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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 24, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Thursday's Leading Stories
- According to ABC News, Hillary Clinton needs to earn 37 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Describing the delegate gap between Clinton and Bernie Sanders, The Washington Post noted, “Put another way, if Sanders wins every contest by 15 points from here on out, including in New York (where polling shows Clinton with a wide lead), he still can't catch Clinton's pledged delegate total. And again: This is excluding the superdelegates, where Clinton has a huge lead.” Sanders challenged the “mythology” that he cannot win the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday night. “The road to the White House goes right through the West and through California,” he said, where he expects to perform well. (ABC News, The Washington Post, Business Insider)
- While defending his proposal to surveil Muslim communities on Wednesday, Ted Cruz pointed to a similar but now defunct program enacted in New York City following the September 11 terrorist attacks. When CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell challenged that that initiative had not been effective, Cruz said, "It is true that the de Blasio political henchman say that. It is also true that the NYPD said it provided valuable intelligence." NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton responded that Cruz had "no idea what the hell he's talking about." (CBS News)
Polls
- According to a national Fox News poll released on Wednesday, Donald Trump’s lead over Ted Cruz has significantly shrunk to 41 percent to 38 percent. In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton demonstrates a more comfortable lead of 55 percent to Sanders’ 42 percent. Fox News also conducted the following general election match-ups:
- Clinton (49 percent) vs. Trump (38 percent);
- Cruz (47 percent) vs. Clinton (44 percent);
- Kasich (51 percent) vs. Clinton (40 percent);
- Sanders (52 percent) vs. Trump (38 percent);
- Sanders (47 percent) vs. Cruz (43 percent);
- Kasich (44 percent) vs. Sanders (43 percent). (Fox News)
- Bloomberg also released a national poll on Wednesday finding Trump leading Cruz, 40 percent to 31 percent. On the Democratic side, in a poll released on Thursday, Sanders leaders Clinton by one point, 49 percent to 48 percent. In head-to-head matchups with Clinton, John Kasich performed best:
- In Pennsylvania, according to a poll released on Thursday by Franklin & Marshall, Trump has a narrow lead over Kasich, 33 percent to 30 percent. Clinton tops Sanders, 53 percent to 28 percent, in the Democratic contest. (Franklin & Marshall)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton delivered a wide-ranging speech on counterterrorism at Stanford University on Wednesday. (CNN, The New York Times)
- On ground strategy in the Middle East: “It would be a serious mistake to stumble into another costly ground war in the Middle East. If we’ve learned anything from Iraq and Afghanistan it’s that people and nations have to secure their own communities.”
- On European alliances: "On 9/11, NATO treated an attack against one as an attack against all. Now it is our turn to stand with Europe. We cherish the same values and face the same adversaries so we must share the same determination."
- On carpet-bombing: "It would also be a serious mistake to begin carpet-bombing populated areas into oblivion. Proposing that doesn't make you sound tough. It makes you sound like you are in over your head. Slogans aren't a strategy. Loose cannons tend to misfire.”
- On Trump’s foreign policy: “If Mr. Trump gets his way, it will be like Christmas in the Kremlin.”
- The American Nurses Association (ANA) endorsed Clinton on Tuesday. The largest member-based group for registered nurses, the ANA is distinct from the 185,000-member National Nurses United which endorsed Bernie Sanders in November. (Politico)
Bernie Sanders
- According to Michael J. Malbin, the executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, Bernie Sanders has received more contributions from small donors than Barack Obama had at this point in his 2008 campaign. (Vox)
- Sanders criticized the organization of the Arizona Democratic presidential primary on Wednesday, "In the United States of America, democracy is the foundation of our way of people. People should not have to wait five hours to vote. And what happened yesterday in Arizona is a disgrace. I hope that every state in this country learns from that and learns how to put together a proper election where people can vote in a timely manner and then go back to work,” he said. Sanders lost in Arizona to Clinton by 18 points. (CBS News)
Republicans
Ted Cruz
- During a press conference on Wednesday, President Obama criticized Ted Cruz for recommending U.S. Muslim communities be monitored for radicalization. He said, “As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which by the way, the father of Sen. Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free. The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense. It's contrary to who we are. And it's not going to help us defeat ISIL.” (NPR)
- Cruz defended this strategy on Wednesday morning in an interview on CBS News by comparing it to targeted policing in areas with gang activity. “Gang violence is a real problem in a lot of places across the country. What does law enforcement do with proactive policing? You go into the neighborhoods where gang violence is a problem, and you work proactively to get the gang members off the street,” he said. (NPR)
- Wis. Gov. Scott Walker (R) said in an interview recorded earlier this week that he was likely to endorse a presidential nominee before his state’s primary on April 5. Although he did not say who he would support, Walker noted, “Senator Cruz is the only one who’s got a chance, other than Donald Trump, to win the nomination. My friend Governor Kasich cannot.” (The Washington Post)
- On Wednesday morning, Heidi Cruz responded to Donald Trump’s threat to “spill the beans” about her. “Well, as you probably know by now, most of the things, many of the things others say are not based in reality. I have one job on this campaign, and it is to be helping Ted win this race. And it is, I think, the easiest job in the world, and that is to speak the truth: what I know about my husband, our family, myself,” she said. (The Dallas Morning News)
- On Wednesday, Cruz pointed to John Kasich as a potential barrier to him defeating Trump. “If this were a head-to-head race, a direct head-to-head race between me and Donald, I would feel very confident that we would get to 1,237. The complicating factor is John Kasich. It is unclear if Kasich will bleed off just enough votes to give Trump victories and delegates in states he would not otherwise have won,” he said. (The New York Times)
John Kasich
- John Kasich announced his New Jersey leadership team on Wednesday, which includes the former co-chairs of Marco Rubio’s New Jersey campaign, Tom Basta and Mike Thulen. (John Kasich for President)
- Despite mounting pressure to leave the Republican presidential race, Kasich said on Wednesday that he intends to continue his campaign. “When we get to Pennsylvania, we get to New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island — let me tell you, I drop out, Donald Trump is absolutely going to be the nominee. I don’t believe that Senator Cruz can come to the East and win,” Kasich said. (The New York Times)
- While Kasich did not directly comment on his Republican rivals’ calls to increase surveillance of Muslim communities on Wednesday, he did promote the importance of cooperation with them. He said, "Your friends in the Muslim community, they're going to have to work with us to destroy ISIS. They are going to have to tell us what they are hearing in their community from people who have been radicalized. But if all we tell them is drop dead, how the heck are we supposed to get them to work with us? And how are we supposed to get these countries around the world to work with us?" (The Hill)
Donald Trump
- According to ABC News, Donald Trump will have to win 55 percent of the remaining delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination. (ABC News)
- Fortune reported on Wednesday that Trump has understated his debt by $500 million. (Fortune)
- When asked if he would be willing to use tactical nuclear weapons against ISIS, Trump said, “I'm never going to rule anything out—I wouldn't want to say. Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't want to tell you that because at a minimum, I want them to think maybe we would use them.” (Bloomberg)
- According to a Monmouth University poll released on Wednesday, 54 percent of Republicans said the party should unite behind Trump at a contested convention even if he does not secure the necessary 1,237 delegates. (Politico)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- On Tuesday, Jill Stein defeated Kent Mesplay in the Arizona Green Party presidential primary, 81 percent to 19 percent. (Green Party Watch)
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
