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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Amber Jamieson in Albany (now) and Tom McCarthy in New York (earlier)

Trump train stops in New York as Bernie attracts 6,000 in Albany – as it happened

A supporter of Donald Trump drives his car outside the Times Union Center before the rally in Albany, on Monday.
A supporter of Donald Trump drives his car outside the Times Union Center before the rally in Albany, on Monday. Photograph: Mike Groll/AP

Thanks everyone, that’s it for this evening. I’ve attended a Bernie Sanders and a Donald Trump rally in Albany this afternoon/evening, which is too much excitement for one person for one day.

Just a look at the day’s top stories:

  • Trump attracted over 10,000 people to his Albany rally, with a few scuffles with protesters and Trump criticizing the Colorado delegate selection process as “rigged” after Ted Cruz got all the state’s delegates.
  • Bernie Sanders hosted two rallies today - one in Albany, one in Buffalo - both attracting thousands as he tries to build momentum ahead of the upcoming New York primary.
  • Vice president Joe Biden declines to endorse anyone for president, but does say: “I would like to see a woman elected” (ahem, there’s only one female running).
  • Bill Clinton proves a strong boost for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, since he can talk past experience and charm.

And tomorrow we’ll do it all over again. Until then!

Trump complains Colorado delegate process rigged

Colorado senator Cory Gardner went on a tweet storm tonight after Donald Trump claimed that Colorado’s delegate selection process was rigged in his speech in Albany, New York Monday night.

Trump who was shut out of all 34 delegates elected in the Rocky Mountain State claimed that Colorado’s state convention and district convention were rigged and bemoaned “we found out in Colorado this is not a democracy like we’re supposed to have.”

Trump had almost no organization in Colorado, a state his campaign had long expected to lose, and handed out incorrect sample ballots. He called the process “a crooked deal” in an interview with Fox earlier on Monday as well.

Gardner erupted on Twitter, mocking Trump and deriding his effort in the state as well as his “temper tantrum.”

RNC Chair Reince Priebus weighed in more meekly, noting simply that the rules had long been set.

Video from inside the Albany rally today shows protesters getting ejected from Trump’s rally (one of several times throughout the event that protesters got the boot).

Protesters ejected from Trump rally in Albany.

Stephen H Erickson, 14, with his father, Stephen J Erickson, 52
Stephen H Erickson, 14, with his father, Stephen J Erickson, 52 Photograph: Amber Jamieson

Tonight electrician Stephen J Erickson, 52, took his son Stephen H Erickson, 14, along to the Donald Trump rally in Albany.

“I thought it was really cool. He doesn’t seem corrupt, he’s not like a politician,” said the younger Erickson, a big politics fan.

His dad is a fan for a simple reason. “He’ll build a wall. And keep the legal people here and the illegal people out. They’re going... over the fence and under the fence. We’ve got legal Asians here, and legal Mexicans here. They don’t want the illegals coming over,” he said. He mentioned that many Muslims in the US don’t want undocumented immigrants coming in - and said the temporary ban on Muslims would be a good thing.

“They did that with the Irish and the Chinese and the Japanese,” said his son, agreeing with the ban.

However, the son is too young to vote and the elder Erickson is a registered Democrat - so won’t vote for Trump in the upcoming New York primary.

From The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino in Buffalo tonight...

After three false starts, a tuft of unruly white hair finally emerged from a sea of fresh-faced supporters. Bernie Sanders strode confidently to the podium and leaned forward, hands grasping the sides, eyes scanning the university stadium where more than 6,000 supporters encircled him.

Sanders pumped a fist in the air and the thunderous applause became impossibly louder. Outside, 5,000 more people who had sloshed through the wrap-around line to see him were not let into the arena.

“I can’t believe how many people are here,” he said, explaining that he had just come from greeting the supporters who stayed to watch a broadcast of the senator’s speech.

“This is a campaign on the move and your presence here tonight tells me how much energy and enthusiasm we have,” he said. The crowd banged their feet on the stadium seats and cheered.

The New York primary will be a consequential one for the Vermont senator who needs a strong showing, if not a win here, to prove his campaign has the momentum to justify a fight to the end. Sanders has won eight of the last nine nominating contests, yet has hardly dented Hillary Clinton’s significant delegate lead.

On Monday night, Sanders drew boos from the audience when he mentioned his opponent’s ties to Wall Street and hearty laughs when he called on her to release the transcripts of the paid speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs and other big banks.

The speech must have been good to get such a high speaking fee, Sanders chided, posturing whether it was written in “Shakespearean prose”.

