Today in #Campaign2016
You know what they say about Super Tuesday: It always leads to a Too-Long Wednesday. Between the inevitable thinning of the post-primary election field to increased backbiting among the remaining candidates, today was an eventful day on the campaign trail. Here are some of the highlights:
- Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who briefly surged to the top of national polling last fall before a series of fumbles on foreign policy sent him to the bottom tier of Republican presidential candidates, declared that he will not attend tomorrow’s Republican presidential debate in Detroit. Carson followed up with a statement that he does “not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results,” and will be giving a speech regarding his political future on Friday. We all know what that means...
- Donald Trump’s oldest son gave a 20-minute interview to a radio host who thinks that slavery is “the best thing to ever happen” to African Americans, although he has since disavowed the interview. His father, meanwhile, was slammed on the floor of the US Senate as a “Frankenstein” by Harry Reid. (Technically, in Reid’s analogy, the Republican Party would be Frankenstein and Trump would be Frankenstein’s monster.)
- Although Hillary Clinton may have walloped foe Bernie Sanders in the Super Tuesday nominating contests, Sanders far outran Clinton in fundraising. Sanders raised a smashing $42m in February, his campaign said, including $6m just on Monday alone, while the Clinton campaign raised just over 70% of that figure.
- #HotDebateGuy endorsed John Kasich, in what was the most exciting news of the day.
- Trump revealed his health care policy, largely composed of the same initiatives that other Republicans have floated in the past, most notably the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and turning Medicaid into a block-grant to the states.
That’s it for today - check in with us tomorrow, the day after and every day as we report minute-by-minute updates from the campaign trail.
Until then...
The Department of Justice has granted immunity to a State Department employee who worked on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private email server, according to the Washington Post, which quoted an official with the DOJ in saying that the employee had agreed to work in cooperation with the FBI in exchange for immunity from criminal charges.
The FBI is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information on Clinton’s server, which the employee, Bryan Pagliano, had set up in the then-secretary of state’s New York home in 2009.
Although the source told the Washington Post that the FBI will likely interview Clinton and her staff about the server and its content, the DOJ has not moved to convene a grand jury to subpoena testimony or documents from the presidential candidate.
Donald Trump Jr., the son of the eponymous Republican billionaire frontrunner, is disavowing a radio interview he had with radio host James Edwards, the white nationalist host of a show called Political Cesspool who has said that slavery is the “greatest thing to have ever happened” to African Americans.
Edwards has been touting an “exclusive” 20-minute interview with the candidate’s son all week.
In an interview with Bloomberg Politics, Trump Jr. said that Edwards has interloped on another radio interview he had been conducting with a different host. “He was brought into the interview without my knowledge,” Trump Jr. said. “Had I known, I would have obviously never done an interview with him.”
Trump Jr.’s father has been roundly criticized this week for waffling on disavowing the support of David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Donald Trump may have alienated Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, by saying that if they don’t get along “he’s going to have to pay a big price,” but in a new video dropped on Facebook, the candidate is taking a wider tack.
“I would love to see the Republican party and everyone get together and unify. When we unify there is nobody who is going to beat us!” Trump wrote below the video, in which he says that dealing with Congress will entail physically corralling the legislative body.
“You have to get ‘em all into a room, you have to say, ‘fellas, let’s go, it’s for the good of the people.’ We wanna take care of the people - it’s been a long time, it’s been decades since this has happened.”
“We’re going to take care of the people,” Trump elaborates. “We’re going to get things done, we’re gonna reduce your taxes, we’re going to get the economy going, and, of course, military and all of the other things.”
Updated
“Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States.”
The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times wasted no time in crafting the lede of its latest staff editorial, joining the growing chorus of newspapers in denouncing the billionaire frontrunner for the Republican nomination and his campaign for the presidency.
Much of the editorial covers now-familiar territory - Trump mocked a disabled person at a campaign rally, Trump vowed to reinstate waterboarding, Trump intends to deport 11 million people, Trump would bar all Muslims from entering the United States until further notice.
