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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - July 22, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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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
- Poll: Quinnipiac University released a new set of polls for voters in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia. In all three swing states, Hillary Clinton fell behind in matchups with Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio. A majority of respondents in each state also said Clinton was not “honesty and trustworthy." (Yahoo, Quinnipiac University)
- Ted Cruz plans to introduce an amendment to the upcoming highway funding bill to ensure “no Iranian nuclear deal unless Iran recognizes Israel and frees American hostages.” This transportation bill has previously been cited as a potential legislative vehicle to defund Planned Parenthood. (The Hill, Real Clear Politics)
- Trump is set to visit Laredo, Texas, a city near the Mexican border, to discuss border security with local law enforcement and border patrol agents tomorrow. (ABC News)
- Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders will appear at a party fundraiser in Iowa on August 14, 2015. Jim Webb is the only Democratic candidate who is not scheduled to appear. (The Des Moines Register)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- According to Joe Biden’s aide, Ted Kaufman, Biden will announce whether he is running for president “at the end of the summer.” Although a CNN poll released earlier this month placed Biden second among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, political analyst and pollster Charlie Cook suggested Biden will be too old to win the nomination at 74 come next November. (MSNBC, CNN)
Lincoln Chafee
- On August 30, 2015, Lincoln Chafee will attend the Corn Feed, an event hosted by Progress Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa, featuring appearances by several Iowa state and federal representatives. Chafee is the only presidential candidate currently scheduled to attend. (The Des Moines Register)
Hillary Clinton
- After making several campaign stops in Detroit, Michigan, Hillary Clinton raised $540,000 yesterday at a fundraiser hosted by Democratic strategist Jill Alper. (WDIV Detroit)
- In a hearing last week, federal judge Richard Leon questioned the State Department as to why FOIA requests made by the Associated Press about Clinton’s schedule and staffers have gone unanswered for more than four years. Attorneys from the Department of Justice argued the State Department was prioritizing another federal judge’s order to release records monthly over the FOIA requests. (Politico)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders participated in the “Skimm Your Candidate” series hosted by The Huffington Post. Sanders reiterated his support for raising the minimum wage, establishing pay equity for women, Obamacare and abortion rights. (The Huffington Post)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- When Jeb Bush was asked how he could criticize Donald Trump for saying John McCain was not a war hero when he wrote a letter of gratitude to Bud Day, a veteran who questioned John Kerry’s war record in the 2004 election, Bush responded, ““If [Day] says that there was a problem, I believe him. He’s a great Floridian and a great American, so I wrote him a note thanking him for his service. I’m not going to change my beliefs about that at all.” (Politico)
- At least 136 top-tier donors from George W. Bush’s campaign have contributed to Jeb Bush in the first 15 days of his campaign. This figure surpasses the number of George W. Bush’s top fundraisers that Mitt Romney and Rick Perry were able to grab at the start of their 2012 presidential campaigns. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Following Donald Trump’s statement at the Family Leadership Summit that he does not ask God for forgiveness, Bush was asked by radio host Michael Medved if he does. Bush responded that he asks for forgiveness regularly and it is part of his “relationship with [his] savior.” (Michael Medved)
Ben Carson
- In an interview with The Blaze, Ben Carson explained his 2013 position that the right to own a semi-automatic weapon should depend on where a person lives. Carson said, “What I was trying to get across is that the place where dangerous weapons are most likely to fall into the hands of crazies are crowded places. They are not likely to happen in some remote place. But in no way do I think we should restrict the rights, particularly the rights of law abiding citizens to have guns.” (The Blaze)
- Carson has stated he believes the Iran nuclear deal is “reversible.” Carson added, “I’m very hopeful that our Congress will not agree with this. If they truly are Americans, as opposed to blind followers of the president, I think we’ll be OK.” (The Blaze)
- Speaking in an interview with Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson, Carson questioned President Obama’s past support of Planned Parenthood. Carson said, “You wonder if he actually knows the history of Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger, who was trying to eliminate black people. That was the whole purpose of it.” In the same interview, Carson criticized Hillary Clinton for her support of Margaret Sanger and Saul Alinsky, a liberal community organizer. (The Christian Post)
Chris Christie
