That’s it from us for tonight. We’ll be back tomorrow for the lead-up to the final Democratic presidential debate before the New Hampshire primaries!
Check out Adam Gabbatt’s dispatch from Derry, New Hampshire, to see where things stand at the end of the night:
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Key moments from tonight’s Democratic town hall forum
Answering questions from Anderson Cooper and the audience on topics ranging from Wall Street regulation and Supreme Court nominations to rural heroin epidemics and climate change, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders highlighted some key differences between their candidacies - and some surprising similarities.
- Sanders told Cooper that his faith is a matter of community and inclusion, saying that “he wouldn’t be here” running for president unless he had a strong religious backbone that “guides my life.” “Everyone practices religion in his own way,” Sanders said. “My spirituality is that we are all in this together.”
- Clinton said that Sanders’ bashing of her progressive credentials is unnecessarily exclusionary: “Under the definition that was flying around on Twitter and statements by the [Sanders] campaign, President Obama would not be a progressive, Joe Biden would not be a progressive, Jeanne Shaheen would not be a progressive, even the late, great Paul Wellstone would not be a progressive. I’m not gonna let that bother me – I know where I stand, I know who stands with me.”
- Sanders said of Clinton’s progressive bona fides that “I do not know any progressive who has a super PAC and takes $15m from Wall Street. That’s just not progressive.”
- Clinton declares that not only does she have a litmus test for judicial appointments, “I have a bunch of litmus tests,” Clinton said. “I’m looking for people who understand how the real world works, who don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to support business, to support the idea that money is speech.”
- Sanders slammed Donald Trump’s statements on immigrants and climate change in one fell swoop: “Trump is, as you know, a well-known scientist. Brilliant scientist. And he has concluded after years of studying the issue that climate change is a hoax brought to us by the Chinese. I would’ve thought that he’d say that it was a hoax brought to us by the Mexicans.”
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Hillary Clinton, pressed on why she accepted so much money from Goldman Sachs for three speeches given for the investment behemoth:
That’s what they offered.
Hillary Clinton responds to Bernie Sanders’ statement after the Iowa caucuses stating that his the only Democratic campaign that doesn’t have a super PAC:
“That’s just not the case” that she’s in the pocket of Wall Street, Clinton said. During her time in the US senate, “There was no doubt that I took on a lot of what was going out on Wall Street including calling them out on the mortgage issues... and calling for changes in CEO pay.”
“But I honestly think that the best answer to this is the fact that everybody that I know who looks at what’s happening in this campaign sees the same thing: the Wall Street interests, the corporate interests are spending a lot of money trying to defeat me! I find it a strange argument.”
Hillary Clinton just deflected a tough question with an old cliché, says Jeb Lund, and the reasons for doing so are clear:
A man who has a form of colon cancer and is potentially terminal, asks Clinton about the options for people to die with dignity.
Clinton gives a long answer. She begins it with: “We need to have a conversation in this country”.
Can we put this to bed forever, please? It’s very easy to have an opinion on this, and Hillary Clinton surely has one. It’s just probably not an opinion that wins with enough demographics to make it worth expressing.
Clinton ends with: “I don’t have an easy or glib answer for you”. But this is an easy and glib answer. “Let’s have a conversation” is glib to the point of cliché.
She says that she would want to immerse herself in the scientific and medical and religious writing on the subject before answering, but nobody needs to. Either you believe that people with no hope or no remission from suffering have the right to die, or you don’t.
Hillary Clinton, for one of the first times during the 2016 presidential campaign, touches on the history of her marriage and its difficulties during the late nineties:
“I’ve had to be in public dealing with some very personal issues,” Clinton said, her voice growing slightly quieter. “I read a treatment of the ‘prodigal son’ parable by the Jesuit Henri Nouwen... and there was a line in there that became a lifeline for me: ‘Practice the discipline of gratitude.”
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#RealTalk: Hillary Clinton got more animated talking about the “vast right-wing conspiracy” than she has on any other policy question during the first half-hour of the town hall forum.
Granted, the former first lady has a quarter-century-old axe to grind with the Republican establishment, but for voters - particularly the young voters whose votes she said she would “work hard for” earlier in the night - who aren’t as personally invested in Clinton’s battles with the right wing, the answer might have been off-putting.
Anderson Cooper: Do you still believe in the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’?
Hillary Clinton: Don’t you?
I view that as perversely flattering.”
Hillary Clinton on American Crossroads and Karl Rove’s attacks on her candidacy
Donald Trump’s jet makes emergency landing in Tennessee
Billionaire Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s private plane made an emergency landing in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday because of “engine trouble,” according to Reuters. Trump’s Boeing 757 - nicknamed “Trump Force One” - was flying to Little Rock, Arkansas, from New York when it landed at Nashville International Airport. Trump traveled the rest of the way in a small charter aircraft, a campaign spokeswoman said.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the incident.
Anderson Cooper asks Hillary Clinton if she would support making women sign up for the Selective Service, as men over the age of eighteen are currently required to do.
“From my perspective, the all-volunteer military has worked, and we should not do anything that undermines, it because it has provided a solid core of people who are willing to serve our country. The idea of having everybody register concerns me unless we have a better idea of where that’s going to come out.”
Clinton hit back hard on Sanders’ comments on her lack of of progressivism notes Jeb Lund:
Hillary Clinton said: “It’s interesting that Senator Sanders is setting himself up to be the gatekeeper on who is and isn’t progressive ... By those definitions, president Obama isn’t a progressive, vice-president Biden isn’t progressive”. She’s right, they weren’t!
Of course, that’s not the point that Clinton is making. If you like Bernie Sanders, this exchange probably made you see red, because it’s very cynical. If you support Hillary Clinton, this was just about the best answer she could give.
It plays to the identity-politics pitch she’s making to women voters, while signaling to African-American voters in South Carolina that she understands their desire to be heard and validated.
It suggests that Bernie Sanders is another man telling Hillary Clinton what she can’t do, while he’s telling African-American voters that America’s one black president is bad.
Well done.
No I can’t, Michael.”
Hillary Clinton, when asked by a primary voter if she could promise not to expand American military presence abroad.
Hillary Clinton was asked about the possibility of a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees:
“I do have a litmus test - I have a bunch of litmus tests,” Clinton said. “I’m looking for people who understand how the real world works, who don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to support business, to support the idea that money is speech.”
Citing the Supreme Court’s recent weakening of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Clinton said that conservative judges and those who would nominate them “have a view that I just fundamentally disagree with about what the way we have to keep the balance of power in our society is. They have given way too much power to corporations... We have to preserve marriage equality, we have to go further to prohibit discrimination against the LGBT community, we have to preserve Roe v. Wade, not let it be nibbled away or repealed.”
