Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - January 28, 2016
From Ballotpedia
|
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
|
Thursday's Leading Stories
- The fallout from Donald Trump’s decision not to attend the Republican presidential debate on Thursday night continued. “It was the childishly written & taunting PR statement by Fox that made me not do the debate, more so than lightweight reporter, @megynkelly,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. He has scheduled a “special event” to benefit veterans in lieu of the debate at Drake University in Iowa, but the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) announced it would decline any donations from the event if offered. IAVA founder Paul Rieckhoff tweeted on Wednesday, “We need strong policies from candidates, not to be used for political stunts.” (CNN, Twitter, International Business Times)
- The Keep the Promise super PACs supporting Ted Cruz have offered to donate $1.5 million to veterans causes if Trump agreed to debate Cruz one-on-one prior to the Iowa caucuses. Trump responded, “Even though I beat him in the first six debates, especially the last one, Ted Cruz wants to debate me again. Can we do it in Canada?" Carly Fiorina jumped into the discussion on Wednesday night, offering $1.5 million to join the potential Cruz-Trump debate. She would increase that figure to $2 million if she could debate Trump alone on Thursday night at Drake University. (NBC News)
- Ballotpedia published its latest round of the Presidential Nominating Index on Wednesday. Surveying party insiders, senior writer Jim Barnes found that Donald Trump now tops the Republican field with a score of .782. His closest competition comes from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. One insider noted that the “Trump-Cruz war will annihilate one or both of them, while the ‘establishment’ vote starts to consolidate behind one alternative, and right now the most likely beneficiary will be Rubio.” Another, however, said, “The establishment that Cruz has so consistently berated, belittled and betrayed will break to Trump if one of their own cannot win. They will make sure that Cruz does not get the nomination.” (Ballotpedia)
- On the Democratic side, Ballotpedia determined that Hillary Clinton is still the favorite to win for 76 percent of party insiders. “What's Bernie's path after Iowa and New Hampshire? Yes the passion is there, but I think Team Clinton is built to roll starting in South Carolina,” one insider said. (Ballotpedia)
Polls
- An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Thursday found Donald Trump leading Ted Cruz by seven points in Iowa, 19 points in New Hampshire and 16 points in South Carolina. In the Democratic field, Bernie Sanders scored a 19-point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, it is Clinton with the dominating lead of 64 percent to Sanders’ 27 percent. The two candidates are within three points of each other in Iowa. (NBC News)
- On Wednesday, a Monmouth University poll of likely Iowa caucus goers saw Donald Trump regain the lead in Iowa with 30 percent to Ted Cruz’s 23 percent. Patrick Murray, the poll’s director, said, “Turnout is basically what separates Trump and Cruz right now, Trump’s victory hinges on having a high number of self-motivated, lone wolf caucus goers show up Monday night.” (Monmouth University)
- Quinnipiac University found Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton separated by a narrow margin in Iowa, 49 percent to 45 percent, in a poll released on Wednesday. Martin O’Malley registered 4 percent support. (Quinnipiac University)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- When asked about her greatest political regret on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton identified failing to pass healthcare reform in the early 1990s. She said, “Health care is a basic right. We are 90 percent covered, we gotta get to 100 percent, and then we gotta get cost down and make it work for everybody. And even though we didn't get it then, we've got it now and I'm going to defend it and improve it." (AOL News)
- Clinton said on Wednesday that she would like to participate in the unsanctioned MSNBC debate next week in New Hampshire. “Look, I’m ready for the debate and I hope Senator Sanders will change his mind and join us. I think the DNC and the campaigns should be able to work this out. I’ve been for, you know, for a long time, that I’d be happy to have more debates and I hope we can get this done,” she said. (The Washington Post)
- On Wednesday, Clinton condemned the Johnson Controls-Tyco merger, which will see the company’s headquarters established in Ireland. She said, "I will do everything I can to prevent this from happening, because I don't want to see companies that thrive, use the tax code, the gimmicks, the shenanigans...to evade their responsibility to support our country." (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- Clinton began airing a new ad in Iowa on Wednesday called “The Time Has Come.” The ad’s narrator says, “The time has come to make a choice, about which candidate can actually make a difference for you.” Tacitly criticizing Bernie Sanders, the narrator continues, "[Clinton] will build on Obamacare, not start over, break through the gridlock, not add to it, defend Planned Parenthood, not attack it, stand up to the gun lobby, not protect it, lead on foreign policy, not ignore it.” (CNN)
Martin O'Malley
- While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Martin O’Malley was asked by an audience member about how he would raise awareness of civilian casualties in military engagements abroad. He responded, “Awful things happen in war, man. This is a really messed-up world that we're in right now. This evil that we combat over there is a genocidal evil, and we need to do a much better job ... of limiting this collateral damage that can sadly proliferate when we start treating war like a push-button exercise.” (The Des Moines Register)
- Dream Iowa, an immigration activist group, endorsed O’Malley on Wednesday. “It is time for change, and he can push our issues forward. Our community needs actions, not just broken promises,” said co-founder Monica Reyes. (The Courier)
