Today in Campaign 2016
- Move over, Ted Cruz: House speaker Paul Ryan will lend his star power to Donald Trump’s national convention, with a primetime speaking slot lined up for Tuesday night, Politico reported. The speech will be 10 minutes long and will focus on the House Republican agenda.
- The Trump campaign has said Iowa senator Joni Ernst will also have a prime-time speaking slot next week.
- Bernie Sanders has cleared the way for an endorsement of Hillary Clinton tomorrow, and declared a successful end to his campaign to pull their party to the left during weekend negotiations over the Democratic policy platform.
- “We have made enormous strides,” said Sanders in a statement issued after a meeting in Orlando that swung the party in his direction on the minimum wage, climate change and marijuana though failed to make headway on fracking and trade. “Thanks to the millions of people across the country who got involved in the political process – many for the first time – we now have the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic party,” he said.
- As he mulls a running mate, Donald Trump is leaning toward someone with political as opposed to military experience and he expects to make his mind up in the “next three to four days,” he told the Washington Post.
While Trump was careful not to eliminate [retired Lt Gov Michael Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone “political” was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and one other political person are in his final four.
- President Barack Obama called the assassination of five police officers in Dallas late last week as a “hate crime” against law enforcement, Politico reports. “One really striking thing the president said in his opening remarks was that the shooting in Dallas in many ways was strikingly parallel to the Dylann Roof shooting in Charleston in the sense that it was a hate crime,” Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the outlet.
The comment “is quite a precedent from our standpoint,” said Pasco, who has been critical of the president’s relationship with law enforcement in the past. “At the end of the meeting I asked him to reiterate that publicly,” Pasco said.
- Also, the entire US capital has become obsessed with Pokémon Go:
Things I have caught in my office: 1) Mice 2) This pic.twitter.com/YCGWiJcf5y
— Lynn Jenkins (@RepLynnJenkins) July 11, 2016
Anyone else on #PokemonGO? I've found a #Squirtle & a #Pikachu in DC, but I'm still looking for a Republican willing to vote on #NoFlyNoBuy
— Judy Chu (@RepJudyChu) July 11, 2016
Found an Exeggcute on the House Floor! Sorry, no pics allowed! #PokemonGO
— (((Jared Polis))) (@jaredpolis) July 11, 2016
Updated
In the ongoing political battle over LGBT rights, social conservatives bent but didn’t break as the Republican party drafted its 2016 platform.
With the campaign of presumptive nominee Donald Trump relatively unengaged in the platform process, Republican activists from across the country spent most of today hashing out their differences on gay marriage and other thorny social issues ranging from transgender bathroom access to Internet pornography.
In a cavernous downtown convention center, Republicans spent 12 hours first of their two-day marathon to determine the party’s policy manifesto for the coming election in small subcommittees and before a televised assembly of full committee of 112. The meetings were at times contentious but rarely adversarial. Instead of harsh rhetoric, rebukes were most often given with rolled eyes and an occasional sigh.
The proposed language in the platform, which called for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that overturned all state bans on same-sex marriage, represented a notable shift from past years. In 2012, the platform called for a constitutional amendment to legally define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.”
Tony Perkins, a delegate from Louisiana and head of the Family Research Council, pushed back at the idea that the change in language represented a change in Republican policy. “The idea that the RNC is walking away from this is not correct, simply addressing the present realities of where the issue stands.” Perkins instead saw it as a Fabian retreat: “You don’t have the votes in the senate to pass marriage amendment defining marriage for the entire country . . . you have three quarters of states defining marriage and states are still ticked that 50 million votes were thrown out by five unelected judges.”
However, even that slightly softened language met a vocal effort from delegates seeking to strip any support for a constitutional amendment from same sex marriage from the platform and instead replace it with neutral language that “We encourage and welcome a thoughtful conversation among Republicans about meaning and importance of marriage.” Despite an emotional plea from Rachel Hoff, the first openly gay member of the RNC platform committee, the amendment appeared to receive the support of only about 20 of the committee’s 112 members and falling short of the 28-vote threshold needed to potentially trigger minority report and a vote on the floor of the full convention next week.
Republican advocates for LGBT rights also tried unsuccessfully to modify language that called for children to be raised by a married mother and father to read stable loving home. This was thwarted. However, an amendment offered by Perkins to allow for conversion therapy slipped through subcommittee without opposition.
About 20 of the 112 delegates on the Republican platform committee voted to remove support for same sex marriage ban from GOP platform
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
Republicans also softened proposed language on transgender access to bathrooms. Although the subcommittee on family issues added a provision stating “we support and encourage the common sense practice of protecting public safety and personal safety by limiting access to restrooms, locker rooms and other similar facilities,” it was later removed in a full committee hearing. In a motion offered by the subcommittee’s co-chair Patricia Longo of Connecticut, the language was described as duplicative and scrubbed without debate.
