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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 7, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Friday's Leading Stories
- Donald Trump drew the ire of party members when he refused to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, whoever that might be, at the start of the Republican debate on Thursday night. “I cannot say I have to respect the person that, if it’s not me, the person that wins. If I do win, and I’m leading by quite a bit, that’s what I want to do. I can totally make that pledge. If I’m the nominee, I will pledge I will not run as an independent. But — and I am discussing it with everybody, but I’m, you know, talking about a lot of leverage. We want to win, and we will win. But I want to win as the Republican. I want to run as the Republican nominee,” Trump said. (CNN)
- According to an insiders poll conducted by Ballotpedia, Marco Rubio was the “biggest winner” of the night and Donald Trump fared the worst. “[Trump] alienated people on the very first question. He showed this is all about him. He is more concerned about himself than our party or beating Clinton,” one Republican Party operative said. (Ballotpedia)
- The Washington Post analyzed which candidates received the most airtime during Thursday night’s debate. Donald Trump topped the list with 10.5 minutes followed by Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Rand Paul spoke the least with only five minutes of airtime. (The Washington Post)
- In the undercard debate, Carly Fiorina was widely considered the standout Republican candidate. According to Breitbart, Fiorina “dominated the debate. Not only did she best articulate the critical “vision” necessary to run for office, she also handled herself very well on a wide range of issues. Her command of national security and foreign policy, detailing a specific list where the Obama Administration has failed our allies in the Middle East, was particularly impressive.” (The Hill, The Huffington Post, Politico, Breitbart)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- According to a Rasmussen Reports survey released on Thursday, 40 percent of likely Democratic voters want Joe Biden to run for president. When expanded to all likely voters, 36 percent believe Biden should run. (Rasmussen Reports)
Lincoln Chafee
- Speaking at the Iowa Federation of Labor Presidential Forum on Thursday, Lincoln Chafee expressed support for immigration reform legislation first drafted in 2005 by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). He also argued for stronger trade rules to protect labor and the environment and noted that an increase in the minimum wage should allow for some deviation in urban and rural areas. (The Des Moines Register, The Washington Post)
- Chafee also discussed his education policy, approving the Head Start and federal Pell grant programs. He recommended the cost of higher education be reformed through low-interest loans and alternative pathways, such as the Peace Corps. (The Daily Signal)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton is expected to introduce her student loan reform policy on Monday. According to Politico, the plan will “create an incentive system for states to increase their investments in higher education — a commitment to increasing public college funding would trigger further investment from the federal government, reducing tuition overall and, more specifically, the portion financed by the student.” (Politico)
- Although several congressional committees are mulling investigations into Clinton’s alleged mishandling of classified information while using a private email server, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has requested they wait until the Select Committee on Benghazi has completed its work. “The reality is that it doesn’t make sense for four different committees to request the same information from the administration that has a record of slow walking crucial information because that could undermine the Select Committee from getting the information it needs. Instead, it’s better for the Select Committee to get its information and then we can make strategic decisions about other committees’ document requests,” a House leadership aide said. (Politico)
- In a radio interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on Thursday, Clinton said she didn’t need to watch the Republican debate “[t]o know that nearly everybody standing on that stage in the first or the second debate has either actively sought to limit the right to vote in their states or supported the efforts to limit the right to vote if they were not governors, but in the Congress." Earlier in the day, Clinton had released a statement promoting the restoration of key sections of the Voting Rights Act and an enlarged voting period. (NBC News, Hillary for America)
- Lindsey Graham suggested Clinton changed her position on Parenthood because she believes Joe Biden is going to enter the race. “Last week [Clinton] said, 'These videos were very disturbing.' This week she said, 'I stand firmly with Planned Parenthood.' Translated: She thinks Joe Biden's running — that's why she flipped. I think he's gonna run, if she doesn't up her game." (NBC News)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday while speaking at the Iowa Federation of Labor Presidential Forum. “Our trade deals should not be designed to create a greased chute to send jobs abroad,” O’Malley said. (The Washington Post)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders appeared at the Iowa Federation of Labor Presidential Forum via video conference on Thursday. He reiterated his support for increasing the minimum wage to $15 and emphasized how a single-payer system would allow people greater mobility in their job choices. “You don't have to work at a job you don't like. If you're a small-business owner, you don't have to spend half your life worrying about how you're going to provide health care to your business, to your workers,” Sanders said. (The Des Moines Register, The Washington Post)
- Sanders live-tweeted the August 6, 2015, Republican debate, calling out individual candidates for their position on repealing Obamacare and taxing the wealthy. (The Huffington Post)
Jim Webb
- Jim Webb spoke at the Iowa Federation of Labor Presidential Forum on Thursday where he showed his support for organized labor and existing laws regulating unions. “The labor movement is not your enemy. It is the best friend you have,” Webb said. (The Des Moines Register)
Republicans
The following selection of quotes comes from transcripts of Thursday night’s Republican presidential debates prepared by The Washington Post and TIME.
