Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - October 15, 2015
From Ballotpedia
|
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
|
Thursday's Leading Stories
- Jeb Bush will announce his bundlers on Thursday, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to do so this election cycle. Bush has defined a bundler as any donor who has raised at least $17,600, a far smaller number than the $100,000 threshold used by other presidential campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Several of Scott Walker’s top fundraisers are planning to shift their support to Marco Rubio, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. More than a dozen attended a meeting with Rubio in New York to discuss his campaign, with one donor calling Rubio “a fresh, exciting candidate who represents the future of the Republican Party.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Poll: According to a CNN/ORC poll released on Wednesday, Donald Trump leads the Republican field in Nevada and South Carolina by wide margins. In Nevada, Trump registers 38 percent support. Ben Carson follows with 22 percent. Similarly, Trump has 36 percent support in South Carolina. Carson comes in second again with half that figure at 18 percent. No other Republican candidate in either state has double-digit support. (CNN)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Following Hillary Clinton’s strong performance in Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, political commentators from The New York Times, Politico, The Post and ABC News have suggested that Joe Biden’s “moment may have passed.” When asked what he thought of the debate, Biden said, “I thought they all did well.” (The Washington Post)
Lincoln Chafee
- Despite low poll numbers, Lincoln Chafee told CNN on Wednesday that he will stay in the presidential race to “be a voice for prosperity, for peace. ...The establishment just does not want to hear an anti-war voice. And that motivates me even more to continue this campaign." Chafee also briefly discussed his low fundraising totals, saying, “I came into the race knowing the reality, that Secretary Clinton was going to take all the money, essentially, and if there was an insurgent candidate there might be an opportunity to raise some money. Senator Sanders is that insurgent candidate raising the money.” (CNN, Bloomberg)
Hillary Clinton
- On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) said that the House Select Committee on Benghazi was partially created to damage Hillary Clinton politically. He said, “This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.” Clinton’s campaign responded with the following statement: “House Republicans aren't even shy anymore about admitting that the Benghazi Committee is a partisan farce. After failing to produce any new information on the tragic 2012 attacks at Benghazi despite a 17-month investigation, John Boehner has reportedly urged the committee to shift its focus to Hillary Clinton's emails in an ongoing effort to try to hurt her politically. Hillary Clinton will still attend next week's hearing, but at this point, Trey Gowdy's inquiry has zero credibility left." (The Huffington Post)
- Clinton said on Wednesday that she would like Colorado to continue experimenting with marijuana policy. She said, “I really believe it’s important that states like Colorado lead the way so we can learn what works and what doesn’t work. I would certainly not want the federal government to interfere with the legal decision made by the people of Colorado.” (Colorado 9 News)
- Priorities USA PAC released a Spanish-language ad on Wednesday featuring a Hispanic mother discussing why she believes Clinton would support her and her family. The ad will air in Nevada. (The New York Times)
- U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) endorsed Clinton on Tuesday. (The Wall Street Journal)
Lawrence Lessig
- Politico reported on Wednesday that Lawrence Lessig “strongly” supports Obamacare. On the question of whether the Cadillac tax – a tax on high cost employer health care plans – should remain in place, Lessig said, “Economists can say little with certainty but they are all pretty united on the view that super premium benefit packages burden middle class wages. So long as the tax remains targeted on the luxury plans, I would retain it.” (Politico)
Martin O’Malley
- During Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton noted Martin O'Malley had endorsed her for president in 2008. O’Malley dismissed the relevance of his previous endorsement on Wednesday. He said, “The biggest change that happened in these eight years is this -- the recession, the crash that was precipitated by recklessness on Wall Street. And I believe that what the people of our country expect is a president independent enough to actually follow through on the promises that were made eight years ago to rein in that recklessness. … I'm genuinely concerned as a party that we can't speak to what America needs right now by resorting simply to old formulas and old thinking from the past.” (CNN)
Bernie Sanders
- On Wednesday, Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Bernie Sanders ignored problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2014 when it was first reported that there were severe delays in healthcare for veterans leading to deaths across the country. Rieckhoff said, "For far too long he was apologizing for the VA. He was refusing to acknowledge the severity. He was positioning it as a smaller issue than it was while veterans were dying waiting for care.” (CNN)
Jim Webb