“I’m looking for people who are rooted in the real world - who know that part of the genius of our system, both economic and government, is this balance of power,” Clinton said. “If it gets too far out of whack... the delicate balance that makes up our political system and the broadbased prosperity of our economic system is the worse for it.”
We share a lot of the same, big progressive goals, but we have different ways of going about them.”
Hillary Clinton, on her relationship with Bernie Sanders
When asked to respond to Sanders’ statement earlier today that she’s only a progressive on “some days,” she cited the nebulous definition of the term: “Under the definition that was flying around on Twitter and statements by the [Sanders] campaign, President Obama would not be a progressive, Joe Biden would not be a progressive, Jeanne Shaheen would not be a progressive, even the late, great Paul Wellstone would not be a progressive. I’m not gonna let that bother me - I know where I stand, I know who stands with me.”
“Clearly,” Clinton said, “we all share a lot of the same hopes and aspirations for the country that we want to see achieved.”
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A weak moment for Sanders came during a question on terrorism from a Boston bombing survivor, finds Jeb Lund
Sanders did a good job of pivoting to the Iraq War and hanging the greatest foreign policy unforced error in at least a generation on Hillary Clinton, but he was invariably much less convincing on this issue than her.
Sanders first talked about how we must destroy Isis, relying on the militaries of Arab states to do the actual fighting on the ground. He talked about human intelligence, inter-agency communication, careful refugee screening and monitoring Isis’ internet activities.
Not being blood-and-guts is a liability on this issue. It’s always going to be sexier and more emphatic to say: “Let’s bomb ‘em to smithereens”, and Clinton has an edge in being willing to intervene militarily. If Sanders wants to do better on this issue, he’s going to need to add another couple notes to this tune.
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Hillary Clinton takes the stage
“I’m seeing a lot of old friends, meeting a lot of new people,” Clinton tells Anderson Cooper. “I’ve got an uphill climb,” she acknowledges, but the New Hampshire primary is about “the intensity of the experience and the importance of trying to convey what’s important in this election.”
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has criticized Obama’s speech at a mosque earlier on Wednesday, which focused on discrimination against Muslims, writes the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui from Washington:
“I’m tired of being divided against each other for political reasons like this president’s done,” Rubio, a senator from Florida, said at a town hall in New Hampshire. “Always pitting people against each other. Always.”
“Look at today: he gave a speech at a mosque. Oh, you know, basically implying that America is discriminating against Muslims. Of course there’s discrimination in America, of every kind. But the bigger issue is: radical Islam. And by the way, radical Islam poses a threat to Muslims themselves.
Obama marked his first visit to a mosque as president on Wednesday, addressing thousands of attendees at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. The president used the speech to emphasize the contributions of Muslims to American society, while urging those in the Muslim community to speak out against terrorism.
Obama also condemned what he said was “inexcusable political rhetoric” on the part of Republican presidential candidates, referring to Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims and suggestions by others that there should be a religious test for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
A spokesman for Rubio did not immediately return a request for comment when asked if the Florida senator had seen Obama’s speech.
Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, acknowledged he hadn’t seen Obama’s remarks but said the mosque visit was “appropriate.”
“If it was a good speech, I’m happy, because I think it’s important for the president to lead in this regard,” Bush told conservative radio show Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt offered rare praise for the president, deeming “a superb speech,” to which Bush responded, “Sometimes, you have to give someone credit for a job well done.”
Bush also criticized the signal Trump’s proposed Muslim ban sends “to the millions of peaceful Muslims that are as American as you and I.” Bush’s brother, George W Bush, had given a speech at a mosque just days after September 11, 2001, saying “Islam is peace.”
Obama touched upon similar themes in his remarks on Wednesday, andmade a direct appeal to young Muslims who may feel disenfranchised in the current climate.
“Let me say as clearly as I can as president of the United States: you fit right here,” Obama said. “You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America too. You’re not Muslim or American. You’re Muslim and American.”
Rubio has been critical of Obama’s tone on such matters before, offering a similar reaction when the president used a national security address after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino to push for unity and acceptance of peaceful Muslims.
“Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims,” Rubio said in an interview at the time.
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Next up: Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who like Bernie Sanders will have one hour on the stage to answer questions from Anderson Cooper and the assembled soon-to-be New Hampshire primary voters.
Bernie Sanders delivers his closing statement
“We have a corrupt campaign finance system which is undermining democracy and allowing billionaires to buy elections. If elected president, I will do my best working with the American people as we take those issues on to rebuild the middle class and become the country that we know we have the potential to be.”
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It’s the worst album EVER RECORDED.”
Bernie Sanders, on his folk album from 1987
Trump is, as you know, a well-known scientist. Brilliant scientist. And he has concluded after years of studying the issue that climate change is a hoax brought to us by the Chinese. I would’ve thought that he’d say that it was a hoax brought to us by the Mexicans.”
Bernie Sanders, on Donald Trump’s candidacy
The father of a teenage girl in New Hampshire has a question on substance abuse, a crisis that other candidates have been forced to confront on the campaign trail: We’re losing 129 people a day in this country - in Manchester, we’re losing one person a week. What would you do in order to secure recovery services for those who have slipped through the tracks of prevention and need treatment?
“We understand that substance abuse and addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue,” Sanders said. “When I talk about moving toward universal health care, it’s understanding that addiction is part of health care, and what that means is that when people need treatment, they shouldn’t need to wait three months - when they need it, they should be able to get it.”
“The bottom line,” Sanders continued, “is we have a very, very serious crisis in this country and we have got to make sure that when people need help that they get the help.” He laid the heroin and opioid crisis in New Hampshire and other semi-rural states it on doctors over-prescribing opiates, as well as drug companies producing overly addictive products.
“We gotta talk to the ph industry about what they’re producing, doctors about what they’re prescribing and we need to make treatment available when they need it,” Sanders concluded.
An early good moment for the Sanders campaign: a member of the audience named Chris tells us that he makes $41,000 per year and is concerned about the things he’s heard about Sanders wanting to raise his taxes. Sanders explains that with Medicare For All, the $500 per year tax hike for members of the middle class would be offset in savings of $5000 per year on private insurance premiums.
Anderson Cooper, following up, asks: “Chris, does that work for you?” Chris replies: “If it saves me on health insurance premiums, I will gladly pay more taxes.”
That sound you just heard was the Sanders campaign framing that and putting it on the wall.
After Bernie Sanders is shown a clip from Hillary Clinton’s (presumptuous, at that point) victory speech following her win in the Iowa caucuses, in which she describes herself as a “progressive who gets things done,” Anderson Cooper asks him to evaluate the former secretary of state’s progressive bona fides:
“I have enormous respect for Hillary Clinton, I’ve known her for 25 years,” Sanders says. “You’re looking at a guy whose been in politics a long time and I have never run a negative ad in my life, and I look forward to never running a negative ad in my life.”
