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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - June 27, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Monday's Leading Stories
- A final draft of the Democratic Party platform was approved on Saturday by the Platform Drafting Committee. It includes calls to raise the minimum wage to $15, abolish the death penalty, more strictly regulate Wall Street, establish a multi-millionaire surtax, and review existing trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. (2016 Democratic National Convention)
- According to J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami, the initial draft of the Democratic Party’s platform also features changed language on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The new language breaks with the party's practice of framing its aim of establishing a Palestinian state solely in terms of Israel's interests. By including parallel acknowledgment of Israeli and Palestinian rights, the party underscores its belief that the only viable resolution to the conflict – a two-state solution – requires recognizing the fates of the two peoples are intertwined," Ben-Ami said in a statement. (CNN)
- Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he intended to continue to push for more progressive policies in the platform. “We lost some very important fights. We're going to take that fight to Orlando, where the entire committee meets in two weeks. And if we don't succeed there, then we'll certainly take it to the floor of the Democratic convention,” he said. (CNN)
- On Friday, Carroll “Beau” Correll, a delegate from Virginia to the Republican National Convention, filed a case in federal court—on behalf of himself, 49 Republican delegates, and 110 Democratic delegates—alleging that Virginia state law unconstitutionally violates his right of conscience to vote for the candidate of his choice at his party’s national convention, as well as his rights to free speech and free association under the First Amendment. (Talking Points Memo, Ballotpedia)
Polls
- According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, eight percent of Bernie Sanders supporters said they would vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. This is down from 20 percent last month. “What's more, the 81 percent of Sanders backers who are now behind Clinton is a higher number than in any poll of 2008 Clinton backers who rallied to Obama. The high that year was 74 percent, in October,” The Washington Post reported. (The Washington Post)
- Clinton has a slight lead over Trump in four battleground states, according to a series of polls released by CBS News/YouGov on Sunday. (YouGov)
- Colorado: Clinton (40 percent) vs. Trump (39 percent);
- Florida: Clinton (44 percent) vs. Trump (41 percent);
- North Carolina: Clinton (44 percent) vs. Trump (42 percent);
- Wisconsin: Clinton (41 percent) vs. Trump (36 percent).
- Clinton leads Trump nationally, 51 percent to 39 percent, in a Washington Post/ABC News survey released on Sunday. Her margin only shrinks by one point when Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are added to the mix with Clinton receiving 47 percent support to Trump’s 37 percent, Johnson’s 7 percent, and Stein’s 3 percent. (Langer Research)
- Trump criticized the poll’s sample selection on Sunday, tweeting, “The ‘dirty’ poll done by @ABC @washingtonpost is a disgrace. Even they admit that many more Democrats were polled. Other polls were good.” (Twitter)
- An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, also released on Sunday, has Clinton leading Trump with a smaller margin of five points, 46 percent to 41 percent. In a four-way race, Clinton receives 39 percent, Trump 38 percent, Johnson 10 percent, and Stein 6 percent. (NBC News)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton released her first Spanish-language ad of the general election this weekend. Set to air on Sunday during the Chile-Argentina Copa America final, the ad begins by highlighting Donald Trump’s proposal to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and features the stories of five Americans of Hispanic descent. (CNN)
- Clinton made an unannounced campaign stop to march in the New York City Pride Parade on Sunday. She tweeted, “One year ago, love triumphed in our highest court. Yet LGBT Americans still face too many barriers. Let's keep marching until they don't.” (Yahoo)
- Priorities USA, a super PAC backing Clinton, has purchased $10.5 million of airtime in the Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh markets from July 5 through to the election. (The New York Times)
- On Sunday, Clinton tacitly criticized Trump for his response to the Brexit referendum. She said, “Our priority now must be to protect American families and businesses from the negative effects of this kind of tumult and uncertainty. … We need leaders ... who understand how to work with other leaders to manage risks, who understand that bombastic comments in turbulent times can actually cause more turbulence and who put the interest of the American people ahead of their personal business interests.” (The Associated Press)
Bernie Sanders
- Symone Sanders, Bernie Sanders’ national press secretary, parted ways with the Sanders campaign on Sunday. (Fusion)
- Last week, Sanders expressed opposition to a Senate bill that would require the labeling of genetically modified organisms using a more “lenient” standard than Vermont’s requirement that such items be labeled "produced with genetic engineering.” Sanders said, “I am very proud that Vermont has led the country in GMO labeling. This bill would preempt what Vermont and other states have done. GMO labeling exists in dozens of countries around the world. It is not controversial. Already major food companies in our country have begun labeling their products. People have a right to know what is in the food they eat. I am going to do everything I can to defeat this legislation.” (NBC News, U.S. Senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders)
