Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - May 31, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- Over the weekend, former Republican governors Gary Johnson and William Weld were selected as the Libertarian presidential and vice presidential nominees at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida. “There are Republican voters who are going to feel cheated by the fact that their presidential nomination has been taken by a reality show star, and there are Democratic voters who are going to feel cheated when that corporate shill boxes out Senator Sanders at the convention in that rigged process. When those people feel cheated, we present an option for them,” said Nicholas Sarwark, the Libertarian Party’s national chairman, on Sunday. (Ballotpedia, The New York Times)
- The Bernie Sanders campaign announced on Friday that it was seeking the removal of Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) as chairs of the Platform and Rules Committees, respectively. In a letter to the Rules and Bylaws Committee, Sanders campaign counsel Brad Deutsch described Malloy and Frank as “aggressive attack surrogates for the Clinton campaign.” He continued, “The appointment of two individuals so outspokenly critical of Sen. Sanders, and so closely affiliated with Secretary Clinton's campaign, raises concerns that two of the three Convention Standing Committees are being constituted in an overtly partisan way designed to exclude meaningful input from supporters of Sen. Sanders' candidacy.” The Democratic National Committee rejected Sanders’ request on Saturday for failing to allege “any violation of the provisions of the Call in the conduct of their elections.” (USA Today, The Washington Post)
- Trump released a statement on Friday to formally decline the offer to debate Sanders in California. “Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher,” he wrote. (The Huffington Post)
Polls
- In a general election matchup in Virginia published by Gravis Marketing on Saturday, Hillary Clinton had a small lead over Donald Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent. When the survey included Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson, Clinton’s lead increased to 44 percent to 38 percent. Johnson received 6 percent support. (Gravis Marketing)
- Trump tied Clinton in New Hampshire in a Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald poll released on Friday. Each candidate had 44 percent support. (The Boston Herald)
- According to an NBC News/Survey Monkey tracking poll released on Tuesday, Clinton’s national lead over Trump has narrowed, 47 percent to 45 percent. Sanders registered a double-digit lead over Trump, 52 percent to 40 percent. (Politico)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- The Boston Globe published a survey of various slogans Hillary Clinton has used in her presidential campaign so far, including “breaking down barriers,” “real results,” “stronger together,” “fighting for us,” and the Twitter hashtag #ImWithHer. “Clinton’s ever-evolving message identity highlights a broader critique of her candidacy: that she tries to be all things to all people, and that she does not let voters see who she really is underneath all the image-making. The importance of a consistent message is all the more important given the candidate Clinton is on a collision course to face in November: master promoter Donald Trump,” wrote The Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey. (The Boston Globe)
- NRDC Action Fund, the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, made its first ever presidential endorsement on Tuesday in supporting Clinton. Rhea Suh, the president of the NRDC Action Fund, said in a statement, “Hillary Clinton is an environmental champion with the passion, experience and savvy to build on President Obama’s environmental legacy. More than any other candidate running, Hillary Clinton understands the environmental challenges America faces, and her approach to solving them is grounded in the possibility and promise our democracy affords us.” (The Washington Post)
- Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) explained in an interview on Sunday why he was supporting Clinton over Bernie Sanders as a superdelegate. “I admire so many of the issues that Bernie has raised ... but I think that Hillary is more likely to, in an incremental kind of hard, problem-solving approach, is going to get results sooner, I think, than him and I think I should support who I think is going to do the best job,” he said. Hickenlooper added that Clinton was receiving disproportionate criticism because of her gender: "There's an awful lot of criticism–literally millions of dollars of criticism against her every week, over things that really aren't that, against a man, wouldn't be brought up like that." (CBS News)
Bernie Sanders
- In an interview on Sunday, Bernie Sanders said that he encouraged Clinton to select a progressive vice president if she wins the Democratic nomination. “I would hope, if I am not the nominee, that the Vice Presidential candidate will not be from Wall Street, will be somebody who has a history of standing up and fighting for working families, taking on the drug companies whose greed is doing so much harm, taking on Wall Street, taking on corporate America and fight for a government that works for all of us, not just the one percent," he said. (Examiner.com)
- Sanders also mentioned Clinton’s email investigation on Sunday but declined to directly criticize her for it. "The Inspector General just came out with a report, it was not a good report for Secretary Clinton. That is something that the American people, Democrats and delegates are going to have to take a hard look at. But for me right now, I continue to focus on how we can rebuild a disappearing middle class, deal with poverty, guarantee health care to all of our people as a right,” he said. (CBS News)
