A good night for Bernie Sanders - with more to come
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has had the best night of his campaign thus far, winning two caucuses by massive margins, with a third victory in Hawaii within reach.
With overwhelming victories in Washington state and Alaska, Sanders has narrowed - however slightly - former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s significant delegate lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. “We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead,” Sanders said in a speech to supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. “We have a path toward victory.”
With the Hawaii caucus underway, here’s a wrap-up of today’s Pacific Primary highlights - plus a few notes from that other presidential campaign:
- Sanders won an early and commanding victory in Alaska. With 72.5% of precincts reporting, the Vermont senator has won the support of 79.2% of the state’s 16 delegates, to Clinton’s 20.8%. If the remaining precincts don’t have any massive surprises, those 16 delegates will be apportioned proportionately, letting Sanders walk away from the Alaska caucus with as many as 13 delegates.
- At a speech in Madison, Sanders told a delighted crowd that he was grateful to “the people of Alaska for giving us a resounding victory tonight,” and cheered his then-uncertain performance in Washington. Citing his “landslide victory” in Alaska and newly minted win in delegate-heavy Washington, Sanders urged the crowd to support him in the upcoming Wisconsin primary. “With your help, we’re gonna win right here in Wisconsin!”
- His landslide victory in the Washington caucus was called shortly thereafter. With 57% of precincts reporting, Sanders has won 73.2% of delegates, as well as every county that has declared a victory so far. Clinton, in contrast, won only 26.6% of delegates, underperforming her own showing in the state’s caucus in 2008 against Barack Obama. Washington, like Alaska, determines its delegate allocation proportionally, which means that more than 70 of its 101 delegates will likely go Sanders’ way, deeply cutting into Clinton’s 300-delegate lead.
- Clinton’s lead, however, won’t be as damaged once superdelegates are factored in to the final count. Superdelegates, party officials who vote at the Democratic National Convention but who are not bound to vote according to their states’ election results, support Clinton over Sanders by a margin of 469 to 29, making his path to the nomination even more arduous.
- The Republican nominees got a break from primary contest results today, but that doesn’t mean that the party’s billionaire frontrunner avoided the spotlight. In a duo of wide-ranging interviews with the New York Times, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump went into detail regarding what foreign policy might look like under a hypothetical Trump administration. “Not isolationist, but I am America First,” Trump told the Times. Trump floated numerous potential policy shifts that might take place under his leadership, including allowing Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear weapons programs, withdrawing from Nato in favor of a similar organization dedicated to counterterrorism and requiring wealthy Gulf states to “substantially reimburse” the US for expenditures made in defeating terrorist groups like Islamic State.
We’re still awaiting results from the Hawaii Democratic caucus, expected later tonight - time zones are the worst - but with support from local figures such as congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Sanders may be well on his way to an electoral hat trick tonight.
TL;DR: It’s Sanders’ night.
Best. GIF. Ever. pic.twitter.com/4Xpau23MRE
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) March 25, 2016
What's next for Bernie Sanders
The senator has hinted at a quiet campaign to convince some superdelegates to switch their tentative support to his cause, saying last week: “I think it might be a good idea for superdelegates to listen to the people in their own state.”
Before Saturday’s races helped him cut into Hillary Clinton’s lead, the former secretary of state had 303 more pledged delegates than the senator.
Wisconsin’s primary, on 5 April, is a crucial contest for those Bernie Sanders supporters who are hoping to somehow pull off an upset. With its long history of progressive activism, the midwestern industrial state offers the Vermont senator a chance to repeat the kind of surprise victory he managed in Michigan, and to secure his support with working-class voters whom Clinton hopes to win.
Bernie Sanders is outperforming Barack Obama’s victory in the so-called “Pacific Primary”:
Obama vs. Clinton, 2008:
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) March 26, 2016
WA – 68%-32%
AK – 75%-25%
Sanders vs. Clinton, 2016*:
WA – 76%-24%
AK – 79%-21%https://t.co/gPeEWEfkHT
The caucus has begun in Hawaii, and US senator Brian Schatz says that turnout looks to be on the verge of shattering the record set when native son Barack Obama won the state’s caucus in 2008:
Turnout is enormous at Kawananakoa Middle School. pic.twitter.com/JToFpS6OeX
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 26, 2016
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Bernie Sanders just won the big victory he’s been needing: Washington state.
