Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - January 20, 2016
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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
- Ben Carson temporarily suspended his campaign on Tuesday and Wednesday after one staffer and three volunteers were injured in a car accident in Iowa. His campaign later announced on Tuesday night that one volunteer, Braden Joplin, had died. In a statement Carson said, "Even after more than 30 years experience counseling parents and family members in the most difficult of times, it never gets easier. But I find solace in the knowledge of God’s redeeming grace, and I pray that Braden's family finds comfort in the mercy of the Lord. Across America today, I ask everyone to take a moment to reflect on the preciousness of life and remember and honor the memory of Braden Joplin.”(CNN, Ben Carson for President)
- On Tuesday, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) told caucus-goers in Iowa not to support Ted Cruz: “It would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him. And I know he's ahead in the polls but the only poll that counts is the one they take on caucus night and I think that could change between now and then,” Branstad said. (CNN)
- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday evening. Making her announcement during a rally at Iowa State University, she said Trump was “the only one that has been willing, who’s got the guts, to wear the issues that need to be spoken about and debated on his sleeve, where the rest of some of these establishment candidates, they just wanted to duck and hide. In fact, they’ve been wearing political correctness kind of like a suicide vest. And enough is enough.” The Washington Posts' Jenna Johnson wrote that Palin's endorsement was, "a major pickup for Trump, who has been struggling to maintain a share of the lead in Iowa ahead of the Feb. 1 caucuses as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has gained support and major endorsements." Palin had previously endorsed Cruz during his 2012 Senate campaign.(The Washington Post)
Polls
- According to an American Research Group poll of New Hampshire voters released on Tuesday, John Kasich rose to second place in the state with 20 percent support. Donald Trump maintained his lead with 27 percent. (American Research Group, The Wall Street Journal)
- An NBC News/Survey Monkey national poll released on Tuesday found Trump leading Cruz, 38 percent to 21 percent. Marco Rubio followed in third with 11 percent. (NBC News)
- On the Democratic side of the NBC News/Survey Monkey national poll, Hillary Clinton maintained her lead of 52 percent to Bernie Sanders’ 36 percent. Similar margins were seen in a Monmouth University national poll released on Tuesday finding Clinton with 52 percent and Sanders with 37 percent. (NBC News, Monmouth University)
- In a CNN/WMUR poll of Democratic voters in New Hampshire released on Tuesday, Sanders led Clinton 60 percent to 33 percent. (CNN)
Democrats
- MSNBC reported on Tuesday that while super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates have spent $5 million against Hillary Clinton, they have spent nothing on Bernie Sanders. A super PAC supporting Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley has released an ad targeting Sanders. (MSNBC)
Hillary Clinton
- Karen Weaver (D), the mayor of Flint, Michigan, endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Weaver said in an interview that Clinton was the only candidate who reached out to the city to see if she could offer any help with Flint’s water crisis. (The Huffington Post)
- In a letter sent to the Senate Intelligence and Senate Foreign Relations committees last week, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough stated that intelligence officials had discovered emails on Clinton’s server deemed “special access programs,” a highly sensitive subcategory of “top secret” documents. (Politico)
- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is expected to hold a $33,400-per-head fundraiser on January 31 for Clinton in Washington, D.C. (International Business Times)
Bernie Sanders
- In response to the Human Rights Campaign’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs said, “It’s understandable and consistent with the establishment organizations voting for the establishment candidate, but it’s an endorsement that cannot possibly be based on the facts and the record.” (The Washington Blade)
- Sanders released a statement on Tuesday about the Supreme Court's decision to review the constitutionality of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. “I am delighted that the Supreme Court agreed to review the lower court ruling against President Obama's executive order on immigration. The president did exactly the right thing when he took action to protect Dreamers and the parents of children who are citizens or legal permanent residents. I am confident the president has the legal authority to take this bold action. Clearly the best form of action is for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform to put undocumented people on a path toward citizenship. But if Congress fails to act, as president I would uphold and expand the president’s action,” Sanders said. (Bernie Sanders for President)[1]
