Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - February 24, 2016
From Ballotpedia
|
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
|
Wednesday's Leading Stories
- Donald Trump won Tuesday’s Nevada Republican presidential caucuses with 45.9 percent of the vote. Marco Rubio came in second with 23.9 percent, and Ted Cruz came in third with 21.4 percent. Ben Carson came in fourth with 4.8 percent, and John Kasich came in fifth with 3.6 percent. (Ballotpedia)
- Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) endorsed Ted Cruz on Tuesday, In an op-ed Amash wrote, "It’s easy to withdraw from politics when the positions and priorities of the candidates do not precisely mirror our own. But we owe it to our beliefs to find constitutional conservative political allies who not only respect our philosophy but also fight for our views to be heard. Ted is not a libertarian and doesn’t claim to be. But he is a principled defender of the Constitution, a brilliant strategist and debater who can defeat the Democratic nominee in the general election, and the only remaining candidate I trust to take on what he correctly calls the Washington Cartel." (The Hill, Independent Journal)
- Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) endorsed Marco Rubio on Tuesday. King said in a statement, “Republicans can’t afford to forfeit this race to Hillary Clinton by nominating the wrong candidate. I’m endorsing Marco Rubio because he has all the ingredients for a winning campaign: inspiration, judgement, and vision." (The Hill)
- On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that Hillary Clinton’s aides, including Huma Abedin, “should be questioned in a lawsuit that alleges the private server set up in her home may have been intended to dodge federal transparency laws. … The judge also is considering whether Clinton should be compelled to turn over all the emails that went through her private server, not just those that she and her lawyers self-selected as involving government business,” according to The Los Angeles Times. (The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times)
Polls
- According to a Goucher College poll released on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 58 percent to 28 percent among likely Democratic voters in Maryland. (Goucher College)
- According to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on Wednesday, Donald Trump leads Marco Rubio 38 percent to 11 percent among likely Republican voters in New Jersey. Ted Cruz follows with 10 percent support. John Kasich has 8 percent support, and Ben Carson has 5 percent support. On the Democratic side, Clinton leads Sanders 55 percent to 32 percent. (Rutgers-Eagleton)
- A Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday shows Kasich defeating Clinton by 17 percent and Sanders by 19 percent in a general election matchup in Ohio. Other head-to-head matchups in Ohio show the following:
- Trump 44 percent, Clinton 42 percent;
- Cruz 46 percent, Clinton 43 percent;
- Rubio 47 percent, Clinton 42 percent;
- Trump 44 percent, Sanders 44 percent;
- Sanders 44 percent, Cruz 42 percent;
- Rubio 44 percent, Sanders 42 percent. (Quinnipiac)
- According to a Fox 5 Atlanta poll released on Tuesday, Trump leads Rubio 34 percent to 22 percent among likely Republican voters in Georgia. Cruz follows with 20 percent support. Kasich has 9 percent support, and Carson has 8 percent support. (Fox 5 Atlanta)
- Clinton leads Sanders 57 percent to 29 percent among likely Democratic voters in Georgia, according to a Fox 5 Atlanta poll released on Tuesday. (Fox 5 Atlanta)
Democrats
- According to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday, when Americans were “asked to say what comes to mind when they think” of Hillary Clinton, "dishonest" and "dislike her" were the most common responses. When asked the same question about Bernie Sanders, the most common responses were "socialist" and "old." (Gallup)
- During CNN’s town hall event on Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders called “for Clinton to release transcripts of paid speeches that she made to Wall Street banks after she left the State Department.” He added, "I am happy to release all of my paid speeches to Wall Street -- here it is. There ain't none."
