Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 28, 2016
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Monday's Leading Stories
- With decisive margins ranging from 40 points to 60 points, Bernie Sanders won all three Democratic caucuses against Hillary Clinton on Saturday night in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. “We think we do have a path toward victory. We’ve won the last five out of six contests, all of them in landslide victories. What we have said from day one is the South is the most conservative part of America. We did not do well there. ... We’re out of the South, we’re heading to the West Coast which is the most progressive part of America. We think we’re going to do very well there,” Sanders said on Sunday. (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal)
- In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times on Friday, Trump discussed economic policy, national security and foreign affairs. (The New York Times)
- Trump said that he would consider stopping oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless the country offers soldiers to join the ground fight against the Islamic State or “substantially reimburse[s]” the U.S. for its military protection.
- According to The Times, Trump would also “be open to allowing Japan and South Korea to build their own nuclear arsenals rather than depend on the American nuclear umbrella for their protection against North Korea and China.”
- Discussing when America was last at its height of power, Trump pointed to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency at the turn of the century.
- On ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump initially said he did not want to “specifically” address any policy because he “would love to see if a deal could be made.” He later clarified this statement, noting that he supported a two-state solution with the caveat that “the Palestinian Authority has to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”
Polls
- In a Washington Free Beacon poll released on Friday, Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump in Wisconsin, 36.2 percent to 31.4 percent. (The Washington Free Beacon)
- According to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released on Sunday, Trump has the advantage in California with 37 percent support. Cruz follows with 30 percent. (The Los Angeles Times)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- The FBI investigation into whether classified material was mishandled during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state has reportedly reached its final stage with interviews being scheduled for Clinton’s aides. “Those interviews and the final review of the case, however, could still take many weeks, all but guaranteeing that the investigation will continue to dog Clinton’s presidential campaign through most, if not all, of the remaining presidential primaries,” The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. (The Los Angeles Times)
- In her speech at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on Monday afternoon, Clinton “is expected to single out Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and challenge him to hold hearings on the nomination of Merrick Garland.” (Politico)
- On Sunday, The New York Daily News published an op-ed by Clinton on gun control reform. In addition to calling for the repeal of gun industry liability protections, implementing comprehensive background checks, and closing the Charleston loophole, Clinton also addressed Donald Trump’s and Ted Cruz’s positions on gun control. (New York Daily News)
Bernie Sanders
- During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Bernie Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton to a debate in New York in the next three weeks. Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, also sent a letter to Clinton’s campaign asking why she would not commit to a debate in the state. “Is the Secretary concerned about debating before the people who twice elected her to the U.S. Senate? Perhaps there is some tactical advantage you are seeking by avoiding a debate in New York but I would remind you that Senator Sanders agreed to debate the secretary in New Hampshire when he was well ahead,” Weaver wrote. (The New York Times)
- Sanders said in an interview on CNN on Sunday that the U.S. should improve its surveillance. “I think we know who ISIS is. We know those people who are planning attacks against our European allies and against ourselves,” Sanders added. (CNN)
- On Sunday, Sanders suggested that some superdelegates should reconsider their vote after his recent victories. He said, “I think the superdelegates are going to have make a very difficult decision, and that is if a candidate wins in a state by 40 or 50 points, who are you going to give your vote to?” Sanders continued, “Second of all, which candidate is better positioned to defeat Trump or any of the other Republican candidates? I think a lot of the superdelegates are going to conclude that it’s Bernie Sanders.” (ABC News)
- The hashtag #BirdieSanders went viral on Friday night after a small bird landed on Sanders’ podium during his rally in Portland, Oregon. “I think there may be some symbolism here. That bird is really a dove asking us for world peace. No more wars,” Sanders said. (USA Today)
Republicans
- According to The Morning Call, Pennsylvania’s delegates may be fundamental to deciding who the next Republican nominee is. Of the state’s 71 Republican delegates, 54 are not required to support the state’s primary winner. “Pennsylvania's 54 free-to-choose delegates, along with 28 from North Dakota and a few others from Guam and America Samoa, could aid Trump in closing the gap if he falls just short of the nomination total — or they could block him from doing so. They've played a critical role before and haven't always reflected the popular vote. In the last contested GOP convention in 1976, Pennsylvania's delegation helped seal the nomination for President Gerald Ford in his contest with Ronald Reagan,” The Morning Call reported. (The Morning Call)
Ted Cruz
- In a letter to the Obama administration on Thursday, Ted Cruz questioned whether U.S. communities involved in refugee resettlement were getting enough support. “I am concerned that the federal government and the voluntary agencies that administer the resettlement program have been abusing the generosity and good will of resettlement communities by funneling refugees to those communities without adequate consultation and advance notice,” he wrote. (Roll Call)