But the kicker graph takes a wider look at Trump’s candidacy:
“Trump’s popularity may simply be the product of a toxic brew of a polarized two-party system and nihilistic tactics on the campaign trail and Capitol Hill (such as shutting down the government and threatening to default on U.S. debts) that, either by design or in effect, have convinced many Americans that their government is irreparably broken and corrupt. But Trump isn’t the answer - he’s just a cynical manipulator playing on the very real frustrations of voters tired of a government that takes big, difficult problems and makes them intractable. Those voters still have time to choose a better standard-bearer.”
Donald Trump releases his health care plan
Billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has released his health care platform, which the candidate claims “will broaden healthcare access, make healthcare more affordable and improve the quality of the care available to all Americans.”
In a seven-point list of initiatives, Trump calls for, in order: the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, as well as the individual mandate that requires Americans to purchase health insurance; allow the sale of insurance across state lines by repealing the McCarran–Ferguson Act; allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their taxes, as businesses can; allow all individuals to use Health Savings Accounts, rather than just those with high-deductible health plan; require “price transparency” from healthcare providers, including doctors, clinics and hospitals; block-grant Medicaid to the states, decentralizing the social welfare program from federal control; and “remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products,” weakening control of the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA over drug testing, production and approval.
“The reforms outlined above will lower healthcare costs for all Americans,” Trump says in a statement released by his campaign, alluding to “other reforms that might be considered if they serve to lower costs, remove uncertainty and provide financial security for all Americans.”
Trump also points to other areas, both administrative and legislative, wherein a Trump administration would move to lower health care costs and expand access to insurance and care. “Enforcing immigration laws, eliminating fraud and waste and energizing our economy will relieve the economic pressures felt by every American,” Trump said, calling his immigration proposals part of “the moral responsibility of a nation’s government.”
“Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually,” Trump writes. “If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments.”
“To reform healthcare in America, we need a president who has the leadership skills, will and courage to engage the American people and convince Congress to do what is best for the country,” Trump concludes. “These straightforward reforms, along with many others I have proposed throughout my campaign, will ensure that together we will Make America Great Again.
Updated
An ebullient Hillary Clinton declared Her sting of Super Tuesday victories “one of the history books,” during a rally in NYC on Wednesday.
Though Clinton stopped short of claiming the Democratic nomination, it was clear her focus was the general election battle ahead.
“If we do what we must in this election to bring out a positive message of what we can do together, who we stand for and what we stand for, we will go into the November election with the wind at our back,” Clinton told the crowd, tens of thousands deep, at the Javits Center in New York. “And if I’m so fortunate to be your president, we will work together to make it true.”
During her remarks, Clinton reprised her call for more “love and kindness”, and promising to “wage a campaign that is about the future”.
Later this week, Clinton said she will lay out a jobs agenda during a stop in Detroit, one of the cities hit hardest by the decline of the auto industry.
“Don’t let anybody ever tell you we can’t make things in America anymore,” she said. She will also travel to Flint, Michigan, for CNN’s Democratic Debate on Sunday. Michigan votes on Tuesday.
Clinton’s remarks were preceded by a string of introduction from local union leaders and members, as well as from NYC mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The speakers focused on general election, one in which Clinton is the inexorable nominee. One union representative painted the presidential race as a choice between “hate and hope”.
Though Clinton made oblique references to Donald Trump, she let her surrogates call him out by name. Governor Cuomo mimicked Trump, a constituent of his, during his introduction.
“Don’t worry, the wall is a beautiful wall!” he said, changing his voice to imitate Trump.
The New York Democratic primary, with 247 delegates up for grabs, will be held on 19 April. The few polls that have been done here show Clinton, who served as the state’s senator for eight years, maintaining a sizable lead over Sanders.
Marco Rubio arrived at the West Miami city commission at roughly 9:30 a.m. this morning to cast his ballot for the Florida primary’s early voting. Wearing a suit with light blue collar shirt and red tie, Rubio was accompanied by his wife Jeanette, who also voted.
