Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - February 8, 2016
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Monday's Leading Stories
- The Des Moines Register reported on Saturday that results from the Iowa caucuses were being reviewed by Iowa Democratic Party officials. “Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have flagged a very small number of concerns for us, and we are looking at them all on a case-by-case basis,” said Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Sam Lau. (Des Moines Register)
- Former NAACP President Ben Jealous officially endorsed Bernie Sanders on Friday. Jealous stated regarding his endorsement, “I recall the words of the late great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. And that brings me to why I'm here today. Bernie Sanders has been a principled, courageous, insistent fighter against the evils that Dr. King referred to as the giant triplets of racism, militarism and greed.” (Politico)
- The eighth Republican debate took place on Saturday evening. This debate received the highest viewership of any debate so far in 2016, with an average audience of 13.2 million during the time it aired. Comments made by candidates during the debate can be viewed under their individual headings below. (CNN Money)
Polls
- American Research Group tracking polls released over the weekend showed Sanders ahead of Clinton 53 to 41 on Saturday and 53 to 42 on Sunday. The Republican counterparts of the poll showed Donald Trump leading steadily at 34 percent support, with Rubio and Kasich tying for second at 17 percent support on Sunday. Rubio gained one percent from Saturday to Sunday, moving from 16 to 17 percent. (American Research Group: Republican polls, Democratic polls)
- University of Massachusetts Lowell/7News tracking polls released on Saturday and Sunday had Sanders beating Clinton 55 to 41 in the Saturday release and 57 to 40 in the Sunday release. The Republican portions of the polls had Trump leading at 35 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday. Rubio and Kasich came in second at 14 and 9 percent, respectively. Kasich lost one percent from Saturday to Sunday, moving from 10 to 9 percent support. (Saturday poll, Sunday Poll)
- A CNN/WMUR poll released on Sunday placed Sanders in the lead at 58, compared to Clinton’s 35 percent. The Republican counterpart of the poll had Trump leading with 33 percent, followed by Rubio at 16 percent support. (CNN)
- Monmouth University released a poll on Sunday that showed Sanders leading Clinton 52 to 42 percent. The Republican portion of the poll had Trump leading Rubio 30 to 13 percent. (Monmouth University)
- Franklin Pierce University released a poll in tandem with the Boston Herald that also showed Sanders leading Clinton. He had 51 percent support compared to Clinton’s 44 percent. The Republican poll from the same outlets showed Trump leading Rubio 31 to 15 percent. (Franklin Pierce University: Republican poll, Democratic poll)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton visited Flint, Michigan, on Sunday to speak to families and residents concerned about the clean water crisis. Among other comments, Clinton stated, “Clean water is not optional, my friends. It is not a luxury...This is not merely unacceptable or wrong, though it is both. What happened in Flint is immoral. The children of Flint are just as precious as the children of any other part of America.” (Facebook)
Bernie Sanders
- At the New England Council’s “Politics and Eggs” event on Friday, Bernie Sanders claimed that members of Congress waste time “dialing for dollars.” “That's what they do,” he said. “And not only should members who are elected be working for the people, not raising money -- if you think you could simply divide your brain in half, if you're working on unemployment or health care and think, now I've gotta go out and raise money, it affects your entire being," (CNN)
- On Sunday, Bill Clinton went on the offensive against Sanders. According to Politico, Clinton labeled Sanders “the champion of all things small and the enemy of all things big,” among other names. He also accused the candidate of hypocrisy, double standards, and affiliation with “Bernie Bros,” who have made sexist remarks. He then criticized how Sanders handled the December breach of the DNC’s database, saying, “It was your campaign that made 25 separate inquiries in the mere space of 30 minutes trying to [loot] information out of computers… In private [his campaign] sent an email complaining [about the DNC] leaving the keys in the car, and said, all I did was drive off.” (Politico)
- Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, responded, “It’s unfortunate that President Clinton is choosing to engage in the kind of negative attacks that he is on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. Clearly this is a sign that the Clinton campaign is very concerned about the state of the race and the fact that recent national polls have shown that this is really a race that is down to one or two percentage points difference.” (Washington Post)
Republicans
- According to NPR, Marco Rubio had the most talking time at Saturday night’s debate, at just over 18 minutes. Ben Carson had the least with just under nine minutes. (NPR)
- Google Trends tracked the top searched questions regarding candidates during the Republican debate. Bush’s top question was, “Will Jeb Bush drop out?” followed closely by “What happened to Jeb Bush?” Several other candidates had questions about their Iowa standings. Google also tracked issue related searches, and overall, voters searched most for information on candidate stances regarding immigration and abortion. (Google Trends)
- Debate statements listed below are from the Washington Post’s annotated debate transcript.
