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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - July 11, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Monday's Leading Stories
- The RNC Platform Committee convenes today in Cleveland. Republican delegates to the national convention are proposing several changes to Rule 40 of the Rules of the Republican Party, which would allow the delegates to reject Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick. Called the “arranged marriage option,” the new rule would require a minimum threshold of support for the vice presidential candidate from two-thirds of delegates on the first ballot. (BuzzFeed)
- The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Donald Trump was considering selecting a registered Democrat, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, to serve as his vice president. Flynn, who previously headed the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been critical of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton. (The Washington Post)
- Commenting on whether he was being vetted, Flynn told The New York Post, “All I would say is that I have been honored to serve my country for the past three decades and look forward to serving in other ways now that I am retired from the U.S. Army. I’ve been a soldier too long to refuse to entertain any request from a potential commander in chief.” (The Washington Post)
- In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Flynn said that he supported abortion rights. On the subject of marriage equality, he said, “What people do in their private lives, these are not big issues that our country’s dealing with.” Flynn added that although he grew up “in a very strong Democratic family," he feels his party affiliation has changed. (ABC News)
- Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is also reported to be in consideration for Trump’s ticket. “McChrystal retired from the military in 2010 after being relieved of his position as the top commander in Afghanistan by President Obama following a controversial interview he held with Rolling Stone magazine,” ABC News noted. (ABC News)
- Bernie Sanders is confirmed to join Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday where he is expected to endorse her. The event follows the finalization of the Democratic Party’s platform, which included victories for Sanders backers on climate change, healthcare, and the federal minimum wage. Among their unsuccessful proposals were a rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, language on Israeli settlements, and a ban on fracking. "We got 80% of what we wanted in this platform,” said Warren Gunnels, a foreign policy adviser to Sanders. (CNN, Politico)
Polls
- According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Monday, 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the FBI’s decision to recommend that no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her private email server use while secretary of state. “Registered voters who oppose the decision to forego criminal charges are nonetheless split on whether the outcome makes them less likely to vote Clinton in November — 47 percent say it makes no difference in their vote while 45 percent say they're less likely to support her (8 percent say they're more likely to do so),” the pollsters also found. (The Washington Post)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton discussed the sniper attack on Dallas law enforcement in an interview on Friday. “This is deeply troubling and it should worry every single American. You know, we have got to do much more to listen to one another, respect each other,” she said. In the wake of Dallas and the shooting deaths of two black Americans by police officers, Clinton added that the country must “support our police and support innocent Americans that have deadly encounters with police." She recommended stronger national guidelines for the use of deadly force by police. (The Hill)
- Clinton announced in a statement on Saturday a few changes to her healthcare platform, including offering a public-option insurance plan and allowing Americans to enroll in Medicare when they turn 55. According to the statement, Clinton affirmed “her commitment to give Americans in every state the choice of a public-option insurance plan, something she has supported during this campaign and going back to her 2008 presidential campaign.” (CBS News)
- On Friday, Clinton commented on the FBI’s finding that she had been “extremely careless” in handling classified materials. She said of her staff and colleagues, “I think there are about 300 people in the government, mostly in the State Department, but in other high positions in the government with whom I emailed over the course of four years — they, I believe, did not believe they were sending any material that was classified. They were pursuing their responsibilities. I do not think they were careless.” (The New York Times)
- The Sun Sentinel reported on Sunday that the Clinton team was planning to launch a campaign in Florida that “would include an enormous ground operation that might ultimately surpass the massive — and winning — Florida efforts mounted by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook emphasized the importance of Broward County, explaining that he met with local officials there “to figure out how do we make sure that we do get the highest turnout possible. To get your win number in the state as a whole, it's really important that we build up the biggest lead possible here in Broward. We're running a statewide program and every part of the state matters, but Broward has a really outsized and very critical role to play in getting that win." (The Sun Sentinel)
Republicans
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump released a video statement on Friday in response to the sniper attack on police officers in Dallas, saying, “We must stand in solidarity with law enforcement, which we must remember is the force between civilization and total chaos.” He also discussed race relations and violence in urban areas. "The deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota also make clear how much more work we have to do to make every American feel that their safety is protected. Too many Americans are living in terribly poverty and violence. We need jobs and we’re going to produce those jobs. Racial divisions have gotten worse, not better,” Trump said. (USA Today)
- On Friday, the Trump campaign’s request to address members of the New York Police Department was denied by Commissioner Bill Bratton. “If Mr. Trump wants to speak to me, I would be happy to brief him on what we’re doing. If Sen. Clinton wants to speak to me, I would be very happy to brief her on what we’re doing. But we are not in the business of providing photo ops for our candidates,” Bratton said. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied that the Trump campaign had made such a request. (The Washington Post)
- Potential vice presidential pick, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), is scheduled to appear with Trump at an event for veterans in Virginia on Monday. (NBC News)
- In an interview that aired on Sunday on CNN, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) said that she was not being vetted to be Trump’s vice president. She also discussed how Trump responded to the recent police shooting deaths of two black men and the Dallas sniper attack, saying, “I think he's trying to campaign as a racial healer. I think that has been part of his message, if you watched what he said this week. You know, he talked about how devastating this was for Dallas, how we have to respect our law enforcement and we need to pray for those who were killed and injured." (CNN)
- Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto discussed Trump’s proposal to build a wall along at the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend, saying, “There is no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that.” Although Peña Nieto said he could not agree with Trump’s generalizations about Mexicans, he added, “I believe that any of the candidates, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump, I'm sure that both of them would like to build good conditions and better wellness for their people, We are very respectful to whomever is elected. We want to build a positive and constructive relation among Mexico and to whomever becomes president of United States." (CNN)
- Nearly 1,400 students and alumni from Wharton, Trump’s alma mater, penned an open letter to Trump to reject his presidential campaign. “We, the undersigned Wharton students, alumni, and faculty, unequivocally reject the use of your education at Wharton as a platform for promoting prejudice and intolerance. Your discriminatory statements are incompatible with the values that we are taught and we teach at Wharton, and we express our unwavering commitment to an open and inclusive American society,” they wrote. (The Huffington Post)
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed Trump’s candidacy in an interview with The New York Times on Friday. Commenting on the impact of a Trump administration on the Supreme Court, she said, “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.” (The New York Times)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein said in an interview published by The Guardian on Friday that she would be willing to allow Bernie Sanders to take control of the Green Party’s presidential ticket if he decided to join them. “I’ve invited Bernie to sit down explore collaboration – everything is on the table. If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green Party. He could lead the ticket and build a political movement.” (The Guardian)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- In an interview with Politico on Friday, Gary Johnson said “the root” of last week’s violence was “the war on drugs.” He continued, “If you are [black and] arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon That’s the common thread. Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying. This is an escalation.” (Politico)
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
