The Tap: Friday, September 23, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #35 of The Tap, which was published on September 24, 2015. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a Facebook post that he will vote for Donald Trump in November, adding, “A year ago, I pledged to endorse the Republican nominee, and I am honoring that commitment. And if you don’t want to see a Hillary Clinton presidency, I encourage you to vote for [Trump].” Cruz was one of the last holdouts of the former 2016 Republican presidential candidates who had yet to publicly back Trump. Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Lindsey Graham have still not expressed their support for the Republican nominee. In May 2016, Cruz called Trump “a pathological liar,” “utterly amoral,” “a narcissist,” and a “serial philanderer.” At the Republican National Convention in July, Cruz delivered a speech in which he called on delegates “to vote their conscience in November” but did not make an endorsement. In his Facebook post, Cruz cited two reasons for his decision to back Trump: first, a pledge he made last year to support the Republican nominee and, second, Hillary Clinton. “Even though I have had areas of significant disagreement with our nominee, by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable — that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary,” wrote Cruz. He also listed six policy areas that informed his decision: the Supreme Court, Obamacare, energy, immigration, national security, and internet freedom. Cruz had taken criticism from other Republicans for refusing to support Trump, particularly from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who some speculate could mount a primary challenge to Cruz in 2018. Earlier this week, McCaul said, “I think what [Cruz] did at the convention turned off a lot of people. I mean, he pledged to support [Trump]. He broke his word.”

• Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released a second list of names from which he would choose nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court as president. The list includes four state supreme court judges, four federal appellate judges, and two federal district court judges. This list adds to a list of 11 potential nominees Trump released on May 18, 2016. In a press release, Trump thanked the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, among others, for help in constructing the list. For the full list, click here.
  • See also Supreme Court vacancy, 2016: An overview

• The Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed Hillary Clinton, marking the first time in nearly a century that the newspaper’s editorial board has backed a Democrat for president. After praising Clinton’s record of working across the aisle in the U.S. Senate and efforts to achieve universal healthcare, the editors wrote, “Trump is a clear and present danger to our country. He has no history of governance that should engender any confidence from voters. Trump has no foreign policy experience, and the fact that he doesn't recognize it – instead insisting that, ‘I know more about ISIS than the generals do’ – is even more troubling.” Although they took issue with Clinton’s use of a private email server and transparency level, they said that “[their] reservations about Clinton pale in comparison to [their] fears about Trump.”
  • See also Presidential endorsements, 2016

• Federal judge James Boasberg ordered the State Department to produce approximately 1,050 pages of emails discovered during the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s private email server in three batches on October 7, October 21, and November 4, 2016. Afterward, thousands more pages will be released on a monthly basis in batches of 500 pages. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, the organization that brought the lawsuit seeking the release of these documents, criticized the schedule, saying that “the American people could be deprived of this information at this essential time” leading up to the presidential election. Attorneys from the State Department said that up to 50 percent of the discovered work-related emails could be duplicates already disclosed.

• The Clinton campaign released a new ad focused on Donald Trump’s negative comments about women, nationally and in the battleground states of Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The clip, “Mirrors,” features girls looking into mirrors as Trump calls different women “fat” and “ugly” and states in an interview that he “can’t say” he treats women with respect.

Preview of the day

There were no items for this day in issue #34 of The Tap, which was published on September 17, 2016. See the "Review of the day" tab for more information.