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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - December 14, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Monday's Leading Stories
- In a statement on Friday, Ben Carson threatened to leave the Republican Party if the party’s leadership met again to discuss using a brokered convention to guide the outcome of the primary election. “If this was the beginning of a plan to subvert the will of the voters and replaces it with the will of the political elite, I assure you Donald Trump will not be the only one leaving the party,” Carson wrote. In an interview on Fox News later in the day, Carson clarified that he would not run as a third-party candidate. (Talking Points Memo, Fox News)
- CNN announced the lineup for the final Republican debate of the year on Sunday. Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump qualified for Tuesday’s primetime debate. Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki and Rick Santorum are scheduled to participate in the undercard debate. Jim Gilmore did not qualify for either. (CNN)
- Poll: In a poll of likely Republican voters in Iowa released by Bloomberg and The Des Moines Register on Saturday, Ted Cruz led Donald Trump by 10 points, 31 percent to 21 percent. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio followed with 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively. (Bloomberg)
- Poll: Another Iowa poll from Fox News found Cruz leading the Republican field with 28 percent. Trump and Rubio came next with 26 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Chris Anderson, a Fox News pollster, said, “This is Trump’s challenge in Iowa. Those who are definitely going to caucus are less likely to support him, so he needs to motivate people to attend who may not usually do so.” On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton led Bernie Sanders by 14 points with 50 percent support. (Fox News)
- Poll: Trump sat atop the Republican field with 27 percent support in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday. Cruz, who has more than doubled his support, followed with 22 percent. (NBC News)
- Poll: In head-to-head matchups, Clinton would defeat Trump by 10 points and Cruz by 3 points, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Monday. Rubio and Carson, however, would beat Clinton by 3 points and 1 point, respectively. (The Hill)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) is expected to endorse Hillary Clinton on Monday. He will publish an op-ed on the Univision website and begin to stump for Clinton in key early voting states to “get out the Hispanic vote.” (Chicago Sun-Times)
- The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a conservative watchdog group, is expected to file a complaint on Monday with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to request the agency investigate whether Clinton “gave a private company special access to the State Department based upon the company’s relationships with Secretary Clinton’s family members and donors to the Clinton Foundation.” (TIME)
- In response to the Paris Agreement adopted on Saturday, Clinton released the following statement, in part: “I applaud President Obama, Secretary Kerry and our negotiating team for helping deliver a new, ambitious international climate agreement in Paris. This is an historic step forward in meeting one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century—the global crisis of climate change. … We cannot afford to be slowed by the climate skeptics or deterred by the defeatists who doubt America’s ability to meet this challenge.” (Hillary Clinton for President)
- Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Clinton, has sent customized “Make America Great Again” trucker hats to several Republican candidates. Each hat is customized with an additional phrase relevant to that candidate’s position on the Syrian refugee crisis. These include “prove your Christianity,” “no Muslim presidents,” “no orphan refugees” and “close mosques and diners.” (CNN)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley became the first 2016 presidential candidate to visit a mosque on Friday. “In these times where fear and division is in the air, it is easy for unscrupulous politicians or hate preachers—no nation is immune from the scourge of hate preachers—to turn us upon ourselves. That sort of language that you hear from Donald Trump is not the language of America’s future…my Muslim neighbors make America strong,” O’Malley said. (Quartz)
- According to The Washington Times, although O’Malley has held 130 events in less than 50 days in Iowa, he continues to struggle in polls there, registering only 4 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll. “This really is the biggest question of the campaign: Why isn’t O'Malley doing better? He’s articulate, he’s a nice guy, he’s good on the issues, he’s got a good track record, and he’s got everything you would think it would take to compete at a much more successful level than what he’s done,” state Sen. Tony Bisignano (D) said. (The Washington Times)
Bernie Sanders
- In a press release on Saturday, Bernie Sanders said the Paris Agreement on climate change “goes nowhere near far enough” to address carbon emissions. “The planet is in crisis. We need bold action in the very near future and this does not provide that. In the United States we have a Republican Party which is much more interested in contributions from the fossil fuel industry than they care about the future of the planet. That is true all over the globe. We’ve got to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fight for national and international legislation that transforms our energy system away from fossil fuel as quickly as possible,” said Sanders. (Bernie Sanders for President)