Jeb Bush
- On the Bush political dynasty: “I’m gonna have to earn this. Maybe the barrier — the bar’s even higher for me. That’s fine. I’ve got a record in Florida. I’m proud of my dad, and I’m certainly proud of my brother. In Florida, they called me Jeb, because I earned it.”
- On education: “I don’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content. It is clearly a state responsibility. I’m for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way, with abundant school choice, ending social promotion. And I know how to do this because as governor of the state of Florida I created the first statewide voucher program in the country, the second statewide voucher program, in the country and the third statewide voucher program in the country.”
Ben Carson
- On Hillary Clinton and Democrats: “If Hillary is the candidate, which I doubt, that would be a dream come true. But you know, the fact of the matter is, she is the epitome of the progressive — the secular progressive movement. And she counts on the fact that people are uninformed, the Alinsky Model, taking advantage of useful idiots. Well, I just happen to believe that people are not stupid. And the way I will come at it is to educate people, help people to actually understand that it is that progressive movement that is causing them the problems.”
- On race relations: “Well, I think the bully pulpit is a wonderful place to start healing that divide. You know, we have the purveyors of hatred who take every single incident between people of two races and try to make a race war out of it, and drive wedges into people. And this does not need to be done. What we need to think about instead — you know, I was asked by an NPR reporter once, why don’t I talk about race that often. I said it’s because I’m a neurosurgeon. And she thought that was a strange response. And you say — I said, you see, when I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are. The hair doesn’t make them who they are. And it’s time for us to move beyond that.”
Chris Christie
- On Rand Paul accusing him of giving a “big hug” to President Obama: “Senator Paul, you know, the hugs that I remember are the hugs that I gave to the families who lost their people on September 11th. Those are the hugs I remember, and those had nothing to do — and those had nothing to do with politics, unlike what you’re doing by cutting speeches on the floor of the Senate, then putting them on the Internet within half an hour to raise money for your campaign.”
- On his leadership style: “I’m a conservative, pro-life governor in a state where it is really tough to be both. A state like New Jersey, with lots of Democrats, but still we cut taxes, we balanced budgets. We fought the teacher’s union. This president has had weak leadership, which has led to bad choices. We have got to stop worrying about being loved and start worrying about being respected. And that’s exactly how I’ll lead our country.”
Ted Cruz
- On being a Washington outsider: “I believe the American people are looking for someone to speak the truth. If you’re looking for someone to go to Washington, to go along to get along, to get — to agree with the career politicians in both parties who get in bed with the lobbyists and special interests, then I ain’t your guy.”
- On defeating ISIS: “We will not defeat radical Islamic terrorism so long as we have a president unwilling to utter the words, ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ When I asked General Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs, what would be required militarily to destroy ISIS, he said there is no military solution. We need to change the conditions on the ground so that young men are not in poverty and susceptible to radicalization. That, with all due respect, is nonsense. It’s the same answer the State Department gave that we need to give them jobs. What we need is a commander in chief that makes — clear, if you join ISIS, if you wage jihad on America, then you are signing your death warrant.”
Carly Fiorina
- On national security: “I think to be commander in chief in the 21st century requires someone who understands how the economy works, someone who understands how the world works and who's in it; I know more world leaders on the stage today than anyone running, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton; understands bureaucracies, how to cut them down to size and hold them accountable; and understands technology, which is a tool, but it's also a weapon that's being used against us.”
- On Donald Trump: “I didn't get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race. Did any of you get a phone call from Bill Clinton? I didn't. Maybe it's because I hadn't given money to the foundation or donated to his wife's Senate campaign. … I would also just say this. Since he has changed his mind on amnesty, on health care and on abortion, I would just ask, what are the principles by which he will govern?”
- On public and private sharing of data: “We need to be very well aware of the fact that China and Russia are using technology to attack us, just as ISIS is using technology to recruit those who would murder American citizens. I do not believe that we need to wholesale destroy every American citizen's privacy in order to go after those that we know are suspect or are -- are already a problem. But yes, there is more collaboration required between private sector companies and the public sector. And specifically, we know that we could have detected and repelled some of these cyber attacks if that collaboration had been permitted.”
Jim Gilmore
- On taxes: “We're going to do a tax cut for all Americans. We're going to have a three-bracket tax code, 10, 15 and 25 percent. We're going to combine all commercial activity in business into one place in the tax code and charge it 15 percent, which is going to suddenly make us competitive with the rest of the world. And we're going to eliminate the death tax.”