Still, Sanders says,
I do not know any progressive who has a super PAC and takes $15m from Wall Street. That’s just not progressive.”
Bernie Sanders goes after silver fox Anderson Cooper for pointing out that he’ll be 83 in his second term:
Let’s not be ageist here!”
The Guardian’s Dan Roberts thinks it’s a fair question to ask:
Asking Sanders if he would seek a second term is a fair question with a fair answer. It's also one he rarely got asked at all before Iowa.
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) February 4, 2016
A former state house representative in New Hampshire: You have worked for many years to say it’s my way or the highway - you talk tonight about wanting to have a revolution in the House and Senate in order to get people there who share your views. How are you going to be able to work with a Congress that might not share your goals?
Bernie: “It is just not accurate to say... that it’s my way or the highway. I compromised significantly with people like John McCain and Republicans in the House to pass what is the most significant piece of veterans legislation passed in many many years. When I was in the House of Representatives, there were years where I received more votes, won more amendments, than any other member of the House of Representatives, because I reached out where there was common ground with Republicans. I have a history of working with Republicans when there is common ground.”
He continues: “In my view, we have a Congress today that is much more interested in doing the bidding of the wealthy and the powerful... rather than the needs of the American people. We are not gonna make the real changes that we need - reforming a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections, dealing with climate change... Where we can, we work with our Republicans friends. Change has always come from the bottom on up. That’s what the civil rights movement was about, that’s what the womens rights movement was about, that’s what the gay movement was about.”
“Those are the kinds of movements that we need, and that’s how we will bring about real change in this country.”
Bernie Sanders has come out subdued tonight. Jeb Lund thinks it is working well for him
A candidate who yells is generally more interesting – hey, the candidate is fired up about this, maybe it’ll fire me up too – but after a while it can start to feel like caricature. It’s too easy to start mentally flattening the intensity out or to start to hear crankiness instead of the words.
So Sanders came out toned it down a little bit, which has allowed him to periodically ramp up his intensity, and the peaks and valleys help him to emphasize points more effectively. I think this helps to minimize the image of him as a crank.
A question from the audience on veterans issues: Have you ceded support for veterans to the Republican candidates?
Sanders cites his history as chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, as well as the passing of what he calls “the most comprehensive veterans healthcare legislation in the modern history of the United Sates of America.”
Bernie Sanders, arguably the one presidential candidate in either party who is the least engaged in organized religion, tells Anderson Cooper that his faith is a matter of community and inclusion, saying that “he wouldn’t be here” running for president unless he had a strong religious backbone that “guides my life.”
“Everyone practices religion in his own way,” Sanders said. “My spirituality is that we are all in this together.”
You’re a symbol of courage - you went through that horror and you’re going back and running again - thank you for your courage.”
Bernie Sanders, to a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings
A question on terrorism from a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings: What are your plans to keep us safe from terrorism?
Bernie Sanders: “We have got to crush Isis, for a start... Internally what we have got to do is significantly improve intelligence... If people come into this country, they have got to be screened - and I happen to believe that we should welcome refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.”
Question from the audience: I just don’t see you connecting with people that view the world with a racial or a religious lens - what can you do to better engage with the broader electorate?
Bernie Sanders: “We are reaching out as strongly as we can, for example, to the African-American community and the Latino community, and we are, I think, gaining support in those communities ... The fact that we have more people in jail than any other country, disproportionately African-American and Latino.”
He continues: “There will be no president that will fight harder to fight institutional racism than I do, and we have got to reform a very, very broken institutional correction system.”
Since Bernie Sanders brings it up, here are a few more details on his health care plan:
- He would expand Medicare for all Americans
- The funding model, including estimates from an independent healthcare economist from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, relies heavily on a payroll tax to help pay for the cost of shifting from a fragmented private system to a unified public insurance umbrella
- The so-called “single-payer” insurance model is employed successfully in a number of industrialised countries such as Canada, but several practical questions over how to move from the current US system had overshadowed Sander’s ambitious promises
Sanders addresses “moderate vs. progressive” line
“All that I said, which is simply true,” Sanders said, is that “Secretary Clinton said, and I’m paraphrasing, is that ‘some people call me a moderate and I proudly say that I am a moderate.’ That’s what she said, so all I said is that you can’t say you’re a moderate on one day and say you’re a progressive on the other day.”
Bernie Sanders on the expectations for his campaign’s success in New Hampshire:
That’s the media game! That’s what media talks about. Who cares? The point is that we are gonna work as hard as we can to win, and after we do hopefully well here, we are gonna go on to Nevada and South Carolina... All due respect, that is media stuff.”
First question, from Anderson Cooper: Are you feeling the Bern?
Bernie Sanders: “I think the message that we are bringing forth is resonating with the American people ... We have received 3.5 million individual contributions - that is more than any candidate in the history of the United States.” (Ed.: An average donation of $27, or “twenty-seven dollahs,” Sanders might say.) “The fact that millions of individual contributions are coming from working people and the working class... is very moving to me.”
A note about format: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be answering questions both moderator Anderson Cooper - dudded up in a fabulous blue suit and brushed-gold tie - and from the audience, composed of New Hampshire primary voters. With six days left until the primaries, the conversation could be decisive.
Sanders will be speaking first.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off at a town hall event in New Hampshire
The debate town hall forum begins!
For those who have a cable subscription, here’s the link to watch CNN along with us. For those without... enjoy the liveblog.
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Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are less than ten minutes away from participating in a CNN-hosted presidential town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. Ahead of the town hall - which is, CNN emphasizes, not a debate - watch highlights from the last forum.
For those curious about why Rick Santorum, whose flirtation with Donald Trump was bordering on uncomfortable in the waning days of his campaign, would endorse Florida senator Marco Rubio upon dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, their respective stances on banning access to abortion for survivors of sexual assault may be instructive:
I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.”
I think [rape and incest] are horrifying, and fortunately, they’re extremely rare. It happens, and any time it happens, it’s horrifying, it’s a tragedy. But I personally and honestly and deeply believe that all human life is worthy of protection, irrespective of the circumstances in which that human life was created. I personally believe that you do not correct one tragedy with another.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on Rick Santorum ending his campaign for the Republican nomination - and his endorsement of Florida senator Marco Rubio:
John Brabender, Santorum’s longtime strategist and confidant, told the Guardian “I think that Rick has some problems with Ted Cruz, he says too many things to get elected and sometimes questions his core convictions on immigration.” The veteran Republican operative added, “I think that he sees the difference between Cruz and Rubio is that Ted is someone who is very good at saying how we are going to tear down the system and he sees Marco as someone who is going to take what’s great about America and rebuild us to what we are capable of being.”