“Buffalo,” Sanders carried on the joke. “Are you ready for this dramatic announcement? I am prepared to release all of the transcripts of all of the speeches … That’s pretty easy. There were no speeches.” The crowd roared with laughter.

Sanders went on to hit Clinton for taking money from super PACs, her vote to authorize the war in Iraq and her positions on fracking and trade.

“I voted against every one of these disastrous agreements,” Sanders said, goading cheers from a crowd of Buffalo residents battered by manufacturing job losses. “Secretary Clinton supported virtually every trade policy.”

But the loudest boos were reserved for the great Republican provocateur: Donald Trump, who was holding a rally in the state’s capital at the same time.

“I know a lot of Americans are worried about Donald Trump,” Sanders said. “It ain’t going to happen ... because national poll after national poll, we defeat Trump by double digits but it is also not going to happen because the American people understand that our strength is in our diversity and we will not allow Donald Trump to divide us up.”

Drawing his hour-long speech to a close, Sanders encouraged New Yorker to vote, promising them that with a large voter turn out, “we are going to win.”

“On April 19,” Sanders said, making his closing pitch, “New York can make history. Let’s do it!”

Have just arrived in my hotel in Albany - there is free cheese and salami! - and am tuning in to John Kasich’s Town Hall on CNN right now.

First thing I hear is his daughter Reese, saying: “He also thinks he’s a really good dancer”

“I’ve gotten better!” said Kasich.

“Yeah, but you’re not going to go on Dancing with the Stars,” quipped his teenage daughter.

Then CNN’s Anderson Cooper quizzes how Kasich handles his twin teenage daughters bringing boys home.

“Well, we have a trooper who sits in the car with a gun,” replied Kasich.

Literally no teenager would want their parent to be president. Let’s all give a thought to Sasha and Malia Obama.

I just interviewed several attendees from the Donald Trump Albany rally outside the Times Union Center - including a 14-year-old, a 17-year-old, a Ted Cruz supporter, a registered Democrat and a registered Green Party supporter (who supports John Kasich).

Meaning, none of them will be voting for Donald Trump in the New York primary, although they were part of the 10,000+ crowd at tonight’s rally.

Not to say people there won’t vote for Trump - a big chunk of them will. But at least one - Pete Palleschi, 19, a Hudson Valley Community College student who is a registered Green Party member and prefers John Kasich of the Republican left - admitted he was just “here for the show.”

Sanders fires back at Clinton's gun claims

As well as covering the Bernie Sanders Buffalo rally live this evening, The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino just filed this report...

Bernie Sanders campaign fired back at Hillary Clinton for suggesting that the guns used to commit crimes in New York flow from the senator’s Vermont.

In an emailed statement, subject line: “Clinton misfires,” Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs deferred to remarks from the state’s governor, who has endorsed Clinton for president.

“I don’t know why Secretary Clinton would be so critical of the governor of Vermont who strongly supports her candidacy,” Briggs said. “What Gov [Peter] Shumlin recently said is true: ‘It is campaign season, therefore, things are sometimes said by all the candidates that sometimes aren’t entirely accurate. I would just say this, I think you’d have a hard time convincing Vermonters that New York’s crime problems are coming from Vermont.’”

During a panel on gun violence prevention on Monday, Clinton said: “Most of the guns that are used in crimes and violence and killings in New York come from out of state. And the state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York” is Vermont.”

Clinton has long hammered Sanders for his record on guns, one of the only issues she has been able to position herself to the left of the progressive senator. This however was the first time she has used this line of attack tying Sander’s hunter-friendly home state to gun violence in New York.

Clinton’s statistics come from a 2013 Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) report, that found the state of Vermont had the highest per-capita source of guns recovered in other states, in large part due to its small population and lax gun laws.

And according to a 2014 ATF report, 55 guns found in New York to Vermont, less than 1% of the roughly 7,686 that were recovered, (though only 4,585 of those guns were traceable to a state). By comparison, 395 were traced to Virginia.

Updated

More from The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino, in Buffalo tonight for Bernie Sanders’ rally.

John Kasich’s daughters record a little video teaser for their interview on CNN with their Ohio Governor father tonight at 9pm ET.

Phyllis Schafly may be forced out of Eagle Forum for Trump support

Conservative icon Phyllis Schafly may be ousted from the Eagle Forum, the right wing group she founded in 1972, over her support for Donald Trump.

