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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 5, 2015
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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
- FOX News announced the final line-up for the August 6 debate. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie and John Kasich will appear in the main debate on Thursday night. Rick Perry, who just missed the cut for the primetime debate, will be joined by Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore at the "undercard" debate. (FOX News)
- While suggesting community health organizations could serve the same purpose Planned Parenthood does with the same amount of federal funding, Jeb Bush said, “I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.” Hillary Clinton attacked Bush on Twitter, calling his statement “absolutely, unequivocally wrong.” Bush responded, “[W]hat’s absolutely, unequivocally wrong is giving taxpayer $ to an org whose practices show no regard for lives of unborn.” (ABC News, Politico)
- The gap between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is closing in New Hampshire, according to a new WMUR Granite State poll. Clinton leads Sanders 42 percent to 36 percent. Since the poll has a 5.9 percent margin of error, the results were deemed a "statistical tie." (WMUR, The New York Times)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- On Wednesday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Joe Biden would be a “tougher” opponent than Hillary Clinton because Clinton “is easy to define” and has too many issues from her time at the State Department. (NBC News)
- Martin O’Malley said he would “welcome” Biden to the race. “People are looking for alternatives. They don’t like being told who they’re supposed to be voting for, and they don’t like the sinking sense that’s in the air that somehow big money determines who our nominee is going to be,” O’Malley explained. (The State)
Lincoln Chafee
- According to The Washington Examiner, Lincoln Chafee said he was following the campaigning model of Jimmy Carter who “plodded away and talked about the issues he thought were important to him.” Chafee also pointed to Clinton’s declining approval ratings to demonstrate there is an opportunity for him to surge in this presidential race. (The Washington Examiner)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton will not attend the AFL-CIO candidate forum in Iowa on Thursday due to scheduling conflicts. Her four Democratic opponents will be there vying for the labor group’s endorsement. (The Washington Examiner)
- The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the FBI has begun a preliminary investigation into the private email server Clinton used while secretary of state. (The Washington Post)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley said he wanted to abolish the death penalty at the federal level on Tuesday, but declined to directly comment on calls to execute Dylann Roof, the alleged perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting. “I don’t for a second pretend that this is an easy issue. It’s not. But I do know that there’s a difference between criminal justice policies that work to save lives and redeem lives, and policies that don’t work,” O’Malley said. (The State)
Jim Webb
- Iowa Public Radio released on Monday the audio of comments Jim Webb made at the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame in July. Calling the role of commander-in-chief the most important responsibility of the president, Webb highlighted his military service and legislative record on national security issues. (Iowa Public Radio)
- Webb’s Iowa campaign director, Joe Stanley, has received attention for his unfiltered attacks on Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and reporters from the New Yorker and the Huffington Post. (The Washington Post)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- The Wall Street Journal published a profile of Jeb Bush’s years on Wall Street following his last term as governor of Florida in 2007. Bush worked with Lehman and Barclays, promoting the firms to wealthy clients and offering insight into the Washington political machine. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Bush participated in the evangelical Send North America conference on Tuesday. Prior to his speech there, Bush’s campaign released a video called, “The Power of Christianity,” using excerpts from Bush’s 2015 commencement speech at Liberty University. (TIME, YouTube)
Ben Carson
- Ben Carson reiterated his belief on Tuesday that political experience is overrated. “If you look at the collective political experience of everybody in Congress today, it comes out to just under nine thousand years and where has that really gotten us?” Carson said. (Breitbart)
- Asked to comment on whether the use of fetal tissue should be banned in medical research, Carson responded, “I don’t know that it needs to be banned, but it should be made very clear to people that the types of things we’re discovering by using fetal tissue can also be discovered by using non-fetal tissue. So it’s not like it is the only source as they try to make it sound.” (MSNBC)
- In an interview on PBS’ “NewsHour,” Carson recommended privately funded pregnancy centers as an alternative to Planned Parenthood for reproductive health services. (PBS)
- Carson also discussed his immigration policy, saying, “[Y]ou still have 11.5 million people here, some of whom have never been anyplace else. Where are you going to send them to? We have to be pragmatic here. And those people, I would give an opportunity to become guest workers. They have to register. They have to pay a back tax penalty. And they have to pay taxes going forward, but they don’t have to live in the shadows at that point. And also we don’t collapse the farming industry, we don’t collapse the hotel industry and a bunch of other industries. It doesn’t give them citizenship. It doesn’t give them voting rights. If they want to get citizenship, they get in the back of the line and go through the same process as everybody else.” (PBS)
Chris Christie
- At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Chris Christie said E-Verify is the most important element of immigration reform. Christie explained, “I’ve met lots of undocumented folks in my state over the course of my time as governor, and I can tell you not one of them has told me they came here to vote. This path to citizenship stuff is garbage. That’s not why they’re coming. They’re coming to work and to support their family.” (Daily Caller)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz is spending the two days before Thursday’s debate focusing on how to stay on message in such a crowded field. “Part of that preparation has consisted of discussing strategy, what messages we want to convey, what messages other candidates will want to convey and how one communicates with 10 somewhat conflicting messages all on the same stage at the same time. Other portions of it have consisted simply of holding moots, facing tough questions and trying to give the best answer you can,” Cruz said. (The Washington Post)