According to Brabender, Santorum weighed a number of candidates to back, including Jeb Bush, who was “someone [the former Pennsylvania senator] gave a lot of consideration to.” The longtime Santorum aide added that the former presidential hopeful thought that “Marco Rubio is a new generation and I think he feels that’s going to be catalyst to inspire a lot of people in this country.” Brabender also pushed back on speculation that Santorum might have endorsed Donald Trump. While he said Rick does have “a lot of respect” for Trump, a choice between Trump and Cruz would have been “a very hard endorsement.”
In a response to question about the endorsement from reporters in New Hampshire, Rubio told reporters, “Well, it means a lot, I have tremendous respect for Rick.” The Florida senator added, “We look forward to teaming up. We hope he’s going to be very active in our campaign.”
The town hall featuring Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is taking place at the Adams Memorial Opera House in Derry, New Hampshire.
It’s a beautiful, airy space with a large arched stage, according to online pictures. I wouldn’t know, because the press filing center is in a bar called Halligan’s across the road. I can tell you that Halligan’s is also a beautiful, airy space, with a wide selection of spirits and craft ales.
The press get to sit in here and watch CNN on the bars’ many televisions. I’ve just been told there will be no “spinning” by the campaigns afterwards. I could be doing this in bed at my hotel.
Rick Santorum caps off the suspension of his presidential campaign on Greta Van Susteren’s show with a Twitter endorsement of Florida senator Marco Rubio:
So thankful & grateful for your support. Just not our year. So today please join me in supporting @marcorubio pic.twitter.com/VhgHo9trNp
— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) February 4, 2016
Also making news on Greta Van Susteren’s show tonight: Billionaire candidate Donald Trump, who said that Barack Obama’s decision to visit a Baltimore mosque earlier today was because “I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there.”
Obama visited the mosque for the first time in his presidency, in part, to refute controversial comments and policy proposals made by Trump in regards to American Muslims. Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States, and has expressed openness to a national registry of American Muslims.
“I don’t have much thought, I think he can go to lots of places,” Trump said of the president’s visit. “I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there. There are a lot of places he can go and he chose a mosque.”
Trump, who finished second in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, has previously expressed the belief - shared by nearly half of the Republican electorate - that Obama is both not an American citizen and is a secret Muslim.
“He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know,” Trump said in 2011 on The O’Reilly Factor.
From our inbox:
Rick Santorum just announced to his supporters that he was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination - and endorsing Marco Rubio:
Friend,
Thanks for standing with me all of these years.
Your steadfast support and commitment to fighting important conservative battles has meant so much to Karen and me.
As you may have heard, I announced tonight that I will be ending my Presidential campaign. While the results were not what we had hoped, the experience of running for President was tremendously gratifying and something I won’t soon forget.
And as Karen and I discussed leaving the Presidential race, we also talked about who we should support now that I am stepping aside.
There are many qualified, conservative candidates in the race for the White House.
But when it comes to the issues that we care about the most – restoring the American dream for hardworking families, standing up for the rights of the unborn, protecting our nation’s security, and fighting for international religious freedom – we believe Marco Rubio’s position are right on, and he has earned our endorsement.
We have taken a long, close look at all of the candidates. Running for President provides you with a unique look into the candidates’ positions and temperament.
Marco Rubio is the right Republican to lead our party and our country.
His policies will revive our manufacturing sector, help our families thrive and defeat ISIS.
It is time to coalesce around the strongest candidate who will stand up for conservative values, be a statesman on the world stage, and has the ability to win a general election.
That is Marco Rubio.
Thank you and God Bless America,
Rick
Updated
Rick Santorum suspends his presidential campaign, endorses Marco Rubio
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum has officially suspended his presidential campaign after finishing second-to-last in the Iowa caucuses with only 0.95% of the vote.
“The best way that I can do what I set out to do when we announced to run for president... by not continuing our campaign,” said Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses during his first presidential campaign in 2012. “We are suspending our campaign as of this moment.”
After his announcement, in which he described the plight of the American family as the reason behind economic inequality, Santorum endorsed Marco Rubio’s campaign for the Republican nomination, saying that the freshman senator from Florida was “in a better position to win this race.”
“He’s a tremendously gifted young man, and he’s a born leader,” Santorum said. “He is the next generation.”
Santorum, a hardline social conservative, was unable to reignite the same fervor in the Iowa evangelical base that won him the state four years ago, never once appearing on the main stage of a Republican presidential debate. The former senator is the third Republican candidate to drop out after Monday’s caucuses, following Mike Huckabee’s Twitter-announced suspension of his campaign and Kentucky senator Rand Paul’s announcement earlier this morning that he was ending his run for the Republican nomination.
The news likely came as a shock to billionaire Donald Trump. Santorum, along with Huckabee, joined then-candidate Mike Huckabee in attending Trump’s anti-debate event last week, where he declared that they were “colleagues in unison standing here for the people who let us breathe every breath of free air we breathe - the veterans of the United States of America.”
He also said he was “grateful” to Trump’s invitation to the event. “It says something about him, that he would bring us here to his own event, because bigger even than this election is the fact that we wouldn’t have free elections in this country if it wasn’t for the people who stood between bullets and bombs and our freedom,” Santorum said at the time.
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Newly minted Iowa caucus victor Ted Cruz doubled down on his attacks against second-place finisher Donald Trump, accusing the real estate mogul of “melting down” after Trump called for a do-over caucus.
“I have to say it is interesting seeing Donald Trump, you know, just apparently melting down. He seems to be taking losing really badly,” Cruz told Sean Hannity during his eponymous radio show.
Cruz’s accusations come on the heels of Trump’s own accusation that the Texas senator committed voter fraud in Iowa after members of his campaign falsely implied that Dr. Ben Carson was dropping out of the race in the middle of caucus voting.
Cruz has dismissed the implication that his campaign manipulated the caucus results, and pinned the mishegas on Trump’s constant attention-seeking in the wake of his Iowa loss.
“For Trump, he has to blame someone, something, anyone other than himself and his own record for his loss,” Cruz said. “It’s all designed to be a distraction.”
“He skipped [the Iowa] debate,” he continued. “It makes me wonder if Donald’s next step is he intends to tell the people of New Hampshire he thinks New Hampshire is stupid. If he intends to skip their debate.”
Listen to the whole interview here:
With Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul all having thrown in the towel in their respective races for the White House - or about to do so shortly, in the case of the former senator from Pennsylvania - ABC News has pulled the plug on another undercard debate (also known as a “kiddie pool” debate, a “happy hour” debate and a “who is Jim Gilmore again?” debate). This means that former Hewlett-Packarc CEO Carly Fiorina will not appear on the debate stage on February 6 at all.
She is... displeased.
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New Jersey governor Chris Christie railed into Florida senator Marco Rubio on Fox News, declaring that he acts like “the King of England” and needs to “man up.”
Highlights from the rant:
- “He acts like the King of England - he has a press aide stand next to him and pre-select which reporters get to ask him questions.”