- When asked which enemy he was proudest of at Tuesday night’s debate, Jim Webb named an enemy combatant he killed during the Vietnam War. The Wall Street Journal reported on the story of Webb’s 1969 confrontation that left him seriously injured. (The Wall Street Journal)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- On Wednesday, Jeb Bush was endorsed by New Hampshire State Sen. President Chuck Morse. Morse said, “We're never going to fix the problems down there by electing people who've helped create the problems or someone who has proven incapable of fixing it. I know Jeb's done it before in Florida and know he'll do it again as president.” (CNN)
- Speaking at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Bush said he supported the government partnering with private sector leaders like SpaceX’s Elon Musk to develop our space program. He said, "I mean what's wrong with having big aspirational goals? It's not in the absence of taking care of the hungry or the poor. We're a big country. We're a generous country. The benefits of this are far more than people realize.” (CNN)
- Bush said he believed he would vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton if they were the candidates in the general election. Compared to Clinton’s liberal policies, “Trump's views are evolving, at least, towards the right place,” Bush said. (The Huffington Post)
Ben Carson
- Ben Carson will not hold any campaign events during the next two weeks while he promotes his new book, A More Perfect Union. During his hiatus, he will attend more that 20 campaign fundraising events. (ABC News)
- Carson criticized the Democratic presidential candidates for engaging in “political correctness” when asked about the Black Lives Matter movement at Tuesday night’s debate. “Of course all lives matter — and all lives includes black lives. And we have to stop submitting to those who want to divide us into all these special interest groups and start thinking about what works for everybody,” said Carson. (Washington Times)
Chris Christie
- During an interview on Wednesday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Chris Christie dismissed reports that Hillary Clinton performed strongly in the Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday. He said, “Hillary Clinton is always going to look good standing up with that group of people. … Winning and losing is defined by who the competition is, right Sean? So, she did fine, but let me tell you, it’ll be a whole different story next October, when she gets on the stage with a former federal prosecutor, who is going to hold her accountable for the things that she’s done in her public career.” He also attacked Martin O’Malley, saying he was “the worst, in everything that he does.” (Breitbart)
- According to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on Thursday, 60 percent of New Jersey voters said Christie should end his campaign. (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz called the rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter movement “disgraceful” during a campaign speech on Wednesday. He said, “If you look at the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the most disturbing things is more than one of their protests have embraced rabid rhetoric, rabid anti-police language, literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers. That is disgraceful.” (Sun Times)
- Three months ago, Cruz’s campaign released an app called “Cruz Crew,” which allows users to invite friends to support and donate to Cruz’s campaign. The app’s design company stated the app had awarded “more than 2.5 million action points to users for for [sic] sending more than 100,000 invites and performing over 67,000 additional individual actions through the app.” The top user, for example, invited more than 2,200 of his friends to support Cruz. (Washington Examiner)
Carly Fiorina
- On Wednesday, during a town hall event in Idaho, Carly Fiorina argued that healthcare would be improved if consumers had more information about costs. She said, “The federal government should mandate, that healthcare providers of all kinds publish on a regular basis their costs, their prices, and their outcomes.” (ABC Local News 8)
- Fiorina received two dozen endorsement from Iowa state party leaders, including state Reps. Clel Baudler, Josh Byrnes and Lee Hein. (Washington Examiner)
Lindsey Graham
- Speaking at an editorial board meeting of The Conway Daily Sun on Wednesday, Lindsey Graham primarily discussed his view on foreign policy in the Middle East. He said as long as Bashar al-Assad remained in power in Syria, there would be war there because Syrians had rejected him. If he were president, Graham said he would put 10,000 troops on the ground in Iraq and work with Turkey and other regional powers to remove Assad from Syria. (The Conway Daily Sun)
Mike Huckabee
- On Tuesday night, Mike Huckabee tweeted, “I trust @BernieSanders with my tax dollars like I trust a North Korean chef with my labrador! #DemDebate.” Huckabee’s campaign dismissed criticisms that the tweet was racist on Wednesday, writing in an email: “Leave it to liberals to ignore injustices and atrocities of a totalitarian nation on human beings and put more importance on a nations [sic] diet which includes grass clippings and canines. Facts: North Koreans eat dog and Bernie Sanders wants to spend 18 trillion dollars of your money. What's so hard to understand?" (CNN)
- In an op-ed for Breitbart on Wednesday, Huckabee called the Democratic presidential debate “bizarre.” He wrote, “At times, many thought we were watching a salacious, Berkeley University student council debate, but unfortunately, this IS the modern-day Democratic Party. For those of us who thought it was impossible to be more liberal than President Obama, last night we were proved wrong. Who knew Obama was so conservative?” (Breitbart)
- In a radio interview on Wednesday, Huckabee said the U.S. should help Saudi Arabia and Jordan build a “processing center” for Syrian refugees instead of accepting them into the country. The U.S. is “tired of being the one country that’s expected to do all the dirty work and to take all the problems,” Huckabee said. (BuzzFeed)
Bobby Jindal