Waiting for Rubio was Rebeca Sosa, his longtime friend who was the local mayor when he ran for the West Miami city commission in 1998. He greeted her with a big hug and held her hand while exchanging a few words that were inaudible to the pool.
Rubio did not say anything to the pool as he walked into the polling center, and the pool was not allowed to go inside. The station manager aggressively kept the press at bay, saying there were other voters who needed to get in and out of the building in peace. The pool watched from the doorway and could not see Rubio actually cast his ballot - although as he was filling out his paperwork it became clear he did not have his ID and a staffer rushed Rubio’s wallet over to him to quickly resolve the matter.
As he returned to his car, Rubio stopped to field two quick questions from local cameras.
Q: Who’d you vote for?
“I voted for Marco Rubio - what an incredible honor to be able to vote for myself today here in the place where I started my career in West Miami. Literally standing outside in the sidewalk is where my career began in elected office so it’s an incredible privilege and honor to be able to vote for myself for president just a few blocks from where I grew up.”
With that, Rubio was ushered to his car after a stop that lasted a total of 15 minutes.
Ohio governor John Kasich has picked up a crucial endorsement from Gregory Caruso.
You know - #HotDebateGuy.
The real winner of tonight's debate: the beefcake over Jake Tapper's shoulder. pic.twitter.com/K8uY7UtAk4
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) September 17, 2015
Caruso became a social media sensation after being seated over Jake Tapper’s right shoulder during a presidential debate on CNN, largely due to his hotness. At the time, the self-described fan of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan said that he was undecided in the Republican presidential contest, but the rise of Donald Trump as the party’s frontrunner has pushed Caruso into Kasich’s corner.
“John Kasich has proven, time and time again, that he is the only true presidential candidate among the Republican nominees,” Caruso writes for Time, which has taken to publishing the endorsements of whomever catches the Internet’s fancy for a fleeting moment. “The Ohio governor is the most experienced, and he is the only adult in the pack. He also has the best chance to beat Hillary Clinton.”
After calling Trump “a man of empty promises” and lambasting Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz for following in his vulgarian footsteps, Caruso calls Kasich the candidate who “represents the party of the future.”
The Kasich campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Caruso did not respond to our Facebook friend request.
It’s time for some cold hard truths in this presidential election, writes the Guardian’s Richard Wolffe.
Here’s an ice cold one: winning a landslide victory in the mighty state of Vermont is not a foundation for success. Especially if Vermont has been your home since the Jurassic age of politics.
Here’s another: if you hold a victory rally before most of the states have been called, you’re not fooling anyone. When your victorious supporters have emptied the hall before the TV pundits have barely warmed up, you’re actually throwing a consolation party.
Bernie Sanders has built his impressively insurgent campaign on the premise that he’s a truth-teller. On Tuesday night, he repeated the commonplace belief that climate change is not a hoax (as many Republicans argue), and that the science is clear. On that basis, it’s only a matter of time before Sanders stops perpetuating his own hoax and looks at the data of the delegate count.
Texas senator Ted Cruz may have taken the state on Super Tuesday, but Trump’s wins along the Texan border prove he hasn’t been shunned by Latinos despite controversial immigration plan, writes the Guardian’s Tom Dart in Laredo, Texas:
A candidate who has described Mexicans as rapists and criminals and whose core immigration plan is to make Mexico pay for a giant wall ought not to prosper on the southern border. Yet Donald Trump was embraced on Tuesday by voters in America’s most Hispanic city.
Trump won almost 35% of the Republican primary vote in Webb County, where Laredo is the county seat, comfortably ahead of Marco Rubio (28.4%) and Ted Cruz (28.2%), the Hispanic senator from Texas who finished first in the state overall.
Despite the limited GOP voter pool, it is notable – and jarring – that Trump should not only triumph here but generally perform better in border counties than in the Texas interior, where Cruz was in command. After some small-scale polling at the Nevada caucuses, Tuesday’s outcome provided harder evidence that Trump has not been shunned by conservative Latinos. He may even have inspired them into action: he won more votes in Webb County than were cast in its primary in total in 2012.