- On the Supreme Court: “I believe we should be appointing Supreme Court justices who will follow the law and not try to make the law. Now, the challenge we're seeing today is that the Supreme Court is being converted into some type of political body. They have to have some legal basis and precedence for being able to follow the law instead of making the law up, and my goal is -- in appointing Supreme Court justices, would be to point -- to appoint justices who would follow the law.”
Lindsey Graham
- On energy independence: “When it comes to fossil fuels, we're going to find more here and use less. Over time, we're going to become energy independent. I am tired of sending $300 billion overseas to buy oil."
Mike Huckabee
- On abortion: “A lot of people are talking about defunding Planned Parenthood, as if that’s a huge game changer. I think it’s time to do something even more bold. I think the next president ought to invoke the Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution now that we clearly know that that baby inside the mother’s womb is a person at the moment of conception.”
- On the growth of the federal government: “It’s not too big to shrink. But the problem is we have a Wall Street-to-Washington access of power that has controlled the political climate. The donor class feeds the political class who does the dance that the donor class wants. And the result is federal government keeps getting bigger.”
- On Social Security: “Now, here’s the point, whose fault is it that the system is screwed up? Is it the recipients, or is it the government? And, if Congress wants to mess with the retirement program, why don’t we let them start by changing their retirement program, and not have one, instead of talking about getting rid of Social Security and Medicare that was robbed $700 billion dollars to pay for Obamacare. It’s always that the government figures that they can do this off the backs of people, many of whom are poor, and depend on that money, and I just think it’s fundamentally lying to people and stealing from them, and we shouldn’t be doing it.”
John Kasich
- On same-sex marriage: “Well, look, I’m an old-fashioned person here, and I happen to believe in traditional marriage. But I’ve also said the court has ruled … I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do, doesn’t mean that I can’t care about them or can’t love them. So if one of my daughters happened to be [gay], of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because you know what? That’s what we’re taught when we have strong faith.”
Bobby Jindal
- On defeating ISIS: “How can we beat an enemy if our commander-in-chief doesn't have the moral honesty and clarity to say that Islam has a problem, and that problem is radical Islam, to say they've got to condemn not generic acts of violence, but the individual murderers who are committing these acts of violence. We've got a president who instead says, we're going to change hearts and minds. Well, you know what? Sometimes you win a war by killing murderous, evil terrorists. We're going to take the political handcuffs off the military. We will arm and train the Kurds. We will work with our Sunni allies. They know we will be committed to victory.”
- On Democrats and entitlement reform: “Give Bernie Sanders credit. At least he's honest enough to call himself a socialist. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, they're no better. If we were to expand Medicaid, for every uninsured person we would cover, we'd kick more than one person out of private insurance or remove their opportunity to get private insurance. We're going to have too many people in the cart rather than pulling the cart. This isn't free money. … I don't think anybody should be expanding Medicaid. I think it's a mistake to create new and more expensive entitlement programs when we can't afford the ones we've got today. We've got to stop this culture of government dependence.”
- On Planned Parenthood: “Planned Parenthood had better hope that Hillary Clinton wins this election, because I guarantee under President Jindal, January 2017, the Department of Justice and the IRS and everybody else that we can send from the federal government will be going in to Planned Parenthood. This is absolutely disgusting, and revolts the conscience of the nation. Absolutely, we need to defund Planned Parenthood. In my own state, for example, we launched an investigation, asked the FBI to cooperate.
George Pataki
- On freedom of speech and radical indoctrination: “Religious liberty doesn't include encouraging a fellow American to engage in violent jihad and kill an American here. That is not protected free speech. That is not protected religious belief. … We have to shut down their internet capability. We have to shut down, whether or not they're in prisons preaching or on -- in mosques preaching. No radical Islam that is allowed to engage in encouraging violence against Americans, that is not protected speech.”
- On abortion: “My heart has not changed, because I've always been appalled by abortion. I'm a Catholic, I believe life begins at conception. But as Bill said earlier, Roe v. Wade, it's has been the law for 42 years, and I don't think we should continue to try to change it. But we can do is defund Planned Parenthood, and by the way, put in place an absolute permanent ban on any taxpayer dollars ever being used to fund abortions.”
Rand Paul
- On privacy and national security: “I want to collect more records from terrorists, but less records from innocent Americans. The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over! John Adams said it was the spark that led to our war for independence, and I’m proud of standing for the Bill of Rights, and I will continue to stand for the Bill of Rights.”
- On the Iran nuclear deal: “I oppose the Iranian deal, and will vote against it. I don’t think that the president negotiated from a position of strength, but I don’t immediately discount negotiations. I’m a Reagan conservative. Reagan did negotiate with the Soviets. But you have to negotiate from a position of strength, and I think President Obama gave away too much, too early.
