Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - April 28, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Thursday's Leading Stories
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed for CNN on Wednesday to highlight the conditions incarcerated women face in prison. She made the following policy proposals: “First, we need to reform policing practices, end racial profiling, and eradicate racial disparities in sentencing. Second, we need to promote alternatives to incarceration, particularly for nonviolent and first-time offenders, so families aren't broken up. We need to improve access to high-quality treatment for substance abuse, inside and outside the prison system, because drug and alcohol addiction is a disease, not a crime — and we need to treat it as such. And third … I will institute gender-responsive policies in the federal prison system and encourage states to do the same—because women follow different paths to crime than men, and face different risks and challenges both inside and outside the prison walls, and every part of the justice system, from sentencing to the conditions of confinement to re-entry services, should reflect women's unique needs.” (CNN)
- The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is expected to endorse Clinton on Thursday. Chamber chief executive Javier Palomarez said in a statement that Clinton “has demonstrated the ability to enact a robust and pragmatic policy agenda that will allow the Hispanic small business community to thrive and prosper." (The Hill)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said on Wednesday that Sanders would continue to compete for the Democratic nomination despite his primary losses on Tuesday. He added that Sanders had no intention of running as an independent candidate as suggested by Donald Trump: “Mr. Trump's been saying a lot of nice things in the last 48 hours, but believe me, Bernie Sanders is committed to making sure that Donald Trump does not get into the White House.” (Politico)
- Sanders clarified his own position on the status of his campaign during a rally at Indiana's Purdue University. "We are in this campaign to win, but if we do not win, we intend to win every delegate that we can, so that when we go to Philadelphia in July, we're going to have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen," he said. (CNN)
Republicans
Ted Cruz
- According to an analysis of entrance and exit poll data in 25 states by FiveThirtyEight, Ted Cruz has only received support from an average of 13 percent of voters who identify as “moderate” or “liberal” and 20 percent who identify as “somewhat conservative.” Political analyst Harry Enten wrote, “In all 25 of those states, Cruz performed worse among ‘somewhat conservatives’ than among voters overall. That is extremely unusual compared with past candidates who have secured their party’s nominations. Most truly strong candidates don’t rely on a single ideological wing for their support — that’s also true in Democratic primaries. Cruz has managed to win a few states, such as Iowa and Oklahoma, without winning the ‘somewhat conservative’ vote, but he has far more frequently lost states because of his limited appeal.” (FiveThirtyEight)
- Cruz penned an op-ed in The Times of London on Wednesday to express his support for Britain if it chooses to leave the European Union in contrast to President Barack Obama. “If Brexit takes place, Britain will be at the front of the line for a free trade deal with America, not at the back. There is a vast amount of trade, commerce and investment between our two nations,” Cruz wrote. (The Times of London, USA Today)
- U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) endorsed Cruz on Wednesday. He said in a statement, “Ted is the only candidate who will change the way Washington works and restore the balance of power back to the American people. It’s time for Republicans to rally behind this campaign in order to put forth the best candidate to stop Hillary Clinton in November.” Gardner previously supported Marco Rubio. (Ted Cruz for President, The Denver Post)
John Kasich
- John Kasich’s campaign announced on Wednesday that it made a “significant advertising buy” in Oregon ahead of the state’s upcoming primary in three weeks. In the new ad, a narrator says, “This year Oregon will play a decisive role in choosing our next president, and John Kasich is the clear choice. Ted Cruz pulled out of Oregon, and John Kasich is the only one that can stop Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall." (Politico)
- The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is expected to endorse Kasich on Thursday. Chamber chief executive Javier Palomarez noted that Kasich “doesn’t have a huge track record of working with Hispanics specifically — the guy’s from Ohio, for Christ's sake. But he has a record of economic growth." (The Hill)
Donald Trump
- On Wednesday, Donald Trump delivered prepared remarks on foreign policy at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He said that the overarching theme of his administration would be “America first,” criticized the Obama administration for a “list of humiliations” on the international stage, and made the following policy points:
- On democracy in the Middle East: “We went from mistakes in Iraq to Egypt to Libya, to President Obama’s line in the sand in Syria. Each of these actions have helped to throw the region into chaos and gave ISIS the space it needs to grow and prosper. Very bad. It all began with a dangerous idea that we could make western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interests in becoming a western democracy.”
- On the financial responsibilities of America’s allies: “Secondly, our allies are not paying their fair share, and I’ve been talking about this recently a lot. Our allies must contribute toward their financial, political, and human costs, have to do it, of our tremendous security burden. But many of them are simply not doing so. … In NATO, for instance, only 4 of 28 other member countries besides America, are spending the minimum required 2 percent of GDP on defense. … The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense, and if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves. We have no choice.”
- On preventing terrorism and defeating ISIS: “We should work together with any nation in the region that is threatened by the rise of radical Islam. But this has to be a two-way street. They must also be good to us. … The struggle against radical Islam also takes place in our homeland. There are scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism. … We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies. … And then there’s ISIS. I have a simple message for them. Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them where and I won’t tell them how. We must … as a nation be more unpredictable. We are totally predictable. We tell everything. We’re sending troops. We tell them. We’re sending something else. We have a news conference. We have to be unpredictable. And we have to be unpredictable starting now. But they’re going to be gone. ISIS will be gone if I’m elected president. And they’ll be gone quickly. They will be gone very, very quickly.”
- On increasing military spending: “Secondly, we have to rebuild our military and our economy. The Russians and Chinese have rapidly expanded their military capability, but look at what’s happened to us. Our nuclear weapons arsenal, our ultimate deterrent, has been allowed to atrophy and is desperately in need of modernization and renewal. And it has to happen immediately.”
- On modernizing NATO’s mission: “After I’m elected president, I will also call for a summit with our NATO allies and a separate summit with our Asian allies. In these summits, we will not only discuss a rebalancing of financial commitments, but take a fresh look at how we can adopt new strategies for tackling our common challenges. For instance, we will discuss how we can upgrade NATO’s outdated mission and structure, grown out of the Cold War to confront our shared challenges, including migration and Islamic terrorism.” (The New York Times)
- According to a report by ABC News on Wednesday, Trump has secured the support of 39 of Pennsylvania’s 54 unbound congressional district delegates. Sixteen delegates indicated they would support the winner of their congressional district on the first ballot, while another 23 delegates said that they supported Trump. (ABC News)
- During demonstrations outside of City Hall in Anaheim, California, regarding a proposal to denounce Trump on Tuesday, two girls and three adults were pepper-sprayed by an anti-Trump protester. (CBS News)
- Politico reported on Wednesday that Trump, with his sweep of the five “Acela Primary” states on Tuesday, is on track “to easily pass the modern record-holder” for most votes received in a Republican primary. Trump is less than a million votes behind former President George W. Bush’s record-setting 10.8 million votes in 2000. (Politico)
Third Party Candidates
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- During an interview with Democracy Now, Gary Johnson expressed frustration with the Republican Party because it “did not stand up for him” when he wanted to participate in the 2012 presidential debates. “Right now, running for president of the United States as a Libertarian, there is no way that a third party wins. There’s no way that I have a chance of winning, unless I’m in the presidential debates,” he continued. (Democracy Now)
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