Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - May 10, 2016
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- West Virginia will hold its Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday. Although Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama in this state in 2008, Bernie Sanders is favored to win this year after Clinton “misspoke” about putting the coal industry "out of business" last week. MaryAlice Parks and Liz Kreutz of ABC News noted, however, “Even if Sanders won every single one of West Virginia’s 29 pledged delegates today, it would do little to cut into Clinton’s 290 pledged delegate lead. In order to pull ahead of Clinton on this front, he would need to win over 65 percent of all pledged delegates in all remaining state primaries. Which is likely why, on the day before the West Virginia primary, Sanders was already campaigning in New Jersey and California, two states with hundreds of delegates up for grabs.” (ABC News, Ballotpedia)
- In an interview with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) said that he would not chair the Republican National Convention if that was what presumptive nominee Donald Trump wished. Ryan said, "He's the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention.” He added that he was not opposed to supporting Trump in the future: "I never said never. I just said [not] at this point. I wish I had more time to get to know him before this happened. We just didn't.” (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- During an event in Kentucky on Tuesday, Clinton is expected to release her agenda for families with children. Her proposals include making childcare more accessible, increasing pay for childcare workers through the Respect And Increased Salaries for Early Childhood Educators (RAISE) Initiative, and calling on the federal government to guarantee that no family should spend more than 10 percent of its income on childcare costs. (The Huffington Post)
Polls
- In a general election matchup in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump, 55 percent to 31 percent, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released on Monday. Commenting on Trump’s potential general election strategy, pollster David Paleologos said, “I don’t think he focuses on Massachusetts. He’s already way down. Even if you make the argument that her core number is in the 50s, and even if all the undecided go to Trump, her strength among women in the state is amazing.” (The Boston Globe)
- According to a Morning Consult survey released on Tuesday, 38 percent of voters said they were “much less likely” and 11 percent said they were “somewhat less likely” to support candidates who have expressed support for Trump. “Support for Trump’s candidacy is particularly troubling for women. Almost half of the 522 women polled (43 percent) said they would be much less likely to vote for a candidate who backs Trump, and 20 percent of Republican women said supporting Trump would also make them less likely to vote for a candidate,” the pollsters noted. (Morning Consult)
- Quinnipiac University released six general election swing state matchups on Tuesday:
- Florida: Clinton (43 percent) vs. Trump (42 percent);
- Florida: Sanders (44 percent) vs. Trump (42 percent);
- Ohio: Trump (49 percent) vs. Clinton (43 percent);
- Ohio: Sanders (43 percent) vs. Trump (41 percent);
- Pennsylvania: Clinton (43 percent) vs. Trump (42 percent);
- Pennsylvania: Sanders (47 percent) vs. Trump (41 percent). (Quinnipiac University)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- When asked to comment on Donald Trump’s charge that she enabled former President Bill Clinton’s infidelity, Hillary Clinton said on Monday, “I’m going to let him run his campaign however he chooses. I’m going to run my campaign, which is about a positive vision for our country with specific plans that I think will help us solve problems that we’re facing.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Opposition researchers from the Republican National Committee and America Rising have been trying to obtain transcripts of Clinton’s speeches to Goldman Sachs, The Hill reported on Monday. (The Hill)
- Religion News Service reported on Monday that Clinton wrote a letter to Israel Action Network chair David Sherman and Jewish Federations of North America vice chair Susan K. Stern reiterating her opposition to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. “I believe that BDS seeks to punish Israel and dictate how the Israelis and Palestinians should resolve the core issues of their conflict. This is not the path to peace. I remain convinced that Israel’s long-term security and future as a Jewish state depends on having two states for two peoples. But that can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians; it cannot be imposed from the outside or by unilateral actions,” she wrote. (Religion News Service)
- In response to a FOIA lawsuit by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the State Department announced on Monday that it had no emails from Clinton’s senior information technology staffer, Bryan Pagliano, during her time as secretary of state. “To be clear, the Department does have records related to Mr. Pagliano and we are working with Congress and [Freedom of Information Act] requesters to provide relevant material. The Department has located a pst from Mr. Pagliano’s recent work at the Department as a contractor, but the files are from after Secretary Clinton left the Department," said State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau. Raj Shah, the RNC’s deputy communications director, said, “It’s hard to believe that an IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton’s reckless email server never sent or received a single work-related email in the four years he worked at the State Department.” (ABC News)
- Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) endorsed Clinton on Tuesday. "Given the battle playing out over health care access in Kentucky, we need a leader and ally in the White House who understands the importance of fighting for health care,” he said. (The Courier-Journal)
