Head over to the Nevada Republican caucuses live blog to see if Donald Trump will win Vegas.
Updated
Now it’s time to wrap up in preparation for tonight’s Nevada caucus, head over to the new live blog to watch it all unfold.
Here’s the top stories from today:
- A federal judge ruled that Hillary Clinton aides should be questioned under oath over her personal email server.
- Top Republican officials declare they will refuse a vote and hearing on the next Supreme Court nominee by President Obama and that the country’s next president must decide who fills the spot left vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death.
- President Obama’s plan to finally come through with his election promise and shut down Guantanamo Bay was the big campaign story of the day -- with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton backing Obama, and Marco Rubio and Donald Trump declaring they’ll keep it open.
- Ben Carson advocates the use of “truth serum” for terror suspects.
Ted Cruz had to pull merchandise from his online store depicting him as a topless tattooed tough guy because its designer repeatedly made racist comments on Twitter.
LA street artist Sabo designed a poster of Cruz as “Iran’s worst nightmare,” which the Cruz campaign began selling last year.
This is a thing that's real. pic.twitter.com/FUBAa4wYTf
— Teddy Goff (@teddygoff) September 9, 2015
But after it was pointed out that Sabo repeatedly uses the n-word and other racist language on Twitter, the tattooed Cruz posters disappeared from the store.
TEAM CRUZ BENT TO THE YOUNG TURKS AND TOOK ME OFF THEIR SITE. THE HIT PIECE IS USED TO SELL SHEPARD FAIRIES SAD DESIGN FOR BERNIE SANDERS.
— unsavoryagents (@unsavoryagents) February 23, 2016
But Sabo seemed to move on quickly.
I'M SABO, A L.A. STREET ARTIST NOW OFFICIALLY SUPPORTING DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT. ;) https://t.co/941aQDMqgt pic.twitter.com/81MNgS27QX
— unsavoryagents (@unsavoryagents) February 23, 2016
Florida political consultant and longtime Trump critic Rick Wilson, who works for a Marco Rubio superPAC, goes ape on Trump (yet again):
I will never vote for Donald Trump because he’s a pro-gun control, pro-single-payer health care, pro-eminent domain, pro-abortion, and pro-statism liberal who will immediately revert to form when he’s finished selling his fauxservatism to people he patently views as rubes. I will never vote for Donald Trump, because absolutely nothing he can say or do will cover the fact he is obviously and blatantly lying every time his thin lips move and his freakishly tiny hands pound the podium.
Updated
Influential South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn said he initially resisted making an endorsement in the Democratic primary but was eventually worn down by his wife, Emily. The South Carolina Democrat endorsed Hillary Clinton last week, just days before the state’s Saturday primary.
“When your wife of 54 years says ‘I’m getting phone calls, people are talking to me in the beauty shops, they’re stopping me in the grocery stores, people want to hear from you and I want to hear from you myself,’ so I thought I’d wait for as long as I could,” said Clyburn, on a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign.
“Between my head and my heart my head was staying neutral but my heart was always for Hillary,” he said.
On the call, Clyburn also defended his decision to endorse Clinton this time around when he notably refused to make an endorsement in 2008.
Clyburn said at the time the state was working to secure a “first in the south” primary spot and he did not want to do anything that would jeopardize that opportunity. The state did secure that position, along with Nevada, which hosted the party’s caucus after Iowa and New Hampshire.
A dispatch from Lucia Graves in Columbia, South Carolina...
Many young African American voters remain undecided ahead of tonight’s town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, and Justin Graves, a 24-year-old chemistry major at the University of South Carolina, is one of them.
And in a Tuesday interview on USC campus, where the CNN event featuring Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will be held later tonight, Graves told me he doesn’t have a favorite candidate yet, though he does have one candidate he’s against; Donald Trump.
When it comes to Democrats though, it’s complicated for Graves. On the one hand he likes Clinton’s tenacity and fighting spirit, worrying Sanders hasn’t been active on issues he care about for long enough. Or as he put it of Sanders: “He just shows up out of nowhere, where as Hillary Clinton’s been around for a long time, fighting for women.”