Bernie Sanders
- In an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders discussed his spirituality, saying, “I am not actively involved with organized religion.” He noted, however, “I think everyone believes in God in their own ways, “ he said. “To me, it means that all of us are connected, all of life is connected, and that we are all tied together.” (The Washington Post)
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Wednesday that the Democratic Party was “not running on any platform of raising taxes,” a policy Sanders has proposed during the campaign to pay for his initiatives. She also said Sanders’ single-payer healthcare plan was “not going to happen.” (CNN)
- Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said Sanders would participate in the unsanctioned MSNBC debate next week if Clinton agreed to three additional debates in March, April and May that did not fall on a weekend, holiday or Friday. “Now she is asking to change the rules to schedule a debate next week that is not sanctioned by the DNC. Why is that? The answer is obvious. The dynamics of the race have changed and Sen. Sanders has significant momentum,” Weaver said in a statement. (CNN)
Republicans
- ABC News will not hold an undercard debate in February. According to The Hill, “Candidates will have three avenues to make the debate stage. The top three finishers in the Iowa caucuses' popular vote will punch a ticket to the stage, as well as any candidate polling within the top six in averages of recent New Hampshire or national polls.” (The Hill)
Jeb Bush
- On Wednesday, Jeb Bush responded to Donald Trump’s decision not to attend Thursday night’s Republican debate because he disapproved of Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly. “He thinks he’s not being treated fairly. Really? Donald Trump’s not being treated fairly by the press? He consumes all the press! He’s a Stradivarius violinist from the Vienna Symphony" playing the press, Bush said. He added, "Poor little Donald, being mistreated. If you think he’s going to be mistreated now? ... How do you think the general election’s going to work out?" (The Washington Post)
- According to NBC News, the super PAC Right to Rise has spent nearly $15 million on ads in Iowa prior to next week’s caucus. This is approximately $3 million more than Marco Rubio’s campaigns and supporting super PAC have spent together. (NBC News)
- Right to Rise is fundraising $300,000 to air an ad in New Hampshire during the Super Bowl. (The Hill)
- Former Rhode Island Gov. Linc Almond (R) endorsed Bush on Wednesday. “He did an excellent job as Florida governor and I think he would make a fine president,’’ said Almond. (Rhode Island Public Radio)
Ben Carson
- Ben Carson told reporters on Wednesday that polls did not accurately reflect his performance in Iowa because his supporters “are people who have not traditionally been in the political arena” and “those are people who are not polled.” (The Washington Post)
- Carson also criticized Donald Trump for being “very dishonest.” Referring to Trump’s attacks on the veracity of his stories about adolescent anger management issues, Carson said, "It says that he acts like a politician. Politicians do things that are politically expedient." (The Washington Post)
- While speaking at a church in Iowa on Wednesday, Carson expressed concern that “slick politicians and complacent media” can too easily skew uninformed voters’ beliefs. “When people are not informed, they're easy to manipulate. That's why our founders, particularly [Benjamin] Franklin and Thomas Jefferson said that our foundation is dependent on a well-informed independent populace,” Carson said. (The Des Moines Register)
- Discussing the future of his campaign on Wednesday, Ben Carson said, “I obviously would like to finish in the top three [in Iowa]. There’s always a path, but you know, you always have to look at the trends, you have to look at what is happening, what are people saying." (Bloomberg)
- The Washington Post published a profile of Armstrong Williams, Carson’s unofficial adviser at the center of several campaign staff disagreements and separations, on Wednesday. (The Washington Post)
Chris Christie
- During an interview with Boston Herald Radio on Wednesday, Chris Christie attacked Marco Rubio for his political inexperience. “The only thing that he’s ever done in the United States Senate is write an amnesty bill with Chuck Schumer. And then as soon as the heat got high, he ran away and hid and now claims he had nothing to do with it,” Christie said. (The New York Times)
- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) declined to criticize Chris Christie’s handling of Winter Storm Jonas in New Jersey on Wednesday. He said, “I talked to the governor during this storm. I talked to the leaders in his administration. We are working seamlessly together. I have no barbs to throw, especially when we’re still in the midst of cleaning up. … I try never to play into the politics of it.” (TIME)
- Christie used Donald Trump’s decision to not participate in Thursday’s Republican debate as part of his most recent fundraising email. “When you are president of the United States, you don't get to choose when you want to show up. You have to show up every single day. You serve the American people, not yourself,” Christie wrote. (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- Heidi Cruz, Ted Cruz’s wife, was interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday, where she dismissed the idea that Cruz is ineligible to run for president because he was born in Canada. She also presented Cruz as “an incredibly thoughtful person, a person who never misses a birthday, who never misses Valentine’s, who reads bedtime stories to his daughters." (Politico)