- “The boy needs to come out of the bubble.”
- “His sixty-second memorized speeches ... are getting a little stale and a little tired.”
- “The boy needs to come out of the bubble.”
- “He has a strategy: Don’t offend, don’t work too hard in any one particular place, don’t be exposed to much - he sounds like he’s in the Witness Protection Program.”
- “This is a guy who has not answered questions, this is a guy who does drive-by town hall meetings.”
- “Time to get the boy out of the bubble.”
You heard Christie.
I’ve just been to a Ted Cruz “meet and greet” at The Village Trestle, a bar in Goffstown, New Hampshire. It was absolutely packed. A local fire chief was turning people away at the door, meaning around a dozen were standing in the rain.
Cruz was meant to be there at 2.30 but didn’t enter until 3pm, despite his Darth Vader-themed campaign bus showing up on time.
The black bus has “Courageous Cruzer” written on the front, which is a more successful play on words than “Cruzin’ to victory”, which is emblazoned on the side. Evidently the campaign are unfamiliar with Urban Dictionary.
Waiting for Ted Cruz to get off the Courageous Cruzer pic.twitter.com/VLPR4bXZ0L
— Adam Gabbatt (@adamgabbatt) February 3, 2016
When Cruz finally emerged he went straight into a press gaggle, where he said of Donald Trump’s insults: “I wake up every day and laugh.”
Cruz also said Ben Carson – he of the allegedly jilted votes – was a good friend. And that no, he wouldn’t be firing any campaign members for telling people Carson was dropping out.
Obamacare would be repealed under a Cruz presidency, he said. And there’d be a flat tax. Those things would mean “incredible growth”.
“We will see so many jobs, so much winning, that we’ll get tired of winning,” Cruz said.
Questions from the audience are always fun, and this was no exception. One woman wanted to know what Ted Cruz would do to protect social security.
Cruz said that social security has long been considered “the third rail” in politics. No one wanted to touch it, he said.
“I am not only touching it, I am embracing it and hugging it tight,” he said showcasing an interesting turn of phrase, and offering a quote that would sound fantastic if used out of context.
Someone asked if he would pardon Hillary Clinton if he was elected president. Cruz said he had three answers for that.
“No, no and hell no.”
Cruz says he is "terrifying" people in Washington. No doubt he's doing the same elsewhere pic.twitter.com/QpsrpB1xVF
— Adam Gabbatt (@adamgabbatt) February 3, 2016
As people ask questions Cruz shows he is listening by nodding and bowing. It’s quite fun to watch. Nod, nod, bow, he goes, offering a: “Yes, yes” to further show he is interested.
His ears certainly pricked up when one woman said she had been a Rand Paul supporter, but since he dropped out this morning she was “shopping for a new candidate”.
“You are attractive,” the woman said.
“Well thank you. I’m glad I went to the gym this morning,” said Cruz, with a bow.
The woman, Leah Wolczko, clarified to me afterwards the she had meant “intellectually”.
“Rand was far more attractive physically,” she said.
Updated
Ben Carson held one of the strangest press conferences of the 2016 campaign cycle today to attack Ted Cruz for spreading rumors that the neurosurgeon was dropping out on the night of the Iowa caucuses. What made the attack strange is that Carson wouldn’t mention Cruz’s name.
In a hastily convened press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Carson announced the topic would be “deceptive Iowa caucus tactics”. The additional details provided said “how a person conducts his life or campaign is an indication of who he is. In Matthew 7, Jesus Himself says that a tree-and people of faith-are known by their fruit, not just the words they say.”
Carson’s statement didn’t mention Cruz or Iowa. Instead, he worried about what type of image we might provide for children if we settle for anything less than “complete excellence” from politicians and proudly proclaimed that he didn’t take money from special interest groups. Reporters than had to tease out from him that the press conference was called in response to the Cruz’s campaign’s conduct and it took a number of questions for Carson to explicitly state that that was why he had called the press conference.
The retired neurosurgeon told reporters that Cruz had apologized to him and the Texas senator insisted that he didn’t know anything about what happened. Carson acknowledged that Cruz “could very well who could not known about it” but that said “it’s obviously that were people in his organization who not only knew about it but carried it out”.
In a response to a question from the Guardian about whether Cruz should fire the staffers responsible, Carson said:
Let me put this way: When there were things in my campaign I couldn’t agree with after doing an investigation, I made changes. I think that’s what a good leader does, if there are things going on that you don’t agree with you need to make to changes. If he agrees with it, he doesn’t need to make changes ... That would be hypocritical, wouldn’t it, to go against your beliefs?”
The retired neurosurgeon also refused to comment on Donald Trump’s demands for a do-over as a result of Cruz’s tactics.
Carson didn’t take responsibility for the initial statement from his campaign that spurred the rumors that he might drop out. A campaign spokesman told CNN on Monday night that the doctor would be going home to Florida for some “fresh clothes.” Carson insisted to reporters Monday, “I didn’t make that announcement. Don’t blame me.” He further dodged questions by about whether, like Cruz, he should be responsible for his campaign’s statement, saying defensively, “Is ok after three weeks on the road to go home get a fresh change of clothes? Does make someone an evil horrible person?” No other candidate put out such a statement on caucus night and almost all had previously scheduled events and obligations.
In response to a question about whether he might still drop out, Carson compared the election to the game of baseball. “You know one of the things that really represents America is baseball. Have you noticed in a baseball game, there are a nine innings and you don’t call the game after the first inning.”
Republican presidential candidate Jeb(!) Bush - whose exclamation point is on the verge of becoming a sad-face emoji - was reduced to pleading an audience to applaud for him after a speech about his merits as a candidate was met with a stony silence.
At the event, held in Manchester, New Hampshire, the son-of-a-president and brother-of-another-president slammed billionaire semi-frontrunner Donald Trump and touted what he says are his concrete qualifications for the Oval Office.
My pledge to you, I will be a commander-in-chief that will have the back of the military. I won’t trash talk, I won’t be a divider-in-chief or an agitator-in-chief. I won’t be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up.
I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter, but send a signal that we’re prepared to act in the national security interest of this country to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world.”
Bush paused, anticipating a raucous applause, but was instead greeted with dead silence.
“Please clap,” the former Florida governor asked. The crowd of about twenty people then did so.
Are you #TeamHillary? Or do you #FeelTheBern?
The Guardian is interested in hearing from Democratic supporters in the US, in order to help explain the race to our international audience. In contrast to a crowded Republican field, the the Democratic contest is now a two horse race after Martin O’Malley withdrew after his poor performance in Iowa.
Let us know which candidate you’re leaning towards. Which do you think has more of a chance of winning in November? Which candidate more closely matches your own political beliefs and priorities? Or do you feel that neither candidate has what you’re looking for?