Jeb Bush
- On the college student held hostage by North Korea: It's interesting that that happened literally days [after] when this hostage release took place in Iran. A day or two days afterwards, North Korea took a -- held an American student hostage. I think it's when we send a signal of weakness, when we are negotiating to release people that committed crimes in our country for people that didn't commit crimes that are held hostage in Iran. We saw the shameful treatment of our sailors, that this creates weakness -- sends a signal of weakness around the world. The next president of the United States is going to have to get back in the game. Where the United States' word matters. Where we back up our allies, where we don't send signals of weakness. We need to use every -- every influence possible to get this student back. And I think John is right about this, there are crippling sanctions that are available, as it relates to the two or three banks that North Korea uses to -- to -- use it -- illicit trade. We ought to re-establish sanctions, not just because of the student, but because of their actions that they're taking right now, as it relates to building this missile capability.
- On raising taxes on the wealthy: I would like to see more millionaires. I think we need to grow more millionaires, we need [to] create a prosperity society where people can rise up. This notion that somehow we're undertaxed as a nation is just fool hearty [sic], when we have entitlements growing far faster than our ability to pay for it. A conservative, because that's the point of this, believes in limited government, believes in a[n] entrepreneurial capitalism and a strong national defense. But it also has to be, we need to reform things. In my town hall meetings, I went to a place where a woman described her neighbor, who has a better economic deal by not working than her struggling to make ends meet. We need to be on the side of working people. And you know, the problem with the left is, another tax, another regulation, another mandate makes it harder for them to rise up. Everything that we should do should be focused on high, sustained economic growth, where the middle class gets a raise for the first time, and where people are rewarded for work, rather than non-work.
- On renewing airstrikes in Libya: I would do it in concert, again, with our Arab allies and with Europe, most particularly in this case. This is the lesson learned: in history, if you bomb something and not do anything as it relates to deal with the aftermath of this, if you don't have a stable government, you get what we have in Libya. And this is not -- leading from behind is not an effective policy. We have to lead. Without the United States, nothing seems to work. Europe doesn't have the ability to -- to -- to lead -- forward lean (ph) in this regard.
- On requiring women to register for the draft: I do, and I do think that we should not impose any kind of political agenda on the military. There should be -- if women can meet the requirements, the minimum requirements for combat service they ought to have the right to do it. For sure. It ought to be focused on the morale as well. We got to make sure that we have readiness much higher than we do today. We need to eliminate the sequester which is devastating our military. We can't be focusing on the political side of this, we need to realize that our military force is how we project our word in the world. When we're weak militarily it doesn't matter what we say. We can talk about red lines, and ISIS being the J.V. team, and reset buttons and all this. If we don't have a strong military than no one fears us, and they take actions that are against our national interest.
Ben Carson
- Regarding the Cruz campaign Iowa caucus statements that Carson was dropping out: Today is the 105th anniversary, or -- 105th birthday of Ronald Reagan. His 11[th] Commandment was not to speak ill of another Republican. So, I'm not going to use this opportunity to savage the reputation of Senator Cruz. But I will say -- I will say -- I will say that I was very disappointed that members of his team thought so little of me that they thought that after having hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers and college students who sacrificed their time and were dedicated to the cause -- one even died -- to think that I would just walk away ten minutes before the caucus and say, "Forget about you guys."
