Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - May 20, 2016
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Friday's Leading Stories
- In an effort to allay growing tensions between Bernie Sanders supporters and the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) plans to offer an increased number of seats on the platform committee at the national convention to Sanders representatives, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Two weeks ago, Sanders demanded from DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz increased representation and condemned the appointment of Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, a Hillary Clinton supporter, to chair the platform committee. (The Washington Post)
- Donald Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks confirmed on Thursday that Paul Manafort would be promoted from convention manager to campaign chairman and chief strategist. According to Hicks, Manafort’s move will not impact the role of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who will “continue overseeing day to day operations and will work with Manafort on political strategy and communications, among other things, through the general election." (ABC News)
Polls
- In a national poll released by CBS News/The New York Times on Thursday, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump, 47 percent to 41 percent. Bernie Sanders beats Trump by an even wider margin of 13 points, 51 percent to 38 percent. (CBS News)
- Rasmussen Reports, however, placed Trump ahead of Clinton in its national poll released on Thursday, with 42 percent to Clinton’s 37 percent. Thirteen percent of respondents said that they preferred a different candidate and seven percent remained undecided. (Rasmussen Reports)
Democrats
- During a press conference on Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that the role of superdelegates in the Democratic primary process should be reconsidered. She said that the party “should be revisiting the number of votes that superdelegates have. Maybe give them half or give them a pass for the hall or a seat on the floor or something. But not to undermine, to make it look like something will weigh in after everyone goes through the elective process.” (The Blaze)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton was interviewed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday about the state of the presidential race and current events. CNN
- On the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804: “Well, Chris, it does appear that it was an act of terrorism, exactly how, of course, the investigation will have to determine. But it once again shines a very bright light on the threats that we face from organized terror groups. ISIS, of course, but then there are other networks of terrorists that have to be hunted down and defeated.”
- On whether Donald Trump is qualified to be president: “No. I do not. And I think in this past week, whether it's attacking Great Britain, praising the leader of North Korea, a despotic dictator who has nuclear weapons, whether it is saying pull out of NATO, let other countries have nuclear weapons, the kinds of positions he is stating and the consequences of those positions and even the consequences of his statements, are not just offensive to people, they are potentially dangerous.”
- On the end of the Democratic primary process: “I will be the nominee for my party, Chris. That's already done, in effect. There's no way I won't be.”
- On her experience conceding the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008: “I went all the way to the end against then-Senator Obama. I won nine out of the last 12 contests back in ’08. I won Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia. I know the intense feelings that arise, particularly among your supporters as you go towards the end. But we both were following the same rules, just as both Senator Sanders and I are following the same rules. … So when I came out and withdrew and endorsed Senator Obama, about 40 percent, according to polls, about 40 percent of my supporters said they would never support him. So I worked really hard to make the case, as I'm sure Senator Sanders will, that whatever differences we might have, they pale in comparison to the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Name an issue you care about, domestic or international, and we clearly we are much closer, Senator Sanders supporters and mine, than either of us is with Donald Trump.”
- According to The Associated Press, the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has raised $46 million. The DNC has directed $2 million of that total over the past two months to further develop state organizations and reclaim U.S. Senate seats in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (Associated Press)
Bernie Sanders
- Philadelphia approved four pro-Bernie Sanders rallies to be held the week of the Democratic National Convention in July. Attendance is estimated at 38,000 people. (NBC 10 Philadelphia)
- In response to Hillary Clinton’s charge that the Democratic primary was “already done, in effect,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said on Thursday, “In the past three weeks voters in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon respectfully disagreed with Secretary Clinton. We expect voters in the remaining nine contests also will disagree. And with almost every national and state poll showing Sen. Sanders doing much, much better than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump, it is clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign.” (Bernie Sanders for President)
Republicans
Donald Trump
- U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the chair of the House Republican Conference, announced on Wednesday night that she supported Donald Trump’s candidacy. “Did I cast my ballot with enthusiasm? Not exactly – I’m still getting to know Mr. Trump like so many others. We had a positive first meeting last week. Since then, I’ve continued the conversation with his team to better understand how he plans to lead moving forward and unite the country around a forward-looking, conservative policy agenda. I’m encouraged so far and look forward to learning more,” she wrote in a Facebook post. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) declined to comment on McMorris Rodgers’ endorsement which made him the last Republican congressional leader not to support Trump. He said, “I’ll have more to say about this at another point, our teams are meeting, I think the list of the judges was a very good step in the right direction. We’re making progress, but that’s all I’ve got to say at this point.” (The Washington Post)
- Campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with House Republicans on Thursday where he assured them that Trump “did not plan on changing any of the planks of the platform,” according to U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Texas). (CNN)
- Trump held a rally in New Jersey on Thursday night to help Chris Christie raise money to pay off his presidential campaign debt. Admission to the event cost $200 per ticket. (Reuters)
- Early in the morning on Thursday, Trump commented on the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804, tweeting, “Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!” During his rally in New Jersey on Thursday night, Trump reiterated his theory, “A plane got blown out of the sky. And if anything, if anybody thinks it wasn’t blown out of the sky, you are 100 percent wrong, folks. OK? You're 100 percent wrong.” (CBS News, ABC News)
- In an interview with Al Jazeera, Trump’s top military adviser Gen. Michael Flynn said that whether he supported killing the families of terrorists would depend on the “circumstances of the situation.” Flynn continued, “The circumstances could be – it could be something like an Omar Al-Bagdadi, let’s say he’s still alive, and we find him in a place where its [sic] very difficult to get into, and he is actually using children to protect himself, what do we do? How do we actually go get him if killing him is better than capturing him?” (The Intercept)
- In 2005, Trump proposed creating a season of “The Apprentice” that would pit a “team of successful African Americans versus a team of successful whites.” He said, “Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world." (CBS News)
Third Party Candidates
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- In his first interview following the announcement that he would be Gary Johnson’s running mate, former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld called some of Donald Trump’s policies “out there.” Singling out Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, Weld said, “I can hear the glass crunching on Kristallnacht in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vienna when I hear that, honest.” He added, however, “No, I wouldn’t call Mr. Trump either a fascist or a Nazi. I’m just saying, we got to watch it when we get exclusionary about people on account of their status as a member of a group.” (The New York Times)
- The Daily Caller reported on Thursday that billionaire David Koch has pledged “tens of millions of dollars” to support Johnson’s presidential campaign. While a representative for Koch denied the story, an unnamed Libertarian Party leader said, “In the event that a Johnson/[Bill] Weld ticket emerges from the convention, a pathway is in place for significant funding from Koch, [Steve] Wynn and other large donors.” Johnson told The Washington Post, "To my knowledge, it's not happening. That's not to say it isn't, but it would be a surprise to me. We tried to talk to Kochs during the last cycle, and we couldn't do it. There are a lot of people who are expressing interest, in a big way, to be a part of this, but I'm not naming names. I can say that I haven't reached out to the Kochs." (Daily Caller, 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