But Graves also admires Sanders’ idealism and drive to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
“Revolution is like, you’re doing a big thing,” Graves tells me. “Are you sure you can do it? If you can do it, I’ll be impressed.” As for whether Sanders can accomplish the feat of winning Graves’ vote?
“Well, I’ve got until Saturday to decide.”
Just a little check-in ahead of tonight’s GOP Nevada caucus.
- Nevada caucuses kick off between 5-7pm PT (depending on the county). They are all finished by 9pm.
- Currently Donald Trump leads in the Nevada polls (the latest CNN/ORC poll has him winning 45% of the vote, with Marco Rubio second at 19%, while the Gravis poll shows Trump with 39% and Ted Cruz second at 23%), with Cruz and Rubio battling it out again for second place.
- On the Democrats side, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are hosting rallies in South Carolina at 6pm CT, in anticipation of Saturday’s Democratic primary.
Updated
Clinton supports closing Gitmo
Speaking of Hillary Clinton and Guantanamo Bay, she’s just released a statement backing President Obama’s pledge to shut it down and slamming its very existence.
“I support President Obama’s plan today to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and finally close the door on this chapter of our history. Over the years, Guantanamo has inspired more terrorists than it has imprisoned. It has not strengthened our national security; it has damaged it. That’s why I backed closing Guantanamo as a Senator, and when I ran for President in 2008, as did both then-Senator Obama and Senator McCain. As President Obama’s Secretary of State, I appointed a special envoy and worked with our friends and partners around the world to repatriate or resettle prisoners, with all appropriate monitoring and security. Closing Guantanamo would be a sign of strength and resolve. Congress should implement President Obama’s plan as quickly and responsibly as possible.”
Updated
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s got the endorsement of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, although he’s careful not to be too pushy:
I think Hillary’s a very strong, capable person and I’m a supporter of hers, but who the Americans choose is up to them. It’s not wise to get into that.
President Obama outlined plans to close down Guantanamo Bay this morning -- an idea Bernie Sanders immediately supported and Marco Rubio slammed.
Donald Trump also weighed in, promising to keep it open and “load it up with some bad dudes,” while also cutting down the running costs.
“This morning I watched President Obama talking about Gitmo,” said Trump during his rally in Sparks, Nevada this afternoon.
“Guantanamo Bay -- which by the way, we are keeping open! And we’re going to load it up with some bad dudes. We’re going to load it up.”
“We spend $40 million a month on maintaining this place? Now, think of it -- $40 million a month! What do we have left in there, like, a hundred people, or something? And we’re spending $40 million? I would guarantee you I could do it for a tiny, tiny fraction. I don’t mean $39 million. I mean maybe $5 million, maybe $3 million. Maybe, like, peanuts.”
Seems President Bill Clinton wasn’t too keen on “First Gentleman.”
Carson wants ‘truth serum’ used on terror suspects
Ben Carson is advocating the use of “truth serum” as an interrogation method for terror suspects, where suspects would be drugged in the hope they would reveal information.
“I believe there is a number of ways to extract information, including some medical ways, of putting people into a less than conscious state which allows information to be extracted much more humanely,” said Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, in an interview with CNN.
“The average person might understand it as ‘truth serum’ -- there are ways where you decrease a person’s conscious defenses, and they might be much more willing to give up information.”
He’s referring specifically to “sodium amytal,” which was used occasionally during the 1930s as a police interrogation method and after World War II to help soldiers discuss traumatic events.
However, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that any confessions resulting from the use of truth serum were inadmissible and “unconstitutionally coerced.”
“There are a variety of things that can be used. We’ve made some advances in that kind of science.”
No word if veritaserum, from the world of Harry Potter, is one of those medical advances...
Updated
Donald Trump’s wife Melania is doing her first solo TV interview on the campaign trail (she sat down with her husband and Barbara Walters late last year), airing tomorrow on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Check out those gilded interiors!
Tomorrow on @Morning_Joe: Melania Trump, wife of Donald Trump, sits down with @morningmika #exclusive pic.twitter.com/xSwHfoybtx
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) February 23, 2016
Scandal!
Shonda Rhimes’ strong female-led, political drama got a special visit on Monday night.
Hillary Clinton stopped by to visit with some of her biggest celebrity supporters while on a fundraising swing through California.