- Regarding Obamacare: The reason that I dislike Obamacare is because the government comes in and tells the people -- which the nation is supposed to be centered on -- that we don't care what you think, this is what we're doing. And if you don't like it, too bad. That's a problem. And we can't afford to do that because that will fundamentally change America. I have proposed a health empowerment account system. Everybody gets a health empowerment account the day they are born, they keep it until they die. They can pass it on. We pay for it with the same dollars that we pay for traditional health care with, recognizing that we spend twice as much as many countries per capita and health care and don't have as such access. We give people the ability to shift money within their health empowerment account so that each family basically becomes its own insurance company without a middleman; that saves you a[n] awful lot of money.
- On renewed airstrikes in Libya: I would support the possibility of renewed airstrikes if in conjunction with our Joint Chiefs and our military people they felt that was an appropriate strategy. The fact of the matter is none of us up here is a military expert, and we sometimes act like we are, but we're not. And if we actually sit down and talk with them and get them to understand our plan and their impression of what needs to be done, I think we're going to make a lot more progress.
- On the draft and veterans: [There is a] 14 percent decrease in the number of people applying for voluntary military service, and I think part of it is because of the way that we treat our veterans. You know, we wouldn't be a free country if it wasn't for them, and we have 22 veterans per day committing suicide. So, I think what we should do is have an external support system for people once they volunteer and it should follow them throughout their career, should follow them for three years, five years afterwards, a year before they get out, should be working on integrating them back into society, so that they quit on Friday and they start their new job. They should have health empowerment accounts that are subsidized so they can go to any medical facility and be taken care of. They can go to a V.A. if they want to. But if we start taking care of our veterans the right way, we won't have to ever worry about a draft again.
Chris Christie
- On experienced leadership and Marco Rubio: Every morning when a United States senator wakes up, they think about what kind of speech can I give or what kind of bill can I drop? Every morning, when I wake up, I think about what kind of problem do I need to solve for the people who actually elected me? It's a different experience, it's a much different experience. And the fact is, Marco, you shouldn't compare yourself to Joe Biden and you shouldn't say that that's what we're doing. Here is exactly what we're doing. You have not be [been] involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable. You just simply haven't. And the fact is -- the fact when you talk about the Hezbollah Sanctions Act that you list as one of your accomplishments you just did, you weren't even there to vote for it. That's not leadership, that's truancy. And the fact is that what we need to do -- what we need to have in this country is not to make the same mistake we made eight years ago. The fact is it does matter when you have to make decisions and be held accountable for them. It does matter when the challenges don't come on a list of a piece of paper of what to vote yes or no every day, but when the problems come in from the people that you serve. I like Marco Rubio, and he's a smart person and a good guy, but he simply does not have the experience to be president of the United States and make these decisions. We've watched it happen, everybody. For the last seven years, the people of New Hampshire are smart. Do not make the same mistake again.
- On the college student held hostage by North Korea: You never pay ransom to the criminals. Ever. You never pay ransom to the criminals. Everyone out at home watching tonight understands that principle. And so, what you need to do is to engage in a much different way with these folks. They do not understand anything but toughness and strength, and we need to engage the Chinese to deal with the North Koreans, but we also need to make sure that they understand there's a commander-in-chief who will not pay ransom for any hostage. This president and his former secretary of State are for paying ransom for hostages. When do that, you endanger even more Americans around the world to be the subject of this type of hostage taking and illegal detention. You need a strong commander-in-chief who will look these folks in the eye and say, we will not put up with this and we will take whatever actions we need to take, not only to get our people home safely, but to swiftly and surely punish those who believe they can violate the law and violate American's sovereign rights to travel the world freely and safely.
