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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - November 20, 2015
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Friday's Leading Stories
- Donald Trump said on Thursday night that he “would certainly implement” a database registering Muslims in the United States. “It’s all about management. Our country has no management,” Trump said, adding that Muslims would be legally obligated to sign up. When asked if such a database would be akin to the registration of Jews in Nazi Germany, Trump repeated four times, “You tell me.” (NBC News)
- During a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, Hillary Clinton delivered her plan to combat the Islamic State. She said coalition-backed air strikes should be combined with efforts on the ground to regain territory by “local and regional ground forces.” Clinton also called for mitigating the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds and establishing a second “Sunni Awakening” where local Iraqi citizens fight in militias. To attack the Islamic State’s infrastructure, Clinton argued foreign banks have an “obligation” to police their systems for money-laundering and other “illicit trade and transactions.” (CNN, Council on Foreign Relations)
- Poll: In a national Bloomberg poll released on Thursday, Trump leads the Republican field with 24 percent support. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio follow with 20 percent and 12 percent, respectively. According to Bloomberg, “Republicans overwhelmingly pick Ben Carson over Donald Trump for having the better temperament to be president, but they have far more confidence in the billionaire than the retired surgeon to take on terror, handle Russian President Vladimir Putin and fix immigration.” (Bloomberg)
- Poll: A new national Public Policy Polling national survey found Trump maintain his lead with 26 percent to Carson’s 19 percent. The polling organization found that the “only...candidate in the whole field who can really claim momentum compared to a month ago” is Ted Cruz who doubled his support from 7 percent to 14 percent and sits in third place. For the Democratic field, Clinton still leads with 59 percent. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley registered 26 percent and 7 percent, respectively. In head-to-head matchups, Clinton led all Republican candidates she was polled against except for Marco Rubio. (Public Policy Polling)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- The Washington Post conducted a study of donations to Hillary and Bill Clinton’s political campaigns and charitable foundations over four decades totaling approximately $3 billion. The Clintons’ top donors are Haim Saban, the chairman of Univision, and his wife, Cheryl. The Sabans have donated $2.4 million to the Clintons’ political campaigns and $10 million to their foundations. (The Washington Post)
- During her speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton rejected calls to refuse Syrian refugees in the U.S. She said, “Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee—that is just not who we are. We are better than that. And remember, many of these refugees are fleeing the same terrorists who threaten us. It would be a cruel irony indeed if ISIS can force families from their homes, and then also prevent them from ever finding new ones. We should be doing more to ease this humanitarian crisis, not less. We should lead the international community in organizing a donor conference and supporting countries like Jordan, who are sheltering the majority of refugees fleeing Syria.” (Council on Foreign Relations)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley wrote an op-ed in The New York Daily News on Thursday arguing that the U.S. has a “moral obligation” to resettle Syrian refugees. “The concern about terrorists trying to take advantage of our refugee resettlement program is not new. That is the reason we have in place what is probably the most thorough and comprehensive refugee screening process of any country in the world. It involves more than a dozen steps and can take up to two years,” O’Malley wrote. He concluded, “Keeping America safe and providing refuge to those fleeing death and destruction is not a zero-sum choice. France is showing the world that it is strong enough to overcome fear and remain true to its values. We need to do the same.” (New York Daily News)
- O’Malley was approved to receive public matching funds by the Federal Election Commission on Thursday with an initial allocation of $100,000. (The Washington Post)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders defended democratic socialism and his electability during a speech at Georgetown University on Thursday. Making several references to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s accomplishments as president, Sanders said, “Let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me. It builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.” (The Atlantic, Yahoo)