- The CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, has joined Chris Christie’s campaign as the co-chair of the national finance team. The campaign has also released the names of more than 100 top fundraisers on the team. (Bloomberg, The New York Times)
- The archbishop of Newark, John J. Myers, has condemned Christie’s administration for barring the archdiocese from selling headstones and private mausoleums at Catholic cemeteries. Myers and lawyers from the Institute for Justice called the law “unconstitutional” and “one of the most egregious examples of economic protectionism anywhere in the country.” (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz said one potential outcome of the Iran nuclear deal would be a warhead detonated over the Atlantic that “could shut down the entire electrical grid on the Eastern seaboard, could take down our stock market, our financial systems, but even more importantly could take down food delivery, water delivery, heat, air conditioning, transportation. The projections are that one nuclear warhead in the atmosphere over the Eastern seaboard could result in tens of millions of Americans dying.” Cruz added that he believes the deal “is designed to facilitate Iran’s evading sanctions.” (National Journal)
- In an interview with David Brody, Cruz said evangelical Christians must turn out to vote if they want to see the country bettered. Cruz explained, “We can turn our country around but only if the body of Christ rises up.” (CBN News)
- Cruz released a video celebrating an Iowa couple who “are fighting to defend religious liberty” by refusing to provide wedding services for same-sex couples. (The Huffington Post)
Carly Fiorina
- Carly Fiorina called liberal women’s groups like Emily’s List “pretty shameful” for attacking her. Fiorina said, “These are people who support women and yet they’re offended by the idea of my candidacy? That’s about politics and ideology, pure and simple.” (CNN)
- After another video was released showing a Planned Parenthood official discussing the use of fetal tissue from abortions, Fiorina released her own video questioning the “moral depravity” and “hypocrisy” of Planned Parenthood. Before calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, Fiorina criticized the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton for remaining silent on the issue. (The Washington Free Beacon, YouTube)
Lindsey Graham
- After Donald Trump revealed Lindsey Graham’s personal phone number during a rally in South Carolina, Graham's campaign manager released the following statement: “Donald Trump continues to show hourly that he is ill-prepared to be commander in chief. The two people most excited about Donald Trump's candidacy are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Because of Trump's bombastic and ridiculous campaign, we aren't talking about Obama's horrible deal with Iran or Hillary Clinton's plans to continue Obama's failed national security agenda." (NBC News)
- Graham called President Obama the “Neville Chamberlain of our time,” likening the British prime minister’s policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany to the Iran nuclear deal. Graham continued, “ I don’t think he’s a bad man, I think he misunderstands the world and the Mideast.” (The Huffington Post)
Mike Huckabee
- To protest the Iran nuclear deal, Mike Huckabee posted a Vine clip featuring The Lion King characters, Simba, Pumbaa and Timon, singing “Hakuna Matata” before being destroyed by a nuclear explosion. Huckabee tweeted, “‘No Worries’ is not a strategy for Iran. Tell Congress to kill the nuclear deal!” (The Huffington Post)
- When asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer what his alternative to the Iran nuclear agreement would be as president, Huckabee answered, “The alternative is to take the actions to revoke the agreement, reinstitute the sanctions on Iran, make it clear that this was a terrible deal. It was done in a manner that didn't really have the support of the American people, was not done in the best interest of peace, and that we have a new sheriff in town. And the new sheriff is not going to accept that agreement as one we're going to live with because we can't live with Iran having nuclear power.” (CNN)
John Kasich
- According to The Washington Post, social media mentions of Donald Trump’s release of Lindsey Graham’s private phone number significantly outnumbered those of John Kasich's presidential announcement. (The Washington Post)
- In an interview with FOX News’ Sean Hannity following his presidential announcement speech, Kasich said he was able to succeed in Ohio because of a “great team” and “economic growth” that includes everyone “no matter who you are.” (Fox 8 News)
Bobby Jindal
- Bobby Jindal published an op-ed in the Conservative Review calling on President Obama to stop submitting to political correctness and “name the enemy and resolve to destroy Radical Islam.” (Conservative Review)
- Prior to bonds for a highway project in Louisiana hitting the market, Jindal’s administration has requested Moody’s Investors Service upgrade the state’s credit rating from “negative” to “stable.” Louisiana’s credit outlook has gone up and down under Jindal’s leadership, most recently moving to “negative” this past winter as the state faced a $1.6 billion budget gap. (The Times-Picayune)
George Pataki
- George Pataki is scheduled to attend the “Stop Iran Rally” in Manhattan today. Pataki has been a vocal opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, calling it “a colossal catastrophic capstone to the failed Obama-Clinton foreign policy.” (Stop Iran Rally, Pataki for President)
