Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 14, 2016
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Monday's Leading Stories
- Several incidents of unrest and violence followed Donald Trump at campaign events throughout the weekend. On Friday, Trump canceled a rally in Chicago due to security concerns. He claimed the following day that the protesters were coming from Bernie Sanders’ campaign and threatened over Twitter, “Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!” Sanders said in an interview on Sunday, “I think anybody who understands Mr. Trump's campaign knows that he tells the truth very, very rarely. I'm afraid that on this occasion, he's lying again." (CNN, ABC News)
- Ted Cruz picked up nine delegates following Wyoming’s county conventions on Saturday. Trump and Marco Rubio each picked up one additional delegate. In Washington, D.C., Rubio was the victor over John Kasich by less than two percentage points. In the Democratic primary race, Hillary Clinton won the inaugural Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucuses. (CNN, The Washington Post)
- National Review endorsed Cruz on Friday. “No politician is perfect, and Senator Cruz will find that our endorsement comes with friendly and ongoing criticism. His tax plan is admirably growth-oriented but contains too much indirect taxation of employees. He has done little to lay out a plausible replacement for Obamacare, and especially to counter the idea that replacing it would involve stripping insurance from millions of Americans. … What matters now is that Cruz is a talented and committed conservative. He is also Republicans’ best chance for keeping their presidential nomination from going to someone with low character and worse principles,” the editors wrote. (National Review)
Polls
- Three polls released over the weekend by Florida Atlantic University, CBS News/YouGov and NBC/WSJ/Marist found Donald Trump leading Marco Rubio by 20 points or more in Florida. (The Sun Sentinel, CBS News, NBC News)
- Surveys of Ohio voters in the Republican primary were closer. CBS News/YouGov has Trump tied with Kasich in Ohio with 33 percent each. NBC/WSJ/Marist places Kasich ahead of Trump by 6 points with 39 percent support. (CBS News, NBC News)
- In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 28 points and 27 points in Florida, in two new polls from CBS News/YouGov and NBC/WSJ/Marist. In Ohio, Clinton’s lead ranges from nine to 20 points over Sanders. (CBS News, NBC News)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton condemned Donald Trump on Saturday for his “ugly, divisive rhetoric” and “encouragement of violence and aggression.” She continued, “If you play with matches, you're going to start a fire you can't control. That's not leadership. That's political arson. The test of leadership and citizenship is the opposite. If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. And if you see a bully, stand up to him." (CNN)
- Clinton apologized on Saturday for suggesting Ronald and Nancy Reagan had started a “national conversation” about HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. She said, “Yesterday, at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, I said something inaccurate when speaking about the Reagans’ record on HIV and AIDS. Since then, I’ve heard from countless people who were devastated by the loss of friends and loved ones, and hurt and disappointed by what I said. As someone who has also lost friends and loved ones to AIDS, I understand why. I made a mistake, plain and simple.” (MSNBC)
- On Saturday, Clinton questioned where Bernie Sanders was during the early 1990s when she was fighting for healthcare reform. A staffer for Sanders’ campaign tweeted in response that he was “literally standing right behind her” and posted a video of Clinton and Sanders together on stage during an address about healthcare. (Gawker)
- During a Democratic town hall on Sunday, Clinton was challenged by an exonerated death row inmate who spent 39 years in prison. He asked her how she could support capital punishment given the documented cases of innocent people being executed. Clinton responded, "I've said I would breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states themselves began to eliminate the death penalty.” She also criticized the states, saying that they “have proven themselves incapable of carrying out fair trials that give defendants the rights that defendants should have." Clinton concluded, "Where I end up is this, and maybe it's a distinction that is hard to support, but at this point, given the choices we face from terrorist activities primarily in our country that end up under federal jurisdiction, for very limited purposes, I think it can still be held in reserve for those." (CNN)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders criticized Hillary Clinton on Friday for her relationship with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). He said, “Hillary Clinton proudly lists Mayor Rahm Emanuel as one of her leading mayoral endorsers. Well let me be as clear as I can be. Based on his disastrous record as mayor of the city of Chicago, I do not want Mayor Emanuel's endorsement if I win the Democratic nomination." He then called on Clinton to reject the endorsement. (CBS News)
- Franklin County Judge Richard Frye ruled on Friday that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) erred when he prohibited 17-year-olds who would be of age for the general election from participating in the state’s primary. Sanders’ campaign had filed a similar case in federal court and called the decision a “victory for democracy.” Husted said he would not appeal the decision due to time constraints. (CNN)
- Sanders discussed Clinton’s campaign during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. He said that Clinton was “getting a little bit nervous" because the “momentum” was with his campaign. He also criticized Clinton’s support for “almost every piece of disastrous trade legislation.” (CNN)
Republicans
- President Barack Obama commented on the state of the Republican presidential primary on Friday, comparing it to “fantasy and schoolyard taunts and selling stuff like it’s the Home Shopping Network.” Commenting on Donald Trump’s conduct, he continued, “How can you be shocked? This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya — who just wouldn’t let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren’t saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot, wanted to get his endorsement. And then now, suddenly, we’re shocked that there’s gambling going on in this establishment.” (The Washington Post)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz discussed the tension and violence at Donald Trump’s rallies on Friday, saying, “In any campaign, responsibility starts at the top. Any candidate is responsible for the culture of the campaign, and when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.” (Politico)
