Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - November 16, 2015

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Monday's Leading Stories

• Following the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night, both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates made public statements. The Huffington Post has compiled these immediate reactions here.
• The second Democratic presidential debate took place on Saturday night on CBS. More than 8.5 million people tuned in to see Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley discuss terrorism, national security and economic issues. (The New York Times, The Washington Post)
• Poll: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 57 percent to 35 percent in the latest national McClatchy-Marist poll released on Friday. Martin O’Malley registered 4 percent support. Among black and Latino voters, Clinton also maintained a lead with 81 percent support and 54 percent support, respectively. (Marist Poll)
• Poll: In a national Reuters poll released on Friday, Donald Trump expanded his lead over the Republican field with 42 percent support among likely Republican voters. (Reuters)
• Poll: According to a poll of New Hampshire voters conducted by Gravis Marketing and released on Saturday, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 46 percent to 25 percent in the state. For Republicans, Donald Trump was the top pick with 29 percent support. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio followed with 12 percent and 10 percent. (Gravis Marketing)

Democrats

The following selection of quotes comes from the transcript of Saturday night’s Democratic presidential debate prepared by The Washington Post. (The Washington Post)

Hillary Clinton

• On the Paris terrorist attacks: Well, our prayers are with the people of France tonight, but that is not enough. We need to have a resolve that will bring the world together to root out the kind of radical jihadist ideology that motivates organizations like ISIS, a barbaric, ruthless, violent jihadist terrorist group. This election is not only about electing a president. It's also about choosing our next commander-in-chief.
• On Libya: Well, we did have a plan, and I think it's fair to say that of all of the Arab leaders, Gaddafi probably had more blood on his hands of Americans than anybody else. And when he moved on his own people, threatening a massacre, genocide, the Europeans and the Arabs, our allies and partners, did ask for American help and we provided it. And we didn't put a single boot on the ground, and Gaddafi was deposed. The Libyans turned out for one of the most successful, fairest elections that any Arab country has had. They elected moderate leaders. Now, there has been a lot of turmoil and trouble as they have tried to deal with these radical elements which you find in this arc of instability, from north Africa to Afghanistan. And it is imperative that we do more not only to help our friends and partners protect themselves and protect our own homeland, but also to work to try to deal with this arc of instability, which does have a lot of impact on what happens in a country like Libya.
• On screening Syrian refugees: I think that is the number one requirement. I also said that we should take increased numbers of refugees. The administration originally said 10. I said we should go to 65, but only if we have as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine, whatever resources it takes because I do not want us to, in any way, inadvertently allow people who wish us harm to come into our country.
• On receiving donations from Wall Street interests: You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small. And I'm very proud that for the first time a majority of my donors are women, 60 percent. So, I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.
• On whether it was hypocritical to criticize Sanders for his vote against gun manufacturer liability: I -- I said I made a mistake on Iraq, and I would love to see Senator Sanders join with some of my colleague in addition the Senate that I see in the audience. Let's reverse the immunity. Let's put the gun makers and sellers on notice that they're not going to get away with it.
• On modifying the Affordable Care Act: We now have this great accomplishment known as the Affordable Care Act, and I don't think we should have to be defending it among Democrats. We ought to be working to improve it and prevent Republicans from both undermining it and even repealing it. I have looked at -- I have looked at the legislation that Senator Sanders has proposed, and basically, he does eliminate the Affordable Care Act, eliminates private insurance, eliminates Medicare, eliminates Medicaid, Tricare, children's health insurance program -- puts it all together in a big program which he then hands over to the states to administer. And I have to tell you, I would not want -- if I lived in Iowa, Terry Branstad administering my health care. I -- I think -- I think as Democrats we ought to proudly support the Affordable Care Act, improve it, and make it the model that we know it can be.
• On a crisis that tested her for the presidency: I would pick is the fact that I was part of a very small group that had to advise the president about whether or not to go after Bin Laden. I spent a lot of time in the situation room as secretary of state and there were many very difficult choices presented to us. But probably that was the most challenging because there was no certainty attached to it. The intelligence was by no means absolute. We had all kinds of questions that we discussed and, you know, at the end, I recommended to the president that we take the chance to do what we could to find out whether that was bin Laden and to finally bring him to justice. It was an excruciating experience.

