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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 20, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Thursday's Leading Stories
- Poll: Quinnipiac University released a poll on Thursday finding Joe Biden “runs as well as or better than Clinton against Republicans in general election matchups” in the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.The poll also found that if Donald Trump were to make a third-party run against Clinton and Jeb Bush, Clinton would win all three states (Quinnipiac University)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Steve Schale, a former strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, and Count Inez Tenenbaum, the chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, expressed their support for Joe Biden. (Breitbart, Greenville News)
Hillary Clinton
- In a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio beat Clinton in general election matchups in Florida and Pennsylvania (Quinnipiac University)
- Clinton’s campaign responded to Jeb Bush’s comment about “anchor babies” by releasing a bilingual video that asks, “What does Jeb Bush say about immigrant families when he thinks nobody is listening? The same as Donald Trump.” (YouTube, Twitter)
- Politico reported on Wednesday that Clinton’s campaign has suggested the “core” of the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server is the product of a “dysfunctional system used by agencies to designate and safeguard classified documents.” Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said, “[Clinton] was at worst a passive recipient of unwitting information that subsequently became deemed as classified. … That’s why we are so confident that this review will remain a security-related review. We think that furthermore this matter is mostly just shining a spotlight on a culture of classification that exists within certain corners of the government, especially the intelligence community.” (Politico)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley held a press conference in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday. Surrounded by Trump employees who alleged the hotel was preventing them from forming a union, O’Malley said, “I am here in Nevada to talk to the AFL-CIO and during my visit I wanted to do a press availability here because I think that there are no two greater contrasts between an economy that works for all of us and the sort of economy that Donald Trump would seek the have the Republican party construct in the United States than this backdrop.” (CNN, NBC News)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders registered 33 to 36 percent support in hypothetical general elections against Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. (Quinnipiac University)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- Jeb Bush called for “total voucherization” at an education summit in New Hampshire on Thursday. “Let the suppliers come up with the creative solutions, have high expectations and accountability, and get out of the way,” Bush said. (CBS News)
- Bill Schuette, the attorney general of Michigan, endorsed Bush on Wednesday. (WLNS)
- Bush said there should be stricter enforcement against undocumented immigrants who give birth to children in the United States. “If there’s abuse, if people are bringing — pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement. That’s [the] legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don’t have these, you know, ‘anchor babies’, as they’re described, coming into the country,” Bush said. (Politico)
- During a town hall on Wednesday, Bush attacked Trump for not being a dedicated Republican. “Mr. Trump doesn't have a proven conservative record. He was a Democrat longer in the last decade than he was a Republican. He's given more money to Democrats than he's given to Republicans,” Bush said. (CNN)
Ben Carson
- After completing a helicopter tour of the border with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Ben Carson said, “We should stop [undocumented immigrants] at the border. They shouldn’t be 70 miles inside the border. We should stop them at the border. As the sheriff indicated, if we were to take like 6,000 troops and put them at the border, you wouldn’t have those people coming inside the border,” Carson said. (Breitbart)
- According to CNN, Carson also suggested military drone strikes could be useful to combat illegal immigration. (CNN)
Chris Christie
- At an education summit on Wednesday, Chris Christie said it would be “nirvana” if teachers unions were eliminated. (CBS News)
- New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer attacked Christie for his involvement in stopping a Hudson River tunnel project. “Chris Christie’s delaying of the tunnel and basically walking away from it a number of years ago has disqualified him from ever running for president of the United States, much less being a governor,” Stringer said on Wednesday. (CBS New York)
Ted Cruz
- When asked on Wednesday to comment on Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship, Ted Cruz said, “I welcome Donald Trump articulating this view. It is a view I have long held. ... We should end granting automatic birthright citizenship to the children of those who are here illegally." (NBC News)
Carly Fiorina
- CNN is considering polls from July 16, 2015, to September 10, 2015, to determine who qualifies for its main Republican presidential debate next month. Although Fiorina has seen her numbers climb from 1 percent to 5 percent in recent polls, her weaker performance prior to the Fox News debate might keep her from the stage.(The Hill)
Jim Gilmore
- In a phone interview with The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday, Jim Gilmore said he was not deterred by his low polling numbers. “There is still time for this race to turn to substance and experience, and I believe when it does, I will be the nominee,” Gilmore said. (The Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Lindsey Graham
- Acknowledging he doesn’t have a large fundraising haul, Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday, “I can’t spend $10 million, but I can meet as many people as possible. … This is the antidote to the big money. Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are the antidotes to the buying of the White House.” (WQAD News 8)
