Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - May 27, 2016
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Friday's Leading Stories
- After several unbound Republican delegates announced on Thursday that they were supporting Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee officially surpassed the minimum number of delegates necessary to clinch his party’s nomination. According to The Associated Press, Trump currently has 1,239 delegates. (The Associated Press)
- Trump delivered a speech on energy production at an oil and natural gas conference in North Dakota on Thursday. Through the use of untapped domestic oil and gas reserves, Trump said that he would make the U.S. independent from foreign oil providers. If elected, he also pledged to take the following actions in his first 100 days in office: rescind the “Climate Action Plan” and “Waters of the U.S.” rule, support the renewal of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, cancel the Paris Climate Agreement, and reform the regulatory environment. The merit of future regulations, Trump said, would be determined by asking, “Is this regulation good for the American worker?” (The Guardian, Donald Trump for President, CNN)
Polls
- In a poll of likely North Carolina voters released by the Civitas Institute on Thursday, Donald Trump led Hillary Clinton, 39 percent to 36 percent. (Civitas Institute)
- Clinton and Trump are essentially tied in a Rasmussen Reports national poll released on Thursday. Clinton has 40 percent to Trump’s 39 percent. “Clinton earns 77% of the Democratic vote, while 72% of Republicans favor Trump. Each candidate draws 12% support from voters in the opposing party. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, Trump leads 34% to 30%, but 37% prefer someone else or are undecided,” the pollsters found. (Rasmussen Reports)
Democrats
- Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes confirmed on Thursday that Hillary Clinton was the winner of the state’s May 17 primary by a margin of 1,911 votes, following a recanvass request by Bernie Sanders. "We accept the results in Kentucky. We are very pleased that we split the delegates in a state with a closed primary in which independents cannot vote and where Secretary Clinton defeated Barack Obama by 35 points in 2008," Sanders said in a statement. (NBC News)
- President Barack Obama (D) said on Thursday at a press conference in Japan that world leaders were concerned with Donald Trump’s candidacy. “They're rattled by him and for good reason. Because a lot of the proposals that he's made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what is required to keep America safe,” Obama said. (CNN)
Hillary Clinton
- In an interview on Thursday, Hillary Clinton discussed the OIG report findings on her private email server use and why she did not cooperate with the investigation. “This report makes clear that personal email use was the practice for other secretaries of state. It was allowed. And the rules have been clarified since I left,” Clinton said. She added, “I have talked about this for many, many months. I testified for 11 hours before the Benghazi committee. I have answered numerous questions. We have posted information on our website and the information that we had is out there. It’s been clearly public and my email use was widely known throughout the department, throughout the government, and I have provided all of my work related emails, and I’ve asked that they be made public." (ABC News)
- U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan decided on Thursday that the recorded depositions of Cheryl Mills and others for a FOIA lawsuit related to Clinton’s private email server would not be released. “The public has a right to know details related to the creation, purpose and use of the clintonemail.com system. Thus, the transcripts of all depositions taken in this case will be publicly available. It is therefore unnecessary to also make the audiovisual recording of Ms. Mills' deposition public,” Sullivan wrote. (Politico)
Bernie Sanders
- Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who is running to reclaim his seat in the Senate in November, will receive fundraising support from Bernie Sanders. “We are going to have to elect candidates up and down the ballot who recognize that it is too late for establishment politics and economics,” Sanders said in a statement on Thursday. (Politico)
- Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver praised Reince Priebus on Thursday for his leadership as the chair of the Republican National Committee. In criticizing Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he said that “if you look at the Republican side, the party chair there has been working day and night to try and you know, keep everybody together and to try unify the party.” (Politico)
- When asked to comment on the unrest in Argentina and Brazil and the potential for collapse in Venezuela during an interview with Univision's Léon Krauze, Sanders demurred, saying that he was “very interested, but right now I’m running for President of the United States.” Krauze questioned if that meant he had no opinion on the matter. Sanders responded, “Of course I have an opinion, but as I said, I’m focused on my campaign.” He told the interviewer, “You’re asking me questions about the impact on Central America, which honestly I should know more than I do know." (Fusion)
Republicans
- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Thursday that he was likely going to attend the Republican National Convention and would be willing to speak on behalf of Donald Trump. “Look, my policy differences with Donald Trump — I spent 11 months talking about them so I think they’re well understood. That said, I don’t want Hillary Clinton to be president. If there’s something I can do to help that from happening and it’s helpful to the cause, I most certainly would be honored to be considered for that,” he said. On Thursday night, Trump tweeted support for Rubio to run to retain his U.S. Senate seat in order “to keep the [Republican] majority.” (Politico, Business Insider)
- The Hill reported on Thursday that the Republican National Committee plans to double staff in the key battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The number of paid staffers will increase from 216 to 466. (The Hill)
Donald Trump
- On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he had a “good conversation” with Trump on Wednesday night, but declined to give further details or offer an endorsement. “What I'm most concerned about is making sure that we actually have real party unity, not pretend party unity. Real party unity, because we need to win this election in the fall, there's just too much at stake – the Supreme Court, on and on and on I could go. The point is I want real party unity and that's what I'm most concerned about," Ryan said. (CNN)
- After receiving strong criticism from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this week, Trump went on the offensive on Thursday, saying, “She’s a woman that’s been very ineffective, other than she’s got a big mouth.” Trump also disputed whether Warren’s claim of Cherokee heritage was genuine and suggested she benefited professionally from a falsehood. He said, “I don’t know if you’d call it a fraud or not, but she was able to get into various schools because of the fact she applied as a Native American and probably able to get other things. I think she’s as Native American as I am, OK?” (The Huffington Post)
- Trump reiterated on Thursday that he was interested in debating Bernie Sanders. He said he would like to raise $10 million or more for a women’s health charity in the process if he were to commit. "It should be in a big arena somewhere, and we can have a lot of fun with it,” he said. (CBS News)
- On Thursday, Trump said that his chief strategist, Paul Manafort, was “misquoted” when he said that Trump would not select a woman or minority to be his running mate because “that would be viewed as pandering.” Trump added, "I think it's likely we would have somebody, but we don't do it for any specific reason. We're looking for absolute competence. I fully expect that we will have many women involved." (Talking Points Memo, ABC News)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- In an interview with Rolling Stone published on Thursday, Jill Stein discussed what distinguishes her policies from those of Hillary Clinton. "Everybody is entitled to solid living wages, which we don't hear from Hillary Clinton. She's quick to talk about parity, but parity at poverty, and that's not adequate," Stein said. She also criticized Clinton’s support for airstrikes, saying, “We don't support bombing other people's kids, unlike the other woman in the race.” (Rolling Stone)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- According to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, more than 70 percent of Gary Johnson’s campaign expenditures went to Liberty Consulting Service, his campaign manager’s consulting firm. Johnson campaign lawyer Christina Sirois explained, “Liberty Consulting Service provides overall campaign management services, including managing staff, advertising, research and more.” George Phillies, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts, called Johnson’s campaign spending “troubling.” He continued, “We’re supposed to be fiscally prudent.” (TIME)
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