However, although the platform offered language saying that Obama’s executive order on the subject “illegal, ominous and ignores privacy issues.” It added “we salute the several states that have filed suit against it.” This didn’t address the concerns in the subcommittee that introduced the amendment, which Melody Potter of West Virginia emphasized was a safety issue and argued “we have to take a stand.” Instead, it represented a shift away from supporting affirmative legislation on the subject like North Carolina’s HB2 and instead opposition to the Obama executive order on the subject as overreach.
The platform also contained a provision calling Internet pornography “a public health crisis.” Mary Frances Forester, who introduced the amendment, told the Guardian “we know how big of a problem it is. It is an insidious epidemic and everyone knows that and that is not a controversy.” She hesitated though to predict whether a Trump administration would follow through on the pledge to crackdown on pornography. “I don’t think there are many of us that want to predict exactly how its going to come about,” said Forrester. “I think we all have open minds, we all are willing to be impressed but not sure if I’m ready to give you a definite answer.”
Delegates also pushed back against efforts towards medical marijuana and drug decriminalization. An proposed amendment to encourage states to legalize cannabis oil for medical reasons was rejected as one delegate, Noel Irvin Hentschel, linked marijuana use to mass killings. “All the mass killings that are taking place, they are young boys from divorced families and they are smoking marijuana.” Other opponents linked marijuana use to the heroin epidemic.
The platform committee will finish its work on the GOP’s proposed platform on Tuesday as it deals with potentially contentious proposals about trade and immigration.
Donald Trump is reportedly eyeing former House speaker Newt Gingrich for several potential roles in his hypothetical administration, Bloomberg reports, including a role as a top national security adviser.
Although Gingrich has been talked about as a potential running mate, Bloomberg cited multiple campaign sources as saying that Gingrich was being considered for an unnamed national security role.
At a Trump campaign event in Cincinnati last week, Trump indicated that he’d be more than happy to have Gingrich join him in the White House in some capacity.
“Newt has been my friend for a long time,” Trump said. “And I’m not saying anything, and I’m not telling even Newt anything, but I can tell you, in one form or another, Newt Gingrich is going to be involved with our government - that I can tell you.”
Leaked audio: Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton would 'make a good president'
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has stepped up his aggressive campaign against likely general election opponent Hillary Clinton, but when the former secretary of state was waging her own campaign against then-senator Barack Obama, Trump told a national radio audience that she would “make a good president.”
“With the Democratic presidential nomination far from decided, the candidates were jockeying a little bit recently talking about a dream ticket,” Trump said in March 2008 on his short-lived syndicated radio featurette Trumped!, the audio of which was unearthed by the Wall Street Journal. “Well, I know her,” Trump said of Clinton, “and she’d make a good president or a good vice president.”
Trump donated to Clinton’s campaign in 2008, although he has since disavowed his support as purely oriented towards facilitating favorable conditions for his businesses.
In addition to lauding Clinton, numerous other featurettes from Trumped! - each segment of which ran roughly sixty seconds long and aired between 2004 and 2008 - discovered by the Wall Street Journal reveal problematic statements made about Saudi Arabia, guns in school classrooms and his own libido.
“Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without going to the courts. I guess that would also mean they don’t need prenuptial agreements,” Trump observed in 2008, discussing a story from Saudi Arabia in which a Saudi man filed to divorce his wife because she watched a male news anchor on television. “No courts, no judges - Saudi Arabia sounds like a very good place to get a divorce.”
In another segment from the same year, Trump declared that he was opposed to a proposal in West Virginia that would have allowed hunting-education classes in public schools. Calling the classes a “dangerous risk,” Trump said that “We hear way too many stories about school violence, so the thought of voluntarily putting guns in the classroom seems like a really bad plan.”
Trump has moved rightward on gun-control issues since running for president, suggesting at one point that a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando could have been avoided if the patrons had been armed.
Trump, who once referenced the size of his genitals during a televised presidential debate, said on a segment in 2006 that reports that women disapproved of one-night stands “fooled me.”
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sat down with the Golf Channel for an wide-ranging interview, and in a sneak preview obtained by Mediaite, host David Feherty questions Trump on whether he plans on using a teleprompter during his crowning address at the convention’s close.
“Everybody loves it in the stadium, but in terms of television, it probably doesn’t look as presidential,” Trump said. “There’s a time for both - I think there’s a time for both.”
“The big question is, with the RNC coming up, am I going to use a teleprompter or not? I don’t know if it’s ever been down without, essentially, a teleprompter,” Trump continued. He said that he’d “love” to give the address without one, but will likely make the decision roughly a week before the address itself.
The full interview will air on Monday, July 18th, at 9 pm EDT.