- In the same speech, Sanders accused Donald Trump of “using the political process to inject racism into the debate.” He said, “Donald Trump and others who refer to Latinos as peoples from Mexico as criminals and rapists, if they want to open that door, our job is to shut that door. This country has gone too far. Too many people have suffered and too many people have died for us to continue to hear racist words coming from major political leaders.” (Mother Jones)
Republicans
- Two weeks ago, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and the now-withdrawn Bobby Jindal attended a conference on religious liberty in Iowa. One of the conference's keynote speakers, Kevin Swanson, expressed approval of the death penalty for gay people. When asked to comment on Swanson’s remarks by The Des Moines Register, Cruz and Jindal did not respond. Alice Stewart, Huckabee’s spokeswoman, provided the following statement: “Gov. Huckabee appreciated the opportunity to speak with an audience in Iowa about the importance of standing up for our religious liberties." (The Des Moines Register)
- Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are not attending the Presidential Family Forum hosted by the conservative Christian group the Family Leader on Friday. Family Leader’s President Bob Vander Plaats said Trump would only attend if he pledged to endorse him. He added, "There's a lot of Bush ties here in Iowa, and so not to come to a forum like this is sending, I think, the wrong message.” According to NPR, “Vander Plaats has a track record of endorsing Iowa Caucus winners — including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in 2012 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008.” (NPR)
- Thirteen Republicans are set to appear on the Michigan ballot on March 8, 2016. Only Jim Gilmore did not file paperwork before the deadline on Tuesday. He will have until December 11 to collect 10,577 signatures to appear on the ballot through a nominating petition. (WXYZ, Detroit Free Press)
- In a news release on Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Donald Trump and Ben Carson for “mainstreaming Islamophobic and unconstitutional policies. … Such extremist rhetoric is unbecoming of anyone who seeks our nation's highest office and must be strongly repudiated by leaders from across the political spectrum." (International Business Times)
Jeb Bush
- Several Medal of Honor recipients appear in a new two-minute ad released by Jeb Bush’s campaign contrasting the candidate with President Obama, who one retired major general said “require[d] training wheels” to be commander-in-chief. “We've almost gone backwards, where we should be going forward. And I think Jeb Bush will push it forward,” added a retired colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps. (CNN)
- In an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday, Bush criticized Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for opposing the authorization of force against Syria in 2013. “Ted Cruz said something to the effect that—I don’t want to provide the air force power for ISIS, that’s basically his argument. Rubio said that we don’t have an interest in the subject. He’s changed his views on this now and said he didn’t think Obama, once granted that force, would be serious about using it,” Bush said. (Politico)
- After filing to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot on Thursday, Bush told reporters that the U.S. “should be supportive of refugees” with some reservations. “I agree that Governor Scott has legitimate concerns and all the other governors do that brought it up. By the way this isn't only Republicans, Democrats are concerned about this as well. They should be. Unlike other refugees that have come, you have the possibility at least of terrorists organization [sic] to disrupt our way of life and attack us and to kill people that could be embedded in refugees,” he said. Disagreeing with Obama’s statement that it was “shameful” to have a religious test for refugees, Bush added that “as you go through the screening process, religion is an element to it." (CBS News)
Ben Carson
- On Thursday, Ben Carson compared the risk of accepting Syrian refugees to having a “rabid dog” in your neighborhood during a campaign stop in Alabama. He said, “If there's a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume something good about that dog. And you're probably going to put your children out of the way. That doesn't mean that you hate all dogs. … We have to have in place screening mechanisms that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are.” (CNN)
- At the same event, Carson said that the September 11 terrorist attack “really didn't require a great deal of sophistication. You didn't have to be all that great. You had to be able to fly some planes and get a couple people in here. That's going to be a lot more difficult to do now.” (CNN)
- Carson said on Thursday that Armstrong Williams, who has frequently represented him on television, is not directly involved with his campaign. “Armstrong is an independent agent. He happens to be a friend of mine. He has nothing to do with the campaign,” Carson said, although Williams “has been identified as Carson’s business manager” and recently reviewed his op-ed on the Islamic State this week. (Talking Points Memo)