Dr. Ben Carson, retired pediatric neurosurgeon and one-time frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, is holding a hastily organized press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., “in response to deceptive Iowa caucus tactics.”
The announcement for the conference, scheduled for 3:45pm this afternoon, declares that “How a person conducts his life or campaign is an indication of who he is,” before quoting a passage from the Bible:
In Matthew 7, Jesus Himself says that a tree-and people of faith-are known by their fruit, not just the words they say.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, filing from the National Press Club, notes that Carson’s ever-present Secret Service detail is nowhere to be seen.
Just got to Ben Carson press conference, there is zero Secret Service presence
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 3, 2016
More to come...
Ted Cruz’s freshman roommate at Princeton University hated the future Texas senator with the white-hot intensity with of a thousand suns - this is not news.
But video of Cruz as an 18-year-old high school senior expressing desire for “world domination”? That’s a new one.
My aspiration is to, I don’t know, be in a teen tit film like that guy who played Horatio – you know, he was in Malibu Bikini Beach Shop? Well, other than that, take over the world. World domination. Yeah, rule everything. Rich, powerful, that sort of stuff.”
Sanders doubles down on Clinton's 'progressive' record
Bernie Sanders continues to go after Hillary Clinton for being, he says, a part-time progressive. Here’s video of Clinton’s reply to the charge earlier today:
But now Sanders is taking the fight right to her on Twitter:
Most progressives that I know don't raise millions of dollars from Wall Street.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 3, 2016
Most progressives that I know were opposed to the Keystone pipeline from day one. Honestly, it wasn’t that complicated.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 3, 2016
Most progressives I know were against the war in Iraq. One of the worst foreign policy blunders in the history of the United States.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 3, 2016
Christie on Clinton: 'I'll beat her rear end'
An NPR reporter flags a strange line from a speech in New Hampshire by New Jersey governor Chris Christie:
CHRISTIE on HILLARY: "I'll beat her rear end on that stage and afterward she'll be relieved that I didn't serve her with a subpoena."
— Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) February 3, 2016
The line drew laughter from the audience, Katz reports. Along with Carly Fiorina, Christie has been one of the most persistent and sharpest critics of the former secretary of state, on the debate stage and off.
Ohio governor John Kasich is all-in in New Hampshire.
Kasich ending 94th NH town hall: "If I get smoked here, I'm going home...but I really want to go on and it's going to depend on this state."
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) February 3, 2016
Santorum to suspend campaign – report
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 winner of the Iowa Republican caucuses, will suspend his campaign for president, CNN reports.
Santorum won just 1% of the Iowa vote on Monday.
Another GOP departure: CNN has learned @RickSantorum will exit race tonight. Plans endorsement.
— John King (@JohnKingCNN) February 3, 2016
Unlike Rand Paul, who suspended his campaign earlier on Wednesday, Santorum apparently plans to endorse one of the other Republican candidates in the race.
Who will Santorum endorse? Rubio? Kasich? Tell us in the comments!
My money is that Santorum backs Rubio
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) February 3, 2016
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The Sanders campaign isn’t backing down from the candidate’s challenge to Hillary Clinton’s progressivism. Sanders’ official Twitter airs footage of the interview in which he made the charge last night.
Sanders says he thinks Clinton is a progressive only on “some days.” He continues:
I think frankly that it is very hard to be a real progressive and to take on the establishment in a way that I think has to be taken on, when you become as dependent as she has, through her Super Pac and in other ways, on Wall Street or drug company money.”
Q. Do you think @HillaryClinton is a progressive?
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 3, 2016
A. Some days, yes. Other days she announces she is a moderate.https://t.co/kIdhjzXZDs
Uh-oh this Jeb “please clap” Bush moment is going to be disseminated on the Internet, isn’t it...
Jeb!'s saddest moment yet. https://t.co/rRaDa7qO2s
— The Baxter Bean (@TheBaxterBean) February 3, 2016
President Barack Obama is currently making his first visit to a US mosque as president, at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque in Catonsville, Maryland. His message is a call for tolerance and understanding.
Obama on terrorists speaking for Islam: "I refuse to give them that legitimacy. We must never give them that legitimacy."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 3, 2016
Obama: "As Muslim communities stand up for the future you believe in ... America will be your partner."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 3, 2016
Obama: "You're not Muslim or American -- you're Muslim and American."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 3, 2016
The Sanders campaign would prefer for the Clinton campaign to stop pointing out that New Hampshire is next door to Vermont, Sanders’ home state:
Sanders campaign says Clinton camp's neighboring state advantage claims are an insult to NH voters. pic.twitter.com/0jc6VqejAg
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 3, 2016
Let’s go to the map! Looks like the Clinton camp is on solid ground here. Right next door.
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Bush to crowd: 'please clap'
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush stooped to asking voters to clap for him at a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.
Bush, who is polling in fourth place in the Granite State despite weeks of focus here and tens of millions in campaign and PAC spending, built to the climax of his stump speech only to be met by silence from a room of supposed supporters.
“I think the president needs to be a lot quieter, but to send a signal that we’re prepared to act in the national security interests of this country, to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world,” Bush said, with great conviction.
Silence.
“Please clap,” he added, smiling. The crowd graciously complied.
Here’s video of Rand Paul suspending his presidential campaign.
“I’m proud of our principled campaign,” Paul says. He goes on to promise that he will continue to fight for criminal justice reform and against the debt.
Where do Rand Paul supporters turn now? We asked, and Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi has answered:
News this morning that Rand Paul is dropping out of the race to be the Republican presidential nominee might well prompt a “so what?” – the Kentucky senator secured less than 5% of the vote in Iowa, and nationally Paul has the support of just 2% of Republicans, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average.
The senator has said he will not make an endorsement in the primary cycle but will support the Republican nominee.
Paul’s supporters will no doubt be disappointed, but the long-term significance of his decision lies in what those voters (however small they are in number) decide to do next. In fact, figuring out American’s second choices is pretty important as other candidates will drop out in the months ahead. And it can help us to fact-check Donald Trump’s claims today that in Iowa, Ted Cruz benefited from rumors that Ben Carson was quitting the race - are Carson fans really potential Cruz supporters?
Unfortunately, though, many polls don’t ask about second-choice candidates. Or those that do ask don’t show who respondents listed as their first choice, making it super-hard to understand where support is flowing from and to.
So instead, we have to assume that one of the best predictors of how people change their minds is demographics. We know, for example that Carson supporters tend to be well educated and are more likely to be white evangelical protestants. Which would suggest that they are far more likely to swing toward Cruz than Trump. That’s because Cruz’s existing support base is also evangelical and is much more likely to have a college degree than Trump’s supporters. So Trump’s claims about Carson supporters making a break for Cruz aren’t implausible.