Submitted: One of the many cringe-y political tweets about Pokémon Go:
Sorry Pikachu, we've been busy catching criminals. ICYMI, NYC crime rates are at historic lows. #CrimeStats pic.twitter.com/hEZXlatNrp
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 11, 2016
Dozens of protesters staged a sit-in at Florida senator Marco Rubio’s Orlando office on Monday, demanding action on stricter gun laws and policies to protect LGBT individuals.
The demonstration comes nearly one month after a gay nightclub in the city was the target of the deadliest mass shooting in US history, with 49 people killed and 53 more injured. The organizers said the sit-in would continue for 49 hours, one for each of the slain victims in the 12 June massacre.
It was after the Pulse nightclub shooting that Rubio, whose presidential campaign ended in March, first signaled he might reconsider his decision not to seek re-election to the Senate. The senator, who formally entered the race last month, has since drawn criticism from proponents of gun safety reforms and LGBT rights for his record on both issues.
Rubio remains opposed to marriage equality and has voted against measures in the past that would protect LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination. The senator is also a staunch supporter of the second amendment and last week celebrated an endorsement from the National Rifle Association toward his re-election campaign.
Rubio has routinely argued that new gun laws would do little to prevent America’s gun violence epidemic and voted against bills to expand background checks and bar those on the FBI’s terror watch list from purchasing firearms. The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, was not actively on a watch list but deemed self-radicalized by authorities and investigated by the FBI several years prior.
In the wake of the Orlando attack, Rubio voted for Republican-backed alternatives to delay firearm sales to those on the terror watch list and require the Justice Department to prove within 72 hours that there was probable cause to ban the purchase all together.
“Senator Rubio respects the views of others on these difficult issues, and he welcomes the continued input he is receiving from people across the political spectrum,” Alex Burgos, a spokesman for his Senate office, said in a statement on the protest.
“Senator Rubio and our office continue working around the clock on federal casework to assist victims’ families, survivors and their families, and we stand ready to continue assisting, including lending staff to the victim assistance center as we did for the last few weeks.”
“Over the past month, Senator Rubio has supported common sense compromises to make it easier to track individuals who have been on the terror watch list and later try to buy firearms, all while improving due process protections for law abiding Americans,” he added.
Protestors argued that Rubio’s steps were insufficient and vowed to press on even as police indicated they might face arrest if they refused to leave the building upon its closure. Their demonstration was reminiscent of a sit-in organized by House Democrats last month, in which lawmakers occupied the floor of the chamber for 26 hours in the pursuit of a vote on tougher gun restrictions.
The sit-in at Rubio’s office began at roughly 10 a.m. and has been dubbed as #SitInForThe49 on social media. In addition to LGBT rights and gun control, protesters also cited police brutality as a prime area of concern. Photos and videos from the event showed demonstrators singing “We Shall Overcome” and reading the names of the Orlando victims, whose names they also printed out and placed on the office floor along with red roses.
Patrick Murphy, the Florida congressman who is likely to be Rubio’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, threw his support behind the effort.
“This kind of brave demonstration should inspire us all to pass meaningful legislation to prevent future tragedies,” Murphy said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, Marco Rubio has doubled down on his opposition to commonsense gun violence prevention efforts and has yet to acknowledge that this was a hate crime against the LGBT community. It’s clear that Floridians have had enough of Marco Rubio putting his political ambition above the people he is supposed to represent.”
President Barack Obama: Shooting of Dallas police officers 'a hate crime'
President Barack Obama called the assassination of five police officers in Dallas late last week as a “hate crime” against law enforcement, Politico reports.
“One really striking thing the president said in his opening remarks was that the shooting in Dallas in many ways was strikingly parallel to the Dylann Roof shooting in Charleston in the sense that it was a hate crime,” Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the outlet.
The comment “is quite a precedent from our standpoint,” said Pasco, who has been critical of the president’s relationship with law enforcement in the past. “At the end of the meeting I asked him to reiterate that publicly,” Pasco said.
Obama’s public remarks have been more staid. In Warsaw on Saturday, Obama said that while “there is sorrow, there is anger, there is confusion” about how the US will move forward, “there’s unity in recognizing that this is not how we want our communities to operate. This is not who we want to be as Americans, and that serves as the basis for us being able to move forward in a constructive and positive way.”
Updated
In an interview with Buzzfeed News, former Virginia governor and oft-forgotten Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore said that the “Never Trump” movement within the Republican party is bad for the party, and that his goal is to “draw the party together.”
“I’ve not been supportive of Never Trump,” Gilmore said. “I think that we need to unify the Republican party. That’s very hard right now with the Never Trump movement. My goal is, Jim Gilmore’s goal is, to draw the party together.”
Asked whether Trump could prevail in the former governor’s home state, Gilmore was hazy.
“It’s too soon,” Gilmore said.
