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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - September 14, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Monday's Leading Stories
- Rick Perry suspended his campaign on Friday. In a speech to the Eagle Forum, Perry said, “We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too.” (Rick Perry for President)
- Poll: An MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll released on Friday found Joe Biden performed marginally better in all general election matchups against Republicans than Hillary Clinton. (Talking Points Memo, MSNBC)
- Poll: In a YouGov/CBS News poll of battleground state voters released on Sunday, Bernie Sanders led Hillary Clinton 52 percent to 30 percent in New Hampshire and 43 percent to 33 percent in Iowa. Clinton maintained her lead in South Carolina with 46 percent support, a 23-point lead over Sanders. (YouGov)
- Poll: Donald Trump led the Republican field in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in the latest YouGov/CBS News poll with 29 percent, 40 percent and 36 percent, respectively. Ben Carson performed strongly in each state, placing second with 25 percent in Iowa, 12 percent in New Hampshire and 21 percent in South Carolina. (YouGov)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- Several Capitol Hill Democrats have called on Joe Biden to enter the presidential race to enliven the primary. U.S. Rep. John Carney (D-Del.) said, “He's said publicly that he's concerned whether he's got the emotional energy to do it. I think he does. If he would just go out there and be himself, it'd be refreshing in the primary campaign.” A Hillary Clinton supporter, U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), said a Biden run would only “improve” the Democratic platform. (The Hill)
- Bloomberg reported that Biden had a privately scheduled meeting with Robert Wolf, a mega-bundler supporting Hillary Clinton, on Friday. Although Wolf confirmed the meeting took place, he could not say if Biden was planning to run. “If he doesn’t know yet, how would I?” Wolf said. (Bloomberg)
Hillary Clinton
- The Washington Post reported on Saturday that personal correspondence from Hillary Clinton’s private email server may be recoverable. The company that managed the server said it has “no knowledge of the server being wiped.” (The Washington Post)
- During a visit to the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Clinton said she would be “nicer to the press” following advice she received from the church’s former pastor, Phil Wogaman. She also discussed her faith and cited verses from the Bible to support her believe that opportunity should be available for everyone, regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation. (CNN)
- State Department attorneys argued in filings last week that Clinton had the “authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision – she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server.” (NBC News)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley is announcing a gun violence prevention plan on Monday that targets youth gun ownership. Under O’Malley’s plan, possession of a handgun or ammunition by anyone under the age of 21 would be illegal. (BuzzFeed)
- O’Malley is scheduled to attend a marijuana legalization listening session on Thursday in Denver, Colorado. (Marijuana Politics)
Bernie Sanders
- Although Bernie Sanders argued the United States “step up” to assist Syrian refugees, he said on Sunday that American military intervention in Syria could lead to “perpetual warfare in that region.” Sanders added that other countries, like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, will have to “get their hands dirty” and “get on the ground in taking on ISIS.” (MSNBC, Los Angeles Times)
- Sanders campaigned in South Carolina this weekend in an effort to court black voters. At a town hall event at Benedict College, a historically black university, he said, "Racism remains alive today, and our goal together must be to end all forms of institutional racism and make major reforms in our criminal justice system.” (CNN)
Jim Webb
- Jim Webb campaigned in Hawaii over the weekend. At an event on Sunday, Webb described himself as an early opponent of Chinese growth. “I've been the strongest voice in the U.S. Senate in our need to counterbalance the Chinese expansionism in this part of the world. I've been talking about these issues we're now seeing in the South China Sea for more than 15 years,” said Webb. (KITV 4)
Republicans
- In an interview on CNN on Sunday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said “there will probably be more elbows thrown” at the upcoming debate. “All these candidates are going to have to account for their own mouths and their own words,” he added. (U.S. News & World Report)
Jeb Bush
- Former First Lady Laura Bush is scheduled to host two fundraisers for Jeb Bush in Florida in October. New York Daily News)
- Ana Navarro, a Bush supporter and Republican political consultant, said the winner-take-all primary in Florida could ultimately hurt Bush. Originally pushed back to March 15, 2016, to ensure the state’s approximately 100 delegates all went to Bush in a home state win, Donald Trump’s and Ben Carson’s rise in the polls may compromise this expected result. (The Tampa Bay Times)