Perhaps it should come as little surprise that Sanders’ message would resonate there, where patently progressive Seattle - with its $15-an-hour minimum wage and socialist council member (the only on anywhere in the US) - sets the tone for the state.
Sanders remains far behind Clinton when it comes to delegate math, but he was quick to use the numbers from Saturday night to drive home the larger message that he’s long been crafting - that as the campaign sweeps west, momentum will increasingly be on his side. Still the places he’s winning continue to be predominantly white, and of course not all of the country looks like Washington state. Tonight, he’s not letting that rain on his parade.
Important reminder: Bernie Sanders still has a far more difficult path to the nomination, and even with his successes in Washington and Alaska, he remains a distinct underdog.
The next states to vote range along the north-east and through New England, including Clinton’s home state of New York, as Democrats hold “closed” primary elections that do not allow independent voters to participate. This is a major disadvantage for Sanders, who has won unaffiliated voters by huge margins in open primaries.
Furthermore, the Democratic party allows for “superdelegates”, party officials who vote at the Democratic National Convention but who are not bound to vote according to their states’ election results. Among those, Sanders trails Clinton by an estimated margin of 469 to 29, making his path to the nomination even more arduous.
Luke Michals took time off as an aerospace engineer to campaign for Sanders in Nevada, Louisiana and Illinois before landing in Seattle. He said the city was more strongly supportive of Sanders than any other he has campaigned in.
Luke Michals, @BernieSanders Sanders activist: – "Now is the time@to reap for Bernie" https://t.co/iz2xlEve9T pic.twitter.com/D4a33go3mG
— Chris McGreal (@ChrisMcGreal) March 26, 2016
Before the vote, Michals predicted the outcome, saying it would be a landslide for Sanders and the beginning of the turnaround for the socialist Democrat. “We knew it was going to be an uphill battle and now is the time for us to reap all the states that now suit Bernie,” he said.
Updated
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has issued a statement to his supporters about his massive victories in the Washington and Alaska caucuses:
We’ll be in touch with the results from Hawaii, but this is shaping up to be a tremendous day for our campaign. And with a big showdown in Wisconsin on the horizon, it’s important that we keep the momentum going.
When we started this campaign no one thought we would win a single state, let alone 13 out of the first 31. No one thought we could compete financially with the most prolific fundraiser in Democratic Party history, especially by relying on small-dollar contributions from working Americans.
We keep proving the political establishment and corporate media wrong. And if we continue to stand together, we are going to win.
Fun Fact: In 2008, Barack Obama overwhelmed Hillary Clinton in all three western contests – 68%-32% in Washington, 75%-25% in Alaska, and 76%-24% in his home state of Hawaii.
Bernie Sanders won overwhelming victories in Washington state and Alaska on Saturday, narrowing Hillary Clinton’s still significant lead in the race for delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president.
Sanders defeated Clinton in Washington’s caucuses 76% to 31% and 79% to 21% in Alaska’s, with about 31% and 38% of the states’ precincts reporting.
“We knew from day one we were going to have a hard time politically in the deep south, that is a conservative part of the country,” Sanders told supporters in Madison, Wisconsin “But we knew things were going to improve as we head west.”
“We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead,” he said. “We have a path toward victory.”
The most delegates were at stake in Washington, where Sanders drew more than 15,000 people to a Friday rally at Seattle’s Safeco Field.
Sanders’ victory follows a dominant series of performances in the states that have caucused so far. The senator has fared best in contests dominated by party activists, and won in each except for those of two early states, Iowa and Nevada, where he narrowly lost. Hawaii is also holding caucuses on Saturday, and Sanders is expected to do well on the archipelago.
Bernie Sanders told an exuberant crowd in Madison, Wisconsin, the news of his projected victory in Washington, declaring that “that is what momentum is about.”
Citing his “landslide victory” in Alaska and newly minted win in delegate-heavy Washington, Sanders urged the crowd to support him in the upcoming Wisconsin primary. “With your help, we’re gonna win right here in Wisconsin!”