- On the regulation of drugs and drug rehabilitation: We are working with the folks in New Hampshire in their legislature right now to show them how we're helping to solve this problem in New Jersey. Not just for this campaign -- three years ago, I proposed a law that we signed into effect, which said that anyone who was a non-violent, non-dealing, first-time drug offender no longer goes to prison in New Jersey. They go to mandatory, in-patient drug treatment. What has happened is, crime has gone down 20 percent in those years. The prison population has gone down 10 percent. We've now closed the state prison -- closed a state prison, and we're turning it into a drug rehabilitation facility, so people can get the tools they need. Listen, everyone out there knows this in New Hampshire. This is a disease. It's not a moral failing, it's a disease. And we need to get people the treatment they need. And let me tell you why. Because I'm pro-life. And I'm pro-life not just for the nine months in the womb, I'm pro-life for when they get out and it's a lot more complicated. Sixteen-year-old, heroin-addicted drug girl on the floor of the county lockup, I'm pro-life for her life. The 42-year-old lawyer who is taking Oxycontin and can't get out of bed and support his family -- I'm pro-life for his life. Everyone [sic] of those lives is an individual gift from God. And the last thing is this. These efforts we've taken over the last three years, 2015 in New Jersey, for the first time in four years, drug overdose deaths have gone down, not up. I'll bring the same solutions to the country.
- On requiring women to register for the draft: What my wife and I have taught our daughters right from the beginning, that their sense of self-worth, their sense of value, their sense of what they want to do with their life comes not from the outside, but comes from within. And if a young woman in this country wants to go and fight to defend their country, she should be permitted to do so. Part of that also needs to be part of a greater effort in this country, and so there's no reason why one -- young women should be discriminated against from registering for the selective service. The fact is, we need to be a party and a people that makes sure that our women in this country understand anything they can dream, anything that they want to aspire to, they can do. That's the way we raised our daughters and that's what we should aspire to as president for all of the women in our country.
Ted Cruz
- On responding to the North Korea missile launch: Well, I would note, initially the fact that we're seeing the launch, and we're seeing the launch from a nuclear North Korea is the direct result of the failures of the first Clinton administration. The Clinton administration led the world in relaxing sanctions against North Korea. Billions of dollars flowed into North Korea in exchange for promises not to build nuclear weapons.They took those billions and built nuclear weapons. And, I would note also the lead negotiator in that failed North Korea sanctions deal was a woman named Wendy Sherman who Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton promptly recruited to come back to be the lead negotiator with Iran. So, what we are seeing with North Korea is foreshadowing of where we will be with Iran. With respect to North Korea and what we should do now, one of the first things we should do is expand our missile defense capacity. We ought to put missile defense interceptors in South Korea. South Korea wants them. One of the real risks of this launch, North Korea wants to launch a satellite, and one of the greatest risks of the satellite is they would place a nuclear device in the satellite. As it would orbit around the Earth, and as it got over the United States they would detonate that nuclear weapon and set of what's called an EMP, and electromagnetic pulse which could take down the entire electrical grid on the Eastern seaboard, potentially killing millions. We need to harden the grid to defend ourselves, and we need missile defense to protect ourselves against North Korea.
- On immigration: What you do is, you enforce the law. You know, under the Constitution, the president has an obligation to, quote, "Take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Federal immigration law provides, if someone is here illegally and is apprehended, they are to be deported. We saw just this past week the head of the border patrol union testify before Congress that President Obama had given the order to the border patrol to stand down, not to enforce the law. That is wrong. I will enforce the law, and for everyone who says, you can't possibly do that, I would note that in eight years, Bill Clinton deported 12 million people. In eight years, George W. Bush deported 10 million people. Enforcing the law -- we can do it. What is missing is the political will. And when they were deporting the people, the border wasn't secure, so they'd come right back. Once you secure the border, enforcing the law will solve this problem and that will benefit American workers.
- On repealing Obamacare: Socialized medicine is a disaster. It does not work. If you look at the countries that have imposed socialized medicine, that have put the government in charge of providing medicine, what inevitably happens is rationing. … If I'm elected president, we will repeal every word of Obamacare. And once we do that, we will adopt common sense reforms, number one, we'll allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines that will drive down prices and expand the availability of low cost catastrophic insurance. We'll expand health savings accounts; and we will de-link health insurance from employment so that you don't lose your health insurance when you lose your job, and that way health insurance can be personal, portable and affordable and we keep government from getting in between us and our doctors.