Clinton’s Super Tuesday successes – notably with African Americans in the south – risk reducing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential run to a protest movement, reports the Guardian’s Dan Roberts from Burlington, Vermont:
Bernie Sanders came down to earth with a bump. In fact, the elderly 737 charter jet that has carried him – and the hopes of a generation of liberal Americans – through a surprisingly gripping Democratic nomination race hit the tarmac on Saturday night with a sickening crunch.
Hard landings are as common in politics as aviation. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Tonight, we lost,” the senator told reporters at the foot of the aircraft steps in Minnesota shortly after learning of his heavy defeat to Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina primary that night.
Yet the scale of that loss – a 74-to-26-point drubbing that featured double the margin by which Sanders had beaten Clinton in New Hampshire on 9 February – left his campaign temporarily speechless.
Hillary Clinton held off an insurgent Bernie Sanders in last night’s Super Tuesday nominating contests, but how did she perform against... Hillary Clinton?
The data geniuses here at the Guardian have taken a peek at how the former secretary of state performed in comparison to her own campaign eight years ago - and like Virginia Slims, she’s come a long way, baby.
With the noted exception of Sanders’ native Vermont and adjacent Massachusetts, Clinton performed much better in 2016 than she did in 2008 in some of the most crucial Super Tuesday states, particularly in Georgia, where the one-time New York senator did not have to compete with Barack Obama for the support of the state’s large African-American population.
Updated
Where will Ben Carson's supporters go now?
Ben Carson’s slightly confusing message to his supporters has been interpreted by many as a signal from the retired neurosurgeon that he will soon drop out of the race.
At a national level, Carson isn’t quite so irrelevant as his detractors made him out to be - polling averages put him at 9%, slightly ahead of John Kasich and less than 10 percentage points behind Marco Rubio. The problem for Carson is geography; there aren’t any states where the candidate’s support is concentrated enough to boost his delegate numbers (which currently stand at a paltry 8 compared to Trump’s 319).
The important question going forward is what Carson supporters will do if he has dropped out. It’s hard to know because very few polls ask respondents about their second-choice candidates, and those that do rarely have cross tabs to really understand where voters might shift from and to. But they still offer some interesting clues.
The most recent poll to ask Republican voters about their second choices was conducted by Fox News between 15 and 17 February 2016. It found that only 11% of Republicans chose Donald Trump as their second choice (which supports various theories that Trump is reaching his ceiling of support) while Rubio was second choice for 27% of voters and Ted Cruz was the plan B of 20%. Given that Carson’s support base is wealthier and more likely to have a college degree, it’s much more likely that they’ll shift towards Rubio or possibly even Cruz than becoming Trump voters. Still though, the fact remains that there aren’t enough Carson supporters to make an immediate difference to either the Cruz or Rubio campaigns.
We’re old enough to remember when Ben Carson was the cause of a massive candidate pile-up on a debate stage in New Hampshire.
Ben Carson was the first to falter, resulting in him awkwardly lingering at the side of the set, where he was soon joined by Donald Trump. Meanwhile, John Kasich was nearly forgotten.
Tuesday was anything but super for Marco Rubio. Although the Florida senator won his first state in the Minnesota caucus, just 38 delegates were available there - and in more important states like Alabama and Texas, Rubio failed to meet the 20% threshold he needed to get any delegates at all.
So, is it all over for Rubio? Probably.
To get the 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination, Rubio would need to average around 50% in the remaining primaries. Polling suggests he’s nowhere near that. Take Florida for example where 99 delegates are available in a winner-takes-all voting system: Real Clear Politics polling averages currently suggest that Trump has a 20 percentage point lead on Rubio in Florida. It’s a similar story in Ohio where 66 delegates are available and where polls show Rubio getting just 13% of support.
Technically, Rubio’s not done yet - but his chances of being nominee are now so slim you need a calculator and pair of binoculars to see them.
