Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - April 29, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Friday's Leading Stories
- U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) endorsed Donald Trump on Thursday. He said in a statement, “Donald Trump is the only person who has what it takes to shake up the status quo and entrenched bureaucrats in Washington D.C. I am more and more convinced that he has the ability to reach in and right the wrongs in the Department of Veterans Affairs once and for all.” (The Tampa Bay Times)
- U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) also endorsed Trump on Thursday, saying, “It’s time for our party to unite behind Donald Trump and focus our time and energy on defeating Hillary Clinton.” Earlier this week, Shuster was elected in Pennsylvania to represent his district as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. (Politico)
- Former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) called Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh” during an event at Stanford University on Wednesday night. He continued, “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b**** in my life.” Cruz responded on Thursday, saying, “The interesting thing is I’ve never worked with John Boehner, I don’t know the man. Indeed, during the government shutdown, I reached out to John Boehner, to work with him to get something meaningful done, he said, ‘I have no interest in talking to you.’” (Politico, BuzzFeed)
Polls
- According to the first public poll of Oregon voters released on Thursday by the Hoffman Research Group, Donald Trump leads the Republican field with 43 percent. Ted Cruz and John Kasich follow with 23 percent and 17 percent, respectively. (Politico, Hoffman Research Group)
- Rasmussen Reports released a general election match-up on Friday finding Trump and Hillary Clinton tied with 38 percent each. Sixteen percent of respondents said that they would vote for a different candidate and another 6 percent said they would abstain. (Rasmussen Reports)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, an investigative book written by conservative author Peter Schweizer in 2015, has been turned into a documentary. The film, which is critical of how the Clintons earned money after leaving the White House in 2001, will premiere in the U.S. on July 24, the day before the Democratic National Convention begins. (Bloomberg, Breitbart)
- Three Democratic leaders in Guam endorsed Clinton on Thursday: U.S. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Democratic National Committee members Taling Taitano and Rory Respicio. Guam will hold its Democratic caucus on May 7. (Marianas Variety)
- According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, Clinton’s delegate lead over Sanders would have tripled if the Democratic Party used the allocation rules of the Republican Party. (FiveThirtyEight)
- In a report from The Associated Press, several Democratic superdelegates detailed the harassment they have received for backing Clinton. “Some of the [phone and email] messages called me names. Some of them called Hillary names. And others said I was a stupid b**** and something bad will happen to me. It's kind of hard to take sometimes," said one superdelegate. (Associated Press)
Bernie Sanders
- During a rally in Oregon on Thursday, Bernie Sanders said that the Democratic Party must make clearer whether it is “on the side of working people or big-money interests.” He continued, “Do we stand with the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor? Or do we stand with Wall Street speculators and the drug companies and the insurance companies? Now our job is not just to revitalize the Democratic Party, not only to open the doors to young people and working people — our job is to revitalize American democracy.” He also criticized the low voter turnout rates in November 2014. (The New York Times)
- President Barack Obama commented on Sanders’ charge that recent Wall Street reforms have been insufficient in an interview with The New York Times Magazine published on Thursday. He said, “It is true that we have not dismantled the financial system, and in that sense, Bernie Sanders’s critique is correct. But one of the things that I’ve consistently tried to remind myself during the course of my presidency is that the economy is not an abstraction. It’s not something that you can just redesign and break up and put back together again without consequences.” (The New York Times Magazine)
- At a news conference on Thursday, President Obama also complimented Sanders on his fundraising operation. “You’ve got to give Bernie Sanders, for example, credit — building off some of the work I did; I, in turn, built off the work that Howard Dean did — for smaller donations, grassroots donors, to build up small contributions to allow candidates to be competitive,” he said. (The Hill)
- According to a survey of more than 62,000 registered voters by Morning Consult, Sanders is the most-liked U.S. senator with an approval rating of 80 percent. (Morning Consult)
- U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the only U.S. senator to endorse Sanders, said that he should suspend his presidential campaign and concede to Hillary Clinton in June if he is losing after the primary process has concluded. Invoking the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, Merkley said, “Secretary Clinton, then senator, said, 'OK, I had the discussion across America. I'm ready to pivot and work together.' And Obama reached out, and she reached out, and that should be a model for us to follow. I think after California, June 7, is about the time it would be appropriate -- all states will have weighed in by then. It will then give them five weeks to work together." (CNN)