Many of the cast’s stars, including Kerry Washington, who plays political consultant Olivia Pope, and Rhimes herself, have voiced their support for Clinton.
The show’s director, Scott Foley, posted this picture of Clinton seated next to Scandal president Fitzgerald Grant, played by Tony Goldwyn, who helped campaign for Clinton in Iowa.
#ImWithHer. Literally. She was right there! @HillaryClinton, thanks for visiting! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/svKJ8RB955
— Katie Lowes (@KatieQLowes) February 23, 2016
No word on whether Clinton will actually make a guest appearance on the show.
Interesting interview with Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson, who covers the Donald Trump beat, on what the candidate is like when he’s not in front of the cameras.
The Donald Trump you see in a small setting -- a visit to a campaign office, a quick interview backstage, a lunch stop -- is a different person than the bellowing, insult-throwing candidate you see on the rally stage. In one-on-one settings, he’s charming, softer spoken and rather relatable. While his nasty, mean comments get the most attention, he’s also capable of being overwhelmingly kind, almost to the point of being uncomfortably kind. I’ve interviewed a number of people who have spent a little bit of time with Trump -- big-name endorsers, dedicated volunteers, police officers assigned to protect him -- and all remark on how he somehow made them feel like the most important person in the world.
Jeb Bush didn’t answer when Donald Trump rang to offer condolences on dropping out of the race... wonder if he left a voicemail?
"Walker was gonna win - he's gone. Jeb was gonna win - Jeb is gone." Says he called Jeb to wish him well, "he didn't take my call."
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) February 23, 2016
After years of slinging public insults at Marco Rubio, New York Congressman Peter King bit his tongue and endorsed him for the Republican nomination today.
“I’m endorsing Marco Rubio because he has all the ingredients for a winning campaign: inspiration, judgement, and vision,” said King in a statement.
What a difference three years makes. Rubio pissed King off back in 2013 by voting against funding to clean up after Hurricane Sandy destroyed large areas of New York and New Jersey -- but then heading to Wall St to fundraise for his presidential run.
“I made it clear any of those people — people who voted and postured against money coming to New York and New Jersey and then wants to come up here and take money out of our pockets, forget it...They can stay home,” he added.
“Being from New York we’re not supposed to be suckers,” said King in 2013. “It’s bad enough that these guys voted against it, that’s inexcusable enough. But to have the balls to come in and say, ‘We screwed you now make us president?’”
“Guys like Marco Rubio in Florida and all the money your people have gotten in Florida over the years from every hurricane that comes along and this guy has the nerve to vote against money from New York, and they come up here and try to raise money ...He can forget it,” said King back in 2013.
Updated
At the Sparks, Nevada rally -- while discussing the Bible scandal that saw Ted Cruz’s spokesman resign yesterday -- Trump clarified exactly what branch of Christianity he belongs to.
Trump: "By the way I happen to be Protestant. Presbyterian, to be exact."
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) February 23, 2016
Which other past presidents were Presbyterian? The last one was Ronald Reagan.
According to Wikipedia, the rest are: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower actually got baptized in office, the first and only president to do so!
Donald Trump dished out some truly cutting insults to Jeb Bush -- “desperate,” “pathetic,” “low-energy,” and “embarrassment to his family” among them -- but with Bush gone, Trump has chosen another opponent to throw verbal punches at.
If you were wondering who Trump was going to target now Bush is gone - it's Ted Cruz. "He's the worst liar I've ever seen," Trump says. Boos
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) February 23, 2016
Trump calls Cruz a 'soft, weak, little baby'
— Andrew Rafferty (@AndrewNBCNews) February 23, 2016
Hello everybody, it’s Amber Jamieson taking over from liveblog king Tom McCarthy.
Guardian reporter Nicky Woolf is currently soaking up the atmosphere at a Donald Trump rally in Sparks, Nevada, where Trump is heading into tonight’s state caucus as the front-runner.
HOUSTON WE HAVE A TRUMP pic.twitter.com/0cZrQYPJUT
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) February 23, 2016
Straight off the bat, Trump warns agains "dishonest stuff" at caucuses. "We've got a lot of people watching."
