Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - September 30, 2015
From Ballotpedia
|
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
|
Wednesday's Leading Stories
- Forbes has released a presidential candidate wealth list that shows the net worth of the 2016 candidates. After Donald Trump, who has a net worth of $4.5 billion, Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, and Carly Fiorina have the highest net worth, with over $30 million each. (Forbes)
- Poll: Public Policy Polling released a North Carolina poll yesterday that showed Donald Trump leading with 26 percent, followed by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina at 21 and 12 percent, respectively. Among the Democrats, Hillary led with 37 percent, with Biden close behind at 30 percent. In head-to-head matchups, GOP candidates all beat Clinton, with the largest margin of victory between Carson and Clinton at 51-41. (Public Policy Polling)
Democrats
- A new Bloomberg poll shows that the majority of Americans want limits on political fundraising and spending done by unions and corporations According to the poll, 78 percent thought unlimited spending was a “bad decision.” Bloomberg also noted that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have all said they will appoint Supreme Court justices who oppose less restricted spending and the Citizen’s United decision that allowed corporations the right to unlimited spending. (Bloomberg Politics)
Joe Biden
- According to CNN, Joe Biden was an active participant in the U.N. meeting on Tuesday. At one point, Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen even accidentally referred to Biden as "Mr. President” and then corrected himself with, “Vice President, sorry. Well, could have been! Can be! Who knows? If you have ... news to tell us here, please let us know." (CNN Politics)
- Supporters of Biden in Massachusetts are looking to gain the support of former Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.), who could open up the door to allies and major donations, according to Politico. (Politico)
Hillary Clinton
- According to a Gallup poll released Monday, Clinton’s image has improved among Democrats during the last two weeks. Her overall net rating is now +53, compared to her rating of +46 earlier in September. (Gallup)
- Yesterday Clinton appealed to Congress to repeal the Cadillac tax, an excise tax on high-cost employer-based health care plans. “Too many Americans are struggling to meet the cost of rising deductibles and drug prices. That’s why, among other steps, I encourage Congress to repeal the so-called Cadillac tax, which applies to some employer-based health plans, and to fully pay for the cost of repeal,” said Clinton. (Bloomberg Politics)
- Clinton has headlined 58 fundraisers in the third quarter of fundraising to date. This pace is identical to her fundraising pace in the second quarter. (CNN Politics)
- David Brock, an American journalist and founder of Media Matters for America, called the investigation into Clinton’s email server a “phony scandal” last week. (Chicago Magazine)
Lawrence Lessig
- Lawrence Lessig has hired Drew Westen, a professor at Emory University, to be his message consultant and has released a list of his major staff lineup. (Lessig Campaign Website)
Martin O’Malley
- Martin O’Malley “pinked out” his Twitter photo as a sign of solidarity with Planned Parenthood yesterday. He also tweeted, “Today, and everyday [sic], I #StandWithPP. We cannot let Republicans continue this attack that endangers health care for millions. #PinkOut.” (Twitter, KTLA 5)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Monday asking the Obama administration to support a proposal that would make some of the world’s poorest countries exempt from restrictions that hike drug prices. "Making sure people in poor countries have access to life-saving medicine is our moral responsibility," wrote Sanders. "I respectfully ask you to reconsider this position." (HuffPost Politics)
Republicans
- Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush are both set to have Wall Street fundraisers on September 14 and 16, respectively, in order to court major GOP donors. (Politico)
- Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and Bobby Jindal have agreed to attend the Florida Republican Party's Nov. 13-14 Sunshine Summit in Orlando. New Florida GOP rules require candidates to either attend this summit, pay $25,000 or gather 3,375 registered Republican voter signatures, including at least 125 from each Florida congressional district, in order to participate in the Florida presidential primary. (Tampa Bay Times)
- Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham missed a cloture vote on Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) bill to fund the government, which included funding for Planned Parenthood. The final vote was 77 to 19, allowing the bill to move forward without risk of government shutdown. (Breitbart)
Jeb Bush
- Jeb Bush discussed his energy policy at a Pennsylvania event yesterday. His plan calls for lifting restrictions on oil and gas production and exportation in order to help boost the economy to four percent growth. (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)
- On Tuesday, Bush added Will Morefield, Bobby Orrock and David Yancey, all Republican members of the Virginia House of Delegates, to his campaign staff. (Washington Post)
Ben Carson
- Ben Carson said in an interview yesterday that "American blacks over the course of this next year will begin to see that they've been manipulated, very, very largely" and realize that people have told them "what they're supposed to think and what they're supposed to say.” (Newsmax)
Chris Christie
- During a town hall event in Iowa on Monday, Chris Christie claimed that Putin “has been pushing around the President of the United States for the last seven years.” He continued, “A guy who doesn’t understand that the world is literally on fire because of his inaction: Libya is on fire, Syria is on fire, Iraq’s on fire, Egypt’s under martial law, Israel’s threatened like never before and Iran’s moving towards a nuclear weapon. All on this President’s watch and he gives a speech today where he spends more time on climate change than he spends on the global terrorist threat to America and the other free nations around the world.” (Breitbart)
- Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) criticized Christie’s role in defunding Planned Parenthood in New Jersey. "We know in New Jersey, in my state, where this Gov. Chris Christie spent so much of his leverage defunding Planned Parenthood and then suggesting that the federally qualified health care centers would be able to pick up the slack," she said. "They came in and testified they couldn't possibly accommodate all the deficiencies that would occur without Planned Parenthood." (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz sent out a fundraising email yesterday that said he would be in danger of dropping out if his campaign didn’t receive $200,000 before the fundraising quarter ended. “I talked with Ted late last night, and he asked me to update you first thing this morning,” Heidi Cruz wrote. “Friend, we’re still amost [sic] $200,000 short of our end of quarter goal. If we can’t close the gap — Washington insiders will gleefully use disappointing numbers as a reason to rip Ted apart.” (National Sun-Times)
