help that the Donald Trump campaign does not seem capable of running a lemonade stand. … If you lose, don't cry about it. Go back and learn how to win an election. The Trump campaign is in a panic. They don't know how to handle losing over and over again, so they're screaming." (The Daily Beast, CNN)
- Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) once again took to Twitter to insult a Republican presidential candidate. Last month she insulted Donald Trump, and yesterday she mocked Ted Cruz for sending his supporters an email in which he, according to Warren, “whined about facing constant attacks, nonexistent family time, limited health and sleep, and no personal time. Are you kidding me, @TedCruz? We’re supposed to pity you because trying to be the leader of the free world is hard?! 2 words: Boo hoo.” She also “listed a group of ‘hardworking Americans’ who she said were facing tougher struggles than Cruz, including Muslims, women and low-income families. ‘You chose to run for President, @TedCruz. You chose to make your ‘sacrifices.’ Working people don’t have a choice,’ she tweeted. ‘Maybe you should spend less time complaining about your ‘significant sacrifices’ — & more time doing something about theirs.” (Time)
John Kasich
- On Tuesday, John Kasich’s strategist John Weaver tweeted that Ted Cruz’s campaign was sending out robocalls telling voters that Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo endorsed Kasich. Weaver said in a series of tweets: “Calling voters saying Cuomo has endorsed Kasich. There isn't a lie too low for Ted and crew. … It was what we come to expect from him & them. Push polling, lying robo calls, etc at every turn. But it is a long road without a turn Ted.” (The Daily Beast)
- Alice Stewart, a spokesperson for Cruz’s campaign, told The Daily Beast, “We didn’t make any such calls.”
- According to The Daily Beast, “The Kasich campaign did not provide audio of any robocalls saying Cuomo had endorsed their guy.”
Donald Trump
- After voting for himself on Tuesday, Donald Trump said, “It was a great honor, really. Who would have thought? This was just a great honor and I think it’s a great honor for New York. New York is a special place. … My whole reason for doing this is to make America great again. We’re a country with tremendous problems and we are going to make America great again. … We have amazing support, but I’m really honored and putting in that vote today was really something terrific.” (Politico)
- On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the registration for Trump’s Cessna jet expired on January 31, 2016, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Trump’s plane may be grounded until he renews his registration. In addition, “The F.A.A. could also fine or assess other penalties against the owner, the operator or both; Mr. Trump owns the plane through a limited liability company. Though it is unlikely that the agency would seek the maximum penalty, flying with no registration could result in a civil penalty of up to $27,500, a criminal fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment for up to three years, it said.” (The New York Times)
- During an interview with Fortune, Donald Trump praised Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, but said he supports “proposals that would take power away from the Fed, and allow Congress to audit the U.S. central bank’s decision making.” When asked about Yellen, Trump said, “I think she’s [Janet Yellen] done a serviceable job. I don’t want to comment on reappointment, but I would be more inclined to put other people in.” Trump also commented on low-interest rates, saying, “The best thing we have going for us is that interest rates are so low. There are lots of good things that could be done that aren’t being done, amazingly. … People think the Fed should be raising interest rates. If rates are 3% or 4% or whatever, you start adding that kind of number to an already reasonably crippled economy in terms of what we produce, that number is a very scary number.” (Fortune)
- On Tuesday, during an interview on "Fox & Friends," Trump questioned whether Hillary Clinton really carries hot sauce in her bag. He said, “It's the same thing she always does. She carries hot sauce like I carry hot sauce. It's just, I don’t know so phony, and so pandering and so terrible. I think, you know, frankly, I think Bernie probably has a decent chance to win. It won't matter. Then they'll say, it doesn't matter because she's — look, it's a crooked system.” According to Politico, during an interview “with a hip-hop station's radio show in New York,” Clinton “said that she carries hot sauce in her purse (Clinton has long been known as a hot pepper aficionado). The hosts then said she'd be criticized for ‘pandering’ to the African-American vote. ‘Is it working?’ Clinton asked, laughing.” (Politico)
- Clinton's campaign defended her use of hot sauce, explaining that she “carries around a bottle of Ninja Squirrel sriracha.”
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- During an interview with Isthmus last week during the Wisconsin Green Party convention, Jill Stein criticized Bernie Sanders for not “acknowledging third parties” and the Democratic Party for blocking candidates who are outsiders. She said, “Bless his [Sanders’] heart, he’s a team player, but he's on the wrong team. This is why [the Democrats] have superdelegates and Super Tuesday — it’s to create a firewall against progressive, grassroots, populist campaigns.” Stein said that her campaign “reached out [to Sanders] in many ways, [but] at this point he does not acknowledge third parties… He’s kind of the socialist who doesn’t talk to other socialists.” Stein considers her campaign “a Plan B,” if Clinton wins the nomination. She said, “There’s no doubt that those voters are not going to want to just line up behind Hillary. We’ve made it clear that we are here for some people as a Plan B after Bernie.”(Isthmus)
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