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) February 23, 2016
Top Koch adviser joins Rubio camp
Big: lead Koch bros operative joins @marcorubio, who has been quietly amassing support in Koch World. @mikeallen: https://t.co/UncGbhtCq7
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) February 23, 2016
Here’s the top of the report:
Marc Short, the Koch brothers’ top political adviser in Washington and a trusted member of their inner circle for five years, is making a surprise move to the Marco Rubio campaign as a senior adviser as the Republican establishment ramps up efforts to stop Donald Trump.
Short — president of Freedom Partners, the Kochs’ umbrella political organization — will join the campaign in about a week and brings deep connections to the donor and grass-roots world.
The Washington Post’s Robert Costa espies a significant summit in Romneyland:
The Romney endorsement is one of the looming questions in Republican politics. Friends and party leaders are urging him to enter the fray...
— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 23, 2016
As Romney thinks through his decision, he’s reconnecting w/ trusted aides. Tonight he’ll be in Boston to see many of them.
Kerry Healey is hosting a private dinner at her home. Tied to a Babson event, but Romney, Zwick, White, Flaherty, Myers will all be there...
My sources insist tonight's dinner, a reunion of sorts of Romney's inner circle, is "purely social." But list of attendees & timing notable.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 23, 2016
Federal judge rules Clinton aides should be questioned under oath
Aides to Hillary Clinton and state department officials should be questioned under oath about Clinton’s use of a private email server during her four years as secretary of state, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
“There has been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations,” said US district judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington. “When does it stop?”
The judge did not rule out a subpoena for Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin.
The ruling, which was first reported in the Washington Post, advances an investigation of whether Clinton or others had acted in violation of the Freedom of Information Act.
Clinton seems on track to win the Democratic presidential nomination, with victories in two of three states to have voted so far and a rosy outlook for the contests ahead.
But the emails issue continues to dog her candidacy, distract advisors, feed outrage on the right that Clinton has escaped answering for the episode and feed trepidation on the left that it might cripple her candidacy.
The Barack Obama administration could appeal Sullivan’s ruling, which arose out of a court challenge by a conservative legal watchdog, Judicial Watch. The group had requested information three years ago on the job duties of Abedin, who has variously served as a personal aide, state department staff member and political advisor to Clinton, as well as a private consultant elsewhere.
Sullivan said the government’s handling of the emails issue created “at least a ‘reasonable suspicion’” that the government was keeping the public from appropriately accessing public records.
“This case is about the public’s right to know,” he said.
I'm not Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message
Have you heard the one about copycat Clinton? Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said on Monday that he’s flattered former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking some cues from his speeches, writes Lauren Gambino from Columbia, South Carolina:
“I have to say that I am delighted that Secretary Clinton, month after month after month, seems to be adopting more and more of the positions that we have advocated. That’s good,” Sanders said during a speech in Boston on Monday.
He noted that Clinton has started to use some of the “language and phraseology that we have used”.
Clinton’s made it clear in recent weeks that she thinks Sanders is a one-note candidate with a singular fixation on Wall Street and income inequality. Is she now trying to play in the same key?
Sanders certainly thinks so. “I think I saw a TV ad and thought it was me. But it turned out it was Secretary Clinton’s picture in the end.”
Could Sanders have been referring to this ad, in which talks about the “outrage” of an American manufacturer “gaming the system” and squirreling away corporate profits overseas?
Updated
Marco Rubio is staying in touch with Jeb Bush, reports Sabrina Siddiqui from Nevada – and this is touching:
Rubio says he spoke to Jeb yesterday. Didn't ask for endorsement but adds: "We'll meet and talk soon enough."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 23, 2016
"We'll remain friends forever," Rubio adds of his relationship with Jeb. https://t.co/UtzEXXKFNu
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 23, 2016
Here’s a handsome graphic to whet your appetite for the caucusing in Nevada tonight.
The candidate who wins the Republican caucuses in Nevada usually goes on to win the presidency goes on to win the nomination is Mitt Romney (Mormons being an influential demographic in Nevada on the GOP side):
“Hillary Clinton to campaign in SC daily, while Bernie Sanders splits his time elsewhere” is not a headline Sanders might want in the state’s biggest paper with the primary here just four days away, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino from Columbia, South Carolina:
But the Post and Courier headline of Tuesday morning reflects an increasing sense on all sides, including inside the Sanders campaign: South Carolina is Clinton Country.