- On current military rules of engagement: I have visited with active duty military, with veterans over and over and over again in town halls all over the state of New Hampshire. What we are doing to our sons and daughters, it is immoral. We are sending them into [sic] fight with their arms tied behind their back. They cannot defend themselves. And it is wrong. And I will tell you this. Look. America has always been reluctant to use military force. It's the last step we take. But if and when we use it when it comes to defeating ISIS, we should use it. We should use overwhelming force, kill the enemy and then get the heck out. Don't engage in nation-building but instead, allow our soldiers to do their jobs instead of risking their lives with politicians making it impossible to accomplish the objective.
- Ted Cruz broke from other Republicans on Sunday, saying he did not support requiring women to register for the draft. Said Cruz, “My reaction was, 'Are you guys nuts?' We have had enough with political correctness especially in the military. Political correctness is dangerous and the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong. And if I am president, we ain't doing it! I'm the father of two little girls, and I love those little girls with all my heart. They are capable of doing anything in their heart's desire. But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn't make any sense at all. It's yet one more sign of this politically correct world where we forget common sense.” (Mother Jones)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina tweeted over the weekend and during the Republican debate in response to ABC’s pronouncement that she would be excluded from the Republican debate. Her tweets included criticisms of other Republican candidates and Hillary Clinton, along with video clips showing her own record. One tweet read, “How are they going to debate Hillary if they can't debate me?” Fiorina also posted a detailed criticism of the debate process on Facebook yesterday: “Last night’s debate was an utter disgrace for our party and for our democracy--and it had nothing to do with anything that happened on stage. From the very beginning, the RNC and the mainstream media did all they could to keep us--and only us--off the debate stage in order to protect their failing establishment picks. But the establishment’s despicable actions ramped up significantly more over the past few days: when they started intentionally doing everything they could to cripple this campaign.” She finished the post by appealing to voters to “have the final say” and asked, “Can I count you in?” (Twitter, Facebook)
- A super PAC, Carly for America, put out a parody video that criticized ABC for cutting Fiorina from the debate. (Vimeo)
Jim Gilmore
- Jim Gilmore hosted a Puppy Bowl watching party on Sunday. He tweeted about the event, “This is real. Please join me. Lower taxes, supporting the military and our vets, national security, and puppies!” (The Virginian-Pilot)
John Kasich
- On North Korea’s missile launch: Well, we've got to to [sic] step up the pressure. And by the way, I've gotta say, after being here, every one of my 100 town hall meetings in New Hampshire were a lot more fun than what I saw here today, were so much more positive. Look, in terms of North Korea, Martha, we have to make sure that we intercept both the ships and their aircraft, because what they're trying to do is to proliferate this very dangerous material, along with the -- with the technology, the instruments that can be used for mass destruction. That's what I worry about the most, frankly, is non-state actors, people who don't have a uniform, people don't have a country, who can spread this, who are not subject to the -- to the mutual assured defense. In other words, you strike us, we strike you. Some of these radicals, they don't care about that. That's what I worry about, for my children, and for their children, going forward. So, we have to be very tough. And we should tell the Chinese, look, if you're not going to do this ballistic missile defense to the Koreans, ballistic missile defense to Japan -- and by the way, we should impose the same kind of sanctions on North Korea that we imposed on Iran, because they're able to shift money. They're able to send money and receive money. We've gotta to be very tough on this. And frankly, I think we could have -- I think we could have let the Japanese know that if you want to take action on that -- on that missile that's rising, you want to take action -- you will have our support, if that's what you think is the best thing to do. We cannot continue to be weak in the face of the North Koreans, or, frankly, in the entire rest of the world.