Ben Carson
- In an interview with NPR on Saturday, Ben Carson emphasized the importance of using a sophisticated screening mechanism when accepting Syrian refugees. “We have to recognize that this is a splendid opportunity for the global jihadists to infiltrate those numbers with members of their own organization. So we would have to have in place a very excellent screening mechanism. Until we had such a mechanism in place, we should not be bringing anybody in,” said Carson. (NPR)
- Speaking about the Black Lives Matter movement after a tour of Ferguson, Missouri, on Friday, Carson said the work “black” should be removed from the group’s rallying cry. He said, "I would prefer it be taken out. I obviously prefer that we focus on everybody. At the same time, I recognize that they're trying to say that they feel that they've been treated unfairly — in many cases they have — I'm not going to take that away from them." (FOX San Antonio)
Chris Christie
- Chris Christie compared his conduct after Bridgegate to Hillary Clinton’s during the investigation into her private email server on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. He said, “What really matters, as Hillary Clinton is finding out, is how you react to a crisis. Not that there never will be any crises, but how you react to it. When we had a crisis, the next day I went out and took questions for an hour and 15 minutes, no holds barred. Let’s wait to see if Mrs. Clinton every does one-fifth of that on her crisis.” (The Washington Times)
- In the same interview, Christie also questioned what Republicans in Congress have accomplished since being elected. “What have these guys done — these Senate candidates, new senators — that they promised to do? We don’t have tax reform on the President’s desk, we don’t have a repealed or replacement of Obamacare on the desk, we don’t have any of the things that they ran on the desk. Make the President veto them. And this is why people can’t stand Congress,” Christie said. (The Blaze)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz suggested on Saturday that Roberts wasn’t a truly conservative judge and Obamacare and same-sex marriage would not law if he were not on the Court. Cruz argued Roberts was nominated because of his lack of time on the federal bench, making his nomination “easier” for former President George W. Bush. Cruz said, “Neither Souter nor Roberts had said much of anything. They didn’t have a paper trail, they wouldn’t have a fight. Whereas if you actually nominate a conservative, then you gotta spend some political capital. Then you gotta fight.” (BuzzFeed)
Carly Fiorina
- Speaking at the National Federation of Republican Women on Friday, Carly Fiorina began her speech by addressing Donald Trump’s remarks about her appearance. “Ladies, look at this face. This is the face of a 61-year-old woman. I am proud of every year and every wrinkle. Look at all of your faces. The face of leadership. The face of leadership in our party, the party of women’s suffrage. The face of leadership in your communities, in your businesses, in your places of work and worship. Ladies, note to Democrat Party: We are not a special interest group, we are the majority of the nation,” said Fiorina. (CNN, YouTube)
- While campaigning in New Hampshire in Sunday, Fiorina noted the experience of being accountable to shareholders while CEO of Hewlett Packard made her uniquely qualified to be president. She said, “I will challenge Mrs. Clinton, any other politician, and the entertainer who's running for office, to hold themselves to that same level of account because none of them are going to be able to stand up to that level of scrutiny.” (CNN)
Mike Huckabee
- In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Mike Huckabee argued that Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples was different than a hypothetical clerk denying marriage licenses to interracial couples following Loving v. Virginia in 1967. “It’s not the same, George — not even close. Because in Loving, you still had a marriage which was between a man and a woman. It was equal protection, but it didn’t redefine marriage,” Huckabee said. He added, “It’s a very different equation altogether, because this is a redefinition. Marriage is not defined in the federal constitution at all — it’s a matter for the states. And applying the 14th Amendment to the equality…of men and women in their relationship in marriage is totally different than redefining marriage.” (Independent Journal Review)
John Kasich
- Distancing himself from the Republican establishment, John Kasich described himself as “an inside/outside guy” at a town hall in New Hampshire on Saturday. (The Columbus Dispatch)
- In response to reports that General Electric rejected Ohio as the location for its company headquarters because Kasich opposed the Ex-Im Bank, Kasich said, “Today a company in my state said they wouldn’t locate a business in my state because I’m not for the Export-Import Bank. What is that about? You think you’re going to tell me what I can do? You can’t tell me what to do on that.” (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Kasich suggested Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood would be pointless during an interview on Sunday. “The president's made it clear he is not going to sign it. I'm willing to fight all day long, but you've got to have a good prospect of being able to be successful. Because if you're not successful, you shut the government down, you open it up and you haven't achieved anything. You're just going to have people shake their head and wonder what your thinking was." (The Huffington Post)
