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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 4, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- Poll: As the Republican presidential candidates wait to learn today who will qualify for Thursday’s evening debate, a new FOX News poll finds Donald Trump leading the field with 26 percent and Jeb Bush trailing behind 11 points. Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal fall outside of the top 10 with 2 percent or less. (FOX News, Politico)
- Poll: Donald Trump also leads a new Bloomberg Politics poll released on Tuesday with 21 percent. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker follow with 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Knocked out of the top 10 is Rick Perry with only 2 percent support. (Bloomberg)
- Fourteen Republicans participated in the Voters First Forum on Monday night where immigration reform was a dominant theme of the evening. While the forum was less confrontational than Thursday's debate is expected to be, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker each went on the offensive against the Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. (C-SPAN, The Washington Examiner, Reuters)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Dick Harpootlian, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, indicated that Joe Biden not only has support from within the party, but some Hillary Clinton supporters would also defect to his campaign if he ran for president. “Since this [speculation] came out over the weekend, I've had calls this morning from five major political people in South Carolina, two from Hillary people who would jump to Biden," Harpoolitan said. (CNN)
Lincoln Chafee
- Lincoln Chafee tweeted his support for President Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” on Monday. (Twitter)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton released a 2-minute video on Monday to support Planned Parenthood in the face of the looming threat of congressional defunding. “Republicans like Scott Walker and Jeb Bush are calling to defund Planned Parenthood, the country’s leading provider of reproductive healthcare, and they are joined by Republicans in Congress who will not waste a minute in voting to make that happen. If this feels like a full-on assault on women’s health, that’s because it is,” Clinton says in the video. (YouTube)
- Clinton’s favorability with white women voters has fallen from 44 percent in June to 34 percent in July, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Clinton is scheduled to appear on Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show on Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. (The New York Times)
- President Obama’s former deputy campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, has been working with Clinton’s director of state campaigns, Marlon Marshall. (The New York Times)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley plans to call for a constitutional amendment to protect voting rights at a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday. O’Malley wrote in an email, “Last year, Republican state legislators in 29 states introduced more than 80 restrictive bills to require a photo ID, make voter registration harder, or reduce early voting. We know why they're doing this: because Americans without a photo ID are disproportionately low-income, disabled, minority — and Democratic." (CNN)
- Following a campaign stop in Puerto Rico, O’Malley performed a rendition of “This Land is Your Land,” substituting the phrase “New York island" with "Puerto Rican islands." According to the Independent Journal Review, O’Malley has advocated for the territory to “be treated the same as the U.S. mainland." (Independent Journal Review)
Bernie Sanders
- After a select group of Republican candidates attended a Koch-backed summit with wealthy conservative donors over the weekend, Bernie Sanders singled out the billionaire brothers in a statement about President Obama’s climate change proposal. “I understand that Republicans, including many of those running for president, are dependent on the Koch brothers, oil companies and other fossil-fuel contributors. Maybe for once they can overcome the needs of their campaign contributors and worry instead about the planet they are leaving their kids and grandchildren and young people all over the world,” Sanders said. (Bernie Sanders for President)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- At the Voters First Forum, Jeb Bush addressed criticism that he has the same policy position as George W. Bush, saying, “I have a different view than my brother.” Bush also noted that while terrorists are engaging in “a war against Western civilization,” he did not believe boots on the ground were necessary. He also commented on education policy, saying, “The federal government should have no role in the creation of standards.” (Daily Caller)
Ben Carson
- Before calling Obamacare “completely antithetical to the principles of the founding of this country” at the Voters First Forum on Monday, Ben Carson said, “There's no question that it needs to be replaced before you repeal it because you don't want to pull the safety net out from underneath people.” (NPR)