Martin O’Malley

• On the Paris terrorist attacks: My heart, like all of us in this room, John, and all the people across our country, my hearts go out to the people of France in this moment of loss. Parents, and sons, and daughters and family members, and as our hearts go out to them and as our prayers go out to them, we must remember this, that this isn't the new face of conflict and warfare, not in the 20th century but the new face of conflict and warfare in the 21st century. And there is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must able to work collaboratively with others. We must anticipate these threats before they happen. This is the new sort of challenge, the new sort of threat that does, in fact, require new thinking, fresh approaches and new leadership.
• On using the term “radical Islam” and relations with Muslim Americans: I believe calling it what it is, is to say radical jihadis. That's calling it what it is. But John, let's not fall into the trap of thinking that all of our Muslim American neighbors in this country are somehow our enemies here. They are our first line of defense. And we are going to be able to defeat ISIS on the ground there, as well as in this world, because of the Muslim Americans in our country and throughout the world who understand that this brutal and barbaric group is perverting the name of a great world religion. And now, like never before, we need our Muslim American neighbors to stand up and to -- and to be a part of this.
• On comprehensive immigration reform: [W]e've actually been focusing on border security to the exclusion of talking about comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, if more border security and these -- and more and more deportations were going to bring our Republican brothers and sisters to the table, it would have happened long ago. The fact of the matter is -- and let's say it in our debate, because you'll never hear this from that immigration-bashing carnival barker, Donald Trump, the truth of the matter is... The truth of the matter is, net immigration from Mexico last year was zero. Fact check me. Go ahead. Check it out. But the truth of the matter is, if we want wages to go up, we've got to get 11 million of our neighbors out of off the book shadow economy, and into the full light of an American economy. That's what our parents and grandparents always did. That's what we need to do as a nation. Yes, we must protect our borders. But there is no substitute for having comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people, many of whom have known no other country but the United States of America. Our symbol is the Statue of Liberty. It is not a barbed wire fence.
• On raising the federal minimum wage: $10.10 was all I could get the state to do by the time I left in my last year. But two of our counties actually went to $12.80 and their county executives, if they were here tonight, would also tell you that it works. The fact of the matter is, the more our people earn, the more money they spend, and the more our whole economy grows. That's American capitalism.
• On race relations: For my part, that's what I have done in 15 years of experience as a mayor and as a governor. We restored voting rights to 52,000 people. We decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. I repealed the death penalty. And we also put in place a civilian review board. We reported openly discourtesy, and lethal force and brutality complaints. This is something that -- and I put forward a new agenda for criminal justice reform that is informed by that experience. So as president, I would lead these efforts, and I would do so with more experience and probably the attendance at more grave sites than any of the three of us on this stage when it comes to urban crime, loss of lives. And the truth is I have learned on a very daily basis that, yes, indeed, black lives matter.

Bernie Sanders

• On the connection between climate change and terrorism: In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism. And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you're going to see countries all over the world -- this is what the CIA says -- they're going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops ask you're going to see all kinds of international conflict. But, of course, international terrorism is a major issue that we have got to address today.
• On whether the term “radical Islam” should be used: I don't think the term is what's important. What is important to understand is we have organizations, whether it is ISIS or Al Qaida, who do believe we should go back several thousand years. We should make women third-class citizens, that we should allow children to be sexually assaulted, that they are a danger to modern society. And that this world, with American leadership, can and must come together to destroy them. We can do that. And it requires an entire world to come together, including in a very active way, the Muslim nations.
• On the Affordable Care Act: I believe we've got to go further. I want to end the international embarrassment of the United States of America being the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege. And also -- also, what we should be clear about is we end up spending -- and I think the secretary knows this -- far more per capita on health care than any other major country, and our outcomes, health care outcomes are not necessarily that good.
• On the influence of campaign contributions from big donors: I have never heard a candidate never, who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military industrial complex, not one candidate say, oh, these campaign contributions will not influence me. I'm going to be independent. Well, why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that. Once again, I am running a campaign differently than any other candidate. We are relying on small campaign donors, 750,000 of them, 30 bucks a piece. That's who I'm indebted to.
• On launching a “political revolution” against corruption: And we are going to do a political revolution, which brings working people, young people, senior citizens, minorities together. Because every issue that I am talking about-- paid family and medical leave, breaking up the banks on Wall Street, asking the wealth to pay their fair share of taxes, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour -- every one of those issues is supported by a significant majority of the American people. The problem is, that as a result of a corrupt campaign finance system, Congress is not listening to the American people. Its listening to the big money interest. What the political revolution is about is bringing people together to finally say, enough is enough. This government belongs to us. Not just the billionaires.