- Earlier this week, Graham expressed his disgust with a Connecticut Supreme Court decision holding the death penalty violated the state’s constitution, sparing the lives of two men who raped two girls before killing them and their mother. “If this doesn’t cry out for the death penalty nothing ever would and I don’t think you’re an indecent society when you take two men who broke into a family’s home, tortured two young girls, raped them, burned them alive — I don’t think that makes us indecent that they would be administered the death penalty … You know if I’m president of the United States, under my administration, my Attorney General - we’re going to prosecute people like this to the fullest extent of the law. I doubt if there’s any federal jurisdiction in a case like this, but it would be worth looking at,” Graham said. (BuzzFeed)
John Kasich
- In a new Quinnipiac University poll in key swing state, John Kasich leads the Republican field in his home state of Ohio with 27 percent support. In Pennsylvania and Florida, more than half of voters polled were not familiar enough with Kasich to form an opinion. (Quinnipiac University)
- Doug and Stella Scamman, both former members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, endorsed John Kasich on Wednesday. The Scammans will also serve as co-chairmen of Kasich’s New Hampshire state campaign. (New Hampshire Union Leader)
Bobby Jindal
- On Thursday, Planned Parenthood will hold a rally in front of the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion to protest Bobby Jindal’s withdrawal of Medicaid funding from the organization. In response, Jindal’s office plans to screen footage of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the use of fetal tissue for medical research. (The Times-Picayune)
- When asked if he agreed with Hillary Clinton that the term “anchor baby” is offensive, Jindal said, “You know, what I find offensive is Hillary Clinton, the left, when you look at those Planned Parenthood videos — they refuse to call them babies, they call it fetal tissue, they call them specimens. That’s what offensive.” (The Blaze)
Rand Paul
- While Rand Paul was in Haiti this week to provide pro bono eye surgeries, he was asked in an interview how he viewed birthright citizenship. “If you are looking at border security, and we’re going to have a secure border, then I’m not sure we need to change citizenship. Birthright citizenship is a beacon for the world. So is what we did for the Dreamers. Birthright citizenship -- it is what it is. That's the way the law has been interpreted. But is it a good idea to do that with an open border? Probably not,” Paul said. As a freshman senator in 2011, Paul joined in on a resolution to clarify “that under the 14th Amendment a person born in the United States to illegal aliens does not automatically gain citizenship." (The Washington Post)
Rick Perry
- Earlier this week, Rick Perry suggested Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship was not politically possible. “Well here's the real issue. If you're saying will you do away with the 14th Amendment, I think you need to look back at a little bit of history. When's the last time we changed the constitution of this country, and it was back in the early 90s and it took 202 years to do that. So I'm a governor who has to deal with finding solutions to problems I know how to deal with solutions and it's not changing the constitution, that's political rhetoric,” Perry said during a Fox News interview. (Bloomberg)
- According to Breitbart on Wednesday, Perry saw a bump in his fundraising totals after news that he had stopped paying his campaign staff spread earlier this month. Jeff Miller, Perry’s campaign manager, said the campaign has had its “biggest week since June,” although specific numbers have not been released. (Breitbart)
Marco Rubio
- In a question and answer session following a speech in Detroit on Thursday, Marco Rubio said Edward Snowden was “a traitor and he should go to jail.” He also said of defeating ISIS, “In the short term it will take more American involvement. We need to send in special forces, capture their leaders." (Detroit Free Press)
- Josh Penry, a former Colorado state senator, will leader Rubio’s campaign in the state. (The Denver Post)
Rick Santorum
- Rick Santorum issued a press release on Wednesday calling for the prosecution of Planned Parenthood. “When will this horror show end! What we are seeing day after day is the destruction of innocent little babies. This is murder! Who are we as a society if we continue to let this go unpunished? Planned Parenthood is committing heinous crimes. They must not just be defunded, they must also be prosecuted,” Santorum said. (Rick Santorum for President)
- Santorum detailed his immigration policy during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “I will propose we join every other developed country in the world save one, and put an end to automatic citizenship for children born here to illegal immigrant,” he said. He also noted he would eliminate “both the visa lottery and chain migration.” (Politico, Daily Caller)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump held a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday to compete with Jeb Bush’s just 15 miles away. “I don’t see how he’s electable. Jeb Bush is a low energy person. For him to get things done is hard. He’s very low energy,” Trump said. (CNN)
- Trump responded to the suggestion that two South Boston brothers who allegedly assaulted a homeless Hispanic man were inspired by Trump. “I haven’t heard about that. I think that would be a shame. I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that,” Trump said. (Boston Herald, Salon)
- The newest edition of TIME features Trump as the subject of its cover story. “At heart [Trump] is a pragmatist, not an ideologue. He would not rip up Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, because contracts matter, but he would ‘enforce that deal like they never saw.’ He boldly defends Planned Parenthood for the women’s health care it provides, not the abortions. And while his rivals quietly plot deep cuts in costly senior entitlement programs, he promises to treat Social Security and Medicare as sacrosanct,” TIME reported. (TIME)
Scott Walker
- According to a Marquette University poll, Scott Walker’s approval rating among Wisconsin voters was down 2 points to 39 percent. (The Capital Times)
- Walker released a new ad on Thursday stating Hillary Clinton “invented the lie” that under the Affordable Care Act, Americans could keep the healthcare plan they liked. The video is captioned: “Governor Scott Walker's bold plan repeals and replaces ObamaCare with a solution that gives all Americans freedom over their health care decisions. Walker's leadership is a direct contrast to Hillary Clinton's broken promises in defense of the failed law.” (YouTube, Washington Examiner)
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