Earlier, former House speaker and current potential Republican running mate Newt Gingrich told the Associated Press that it wouldn’t be an “automatic yes” if he were extended an offer to serve as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
When asked about that comment by NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster, Gingrich elaborated that he wouldn’t automatically accept the offer because he has a book coming out soon.
“Callista and I have a lot of things going on right now,” Gingrich said. “We each have a book coming out. We just released a movie on George Washington called First American, we have an exciting new project on women of the American revolution, so we’d want to stop and talk through exactly what he’d have in mind and, um, whether or not at a practical level we can make the transition.”
When asked what his “gut” was telling him, Gingrich responded: “I have no idea.”
Trump is expected to announce his choice by the end of the week.
Updated
Donald Trump is touting poll results from a survey has the presumptive presidential nominee winning Hispanics by 13%, winning 18% of Democrats and losing women by a mere 2%.
Great poll- Florida! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/4FuPpL5WOM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2016
Speaking on a Virginia radio station, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump implied that the “status quo” embodied by former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic rival Hillary Clinton led to the assassination of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday evening.
“The status quo, probably you could say that led to Dallas,” Trump said, “but the status quo is going to just leave our country the way it is.” Of Clinton, Trump continued: “She’ll never change anything. Because she’s a - you know, if you look at it, and I say she’s status quo all the time. Our country needs real change and she can never do it.”
Updated
Colorado representative Jared Polis is apparently a big fan of Pokémon Go:
Found an Exeggcute on the House Floor! Sorry, no pics allowed! #PokemonGO
— (((Jared Polis))) (@jaredpolis) July 11, 2016
Hillary Clinton could campaign much more aggressively against climate change than any US presidential candidate before her, under a draft platform adopted by Democratic party leaders, report the Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg and Oliver Milman.
The leaders committed the presumptive Democratic nominee to a carbon tax, a climate test for future pipelines and tighter rules on fracking – all stronger positions than those held by Clinton herself at the start of the race.
The Clinton camp said, after the platform was adopted, that she does not support a carbon tax and the draft still needs to be ratified at the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia this month.
But the draft platform reflects the influence of Bernie Sanders and other liberals on the 2016 race, and the recognition by Clinton of the need to win over those supporters in swing states such as Colorado, Florida and Virginia where there is strong concern about climate change.
The bold stance could also help Clinton define Donald Trump as a climate denier who is out of touch with reality.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a presidential candidate in possession of a yuge fortune must be in want of a decisive electoral victory in Florida. Which is why it’s so odd that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has apparently shuttered his Sunshine State headquarters less than a week before the Republican National Convention.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, visitors to the candidate’s Sarasota-based state headquarters are greeted by a sign saying that the office is temporarily closed, purportedly to assist with Trump’s national convention plans.
“Our office is temporarily closed to the public while our office works to prep for the National Convention in Cleveland,” the sign says.
This is in keeping with Trump’s skeleton-crew campaign, which has relied on free television appearances on major media networks in lieu of paid advertisements and has fewer operatives nationally than rival Hillary Clinton has in the state of Ohio.
Donald Trump has already tweeted a response to reports of a fatal shooting at a Michigan courthouse earlier this afternoon:
Thoughts and prayers with the victims, and their families- along with everyone at the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, Michigan.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2016
Checking in with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where delegates are wrangling over everything from LGBT rights to education to pornography and, now, junk food.
My colleague Ben Jacobs is reporting from the city. The question is SNAP welfare benefits (aka food stamps) can be spent.
We are now debating whether ginger ale qualifies as junk food
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
Now discussion of prairie chickens inside the RNC platform meeting as reporters are being dissuaded from getting anywhere near delegates
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
The real question now for the platform committee is whether prairie chickens are junk food
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
Now a concern raised about the political consequences of Republicans opposing chickens
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
Bader Ginsburg: I can't imagine President Trump
Supreme court justices don’t often deign to get into the political thicket, but occasionally a more outspoken justice will take on the press.
Enter Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal stalwart of the court who gave a rare interview to the New York Times this weekend. She can’t imagine President Donald Trump.
“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she said. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
It reminded her of something her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax lawyer who died in 2010, would have said.
“‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,’” Justice Ginsburg said, smiling ruefully.
Ginsburg also departed from the justices’ usual measured silence to praise a judge nominated to join her on the court, and to censure Republicans in the Senate, where they’ve stalled hearings for that nominee.
“I think he is about as well qualified as any nominee to this court,” she said of Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick for hte court. “Super bright and very nice, very easy to deal with. And super prepared. He would be a great colleague.”
She then told senators to do give him a hearing. “That’s their job,” she said. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year.”
Ginsburg also had kind words for the conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who has led the eight-person court through a strange term. “He had a hard job,” she said. “I think he did it quite well.”
You can read more of the justice’s full interview, including her reflections on the cases of the last term, here.