The crowd was more than happy to oblige Sanders, chanting “We, we know you will win! We, we know you will win!”
Bernie Sanders wins Washington Democratic caucus
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has won the Washington Democratic caucus, according to the Associated Press.
BREAKING: Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic presidential caucuses in Washington state.#APracecall at 6:28 p.m. EST. #Election2016
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 26, 2016
With 30.5% of precincts reporting, Sanders leads over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton with the support of 76% of delegates, to Clinton’s 23.7%. Although delegates are apportioned in Washington state by congressional seat, rather than by county, the proportional allocation of the state’s 101 delegates likely means that Sanders will bring in at least 70 delegates, possibly more.
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Sanders credited his victory, in part, to the strong support he enjoys from Millennial voters.
“What momentum is about is in election after election, winning the overwhelming percentage of young people who are participating. And by young I don’t mean just the very young - the older you get,t he younger the age appears!”
“That is not what we are seeing in this campaign! What we are seeing is that the young people of this country, who love this country so much, who want to make it a better country, and that they are prepared to stand up and fight and take on the major crises that we face.”
Bernie Sanders thanks Alaska for "giving us a resounding victory"
Speaking at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders told a delighted crowd that he was grateful to “the people of Alaska for giving us a resounding victory tonight,” and cheered his current performance in Washington, where currently leads with 77% of delegates.
“We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead... and we have a path toward victory!”
Jumping back into Donald Trump news for a moment...
In an extensive interview with the New York Times, the billionaire Republican frontrunner was, in order, ignorant of, shocked by and critical towards economic sanctions on Iran, declaring that prohibitions on US corporations or the federal government selling goods to the Iranians are “stupid.”
While expressing frustration with the Iranian nuclear deal, Trump declared that “they’re buying from everybody but the United States... They’re buying planes, they’re buying everything, they’re buying from everybody but the United States.” When told that federal law prohibits the sale of American goods to the Iranian government, Trump seemed surprised.
“Uh, excuse me?”
Once it was explained to him that the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 prohibits American firms from doing business with Iran, Trump was critical of such sanctions.
“How stupid is that?” Trump said. “We give them the money, and we now say, ‘Go buy Airbus instead of Boeing,’ right? So how stupid is that?”
Sanders’ easy victory in Alaska may not mean much for primary math. After all, the entire state only offers up a total of 20 delegates and Clinton is already ahead of him by roughly 300 pledged delegates and 400 super delegates. But it does offer him an important win when it comes to momentum.
After trouncing Clinton in Idaho and Utah this week, Sanders is hoping to carry forward a string of small wins that he hopes will extend at least as far as April 19, when the Democratic primary hits New York.
It’s still early but Sanders looks to be in for a night of good news. He performs well in caucus states like Alaska and Washington, and if all goes as planned, Saturday’s contests may provide him with the argument he needs to justify why he’s continuing to run -- that the states and people who love him haven’t spoken yet.
On the heels of a projected win in the Alaska caucus, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is further bolstering his lead in Washington state, where, with 25% of precincts reporting, he leads three-to-one over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Sanders can add Washington’s Lewis County to his win column, joining 11 other counties that are small in population but fervent in their support of Sanders. With two of Snohomish County’s seven precincts reporting, the senator currently holds a 50-point lead in support in the state’s third-largest county. He has also one one of eight precincts in Pierce County, home of Tacoma, the state’s third-largest city.
In nail-biting news, King County, home of Seattle and the state’s largest county, has results from one of its 17 precincts, showing a 50-50 split between Sanders and Clinton.
Updated
Bernie Sanders wins Alaska Democratic caucus
The Associated Press has projected that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders will win the Alaska Democratic caucus.
With 15 of 40 of the state’s precincts reporting, Sanders currently leads with 78.7% supporter, a four-to-one smash over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s 21.3% support. Alaska will award its 16 delegates proportionally, which means that both Sanders and Clinton will come out of the state with a delegate boost.