Republicans

• The Associated Press surveyed the 712 superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention to determine who Democratic party leaders consider the greatest threat. Although only 176 of the superdelegates responded to the question, more than a third of those – 65 superdelegates – named Marco Rubio. John Kasich and Jeb Bush followed with 45 votes and 36 votes, respectively. (The Dallas Morning News)

Jeb Bush

• On Sunday, Jeb Bush said the U.S. should concentrate its refugee assistance on Christian Syrians. “I think we need to do thorough screening and take in a limited number. There are a lot of Christians in Syria that have no place now. They'll be either executed or imprisoned, either by Assad or by ISIS. We should focus our efforts as it relates to the refugees for the Christians that are being slaughtered,” Bush said. (The Huffington Post)
• In the same interview on CNN, Bush said “Islamic terrorism” should be named “for what it is.” He said, “This is not a question of religion. This is a political ideology that has co-opted a religion, and I think it's more than acceptable to call it for what it is and then organize an effort to destroy it.” (CNN)
• Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Bush said the U.S. “should declare war and harness all of the power that the United States can bring to bear both diplomatic and military, of course, to be able to take out ISIS. We have the capabilities of doing this, we just haven't shown the wall.” When asked what he would like to see President Obama do in the next two weeks to combat ISIS, Bush answered, “Declare a no-fly zone over Syria. Directly arm the Peshmerga forces in Iraq. Re-engage with the Sunni tribal leaders. Embed with the Iraqi military. Be able to create safe zones in Syria. Garner the support of our European allies and the tradition Arab states. Lead. That's what I want him to do. I want him to lead. He has the capability of doing this. We have the resources to do this. This is a threat to Western civilization and we should consider it that way.” (NBC News)

Ben Carson

• In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Ben Carson said to combat the Islamic State he would “wage a counter-war...utilizing social media, and all the same mechanisms that they use” and place pressure on clerics “to disavow” the organization. He also emphasized the importance of coalition-building but twice declined to name one country he would invite to join such a coalition. (Fox News, The Washington Post)
• When asked if he was concerned with the consequences of the U.S. shooting down a Russian plane if a no-fly zone was established over Syria, Carson responded, “If they violate it, we will, in fact, enforce it. And, you know, we'll see what happened. You know, too, for us to always be backing down because we are afraid of a conflict, that's not how we became a great nation.” (Fox News)
• The Tampa Bay Times reported on Saturday that Carson said the government and administration in Florida, including then-Governor Jeb Bush, should not have intervened in the 2005 case to determine whether to use feeding tubes on Terri Schiavo, a woman in a “persistent vegetative state.” Carson said, “I said at the time, 'We face those kinds of issues all the time and while I don't believe in euthanasia, you have to recognize that people that are in that condition do have a series of medical problems that occur that will take them out.’ … I don't think it needed to get to that level. I think it was much ado about nothing. Those things are taken care of every single day just the way I described." (The Tampa Bay Times)

Chris Christie

• In his speech before the Sunshine Summit in Florida on Saturday, Chris Christie used the Paris terrorist attacks to underline the importance of presidential leadership and condemn President Obama’s foreign policy. He said, “[Obama] called ISIS the JV and just hours, just hours, yesterday before they struck in Paris he told ABC News that his strategy was containing ISIS. All of these statements were a lie, he sees the world as he likes to see it, as a fantasy. I see the world as it really is and it's time to have a president who sees the world as it really is, not how he wishes it would be. … When I'm president of the United States, America will be a nation of action again, and action in the interest of one goal: Protecting the safety, security and freedom of the American people." (NJ.com)