Clinton arrives in the state Tuesday, and will campaign here through the week – with a side trip to Atlanta on Friday – ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday.
With Super Tuesday around the corner, Sanders is looking beyond the South Carolina primary to the 11 states up for grabs for Democrats on 1 March – the majority of which Clinton is favored to win.
Some observers look at Sanders’ spending pattern in states to vote on 1 March, aka Super Duper Tuesday – and scratch their heads. The Vermont senator is pouring money into states where he’s already expected to perform relatively strongly, and bypassing states where he is not:
Clinton is outspending Sanders in Super Tuesday ad race
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) February 23, 2016
Clinton: $4.1M in 11 states
Sanders: $3.3M in 5 states pic.twitter.com/d1Cig5YHDs
@Nate_Cohn Lends credence to theory that he's playing for a convention speaking slot (maximize strongholds), not to beat HRC
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) February 23, 2016
Biden in '92: Supreme Court nominees should not be advanced in election years
Compare this video of Barack Obama last week saying “the constitution is clear” on the appropriateness of his advancing a Supreme Court nominee during an election year –
– and this video from June 1992 of then-senator, now-veep Joe Biden, who was chairman of the judiciary committee at the time, saying the senate would be “in deep trouble as an institution” if it agreed to take up a Supreme Court nomination in an election year.
There was no vacant spot on the court as Biden spoke. But by comparison, his speech came four months deeper into the presidential election year than we currently are.
“The Senate judiciary committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the campaign season is over,” Biden says:
Sen. Joe Biden in 1992 says President Bush should "not name a nominee until after the November election..." #SCOTUShttps://t.co/setQGLzePt
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 22, 2016
The New York Times provides context for his remarks:
Biden’s remarks were part of a long speech about revising the Supreme Court confirmation process after a tumultuous five-year period that had featured three bitterly contested nominees: William H. Rehnquist in 1986, who received the most “no” votes of any justice until that time; Robert H. Bork, who was rejected by the Senate in 1987; and Clarence Thomas, whose bruising hearings culminated in a vote in 1991 in which he drew even more opposition than Chief Justice Rehnquist had.
Here’s a transcript:
It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President [George HW] Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not, and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed. The Senate, too, Mr president, must consider how it would respond to a vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year.
It is my view that if a president goes in the way of presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate judiciary committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until ever – until after the campaign season is over.
And I sadly predict Mr president that this is going to be one of the bitterest dirtiest presidential campaigns that we will have seen in some time.
I’m sure, Mr President, after having uttered these words, some, some will criticize such a decision and say it was nothing more than an attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it.
But that would not be our intention Mr President. If that were the course we were choose as a senate, to not consider holding hearings until after the election, instead it would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way – and it is – action on Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.
That is what is fair to the nominee and essential to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me Mr President, we will be in deep trouble as an institution.
Updated
Sanders hails Guantánamo plan
In welcoming the president’s new plan to close the Guantánamo prison, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gets in a dig at his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Via the Sanders campaign:
I am encouraged to see that the president is sending Congress a plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison. As I have said for years, the prison at Guantanamo must be closed as quickly as possible,” said Sanders, who visited the prison during a 2014 trip to Cuba.
“Others, including my opponent, have not always agreed with me.”
Rubio says Obama's Guantánamo plan 'makes no sense'
First out of the gates among the presidential candidates with a damning review of Obama’s Guantánamo plan: the senator from Florida.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio blasted Obama’s announcement during a rally on the morning of the Nevada caucuses, writes Guardian political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui:
“This makes no sense to me,” Rubio told a couple hundred voters at the Silverton Casino in Las Vegas.
Number one, we are not giving back an important naval base to an anti-American communist dictatorship. Number two, we are not going to close Guantanamo. In fact, we shouldn’t be releasing the people that are there now.
The Florida senator said the prisoners were “enemy combatants” and vowed to keep Guantanamo open as president.