Updated
A flashback to the days of Richard Nixon, who in 1968 – a year of racial tension and violence around the country – said: “time for some honest talk about the problem of order in the US”.
Trump today: "I am the law and order candidate" - Nixon at 1968 Republican convention pic.twitter.com/P9y4uRf8rs
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) July 11, 2016
“Decades of decay, division and decline will come to an end,” Trump declares.
“The years of America’s greatness will return. We are going to become the first time in a longtime one united country,” he goes on. “Once more we’re going to go big, we’re going to go great.”
“Let me conclude by paying tribute to every single American hero who has served this country,” he says. “Our debt to them is eternal and everlasting.”
“We will be a safe, strong and proud country again,” he ends, before leaving the stage. At no moment did Trump mention prisoners of war.
Trump: Clinton is 'secretary of status quo'
He goes back to attacking Clinton: “Crooked Hillary is the secretary of the status quo, and wherever Hillary Clinton goes, corruption and scandal follow.”
Trump insists that “despite what she says” Clinton does not care about regular Americans. “She was willing to risk our foreign enemies reading her emails as long as the voting American public could not. Her conduct was willful, intentional and unlawful.”
“She’s probably the most surprised person to get away with it.”
He’s back to talking about her use of a private email server and the subsequent FBI investigation, which did not find evidence to bring a criminal case against her – thought it did find “extremely careless” practices that possibly put classified information at risk to hacking.
Then Trump accuses Clinton of being “part of a cover-up”, and moves on to talk about the Clinton Foundation’s history of taking donations from foreign governments. She would be “the first president of the United States who wouldn’t be able to pass a background check,” Trump says.
Updated
Trump notes a serious issue: suicide among veterans.
“This is a national tragedy that is not talked about. If they are in the system receiving care they are much less likely to take their own lives than veterans who are outside this horrible, horrible system.”
The businessman then promises to outline a 10-point plan for veterans.
- His first point is to appoint a secretary of “great competence” who is not “a political hack”.
- I’m going to use every lawful authority to remove and discipline federal employees and managers who fail our veterans or breach the public trust.
- He wants to ask for the authority to remove any employee who risks the health or safey of any veteran.
- A commission to investigate Veterans Affairs and recommend legislation.
- “I’m going to make sure the honest and dedicated people at the VA have their jobs protected and are put in line for serious promotions if they continue to do good work.”
- He wants people, not phones, to respond to inquiries, 24 hours a day “to ensure that no valid complaint about the VA and its wrongdoing falls through the cracks”. He says he wants complaints to come directly to him and “I’ll fix it myself if I have to”.
- No more bonuses to people who’re “wasting money” and new bonuses for people who are “saving lives and cutting waste”.
- He wants to improve visa programs to ensure that veterans are “at the front of the line” and not the back.
- More mental healthcare facilities and professionals, and increase outreach to veterans who’re outside the program – an expansion of government.
- Finally he proposes “private medical care paid for by our government”.
“Never again will we allow a veteran to die waiting for care they so richly deserve. They are great people,” he says.
The businessman moves on to the “corruption” in the Veterans Affairs department, which he says has gone unrepaired under Barack Obama.
“Every veteran will get timely access to top quality medical care,” he promises. “Veterans should be guaranteed the right to choose their doctors and clinics, whether at a VA facility or at a private medical center. We must extend this right to all veterans.”
The he goes back to praising current and past service members: “They fought hard to protect us. They are going to come first in a Trump administration. They will be part of America first. It will be America first from now on. America first.”
The Anti-Defamation League has asked Trump to stop using the phrase “America first”, which has roots in a movement of Nazi sympathizers who wanted the US to stay neutral in the 1930s.
Amid his praise for veterans – “the veteran is sacred”, he says – he does not say anything about prisoners of war such as John McCain, whom he has mocked at length
Trump says that the US has to live up to the promise it makes its soldiers: “You defend America and America will defend you.”
“That promise has been broken by our politicians, like so many other promises our country’s made.”
He blames Barack Obama for having not supported Veterans Affairs or healthcare; that the president has “denied them the help”. He says that such politicians live in a made-up reality, possibly because “they’re being paid millions of dollars to read from a telemprompter speeches to Wall Street executives instead of spending time with real people in real pain.”
He’s talking about the several million dollars that Hillary Clinton earned giving speeches to banks and other firms, but it rings strangely. Trump is asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars from millionaires and billionaires, and himself claims to have billions and lives in a gilded tower with his extremely wealthy family.
“There are two Americas: the ruling class and the groups it favors and then, everyone else,” he says.
'I am the law and order candidate,' Trump says
“Our inner cities are rife with crime,” Trump goes on – as the speech takes a darker tone.
He cites the Chicago Tribune on the gun violence epidemic in that city, one of the worst in the US. He says “brutal drug cartels are spreading their reach into Virginia and Maryland”.