- Dick and Betty Odgaard have joined Cruz’s Iowa campaign as its “religious liberty ambassadors.” Cruz had previously interviewed the Odgaards in July to discuss the lawsuit against them for declining to host a same-sex couple’s wedding. (The Des Moines Register, YouTube)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina said on Wednesday she was looking forward to the “happy hour” debate with the six other Republican candidates who did not qualify for the primetime debate on August 6. She did question the poll criteria FOX News used, saying, “Well, first of all, these are national polls … national polls measure, among other things, name ID; about 40 percent of Republicans have heard my name, in other words, the vast majority of Republican voters, nevermind Americans, still don’t know who I am, so that’s not unexpected considering I’m not a professional politician.” (Politico)
Lindsey Graham
- Kristan Hawkins, the executive director of Students for Life, criticized Lindsey Graham for skipping the Planned Parenthood vote in the Senate to attend the Voters First Forum on Monday. Graham’s three colleagues in the Senate also running for president all voted on the bill, appearing at the forum via telecast, instead. According to The Washington Examiner, Graham has missed 55 percent of Senate votes since July 1. (The Washington Examiner)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee has scheduled no public appearances in Cleveland prior to Thursday evening's Republican debate. Huckabee said his strategy is to "keep my mind free and loose and just forget the debate for some of the day. I plan to spend some time at the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame." (Cleveland.com)
John Kasich
- After David Hansen, the Ohio state's school choice director and husband to John Kasich’s campaign manager, erased data on charter school performance, Kasich said it was unnecessary to launch a special investigation into the matter since Hansen had resigned. "We don’t tolerate any sort of not open and direct communication about charter schools, and everybody gets it. So that’s kind of the end of it,” Kasich said. (The Columbus Dispatch, The Huffington Post)
Bobby Jindal
- Bobby Jindal withdrew Louisiana’s $300,000 contract with Planned Parenthood, saying, “In recent weeks, it has been shocking to see reports of the alleged activities taking place at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country. Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life.” (The Advocate)
- Jindal joined his Republican competitors in viral video-making on Tuesday night, releasing a nearly 4-minute clip featuring a push-up contest between Jindal, taxes, Obamacare, hyphenated Americans, and his State of the Union response. (CNN, YouTube)
George Pataki
- Appearing on Newsmax TV on Tuesday, George Pataki argued he would be able to build a coalition to defund Planned Parenthood. Pataki said, “I honestly believe I could. I was able with over a 2-1 Democratic state assembly get them to support the most dramatic tax cuts in America, welfare reform, criminal justice reform. It wasn't easy but I was able to put together the coalition. I would work night and day and I believe successfully to get enough Democrats to stand with the Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood.” (Newsmax)
Rand Paul
- Jesse Benton, the head of the pro-Rand Paul super PAC, America’s Liberty PAC, has been indicted for allegedly helping to conceal payments made to Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson (R) in exchange for his endorsement of Ron Paul. Benton has both political and familial ties to the Pauls having married Ron Paul’s granddaughter. (The Huffington Post, National Journal, Politico)
- The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, an outside political nonprofit group, has created an ad set to air after the Republican presidential debate on Thursday suggesting Paul supports the Iran nuclear deal. (The New York Times, YouTube)
Rick Perry
- According to Bloomberg, if the eligibility for the August 6 primetime debate were based on each candidate’s “Selzer Score,” Rick Perry would have easily made the stage. That scoring index weighs first- and second-choice voter selections against which candidates voters say they would ever support. (Bloomberg)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio submitted a pre-recorded video interview to a conference attended by 13,000 evangelicals in Nashville on Tuesday. Discussing same-sex marriage and religious liberty, Rubio said, “We’ve now entered a very tenuous moment in the relationship between church and state in this country. We’re now on the water’s edge of an argument that some have begun that if you do not agree with same-sex marriage or whatever, that you’re actually discriminating against people.” Jeb Bush was the only other presidential candidate to attend. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- Tech executive Larry Ellison donated $3 million to a super PAC supporting Rubio. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Rick Santorum
- Rick Santorum’s communications manager, Matt Beynon, released a statement on Tuesday criticizing the FOX News’ official line-up for the first Republican presidential debate. “The idea that they have left out the runner-up for the 2012 nomination, the former four-term governor of Texas, the governor of Louisiana, the first female Fortune 50 CEO, and the 3-term Senator from South Carolina due to polling seven months before a single vote is cast is preposterous,” Beynon said. (NBC News)
Donald Trump
- Speaking about Thursday’s debate in an interview with Breitbart on Tuesday, Donald Trump said, “I hope we can keep it on a high level. If that doesn’t happen, I’m willing to go to the other route. But I will say the two people who hit me really hard both went down in the polls.” (Breitbart)
- According to a new online survey from NBC News and SurveyMonkey, Trump is primarily receiving support from white evangelicals, men, seniors and voters with a high school education or less. Trump performs well across other demographic groups except for Hispanics, where he falls behind Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. (NBC News)
- According to FOX News’ Megyn Kelly, the network has “a plan” to handle Trump if he doesn’t follow the rules. “Everybody is going to know all the rules going in; there is going to be a sound at the end of their time — it won’t be a pleasant sound,” Kelly’s fellow debate moderator Bret Baier said. (The Blaze)
Scott Walker
- Unintimidated PAC has purchased $7 million of ad time on television and radio in Iowa to boost Scott Walker's profile in the state beginning early September. “This is the first phase of telling his story — a conservative governor from a blue state who has challenged the status quo, fought the entrenched special interests and enacted conservative reforms to reform government from the bottom up — to voters in early states who are looking for a fighter who does more than make promises,” Brad Dayspring, a senior advisor, said. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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