- Sanders’ campaign discontinued an online ad on Saturday that featured a list of corporate donors that have supported Hillary Clinton. Michael Briggs, a spokesman for the campaign, said there had been “a miscommunication in our communications shop” and that they “haven’t been doing ads that mention Hillary Clinton.” (The Washington Post)
Republicans
- According to Julie Pace of the Associated Press, Republican Party leadership is considering having former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) or Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) help narrow the presidential field if it does not shrink after the New Hampshire primary. “Two of the names I heard a lot about were Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, not to run, but to essentially to have a come-to-Jesus conversation with these candidates and come up with a process for winnowing down that part of the field,” Pace said. (CNN)
- Poll: In a Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll of likely Republican voters in Georgia released on Friday, Donald Trump registered a commanding lead with 43 percent. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio came in second and third with 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively. (WSB-TV)
Jeb Bush
- In a radio interview on Friday, Jeb Bush said he supported the decriminalization of marijuana, but opposed legalization. “Marijuana is a gateway drug just as opiates are a gateway drug. … The new heroin and the new marijuana are highly, highly toxic,” he said, adding it was “a state issue” rather than a federal one. (Marijuana.com)
- Bush said on Friday that Donald Trump’s plan to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. “doesn’t make sense” if it also means banning groups like the Kurds, as well. He said, “I think we should have a temporary ban on refugees coming here until it's clear that there aren't terrorists embedded. But, if a Kurd wanted to come to this country, the strongest supporters of the United States in the region that are Muslim, I'm not sure that's an appropriate thing, or an Indonesian. Blanket coverage of all Muslims doesn't make sense." He continued, "We need safe havens inside of Syria. The best refugee solution is to make sure they don't leave, to give them safe harbor and build a Sunni-led force in Syria to mobilize support with the Arab world to take out ISIS." (Talking Points Memo)
- Bush said on Friday that Trump was not genuinely motivated to win the presidential election and that his behavior was guaranteeing Clinton would. He said, “I don’t know how else to describe it. He’s motivated for some reason, but he’s not motivated to win the presidency. … He would make it impossible for a Republican to win if he continues down this path.” Bush added, “People have kind of forgotten that he was a Democrat not so long ago, that he supported Hillary Clinton, that he thought Hillary Clinton would be a good negotiator with Iran. That turned out to be great, wasn’t it?” (CBS Boston)
Ben Carson
- In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News on Sunday, Ben Carson said he did not support “following [Muslims] around with the FBI,” but rather “monitoring” them through screening questions. When Stephanopoulos expressed incredulity that a terrorist would admit anything when questioned, Carson responded, “Well, again, we're going to have to be a little smarter. I mean, you've probably seen some of the questions that they ask in the screening: have you ever been a terrorist, are you planning a terrorist attack, you know, have you been trained with tactical -- give me a break. I mean, you know, we have to -- why don't we go to the Israelis and ask them how they do it? Why do we have to reinvent the wheel.” (ABC News)
- In response to Ted Cruz’s suggestion that Carson may not have the right “judgment” to be president, Carson said on Sunday, “There's no question as I haven't spent a lot of time schmoozing and asking for big money and going to cocktail parties, but I've spent many a night in the operating room -- cold, sterile place with a little child's life on the line working very hard to preserve that. You know, it's a very different kind of experience. Lots of 2 a.m. in the morning calls and making snap decisions on what needs to be done." (CNN)
Chris Christie
- In an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Chris Christie said that Ted Cruz has “made the country weaker” by opposing the National Security Agency’s collection of metadata from phone records. He also criticized Marco Rubio for being inexperienced, saying, “He's not ready to be president, he's a first-term U.S. senator, we just went through that. You can't do on-the-job training with the presidency." (Associated Press)
- Christie said on Sunday that he hopes the Federal Reserve will decide to raise interest rates when it meets this week. “They've been playing politics with it. I would hope they would get above it and do what makes fiscal sense for our country,” he said. (Newsmax)
Ted Cruz