Chris Christie
- On Wednesday, several former governors of New Jersey met for an annual panel to discuss the performance of the current governor. Jim Florio (D) said, "I'm at a loss to even conjure up something that's reasonable because the numbers [for the state pension system’s $40 billion shortfall] are beyond comprehension. I wouldn't want to be in the position to give a State of the State in January. Because the state of the state is deplorable." Donald DiFrancesco (R) said of Christie’s declining favorability rating, “If he was in the middle of a normal second term and not running for president, that number would be not true. Now he is a partisan running for president. Now he is sending out press releases aimed at winning a primary. I expected this to happen because he has to say a lot of partisan things that he would not be saying if he was not running for president.” (NJ.com, Press of Atlantic City)
Ted Cruz
- Rick Jervis of USA Today profiled Ted Cruz and his underdog 2012 Senate campaign in Texas, suggesting his “grass-roots, hard-charging, outsider-versus-establishment attack” in that race could help him succeed in the presidential election. “His candidacy for president appears to be taking much the same tack: tirelessly attending meetings and spreading his anti-Washington message to Tea Party and evangelical groups,” Jervis wrote. (USA Today)
- Cruz’s campaign announced the formation of a “national prayer team” on Thursday. Although the group provides another way for Cruz to court evangelical voters, spokesman Rick Tyler said, “I don’t have a political or tactical angle on it. It is what it is. It’s a group of people who wanted to get together and pray for Ted and his wife and the nation as a whole.” (The New York Times)
Carly Fiorina
- When asked if she would deploy 10,000 troops to combat ISIS on Thursday, Carly Fiorina said, “No, not yet. Because there are a whole host of things that we should have done, that we have not done. And unfortunately, I think Obama has managed to polarize the debate about what to do with ISIS with a false choice. The false choice that Obama presents to the American people is if you don’t agree with what I am not doing, then the only option is tens of thousands of boots on the ground. It’s simply false.” She also questioned why the U.S. has not provided Jordanians with materials or weapons as they requested. (Breitbart)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday that Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s bills to prevent Syrian refugees from resettlement in the U.S. do nothing to injure the Islamic State. “Well, number one, many of these attackers apparently were citizens of France. The problem is as follows: two thousand jihadists are flowing into Syria every month to join jihad from all over the world. … I am calling for a time out until we can figure out a what kind of system works. … But Senator Cruz and Paul, you’re not gonna destroy ISIL by shutting down refugee flows, there’s 20 different ways to get here as you just described. The goal is to destroy ISIL. The refugees are a symptom of the problem. My plan would make sure you don’t have to leave Syria. There’d be a no fly zone, a safe haven, where people could go without being raped and killed so they don’t have to leave their own country,” he said. (BuzzFeed)
- When asked about Donald Trump’s suggestion that some mosques be closed in the U.S., Graham said, “Donald Trump is a complete idiot! All I can say is that we're in a religious war [and] the goal is to win the war. Most people in the [Muslim] faith do not buy what ISIL's selling. I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan 35 times in the last decade. You'll never convince me they're all the same." (Newsmax)
Mike Huckabee
- The Des Moines Register profiled Mike Huckabee’s campaigning efforts in Iowa on Thursday. “We feel like Iowa is ground zero for the campaign. It’s like the first game of the NCAA tournament — if you win it, people pay attention. … They can’t ignore you anymore. That’s one of the things we saw before,” Huckabee said. He has campaigned 44 days in Iowa, spending more time in the state than any other. (The Des Moines Register)
John Kasich
- John Kasich defended his recommendation that a federal agency be created to promote “Judeo-Christian values” on Thursday. He said, “We used to have the Voice of America, and look, I believe in the Western ethic. What is the Western ethic? Equality for women, respecting science and education, the importance of recognizing that every single life matters. … But this is not designed to be exclusive. It's not designed to tell people you gotta go to church. It's basically to do what the Voice of America did, which is to communicate very effectively what our values are as a civilization. Because our very civilization is under attack.” (Politico)
