Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - June 22, 2016
From Ballotpedia
|
Wednesday's Leading Stories
- On Tuesday, in a speech focusing on the economy, Hillary Clinton attacked Donald Trump’s business record and warned that his economic policies would hurt Americans. She said, "You might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman, he'd be better prepared to handle the economy. Well, it turns out, he's dangerous there, too. Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy. … Every day we see how reckless and careless Trump is. He's proud of it. Well, that's his choice, except when he's asking to be president. Then it's our choice." (CNN)
- On Wednesday Clinton is expected to further explain her economic plan, which includes “increasing the minimum wage, closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs overseas and expanding benefits for working families,” according to The New York Times. (The New York Times)
- Libertarian presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, and his running mate, William Weld, will appear on CNN Wednesday night for a town hall event. (The Hill)
Polls
- According to an Economist/YouGov poll released on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump 43 percent to 39 percent in the general election race. Gary Johnson has 4 percent support. (Economist/YouGov)
- A Bloomberg Politics poll conducted on June 14, found that 55 percent of voters who initially supported Sanders over Clinton plan to vote for Clinton in November, while 22 percent say they’ll vote for Trump. Eighteen percent of Sanders’ supporters say they favor Johnson over Clinton and Trump. (Bloomberg)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who is a possible vice presidential pick for Hillary Clinton, has been criticized by business organizations and praised by Hispanic and labor organizations. (The Hill)
- Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), said, “If she picks someone hostile to small businesses, that sends an alarming message to the business community. We wouldn’t regard this is as a positive. … [If Clinton picks Perez], trial lawyers will be popping champagne corks, but anyone making a living running a small business will probably go to the aspirin bottle.”
- J. David Cox Sr., President of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Perez “believes in the power of collective bargaining to raise wages and living standards, which will benefit any presidential candidate campaigning before a nation yearning for answers to skyrocketing income inequality. We believe Secretary Perez is an eminently qualified candidate for vice president.”
- According to Bloomberg, Russian hackers were able to gain access to the Clinton Foundation’s computer network. “The attacks on the foundation’s network, as well as those of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, compound concerns about her digital security even as the FBI continues to investigate her use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state. Clinton Foundation officials said the organization hadn’t been notified of the breach and declined to comment further.” (Bloomberg)
Bernie Sanders
- Despite missing “101 straight votes between January and June of 2016,” Bernie Sanders remains popular with his constituents in Vermont. Vermont State Senator Phil Baruth said, “The reason I think [the negativity] hasn’t happened to Bernie is pretty simple. [He’s] put in the time. Bernie does an incredible number of town hall events throughout the year. … People feel respected by the personal contact.” Baruth also noted that Sanders represents Vermont pride. He said, “There’s a tradition of Vermonters viewing themselves as at the forefront of progressive policy. So to the extent that Bernie Sanders becomes our Paul Wellstone, our Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a figure that’s recognized nationally for the power of his ideas, we take great and justifiable pride in that.” (Newsweek)
- According to The Daily Caller, “More than a dozen former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staff members” are now working for the environmental group NextGen Climate, which is “funded and founded by mega-wealthy liberal Tom Steyer.” Zack Malitz, the leader of Sanders’ digital organizing team who now works for NextGen Climate, said, “Working for Sen. Sanders, I saw the incredible power of young people to reshape American politics and push a broad-based progressive agenda. I’m excited to continue that work.” (The Daily Caller)
Republicans
Donald Trump
- After meeting with a group of evangelical Christians on Tuesday, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said that during the meeting Trump “promised to defund Planned Parenthood, to pass H.R. 36, or the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and to appoint a ‘pro-life Supreme Court justice.’” (The New York Times)
- Before the meeting, Trump seemed to question Hillary Clinton’s faith. He said, “[W]e don’t know anything about Hillary in terms of religion. Now, she’s been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there’s no — there’s nothing out there.”
- In response, Clinton’s campaign released the following statement: “Mr. Trump’s proposals are not just un-Christian — they’re un-American and at odds with the values our country holds dearest. … [Clinton] is embraced by many evangelical sister churches as a trustworthy and respected political leader because she lives the Golden Rule in her private life and in her public policies.”
- In response, Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman, said that there was “no intention” of questioning Clinton’s faith. Hicks said that Trump “‘should be praised’ for responding to a question about Mrs. Clinton’s faith by saying that he was not aware of Mrs. Clinton’s ties to religion,” according to The New York Times.
- Former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann will serve on Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board. Trump’s campaign released a statement on Tuesday saying that the board will “provide advisory support to Mr. Trump on those issues important to Evangelicals and other people of the faith in America.” (The Hill)
- On Tuesday, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, said that Trump “planned to add between 100 and 150 staffers to his campaign in the next 30 days,” according to BuzzFeed. (BuzzFeed)
- During an interview on Monday, Trump said he “would not regulate the sale of specific gun models” or rounds of ammunition a gun can hold, according to The Hill. Trump told Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor," “On the guns, I wouldn’t because again, it’s a question of protection. And also, once you start, where do you end? Where do you end?” Trump added that he supports preventing individuals on terror watchlists from buying guns. He said, "Who would not agree with that? The watchlist to me is very important.” (The Hill)
Third Party Candidates
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- Gary Johnson discussed his economic policy during an interview on Tuesday. Johnson proposed a “fair tax,” that “would replace the corporate and personal income taxes, capital gains and payroll tax with a single 28% consumption tax,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Johnson said that the fair tax would create jobs because “why would you grow or start up a company anywhere in the world other than the U.S. with a zero corporate tax rate?” Johnson added that he would repeal the 16th amendment, which allows the federal government to tax incomes, and if he could not do so, he would “sign anything that simplifies our tax system or lowers taxes.” Johnson also said that he would “sign on to anything that cuts spending” as president. He proposed cutting Social Security, instituting more means-testing, raising the retirement age to 72 to 75, and converting “Medicare and the federal safety net programs, including Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, to block grants to the states.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- During an interview with International Business Times on Tuesday, Johnson discussed his plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Johnson said, “Let me walk you through this one. OK. New York City. Washington, D.C. Here's New York City. New York City sends Washington, D.C., 13 cents. OK? [It] goes to Washington, D.C., and it comes back to New York state as 11 cents. Gee, how does that transaction work? Something happened. Bureaucracy happened. All right. And then, they send 11 cents back. So 11 cents out of every school dollar that every state spends comes from the federal government, but it comes with 15 cents' worth of the strings attached, meaning they say, ‘To get the 11 cents, we want you to do A, B, C and D.’ Well, to do A, B, C and D, that's 4 cents that the state could have spent in ways that it saw fit. But now it's got to comply with the federal government to receive it. So if none of this transaction ever occurred in the first place, a dollar would get spent in New York in ways that New Yorkers would have wanted to spend that money. Doesn't that make sense?” (International Business Times)
- Johnson also explained why he thinks the cost of college tuition so high. He said, “It's guaranteed government student loans. If guaranteed government student loans never existed, tuition today would be half of what it is, because colleges and universities would have to go out and attract you as a student. And they would have to be as effective and efficient as everything else in our lives. But because you are guaranteed a government student loan, you have no excuse to not go to college. Colleges' and universities' tuition keeps going up. They have absolutely no reality with regard to their pricing. If every college student tomorrow says, ‘I'm not going to go to college until the price of college, university education drops,’ guess what? It would. It would happen. It would happen dramatically. And I am sorry that college graduates today have been sold a bill of goods. Graduating with college with a home mortgage without the home. I think college students have been sold a bill of goods.”
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