- On immigration: Look, the situation is, we need to finish the border. It has to be completed. Just like we lock our doors at night, the country has to be able to lock its doors. And we can have a guest worker program, where people can come in and out in an orderly way. And then for the 11.5 million that are here, if they have not committed a crime since they've been here, I believe they ought to pay some back taxes, pay a fine, never get on the path to citizenship, but get legalization. It is not -- I couldn't even imagine how we would even begin to think about taking a mom or a dad out of a house when they have not committed a crime since they've been here, leaving their children in the house. I mean, that is not, in my opinion, the kind of values that we believe in. And secondly, I think at the end of the day, that Americans would support a plan like this. I think Congress would pass a plan to finish the border, guest worker, pay a fine, a path to legalization, and not citizenship. And we've got to get this done. And I will tell you this, within the first 100 days that I am president, I will put that proposal to the Congress.
- On changing conservatism: We have to have economic growth, but once we have economic growth I believe we have to reach out to people who live in the shadows. I believe we need to help the mentally ill, the drug addicted, the working poor. We need to help the developmentally disabled to rise, and we need to help our friends in the minority community develop entrepreneurship. In other words, in American, conservatism should mean not only that some rise with conservative principles, but everybody has a chance to rise regardless of who they are so they can live their God given purpose. That's what conservatism should be.
Marco Rubio
- On his electability as a first-term senator: From protecting the people of Florida from imminent domain abuse, to bringing accountability to the V.A., to the Girls Count Act, to sanctioning groups, I'm proud of my service in the United States Senate and before that, in the Florida legislature. I will say, if politics becomes and the presidency becomes about electing people who have been Congress or in the Senate the longest, we should all rally around Joe Biden. He's been around 1,000 years. He's passed hundreds of bills and I don't think any of us believe Joe Biden should be president of the United States. And let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing. Barack Obama is undertaking a systematic effort to change this country, to make America more like the rest of the world. … When I'm president of the United States, we are going to re-embrace all the things that made America the greatest nation in the world and we are going to leave our children with what they deserve: the single greatest nation in the history of the world.
- On immigration: Here's the bottom line. We can't get that legislation passed. The American people will not support doing anything about people that are in this country illegally until the law is enforced first, and you prove it to them. This has been abundantly clear. Every effort over the last ten years to do those comprehensively has failed. And it has failed because the American people have zero trust that the federal government will enforce our laws. And that's why since then, I have said repeatedly, if you are serious about immigration reform, then the key that unlocks the door to being able to do that is not just to pass a law that says it is going to enforce the law, but to actually do it. To hire the 20,000 new border agents, to finish the fencing and walls, to put in place mandatory e-verify, to put in place an entry-exit tracking system to prevent visa overstays. And once that is in place and that's working, I believe the American people will support a very reasonable, but responsible approach to people that have been here a long time, who are not dangerous criminals, who pay taxes and pay fines for what they did. But until then, none of that is going to be possible.
- On responding to North Korea: Here's the broader point, as well, and then I think it touches on what Donald just mentioned. Barack Obama views America as this arrogant global power that needed to be cut down to size. OK? This is a president that views this country as a country that's been too powerful in the world and we create problems around the world. For example, it's one of the reasons why he had betrayed Israel, because he believes that if we create separation from Israel, it will help our relations in the Islamic world. The same is happening in the Asia-Pacific region with accommodations to North Korea. North Korean should be back on that list of terrorist nations, as an example. And Donald's absolutely right. China does have a lot of influence over North Korea and he should be leveraging our relationship with the Chinese to ensure that North Korea no longer has access to the resources that have allowed them -- a country that has no economy to develop long range missiles already capable of reaching the west coast of the United States potentially.
- Rubio was criticized by Christie during the debate for repeating that President Obama "knows exactly what he's dong" throughout the night. Christie called it a "memorized 25-second speech." (Fox News)
Donald Trump
- On the use of waterboarding: Well, I'll tell you what. In the Middle East, we have people chopping the heads off Christians, we have people chopping the heads off many other people. We have things that we have never seen before -- as a group, we have never seen before, what's happening right now. The medieval times -- I mean, we studied medieval times -- not since medieval times have people seen what's going on. I would bring back waterboarding and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.