Republicans
- According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released on Tuesday, 42% of registered voters said the GOP primary gave them a worse impression of the Republican party, while 18% said the opposite. Fifty-seven percent of Black voters said their view was less favorable, and 5% said it was more favorable. Forty-five percent of Latino voters said their view was less favorable, and 13% said it was more favorable. Forty percent of white voters said their view was less favorable, and 22% said their view was more favorable. (Slate)
Jeb Bush
- In a radio interview on Monday, Jeb Bush said that Chris Christie “has to own up to his record, and overall it’s a good record, but it’s also a record where he advocated restricting gun rights and he did support Sotomayor, and he did expand Medicaid, and other people — look everybody’s record needs to be scrutinized.” (BuzzFeed)
- The Right to Rise super PAC has mailed out copies of a documentary about Bush “to target a select universe in Iowa and New Hampshire with an innovative way to get eyes on Jeb's story.” According to a spokesman, this direct mail campaign cost four figures. (CBS News)
- During an event at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday, Bush criticized Donald Trump’s foreign policy proposals, saying, “We have to restore a traditional role in foreign policy and you can't do that by rambling along and saying that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can take care of ISIS. You can’t keep us safe by talking trash without backing it up with serious plans.” (International Business Times)
Ben Carson
- In a statement to ‘’The Huffington Post’’ on Tuesday, Ben Carson criticized the Environmental Protection Agency and local government for its actions handling the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He said, “Unfortunately, the leaders of Flint have failed to place the well-being of their residents as a top priority. The people deserve better from their local elected officials, but the federal bureaucracy is not innocent in this as well. Reports show that the Environmental Protection Agency knew well-beforehand about the lack of corrosion controls in the city’s water supply, but was either unwilling or unable to address the issue." (The Huffington Post)
- Carson said he was “not terribly concerned about Hollywood’s image” following backlash towards the Academy Awards after it nominated only white actors for its acting awards. “Americans from all walks of life have riveting and important stories to tell, and Hollywood could do a better job of honoring all of these stories, regardless of who tells them or the ideology they represent. But at the end of the day, the American people have far more important concerns than a few Hollywood elites handing themselves awards. If we paid as much attention to growing the economy as we do to the extravagant, more than $30 million Oscar party the glitterati throw for themselves, we might have fewer families wondering how they’re going to make ends meet,” Carson said. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Chris Christie
- On Tuesday, Chris Christie took no action on a bill to provide $10 million to the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund to protect children from lead poisoning, “effectively terminating it without having to issue a veto.” (Asbury Park Press)
- Christie also pocket vetoed a bill requiring gun sellers to carry at least one smart gun. On his decision not to sign the bill, Joelle Farrell, a spokeswoman for Christie, said, “Having the legislature pass more than 100 bills in such a hasty and scrambled way, praying for them to be rubber stamped, is never a good formula for effectively doing public business.” (The Washington Post, NJ.com)
- Christie expressed support for elements of self-deportation in an interview in ‘’The Washington Examiner’’ on Monday. “I do think that E-verify over time will encourage some people to leave on their own. If they can't get a job here, they can't get work here, a number of them will leave. And that's part of the whole enforce-the-law process that I was talking about before — biometric system at the border on visas, E-verify on employment inside the country, and secure our border at the southern border,” he said. (The Washington Examiner, The Huffington Post)
- On Tuesday, while campaigning in Iowa, Christie discussed his concern for his wife’s safety during the September 11 terrorist attacks, his admiration for Adele, his weight and his mother’s death. The Los Angeles Times’’ Chris Megerian wrote, “Each story, some of which have become staples of his campaign events, is another attempt to burrow into the hearts of Iowa voters just two weeks before the caucuses. In this primary, every Republican candidate sells something different — Donald Trump has anger, Ted Cruz has ideology, Jeb Bush has wonkishness. Christie sells himself." (The Los Angeles Times)
Ted Cruz
- In an interview on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Ted Cruz “the least respected” and “the most disruptive influence in the Senate.” Graham added, “He does not have the ability to pull this country together. When you talk about problem solver, you can’t mention Ted Cruz.” (The Dallas Morning News)