- On Monday, five animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere attempted to storm the stage at a Sanders rally in East Oakland, California, managing to bypass the metal barricades before being removed by Secret Service agents. The group has previously targeted Sanders because “his campaign has promoted itself based on this idea of progressivism and rejecting discrimination and inequality.” After the protesters were removed, Sanders said, “We don't get intimidated easily.” (ABC News)
- El Nuevo Día reported on Friday that the number of polling locations for the Democratic primary in Puerto Rico has been reduced from 1,510 to 455 because other local elections required increased resources. Some Sanders supporters have suggested the reduction was put in place to “fix” the election for Clinton. (Bustle, The Hill)
Republicans
- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Friday that he was continuing to work to elect conservative delegates to the national convention in order “to do everything we can to fight for conservative principles to prevent Washington forces from watering down the platform.” Cruz specifically expressed concern that Trump might try to “remove the abortion plank” from the Republican Party platform. (U.S. News & World Report)
- In an interview that aired on CNN on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) discussed his experience campaigning, including the regrets he had about insulting Donald Trump for having “small hands” and being labeled as “robotic” for repeating the same phrase several times during a single debate. When asked for his opinion on Trump reviving “scandals” from the 1990s, Rubio said, “This is who Donald is. This is how he does things. And at this point, I don't think he should change if he's been successful. I may not like that direction, but, at this point, he won and this is the direction that he won on.” (CNN)
Donald Trump
- During a rally in Fresno, California, on Friday, Donald Trump said that there was no drought in the state and that officials were prioritizing an endangered fish, the Delta smelt, with its water restrictions. “We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane. It is so ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” he said. (USA Today)
- While campaigning in California on Sunday, Sanders challenged Trump’s position with sarcasm. “You see, we don't fully appreciate the genius of Donald Trump, who knows more than all the people of California, knows more than all the scientists," he said. (ABC News)
- Trump accused federal judge Gonzalo Curiel of being “a hater” and “very hostile” towards him in his handling of a class-action lawsuit against Trump University. “I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I’m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK? But we’ll come back in November. Wouldn’t that be wild if I’m president and I come back to do a civil case? Where everybody likes it. OK. This is called life, folks,” Trump said. He also pivoted his criticism to Curiel’s nationality, saying, “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK?” Curiel was born in Indiana. (The Hill)
- Curiel signed an order on Friday to unseal court records in the case. “Defendant became the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue,” he wrote in the order. More than 1,000 pages will be released by Thursday, including the “playbooks” which instructed salesmen on how to market Trump University courses. (TIME, The Washington Post)
- In an open letter on Friday, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanded that Trump return funds he received as part of the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program for small businesses. “In grabbing that money with both fists, you took it out of the pockets of small-business owners in New York who were truly hurting, and prevented them from taking full advantage of the relief so generously offered by their fellow citizens,” Nadler wrote. (The New York Times)
- Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger disputed Trump’s assertion that he approved of his foreign policy approach. “On foreign policy, you identify many key problems. I do not generally agree with the solutions. One-shot outcomes are probably not possible,” Kissinger said of Trump on Friday. (TIME)
- Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday the amount of money he raised for veterans groups in January and which groups will receive funding. (The Hill)
- U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said on Friday that he would consider serving as Trump’s vice president. “If I could help him in some way — and he were to ask me — I would consider it like any other citizen should,” he said. (The Daily Caller)
Third Party Candidates
- Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, tweeted on Sunday evening that a viable independent candidate would be entering the presidential race soon. He wrote, “Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.” Donald Trump tweeted in response, “The Republican Party has to be smart & strong if it wants to win in November. Can't allow lightweights to set up a spoiler Indie candidate!” (CBS News)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- In an interview with NPR prior to winning his party’s nomination, Gary Johnson criticized the immigration policies of both Donald Trump and the Obama administration. He said, “Well, what I have identified is that 30 percent of Republican voters believe the scourge of the earth is Mexican immigration. So [Trump] has tapped into this anger, which – you know, it's human nature. We all want to somehow justify why things aren't going right. And I think that Mexican immigration – legal, illegal – has taken that on. There's a real misunderstanding about illegal immigration. I mean, President Obama has broken up 3 million families by deporting and breaking up families here in the United States. So it isn't just Democrats and Republicans. But as a border state governor, I have to tell you this is a bad thing.” He also indicated his greatest area of disagreement with Hillary Clinton, saying, “I think at the end of the day, Hillary is going to grow government. Look, when government takes taxes out of my pocket, that's money that I could be spending on my life, enjoying my life as I see fit.” (NPR)
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