- Clinton responded to Sanders’ request by saying that she would release the transcripts "If everybody does it, and that includes the Republicans -- because we know they have made a lot of speeches.” (CNN)
Hillary Clinton
- During CNN’s town hall event on Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton “asked a group of African-American women in the audience who had lost children to police action and random gun violence to stand and be recognized.” She then said, "We have serious challenges and I think it is important for people, and particularly for white people, to be honest about those. Otherwise, we are never going to be the nation we should be, we are never going to overcome our legacy." (CNN)
- During the same event, Clinton said that voters should not worry about a federal judge’s ruling that “paved the way for possible future subpoenas by the State Department against Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin to obtain personal emails.” Clinton said, "I am well aware of the drip, drip, drip. I have been in the public arena for 25 years. The facts are that every single time somebody has hurled these charges against me, which they have done, it has proved to be nothing." (CNN)
- After President Obama announced his plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Clinton said, "I support President Obama’s plan today to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and finally close the door on this chapter of our history. Over the years, Guantanamo has inspired more terrorists than it has imprisoned. It has not strengthened our national security; it has damaged it." (The Hill)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders’s campaign released a statement of support for President Obama’s decision to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The statement read, "Sanders was one of only three senators to vote in 2007 against barring the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to America. Then-Sen. Hillary Clinton voted for the amendment that kept the prison open." According to The Hill, “That 2007 measure was a ‘sense of the Senate’ vote that specifically warned against releasing Guantanamo prisoners ‘into American society’ or ‘facilities in American communities and neighborhoods.’ Clinton's statement didn't respond to Sanders, but touted her own history of pushing to close the facility. It notes that she cosponsored legislation to do so and highlights her work as secretary of State to resettle Guantanamo prisoners.” (The Hill)
- During CNN’s town hall event on Tuesday night, Sanders was asked how his “plan for free public college tuition would affect historically black colleges and universities, many of which are private.” Sanders replied, “We must sustain and strengthen the historically black colleges and universities who do a phenomenal job today educating a significant number of African Americans. You have my word that we will not only sustain, we will substantially increase funding for historically black colleges and universities.” (Huffington Post)
- On Tuesday, Sanders’ campaign sent out the following email: "It's no exaggeration to say this is the most important stretch of our campaign. Secretary Clinton's supporters are responding: her campaign is holding at least a dozen high-dollar fundraisers this week, including one last night where some donors paid $27,000 to attend." Mike Casca, Sanders' spokesman, later clarified the email, saying, "Our supporters are really fired up about Clinton's high-dollar fundraising, so when we send another fundraising email about it tonight we'll be sure to clarify that the high-dollar donors 'bundled' instead of 'donated' $27,000, which is more than the annual salary of a worker making $12 per hour.” (CNN)
Republicans
Ben Carson
- As the results from last night’s Nevada caucuses came in, Ben Carson said, “I believe that things are starting to happen here. What will eventually happen is that the people, we the people will actually want to hear real solutions. It’s just a matter of time before they start demanding answers, and start demanding solutions but now we’re sort of in the ancient Rome stage where everyone wanted to go to the Coliseum, bring on the lions and tigers, see them eat the eagle.” (Politico)
- On Tuesday, Carson explained that he was trying to compare his upbringing, and the upbringing of many black children, to President Barack Obama’s when he said that Obama was “raised white.” Carson said, “I grew up in Detroit, and I grew up in Boston. In Boston, we lived in the ghetto. There were a lot of violent episodes there. There were rats, there were roaches. It was dire poverty. … Now, let me contrast that to the President, who went to private schools, grew up in a relatively affluent environment, had an opportunity to live in multiple cultures and different countries. I think that’s a very different experience.” (KTLA)
- Carson suggested using drugs to obtain information from terrorists during an interview on Tuesday. He said, "I believe there are a number of ways to extract information, including some medical ways of putting people into a less-than-conscious state, which allows information to be extracted. … There are ways where you decrease a person's conscious defenses, and they might be much more willing to give information.” He specifically mentioned using sodium amytal. (The Hill)
Ted Cruz
- On Tuesday, Ted Cruz’s former national spokesman Rick Tyler said that although he is “no longer on the Cruz campaign,” he will still support Cruz “as a voter.” Cruz fired Tyler on Monday after he “shared a video on Twitter and Facebook Sunday that misquoted Sen. Marco Rubio talking about the Bible,” according to The Dallas Morning News. (The Dallas Morning News)
- Glenn Beck stressed “Cruz’s strict constructionists approach to the constitution” during a campaign event on Monday night. According to the USA Today, “This means he prefers an ‘as written’ approach to the constitution, restricting judicial interpretation to the original intentions of the country’s founding fathers in 1787,” an approach that the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia supported. Cruz also discussed his support for 2nd Amendment rights. He said, “I’ve been told you folks in Nevada kinda like your guns. As a Texan, I can understand that. We define gun control as hittin’ what you aim at. We’re one justice away from taking away the right to bear arms." In addition, he explained his priorities if he’s elected president. He said, “If I’m elected president … if and when … the first thing I intend to do is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by President (Barack) Obama. I would open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and prosecute any and all violations. End the persecution of religious liberty in the military. Fourth thing is rip to shreds the Iranian nuclear deal. Fifth thing is begin process of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the one and eternal capital.” (USA Today)
John Kasich