- On Wednesday, Bobby Jindal criticized the criteria for the next GOP presidential debate, arguing that polls in Iowa and New Hampshire should be considered, rather than only national polls. Jindal said, “By ignoring the early states and instead only looking at meaningless national name ID polls, the networks are in effect trying to create a national primary. They are attempting to winnow the field long before the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire get to cast their ballots by restricting access to debates.” He added that the criteria in place favor Donald Trump who is “a candidate completely devoid of substance.” (Breitbart)
- Jindal wrote an op-ed on Thursday for Fox News to argue that that filibuster should be retired. “Now, the filibuster has turned into an everyday occurrence. It has been used 1,300 times since 1917, but nearly 900 of those came since 1990 and nearly 600 since 2003. This increase is not just a symptom of partisan gridlock, it is also a cause. When both sides have a veto, neither has an incentive to come to the table. You don’t have to have written ‘The Art of the Deal’ to figure that out,” Jindal wrote. (Fox News)
John Kasich
- On Tuesday, John Kasich criticized Donald Trump’s tax plan, saying, “It puts us $11 trillion in the hole with no way to pay for it. That will be known over time, I think.” (CNN)
- Kasich is expected to release his balanced budget proposal on Thursday. According to The Columbus Dispatch, Kasich’s plan would shift responsibility for funding programs in education and other areas to the states. (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Former U.S. Sens. John Sununu (R-N.H.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) have joined Kasich’s national leadership team. (The Keene Sentinel)
Rand Paul
- During a speech at Drake University on Wednesday, Rand Paul argued that protections for gender identity discrimination were unnecessary. He said, "I think, really, the things you do in your house, we can just leave those in the house, and they wouldn't have to be part of the workplace, to tell you the truth. These are very difficult decisions, on what you decide will be employers' decisions and not. And it really isn't so much about that question as it is about that it sets a classification, or a class of people, who can now sue." (The Washington Post)
- During Tuesday’s live broadcast of his campaign activities, Paul responded to the frequently Googled question of whether he is still running for president, saying, “I don't know, I wouldn't be doing this dumbass livestreaming if I weren't. Yes, I'm running for president. Get over it." His campaign has since released a t-shirt highlighting his response. (CNN, NBC News)
Marco Rubio
- At a campaign event in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Marco Rubio addressed job creation and wages. He said, "I have full confidence that the American private sector, made up of the most innovative and productive people on this planet, won't just create millions of jobs. They will create millions of jobs that pay more. Because even the jobs that are being created now don't pay enough. You can't live off $10 an hour. You can't live on $11 an hour. We need jobs that pay much more than that, but we have to have an economy and economic policies that make America the best place in the world that create jobs that pay more." (The Huffington Post, CNN)
- U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) endorsed Rubio on Wednesday. (Quad-City Times)
- Rubio said on Wednesday he would consider supporting an Article V constitutional convention leading to changes in the Constitution. He cautioned, “Just make sure that we know how it is going to turn out because if you open up the Constitution, you are also opening it up to people that want to reexamine the First Amendment, people who that want to reexamine the Second Amendment, people that want to reexamine some other fundamental protects [sic] that are built into the constitution [sic].” (Washington Times)
Rick Santorum
- On Wednesday, Rick Santorum said the Democratic presidential debate showed how much the party has changed in the last 50 years. He said, “If you watched that debate and looked at some of the moral discussions that were going on there you would be appalled by it. … The amazing thing is you have an avowed socialist who is actually to the right of some of the people on that stage on some issues. It was amazing to see how far left they want to go. They disavow capitalism and talk about socialism being a good thing. This is a new day in American politics when you see those kinds of extreme positions and really a rejection of what has brought this country to where it is today.” (Quad City Time)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump said he did not believe Russia was directly involved in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. “They say it wasn't them. It may have been their weapon, but they didn't use it, they didn't fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you'll probably never know for sure,” he said on Wednesday after Dutch investigators announced the plane had been shot down with a Russian-made rocket and warhead. (CNN)
- Trump his commentary on the Democratic presidential debate at a rally in Virginia on Wednesday. He called Bernie Sanders was a “maniac” and said that Hillary Clinton should have been more aggressively attacked. (USA Today)
- Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, defended her father on Wednesday following criticism that he does not treat women fairly. “I wouldn't be high-level executive within his organization if he felt that way. So he's always supportive and encouraged women and truthfully he's proven that through decades through his employment practices. Through his hiring practices,” she said. (ABC News)
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
