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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 26, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Wednesday's Leading Stories
- According to a new Suffolk University poll of Iowa voters, Hillary Clinton leads the Democratic field with 54 percent to Bernie Sanders’ 20 percent. Joe Biden follows in third with 11 percent. The poll also found that 52 percent of Democrats believe Clinton’s email server investigation will harm her if she competes in the general election. However, 70 percent said the issue did not bother them. (MSNBC)
- Sam Clovis joined Donald Trump’s campaign as his national campaign co-chairman on Tuesday, just one day after leaving Rick Perry’s campaign in Iowa. "I had an opportunity to get to know Mr. Trump over the past several months. I have some close friends working on the campaign. It’s a great opportunity for me to effect change in Washington, and I think Mr. Trump is exactly the person to do that," Clovis said of his shift. (Politico, The Washington Post)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Joe Biden held a conference call with Democratic National Committee members on Tuesday to discuss the Iran nuclear deal. The New York Times reported, “Two committee members who received the invitation said that they could not remember a conference call before with Mr. Biden on a foreign policy issue – and added that they took it as a sign that, at the least, he wants to make sure he is on the political radar of party members before they hear from Mrs. Clinton and others on Friday" at the summer meeting of the DNC. (The New York Times)
Lincoln Chafee
- Lincoln Chafee will attend the Unite Iowa Forum on Immigration on Saturday. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)
Hillary Clinton
- Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, endorsed Hillary Clinton in an op-ed published in The Gazette on Tuesday. Vilsack wrote, “She leads by example. Her courage in China as First Lady when she declared ‘women’s rights are human rights’ continues to inspire people all over the world to demand equality and freedom. As a twice-elected Senator, she worked with farmers to improve their prosperity in rural New York. And as Secretary of State, she helped to establish a program that delivers food assistance to over 12.5 million hungry children in some of the poorest countries in the world. This just scratches the surface of her career of inspiring and delivering for people around the country and across the globe.” (The Gazette)
- In a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, Clinton’s attorney David Kendall said he had the security clearance necessary to review classified documents. “These State Department security clearances remain active. We obtained them in order to be able to review documents at the Department of State, to assist former Secretary Clinton in preparing to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi,” Kendall wrote in response to Grassley’s suggestion he did not have authority to review certain classified material. (Politico)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley’s campaign criticized other Democratic presidential candidates for not planning to attend an immigration forum in Iowa on Saturday. A spokeswoman for O'Malley said, “Democrats should not cede the immigration debate to Donald Trump, but that's exactly what they do when they skip critical forums like the first-ever #UniteIowa immigration forum. If anything it shows that Democrats are all words, no action when it comes to immigration." (NBC News)
- O’Malley continued his call for more Democratic primary debates on Tuesday during an interview on “The Rundown with José Díaz-Balart.” He said, “There are people throughout Iowa and New Hampshire who are outraged that the Democratic Party is trying to act in such an undemocratic way. So, I think you will see more debates. I plan to go to as many debates as I possibly can. … I’m sure the other candidates have good ideas to offer. That’s why we need to have more debates rather than less. I mean, what have we come to as a party that we are so poor that we can’t afford to have one, more than one debate in Iowa and one debate in New Hampshire before the primary? It’s outrageous and people in our own party aren’t going to stand for this sort of meddling and limiting of debate that the DNC is trying to engage in." (Daily Caller)
Bernie Sanders
- TIME reported on Tuesday that Bernie Sanders has moved away from potentially participating in debates not sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. “In recent days...Sanders’ campaign has rebuffed at least one TV outlet’s efforts to draw Sanders into an additional debate outside the six sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. Earlier this month, his campaign manager brushed off a call from Gov. Martin O’Malley’s staff seeking further debate,” TIME noted. (TIME)
- Cornel West, a prominent scholar and civil rights activist, endorsed Sanders on Tuesday. He tweeted, “I endorse Brother @BernieSanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years.” (The New York Times)