Open-mindedness
A poll released today from the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts asked 502 Republican primary likely voters whether there was “a chance you could change your mind and vote for someone else?”
These percentages should be treated with some caution because that number of respondents is pretty low, but it’s still interesting to note that Trump supporters were the least likely of any to say that they would even consider not voting for the New York businessman.
Republicans who support Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carson and Paul were the most likely to say that they would consider voting for someone else. That’s not necessarily surprising though - those who support less popular candidates are aware that they’re simply more likely to need to think elsewhere should their first choice bite the dust.
Among Democrats, where the field has already narrowed to just two candidates, there’s little difference in decisiveness between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ supporters.
Updated
Ryan: If GOP president, 'we'll repeal Obamacare'
The Associated Press calls out House Republicans for holding a show vote to repeal the president’s health care law:
Helluva @AP lede on the Obamacare repeal vote Tuesday. https://t.co/dC5vrxws7H pic.twitter.com/6T833gMG7C
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 3, 2016
Read the full piece here. Speaker Paul Ryan had touted the vote as telegraphing Republican strength. “Regardless of the outcome today, this fight will not end here,” he said. “What we are proving today... is if we have a Republican president next year, we will repeal Obamacare.”
We have now forged a path to repealing #Obamacare. With a #Republican president, we can get it done. https://t.co/a44rNNlfto
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) February 3, 2016
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Rubio adds senator's endorsement – report
Senator Pat Toomey, the junior Republican senator from Pennsylvania, has endorsed Marco Rubio for president, Politico reports, citing three unnamed sources.
That’s Rubio’s second endorsement from a senate colleague this week. On Monday, South Carolina senator Tim Scott joined team Rubio. Endorsements don’t get much bigger than a sitting senator... unless you have a former president.
![Toomey [in summer]: I’m for Marco.](http://media.guim.co.uk/200d16309df6446cd0b0f8fce2265d7e4c134611/0_235_4256_2556/1000.jpg)
Fact is Jeb never had that many endorsements from national office holders, and Rubio doesn't either. Party is still very much undecided.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) February 3, 2016
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Clinton strikes back at Sanders
Hillary Clinton has gone after Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, in a campaign appearance Wednesday morning alongside former congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Derry, New Hampshire.
Sanders said Tuesday that Clinton was a progressive “on some days” and not others. Such as, Sanders might say, those days when she takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to give a speech to a big Wall Street bank.
Asked by a reporter in Keene, NH, whether Clinton was a true progressive, Sanders said:
Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate, and then I guess she is not a progressive.”
The “some days” comment was a “low blow,” Clinton tells the Derry crowd, before treating them to the greatest hits from her progressive record.
“I hope we keep it on the issues,” Clinton says. “Because if it’s about our records, hey, I’m going to win by a landslide.”
Updated
Nevada DREAMers endorse Clinton
A handful of prominent Nevada DREAMers, young immigrants who were brought to the US as children, have endorsed Hillary Clinton just weeks ahead of the Democratic caucuses in the state, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
Eight DREAMers announced on Wednesday that they intended to support Clinton for president, months after they sat down with her at a high school in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In that May meeting, Clinton called for a “full and equal” path to citizenship for undocumented migrants and pledged to extend Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration reform if Congress did not act.
Though many DREAMers cannot vote, the young activists are already playing a major role in this year’s presidential election. Clinton hired DREAMer Lorella Praeli, who recently became a US citizen, to lead a Latino outreach team. The Nevada DREAMers are Astrid Silva, Blanca Gamez, Rafael Lopez, Betsaida Frausto, Karla Rodriguez, Erika Castro, Dulce Valencia, and Rudy Zamora.
The Clinton camp sees immigration as an issue on which she can distinguish herself from rival Bernie Sanders. Yet Clinton has work to do still to build trust with the Latino community.
Clinton has faced criticism for referring to undocumented people as “illegal immigrants”, a term she recently pledged to stop using. Protesters at her events have challenged her on donations her campaign accepted from lobbyists for private-prison companies that run immigrant detention centers. (Her campaign has said it will stop accepting them.) And her opponents challenged comments she made in 2014 about returning unaccompanied minors back to Central America, where they had fled violence and poverty.
Updated
Bush attacks Trump: 'insecurity and weakness'
Here’s a pretty sharp shoulder from the Bush campaign leveled at New Hampshire frontrunner Donald Trump.
It ends with Bush talking about Trump’s insults: “It is not a sign of strength, it is not. It is a sign of deep insecurity and weakness.”
Turn off Trump. https://t.co/jJTvAS7upZ https://t.co/skGcz1eozJ
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 3, 2016
Dissent.
To be fair to Donald Trump, I would be really happy if we got to redo the Iowa caucuses
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 3, 2016
The Associated Press watches Ted Cruz flailing in New Hampshire. Maybe the candidate is distracted by the thought of having to do Iowa all over again.
Ted Cruz really struggling to connect with voters in Henniker, NH this morning. Big applause lines falling flat.
— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) February 3, 2016
... in other news, is Donald Trump really thinking that far ahead? Or is he just a sore loser pouring his stream of consciousness into any handy microphone? The Republican race still seems pretty comfy for Trump?
Have to assume Trump's allegation that Cruz stole Iowa is a way for him to set up his third party bid
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) February 3, 2016
For Trump actually to go third party and get on ballots would require him to spend a great deal of money, not just sell hats
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 3, 2016
Updated
Rand Paul, who today announced the suspension of his nonstarter presidential campaign so that he can focus on not losing his Kentucky senate seat, has posted a video online thanking his supporters.
In the video he quotes Victor Hugo about ideas being stronger than armies and opines on how profoundly valuable is liberty. Have a look:
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 3, 2016
lulz
Rand Paul 2020 would be a great slogan for an ophthalmologist running four years from now.
— Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) February 3, 2016
Updated
Trump’s tweets accusing Cruz of fraud this morning pick up on a theme he aired at a news conference in New Hampshire last night.
At the news conference, Trump marveled at how the Cruz campaign had spread the rumor that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race.
“These are dishonest people, these politicians,” Trump said. “These are worse than real estate people in New York.”
Bonus: he calls the media “the worst people ever,” which earns audible cheers :/
Updated
From the comments / Cruz's sins
We asked you whether you agree with Donald Trump that Ted Cruz committed a Fraud Most Lowly to win Iowa.
Here’s a sampling of what you had to say:
Cruz really revealed himself to be a vile human being after the lies he pulled for votes. I'm sorry, but telling Carson voters that Carson had pulled out is completely unacceptable. This is why we must never let this man anywhere near real power.
If Cruz's campaign did what Trump is accusing them of -- yes, that is fraud.
It's MUD 'RASSLIN' time in the GOP. First up, Trump vs. Cruz.