Ted Cruz

• Ted Cruz said in a Fox News interview on Saturday that the Paris terrorist attacks highlight that the U.S.’s “enemy is radical Islamic terrorism.” He said, “As long as we have a commander-in-chief unwilling to even to utter the words, ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ we will not have a concerted effort to defeat these radicals before they continue to murder more and more innocents, whether Europeans, or Israelis, or Americans. … President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America is nothing less than lunacy.” (Breitbart)
• In the same interview, Cruz said refugee assistance should be focused on Christians. “Those who are fleeing persecution, should be resettled in the Middle East, in majority Muslim countries. Now on the other hand, Christians who are being targeted, for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them,” said Cruz. (Breitbart)
• At the “Rally for Religious Liberty” at Bob Jones University on Saturday, Cruz said the issue of same-sex marriage was “not settled” legally. He said, “It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.” Under the Tenth Amendment, Cruz believes the definition of marriage should instead be “left to the states and left to the people.” (Greenville News)

Carly Fiorina

• On Saturday, Carly Fiorina criticized President Obama for his comments on ISIS prior to the Paris terrorist attacks. Fiorina said she was “she angry that just yesterday morning, hours before the Paris attacks began and against all the evidence, President Obama declared ISIS ‘contained’ and took a victory lap. … They are not a JV team, Mr. President. They are not contained. They are at our shores and their measure of victory is the body count.” She added, “I am profoundly disappointed that our own president cannot bring himself to speak with the same clarity of purpose as do President Hollande and Prime Minister Cameron.” (The Hill)

Jim Gilmore

• In his speech before the Sunshine Summit in Florida on Saturday, Jim Gilmore said he would “take the lid off the defense budget...to restore America’s military strength.” Discussing national security and the Iran nuclear deal, Gilmore added, “Our president has failed. Weakness is provocative. And Paris is only the beginning.” (The Palm Beach Post)

Lindsey Graham

• On Friday, Lindsey Graham warned that killing “Jihadi John” would not unravel ISIS. “Just like when Osama bin Laden was killed, al-Qaida has not been decimated, but they're stronger. Jihadi John may be dead, but ISIS is alive and well and what is happening in Sinjar will not change the equation much at all,” Graham said. He predicted that "it is just a matter of time that they will hit us or hit Europe if we don't go in on the ground in Syria." (Newsmax)
• In an interview on Sunday on CNN, Graham said if the U.S. does not “disrupt [ISIL’s] operation inside of Syria]” or place 10,000 American troops in Iraq, “what you’ve seen in Paris is coming to America.” (CNN)

Mike Huckabee

• Mike Huckabee said on Saturday that the Paris terrorist attacks were the result of poor border security throughout Europe. “When you don’t have borders and the EU has prided itself on saying ‘We don’t have borders, we’re politically correct’….last night you see what happens when you don’t have control of your borders,” he said. He added that protecting the U.S. from such terrorism begins “with closing our own borders to people who are connected to any country where there's a strong presence of ISIS or Al Qaeda.” (Breitbart)

Bobby Jindal

• Bobby Jindal wrote a letter to President Obama on Saturday demanding information about the number of Syrian refugees that have been resettled in Louisiana. "Mr. President, in light of these attacks on Paris and reports that one of the attackers was a refugee from Syria, it would be prudent to pause the process of refugees coming to the United States,” Jindal added. (Idaho Statesman)
• In his speech at the Sunshine Summit on Saturday, Jindal criticized Donald Trump for his comments regarding Ben Carson’s “pathological temper,” calling them “insane.” He said, "Folks, there is a line we should not cross. There's a point where we've got to say enough is enough, we will not bear false witness against each other." (NJ.com)