Six of the group’s board members, including Schafly’s daughter, reportedly held a conference call on Monday afternoon to discuss how to force the nonagenarian out of her position as president of the group.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Schafly wrote:

At 2:00 pm today, 6 directors of Eagle Forum met in an improper, unprecedented telephone meeting. I objected to the meeting and at 2:11pm, I was muted from the call. The meeting was invalid under the Bylaws but the attendees purported to pass several motions to wrest control of the organization from me. They are attempting to seize access to our bank accounts, to terminate employees, and to install members of their own Gang of 6 to control the bank accounts and all of Eagle Forum . . . This kind of conduct will not stand and I will fight for Eagle Forum and I ask all men and women of good will to join me in this fight.

Schafly had earlier called on the six in question to resign as their push distracts important issues “from opposing abortion to defeating Common Core” while warning that “the Chinese Communists are on the move as Europe falters under its misguided policies of trade and immigration.”

The conservative icon gained fame for her successful effort in the 1970s preventing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) from being ratified. The proposed constitutional amendment which stated “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” fell just short of the approval from 37 state legislatures it needed to become part of the Constitution.

Schafly became a national figure opposing it because it meant women would have to fight in the armed forces and her fear that it would disadvantage housewives.

Another protester - this time a young black woman - gets shouted at by the crowd to leave.

“I love you Albany,” Trump declares, before walking off stage to the beats of the Space Jam theme song, with its lyrics: “Y’all ready for this.”

“Is there anybody in this room who is going to vote for someone other than Donald Trump?” he asks.

He gets the crowd to do “the pledge”, where they raise their hands and promise to vote for Donald J Trump at the upcoming primary.

“Don’t raise it too high!” he warns, “then they say it’s about something else” (usually the media point out that it looks very similar to a Nazi heil Hitler salute...)

Here’s one of the protesters getting removed from the Trump rally this evening.

“I get almost unanimous veteran support,” said Trump, as he runs through talking points of his stump speech.

“You’re going to be proud of that border, and be proud of the wall... Maybe it’ll be named the Trump Wall. We’re going to take care of education, we’re going to get rid of Common Core.”

Another protester just appeared in the crowd - this one removed by security guards directly in front of the press pen.

“He stands there smiling because he knows he’s protected. Don’t touch him,” said Trump.

“They stand there and they taunt us all. The dishonest media will say Trump was very very tough and raised his voice,” said Trump.

The protester, a youngish white guy wearing a Bernie Sanders t-shirt, was by himself.

I recorded some video, will try and post.

Updated

“We owe $19 trillion. It’s going up to $21 trillion because of the horrible, horrible budget that three months ago the Republicans approved. We funded in that budget Obamacare. We funded in that budget people coming in from Syria… we funded in that budget all sorts of things, including people coming into our country illegally. Did you know we take care of illegal immigrants in some cases better than we take care of our veterans?” said Trump.

Trump jumps all over the place when he gives a speech - from ISIS to healthcare to NY elections.

Before Trump appeared on stage, an announcement was made that if any protesters appeared, that Trump supporters shouldn’t touch them but they should hold their posters up and chant “Trump” to alert authorities (a confusing security technique).

Well, a protester appeared and Trump yelled “Get ‘em out!” to loud cheers.

The Guardian can’t see the protester and is trapped in the press pen. Trump then said “Don’t hurt her, don’t hurt her,” before adding - about the presence of protesters - “but it does make it exciting, right?”.

He questioned if protesters were paid, said he suspected they were.

Five minutes later, more appear. “The only way the cameras show how many people are at a place like that is when they show a protester... otherwise these crooked people, they never show how many people are in the area,” said Trump.

There’s around 10,000 people here tonight at Trump’s Albany rally in the Times Union Center. Not many empty seats at all. Stadium full and the crowd standing on the floor.

Now he talks about his fellow candidates.

“Talk about liars? I think Hillary might be worse than Ted! I am no fan of Bernie Sanders, I can tell you that. Although we can agree on one thing: trade. The difference is, I can do something about it,” said Trump.

“So here’s the problem. We’re millions of votes ahead of Cruz. Millions. You don’t hear that. These dishonest people up here, don’t tell you,” said Trump, pointing to the cameras and media crew in front of him.

Crowd is now booing the media.

“They’re terrible. I just watched a report from CNN, it was so dishonest,” said Trump.

“Fuck you CNN,” yells a guy holding a Trump sign.

“The media itself is so dishonest... I’m hundreds of delegates ahead. But the system is rigged.... it’s a dirty system. Only a non-politician will say it.”

Updated

And Donald Trump appears on stage to the beats of the Space Jam themesong, Get Ready for This by 2 Unlimited.

The national anthem is now being sung, by the same singer who led the crowd with God Bless America.

She is a little wobbly on the high notes but the crowd appreciates the effort.