“Our inner cities have been left totally behind. And i’m going to fight to make sure every citizen of this country has a safe home, a safe school and a safe community.”
He says “we will cease to have a country, 100%” without police.
Then he declares: “I am the law and order candidate.”
He says this is in contrast to Hillary Clinton, adding that he believes her brush with a FBI investigation into her email practices is evidence enough.
Then he adds also the “compassionate” candidate. “Without safety, we have nothing.”
.@realDonaldTrump: "Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is weak, ineffective...She is either a liar or grossly incompetent...probably both."
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) July 11, 2016
Updated
Trump: end hostility toward police
Trump takes the stage in Virginia Beach. “Thank you. Wow. What a great group.”
He thanks some more people – especially “the men and women in blue”.
“Our police officers, we love our police office. Our police officers rush into danger every single day to protect our communities and they often do so thanklessly and under relentless criticism.”
He’s reading from a teleprompter: “I want our nation’s police to know that we thank you from the bottom of our heart.”
“We support you, and we will always, always, always stand with you.”
“The attack on our Dallas police is an attack on our country. Our whole nation is in mourning and will be for a very long time. Yet we’ve also seen increasing threats against our police.” He’s right that there have been more police deaths this year than in past years, though there are very few in general.
“It’s time for our hostility against our police, and against all members of law enforcement to end, and end immediately, right now.”
Updated
Trump is about to speak on veterans, law and order in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he’s getting an introduction from Chris Christie, the departing governor of New Jersey who quickly endorsed Trump and then spent several rallies staring into the middle-distance next to the businessman.
He says a Trump presidency means “breaking the china” in government. He’s auditioning for vice-president.
Updated
More than 2,000 students, alumni and faculty of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania – aka the alma mater of Donald Trump – have written an open letter denouncing the candidate: “you do not represent us”.
The highlight reel:
- “We, proud students, alumni, and faculty of Wharton, are outraged that an affiliation with our school is being used to legitimize prejudice and intolerance.”
- “Your insistence on exclusion and scapegoating would be bad for business and bad for the American economy. An intolerant America is a less productive, less innovative, and less competitive America.”
- “Your discriminatory statements are incompatible with the values that we are taught and we teach at Wharton.”
- “Although we do not aim to make any political endorsements with this letter, we do express our unequivocal stance against the xenophobia, sexism, racism, and other forms of bigotry that you have actively and implicitly endorsed in your campaign.”
- “We have been deeply disappointed in your candidacy.”
You can read the full letter on Medium.
Hillary Clinton has received the endorsement of a major progressive group, another sign that Democrats are trying hard to fold Bernie Sanders’ left wing of the party into Clinton’s coalition.
She released a statement that goes to great lengths to reassure the Americans who love Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that team Clinton is just as progressive as they are.
“I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Progressive Action PAC,” she said. “For 25 years, the CPC has been a champion for working people and on behalf of Americans who have been left out and left behind.
“We are stronger when we have each others’ backs. That’s why we will fight to secure universal health care, raise the minimum wage, and protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote--not corporations’ right to buy elections. It’s why we will face up to the reality of systemic racism, and fix it together. And it’s why we will say ‘no’ to trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would hurt American workers, and fully enforce our trade laws to protect American jobs.
“We are stronger when all our people can retire with dignity and security after years of hard work. That is why we will stand up to Republican efforts to undermine or privatize the bedrock promise of Social Security—and we’ll fight to expand it.
“And we are stronger when we make our economy work for everyone—not just those at the top. That’s why we will fight to make college debt-free and make the kinds of investments that will create good-paying jobs, with a bold plan to build 21st century infrastructure, revitalize American manufacturing, and combat climate change and make America a clean energy superpower.
“Progressives know that in America, we don’t tear each other down--we lift each other up. We believe in building bridges, not walls. And we know that America is already great—because for 240 years, ours has been the story of hard-fought, hard-won progress.”
Donald Trump, heading for Virginia.
Trump in line for takeoff at LGA pic.twitter.com/g8Q40ULp0S
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 11, 2016
Trump will be joined by New Jersey governor Chris Christie. They click personally, the Washington Post reports... but Christie has a “stagnant and historically low” popularity rating...
Inside the search: Trump "clicks" more w/ Christie than Pence... but most associates see Indiana Gov as smarter/more political pick
— Robert Costa (@costareports) July 11, 2016
Protesters are gathering outside the Virginia event:
Vet holds sign protesting Trump outside Westin where Trump is speaking today. https://t.co/iQaZ9V0btX pic.twitter.com/OOa9RCTjFu
— Allison Mechanic (@AllisonWTKR) July 11, 2016
A few weeks ago Hillary Clinton sat down for a long interview with Vox editor Ezra Klein. Vox posted the interview online today in full – you can watch below.