“If we capture a terrorist alive, they are not getting a court hearing in Manhattan. They are not going to be sent to Nevada,” Rubio said. “They are going to Guantanamo and we are going to find out everything they know.”
Updated
Carson: 'Obama was raised white'
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has said the idea that Barack Obama can relate to “the experience of black Americans is a bit of a stretch” because the president was “raised white”.
Asked in an interview with Politico’s Glenn Thrush to recall his reaction at witnessing the election of the first black US president, Carson said that “like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier. But I also recognize that [Obama’s] experience and my experience are night-and-day different.”
[Key section begins at 16m45s in audio below]:
Carson, whose candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination has had difficulty gaining traction, went on to draw a contrast between Obama’s life story and “the experience of black Americans”:
He didn’t grow up like I grew up, by any stretch of the imagination. Not even close.
He’s an African-American. He was, you know, raised white. Many of his formative years were spend in Indonesia. So for him to claim that he identifies with the experience of black Americans is a bit of a stretch.
Carson was raised in intense poverty with his brother by a single mother in Detroit and Boston. He favors ending some government welfare programs which he believes breed dependency, and favors private charities taking over welfare work from the government.
Obama lived with his mother, who was white, and his Indonesian stepfather in Jakarta from ages 6-10. After that he was raised in Hawaii by his white maternal grandparents. The president’s paternal roots lie in Kenya.
In the interview with Thrush, Carson said he did not encounter racism among Republicans but he did sense it from the left, in expectations for how he should think.
“Because you’re black, you have to think a certain way, and if you don’t think that way, you’re Uncle Tom... whereas if I weren’t black, then I would just be a Republican,” Carson said.
The retired surgeon said he saw “very little” evidence that criticism of Obama was rooted in racism. “What president Obama represents is an ideology that is antithetical to the ideology of most people in the Republican party. And I don’t think it has anything to do with race,” Carson said.
“I’ve been around for 64 years. I’ve had a chance to see what real racism is.”
Updated
House divided alert: Tonya Lewis Lee, who’s married to Spike Lee, who earlier today came out with a Bernie Sanders endorsement, says she’s “with her”:
Just to be clear, while my husband @SpikeLee supports Bernie Sanders @HillaryClinton is my candidate! We need Hillary to be the next POTUS!
— Tonya Lewis Lee (@TLewisLee) February 23, 2016
From the comments / Guantánamo
We asked and you answered – and we’re not hearing a lot of hope out there that the president is on the verge of closing the Guantánamo prison:
I don't think he will be able to close it.
He already knows this. In fact, in one of the bills he signed (forget which one) there was language in the bill to keep it open. He was willing to sign it.
All this is is election BS for Hillary who has lately been supporting the Obama administration in a much more enthusiastic way than before.
Which US prison would take them?
Interesting sense of humour from el Presidente. Now I guess we will see the frothing and fuming of the major candidates about this.
Other than that, I doubt you will see the super max prisons lining up to take the prisoners. Well? Unless there is a bottomless pit of money for them to do so.
Which countries accept transfers?
Regarding the Obama plan to close Guantamo:
Let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Which countries does he want to send some of the detainees to?
That's the question that reporters should be asking him.
The answers include Bosnia, Montenegro, Ghana, Oman, the UAE and on. Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman writes about each transfer – here’s a sampler of his reportage:
Now THIS is an interesting theory:
Obama is DESPERATE because he knows that one of the first actions of President Trump will be to have Obama arrested and he will be on a plane to Gitmo while he awaits trial and the investigations start. Likely while on the plane he will look down at the handcuffs, then over to Hillary on the seat across the aisle. Then he'll look over his shoulder at George the Idiot Bush and Darth Vader Cheney handcuffed in the seats behind him. This is how the nightmare Obama has on a fairly regular basis plays out -- and he sees it actually having a chance of coming true with each Trump primary victory.
That’s it for Obama. What do you think, will the Republican-controlled Congress sign off in the midst of a presidential election on the president’s plan to transfer terrorism suspects to a supermax prison facility on the US mainland?
Or will the Republicans use the speech we just saw as a warning to voters that Democrats can’t be trusted with national security?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments and we’ll do a roundup in a few.