- On personal liberty: “Look, I don’t want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington. And if people have an opinion, it’s a religious opinion that is heartly felt, obviously they should be allowed to practice that and no government should interfere with them. One of the things, one of the things that really got to me was the thing in Houston where you had the government, the mayor actually, trying to get the sermons of ministers. When the government tries to invade the church to enforce its own opinion on marriage, that’s when it’s time to resist.”
- On reducing foreign aid: “Each one of my budgets has taken a meat axe to foreign aid, because I think we ought to quit sending it to countries that hate us. I think we ought to quit sending it to countries that burn our flag. Israel is not one of those. But even Benjamin Netanyahu said that ultimately, they will be stronger when they’re independent. My position is exactly the same. We shouldn’t borrow money from China to send it anywhere, but why don’t we start with eliminating aid to our enemies.”
Rick Perry
- On Donald Trump: “One thing I like to remind people is, back in 2007, Rudy Giuliani was leading the polls for almost a year. I'll suggest a part of that was his celebrity. Fred Thompson was the other one, a man who had spent a lot of time on that screen. I've had my issues with Donald Trump. I talked about Donald Trump from the standpoint of being an individual who was using his celebrity rather than his conservatism.”
- On the Iran nuclear deal: “We need to be on the side that keeps Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. That's the side we need to be on, and that's the side of the bulk of the -- of the Middle East. … I will tell you one thing. I would a whole lot rather had Carly Fiorina over there doing our negotiation than John Kerry. Maybe we would've gotten a deal where we didn't give everything away.”
Marco Rubio
- On Hillary Clinton: “I would add to that that this election cannot be a resume competition. It’s important to be qualified, but if this election is a resume competition, then Hillary Clinton’s gonna be the next president, because she’s been in office and in government longer than anybody else running here tonight. Here’s what this election better be about: This election better be about the future, not the past.”
- On immigration: “And let me tell you who never gets talked about in these debates. The people that call my office, who have been waiting for 15 years to come to the United States. And they’ve paid their fees, and they hired a lawyer, and they can’t get in. And they’re wondering, maybe they should come illegally. And so these are important issues, and we should address it. It’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed, and otherwise we’re going to keep talking about this for the next 30 years, like we have for the last 30 years.”
- On education: “Here’s the problem with Common Core. The Department of Education, like every federal agency, will never be satisfied. They will not stop with it being a suggestion. They will turn it into a mandate. In fact, what they will begin to say to local communities is, you will not get federal money unless do you things the way we want you to do it. And they will use Common Core or any other requirements that exists nationally to force it down the throats of our people in our states.”
- On abortion: “I believe that every single human being is entitled to the protection of our laws, whether they can vote or not. Whether they can speak or not. Whether they can hire a lawyer or not. Whether they have a birth certificate or not. And I think future generations will look back at this history of our country and call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies who we never gave them a chance to live.”
Rick Santorum
- On entitlement reform: “What we need to do is take the rest of the federal entitlements, not just welfare, but food stamps and Medicaid and housing programs and do the same thing we did with welfare. Work requirements and time limits. That will change everything.”
- On religious liberty: “[T]he First Amendment Defense Act, which is protecting religious liberty, if it's not passed by then, which I suspect it won't, because the president will veto it, I will institute an executive order to make sure that people of faith are not being -- not being harassed and persecuted by the federal government for standing up for the religious beliefs.”
Donald Trump
- On insulting women and political correctness:“I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. … And frankly, what I say, and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding. We have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly Megyn [Kelly], if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.”
- On donating money to Hillary Clinton: “Well, I’ll tell you what, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why? She didn’t have a choice because I gave. I gave to a foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn’t know her money would be used on private jets going all over the world. It was.”
Scott Walker
- On the Iran nuclear deal: “I still remember, as a kid, tying a yellow ribbon around a tree in front of my house during the 444 days that Iran held 52 Americans hostage. Iran is not a place we should be doing business with. To me, you terminate the deal on day one, you reinstate the sanctions authorized by Congress, you go to Congress and put in place even more crippling sanctions in place, and then you convince our allies to do the same. This is not just bad with Iran, this is bad with ISIS. It is tied together, and, once and for all, we need a leader who’s gonna stand up and do something about it. It’s yet another example of the failed foreign policy of the Obama-Clinton doctrine.
- On Hillary Clinton: “[I]t’s sad to think right now, but probably the Russian and Chinese government know more about Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server than do the members of the United States Congress.”
- On Russia: “You know, Putin believes in the old Lenin adage: you probe with bayonets. When you find mush, you push. When you find steel, you stop. Under Obama and Clinton, we found a lot of mush over the last two years. We need to have a national security that puts steel in front of our enemies. I would send weapons to Ukraine. I would work with NATO to put forces on the eastern border of Poland and the Baltic nations, and I would reinstate, put in place back in the missile defense system that we had in Poland and in the Czech Republic.”
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