Carl Paladino, a local Trump-like figure, spoke for about 20 minutes, getting large cheers.

“Most of the people in the room have never been part of a revolution. But this is how it begins,” said Paladino, noting that yesterday he was in Rochester and that the people there were the same as the people here.

“This political correctness. God forbid if you say Merry Christmas,” he said, noting that the president bans it being said (not a presidential executive order I’m currently aware of).

Paladino speaks out against the press, saying they think they’re better than everyday people.

“Screw the press!” yelled out a young guy in a Make America Great Again cap at Trump’s Albany rally, who laughed good-naturedly when I turned around to look at him.

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is in Buffalo, New York for a Bernie Sanders rally this evening. She’ll be filing later, but here’s some live updates.

Here’s a look at protesters outside the Trump rally in Albany.

That’s at least three times the size of the demonstrator crowd when I came inside the rally about two hours ago.

“OK question: are we going to build a wall?” said Carl Paladino, to cheers of “yes.”

“Are we going to make the Mexicans pay for it?” asked Paladino.

The crowd cheers yes.

The crowd is now chanting “build that wall” while Carl Paladino is trying to encourage an “Ava” chant, which is the name of a small girl.

Now there’s an “Ava’s mom” chant happening, for her mother, Jennifer Oberting, known as Jennifer C from The Apprentice Season Two.

Oberting is now talking about how she only heard from the campaign last night that she would appear.

“It’s very overwhelming,” she said. “[But] when I look around the room, I see friendly faces.”

“Trump fired me 10 years ago. He had to do his job,” said Oberting. She said her 15 minutes of fame lasts longer because of her association with the billionaire.

“When the name Donald Trump is attached to your 15 minutes, it never really dies. It follows you,” she said.

“There are two Donald Trumps - and maybe a few more,” she said.

“He’s going to fill the room. You’re going to get exactly what you wanted when you. He commands the room. He is the commander-and-chief, with all due respect.”

“It’s time we had a commander-and-chief, and that’s the first Donald I experienced,” she said. She says the second Trump is a “funny” guy - he tells “some dirty jokes, some funny jokes,” recalling a photoshoot in Vogue they did together where he made a joke about her hair.

Updated

Confusingly, the lady is singing God Bless America for a second time after Carl Paladino said “one more time? One more time!”.

Carl Paladino, the 2010 candidate for New York governor, is here at the Trump rally, saying our “friend” Trump is on his way.

Someone just led us through the pledge of allegiance and now a lady is singing God Bless America.

Bernie rally in Albany attracts over 6,000

A 4,000-strong crowd of Bernie Sanders supporters packed into the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany today to cheer the Vermont Senator - with another 2,000 unable to enter.

A group of young people played hacky sack before the rally. Many carried homemade signs - including one that said “Bern down for what” and a duo carrying hand-painted flame signs. It was a young, hippyish crowd - mainly white and lots of folksy knitted beanies. The crowd regularly chanted “feel the bern” and “whose revolution? Our revolution!”

“He’s the greatest candidate that has ever run for president while I was conscious of politics,” said Maria Scarangella, 26, a social worker from New Paltz, who wore a “feel the Bern” cap. “This is the first time I’ve felt inspired to get involved.”

Radio announcer Jim Hightower, wearing his trademark cowboy hat, addressed the crowd and called Sanders “a candidate with an FDR sized vision of what American can be.” Senator Bill Perkins and NY state Assemblyman Phil Steck both addressed the crowd, giving the Sanders’ campaign some local political heft, in a state where many are strong Clinton supporters.

Finally Sanders appeared, with the crowd going absolutely bananas at his arrival, cheering and stamping. “Albany thank you very much. This is a large, proud and raucous crowd. And a very loud crowd!” he said.

“Brothers and sisters this is a campaign on the move. This is a campaign that has the momentum. This is a campaign that has won eight out of the last nine caucuses,” he said. Sanders spoke about how latest polls had him able to beat Hillary Clinton and beating Donald Trump in the general election by double digits.

“We have the guts to be honest with the American people and tell the truth,” said Sanders. He then spoke about the corrupt campaign finance system, the rigged economy and how the media has ignored him.

“You’ve got to determine what the real issues are, not CNN or ABC,” said Sanders. He went on to speak about the need for a reasonable living wage, the high hours that Americans work, and that 58% of all new income is going to the top 1%.

Sanders spoke about how on Thursday night he will board a plane to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and noted the head of the Catholic Church has been a leader in talking about income inequality and the concept of a “moral economy.”

The biggest cheer for his stump speech came when he declared “this campaign is listening to women.” After 10 seconds of screaming and cheers, Sanders quipped “This is a loud crowd!”