Thank you, Alaska! Together we are sending a message that this government belongs to all of us. https://t.co/igIyUhWlrs
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 26, 2016
Updated
Bernie Sanders strengthens early lead in Washington
With full results from three more counties in Washington and partial results from including Snohomish County, the third-largest in the state by population, senator Bernie Sanders has strengthened his three-to-one lead over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, with 73.8% support to Clinton’s 25.9%. Sanders has won each of the nine counties that have 100% of the vote in.
Although only 13.8% of precincts have reported statewide, the results put Sanders on track to get more than 70 delegates out of the 101 delegates up for grabs in the Evergreen State. As the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs notes, he’s even on track to beat Barack Obama’s blowout of Hillary Clinton from eight years ago:
https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/713834107403444224
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An online petition to allow guns into the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July has received more than 24,000 signatures in favor of overturning the “irresponsible and hypocritical act of selecting a ‘gun-free zone’” for the party’s quadrennial gathering.
The convention will be held between 18 and 21 July at the Quicken Loans Arena, a venue with a policy that forbids “firearms and other weapons of any kind” on its grounds. Republican debate venues have also barred firearms.
The petition, posted anonymously to Change.org last week, declares the Cleveland arena’s weapons ban “a direct affront to the second amendment and puts all attendees at risk”.
“By forcing attendees to leave their firearms at home,” the petition continues, “the RNC and Quicken Loans Arena are putting tens of thousands of people at risk both inside and outside of the convention site”.
Early results out of Alaska show Bernie Sanders beating Hillary Clinton four-to-one
With only 15% of precincts reporting, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has taken a commanding lead in the Alaska caucus, beating former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the six precincts that have reported results by a ratio of four-to-one.
Sanders has garnered the support of 81.6%%, versus a mere 18.4% support for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The state is not, however, a massive prize for either campaign - with only 16 delegates up for grabs, compared to the 101 available in Washington state, where Sanders has a similarly imposing lead as initial results trickle in.
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Bernie Sanders’ new campaign ad puts a bird on it.
Together. pic.twitter.com/I8ca8foKTP
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 26, 2016
In television news: a telephone interview is typically frowned upon. Donald Trump’s fondness for them is changing habits and causing consternation in newsrooms, while challenging political traditions.
Two organizations are circulating petitions to encourage Sunday morning political shows to hang up on Trump. Some prominent holdouts, like Fox’s Chris Wallace, refuse to do on-air phoners. Others argue that a phone interview is better than no interview at all.
Except in news emergencies, producers usually avoid phoners because television is a visual medium – a face-to-face discussion between a newsmaker and questioner is preferable to a picture of an anchor listening to a disembodied voice.
“The Sunday show, in the broadcast landscape, I feel is a gold standard for probing interviews,” said Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday. “The idea that you would do a phone interview, not face-to-face or not by satellite, with a presidential candidate – I’d never seen it before, and I was quite frankly shocked that my competitors were doing it.”
Since Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, Wallace has conducted three in-person interviews with him on Fox News Sunday, and four via satellite.
Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, has done phoners with Trump but now said he’s decided to stick to in-person interviews on his Sunday show. He’s no absolutist, though.
“It’s a much better viewer experience when it’s in person,” Todd said. “Satellite and phoners are a little harder, there’s no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, you’ll take something over nothing.”
Since the campaign began, Trump has appeared for 29 phone interviews on the five Sunday political panel shows, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America. Through last Sunday, ABC’s This Week has done it 10 times, CBS’s Face the Nation seven, and Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union six times each.
None of these shows has done phoners with Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, said Media Matters, which is urging that the practice be discontinued.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has pulled out far ahead of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the Evergreen State’s caucuses - but that’s no surprise for politicos who have been watching the money.
Seattle, the largest city in Washington and one of the most liberal urban centers in the country, ranks number one in per-capita political donations to Sanders among the 50 largest cities in the US, as the Seattle Times reported last week.
Seattleites had donated $596,578 to the Sanders campaign through the end of January, before a single primary vote had been cast. According to the Seattle Times’ math, that means that Sanders has collected $893 for every 1,000 residents of the Emerald City. In other words, every citizen of Seattle, on average, has given 89 cents to the Sanders campaign.