- Cruz, along with GOP Congressional leaders, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Monday outlining a constitutional objection to the transfer of internet oversight power to a foreign body. “If the contract governing U.S. oversight of the Internet is indeed government property, the Administration’s intention to cede control to the ‘global stakeholder community’ – including nations like Iran, Russia and China that do not value free speech and in fact seek to stifle it – is in violation of the Constitution and should be stopped,” Cruz said in a statement. (BuzzFeed News, Congressional Letter)
- Cruz told Senate leaders on Monday that GOP leadership in Washington is not fighting hard enough for conservative principles. “I will give President Obama and the Senate Democrats credit,” Cruz said. “They are willing to crawl over broken glass with a knife between their teeth to fight for [their] principles. Unfortunately, leadership on my side of the aisle does not demonstrate the same commitment.” (Dallas Morning News)
Carly Fiorina
- Following her strong words against Planned Parenthood in the September GOP debate, several news outlets said that Carly Fiorina had fabricated a video that showed a fetus kicking its legs after an abortion. According to Breitbart, the video exists. It shows a moving fetus that survived an abortion, although the fetus shown is not the same one discussed in the narration by whistleblower Holly O’Donnell. Breitbart noted this is clearly labeled in the video. (Breitbart)
- On Tuesday, Fiorina defended her record as a CEO and also lamented that politics is a “fact-free zone.” She continued, “The thing is, business is not a fact-free zone. In fact, business is a fact-filled zone. So as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, I had to stand every 90 days and defend our results in excruciating detail. And if I misrepresented those results in any way, I could be held criminally liable. Now, just suppose for a moment that anyone else running for president was held criminally liable for anything they said." (HuffPost Politics)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham tweeted yesterday about the status of his 2016 run, “@LindseyGrahamSC to @TheView: "Hell no, I'm not gonna drop out." He also said during an interview on “The View” on the same day, “I have been in the military most of my life. You don't drop out. You don't get a pass.” (The Hill, Newsmax)
- Paul Young, a senior advisor for Graham’s campaign, defended the early caucus and primary systems in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “Any talk of changing this proven system where engaged voters in a small state fully analyze the candidates on issues of substance is irresponsible and a bad idea,” Young said. “Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina work for our nominating process. Lindsey Graham does not believe it should change.” (Quad-City Times)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee tweeted against Planned Parenthood yesterday, “#PlannedParenthood isn’t a 'healthcare provider' any more than #Benghazi was a ‘spontaneous protest.’” (Twitter)
- Huckabee suggested in an interview yesterday that the person who asked about Obama being a Muslim at a Donald Trump event may have been a “plant” to distract the media from other important issues. “The press in the U.S. seems more exercised over an accusation that Obama is a muslim [sic] by some anonymous person at a Trump rally — possibly even a plant sent there for no other reason than to stir up phony controversy,” said Huckabee. (BuzzFeed News)
John Kasich
- John Kasich has commented that the caucus and primary systems in Iowa and New Hampshire should remain intact. "New Hampshire and Iowa have earned the responsibility to hold the first primary and first caucus to launch the nominee for our party," Kasich said. "Voters in these states take their responsibility seriously and are among the most active, knowledgeable voters anywhere in the nation. By requiring that candidates engage directly with the voters, every candidate is tested and judged fairly. I strongly urge the RNC to preserve New Hampshire and Iowa's earned status as first in the nation." (Cleveland.com)
George Pataki
- Edward Snowden joined Twitter yesterday with the tweet, “Can you hear me now?” Within the hour, George Pataki tweeted back, “Some say you have courage, I saw real courage on #Sept11 You are just a traitor who put American lives at risk.” He also called for Twitter to ban Snowden. (NPR, CNN Politics)
Rand Paul
- On Tuesday, Rand Paul criticized Ted Cruz’s demeanor in the Senate. "Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names, which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence he can't get anything done legislatively," said Paul. "He is pretty much done for ... and it's really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem." (CNN Politics)
- Rumours circulated yesterday that a pro-Paul super PAC was shutting down, but according to The Washington Post, that is not actually the case. Ed Crane, the president of Purple PAC, commented that he hadn’t been raising money in the recent past because Paul hadn’t yet distinguished himself, but that the super PAC still exists. “This is supposed to be the year of the outsider,” said Crane. “He’s the consummate outsider candidate, and he was perceived as yet another one of the guys. I've got $1.4 million, I could get a lot more, but I didn't want to ask my wealthy friends to chip in at that juncture.” (Washington Post)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio criticized Trump on Monday. “I’m not interested in the back and forth, to be a member or a part of his freak show. He is a very sensitive person, he doesn’t like to be criticized,” said Rubio on NPR. (ABC News)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump tweeted yesterday, “Prediction: Rand Paul has been driven out of the race by my statements about him-- he will announce soon. 1%!” (Washington Post)
- According to the Center for Tax Justice, Trump's tax plan would reduce tax revenues by $9 trillion over 10 years. The Tax Foundation similarly estimated his plan would cost $10 trillion over the same time period. Trump's campaign maintains his tax plan is "revenue neutral." (CNN Politics)
- Bill Clinton accused Trump's campaign of being "fact-free" in an interview on Tuesday. (CNN Politics)
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