Abigail Ritter, a graphic designer, painted a “Bern Baby Bern” baby carrier for her 19-month old son Isaac. The 39-year-old mother has known Sanders as a friend her family’s worked on the Sanders campaign at the US House of Representatives, but this was the first time she was seeing him speak live at a rally, and she loved the growing Bernie-mentum.

“I think that Bernie has been ignored by popular media since he’s been in office,” said Ritter. “He’s been one of the leaders in the Senate since he’s been in office and he’s been one of the few to reach across the aisles. That’s his big attraction - he doesn’t stick his feet firmly in the ground, he’s willing to listen to everybody and come up with real solutions.”

Ben Carson - the former neurosurgeon and failed Republican candidate - is only backing Trump because he thinks he has the best chance to beat the Democrats.

“It was pragmatism, recognizing that John Kasich cannot win without a brokered convention — which would guarantee a Democrat win — and recognizing that Ted Cruz can bring conservatives but will have a very difficult time bringing moderates and Democrats,” Carson told radio show Kelley and Kafer last week, Buzzfeed reports.

“I think that will be pretty much a guaranteed loss also. So in terms of who can potentially win, I think that would be Donald Trump. When I look at the consequences of not winning, it’s too horrible to even think about.”

The host Krista Kafer said she wouldn’t back Trump if he’s the nominee. Carson said he’d do the same thing if he wasn’t thinking about his kids.

“For me, it’s about the children and the grandchildren,” said Carson. “If it was just me, I would be completely where Krista is. I would say, ‘hey, I got this,I can deal with it,’ but for them, I can’t.”

Good afternoon folks, this is Amber Jamieson from the Times Union Center in Albany, where the crowd is just beginning to fill in for tonight’s Donald Trump rally.

I just walked the 10 minutes through New York state government buildings from Bernie Sanders’ rally at the Washington Avenue Armory, where around 4,500 people crammed in (2,000 overflow outside) to hear the Senator from Vermont speak. It was rock concert-loud, those Bernistas really know how to yell. I’ll file a little more shortly about that event, while waiting for Trump’s 7pm rally to kick off.

“It took me, like, fiiive swipes”:

Biden: 'I would like to see a woman elected'

A Mic News interviewer lures vice president Joe Biden onto a limb that, to his media handlers, sounds dangerously close to a Hillary Clinton endorsement.

“I would like to see a woman elected,” Biden tells the interviewer.

“Break!” yells one handler”

“That’s it!” announces a second.

“No no no, that’s alright,” Biden says. But then he clarifies that he and the president are not endorsing anyone.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose 1975 victory over Lou Ferrigno in the Mr Olympia competition is documented in Pumping Iron, is an outspoken John Kasich supporter.

But it turns out Ferrigno, who went on to play The Incredible Hulk on TV, likes Trump: “he’s a fair guy”.

(h/t @bencjacobs)

Noise for Sanders in Albany:

John Kasich has kicked off a campaign event in Troy, New York, just north of Albany:

Bill Clinton shows strength as campaign booster

Bill Clinton sought to move past a confrontation with black protesters while stumping for Hillary Clinton in New York City over the weekend, conceding amid stops in Harlem and Queens that the 1994 tough-on-crime bill he signed into law as president “overdid it” and threw too many non-violent offenders into lengthy prison sentences, writes the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui and David Smith:

Clinton drew headlines last week while campaigning for his wife in Philadelphia, vigorously hitting back at activists who had arrived to protest about his record on criminal justice. Although he issued a semi-apology the following day, the incident cast a spotlight once more on how Clinton’s legacy has served, in some ways, as a double-edged sword for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.

But while speaking at an event in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, on Sunday, Clinton proved that he remains a great asset for his wife’s campaign – blending obvious star quality and the ability to communicate almost willfully detailed policy arguments in a way that still keeps an audience hanging on his every word.

He also spoke in more nuanced terms of the 1994 crime bill, touting its benefits while acknowledging its unintended consequences, and highlighting Hillary Clinton’s own platform to reform the criminal justice system.

“We need prison reform,” Clinton told worshippers at the Abyssinian Baptist church in Harlem. “We overdid it and put too many young, non-violent offenders in jail for too long. The federal government can set an example.”

Read the full piece here.

Sanders has taken the stage in Albany:

[He means primaries and caucuses]

Hillary Clinton is in Port Washington, New York – on Long Island – for an event on gun violence. The Guardian’s Jamiles Lartey is there:

and Clinton has opened with a swipe at Sanders:

It’s only April, but Rush Limbaugh, the radio personality, is already on to the third round of balloting at the Republican convention in Cleveland in late July.