And that doesn’t even reflect smaller donations - that is, donations under $200. Almost three-quarters of Sanders’ individual contributions fell below that amount, meaning that demographic information on the majority of Sanders’ donors isn’t provided to the Federal Election Commission.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs points out that Hillary Clinton lost Washington State’s caucuses in a two-to-one blowout against Barack Obama eight years ago - and that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is on pace to beat the now-president’s victory against Clinton.
Bernie doing better than Obama in 2008 so far in many of the counties in in Washington pic.twitter.com/LzHMM2Prmg
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) March 26, 2016
Sanders ahead of Obama's pace in Douglas County, the biggest county yet to report in Washington pic.twitter.com/g5Nz9Q9VtK
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) March 26, 2016
Early Washington caucus results show Bernie Sanders with a big lead
With only 6.9% of precincts reporting, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is meeting the high expectations for his campaign in Washington state with more than 75% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
With 100% of the vote reported in five sparsely populated counties in eastern and southern Washington - Douglas, Adams, Columbia, Garfield and Wahkiakum counties - Sanders has garnered the support of 75.34%, versus a mere 24.66% support for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
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Bill Schneider, a veteran political analyst who has covered every presidential election since 1976, says that even though climate change will directly impact Alaska caucus voters, the issue is far from the forefront of the political conversation:
For most Americans, climate change is not a crisis. Terrorist attacks and Isis are closer to crises.
In an economic model of Donald Trump’s trade proposals, bond credit rating business Moody’s has found that the billionaire Republican frontrunner’s economic platform would cost the US more than 7 million jobs - and push the unemployment rate to nearly twice its current level.
“This is a pretty ugly scenario,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, who prepared the model for the Washington Post, “one that I think any rational person would want to avoid.”
The biggest culprit would be Trump’s proposed trade war with China and Mexico, two of the nation’s largest trade partners. Tariffs proposed by Trump would raise prices on good imported from China and Mexico, reducing spending power for American consumers. While the tariffs could doom both targets to recession, if China and Mexico chose to retaliate in kind, it would lower US exports and trigger job losses for American firms that depend on customers on those countries.
In an interview with the New York Times released this morning, Trump insisted that he would only use the threat of a trade war as a negotiating tactic. “I would use trade to negotiate. Would I go to war? Look, let me just tell you. There’s a question I wouldn’t want to answer. Because I don’t want to say I won’t or I will... But I will tell you this. This is the one aspect I can tell you. I would use trade, absolutely, as a bargaining chip.”
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, is getting out the vote in today’s West Coast caucuses:
Here's looking at you, Hawaii, Alaska and Washington. Get out there and caucus! #WAcaucus #AKcaucus #HIcaucus
— Jane O'Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) March 26, 2016
Voting at the Hudson’s Bay high school in Vancouver, Washington, began with a hiccup when it was decided to recite the Pledge of Allegiance but the only flag in sight was the colonial era Hudson’s Bay Company’s - which founded Fort Vancouver and after which the school is named - hanging in the school cafeteria. But that flag incorporates the British Union Jack.
Eventually someone spotted the top half of a Stars and Stripes In a second floor window and the voters turned to face it. With that out the way, the arguments began.
Bernie Sanders supporters were the more numerous and the more passionate, focussing as much on Hillary Clinton’s shortcomings as what their candidate would do for the country.
“Did you ever hear of the Hillary Clinton health care plan?” one of Sanders’ supporters argued to the other voters in his precinct. Or rather, shouted, because with several hundred people from 12 precincts voting in the school cafeteria, all but the loudest speakers were drowned out.
A man called Gregory raised eyebrows by arguing on behalf of Clinton on the grounds that men are not up to the task of governing.
“It’s a clearly stated, scientifically proven that men can’t multitask,” he said. It did little good. As the votes came in, Sanders took precinct after precinct - some by margins of 10 to one or more, others with a slim majority. But he was the clear winner at Hudson’s Bay high school.
A man called Gregory telling Vancouver, WA caucus to vote Clinton: "it's scientifically proven men can't multitask". pic.twitter.com/MNMI0h02nb
— Chris McGreal (@ChrisMcGreal) March 26, 2016
Despite this man’s (not entirely unsound) reasoning, the Guardian’s Chris McGreal reports that Bernie Sanders is picking up big wins in precincts voting in Washington’s Clark County.