Ted is the fav. 'cause he's a politician and knows dirty tricks better than the king--Richard Nixon. Sending out "voter violations" was pure Nixonese. The Donald doesn't know luvin' Jesus down south means it's more than ok to lie. cheat and steal as long as you're doing it for Jesus--no problem. Trump is in a world of shit.
Ted Cruz is also one of the very few Republicans who think global warming is for real. He even has a plan to stop the planet from getting hotter. Making sands in the Middle East "glow in the dark" will bring on Nuclear Winter AND the End Times. Dropping nukes is ok as long as it's for Jesus.
Adios Trump.
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt is in New Hampshire, on the trail with Clinton and Cruz and Kasich. “This morning I will be in Derry, just south of Manchester,” Adam writes...
... where Hillary Clinton is hosting a get out the vote event with former congresswomen Gabby Giffords. Giffords survived being shot in her home state of Arizona in 2011.
After that, I’ll be off to Goffstown, a 30 minute drive north-west of here, where Ted Cruz is hosting an event. Then it’s back to Derry to see Ohio governor John Kasich, and onto the Democratic town hall.
I’m currently feasting on eggs in Mary Ann’s diner in Derry. It’s a popular spot for presidential hopefuls: I actually just realised I was here in January 2012 to see Rick Santorum.
Other notables include Carly Fiorina, who was here on her birthday last year, while John Kasich held an event here last August. Former Massachusetts congressman Scott Brown also visited Mary Ann’s when he was running for senate for New Hampshire.
So yes, it is popular. But, apparently, only among politicians who have either failed to win election or are likely to fail to win election.
Updated
Trump calls for Iowa do-over
Trump says the Cruz “fraud” warrants “a new election” in Iowa:
Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
What, exactly, were Cruz’s sins?
Cruz issued an apology of sorts to the Carson campaign for spreading the rumor on election night that Carson was dropping out of the race, which Cruz characterized as an honest “mistake:”
Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying that Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story,” Cruz said in a statement. “That’s fair game. What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out.
As for the Cruz mailer, the episode was indisputably ugly. The Texas senator and his presidential campaign were formally denounced by top state officials for sending mailers to Iowa voters accusing them of a “voting violation” – in an apparent effort to scare voters to the polls.
Sabrina Siddiqui reported on the chilling specificity with which the mailers targeted Iowans – and their neighbors:
The mailers, which came to light on Friday and were confirmed by Cruz’s campaign as theirs, include a voting score and include the phrase “official public record.” They call out not only the recipients by name, but also their neighbors, as part of a broader attempt to shame them for not having participated in prior elections.
But is this beyond the pale – or politics as usual? To beat John McCain in South Carolina in 2000, the George W Bush campaign used a Bible professor to spread a rumor that “McCain chose to sire children without marriage.” Lee Atwater helped George HW Bush beat Michael Dukakis in 1988 by cutting a racist commercial tying Dukakis to a rape and stabbing by convicted murderer Willie Horton while on furlough.
Some campaign pros are pooh-poohing the Donald for decrying politics as usual (though note that Stevens, a former top Mitt Romney strategist, was not a fan of Trump long before this morning):
Is it really legal for 8 year old to run for President? @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/9cIQ4Uybrw
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) February 3, 2016
What do you think? Is Cruz guilty of dastardly dirty pool? Or is he just applying his ample talents appropriately in a naturally nasty game? Let us know in the comments!
Updated
Trump accuses Cruz of stealing Iowa
Donald Trump, who finished second in the Iowa caucuses after leading in the polls for weeks, has taken to Twitter to accuse Ted Cruz, the victor, of stealing the race.
Trump’s reasoning is that the Cruz campaign spread a false rumor that Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, was dropping out of the race (Carson returned to Florida after the vote instead of proceeding to New Hampshire) in order to snap up a share of Carson’s values voters.
Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Trump continues:
During primetime of the Iowa Caucus, Cruz put out a release that @RealBenCarson was quitting the race, and to caucus (or vote) for Cruz.
Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud. Also, Cruz sent out a VOTER VIOLATION certificate to thousands of voters.
The Voter Violation certificate gave poor marks to the unsuspecting voter(grade of F) and told them to clear it up by voting for Cruz. Fraud
And finally, Cruz strongly told thousands of caucusgoers (voters) that Trump was strongly in favor of ObamaCare and "choice" - a total lie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Is Trump too honest, too clean for the dirty politics game? Were the Cruz campaigns shenanigans, particularly the “voter violation” mailer, which the campaign itself admitted to and called politics as usual, beyond the pale?
Carson didn’t like the Cruz move, releasing a statement late Monday accusing Cruz, though not by name, of “dirty tricks.”
It’s mud-wrestling now on the Republican side.
Updated
Rand Paul suspends his campaign for president
Rand Paul is suspending his presidential campaign.
The libertarian icon and freshman Kentucky senator announced Wednesday morning that he was bowing out of the presidential race to focus on his 2016 re-election campaign to the United States Senate.
In a statement, Paul said “The fight is far from over. I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term.”
Paul was once described as “the most interesting man in politics” and viewed as a formidable candidate. However, the Kentucky senator’s unique brand of libertarian politics was eclipsed both by the emergence of Donald Trump and a dedicated effort by rival Ted Cruz to appeal to socially conservative libertarians. The result was that Paul finished in a disappointing fifth place in the Iowa caucuses on Monday with less than 5% of the vote.
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. All eyes are now on New Hampshire, which holds its first-in-the-nation primary next Tuesday.
How can the politics bus leave Iowa behind so abruptly, after months of buildup to the Hawkeye caucuses? That’s what makes primary season such fun – there are 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, each with its own political dynamic, voting in lovely sequence, sometimes on two dates to accommodate the respective parties, from now all the way through summer.
It’s like a road trip of the mind, with Bernie Sanders driving, Hillary Clinton smoking cigarettes out the window and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz fighting over AM radio. How fun does that sound.
New Hampshire, then! A glance at the polls: at 18 points ahead in New Hampshire according to Real Clear Politics’ polling averages, Sanders looks like he has a comfortable lead:
But then you look at the Republican chart:
Trump’s polling track compared with the others looks like the Manhattan skyline over a foreground landfill. Can he lose? As we saw in Iowa, the pollsters can be wrong. But primaries are easier to poll than caucuses. And a 21-point lead sustained over six months is no joke, not at all.
Trump held a melancholy news conference in New Hampshire last night followed by a boisterous rally. Then he went on Fox News, proposed a conditional and asserted an absolute:
Amazing Trumpism from tonight's interview with Hannity: "If I win, we all win because we are going to win."
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 3, 2016
Our reporting team is scattered across the north-east this morning. Morning files include Adam Gabbatt following Sanders in New Hampshire:
Coverage complemented by this video:
And don’t miss former president Jimmy Carter talking about how money has corrupted contemporary politics:
What do you want to talk about today? Let us know in the comments!
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