Rush’s story is that Cruz blocks Trump in the first round of voting, but does not win a majority in the second round, and so is set aside in the third in favor of a party stalwart.

Clinton leads Sanders by 12 in New York - poll

Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 12 points in the upcoming New York Democratic primary, according to a just-released poll from Monmouth University.

51% of likely Democratic primary voters in New York support Clinton compared to 39% who support Sanders, the poll found.

The poll notes that Clinton “still receives largely positive marks from primary voters for her time in the Senate – 28% say she did an excellent job and 42% say she did a good job, compared to 20% who say she did an only fair job and just 7% who say she did a poor job.”

The Guardian’s Amber Jamieson has arrived at a Bernie Sanders rally at the Armory in Albany. She’s not alone:

Important update:

Updated

Hillary Clinton has just taken questions from reporters after a campaign stop in Jackson Heights, Queens.

She indulged in a bit of pre-debate trash talk, saying that rival Bernie Sanders had had “trouble answering questions” “under the bright spotlight and scrutiny here in New York” and she looked forward to their Thursday meeting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Clinton and Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., talk to community leaders and politicians at the Jackson Diner in Queens.
Clinton and Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., talk to community leaders and politicians at the Jackson Diner in Queens. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

In a 1 April interview with the New York Daily News Sanders was hesitant in his description of the legal authority of the president to identify banks as too-big-to-fail in a way that would trigger their dissection. The Clinton campaign has attacked his hesitancy as ignorance, while others have said he was presenting an informed and inflected view.

Clinton said that while she was “far ahead of him the popular vote,” she would not call on Sanders to drop out of the nominating race and that she was “for a good, tough, contest.”

“I’m going to run my campaign I’m going to make my case,” Clinton said. “I’m going to keep working. I do believe that we cannot let Donald Trump’s comments, his attacks” go unanswered.

Reader callout: do you feel disenfranchised?

Both parties’ nominating contests have been split by controversies over delegate selection and the feeling that the will of the voters is not wholly reflected in the shape of the race.

Do you feel disenfranchised by the delegate system as it currently exists for the Democratic and Republican parties? Tell us about it, by filling out this form. A selection of responses will be featured in our coverage of the topic later this week.

A retired White House gardener is selling Hillary Clinton’s 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which he bought at an auction for the residence’s workers and has been sitting in his Pennsylvania garage for years, the AP reports:

Mike Lawn, who worked at the White House for nearly three decades, bought the car in 2000 to give to his daughter when she turned 16, but she wouldn’t drive it.

“She said it looked like an old lady’s car,” Lawn told The Evening Sun newspaper. “She didn’t know why it had cranks in the windows.”

Gettysburg, Pa. resident Mike Lawn, retired White House gardener, holds up the title to Hillary Clinton’s 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass, with Clinton’s signature.
Gettysburg, Pa. resident Mike Lawn, retired White House gardener, holds up the title to Hillary Clinton’s 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass, with Clinton’s signature. Photograph: Clare Becker/AP

The four-door sedan, complete with 1990 “Clinton for Governor” sticker on the back windshield and Arkansas license plates, has been hardly used over the last 16 years, with just over 32,000 miles on it.

Read the full piece here.

The Daily Beast zeroes in on at least five get-out-the-vote videos that Ivanka Trump, who failed to register for the GOP primary, made on behalf of her father.

“Hi, Iowa,” she said with a cute wave in a Youtube video published Jan. 30 that clocked more than 100,000 views. “I’m Ivanka Trump, and I am really excited to tell you how to caucus for my father, Donald J. Trump, on February 1.”

She then explained—in small words and short sentences—how Iowans could vote for Trump in the first contest of the cycle.

Donald Trump has posted video of an angry supporter in Colorado burning what he says is his Republican party registration form, after all the state’s delegates went to Ted Cruz:

The Bernie Sanders campaign has produced a new anti-fracking ad, touching on what has been a central issue for some upstate New York voters before the practice was banned last year. Fracking refers to the hydraulic fracturing of rock for gas and oil extraction. The practice is tied to unnatural seismic activity and has prompted pollution concerns.

The ad takes a swipe at Clinton, though not by name. “Washington politicians protect oil companies,” it asserts. Sanders is the only candidate who opposes fracking everywhere, it says.

“He can’t be bought by them because he’s funded by you,” it concludes.

Updated

Americans pick Clinton to 'make America great' – poll

Asked in an AP-GfK poll whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would be best at “making America great,” more Americans picked Clinton, the news agency reports:

Clinton’s edge over Trump on the issues spans foreign and domestic policy.