- Carson has received contributions from more small donors than any other candidate. According to Slate, “Some 49,200 people have given $10,000 or less to Carson's candidate committees, super PACs, and candidate leadership committees.” (Slate)
Chris Christie
- According to a new poll from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, Chris Christie would lose the Republican primary in the state he currently governs, New Jersey. Donald Trump leads him by nine points. (Politico, Rutgers)
- During the Voters First Forum on Monday, Christie highlighted his experience as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey to explain why he would not negotiate with terrorists. He also addressed his rehabilitative stance on non-violent drug offenders, saying, “What we need to do as the public and embrace these people and say if you are not a violent offender, not dealing drugs to our children, then we you need to get you treatment rather than prison. The fact is this can happen to anyone." (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- While discussing his healthcare platform at the Voters First Forum on Monday, Ted Cruz said, "I've been proud to lead the fight to stop Obamacare in the United States Senate, against the Washington cartel. And there are a lot of politicians in Washington that have largely given up. They don't believe Obamacare can ever be repealed, including, sadly, a fair number of Republicans. I don't believe that. I intend to make 2016 a referendum on repealing Obamacare, and if I'm elected president, we will repeal every word of Obamacare and we'll pass commonsense health insurance reform to make health insurance personal and portable and affordable." (CNS News)
Carly Fiorina
- Keep the Promise I, a super PAC purportedly backing Ted Cruz, donated $500,000 to CARLY for America in June 2015. In a statement to Bloomberg, a representative from the super PAC said, “Keep the Promise I supports Ted Cruz for President. It is a federal PAC that will offer support to other candidates for President and other offices, and will work with the affiliated PACs Keep the Promise II, III and Keep the Promise PAC, to promote Ted Cruz for President." (Bloomberg)
- In a radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Monday, Fiorina said Congress should shut down the government if necessary to defund Planned Parenthood. (Daily Caller)
- Fiorina invoked the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, during the Voters First Forum on Monday to explain why voters should support her. “I started out as a secretary in a little nine person real estate firm. I went on to lead the largest technology country in the world, and now I’m running for the presidency of the United States. My story is only possible in America. But our nation is at a pivotal time. Whatever your issue or cause or festering problem that you hope would be resolved, the political class has let you down. Margaret Thatcher once said, ‘I am not content to manage the decline of a great nation.’ Neither am I. We need a president who understands the economy, the world, how it works, who’s in it, bureaucracy, how to hold them accountable, cut them down to size, technology. I have a proven track record of challenging the status quo and problem solving. With your support and your vote, I will lead the resurgence of a great nation,” Fiorina said. (Breitbart)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham’s campaign has responded to a Washington Post article questioning Graham’s military record and the “special treatment” he received while serving. Christian Ferry, Graham’s campaign manager, said, "The bottom line is, Senator Graham served his country with honor. For his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force awarded him both the Meritorious Service Medal and the Bronze Star. This article is nothing but irresponsible." The author of the article, Craig Whitlock, responded that Graham's campaign “calls this story 'a political hit job.' But doesn't dispute any of the facts." (The Hill, The Washington Post)
- Calling himself “fluent in Clinton-speak,” Graham asserted Bill and Hillary Clinton are untrustworthy. “When Bill says he didn't have sex with that woman, he did. When she says, 'I'll tell you about building the pipeline when I get to be president,' it means she won't. And when she tells us, 'Trust me, you have all the emails you need,' we haven't even scratched the surface,” Graham said. (CBS News)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee released a statement on Monday describing President Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” as "job-killing" and “a handout to Chinese businesses, Arab oil sheiks, Russian energy despots, and Washington insiders completely detached from reality.” Huckabee added, “President Obama’s crusade against carbon shows he’s more committed to confronting American coal miners than Iranian clerics who chant ‘Death to America.’” (Breitbart)
John Kasich