- U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, commented on the potential consequences of Cruz’s call to increase surveillance of Muslim communities following the Brussels terrorist attacks. “Well, in Europe, you have very different situation than you do in the United States. In Europe, it’s very segregated. And you have the diasporas in Belgium that I saw. And they’re being radicalized because they’re not assimilated with the culture. I don’t think we have that same situation in the United States. … I passed this bill to combat violent extremism in the United States as effective outreach to the Muslim community, so you can pull the religious leaders really on to our team, if you will, to protect us from radicalization from within those communities. I think to send inflammatory messages could actually have an unintended consequences.” (Breitbart)
- Cruz told reporters on Friday that he believed “Donald Trump and his henchman” had planted a negative story in The National Enquirer featuring rumors about Cruz’s personal life. “It is a story that quoted one source on the record: Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s chief political adviser. It is attacking my family. And what is striking is Donald’s henchman, Roger Stone, had for months been foreshadowing that this attack was coming. It’s not surprising that Donald’s tweet occurs the day before the attack comes out. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He’s a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent. Well, let me be clear: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him,” said Cruz. (Politico)
John Kasich
- Commenting on the increasingly personal feud between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, John Kasich that there should be “some rules” making discussion of candidates’ families “off-limits.” He said in an interview that aired on Sunday, "I mean, you cannot get these attacks on families. And if this becomes the order of the day, what kind of people are we going to have in the future that are going to run for public office?" (Politico)
- Kasich also slightly modified his response to the stock question of whether he would support Trump as the Republican nominee. “We’re going to look at it every single day, and we’ll see what happens. We’ve got a long way to go. And I don’t want to project that he’s going to be the nominee. I don’t think he will be. And if he is ... I review it every day,” he said on Sunday. (The Huffington Post)
- In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Kasich described some Republicans’ calls for the monitoring of Muslim communities a “knee-jerk” reaction. “In order for us to have great human intelligence, I want the public to hear this.We are going to have to have intimate communication and coordination with our friends in the Muslim community. There is no question about it,” Kasich said. He added that he believed NATO should be reformed to be more involved in policing and intelligence gathering. (NBC News)
- In response to Cruz’s campaign encouraging him to drop out so that the anti-Trump contingent can coalesce around Cruz, Kasich said on Sunday, “I mean, get out for what? If I'd have gotten out, Trump would be the nominee. He would have won Ohio. And frankly, we'll win some districts in Wisconsin. We will move to Pennsylvania, where I'm basically in a statistical tie with Trump. And when we go to New York and everywhere else, we're going to pick up delegates.” (The Hill)
Donald Trump
- In an interview on Friday, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson discussed Heidi Cruz and what Trump meant when he threatened to “spill the beans” about her. "She is a Bush operative; she worked for the architect of NAFTA, which has killed millions of jobs in this country; she was a member on the Council on Foreign Relations who — in Sen. Cruz's own words, called a nest of snakes that seeks to undermine national sovereignty; and she's been working for Goldman Sachs, the same global bank that Ted Cruz left off of his financial disclosure," Pierson said. "Her entire career has been spent working against everything Ted Cruz says that he stands for,” she added. (The Hill)
- While discussing the controversy over Trump attacking Heidi Cruz on Twitter, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, said there were more important matters to discuss and pivoted the conversation to immigration. “You want to talk about women's issues? Here's something we should be talking about. It is a fact: As a result of uncontrolled migration into this country -- you can look this up, it's a statistic from Equality Now -- half a million U.S. girls in this country are at risk of female genital mutilation," Miller said. (CNN)
- On Sunday, Trump accused Cruz’s campaign of purchasing the rights to a modeling photo of Melania Trump and then giving it to a super PAC for use in a negative ad. "There's no way in a million years that super PAC did that without his absolute knowledge,” Trump added. (The Hill)
- Politico reported on Saturday that many delegates from South Carolina were likely to vote against Trump at a brokered convention. “Working against Trump is the fact that South Carolina’s potential delegates may be drawn only from the 925 party insiders who attended the state’s GOP convention in 2015. It’s a pool of party veterans who helped reelect the state’s GOP chairman Matt Moore — who has been vocally critical of Trump — with 83 percent support last year,” noted Politico. (Politico)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- NBC News profiled Jill Stein on Saturday, comparing her to Bernie Sanders and noting that although “they share common goals — like combating income inequality and putting people ahead of polluters — Stein said they are to the left of Sanders on foreign policy and on domestic issues like student loan debt, which she wants to cancel immediately.” Stein conceded she did not expect to win the presidential election, but noted, “We have far more recognition than we did four years ago. And we are in the age of unpredictable events, this presidential election being one of them." (NBC News)
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