- When asked if he would support Trump as the Republican nominee while campaigning on Saturday, Ted Cruz said, “My answer is the same. I committed at the outset, I will support the Republican nominee, whoever it is.” He added, however, “We are going to beat Donald Trump.” (Politico)
- Last week, Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini ruled that Cruz was a “natural-born citizen” and, therefore, qualified to appear on Pennsylvania’s primary ballot. Carmon Elliott, the plaintiff in the case, said on Friday that he would appeal the matter to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. (Philly.com)
- According to an article published by Politico on Sunday, Cruz’s campaign “is now making decisions based on daily and sometimes hourly data about where he stands to pick up the most delegates in the next round of voting, and only then publicly announcing his plans, typically with 24 hours’ notice or less.” As campaign manager Jeff Roe explained, “It’s why we have not released the public schedule, to see where the best opportunities are. One of the things we did is, we went to a 24-hour advise.” (Politico)
- National Review endorsed Cruz on Friday. “No politician is perfect, and Senator Cruz will find that our endorsement comes with friendly and ongoing criticism. His tax plan is admirably growth-oriented but contains too much indirect taxation of employees. He has done little to lay out a plausible replacement for Obamacare, and especially to counter the idea that replacing it would involve stripping insurance from millions of Americans. … What matters now is that Cruz is a talented and committed conservative. He is also Republicans’ best chance for keeping their presidential nomination from going to someone with low character and worse principles,” the editors wrote. (National Review)
John Kasich
- On Friday, John Kasich responded to Donald Trump’s criticism that he was involved in the 2008 financial crisis because he worked as a managing director at Lehman Brothers. "I will say one thing about Lehman Brothers. I ran a two man office in Columbus, Ohio. And if I bankrupted Lehman Brothers from a two man office, I should have been selected pope, not run for president. That's like blaming a car dealer in Lima for the collapse of GM,” he said. (NBC News)
- New Day for America, a super PAC backing Kasich, successfully challenged the airing of an ad produced by Trump’s campaign for “falsely attacking” Kasich and not following federal regulations governing political ads. “Campaigns always reflect the candidate, and it’s clearly amateur hour over at Trump HQ. How can a campaign who can’t figure out how to run a television ad possibly beat the Clinton political machine? It’s a joke,” said Matt David, New Day for America’s chief strategist. Several television stations in Ohio have refused to air the ad. (The New York Times)
- Former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced on Saturday that he had voted for Kasich. (The New York Times)
- Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich’s campaign, has requested Marco Rubio tell his supporters to drop a lawsuit in Pennsylvania challenging the validity of the signatures Kasich submitted to the state to appear on the primary ballot. (Bloomberg)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio expressed some reluctance when asked on Saturday if he would support Donald Trump if he became the Republican nominee. He said, "I don't know. I mean, I already talked about the fact that I think Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this country. But the fact that you're even asking me that question, I still at this moment continue to intend to support the Republican nominee, but it's getting harder every day.” (The Huffington Post)
- Rubio also commented on the violence at Trump’s rallies over the weekend on Sunday, saying, “If we reach a point in this country where we can’t have a debate about politics without it getting to levels of violence or anger, where people think just because you’re angry you can say and do almost anything you want, we’re going to lose our republic. We’re going to have a big problem. Those images from Chicago the other night, it looks like something out of the Third World.” (Politico)
- During a campaign event on Sunday, Rubio said that he “must win” his home state of Florida. “All 99 delegates go to the person who wins, even if by one vote, and so I am doing everything I can to win here. We must win here. We must win here, not only because it will launch our campaign, but we must win here because we must send a message to the country that we are not going to allow the conservative movement and the Republican Party to get hijacked by someone who is neither a Republican nor a conservative.” (The Orlando Sentinel)
Donald Trump
- Ben Carson said on Saturday that he would be “willing” to serve as Donald Trump’s vice president “if it was really going to make a big difference.” Discussing the reasoning behind his endorsement of Trump, he said, “I looked at the others and I didn’t see path to victory for Rubio or Kasich, and I felt that Cruz was too polarizing and wouldn’t be able to bring across Democrats and independents. We’re in really different type of environment right now where if you can’t extend your base, you’re not going to win, and I’m afraid of what will happen if we lose.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Trump charged on Saturday that early voting in Florida was “dishonest” because Marco Rubio’s “minions” were “trying to rig the vote.” Florida Republican Party spokesman Wadi Gaitan said the party was not aware of any “irregularities.” (CBS Local)
- According to a Gallup poll of U.S. Hispanics, Trump has a net favorability rating of -65 points. “Trump's negative image, however, is not merely a result of Hispanics' Democratic political orientation – evident in the substantially more positive images that Hispanics have of the other three Republican candidates. Two of these – Rubio and Kasich – actually have slightly more positive than negative ratings, while Cruz's image tilts just slightly negative,” Gallup noted. (Gallup)
- The Secret Service jumped on stage to protect Trump on Saturday during a rally in Ohio when a man “attempted to breach the secure buffer and was removed rapidly and professionally." The individual also reportedly threw a bottle at Trump. "I was ready for him, but it's much easier if the cops do it,” Trump said following the incident. (NBC News)
- During an interview on Sunday, Trump said that he was considering paying John McGraw’s legal fees following the man’s arrest for punching a protester during a rally in North Carolina last week. “The man got carried away. He obviously loves his country, and maybe he doesn’t like seeing what’s happening to the country,” Trump said. (Yahoo)
- Our Principles PAC, a super PAC formed to oppose Trump’s candidacy, released an ad on Saturday set to air in Florida and nationally. It features clips of Trump discussing protesters and “the growing hostile environment” at his events. (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