- On the kind of personal temperament appropriate as president: I actually think I have the best temperament. I built a massive corporation. I employ thousands and thousands of people. I've gotten along with people for years and years, have tremendous relationships with many people, including politicians on both sides. And no matter how you cut it, when I -- when I came out, I hit immigration, I hit it very hard. Everybody said, "Oh, the temperament," because I talked about illegal immigration. Now, everybody's coming to me, they're all trying to say, well, he's right, we have to come to him. I hit other things. I talked about Muslims. We have a problem. Nobody else wanted to mention the problem, I brought it up. I took a lot of heat. We have to have a temporary something, because there's something going on that's not good. And remember this, I'm the only one up here, when the war of Iraq -- in Iraq, I was the one that said, "Don't go, don't do it, you're going to destabilize the Middle East." So, I'm not one with a trigger. I'm not one with a trigger. Other people up here, believe me, would be a lot faster. But I'll build the mill arbitrary stronger, bigger, better than anybody up here, and nobody is going to mess with us. That, I can tell you.
- On responding to North Korea: We have -- tremendous -- has been just sucked out of our country by China. China says they don't have that good of control over North Korea. They have tremendous control. I deal with the Chinese all of the time. I do tremendous -- the largest bank in the world is in one of my buildings in Manhattan. I deal with them. They tell me. They have total, absolute control, practically, of North Korea. They are sucking trillions of dollars out of our country -- they're rebuilding China with the money they take out of our country. I would get on with China, let China solve that problem. They can do it quickly and surgically. That's what we should do with North Korea.
- On healthcare, and whether Trump’s plan is closer to Clinton’s or Sanders’: I think I'm closer to common sense. We are going to repeal Obamacare. ... We are going to replace Obamacare with something so much better. And there are so many examples of it. And I will tell you, part of the reason we have some people laughing, because you have insurance people that take care of everybody up here. I am self-funded. The only one they're not taking care of is me. We have our lines around each state. The insurance companies are getting rich on Obamacare. The insurance companies are getting rich on health care and health services and everything having to do with health. We are going to end that. We're going to take out the artificial boundaries, the artificial lines. We're going to get a plan where people compete, free enterprise. They compete. So much better. In addition to that, you have the health care savings plans, which are excellent. What I do say is, there will be a certain number of people that will be on the street dying and as a Republican, I don't want that to happen. We're going to take care of people that are dying on the street because there will be a group of people that are not going to be able to even think in terms of private or anything else and we're going to take care of those people. And I think everybody on this stage would have to agree, you're not going to let people die, sitting in the middle of a street in any city in this country.
- On eminent domain and the Keystone Pipeline: Well, let me just tell you about eminent domain because almost all of these people actually criticize it, but so many people have hit me with commercials and other things about eminent domain. Eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country, for our country. Without it, you wouldn't have roads, you wouldn't have hospitals, you wouldn't have anything. You wouldn't have schools, you wouldn't have bridges. You need eminent domain. And a lot of the big conservatives that tell me how conservative they are -- I think I'm more than they are -- they tell me, oh -- well, they all want the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone Pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn't go 10 feet, OK? You need eminent domain. And eminent domain is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Third Party Candidates
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- On Friday, Business Insider reported that Gary Johnson stated in a recent interview, “If the Libertarian candidate for president ever — ever! — has a chance of getting elected or getting prominence on the national stage to actually profess what is to be a Libertarian, it would be Bernie Sanders vs. Donald Trump. I mean, that would be the Libertarian wet dream.” He added, “I think that at the end of the day, I will end up being the voice of reason in all of this.” (Business Insider)
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein posted criticism of the Democratic Party on Facebook last Friday. Stated Stein, “This is not the time to pledge allegiance to a Democratic Party that's at best pushing for a military budget that's bankrupting us, a war on terror that's creating more terror, the continued enslavement of a generation in student debt, school privatization and high stakes testing, auditing the Fed rather than nationalizing it, criminalizing whistle blower heroes like Edward Snowden, and supporting the assault on human rights by Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.” (Facebook)
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