Updated
Less than 24 hours ago, Carson called on his rivals to join him this week for a meeting about “civility” in the presidential race. What changed? He made a downbeat appearance before supporters at the end of Super Tuesday, blaming “the system” for marginalizing his candidacy but insisting that he would stay in the race on behalf of “millions of supporters on social media.”
At the weekend, Carson accused Trump of buying votes, and last week he made news for asserting that Barack Obama was “raised white.”
Carson: 'I do not see a political path forward'
The retired neurosurgeon remains “deeply committed to my home nation, America,” his statement says.
Speech tomorrow at the conservative political action conference.
Carson's statement to supporters: pic.twitter.com/LfrILLN7IY
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 2, 2016
Updated
A Republican speaker past and the Republican speaker present are hosting a live chat on Facebook. Right now Newt Gingrich is expounding on the dynamic between committee chairmen and the House leadership. Gingrich praises Paul Ryan for shifting the way the House does business in the last four months. Will Ryan get a word in edgewise?
Live now on @Facebook with @SpeakerRyan. Ask us questions here: https://t.co/MfZ3A4tjn5 pic.twitter.com/WCmElCk8U9
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 2, 2016
It would be interesting to hear these gentlemen discuss Trump, whom Gingrich has singled out for praise and who said last night that as president he would get along with Ryan or Ryan would “pay.”
Carson will not attend Thursday debate – report
The Washington Post reports that Ben Carson will not attend tomorrow’s Republican presidential debate in Detroit – and that Carson seems to have new thinking on his viability since saying last night that he “will remain” in the race:
SCOOP: BEN CARSON will tell supporters today that he does not see “path forward,” will not attend Thursday debate https://t.co/gvpB5pkAoe
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 2, 2016
From the report:
Carson, however, will not formally suspend his campaign. Instead, the Republicans said, he has decided to make a speech about his political future on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, just outside of Washington.
Tantalizing. Dana Bash reported on CNN last night that the GOP was trying to get Carson out of the presidential race and into the Florida senate race. Did it work?
Carson says he doesn't see a path to the nomination but in fairness his eyes were probably closed when he said that
— DENALI (@timothypmurphy) March 2, 2016
Updated
The Ted Cruz campaign reports a personal-best fundraising month for February of $12m. Nowhere near Sanders numbers but enough to keep the lights on:
Thank you! Biggest fundraising month for @teamtedcruz! Nearly 12M for the month of February. 225K donations for an ave of $52 per donation.
— Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) March 2, 2016
OK, calm down with the Romney speculation...
Romney is not getting in this race, sources telling us @abc
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) March 2, 2016
Source close to Romney on his speech tomorrow: "This is not an endorsement or announcement of candidacy."
— Matt Viser (@mviser) March 2, 2016
Romney to deliver speech on 2016 race
What does the 2012 Republican nominee have to say? He’s spent the last week slamming Trump on Twitter. Now the Romney shop has e-blasted reporters to announce the speech.
NEW: @MittRomney will deliver speech on "state of the 2016 presidential race" tomorrow morning in Utah... #decision2016
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) March 2, 2016
Remember when Romney dropped out of the race because the institutional force of Jeb Bush’s campaign was too intimidating? Here’s a sample of Romney’s view of Trump:
A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 29, 2016
Updated
Sanders wallops Clinton in Feburary fundraising
Once again, underdog Bernie Sanders has far outrun Hillary Clinton in fundraising. Sanders raised a smashing $42m in February, his campaign said earlier this week.
The Clinton camp has just released its February number and it’s just over 70% of the Sanders figure:
The Latest: Clinton camp says it raised $30 million in Feb., less than Sanders: https://t.co/TXlfD0ZcAO
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) March 2, 2016
Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican whose approval rating has variously been described as “amazing” and “transcendent,” has declared that he will never vote for Donald Trump.
Massachusetts GOP Gov Baker on Trump: “I’m not going to vote for him in November.”