In Vancouver, WA @BernieSanders clocking up big victories in precincts voting in Democratic caucuses at Hudson's Bay high school
— Chris McGreal (@ChrisMcGreal) March 26, 2016
An aerospace engineer tells the Guardian he’s not sure he’d vote for Hillary Clinton in the general:
As of six months ago, I had nothing against Hillary Clinton. She’s a certain type of candidate. She’s the establishment Democratic candidate. I really could have respected her more if she had run a campaign that said: ‘Yeah, I am the establishment candidate. I was secretary of state. I was first lady. I was a senator. I did do all these things but that’s not a bad thing, and these are the reasons.’ This campaign that she’s running, that she’s all of a sudden this progressive who gets things done, and she’s trying to put herself to the left of Bernie, that’s disingenuous and lying to the American people.
Less than five hours before the beginning of the Hawaii caucus, the Bernie Sanders campaign is hoping that a key local endorsement will help swing the 50th State his way. Tulsi Gabbard, the US representative from Hawaii, combat veteran and Sanders surrogate, cut a poignant ad for the Vermont senator in which she reflects on what it means to be a warrior and says that Sanders is one.
Sanders understands the costs of war, she tells the camera, and would keep the country safe without committing to foolish military expeditions.
It starts with surfing footage:
Jean Matthews first voted in a presidential election for FDR. Now she’s 96 years-old and backing Bernie Sanders at the Democratic caucus in Vancouver, Washington. She doesn’t expect him to win the nomination and says she will not vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election.
“I’m voting for Bernie Sanders because he’s the only person in this election you can trust,” Matthews said. “Hillary lies all the time. She lies about any stuff that can met her look good. She stands for thee status quo,” she said at the Hudson Bay high school.
96yo Jean Matthews first voted in 1938, for FDR. Now backing @BernieSanders. "I'll just be sick if Hillary gets in" pic.twitter.com/Zj48qe5Z6L
— Chris McGreal (@ChrisMcGreal) March 26, 2016
Then Matthews said something you don’t often hear from nonagenarians: “I’m for a revolution”. Matthews said that she is likely to vote for the Green Party candidate in the general election if Clinton gets the Democratic nomination even if that helps Donald Trump.
“My son says I vote my principles. I don’t care. Principles not personality. Hillary is a totally unprincipled person. I’ll just be sick if she gets it. I’m sitting her with a bunch of Hillary people. I don’t want to be around them.”
Donald Trump's foreign policy: Every man for himself
In a duo of wide-ranging interviews with the New York Times, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has gone into detail regarding what foreign policy might look like under a hypothetical Trump administration.
The takeaway: America first.
“Not isolationist, but I am America First,” Trump told the Times. “I like the expression.”
Trump floated numerous potential policy shifts that might take place under his leadership, including allowing Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear weapons programs, withdrawing from Nato in favor of a similar organization dedicated to counterterrorism and requiring wealthy Gulf states to “substantially reimburse” the US for expenditures made in defeating terrorist groups like Islamic State.
The billionaire was less heavy on specifics on foreign policy matters, for instance answering a question about potential support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question by declaring that “I’m not saying anything. What I’m going to do is, you know, I specifically don’t want to address the issue because I would love to see if a deal could be made.”
As Alaskans go to the polls in the Democratic caucuses on Saturday, one of the most pressing issues should be what is staring them in the face – or, rather, what isn’t: snow and ice.
“I’m looking out of the window here in Anchorage and I can just see grass instead of snow,” said Andy Moderow, state director of not-for-profit group Alaska Wilderness Action.
Moderow grew up dog-sledding but said record temperatures have effectively wiped out Alaska’s winter, meaning a miserable time for those who enjoy snow sports.
“There has basically been no snow on the ground all winter in Anchorage. When I was younger, the Iditarod sled race went from Anchorage to Wasilla but there’s no snow there now.
“The changes are all around us. It’s very rare to have multiple winters like this in a row. When you see ski races not take place, grass instead of snow, villages falling into the oceans, you realise the impacts are real.”