- Lawrence Lessig, a former advisor to Sanders and potential presidential candidate, explained why he left Sanders’ campaign on Tuesday in an online forum interview. He wrote, “I became convinced that Sanders has been seduced by the consultants, whose aim (this is why they're hired) is to elect him rather than run a campaign that might be harder, but would give him the mandate to lead. I believe Bernie can get elected. But if he runs his campaign as he has, it will be Obama v2.0 (not in the substance but in the inability to pass or even propose reform).” (Vox, Reddit)
Republicans
- Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum have each signed a pledge with the National Organization for Marriage “to take several specific actions as president to restore marriage to the law and protect people of faith from discrimination because of their support for traditional marriage.” (CNN, National Organization for Marriage)
Jeb Bush
- Politico reported on Tuesday that fundraising for Jeb Bush had slowed down as a result of donor fatigue more than concerns about Bush's performance in the first Republican debate. “The debate performance scared a few people. But I think the campaign’s trouble raising money right now is not because of his performance, but there’s some donor fatigue after that $100 million. I’ve been on some donor calls and it’s a hard sell for hard money,” one Florida lobbyist said. (Politico)
- Bush’s new book, Reply All, became available for pre-order on Wednesday. It covers his time as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007 using hundreds of emails to officials and citizens. One released exchange between Bush and a gay friend shows his long-held stance against gay marriage. “Your relationship with [your partner] can be made more permanent through contractual obligations that set forth asset disposition and other issues. However, I don’t believe that your relationship should be afforded the same status in the law as a man and a woman agreeing to marriage. The institution of marriage is under attack in our society and it needs to be strengthened. This does not have to be at the expense of other kinds of relationships but in support of the most important institution in our society," Bush wrote. (Tampa Bay Times, The New York Times)
Ben Carson
- According to a survey from TargetPoint Consulting, approximately two-thirds of Republican-leaning voters would consider supporting Ben Carson, the highest for any candidate in the poll. “That doesn’t mean Mr. Carson will overtake Mr. Trump in the polls—or, for that matter, be the nominee—but it does suggest that Republicans eager to elect someone without political experience rank the doctor high on their list. In other words, it looks like there is plenty of oxygen available for the low-key Mr. Carson to catch fire, should other candidates flame out,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. (The Wall Street Journal)
Chris Christie
- Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Chris Christie encouraged U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. He said, “For those who have not yet announced their position, particularly to my friend Senator Cory Booker, this cannot be about politics and it cannot be accepting the flawed idea that a bad deal is better than no deal.” (The New York Times)
- Christie criticized Jeb Bush on Tuesday for perceiving the world through an outdated lens. “The problem is this, when you haven’t been in a relevant campaign as a Republican since 1998, you’re going to continue to make the kind of mistakes that we see Governor Bush making,” Christie said in a radio interview. (Breitbart)
Ted Cruz
- In a conference call on Tuesday, Ted Cruz encouraged more than a thousand religious leaders across the country to rally support for an amendment to the federal budget bill to defund Planned Parenthood. "Here is the challenge. The leadership of both parties, both the Democrats and Republicans, want an empty show vote. They want a vote on Planned Parenthood that has no teeth or no consequence, which allows Republicans to vote for defunding, Democrats to vote for continuing funding, and nothing to change. But the leadership of both parties have publicly said they do not want the vote tied to any legislation that must pass,” Cruz said. (The Huffington Post)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina suggested on Wednesday morning that Donald Trump speaks to voters because he challenges the “professional political class” and media. “Donald Trump is, perhaps, as much as anything, a big wake up call to the professional political call as well as the media, honestly. People are tired of both, and they don't trust either one anymore. And I think what Donald Trump taps into is a disgust in the professional political class, a belief that the game is rigged, and that, in part, whether this is fair or not, the media helps rig it. I think people want truth-telling in politics,” Fiorina said. (Washington Examiner)