Bernie Sanders
- The California Nurses Association, a union with 90,000 members, endorsed Bernie Sanders on Monday. (The Los Angeles Times)
- According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Sanders’ policy proposals would add $18 trillion to the federal budget deficit over the next decade after $15.3 trillion in new taxes, most of which would come from high-income households, was factored in. (Tax Policy Center)
- The Urban Institute also released this analysis of Sanders’ single-payer healthcare plan on Monday: “His system would cover all medically necessary care, including long-term care, without cost-sharing. We estimate that the approach would decrease the uninsured by 28.3 million people in 2017. National health expenditures would increase by $6.6 trillion between 2017 and 2026, while federal expenditures would increase by $32.0 trillion over that period. Sanders’s revenue proposals, intended to finance all health and nonhealth spending he proposed, would raise $15.3 trillion from 2017 to 2026—thus, the proposed taxes are much too low to fully finance his health plan.” (The Urban Institute)
- On Monday, Sanders said that he opposed authorizing Norwegian Airlines International to provide transatlantic service between Cork, Ireland, and Boston, Massachusetts, because he wanted “to prevent a global race to the bottom in the airline industry.” He said in a statement, “Granting such a permit would be a direct violation of the strong labour provisions included in the US/EU Open Skies agreement. Moreover, it would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the jobs of hundreds of thousands of flight attendants, mechanics, pilots, and other airline workers in our country and in Europe." (The Independent)
Republicans
- Following a report by Gizmodo that Facebook was suppressing content from conservative news sources, the Republican National Committee issued this statement on Monday, in part: “With 167 million US Facebook users reading stories highlighted in the trending section, Facebook has the power to greatly influence the presidential election. It is beyond disturbing to learn that this power is being used to silence view points and stories that don't fit someone else's agenda.” (The New York Times, Republican National Committee)
Donald Trump
- On Monday, Donald Trump distanced himself from comments made by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) regarding supporting the primary opponent of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). “She’s a terrific person, but she’s very much a free agent and I didn’t know about this until yesterday. I guess she’s been fighting, or she’s endorsing somebody that’s running against Paul Ryan, and I didn’t know about it until yesterday when I read about it,” he said. (The New York Times)
- Trump said his comments in a CNBC interview last week about defaulting on debt were mischaracterized. “I said if we can buy back government debt at a discount, in other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back at a discount – if we are liquid enough as a country, we should do that. In other words, we can buy back debt at a discount,” Trump said. He added that the U.S. will never have to default on debt “because you print the money.” (CNN)
- On Monday, Trump announced that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) would chair his presidential transition team to identify candidates for cabinet-level positions and approximately 1,000 other openings in a potential future Trump administration. (NBC News)
- Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) wrote an op-ed on Sunday explaining why he now supports Trump even though he was an early critic of his candidacy. “I think electing Donald Trump would be the second-worst thing we could do this November, better only than electing Hillary Clinton to serve as the third term for the Obama administration’s radical policies. I am not pretending that Mr. Trump has suddenly become a conservative champion or even a reliable Republican: He is completely unpredictable. The problem is that Hillary is predictably liberal,” he wrote. (The Wall Street Journal)
- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) issued a statement on Monday expressing his disinterest in serving as Trump’s vice president. “While Republican voters have chosen Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, my previously stated reservations about his campaign and concerns with many of his policies remain unchanged. He will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign,” Rubio wrote. (ABC News)
- New York investor Anthony Scaramucci has joined Trump’s national finance committee. He was the national finance co-chair for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and worked for the 2016 presidential campaigns of Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. (The Washington Post)
- Billionaire broadcasting executive Stanley Hubbard, who previously donated to the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, has joined the advisory committee of the pro-Trump Great Advisory PAC. ”All of my favorite candidates dropped out one by one. We’re down to my least favorite candidate. And my least favorite candidate is better than Hillary Clinton in terms of what’s best for the country,” Hubbard said. (Politico)
- Trump’s delegate slate in California, which was released on Monday, includes House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican Party vice chair Harmeet K. Dhillon, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. (The Los Angeles Times, Recode)
Third Party Candidates
- RT America is hosting two third party presidential debates this week. The first for Green Party candidates was filmed on Monday. The Libertarian Party debate will be streamed on Thursday without frontrunner Gary Johnson, who declined to participate. (RT, The Libertarian Republic)
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