She holds a significant advantage on handling immigration, health care, the U.S. image abroad, filling Supreme Court vacancies, international trade and working with Congress. Her biggest advantage is on handling gender equality issues, with 55 percent of Americans trusting her and just 12 percent backing Trump.

Who might make America most great?
Who might make America most great? Photograph: Photo Desk/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton has a slimmer lead over Trump on which candidate is trusted to protect the country, with 37 percent backing the Democrat and 31 percent backing the Republican. The margin is similar when Americans were asked who they trusted to handle the threat posed by the Islamic State group.

Much of Trump’s appeal with voters has rested on his broad pledge to “make America great again.” But when asked which candidate they trusted more to make the country great, 33 percent of Americans picked Clinton and 28 percent backed Trump.

Read the full piece here.

Politico’s Kyle Cheney points out that Trump, in a previous incarnation, used to razz Rick Santorum’s “inept” campaign for its weak delegates game, and to wave the party rulebook for selecting a nominee:

Walker passes hat to pay down debt

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he’s “thrifty” and is offering T-shirts for craft projects while asking donors to help pay off the $1.2 million debt from his short-lived presidential campaign, writes the AP:

The Republican sent an email to donors Sunday saying, “if there is one thing the American people learned about me during our presidential campaign, it is that I am thrifty.” He cites his use of coupons and shopping at sales racks.

Stumping for Cruz earlier this month.
Stumping for Cruz earlier this month. Photograph: Nam Y. Huh/AP

The email doesn’t mention more than $90,000 a day was spent on his 70-day presidential run.

Walker’s email says anyone who donates $45 will receive a campaign T-shirt, but size and color requests won’t be honored because of a lack of resources.

Walker says the shirts can be framed or used for “crafty things” like a pillow or bag.

Saturday saw a victory for Bernie Sanders in caucuses in Wyoming – but he split the delegates evenly with rival Hillary Clinton, reported Dan Roberts and Lauren Gambino:

The Vermont senator finished 12 points ahead of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton with 56%-44% of the vote in Wyoming, after a caucus that underlined his continued challenge to her among white voters drawn to his more radical economic platform.

The eventual margin of victory was slimmer than some pundits had anticipatedand fell short of his recent 58.9%-to-40.4% win in neighbouring Colorado.

Eight months old but knows the score.
Eight months old but knows the score. Photograph: Mel Evans/AP

Nonetheless, it represented a convincing victory for a 74-year-old democratic socialist in one of the most conservative states the country.

In 2008, Barack Obama defeated Clinton in Wyoming by 61% to 38%, but fewer than a fifth of registered voters in the state are Democrats. Sanders has tended to fare better than Clinton in states using the caucus system rather than larger primary elections.

Here’s a peek at team Bernie Sanders in New York, as campaign operations unfolded this weekend:

Trump loses delegate fights in multiple states

Donald Trump has been pretty good at winning Republican votes, but in the willfully complicated game of capturing delegates whose loyalty at the national convention he can count on, the frontrunner has shown less proficiency.

Trump’s troubles first emerged last month in Louisiana, where it appears that Ted Cruz will have a 10-delegate lead despite Trump’s narrow victory in the state’s primary.

The Republican state convention on Saturday, where Cruz snapped up the final 13 delegates up for grabs.
The Republican state convention on Saturday, where Cruz snapped up the final 13 delegates up for grabs. Photograph: Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images

Now Trump, in one weekend, has lost delegates battles in at least five and possibly six states.

If this tale of seemingly shifting delegates is confusing, there’s good reason: each state has its own set of rules for electing delegates, who participate in a nominating process that is itself defined by complicated rules that can change. Sound rigged? Trump thinks so:

A look at where and how Trump lost this weekend sheds light on some of the complexities of the process.

In Iowa, Cruz earned almost every delegate for grabs in the state’s four congressional district conventions. The Trump campaign had only urged supporters to attend the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on 1 February and had made no attempt to encourage Trump supporters to be involved in electing delegates.

In Colorado, there was never a statewide Republican vote to determine a presidential preference, although there was a vote to elect delegates to a state convention where some national delegates would be elected. The state convention happened at the weekend, and Trump lost the fight for all 13 delegates at stake.

In South Carolina, Republicans appeared to be selecting more national delegates loyal to Cruz than to Trump, despite Trump’s 10-point victory in the state’s primary in February. The delegates are required to vote Trump in a first round of voting at the national convention – but in a second round, should one be required, and thereafter the delegates may vote for whomever they wish.