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 2, 2016
Senator Marco Rubio has voted early in Florida:
This morning Jeanette & I early voted in West Miami. Find your early voting location here: https://t.co/x1msozQa8F pic.twitter.com/TiqZPFtvxz
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 2, 2016
Rubio cast his ballot for Florida primary at West Miami City Hall, where his career in elected office began as city commissioner.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) March 2, 2016
Some Florida counties opened polling sites for early voting last week and the remainder open for early voting on 5 March aka Saturday. More than 300,000 Republicans have already submitted absentee ballots in Florida, where Real Clear Politics polling averages have Trump up by about 20. Rubio has been performing well with voters who tell exit pollsters that they decided late.
From the comments / grab bag
What’s buzzing in the comments? Here’s what:
Upset at the Kentucky-Trump-rally footage:
Truly horrible, and given the kind of energy that Trump's shenanigans have released—energy that the GOP has been tapping into with dog-whistles for years—I fear we can expect to see more of this kind of thing.
That energy has gone from covert to overt, and Trump is the one who uncorked that bottle. There's no getting it back it, either.
Awful.
All aboard the Bernie train
Hillary supporters sorely underestimate the animosity toward her on a gut level, never mind the fact that the masses are demanding regime change.
Wake UP!! Get on the Sanders train before it's too late!...
Looking at the polls, Trump has it in the bag.
But Sanders has more than a fighting chance. His weak spot is behind him. He's still standing, with a huge pile of money, favorable demographics and polls.
Last night no one expected him to win more than 2 states. He won 4 and almost tied in Massachusetts.
Colorado was really important state to win. It could be a bellwether.
Trump as liberal savior
Trump is the liberal savior!
Single-handedly ripping the GOP into pieces while killing its chances at the White House as well as wrecking it's votes for the house and senate.This could mark an unprecedented 16 year run of Dem terms (2 Obama, 2 Clinton).
Enjoy this my republican friends, you created this monster with your tea party hysterics and Sarah Palin foolishness back in 2008!
Thanks for joining in and let us know what else you’d like to see featured here.
Updated
In need of some comic relief? The folks at Bad Lip Reading have taken on Ted Cruz. “This whole nation’s like a pork pie. Juicy America.”
“Donald Trump’s oldest son gave a 20-minute interview last weekend to a radio host who thinks that slavery is the best thing to ever happen to African Americans,” Politico reports:
James Edwards — who is the host of a radio show called “Political Cesspool” that has hosted leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis—spoke with Donald Trump Jr. and will air the show on Saturday according to a blog post released Tuesday.
Edwards once wrote that that slavery was great for African Americans but bad for whites.
Read the full piece here.
I'm old enough to remember when dog whistles weren't so loud https://t.co/muSMtpFXxW
— Mark Gongloff (@markgongloff) March 2, 2016
It's possible Trump himself is not a virulent racist. But there is no question he relies upon racism to drive up his vote totals.
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) March 2, 2016
Can someone redo this with the Trump logo? pic.twitter.com/lnK8Pyf1DI
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 2, 2016
Updated
A candidate who has described Mexicans as rapists and criminals and whose core immigration plan is to make Mexico pay for a giant wall ought not to prosper on the southern border, writes the Guardian’s Tom Dart:
Yet Donald Trump was embraced on Tuesday by voters in America’s most Hispanic city.
Trump won almost 35% of the Republican primary vote in Webb County, where Laredo is the county seat, comfortably ahead of Marco Rubio (28.4%) and Ted Cruz (28.2%), the Hispanic senator from Texas who finished first in the state overall.
Read the full piece here:
Tom continues:
Not that it takes a lot of GOP votes to win here – only 4,089 were cast in the race, compared with nearly 26,000 among Democrats. Laredo is 96% Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2010 census, and it is hugely Democratic: Barack Obama won 77% of the vote in the county in 2012. In an unusual spurt of eloquence, twice-failed GOP presidential hopeful and former Texas governor Rick Perry once called the border the blueberry in the tomato soup: a speck of nutrition for Democrats in a Republican-dominated state.