Bernie Sanders’ supporters are confident of victory in the Washington state Democratic caucus on Saturday driven by substantial support in Seattle, the first major city to pass a $15-an-hour minimum wage and home to the only socialist council member in the US. Seattle, which accounts for about one third of the vote in the state, has donated more money per capita to the Sanders campaign than any other large city.
But Hillary Clinton, who lost Washington state to Barack Obama in the 2008 primary, is edging ever closer to the Democratic nomination. And with the latest Bloomberg News poll showing Sanders in a virtual tie with Clinton across the US, her campaign has been treading the challenging path of taking on Sanders without alienating his supporters as she looks to the presidential election. It’s proving a difficult task in Seattle, where hostility toward Clinton has grown as her campaign pushed claims she has long been a champion of progressive causes.
The US’s only elected socialist council member, Kshama Sawant, who was instrumental in passing a law instituting a $15-an-hour minimum wage in Seattle, has thrown her support behind Sanders while accusing Clinton of being a front for corporate interests. Sawant – who credits her re-election late last year in part to Sanders’ campaign creating “enormous momentum” for change that has helped engage young people and alienated workers in politics – protested inside a Clinton rally this week with a sign: “I’m not with her”.
The Clinton camp, sensing the nomination is all but won, has been urging her supporters in Washington to reach out to those who back Sanders to ensure they vote for her in the general election. That’s proving a tough sell with some of those campaigning for the former secretary of state.
A Clinton support group in the state, Washington Women for Hillary, appealed for her backers to “take the high road” and build bridges with Sanders supporters to ensure a strong Democratic turnout in the general election. But that prompted a discussion about how difficult it will be to work with people who have been “so dismissive, arrogant and downright nasty”.
Voting at the Hudson Bay high school in Vancouver, Washington - where Bernie Sanders held an election rally last week - promises to be a lively affair with several hundred people for 12 precincts crammed into the cafeteria for the Democratic caucus.
Waiting for the voters at Hudson Bay middle school in Vancouver, Washington. (With Hudson Bay Company flag on wall) pic.twitter.com/wM2L3FO6OR
— Chris McGreal (@ChrisMcGreal) March 26, 2016
In other places where there has been voting in schools, each precinct has had its own classroom but all the Democrats could get at Hudson Bay was the cafeteria so the dining tables have been organized into clusters just a few feet apart. About 500 people were preregistered to vote at the school in Vancouver - Portland’s poorer and less cool but also less self satisfied neighbor across the Colombia river - but Democratic Party organizers expect several hundred more to register just before the caucus.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Saturday’s Democratic caucuses in three western states: Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is expected to do well, though he still faces daunting odds in the larger race to win 2,383 delegates before Hillary Clinton can. Sanders has 920 delegates and 29 tentative superdelegates (who are unbound by state results); Clinton has 1,223 delegates and 468 tentative superdelegates.
The biggest prize of the day is Washington state (118 delegates), followed by Hawaii (34) and Alaska (20), though in all three contests, delegates will be awarded proportional to results. In a week shadowed by terror attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, Clinton and Sanders have largely kept to their usual stump speeches and civil tone.
Republicans, not so much. Frontrunner Donald Trump called for the closure of all US borders in the wake of the attacks. His main rival, Texas senator Ted Cruz, said police should “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized”. Sanders, Clinton and even top Republicans quickly denounced the comments, albeit with different decibels of outrage.
So then Trump and Cruz began to fight about their wives, and then about a tabloid’s baseless accusation of infidelity by Cruz. The senator called that story “garbage” and “complete and utter lies”.
“Donald may be a rat but I have no desire to copulate with him,” he added.
Trump denied that either he or his allies had anything to do with the story.
Meanwhile, Sanders met a small bird, and our reporters and writers around the country investigated the stories of voters, the candidates and the issues facing the US.
- Seattleites love Sanders and fear “corporate” Clinton, by Chris McGreal in Washington state
- The cheap suit to riches story of Frederick Christ Trump, and the strange relationship of FCT and his son, DJT, by Michelle Dean in New York
- Alaska’s vanished winter and the disappearance of climate change from the campaign trail, by Oliver Milman
- Ted Cruz’s anti-Muslim advisers are “terrifying”, professors and rights groups warn, and Ed Pilkington reports
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