- According to The Washington Free Beacon, the median annual salary of Fiorina’s female campaign staffers is nearly $15,000 more than the median for male campaign staffers. (The Washington Free Beacon)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham criticized Donald’s Trump immigration plan on Tuesday during an interview on Fox News. “The plan is stupid, illegal. I'm not that good a lawyer, but if you go in and try American children born here, citizens, and deport them because their parents are illegal, you'll get creamed in court,” he said. (Newsmax)
Mike Huckabee
- At a campaign stop in Iowa on Tuesday, Mike Huckabee suggested business experience was not comparable to governing a state or country. “To be the leader of a government means you need to have governed something. I don’t think there’s any better preparation for being President than being governor. … Government is a little different than business.” (The Des Moines Register)
George Pataki
- George Pataki criticized Donald Trump’s immigration policy and call to end birthright citizenship on Tuesday in an interview on Newsmax TV. “Let me just give you one example: you have a 10-year-old girl in fifth grade in school somewhere around America. Born in America, an American citizen, speaks perfect English, has never been out of the United States. We're going to send them police or soldiers, drag her from the classroom and send her to a country she has never been, an American citizen? This is not just clearly illegal, it's nuts. It's not going to happen,” Pataki explained. (Newsmax)
Rand Paul
- Speaking at a campaign stop in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday, Rand Paul said President Reagan was often misinterpreted. “Reagan was actually very judicious in the interventions he got involved with. Reagan was also willing to negotiate with the Soviets. Reagan was a more complex character than some people give him credit for. Reagan did believe in a strong national defense. He did believe in stopping our enemies. But he didn’t always believe in intervention was the answer,” Paul said before suggesting American interventionist policies were partially responsible for the growth of the Islamic State. (The Blaze)
Rick Perry
- According to Politico, in addition to the loss of former Iowa chairman Sam Clovis to Donald Trump’s campaign, Rick Perry was “expected to lose other key Iowa staffers” this week as his campaign began to restructure. (Politico, CNN)
Marco Rubio
- Members of the Why Courts Matter coalition held a demonstration in front of Marco Rubio’s Orlando, Florida, office to protest Rubio’s six-month delay in confirming Barzee Flores to a federal judgeship on Tuesday. (Orlando Weekly)
- Rubio raised more than $200,000 at a private fundraising event in Amherst, New York, on Tuesday night. (TWC News)
- Rubio is expected to give a major foreign policy speech on China on Friday. The address comes a week before President Xi Jinping travels to Washington, D.C., for a state visit. (The New York Times)
- On Tuesday, Rubio wrote an op-ed in Foreign Policy stating how he would approach confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He argued the United States should be more engaged in training and supporting anti-Islamic State fighters, reassure the local community that the United States does not want to take control of Iraq and Syria, assist in the negotiation of a power-sharing deal for predominantly Sunni provinces, impose a no-fly zone over certain areas of Syria to prevent President Assad’s air force from using weapons against civilians and develop a post-war settlement in Syria in the advent Assad is overthrown. (Foreign Policy)
Donald Trump
- During a press conference on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump had Jorge Ramos, a Mexican-American journalist, removed from the room after Ramos pressed Trump on his immigration policy without being called on. “Go back to Univision,” Trump said before a member of Trump’s security escorted Ramos out of the room. Ramos protested, “Don’t touch me, sir. Don’t touch me. I have the right to ask a question.” (The New York Times)
- Ramos eventually returned to the press event and engaged with Trump about whether it was legally possible to end birthright citizenship. During the exchange, Trump noted Ramos was from Univision, a network he sued for $500 million in June. (The Huffington Post)
Scott Walker
- The Washington Post suggested on Wednesday that Scott Walker’s criticism of China could hurt his relationship with Iowa and its governor, Terry Branstad (R). It noted, “That’s a stance that could hurt Walker's relationship with Branstad and farmers in Iowa, who export billions of dollars worth of soybeans to China each year. Asked to respond to Walker's comments, Branstad's spokesman Jimmy Centers said in a statement: 'China is a valuable trading partner for Iowa and the state has had a friendly relationship with President Xi dating back to his first visit to Iowa in 1985.’” (The Washington Post)
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