- After several media outlets reported that Ted Cruz and Donald Trump would begin attacking one another after Cruz’s comments at a fundraiser questioning Trump’s judgment, Cruz tweeted, “The Establishment's only hope: Trump & me in a cage match. Sorry to disappoint – @realDonaldTrump is terrific. #DealWithIt.” After Trump called him “a little bit of a maniac” for his conduct in the Senate, Cruz tweeted a video of “Maniac” from Flashdance “in honor” of Trump on Sunday. (Slate, Newsmax)
- Cruz, who has frequently expressed his love for Star Wars, released an app over the weekend that allows his supporters to compete for tickets to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens on opening night by supporting Cruz through social media. (ABC News)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina said on Friday that she has no intention of leaving the Republican Party as Ben Carson has threatened to do. “No, I’m not going to threaten to leave the party, because I actually am a Republican,” she said. Fiorina continued, “If no one goes into the convention with enough votes to be declared the winner, then it is a brokered convention. So you could make the case that a brokered convention does reflect the will of the people. So I was a little confused by his statement, honestly." (The Huffington Post)
- On Friday, Fiorina debated CNN anchor Chris Cuomo about the consequences of saying that there was video footage of a Planned Parenthood technician discussing how to harvest fetal tissue from an aborted fetus with “its heart beating” and “legs kicking.” After asking Fiorina if she felt any “regret” following the Colorado shooting at Planned Parenthood, Cuomo said, "You're saying that the raw portions of the videos substantiate the claims that you and others made. That has not been proven to any satisfaction in any objective way. There were scenes and pictures depicting horrible things that nobody should want to see that weren't authentic. … No [sic] you have somebody who went out and killed in the name of that.” Fiorina responded, “Chris, careful, you're a journalist. I don't recall anybody in the pro-life community celebrating this tragedy ... I think you've bought the Planned Parenthood line hook, line, and sinker. So, good to know that." (Business Insider)
Jim Gilmore
- On Friday, Jim Gilmore criticized Donald Trump for “talking like a fascist.” He said, “I was appalled about what he was saying about the Hispanic community. Now today he is trying to scapegoat Muslims. And trying to say all kinds of unconstitutional things…you cannot direct your anger toward people—that is fascist talk.” (Breitbart)
- The Roanoke Times reported on Saturday that Gilmore has stated he is planning to remain in the presidential race despite poor poll numbers. “I ain’t going anywhere. I intend to be the president of the United States,” Gilmore said. (Roanoke Times)
Lindsey Graham
- In an interview on Friday, Graham said that Trump was performing well in polls because “there’s about 40 percent of the Republican primary voter who believes that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim.” He continued, “There’s just a dislike for President Obama that is visceral. It’s almost irrational.” (The Hill)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee criticized President Obama on Friday after it was reported that he had not notified Congress about negotiations to trade Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders in 2014. Huckabee said in an interview with Breitbart, “Obama’s public relations crusade for radical Islam is infuriating and more than that, it’s extremely dangerous. The America [sic] people deserve more than this wide-eyed, Cub Scout Commander-in-Chief. It’s actions like these that make many Americans wonder, Whose side is President Obama on?’” (Breitbart)
John Kasich
- The Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio filed for a preliminary injunction on Sunday to prevent Ohio health officials “from interfering with its services.” The health organization took this preemptive action after Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced on Friday that his office had conducted an investigation showing “that Planned Parenthood -- or the biomedical companies working with the health organization -- dispose of aborted fetal parts in landfills.” John Kasich defended DeWine, saying, “The attorney general has done thorough work and his findings are disturbing. I've tasked the Ohio Department of Health to work with the attorney general to take appropriate legal action. This investigation shows the need for further work with the Ohio General Assembly to reign in Planned Parenthood, while continuing to ensure access to vital health care services for women." (CNN)
- On Sunday, Kasich said he understood why some Americans were “upset” with and “suspicious” of the government, but that he did not believe non-establishment candidate Donald Trump would become president. He said, “I get these people, who are upset, I understand why they are upset. I grew up in a community where people were always suspicious of the government, or thinks that they didn't deliver things, but we've got to stay calm and we have got to stay calm and unite ourselves. Trump is not going to be president, it is not going to happen.” (RealClearPolitics)
George Pataki
- George Pataki traveled to Puerto Rico on Thursday to file for the Republican primary there in person. In an interview with Metro Puerto Rico, Pataki said he would send legislation to Congress in his first year as president to grant Puerto Rico statehood. (Metro Puerto Rico: This article was originally published in Spanish.)