Rand Paul
- Rand Paul said he supported the use of military force against Iran if it were to violate the nuclear deal by building nuclear weapons. Paul explained, “I think military force always has to back up diplomacy. Diplomacy doesn’t work without military force behind it, and I think making that decision is a difficult decision, but ultimately yes you have to have military force that backs up the diplomatic negotiations that you have. We have to say that there has to be force as a backdrop to this.” When acting as a surrogate for his father, Ron Paul, in 2008, Rand Paul expressed incredulity at the idea that Iran posed a threat to American national security. (BuzzFeed)
- Speaking at the Bipartisan Summit on Fair Justice, Paul pushed for criminal justice reforming, saying, “I think the biggest impediment to employment and to voting in our country is a criminal record.” Paul said he worked with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on a bill to expunge criminal records and end solitary confinement for young offenders. (The Washington Times)
Rick Perry
- In response to Donald Trump saying yesterday Rick Perry only “put on glasses so people will think he’s smart,” Perry's campaign retweeted several of Trump’s tweets from 2012 where he expressed support for Perry. (The Daily Caller)
- Trump responded by posting a 2012 photo of him and Perry standing together with the caption, “In my office last cycle playing nice and begging for my support and money. Hypocrite!” (The Washington Times)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio released a statement criticizing President Obama for not prioritizing the release of international journalist Jason Rezaian and other detainees in Iran during negotiations with the country. Rubio said, “It is unacceptable that the Obama Administration missed an opportunity to make the freedom of Jason, as well as Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini, and obtaining information about missing Floridian Robert Levinson, a priority in its negotiations with Iran. Jason should not be behind bars for his profession as a journalist, and he should be released unconditionally.” (U.S. Senator for Florida, Marco Rubio)
- During an appearance on FOX News’ “Fox and Friends,” Rubio said Trump’s behavior “is neither dignified nor worthy of the office that he seeks.” He added that he believes President Obama has also acted inappropriately, saying, “We already have a president now that has no class. We have a president now, that, you know, does selfie stick videos, that invites YouTube stars there, you know, people who eat cereal out of a bathtub. And I don't believe that some of the language that Trump is employing is worthy of the office.” (Bloomberg)
- Rubio became the first 2016 Republican presidential candidate to have an organized campaign drive in Rhode Island. (Providence Journal)
Rick Santorum
- In an interview with Boston Herald Radio, Rick Santorum cited Rick Perry’s 2012 campaign as evidence that Donald Trump’s wealth is not determinative of the outcome of the election. Santorum said, “I go back to four years ago when Rick Perry entered the race with claims of $50 million and a great record as governor of Texas and didn’t win a delegate. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful.” (Boston Herald)
- In an extensive interview with U.S. News & World Report, Santorum stated his position on issues ranging from Iran to employment discrimination. On the question of increasing the federal minimum wage, Santorum said, “I'd put it in an economic package with a variety of different things. I'd propose 50 cents an hour increase a year for three years, then take a look at it. That would bring it back into the range of what historically the percentage of the population has been covered by the minimum wage.” (U.S. News & World Report)
Donald Trump
- The Federal Election Commission released Donald Trump’s personal financial disclosure forms. Totaling 92 pages, much of Trump’s real estate is marked as being worth $50 million or more, the highest valuation category the forms provide. (Business Insider)
- Trump called the videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the use of fetal tissue after abortions “disgusting” and “cavalier.” He added that Planned Parenthood should “absolutely” be defunded. (Washington Times)
- Republican Party leaders in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have criticized Trump for being indifferent in his outreach to them. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said Trump often has one-on-one meetings with Republican leadership, but the campaign does not publicize it “while everybody else does.” (CNN)
Scott Walker
- Senator Ron Johnson has stated his continued support for Scott Walker even though his leadership PAC donated money to Marco Rubio’s senatorial election campaign. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- Walker is conducting a motorcycle tour of New Hampshire. Scott Brown, the former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, will accompany him for a portion of the trip. (Wall Street Journal)
- Michael Grunwald has written an article for Politico detailing Walker’s efforts to reconstruct the Zoo Interchange and expand Interstate 94 in Wisconsin instead of developing public transportation options between Milwaukee and its suburbs to address congestion. Both projects have been postponed due to budget constraints and political strife. (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