Updated
Young black woman shoved around at Trump rally in Kentucky
White men roughed up a young black woman – reportedly a protester – who attended a vicious Donald Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday night. Local news video (skip to 1:24) of the rally captures Trump urging supporters to “go get ’em” – apparently a reference to the protesters – as a crowd of white people shoves around a few black protesters, with at least one in the mob smiling and filming on his camera.
Local WLKY news reports:
Many times the crowd cheered Trump, but he was also interrupted by protesters several times. Those protesters were led out of the convention center.
At one point, a woman could be seen being pushed by people in the crowd until she left.
WLKY spoke with the woman on the phone Tuesday night. She said she is doing well. She is just trying to process everything.
Let’s process this together:
Trump. 2016. America. Watch. pic.twitter.com/pZe51tQDqR
— deray mckesson (@deray) March 2, 2016
The local Courier-Journal said the rally was “tinged with excitement and anger”:
Trump was interrupted more than half a dozen times by protesters raising signs and shouting.
“Get ‘em the hell out of here. Get out. Get out,” Trump yelled into the microphone as his security team and police officers led people away and the crowd cheered loudly.
“Out. Out. Out.”
We don’t know what exactly to make of this detail way down in the Courier-Journal coverage:
One man wearing a makeshift hood was led out by police.
See, there are tons of "quietly" racist folks who now have a way to push their views -- by voting for Trump.
— deray mckesson (@deray) March 2, 2016
...and by joining a mob to assault African Americans while being apparently goaded on by the man himself.
Updated
Republican race: not sewn up
How strong was Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday? He did not put the race away – his delegate gains on the field weren’t as impressive as the list of seven states he won, and he is only 27% of the way to the winning mark of 1,237 delegates.
If the current dynamics of the race hold – and with Rubio and Cruz (and Kasich) sticking in, what changes them? – Trump marches to the nomination. He’s just a long way from being there now.
So the provisional share of all delegates each candidate has won so far is:
— Taniel (@Taniel) March 2, 2016
Trump 46%, Cruz 32%, Rubio 16%, Kasich 4%, Carson 1%, other 1%
Good news for Trump's rivals: Math is there to stop Trump
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) March 2, 2016
Bad news: Field isn't winnowing and clock is ticking https://t.co/pQA3InQsuR
The numbers above are backed up by other independent counts:
Here's a rough breakdown of where we are in the delegate race (w/ the caveat that ST delegates aren't set in stone). pic.twitter.com/UeIFK3FYdG
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 2, 2016
And FiveThirtyEight points out that Trump is steadily winning about 35% of the vote – instead of growing his support. That could signal the actual presence of a ceiling of support for Trump which analysts have long chattered about.
So Trump got over 40% in two states? Lost 4 states. Nearly lost 3 more. Yes, folks it's clear this is over. Oh wait.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) March 2, 2016
So if my math is correct, Trump won 34.4 percent of the total vote tonight. Doing an average of his vote across states, he won 34.5 percent.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) March 2, 2016
And hilariously enough, Trump's avg vote in the first four contests was? 34.5%. So his average state tonight matched his avg in 1st four.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) March 2, 2016
Trump, of course, has repeatedly overthrown expectations that he could not climb higher. And with the current fractured field, 35% is still plenty to win and keep winning.
Plan A: Sit tight, wait for Trump to collapse. Plan B: Clear field so Marco can beat Trump 1-on-1. Plan C: Keep field big, deny Trump 1,237.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 2, 2016
Updated
A hometown hero, but not just in Vermont – Sanders also won Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota, and he came very close in Massachusetts. With all states awarding Democratic delegates proportionately, Sanders stays in the race – without really showing signs of being able to expand his appeal in a way that could spell national success. Not yet at least.