Rand Paul
- On Saturday, Rand Paul said that if he did not qualify for the primetime Republican debate on CNN this week, he would make an announcement on Tuesday whether he planned to remain in the presidential race. A spokesman later said that Paul was actually referring to whether he would participate in the undercard debate. (The Boston Globe)
- During a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday, Paul questioned his Republican opponents’ desire to increase funding for military spending. He said, “How can you be fiscally conservative when you want to add $1 trillion of new military spending? … I’m pretty strong on national defense, but we can’t become stronger from bankruptcy court. How do we project strength, how is it strong as a country to get further and further mired in debt?” (New Hampshire Union Leader)
- Paul said in an interview on Friday that a brokered convention designed to prevent an outsider candidate from winning the Republican nomination will “destroy the party.” He said that “if [Republican voters] see their will thwarted through the primary process, I think you’re gonna find that, uh, there’ll be a war declared. But it’ll be a war that the establishment has decided to declare on the grassroots and it’s gonna be a real problem.” (BuzzFeed)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. was “partially” motivated by a desire “to recapture the limelight after having lost it.” He added that cooperation between the U.S. government and Muslims is necessary ”to identify homegrown violent extremism and prevent it or root it out before it takes action.” (NBC News)
- In an interview on Sunday, Rubio pushed back on Ted Cruz’s national security policy, saying, “He talks tough on some of these issues. For example, he was going to carpet bomb ISIS. But the only budget he's ever voted for in his time in the Senate is a budget that cut defense spending by more than Barack Obama proposes we cut it.” He added that Cruz has voted against the Defense Authorization Act. Rubio said, “That's the bill that funds our troops. Even the Iron Dome for Israel. So I guess my point is each time he's had to choose between strong national defense and some of the isolationist tendencies in American politics, he seems to side with the isolationist. And this is an important issue to have a debate over. It's not personal." (CNN)
- Rubio announced on Friday more than 60 endorsements from Republican Party leaders in Virginia. Among them are state Sen. Bryce Reeves (R), state House Majority Leader Kirk Cox (R) and state Del. Kathy Byron (R), who will co-chair Rubio’s campaign in Virginia. (The Washington Post)
- On Sunday, Rubio argued that the Constitution does not give “the federal government the power to regulate marriage.” He said, “I don't believe any case law is settled law. Any future Supreme Court can change it. And ultimately, I will appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as originally constructed," (The Huffington Post)
Rick Santorum
- Rick Santorum said on Friday that Ben Carson should “stand up there and fight” for his convictions instead of threatening to leave the Republican Party over a potential brokered convention. “This is a time to fight, not to talk about 'if they don't treat me right, I'm going to leave,’” Santorum said. He added, “We had the state of Michigan when the state party actually changed the rules the day after the primary to take a delegate away from me. I've seen all this before." (Newsmax)
Donald Trump
- Anonymous, the hacker activist collective, announced it would target Donald Trump following his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. On Friday, the Trump Tower New York website briefly “suffered an outage,” which Anonymous claimed credit for. (CBS News)
- Alwaleed Bin Talal, the richest man in Saudi Arabia, said on Friday that Trump was a “disgrace” to the Republican Party and the United States. He tweeted, “Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win.” Trump responded, “@Alwaleed_Talal wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy’s money. Can’t do it when I get elected.” (Politico)
- At a town hall on Saturday, Trump criticized Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for upholding the Affordable Care Act. Trump said, “What he did to Obamacare was disgraceful and I think he did it because he wanted to be popular in the beltway or something, because he did it the first time, and should have never done it and that would have killed it.” Trump added that Justice Clarence Thomas was “highly underrated.” (ABC News)
- Trump said Clinton was responsible for the deaths of “hundreds of thousands of people” because of her actions while secretary of state. “You look at what she did with Libya, what she did with Syria. Look at Egypt, what happened with Egypt, a total mess. They don't back—we don't back any of our allies. You look, she was truly, if not 'the,' one of the worst secretary of states in the history of the country. She talks about me being dangerous. She's killed hundreds of thousands of people with her stupidity,” Trump said. (Slate)
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