- At a campaign event in Georgia on Tuesday, a man asked John Kasich how he planned to handle Donald Trump and Marco Rubio at the next Republican debate. He asked, “What are you going to do to stick it to Trump, stick it to Rubio, and live out your purpose?” Kasich replied, “I don’t know if my purpose is to be president. My purpose is to be out here doing what I think I need to be doing, and we’ll see where it ends up. And if it’s not this crusade, it’ll be another one — and maybe it’ll be a really small one somewhere in my kids’ school. Who knows? Because it doesn’t matter the size of the crusade. It’s the fact that you are in a crusade.” He discussed his purpose again later in the day. He said, he was “not sure exactly what the goal is. Some might say it’s to be elected president. Maybe it’s a different goal. Maybe it’s raising the bar and giving people the sense that the world can be a better place, that we can be positive, that we can have solutions. Maybe that’s enough.” (The New York Times)
- On Monday, New Day for America, the super PAC supporting Kasich, released the ad, “Quiet,” which features Kasich hugging a young man who shared a story about his struggle with depression. Tim Allen, the narrator in the ad, says, “Being president is more than the economy or healthcare. There is a place for quiet strength: the Oval Office.” During an interview with Megyn Kelly Kasich said, “My immediate reaction in hearing about that ad is, I don’t like it. Look, I’m not going to yell at my people, I’m not even connected to, to take something off the air, but I’m not comfortable with that. Something strikes me wrong about it.” (Time)
Marco Rubio
- On Tuesday, Marco Rubio told reporters that he talked to Jeb Bush and the two will meet soon. Rubio did not ask for Bush’s endorsement, saying, “He’s just decompressing from this election. And trying to get going again in the rest of his life. But we’ll meet and talk soon enough.” Commenting on the hostility between the two campaigns, Rubio said, “Things happen. But that’s never changed my feelings toward him. And I don’t think that has changed his feelings toward me.” (The New York Times)
- On Tuesday, Rubio’s campaign sent out an email asking voters to email the “Nevada Truth Squad” about any false attacks from Ted Cruz’s campaign. The email said, “Many of these underhanded tactics came from the campaign of Senator Ted Cruz. This first began in Iowa with false rumors about Ben Carson. Then in the week before South Carolinians voted, we saw the Cruz campaign and their allies unleash a wave of lies about Marco’s record, anonymous push polls, outrageous robocalls, fake Facebook posts, personal insults directed at popular South Carolina leaders, and ads that had to actually be taken down. Today, Nevadans will hold their own caucuses. We are concerned that the Cruz campaign will try to do to Marco or other candidates what they did to Ben Carson and systematically distribute false and malicious rumors. No matter what Cruz campaign representatives may say at the caucuses today, Marco is the only conservative who can unite this party, has built a campaign in all 50 states, and is the only candidate who can beat the Democrats in 2016. These nasty and negative tactics cannot stand. Marco is running on his message, not tearing others down with the underhanded tactics we’ve seen employed by others. Please help us push back: Our Nevada Truth Squad is up and running. Shoot an email to truthsquad@marcorubio.com to help us get the message out and push back on the relentlessly negative tactics of our opponents.” (Breitbart)
- During a speech in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Rubio discussed his family history, the future of America and the consequences of the election. He said, “They [my parents] lived to see all four of their kids have a life better than their own. If we get this election wrong, we will lose that. And then we’re going to have to explain to our kids that we were born in the greatest nation on Earth, and they inherited something less. … We can’t do any of these things we talk about today if we don’t win the election. And that means we have to nominate somebody in the Republican Party who has a chance of winning the election.” (Star Tribune)
- According to NBC News, “Marc Short, president of Freedom Partners, the central organization of Charles and David Koch's political and strategic network, will be a senior adviser to Rubio effective immediately.” Short “will give Rubio access to a vast network of wealthy donors. The Koch donor network consists of nearly 900 donors and have contributed an estimated $750 to $900 million for political and strategic goals in 2015 and 2016.” (NBC News)
Donald Trump
- On Tuesday, Donald Trump continued criticizing Ted Cruz. Trump said, “Now I’ve met much tougher people than Ted Cruz, he’s like a baby compared to some of the people I have to do...he’s like a little baby, soft weak little baby by comparison. But for lying, he’s the best I’ve ever seen.” (ABC News)
- Cruz responded, "Every day he tosses out a new insult, but the more rattled he gets the more he loses control and the more he engages in just personal attacks. I have no intention of responding in kind."
- Trump also discussed his relationship with Marco Rubio on Tuesday. Trump said, “I’ve been very nice to him because he hasn’t hit me -– when he hits me –- we’ll see what happens. When he hits me ugh he’s gonna be hit...I hope he does, it’s more fun.” (ABC News)
- On Tuesday, Trump discussed those who are loyal to his campaign, saying, "I mean I had a rating -- 68% would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder, I think it means anything, OK?" CNN noted that “[I]t was unclear whether he was referring to himself or his supporters, and his campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.” (CNN)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein will speak at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Wednesday, March 2nd at 8 p.m. (SmilePolitely.com)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- During an interview with Observer, Gary Johnson acknowledged that he is unlikely to win the presidential election, but said that he is running as the “voice of reason” in the race. Johnson said, “At the end of the day, when [I’m] breathing [my] last gasps of air on [my] deathbed, I’m gonna be able to say I was the voice of reason in this and there’s a certain satisfaction in that for me. I make zero money on politics.” Johnson also criticized Donald Trump for his stance on immigration, Muslim terrorists and the free market, saying, “I really think that Donald Trump has the opportunity here to really take Republicans down and the Republican Party will no longer be if he’s the nominee. Starting out with deporting 11 million illegal immigrants, following that up by building a wall. As a border state governor, I’ll tell you that’s crazy. … He also talks about killing the families of Muslim terrorists. Gee, who’s gonna arbitrate over that one? And then he says he’s all about free market and then in the next sentence he says I’m going to force Apple to build their iPads and iPhones in the United States … where do plus half of Republicans go given the things he is saying?” (Observer)
- During the interview, Johnson also discussed his stance on legalizing drugs. He said, “Would the world be better off if all drugs were legal? Yes. The world would be better off, that 90 percent of the drug problem is prohibition-related, not use related. But what I’ve said is, look, let’s legalize marijuana first and when we do that, I think the whole country takes a quantum leap toward understanding substance abuse.”
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