- U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said on Wednesday that voters must either be for or against Donald Trump and vote accordingly. “The people who are loyal supporters of Carson, Huckabee and Santorum should send them a thank you card for their commitment to our country, and then just vote for Cruz,” he said. King continued, “This has now become a binary decision. Either you're from Trump, or your vote needs to be Cruz." (CNN)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina wrote an op-ed in TIME to promote her plan “to repeal Obamacare and promote the free market in healthcare.” She said Obamacare should be replaced “with a plan that protects those with pre-existing conditions in state-run high-risk pools, reduces costs, protects religious liberty and moves us closer to real, genuine competition that drives down costs and drives up quality.” She pointed to the healthcare proposal of U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as an example of such a plan. (TIME)
- While campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, Fiorina dismissed her low poll numbers, saying, "Here's the thing: if the polls were right at this point in a presidential cycle, if polls were predictive, we would have had a President Howard Dean, we would have a President Rudy Giuliani and we already would have had a President Hillary Clinton. And we never would have had a President Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama." (USA Today)
- Responding to an animal rights activist who interrupted her town hall at the Iowa Pork Congress on Tuesday, Fiorina said, “I really wish there was that much passion in that young man for unborn children as there are for pigs. We have to take back the character of this nation.” (ThinkProgress)
Jim Gilmore
- Jim Gilmore will return to the debate stage on Thursday night after he failed to qualify for the last five. In an interview on Wednesday with MSNBC, he said, “If I got as much attention as Trump, I wouldn’t be an asterisk. If you’d flip these things around, he’d been an eccentric and I’d be the frontrunner. If I had a quarter of the equal time, I’d be the frontrunner. With my credentials? You’ve got to be kidding.” (MSNBC)
Mike Huckabee
- The night before caucuses in Iowa on Sunday, Mike Huckabee will host a screening of God’s Not Dead 2, a film “about a high school teacher who defends her Christian faith in court after quoting the Bible in a classroom.” Huckabee said in a statement, “It's a great reminder why religious liberty and moral clarity matters in this election.” (The Des Moines Register)
- Huckabee’s campaign released a full-length political parody of Adele’s “Hello” on Wednesday. The song’s changed lyrics highlight notable Iowa locations and suggest that “Huckabee is the guy who’s long overdue.” (CBS News)
- Discussing food safety regulations and Chipotle’s recent E. coli outbreak on Wednesday, Huckabee said the country should not “overreact and see more federal involvement. I’d rather see the regulation at the state level.” (The Kansas City Star)
John Kasich
- The Keene Sentinel, one of New Hampshire’s major local newspapers, endorsed John Kasich on Wednesday. “Kasich has worked across the aisle in the past, most famously hammering out a welfare reform bill and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 with President Bill Clinton. We believe he’s willing to do so again,” the editorial board wrote. (The Keene Sentinel)
Rand Paul
- On Wednesday, Judge Yvette Kane of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied a Texan political operative for Rand Paul a temporary restraining order to allow him to collect signatures in Pennsylvania without a state resident accompanying him, which would be a violation of Pennsylvania election law. (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Paul said on Wednesday that Donald Trump was “afraid” of Megyn Kelly and the questions she might ask about his record during the debate. “I think Megyn Kelly is a tough interviewer, and she is not a pushover, and I think he wants something a little bit easier, and he’s afraid that she might point out or ask him a question about his bankruptcies, his treatment of women, a variety of things he doesn’t want to talk about,” Paul said. He continued, “If you watch him do interviews with women, he bullies them, he runs roughshod over them, and he doesn’t like a strong, assertive woman.” (BuzzFeed)
Marco Rubio
- While discussing healthcare for disabled individuals on Wednesday, Rubio recounted his grandfather’s struggle with polio. He said, “Imagine being disabled, at the turn of a century, in a developing country like Cuba and having to raise seven girls, which is what he had to do. It was hard. He struggled most of his life to do that.” Rubio said high-risk pools should be established by the state to help those with chronic and serious conditions who could not otherwise obtain health insurance. He noted, however, that he believed some in the U.S. were “cheating the system.” (The Des Moines Register)
- Rubioreleased an ad on Wednesday distinguishing himself from President Obama. He says in the clip, “I approved this message because it’s time for a president who will put their left hand on the Bible and their right hand in the air and keep their promise to uphold the constitution. It’s been eight years since we’ve had a president do that—I will.” (TIME)
- In an open letter last week, 15 Florida mayors called on Rubio to acknowledge climate change and its impact on agriculture and coastal flooding in the state. (TIME)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump’s campaign responded to Ted Cruz’s two-man-debate invitation on Wednesday, saying, "If he's the last man standing and it comes down to a two-person race Donald Trump will be happy to debate him." (ABC News)
- If Trump were to win the Iowa caucuses on Monday, he would “do something that has never been done in the modern presidential nominating era: Win a state primary without a single endorsement from a member of Congress,” according to The New York Times. (The New York Times)
- South Carolina Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster (R) endorsed Trump on Wednesday. "He's actually done some things. Some big things. He speaks the truth as he sees it in words everybody can understand," McMaster said. (CNN)
Third Party Candidates
- Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch encouraged former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) to launch an independent presidential bid on Wednesday, tweeting, “This is Bloomberg's last chance. You never know until your hat is in the ring! Events change everything, especially during elections.” (CNN)
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