Updated
Obama sees 'fair amount of opposition' in Congress
Obama concedes that the idea of holding terrorism suspects in the United States “can be scary. But part of my message is... we’re already holding a bunch of dangerous terrorists in the United Staets... and there have been no incidents. We’ve managed it just fine.
In Congress... there continues to be a fair amount of opposition to closing Guantanamo. If it were easy, it would have happened years ago... but there remains bipartisan support for both.
Obama says that neither he nor Biden is on the ballot this election year, and so they are free to “not even worry about the politics”:
Even in an election year, we should be able to have an open honest .. national dialogue in order to ensure our national security....
Let us do what’s right for America. Let’s go ahead and close this chapter. And do it right... make sure we’re safe.
Then he closes on a note that hints at his awareness of just how high a hurdle the need for congressional approval procured in an election year represents:
I really think there is an opportunity here for progress. I believe we’ve got an obligation to try. ... I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is. If we .. don’t deal with this problem now, when are we going to deal with it? Are we going to let this linger on for another 10, 15, 20 years?
Obama calls for transferring Guantanamo detainees to mainland US prisons
“We’re going to work with Congress to find a secure location within the united States to hold the remaining detainees,” Obama says.
He says that includes detainees “who pose a specific threat to the United States.”
Obama says he’s not naming potential facilities.
Obama says that periodic reviews of the remaining detainees, fewer than 60, will be conducted, and maybe some will be found eligible for transfer.
Third, Obama calls for reform of military commissions to try prisoners at Guantanamo, which he says are costly and take years to play out.
In contrast to the commissions process, federal courts have a proven record at “convicting the most hardened terrorists,” he says.
This is about closing a chapter in our history. It reflects the lessons we’ve learned since 9/11. Even as we use military commissions to close out the cases in some detainees... this type of use of commissions should not set a precedent for the future.
He says military commissions should be used for detainees taken in military theaters during battle.
Obama sends plan for Guantanamo closure to Congress
Obama says 91 detainees remain at Guantanamo.
Today the defense department thanks to very hard work by Ash Carter... is submitting to Congress our plan to finally closing the facility at Guantanamo once and for all.
This plan has my full support. It reflects our best thinking on how to best go after terrorists...
He says the 35 detainees approved for transfer to other countries will be transferred in a way “to ensure our national security interests will be met.”
Obama: 'We have to change our course' on Guantanamo prison
Obama appears in the Roosevelt room flanked by vice president Joe Biden and Defense secretary Ash Carter.
He says when a strategy “does not advance our security, we have to change our course”.
For many years it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our security. It undermines it.
He says terrorists use the prison as propaganda to recruit fighters. He says it drains Pentagon resources, costing $450m last year to keep it running, plus $200m to keep it open going forward, for less than 100 detainees.
He says it countervails American principles and is a “stain” on the country’s reputation.
Fifteen years after [the September 11 attacks] we’re still having to defend a facility where not a single verdict has been reached in those attacks. Not a single one. When I first ran for president it was widely recognized that this facility needed to close... there was bipartisan support to close it.
Obama points out that both President George W Bush and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, called for the closure of Guantanamo.
Updated
You can watch Obama live here:
Obama to speak on Guantánamo
The president is to deliver an address on the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in about 20 minutes, in the Roosevelt room at the White House.
Obama previously announced plans to visit Cuba next month, March 21-22. He would be the first sitting US president to do so since Calvin Coolidge.
We’ll cover the president’s remarks here. What do you think he’s going to say? He calls for the closure of the prison every year in his State of the Union address but so far has been unable to deliver, with no agreement in Congress on where the prisoners should be moved to.
Updated
Video: Trump says he'd like to punch protester
Setting: Las Vegas Trump rally
Scene: a protester is escorted from the hall
Trumpism: Trump accuses the protester of “throwing punches” and “smiling” and says “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
Ah, I love the old days you know. You know what I hate? There’s a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. You know what they’d do to guys like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher folks. It’s true. ... Honestly I hate to see that. Here’s a guy, throwing punches – I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.
America never wins anymore, and we’re not allowed to punch back anymore.