Per our math, Sanders would need to win 59% of remaining delegates to catch Clinton -- under a proportional system https://t.co/pQA3Io83Tr
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) March 2, 2016
Local coverage of "Hometown Hero" Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/1M59PA8ooq
— John Wagner (@WPJohnWagner) March 2, 2016
Share of popular vote within their party thus far:
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) March 2, 2016
Bernie Sanders: ~38%
Donald Trump: ~35%
Updated
Reid: Trump is the Republicans' Frankenstein
[Yes pedants, he means Frankenstein’s monster.]
Here’s quite a scene on the Senate floor. Minority leader Harry Reid says Republicans spent “eight years laying the ground work for the rise of Donald Trump. The reality is that Republican leaders are reaping what they’ve sown.”
“The Republican establishment acts like it is surprised by Donald Trump and his victories around the country. They feign outrage that a demagogue spewing vile... is somehow winning in a party that has spent years telling immigrants they’re not welcome in America. They act surprised that Republican voters are flocking to a birther candidate even as Republican congressional leaders continue to support a man who refuses to distance himself from the Ku Klux Klan...”
.@senatorreid on @realdonaldtrump: "It's time for Republicans to stop the Frankenstein they created." https://t.co/wtwILEbe9a
— Emmanuel Touhey (@netouhey) March 2, 2016
Trump said repeatedly last night that he disavows the support of former KKK leader David Duke.
"The Republican Party condemns racism in all its forms"
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) March 1, 2016
"Will you guys restore the Voting Rights Act?"
"Hang on my earpiece is broken"
Updated
Black voters provide big boost to Clinton
Hillary Clinton lost Oklahoma to Bernie Sanders by 10 points last night – and fell even further short of the share of the vote she got in the state back in 2008, during her losing race against Barack Obama.
But in the southern states of Virginia and Alabama, Clinton improved enormously on her 2008 performance, pointing up the power of the African American vote for her this time around and the power of the same support for Obama last time.
Last night, Clinton’s margin over Sanders among African American voters in Alabama was an amazing 92-6, and in Virginia it was 84-16.
(h/t: @kenandavis)
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. With Super Tuesday behind us, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton appear to be extremely strong contenders for their parties’ respective nominations – but the race isn’t over yet.
A large and thorough Ted Cruz win in his home state of Texas kept him in contention in the delegate race, and a couple of bonus wins in Oklahoma and Alaska will bolster his case that he is the most viable anti-Trump candidate on the landscape. (Visit our comprehensive results page here.)
Bernie Sanders won in four states, meanwhile, stopping Clinton from running away with the nomination even as he fell further and further behind in the delegate count.
The latest delegate count, as tallied by the Associated Press:
Trump has amassed 285 delegates, Ted Cruz 161, and Marco Rubio, 87. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
On the Democratic side, Clinton had at least 1,005 delegates, Sanders 373. It takes 2,383 Democratic delegates to win.
The candidate who looks to have the most difficult sell to make is Florida senator Marco Rubio, whose Minnesota win last night seems underwhelming in light of morning, who has about half the delegates Cruz does, and who failed to demonstrate that he is the preference of voters in places like Virginia, with its strong presence of the party establishment and cross-section of Republican voters as a whole.
Clinton capitalized enormously on support from African American voters, who gave her 60- to 80-point margins over Sanders throughout the south.
While the nominations aren’t cinched, it was clear on Tuesday night that the general election campaign had begun. In a victory speech, Clinton said the challenge was not to make America great again but to “make America whole again”.
“She wants to make America whole again,” Trump retorted in a speech of his own. “I’m trying to figure out what is that all about.”
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, whose constituents are asking him to resign and who has emerged as Trump’s top caddie, raised concerns on the internet last night by the look of doom on his face as he stood behind Trump during the winner’s speech.
Trump Your Enthusiasm pic.twitter.com/cPeweKwgVD
— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) March 2, 2016
Can Chris Christie hold up a copy of a newspaper so that we know the hostage video was taken recently?
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) March 2, 2016
Updated
The images of the black lady being manhandled by Trump fans are very disturbing to say the least.
One would have wished that images such as these - so common in a different era - now had been consigned to the past.
Trump has brought them back.