- Sanders discussed on Sunday what it would take for his supporters to rally behind Hillary Clinton. "Stand up, be bolder than you have been, and then many of those voters, in fact, may come on board,” he said. Sanders continued, “So it’s not just Bernie Sanders saying, ‘Oh, yeah, vote for Hillary Clinton,’ it is Hillary Clinton standing up and saying, ‘You know what, these are the things we need to do.; And if she does the right thing, I’m absolutely confident that the vast majority of my supporters will vote for her.” (Politico)
Republicans
- U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) said on Friday that she will not attend the Republican National Convention, giving up her spot as an at-large delegate from Utah. "I don't see any upsides to it. I don't see how this benefits the state,” she said. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Donald Trump
- On Friday, Donald Trump appeared in Turnberry, Scotland, to celebrate the reopening of his golf course and resort there. His trip came the day after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, sparking a major drop in the value of the pound. Trump highlighted the potential benefit of this plunge for businesses like his, saying, “Look if the pound goes down, they're gonna do more business. You know, when the pound goes down, more people are gonna come to Turnberry, frankly, and the pound has gone down, and let's see what the impact of that is." A protester at the event also attempted to pass out golf balls with swastikas on them. He said, “These are the new balls available from the clubhouse — part of the new Trump Turnberry range.” (NPR)
- The Clinton campaign released an ad on Saturday criticizing Trump’s comments. "Every president is tested by world events but Donald Trump thinks about how he can profit from them," the ad’s narrator says. The ad will air nationally this week. (CNN)
- “Clinton is trying to wash away her bad judgement call on BREXIT with big dollar ads. Disgraceful!” Trump responded in a tweet. (CNN)
- The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump has come “to accept a relationship with Christ,” according to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. “I don’t know when it was, but it has not been long. I believe he really made a commitment, but he’s a baby Christian,” said Dobson. (The New York Times)
- Trump clarified his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S. on Saturday, saying that the ban was intended to only cover Muslims from “terror states.” He said, “People coming from the terror states – and you know who I'm talking about when I talk about the terror states – we are going to be so vigilant you wouldn't believe it and frankly a lot will be banned.” Trump added that individuals from those areas could potentially be granted access, but they would have to be "even more severely vetted.” (CNN)
- On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Trump said that former presidential rivals U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) would not be permitted to speak at the Republican National Convention if they did not support him. “If there’s no endorsement, then I would not invite them to speak,” he said. (The New York Times)
- In an interview on Friday with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump said that he did not think Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor should have to recuse herself because of her Hispanic heritage if a case hypothetically came before the Supreme Court on Trump’s immigration policies. “I’d want people that can vote on anywhere. I want people without conflict, and you have to assume they don’t have a conflict,” he said. Trump added that he did not “want to walk anything” back regarding his statements about federal judge Gonzalo Curiel and his ability to oversee a lawsuit against Trump University given his Mexican heritage. (Politico)
- Former Trump aide Michael Caputo said last week that U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) were potential vice presidential picks for Trump. (Newsmax)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein discussed both major party candidates in an interview over the weekend. Differentiating herself from Donald Trump, she said, “Well, number one, Donald Trump changes his mind at least every 24 hours, so what he says today has nothing to do with what he thinks or what he will say tomorrow. Number two, he has a track record for offshoring jobs, for mistreating his workers … for cheating students at Trump University, for failed businesses, and he won’t even release his tax returns. It’s like, fool me once, shame on you, fool me a thousand times, shame on me–we don’t want to trust this guy.” She also criticized the Clintons, saying, “The meltdown on Wall Street, the disappearance of 9 million jobs, 5 million people who had their homes stolen out from under them–that was a direct consequence of Wall Street deregulation brought to us by the Clintons.” (CBS Boston)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- Gary Johnson released the following statement on Friday regarding the United Kingdom’s referendum to leave the European Union: "We can view Britain's exit from the [European Union] as some kind of catastrophic event, or as an opportunity. It is perfectly appropriate for the British people to make their own decisions about their own economic futures. It is not for us, either previously or today, to lecture them about their own best interests. The EU has, for some time, been pulling Britain down a path to unsustainable entitlements and away from the opportunities the free market offers. That voters rejected that path is not surprising." (The Washington Post)
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