As Trump’s path to the nomination widens and flattens, the discomfort with his candidacy, on the part of the establishment and the ideological right, seems to be halving between acceptance and denial. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy said at the weekend, “I think I’ll work with Donald Trump... I think I can work with anyone that comes out to be the nominee.”
Red state editor Erick Erickson sees a candidacy built on hopelessness:
Trump is what happens when a people abandon hope.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 23, 2016
Update: and here’s where Florida-based Republican strategist Rick Wilson is at:
Hey @TheRickWilson can you clarify where you stand on Trump's presidential candidacy? https://t.co/gEJ4u9Rjx0 pic.twitter.com/72qmMUqhOY
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) February 23, 2016
Updated
Director Spike Lee has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in a radio ad targeting South Carolina voters, four days before the state’s Democratic primary.
“Wake up!” the spot begins, over a soul backing track. “Wake up, South Carolina! This is your dude Spike Lee. And I know that you know the system is rigged. For too long we’ve given our votes to corporate puppets. Sold the Okie-doke.”
“Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the Great Recession of 2008, and many are still recovering,” Lee continues. “And that’s why I am officially endorsing my brother Bernie Sanders. Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take. And when Bernie gets into the White House, he will do the right thing.”
He adds: “How can we be sure? Bernie was at the March on Washington with Dr King. He was arrested in Chicago for a protest of segregation in public schools. He has fought for wealth and education equality throughout his career.”
African Americans account for more than half of South Carolina’s Democratic primary electorate. The ad does not mention Sanders’s rival, Hillary Clinton, who polls show is leading in the state and nationally among non-white voters.
Lee, a New Yorker born in Atlanta, is the Director of Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke and, most recently, Chi-Raq, a Lysistrata-inspired tale of love and violence in Chicago.
The radio ad differs slightly from a text circulated by the Sanders campaign, in which Lee calls Sanders his “main man” instead of “brother”.
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Spike Lee has endorsed Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz fired his spokesman for a false attack on Marco Rubio’s love for the Bible, and best of all, tonight there will be caucusing.
Nevada Republicans (or at least a single-digit proportion of them) will head to polling stations across the state tonight to answer the question of who comes in second behind Donald Trump this time.
That characterization of the Nevada race may be premature: while Trump is way ahead in state polling and the best local observers – including Rubio’s people on the ground – like Trump’s chances, this is an election not a coronation. Nevada journalism dean Jon Ralston and others have gamely mused on ways Trump might suffer an upset:
Ways Trump loses NV in YUUUUGE upset:
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) February 22, 2016
1. LDS vote solid for Rubio, quarter of turnout again.
2. Rurals go wild for Cruz, quarter of turnout.
LDS refers to the Mormons, aka the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Rubio, a Roman Catholic, was temporarily a Mormon (he also throws in some Southern Baptist, for good measure), and he spent some childhood years in Nevada.
Rubio displayed some buoyancy in the race yesterday with something of a deluge of endorsements from party officials, including lots of Nevada state and national officials:
Full list of new NV @marcorubio backers after Jeb! leaves race, including 1/2 of state's congressional delegation pic.twitter.com/S8P5wDDR9S
— Riley Snyder (@RileySnyder) February 22, 2016
Trump’s biggest endorsement yesterday was Paul Teutul Sr, the star of Orange County Choppers, the motorcycle-themed reality show. One reality star likes another. “After I was on the Celebrity Apprentice, I built a custom chopper for Mr Trump,” Teutul says:
Orange County Choppers Paul Teutul Sr. Endorses Donald Trump for President. All Aboard #TrumpTrain #BikersForTrump pic.twitter.com/0mN0TcYpMi
— Trump's Got My Vote (@veganvecoh) February 22, 2016
Do endorsements matter? We’ll have a new data point tonight when Nevada’s results come out. Our politics team is spread across the country, with Paul Lewis, Sabrina Siddiqui, Maria L La Ganga, Richard Wolffe, Sam Levin and Nicky Woolf in Nevada, Lauren Gambino and Lucia Graves in South Carolina, and Ben Jacobs in Houston to bring you the latest on the big race. Thanks for joining us and tell us what’s on your mind in the comments!
Updated
I don't think he will be able to close it.
The Republicans will oppose it with will all they have. They need to make the world seem as scary as possible for voters to be attracted to them.