George Pataki
- On Sunday, George Pataki tweeted that his Republican competitors should “stand up and say [the Republican Party] cannot nominate” Donald Trump. Trump immediately responded, tweeting, “Why is someone like George Pataki, who did a terrible job as Governor of N.Y. and registers ZERO in the polls, allowed on the debate stage?” Pataki answered, “Why is a serially bankrupt @RealDonaldTrump who insults Mexicans, Women, Blacks, Jews & POW's on #2016 debate stage? #TajMahal #TrumpCastle.” (Newsmax)
Rand Paul
- In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Saturday, Rand Paul said, “I think Trump’s a fake conservative. I also think he’s dangerous to the party and to the country, because I think someone who really has the swagger of a teenager is not someone you really want to be in charge of your nuclear weapons.” Trump had attacked Paul over Twitter that afternoon, writing, “Too many people on stage for debate. @RandPaul at 11th, with 2% in @RealClearNews, shouldn't be allowed to participate” and “I truly understood the appeal of Ron Paul, but his son, @RandPaul, didn't get the right gene.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsmax)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio wrote an op-ed in The Des Moines Register on Sunday to promote his higher education platform. He recommended reforming the accreditation system “to welcome low-cost, innovative higher education providers,” requiring schools to inform students how much they are expected to earn with a given degree prior to offering loans, increasing financial aid programs for working students, developing alternatives to student loans and correlating loan repayment with each graduate’s income. (The Des Moines Register)
- In preparation for this week’s debate, “Team Rubio in recent days has been adding an anti-establishment tone to its message in hope of gaining a bit more traction in a season so far dominated by outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson.” (CNN)
- According to Politico, Rubio had been “subtly leveraging” his brief time as a Mormon to connect with LDS voters in Nevada and has already secured the support of Mormon leader and Nevada Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison. Paul Anderson, an LDS state legislator, said, “It would look like pandering. But events like the one at Hutchison’s house, that has a whole lot more sway because it’s authentic, it has a personal touch, that’s how you win over [Mormon] voters.” (Politico)
Donald Trump
- On Sunday, Donald Trump calling rising CEO salaries “a total and complete joke.” He said, "It's very hard if you have a free enterprise system to do anything about that. You know the boards of companies are supposed to do it but I know companies very well and the CEO puts in all his friends...and they get whatever they want you know because their friends love sitting on the board. That's the system that we have and it's a shame and it’s disgraceful.” (CBS News)
- On a call with Alabama Republicans last week, Trump said it would take 18 months to 2 years to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants with “really good management.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Trump continued his criticism of his nearest competitor, Ben Carson, in a speech on Saturday in Iowa. “I don't think Ben has the energy. Ben is a nice man, but when you're negotiating against China, and you're negotiating against these Japanese guys that are going to come against you in waves, and they think we're all a bunch of jerks because our leaders are so stupid and so incompetent and so inept, we need people that are really smart, that have tremendous deal-making skills and that have great, great energy,” Trump said. (Business Insider)
Scott Walker
- Scott Walker canceled appearances in Michigan and California this week to focus his campaign on Iowa and South Carolina. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Walker’s advisers said the last-minute cancellations were not a sign of panic about the viability of his presidential bid but rather a recognition that at this point his time and campaign funds are better spent on Iowa and South Carolina.” (The New York Times)
- Walker is unveiling his labor platform on Monday at a town hall meeting in Las Vegas. “Walker will propose eliminating unions for employees of the federal government, making all workplaces right-to-work unless individual states vote otherwise, scrapping the federal agency that oversees unfair labor practices and making it more difficult for unions to organize,” The Huffington Post reports. (The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal)
- On Sunday, Walker announced his 99-county leadership team in Iowa. He called the caucuses there “the ultimate grass-roots organization exercise.” (The Gazette)
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