- CNN reported that ahead of Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said, "I think it'd be a blow to Sarah Palin, because Sarah Palin has been a champion for the conservative cause, and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly, she would be endorsing someone who's held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion.” Cruz later tweeted, “I love @SarahPalinUSA Without her support, I wouldn't be in the Senate. Regardless of what she does in 2016, I will always be a big fan.” (CNN)
Carly Fiorina
- On Tuesday, ‘’The Washington Post’’ released a profile of Carly Fiorina’s time at Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the company’s merger with Compaq. “When the subject comes up on the campaign trail, Fiorina routinely characterizes herself as a ‘change warrior’ who ‘saved the company.’ … The merger opened opportunities for HP that helped the company survive. But its fortunes truly turned only after Fiorina left, leaving some to question whether she or her replacement, Mark Hurd, deserved credit. And a decade later, HP remains a firm on the brink of catastrophe. Its share price has never again come close to its pre-merger peak,” ‘’The Washington Post’’ reported. (The Washington Post)
John Kasich
- John Kasich’s administration announced on Tuesday new voluntary guidelines for the prescription of short-term pain medication. According to ‘’The Lexington Herald-Leader’’, “People with short-term pain from injuries or surgery should be given alternatives to prescription painkillers whenever possible and be provided only the minimum amounts if absolutely needed.” (The Lexington Herald-Leader)
While visiting a brewery in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Kasich said, “If I’m president, we will not be approving labels on bottled beer. I’m going to cut right through the bureaucracy. No more label approval on bottled beer.” (The Wall Street Journal) Discussing his surge in New Hampshire polls with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday, Kasich said, "I think first of all, I have the experience and I’ve had success and I’ve been a reformer all of my life. Look, we have a lot of candidates who like the 'Prince of Darkness.' I consider myself the 'Prince of Light and Hope,' and I don’t spend all my time getting people riled up about how bad everything is." (Politico)
Rand Paul
- Rand Paul released a new edition of “The Waste Report” on Tuesday, highlighting the nearly $500,000 spent on the wine industry in Moldova by the U.S. Agency for International Development. “Despite the already absurd idea of spending U.S. tax dollars on a foreign country’s wine industry, this grant will not even go to produce one drop of wine. Instead, the funding will go to the Moldovan National Agency for Rural Development to help identify and get grape grower [sic] signed up with the ‘Wine and Vine Registry,’” Paul wrote. (U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul)
- In an op-ed in ‘’The Des Moines Register’’ on Tuesday, Paul wrote, “The problem in Washington is that there is an unholy alliance between right and left that comes together to spend more of your money at every turn. Conservatives want more military spending. Liberals want more domestic spending. As a result, they shake hands and agree to spend more on everything.” (The Des Moines Register)
Marco Rubio
- On Tuesday, members of Marco Rubio’s campaign distributed calculators at Ted Cruz’s events in New Hampshire, saying Cruz had changed his position on several issues. “That is not consistent conservatism, that is political calculation,” the calculators were labeled. (TIME)
- Rubio attended a campaign fundraiser in Minnesota on Tuesday, ahead of the March 1 caucus, saying he planned to focus on the state: “We’re going to be very competitive here. This [caucus] has now been moved ahead in the cycle. Which means you may very well be the state, or the group of states, who decide who the nominee is,” he said. (CBS Minnesota)
- ‘’Mic’’ published a brief profile of Rubio’s wife, Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, on Tuesday. The article highlighted her reputation for focusing on family first. (Mic)
Rick Santorum
- In an interview on Tuesday, Rick Santorum criticized Ted Cruz’s position on the legality of same-sex marriage and states’ rights. “Marriage is probably the big thing [distinguishing Santorum from Cruz]. Ted has the position that states can do whatever they want with marriage. I don’t believe that’s true. Abraham Lincoln said that states don’t have the right to do wrong,” Santorum said. (The Iowa Republican)
Donald Trump
- On Monday, Donald Trump criticized Apple for manufacturing its products in China. "We're going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries,” Trump said during a speech at Liberty University. (The Washington Post)
- ‘’The Hill’’ reported on Wednesday that there has been a shift in how Republican donors perceive Trump and his chances of winning the nomination. “There have been a lot of people who were on the fence at the beginning. My friends are now seeing something in him. … He just understands business, and he’s right in saying that America is a business. It’s a multibillion-dollar business,” said one donor. (The Hill)
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