It’s an intimate and sympathetic forum for Clinton. She’s invited to plunge into policy details, to speak uninterrupted for minutes, without being challenged to defend potential weak spots in her record including the mixed legacy of welfare reform, her 1990s failure to shepherd health care reform, coziness with Wall Street and mixed tax policy votes as a senator (the interview is devoted to domestic policy).
Here are links to separate chapters from the interview:
- Extreme poverty, welfare reform, and the working poor
- Is it time for more deficit spending?
- Would more immigration be good for the economy?
- The difficulties of free college and universal health care
- What skills does a president need that campaigns don’t test?
- What’s on Hillary’s bookshelf?
- Why America stopped trusting elites — and what elites should do about it
Trump leaning toward 'political' running mate
As he mulls a running mate, Donald Trump is leaning toward someone with political as opposed to military experience and he expects to make his mind up in the “next three to four days,” he tells the Washington Post.
While Trump was careful not to eliminate [retired Lt Gov Michael Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone “political” was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and one other political person are in his final four.
Trump told the Post’s Chris Cillizza that he is not leaning toward picking an anti-establishment figure:
“I don’t need two anti-establishment people,” Trump said. “Someone respected by the establishment and liked by the establishment would be good for unification. I do like unification of the Republican party.”
Read the full piece here.
Bush to join Obama at Dallas memorial
Former president George W Bush will join president Obama and the vice president at a memorial service in Dallas tomorrow. The former president is expected to speak.
According to the White House, Obama will deliver remarks at an interfaith memorial service at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center with the families of the fallen police officers and members of the Dallas community “whose unity is reflective of who we are as Americans”:
He will also meet privately with the families of the fallen police officers and those who were injured to personally express the nation’s support and gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The Vice President will attend. President and Mrs. George W. Bush will also attend, and President Bush will deliver brief remarks.
President George W Bush will join Pres Obama and VP Biden in Dallas on Tuesday and deliver remarks at memorial service, per White House.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) July 11, 2016
An open-records request filed by the Republican national committee has shaken loose some interesting documents and correspondence pertaining to paid speeches delivered by Bill Clinton.
“Contracts and internal emails connected to half a dozen speeches Clinton gave in the Bay Area soon after departing the White House offer a glimpse into the unusual demands and outsize expense reports associated with bringing him to town,” according to a Los Angeles Times report:
They show a former president who deftly avoided discussing past scandals by refusing questions that were not screened by his staff in advance. There is the nearly $1,400 bill for a day’s worth of phone calls from San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel and the $700 dinner for two. And they also show that an agency representing Clinton continued to pursue a deal with an event host who emailed a racist remark about audiences and jokingly referred to the male aides Clinton traveled with as his mistresses.
Read the full piece here.
Updated
Bernie Sanders has cleared the way for an endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, and declared a successful end to his campaign to pull their party to the left during weekend negotiations over the Democratic policy platform, write the Guardian’s Dan Roberts and Lauren Gambino:
“We have made enormous strides,” said Sanders in a statement issued after a meeting in Orlando that swung the party in his direction on the minimum wage, climate change and marijuana though failed to make headway on fracking and trade.
“Thanks to the millions of people across the country who got involved in the political process – many for the first time – we now have the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic party,” he said.
Typically, the public pays little attention to this non-binding agenda for the national convention, but Sanders pushed hard to ensure changes as the price of encouragement to his millions of supporters to back Clinton, despite their often bitter fight for the nomination.
Read the full piece here:
The Democrat who was running what looked like an ill-fated bid for the US senate seat coming open in Indiana has stepped aside in favor of the former two-term senator and governor Evan Bayh:
Democrat Baron Hill is dropping out of Indiana Senate race. Will be replaced as the nominee by former Sen. Evan Bayh - POLITICO
— Amy Resnick (@AmyResnick) July 11, 2016
Dems taking full advantage of what Republicans did to their party this year. https://t.co/vKYbzPiTSc
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) July 11, 2016
Trump to Kentucky for fundraiser
Donald Trump will visit Lexington, Kentucky, for a 5pm fundraiser Monday, according to local Lex18:
The event will cost attendees $1,000 for the reception and more than $5,000 for a picture with Trump. Shortly after the announcement, a general admission ticket was released with prices beginning at $250.
Twitter to live-stream conventions
Twitter and CBS News today announced a partnership to stream the network’s live coverage from the Republican and Democratic National Conventions on Twitter.
“The stream will be live on Twitter each day from gavel to gavel and will be enhanced with live, convention-related Tweets,” a statement said.
Ryan to speak at convention
Move over, Ted Cruz: House speaker Paul Ryan will lend his star power to Donald Trump’s national convention, with a primetime speaking slot lined up for Tuesday night, Politico reports:
The speech “will be 10 minutes long, and will focus on the House Republican agenda and ‘the sharp contrast between Republican ideas and four more years of Obama-like progressive policies; and the need for conservatives to unite around Republican candidates in advance of a critical election,’ per an aide.