- In 2014, Kasich introduced a community mentoring program requiring schools to partner with a business and “faith-based” organization to qualify for a grant. After several groups challenged the “faith-based” requirement as unconstitutional, the Ohio Department of Education clarified that the term included secular “values-based” groups. The program, however, has given nearly six times more in grants to schools affiliated with religious organizations. A spokesman for Kasich said, “While each community partnership was required to have a values-based partner, there was no special weighting for religious organizations who qualified as a values-based organization.” Some critics, like Ian Smith of Americans United, said this ratio suggests there could be bias. "Sadly, it's somewhat predictable. It seems obvious that the point of this was always to get this kind of response,” Smith said. (Cleveland.com)
George Pataki
- George Pataki filed his paperwork to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot on Thursday. (Twitter)
Rand Paul
- On Thursday, Rand Paul criticized calls to expand the collection of metadata from phone records during a speech at George Washington University on Thursday. He said, “So when they stand up on television and say the tragedy in Paris means you have to give up your liberty, we need more phone surveillance -- bulls--t!” He added, “But here’s the thing is, they are collecting your phone records as we speak. They did not miss a beat. And even though we voted on reform, all of your phone records are still being collected and stored in Utah. Did it stop the attack in Paris? Not one iota.” (CNN, The Daily Caller)
- In an interview with The Daily Caller, Paul opposed the U.S. sending soldiers to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State. “The first Iraq war didn’t make us safer. Didn’t make the region any less chaotic. The first Iraq war destabilized the region and has led to the current chaos. I don’t think another Iraq War is going to make it better. … I do think that to defeat ISIS, there will have to be boots on the ground. But the boots on the ground need to be Arab boots on the ground. And frankly, they will have to be probably Sunni Muslim boots.” (The Daily Caller)
- Paul announced on Thursday that he planned to introduce the Defend Our Capital Act of 2015 requiring the District of Columbia issue concealed weapons permits and remove other restrictions on firearms ownership. “For too long the Americans who live in and visit their nation’s capital have been prevented from defending themselves and their loved ones. No longer should our citizens have to choose between safety or visiting Washington, D.C.,” Paul said in a statement. (U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio wrote an op-ed for Politico Magazine on Thursday explaining the strategy he would use to defeat the Islamic State. Under his proposal, the U.S. would “strengthen the Visa Waiver Program’s security screening to ensure individuals coming to our country are not a threat,” “rescind limitations on overseas intelligence collection and restore the intelligence gathering authorities Congress drastically limited this year,” and “reverse defense sequestration.” Rubio added, “Early in 2011, when a strain of isolationism seemed to be taking root in the Republican Party, I began to warn of the dangers of failing to lead on the growing challenge in Syria and Iraq. I predicted much of what has happened today. I have repeatedly laid out what must be done to defeat ISIL and have spoken of the need for American strength even when it wasn't popular.” (Politico)
- Rubio said on Thursday that “any place” that promotes radical terrorism should be shut down, not just mosques. He said, “It's not about closing down mosques. It's about closing down any place, whether it's a cafe, a diner, an Internet site – any place where radicals are being inspired.” (Newsmax)
- U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the first African-American Republican woman elected to Congress, endorsed Rubio on Thursday. “We have to do everything we can to make sure that we strengthen our national defense, and do everything we can to make sure that this country and the people that are living in this country are safe - and Marco is the right person to do that,” Love said. (NBC News)
Donald Trump
- At a rally on Wednesday night in New Hampshire, Donald Trump said that Marco Rubio was “no Reagan.” He commented, “I look at Rubio, he's a lightweight. Some people say he's the next Reagan. He's no Reagan, I know that. My hair is better than his hair, that I can say. And I'm a little older.” (RealClearPolitics)
- Trump said on Thursday that Ben Carson’s campaign was in a “free fall” partially due to statements he made two weeks ago regarding the credibility of Carson’s childhood acts of violence. (CNN)
- On Thursday night, Trump released a series of tweets calling Kasich “pathetic” and “irrelevant.” He wrote, “John Kasich, despite being Governor of Ohio, is losing to me in the Ohio polls. Pathetic!” Another tweet read, “I want to do negative ads on John Kasich, but he is so irrelevant to the race that I don’t want to waste my money.” (Cleveland.com)
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