- Speaking at the Voters First Forum on Monday, John Kasich called job creation the country’s “most important moral purpose.” He also suggested one of the GOP’s problems was that the party had not convinced “people across this country...that we get them.” (WMUR)
Bobby Jindal
- During the Voters First Forum, Bobby Jindal accused his Democratic opponents of being more liberal than they claimed, saying, “Give Bernie Sanders credit – at least he's honest enough to call himself a socialist. Hillary Clinton, President Obama – they're no better. They're just not honest enough to call themselves socialists." He added there would be “no more hyphenated Americans, no more divisions,” if he were elected president. (The Huffington Post)
George Pataki
- George Pataki advocated for “shrinking the size of the federal government” at the Voters First Forum on Monday. “We should get rid of Obamacare. We should get rid of Common Core and we should reduce the size of the federal workforce by, at least, 15 percent,” Pataki said. (WMUR)
Rand Paul
- Distinguishing himself from his father, Ron Paul, at the Voters First Forum on Monday, Rand Paul said, “I’m a constitutional conservative. I believe the government ought to leave the individual alone, for the most part. I think the states ought to be left alone. I think really the only powers given to government were enumerated in the Constitution and all the rest of the rights are left to the people. I think that war should be seen as the last resort.” (WMUR)
- In an interview on FOX News on Tuesday morning, Paul said, “I don’t want to shut down the government, but I do want to give instructions to the president on how to spend money. Not just on Planned Parenthood but a thousand different items. I don’t want to fund, still, Obamacare. I still don’t want to fund all the massive regulations he is putting forward. So, really, the choice is, is the president willing to shut down government." (FOX News)
Rick Perry
- Harkening back to this 2012 presidential debate performance, Rick Perry skirted around two questions at the Voters First Forum on Monday regarding whether he would limit legal immigration to the United States and which federal agencies he would eliminate. (Breitbart)
- According to The Washington Post and Vox, Rick Perry is likely to be cut from the main GOP debate on Thursday evening. (The Washington Post, Vox)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio’s campaign announced on Monday that Mark Baker, who served as legislative director and counsel to U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mon.), would chair Rubio’s campaign in Montana. (Great Falls Tribune)
Rick Santorum
- In the past several weeks, Rick Santorum’s campaign manager, Terry Allen, Iowa State coordinator, Jon Jones, and digital strategist, Steve Hilliard, left Santorum’s campaign to launch a new super PAC to support Santorum. “Every campaign, I don’t care who it is, is the ultimate underfunded start-up. No matter if you have all the money, you never have enough money. There’s no campaign that ever has enough money, that’s just the nature of campaigns. But my decision to leave was because this is the most efficient and effective way to help the senator, and it became very obvious, and you see more campaigns figuring it out,” Allen said. (Politico)
- Speaking at the Voters First Forum on Monday, Santorum promoted his policy of setting income and corporate taxes to 20 percent and eliminating the VAT tax. (WMUR)
Donald Trump
- According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll released on Monday, 75 percent of Latino voters have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. Only 13 percent perceive him favorably. (NBC News)
- The Media Research Center reported on Tuesday that Trump received significantly more coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts between January 1, 2015, and July 31, 2015, than any other Republican presidential candidate. With 116 minutes of coverage, Trump's take surpasses the 72 minutes dedicated to Jeb Bush and 28 minutes given to Chris Christie. (Media Research Center)
- In a radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Trump suggested Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton, might inappropriately use information housed on Clinton’s private email server and discuss it with her husband, Anthony Weiner, who now works for a public relations firm. (Hugh Hewitt)
Scott Walker
- Scott Walker said he would consider reforming Social Security eligibility for people of his generation at the Voters First Forum on Monday, but noted he “would not touch Social Security for people who are at retirement age now or near retirement.” (WMUR, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- Walker tweeted on Monday that President Obama’s new energy plan “should be called the Costly Power Plan because it will cost hard-working Americans jobs and raise their energy rates.” (Twitter)
- According to the National Journal on Monday, Walker has more than $20,000 of credit card debt. The Boston Globe had previously estimated Walker’s net worth as -$72,000 in April 2015. (National Journal, The Boston Globe)
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
