Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - May 5, 2016
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Thursday's Leading Stories
- John Kasich suspended his presidential campaign on Wednesday. He told supporters in Columbus, Ohio, “Throughout this campaign, I said the Lord may have another purpose for me. As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith, that the Lord will show me the way forward and purpose for my life.” When Donald Trump was informed of Kasich’s exit from the presidential race during an interview, he said, “That’s big. I didn’t think that was going to happen.” (The Washington Post, TIME)
- With Kasich out of the race, Trump faces an uncontested path to secure 1,237 delegates and win the Republican presidential nomination. Some Republicans, like U.S. Rep. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), have stated that they will not support Trump. “With Clinton and Trump, the fix is in. Heads, they win; tails, you lose. Why are we confined to these two terrible options? This is America. If both choices stink, we reject them and go bigger. That's what we do,” Sasse wrote in a Facebook post. Trump said on Wednesday that he was not concerned with gaining the support of the critics in his own party. “I don't think it's imperative that the entire party come together. I don't want everybody. I don't even want certain people that were extraordinarily nasty. Let them go their own way. Let them wait eight years or let them wait 16 years or whatever, because I think we're going to have a great success against [Clinton],” he said. (CNN, RealClearPolitics)
Polls
- Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders in New Jersey, 60 percent to 32 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Wednesday. The pollsters also found “that most Democratic voters feel that [Clinton] picking Sen. Cory Booker as her running mate wouldn’t give her campaign much of a strategic advantage.” (Monmouth University)
Democrats
- Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Steve Grossman said on Wednesday that he would support reevaluating the use of superdelegates in the Democratic primary process. He said, “It's fine to say the process is unfair. And let's agree that perhaps the process is unfair because it's not one person, one vote, which is the way democracy is supposed to work. Maybe all the delegates should be chosen by the electorate.” (The Boston Herald)
- The Democratic Governors Association launched a website tracking the positions of Republican governors on whether they will support Donald Trump for president, focusing on the “silent nine” that have not made a statement, including Susana Martinez and John Kasich. (The Trump Tracker)
Hillary Clinton
- In an interview on CNN on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton said that she was prepared to handle attacks from presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, calling him “a classic case of a blustering, bullying guy.” She said, “If he wants to go back to the playbook of the 1990s, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of those who have tried to knock me down and take me out of the political arena, I'm more than happy to have him do that.” Clinton also debuted a new nickname for Trump, repeatedly referring to him as “a loose cannon.” (USA Today)
- Federal district judge Emmet Sullivan said on Wednesday that it “may be necessary” to depose Clinton about her private email server as part of discovery in a case relating to Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s simultaneous employment with the State Department and outside organizations. Sullivan added that “questions surrounding the creation, purpose, and use of the clintonemail.com server must be explored through limited discovery.” (NBC News)
- Marcel Lehel Lazar, the Romanian hacker who first uncovered one of the private email addresses Clinton used while secretary of state, described her server as “completely unsecured.” He said, “It was like an open orchid on the Internet.” Clinton's national press secretary, Brian Fallon, commented, "There is absolutely no basis to believe the claims made by this criminal from his prison cell. In addition to the fact that he offers no proof to support his claims, his descriptions of Secretary Clinton's server are inaccurate. It is unfathomable that he would have gained access to her emails and not leaked them the way he did to his other victims." (NBC News)
Bernie Sanders
- Despite his win in Indiana’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders is now mathematically eliminated from winning the Democratic nomination with pledged delegates alone. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on Wednesday, “The truth is, no one is going to the convention with the requisite number of pledged delegates to win. The superdelegates are going to decide this race.” (CNN)
- When asked on Wednesday if he was doing harm to his own cause by continuing to compete in the Democratic primary, Sanders said, “I think we are perpetuating the political revolution by significantly increasing the level of political activity that we're seeing in this country. Millions of people are now coming into the political process as the result of what our campaign is about. I think it is good for the Unites States of America, good for the Democratic Party, to have a vigorous debate, to engage people in the political process.” (The Hill, WAMC)
Republicans
- The last two Republican presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, both announced on Wednesday through staffers that they did not intend to endorse any candidate in the presidential race. (The Texas Tribune)
- Kirsten Kukowski, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday that “convention staff will begin working with the Trump campaign to bring them up to speed on the months of planning that's been happening in Cleveland so we can unite and make the convention a success for the Republican Party and nominee.” (Cleveland.com)
- Conservative radio host and leader of the #NeverTrump movement Erick Erickson said on Wednesday that he has discussed plans to launch a third-party alternative to Trump and Hillary Clinton and “begin now laying the groundwork for an exit strategy from Donald Trump's Republican Party." (CNN)
Donald Trump
- Discussing the qualities he would seek in a potential vice presidential pick, Donald Trump said on Wednesday morning that he would “like to go with somebody with great political experience” and said he would “most likely” select an elected official. He continued, "I would like to have somebody who would truly be good with respect to dealing with the Senate, dealing with Congress, getting legislation passed, working toward something where we're not signing executive orders every three days like President Obama does.” (ABC News)
- Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) endorsed Trump on Wednesday. She reportedly said that “she’s honored to be mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate and would be happy to consider such an offer.” (KFOR)
- Although South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) indicated on Wednesday that she would support Trump in the general election, she dismissed reports that she was a potential presidential pick. “I have great respect for the will of the people, and as I have always said, I will support the Republican nominee for president. To the members of the press who are asking, while I am flattered to be mentioned and proud of what that says about the great things going on in South Carolina, my plate is full and I am not interested in serving as vice president,” Haley said. (Politico)
- In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, Donald Trump discussed the Puerto Rican debt crisis, harassment of the press, and U.S.-Russia relations.
- Trump said that Puerto Rico must “cut [its] debt way down" without assistance from the U.S. federal government.
- When asked to send a message to his supporters regarding the anti-Semitic and threatening messages some have sent to journalist Julia Ioffe after she published a profile of his wife, Trump said, “I don’t have a message to the fans – I’m not gonna talk about that.”
- He also said that he believed he would “have a good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Russian jets buzzed U.S. naval ships during his presidency, Trump said that his response would be to call Putin and say, “Don’t do it again.”
- Trump also accused Clinton of being “the one who started” the birther movement questioning President Barack Obama’s citizenship. (CNN, The Guardian)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- The Green Party of the U.S. announced on Wednesday that it was formally recognizing Jill Stein and William Kreml as nominees for its party nomination. The party’s nominee will be selected at the Green Party Presidential Nomination Convention in August. (Green Party Watch)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- Following Ted Cruz’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Gary Johnson issued a statement encouraging voters who want a “small government candidate” to support him instead of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. He said, “Polarizing as they may be, when the rhetoric is pushed aside, will either of those candidates shrink the government? Will either of them stop the military interventions that are not making us safer? Will either of them stop the government from spying on us citizens? And will either truly bring government spending under control, stop the deficits that are bankrupting us, and get the government off our backs so that Americans can find the jobs they want and put us back on a path to opportunity?” (Gary Johnson for President)
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