- Although the editorial board of The Indianapolis Star did not formally endorse either Democratic candidate on Thursday, they wrote, “The choice among Democrats essentially comes down to one choice. And that’s not Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He has built his campaign around extravagant promises of a free college education, universal health care and a federal minimum wage of $15. Such proposals are not grounded in economic or fiscal reality.” (The Indianapolis Star)
Republicans
- In his first interview since withdrawing from the presidential race, Jeb Bush criticized the media for being an “accomplice” to Donald Trump and said that he was not sure whether he should trust the version of Trump “that read from a teleprompter a speech that was inside the lines, or the one that wants to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it." He added that the 2016 election was likely his only shot at the office. "I've learned to never say never. But this was my chance. This was the chance and I ran into a storm," Bush said. (CNN)
Ted Cruz
- On Thursday, Ted Cruz denied that he and John Kasich had formed “an alliance” to stop Trump by competing in different states. He explained,“I recognize that the media is all eager to talk about an alliance. There is no alliance. Kasich and I made a determination where to focus our energies, where to focus our assets, where to focus our resources.” (The New York Times)
- Three leading executives from People for the American Way, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund sent Cruz an open letter on Thursday calling on him to remove Troy Newman from his “Pro-Lifers for Cruz” coalition because, among other charges, Newman has argued that “justifiable defensive action” should be a defense for someone who murders an abortion provider. “Especially in an environment where anti-women’s health violence is on the rise, Newman’s extremism and violent rhetoric should be condemned, not given a platform by a major presidential campaign,” they wrote. (Politico, People for the American Way)
- The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, traveled to Puerto Rico last week to personally court some of the 23 delegates there that were pledged to former presidential candidate Marco Rubio. (The Washington Post)
John Kasich
- While campaigning in Oregon on Thursday, John Kasich admitted that he questioned why he was remaining in the presidential race after his primary losses on Tuesday. “I’ve decided to keep going. And there are going to be people who are going to criticize me for that, and it’s not always an easy road. I’m gonna do my very best,” he continued. (ABC News)
- New Day for America, a super PAC backing Kasich, released a new web ad earlier this week that imagines a Republican National Convention where Kasich wins the nomination. A narrator says, “What a long fascinating trip it’s been. How’d it go from the final three to the one the establishment didn’t think could win? Well, running for president isn’t about the establishment. It’s about the delegates and the delegates decided this election was about winning the presidency and only John Kasich could defeat Hillary Clinton. In the final hours, it came down to 1,237 brave Americans – delegates, you, who overcame tremendous personal pressure and did the right thing.” (Associated Press)
- The editorial board of The Indianapolis Star wrote on Thursday that Kasich “offers the best choice for voters in the Republican primaries” because he has “built a solid record as a member of Congress and has led well as Ohio’s chief executive.” They added, however, that they were not formally endorsing any candidate. (The Indianapolis Star)
Donald Trump
- Since sweeping the “Acela Primary” on Tuesday, Donald Trump has begun to publicly receive more support from U.S. congressmen. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said on Wednesday, "I think he could change the electoral map in ways we haven't seen before. This disrupts the usual Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal paradigm, and I think we don't know how this will all play out. I think it will be OK." On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said, "I think he can be great if he'll get serious about being president -- and I think he will. He's a clever, smart guy who will want to be remembered for doing great things. I have a feeling he can make that transition." (CNN)
- In Costa Mesa, California, on Thursday night, hundreds of protesters filled the street outside of a Trump rally where they were “stomping on cars, hurling rocks at motorists and forcefully declaring their opposition to the Republican presidential candidate.” Seventeen of the anti-Trump demonstrators were arrested. (The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times)
- Suspicious white powder was found in a piece of mail addressed to Trump in New York on Thursday. Three individuals, including the intern who opened the letter, were decontaminated as a precautionary measure. (CBS New York)
- CNN reported on Friday that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has indicated that Trump wants to appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters who are disinclined to support Hillary Clinton if she becomes the nominee. He said, “You have two candidates in Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders which have reignited a group of people who have been disenfranchised and disappointed with the way Washington, D.C. and career politicians have run the country. Bernie Sanders has large crowds — not as large as Mr. Trump's, but large crowds — and so there is a level of excitement there for people about his messaging and we will bring those people in." (CNN)
- In its informal endorsement of John Kasich on Thursday, the editorial board of The Indianapolis Star wrote that Trump “would be a danger to the United States and to the world.” (The Indianapolis Star)
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