In Virginia, Cruz “edged out Trump in the convention in Virginia’s ninth congressional district,” reported Ben Jacobs. Cruz won two delegates to Trump’s one in an area where Trump won 47% of the vote in the state’s 1 March primary. The delegates would be bound in a first round of voting at the national convention but not thereafter.

Indiana, where the Republican party machine has been loath to accept Trump, began selecting delegates from congressional districts before the state’s 3 May primary. As in South Carolina, the delegates have an anti-Trump bent, Time reported.

In Michigan, where Republicans held their state convention on Saturday, Trump and Ohio governor John Kasich were able to combine to win key slots on the rules committee and credentials committee and elect all the delegates they earned in the state’s March primary. But Cruz’s campaign “believes they have installed loyalists in about five delegate slots among the 25 delegates pledged to Trump,” the Time report said.

Updated

2013: long ago.

Trump kids fail to register to vote

“They feel very, very, guilty,” Donald Trump said of his two children, Ivanka and Eric, who are New York residents but who failed to register to vote in time for the state’s 19 April primary.

Does the failure of the Trump children to register to vote in his home state bespeak a bigger problem with his campaign’s get-out-the-vote efforts?

Trump is sailing as the frontrunner in New York, but he needs every vote he can muster if he is to cross the 50% mark statewide and in each congressional district. Any candidate who crosses that threshold gets all the delegates at stake. If no candidate crosses the threshold, the delegates are awarded proportionally.

Two out of three children in this 2014 picture failed to register to vote in New York state. Donald Jr, next to the thumbs up, is a registered voter.
Two out of three children in this 2014 picture failed to register to vote in New York state. Donald Jr, next to the thumbs up, is a registered voter. Photograph: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for GREY GOOSE

Here’s Trump’s phone interview with Fox on the topic, re-posted from the intro:

Updated

Clinton pitch to NY voters: 'tough enough to stop Trump'

The Hillary Clinton camp released an ad Monday making the case that Clinton is the only candidate “tough enough” to defeat Donald Trump in a general election match-up.

The ad, which will run in New York ahead of next week’s primary, calls out Trump for saying that women who have abortions should be “punished”. (He later sought to retract the remark.) The ad also hits Trump for labeling Mexicans as rapists and for calling for a ban on Muslims seeking to enter the US.

“Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other,” Clinton says in the ad, titled Stronger Together. “It’s wrong and it goes against everything New York and America stands for.”

The ad ends: “With so much at stake, she’s the one tough enough to stop Trump.”

Bernie Sanders also has a new ad, Bolder, referencing Ted Cruz’s sneer about Trump’s “New York values”.

Sanders, the ad says, is the “Brooklyn-born, native son” candidate who embodies “values, forged in New York”.

Sanders has argued that polls consistently show him defeating Trump in a potential general election match-up by a more decisive margin than Clinton, although some polling experts have said its too early to judge a general election matchup.

Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. The race is on for New York: both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have stops planned in Albany, the capital, today, while Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak about gun violence on Long Island. Ohio governor John Kasich has two town hall events upstate.

Ted Cruz, meanwhile, has slipped away to the west coast for events in Orange County and San Diego, well in advance of the California primary on 7 June.

Clinton is out with a new ad targeting New Yorkers and pitching herself as the only Democrat strong enough to take on Trump. Our Lauren Gambino will take a look shortly.

Trump decided at the weekend that politics is a dirty, corrupt business. That was after he lost delegate fights in five states. In some cases, such as in South Carolina, the state party chose some delegates likely to abandon Trump after the first round of voting at the national convention in July, should a second round be required, in spite of Trump’s 10-point win in the state’s February primary.

“We’ve got a corrupt system, its not right,” Trump said at a rally in Rochester, New York on Sunday. “We’re supposed to be a democracy. We’re supposed to be you vote and the vote means something ... and we’ve got to do something about it.”

Trump’s critics blame his delegate slippage on what they say is his campaign’s disorganization and ignorance of party rules. Trump revealed on Monday that two of his three children who live in New York did not know the rules for registering to vote in the state and so will not cast ballots in the 19 April primary.

Donald Jr is the new favorite?

CNN, meanwhile, announced three town halls on consecutive nights this week, with the Republican candidates and their families:

On Monday 11 April, Ohio governor John Kasich will be joined by his wife Karen and daughters Reese and Emma. On Tuesday, Trump will be joined by his wife Melania and children Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. On Wednesday, Texas senator Ted Cruz will be joined by his wife Heidi. Each candidate and his family will speak with Anderson Cooper and take questions from an audience of registered Republican voters.

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