John Kasich

• On Saturday, John Kasich said “NATO should invoke Article 5 of our NATO agreement, which basically says an attack on an ally is an attack on us and an attack on all of the Western world. We as Americans must assert leadership and we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with France and the French people. This is a moment to bring us together." After his speech, Kasich said Article 5 would be a "good organizing tool and a good method to get joint action” to combat ISIS. (CNN)
• Former U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) endorsed Kasich on Friday. Voinovich said, "John shares my values and is a good and decent human being that tries to give witness to the second great commandment, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ He possesses the integrity, empathy, emotional intelligence, judgement, vision, passion, and courage that are necessary in a great leader." (Newsmax)

George Pataki

• George Pataki’s campaign manager David Catalfamo said he planned to file an “equal time request” on Friday following Donald Trump’s episode of “Saturday Night Live.” The request is limited to stations in New York, South Carolina, Iowa, Massachusetts and Maine. (Variety)
• Following the Paris terrorist attacks, Pataki said in a statement that the U.S. “must put an immediate halt to granting asylum to Syrian refugees." (CNN)

Rand Paul

• During his speech at the Sunshine Summit in Florida on Saturday, Rand Paul accused Marco Rubio of blocking his amendment to a 2013 bipartisan immigration bill to improve border security. He said, “We let our guard down, but when I introduced my amendment to the immigration bill, unfortunately I got some opposition. Your senator, in fact, opposed me on this. I tried to pass something that I think was a conservative proposition to the immigration bill, that would have more scrutiny for refugees, for visitors, for students.” (The Hill)
• On Friday, Paul said he would not “relent” on asking Rubio how he intended to fund his defense plan following a clash between the two at last week’s Republican presidential debate over the issue. “Marco Rubio has offered a trillion dollars in new spending proposals for the military. That's just not frankly conservative. That would blow a hole in the budget. It would explode the deficit and I think we become weaker as we get farther into debt. I won't relent on this. I'm gonna ask Marco Rubio every day where's the money,” said Paul. (NBC News)

Marco Rubio

• In an interview on Sunday, Marco Rubio said without the capacity to properly screen Syrian refugees, the U.S. “won’t be able to take more refugees.” He also criticized Hillary Clinton for refusing to say the U.S. was “at war with radical Islam.” He said, “That would be like saying we weren’t at war with Nazis, because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party but weren’t violent themselves.” (Fox News Latino)

Rick Santorum

• On Saturday, Rick Santorum condemned President Obama and Hillary Clinton for choosing “politics above the security of our country and the stability and security of the world.” Santorum said, “ISIS is a creation of a political decision by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to abandon Iraq — against all of our generals’ recommendations, against all of the policy recommendations.” (The Hill)
• In a radio interview on Monday morning, Santorum said Democrats were supporting cultural relativism at the expense of the nation. “If you don’t have a culture, a shared set of value and ideas … the will to fight goes away because there is nothing worth fighting for. … They’re bowing to a media, they’re bowing to academia, they’re bowing to their sources of funding, all of which accepts this ideology that the West is in fact not worth fighting for, the West and it’s ideas are broken, are corrupt and therefore cannot be favorably juxtaposed to any other ideology,” Santorum said.

Donald Trump

• Donald Trump said on Saturday that strict gun control laws in France led to more deaths in the Paris terrorist attacks. “You can say what you want, but if they had guns -- if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry -- it would have been a much, much different situation. I hear it all the time, you know. You look at certain cities that have the highest violence, the highest problem with guns and shootings and killings -- Chicago is an example, toughest gun laws in the United States, nothing but problems. So our country better get smart because we're not smart right now,” he said. (The Washington Post)
• In an interview on CNBC on Monday, Trump commented on airstrikes against Syria in the wake of French military action on Sunday. He said, “I've been saying attack the oil for two years. People would laugh, and they'd scoff, and they'd joke. Now all of a sudden, they started attacking the oil because that's a significant source of their wealth." (CNBC)

Third Party Candidates

Jill Stein (Green Party)

• On Sunday, Jill Stein joined Libertarian leaders in North Carolina in a press conference to demand greater ballot access for third-party candidates. "The American people are clamoring for more voices and more choices," Stein said. (Green Party Watch, Citizen-Times)

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