The Trump campaign has said Iowa senator Joni Ernst will also have a prime-time speaking slot next week.
Democrat Bayh to run for Indiana senate seat
Former two-term Democratic senator and Indiana governor Evan Bayh will seek to return to the US senate, CNN reports, in a boost for Democrats hoping to take back the senate majority in November.
Bayh will run to replace retiring Republican senator Dan Coats, according to an anonymous source quoted by CNN.
At a glance, Bayh would appear to be a strong contender to take back the seat for Democrats. After being nominated for reelection in 2010, the popular Hoosier politician unexpectedly left the race – but retained upwards of $9m in his campaign arsenal, money that could be used for the current campaign.
Democrats would need to flip five senate seats to gain an outright majority. Out of 24 Republican-held senate seats on the ballot this fall, at least five – and now six – appear vulnerable to a Democratic upset. These include Illinois (Kirk), Wisconsin (Johnson), Pennsylvania (Toomey), Ohio (Portman) and New Hampshire (Ayotte). Senator Marco Rubio appears off to a strong start at retaining his seat in Florida.
Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Westfield, Indiana, on Tuesday. Trump’s perceived weakness at the top of the ticket could have informed the decision in Indiana:
Bayh's reported late entry into #INSEN signals he/Dems see a favorable macro-climate in fall. U don't jump in this late without that sense.
— Sean Sullivan (@WaPoSean) July 11, 2016
Reminder of how insufferable Evan Bayh was in retirement https://t.co/KCyB5sNr42 pic.twitter.com/QJ1LXRvzIO
— DENALI (@timothypmurphy) July 11, 2016
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Bernie Sanders is set to endorse Hillary Clinton in a joint appearance on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Tuesday, his campaign has confirmed. It would be the candidates’ first appearance together as explicit allies in the presidential race.
Clinton announced significant policy initiatives last week that were coordinated with the Sanders campaign and seemingly designed to encourage his supporters to accept her as a standard bearer for the cause. She called for a moratorium on student debt and tuition aid, and for federal funds for community health clinics and an expansion of Medicare.
But not everyone’s convinced:
Safe to say r/SandersForPresident is not amused by @BernieSanders endorsing @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/QvtvKk2KzH
— Emily Cahn (@CahnEmily) July 11, 2016
Trump announces communications hires
As meetings get under way at the Republican national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Donald Trump has announced the hiring of a new director of campaign surrogates and a new director for rapid response. The latter spokesperson, Steven Cheung, is a veteran of the 2008 Republican presidential ticket but most recently served as director of communications for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Trump goes looking for a very large handout
In hopes of closing the fundraising gap with Clinton, Trump will attend two top-flight fundraisers in Rancho Santa Fe and Bel Air, California, next week, the Guardian’s Rory Carroll reports:
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee hopes to persuade fellow billionaires and even mere millionaires to stump up to $449,400 each to fill gaping holes in his campaign for the White House.
The Donald Trump veepstakes
Time grows short: with Republican officials gathering in Cleveland for the party’s national convention, Trump is expected to name his running mate this week. The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs flags five possibilities:
One possibility not on that list, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, is a former head of the defense intelligence agency, an Obama critic – and, it seems, a pro-choice Democrat.
“I think women have to be able to choose what they – sort of the right of choice,” he told ABC News at the weekend:
Possible Trump VP pick Gen. Michael Flynn on abortion: "Woman have to be able to choose." #ThisWeek https://t.co/AXyRZiMDL1
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 10, 2016
The party’s platform committee is meeting in Cleveland today, Ben reports:
Prayer at RNC Platform: Although many of us support Mr. Trump we know that only you, Lord, can truly make America great again
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 11, 2016
Justice Ginsburg warns against Trump
Supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has warned of deleterious consequences should Trump be elected. “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” the 83-year-old justice told the New York Times. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be – I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
Cleveland vendors see convention orders canceled
The Republican national convention may not be the windfall some local vendors expected, according to a report in local Cleveland Scene:
“Everything we have booked has adjusted their budgets down,” explains Mike Smith, chef-partner at Marigold Catering, which is one of a dozen official caterers to the Republican National Convention. “We had somebody cut their guest count in half and we’ve had somebody cut their budget in half. Everyone across the board expected all this craziness and the money is just not there. We released a bunch of staff because, like everybody, we expected to do a lot more than we are actually doing.”
Ohio governor John Kasich, who suspended his own presidential campaign in May, remains opposed to the Trump candidacy and deeply ambivalent about the circus coming to town, according to a Washington Post report:
Party healing update via @loisromano: John Kasich welcomes the RNC to Ohio. https://t.co/hQvLZeY0b8 pic.twitter.com/YstKdbVAvO
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) July 11, 2016
Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
