Trump's campaign manager: “He’s not participating in Fox News debate.”
Donald Trump’s campaign manager has told the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs that Trump will definitely not participate in Thursday’s debate:
Afterwards, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told the Guardian matter of factly, “He’s not participating in Fox News debate.” The operative said that this didn’t mean Trump was avoiding press scrutiny. “Look, he’s the clear frontrunner, he’s been in six debates already, answered more questions from the media than any other candidate on the stage combined.”
The press release that irked Trump and led to his withdrawal read, “We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president - a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”
Trump derided it as “a wise guy press release ... done by some PR person along with Roger Ailes.” After seeing the release, “I said bye bye” to the debate, Trump said.
Trump had long been cagey about participating in Thursday’s debate because of adversarial questioning from anchor Megyn Kelly in the first debate. Her line of questioning regarding his past statements about women led Trump to say that he thought “there was blood coming out of her wherever,” a comment widely believed to refer to menstruation. In his news conference on Tuesday, Trump merely called Kelly a “lightweight.”
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Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has sought to raise questions about the indictment of two anti-abortion activists by drawing a dubious connection between a member of the prosecutor’s office and Planned Parenthood, the Guardian’s Molly Redden and Sabrina Siddiqui report:
“I think it’s pretty outrageous that Planned Parenthood was investigated by some lawyer or district attorney who apparently, according to some news reports, has actually been a board member of Planned Parenthood and donated to them,” Rubio said, responding to a voter question about abortion at an Iowa town hall.
“They investigated Planned Parenthood and they said: ‘We found they did nothing wrong,” he added. “But we’re going to indict the people who filmed them talking about these things.’ That’s outrageous.”
Rubio’s comments referred to a Texas grand jury that concluded its investigation of Planned Parenthood by indicting not the women’s healthcare provider, but two of the anti-abortion activists who prompted the criminal inquiry. The activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, used false identities to film secret videos that accused Planned Parenthood employees of selling fetal tissue in violation of the law. Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Awkward Non-Endorsement Season starts earlier every year...
Bernie Sanders and President Obama will meet privately at the White House tomorrow— days after the president heaped praise on Hillary.
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) January 26, 2016
Donald Trump declares that he "probably won’t bother doing the debate”
In a loud press conference in a high school gym in Marshalltown, Iowa, billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump declared that he not join the rest of the candidates on the primetime debate stage on Thursday.
“I probably won’t bother doing the debate,” Trump said. “Most likely, I’m not going to do the debate.” Trump cited “lightweight” Megyn Kelly’s position as the debate’s moderator as the primary reason why he would not join the seven other upper-tier candidates on the debate stage in the final presidential primary debate ahead of the Iowa caucuses. According to the latest poll numbers, Trump is neck-and-neck in Iowa with Texas senator Ted Cruz.
“I don’t know what games Roger Ailes is playing,” Trump said. The real estate tycoon floated the idea of hosting a separate event at the same time as the Fox News debate to raise money for wounded veterans instead.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports:
Trump made clear that after Fox News sent out a “wise-guy” press release that he viewed as derogatory, he would not participate in the network’s scheduled Republican presidential debate on Thursday. While the Republican frontrunner left some wiggle room, he announced, “I probably won’t bother to do the debate.” Trump added, “I am going to have something else in Iowa, something simultaneously with the debate.”
He added of Fox News, long considered a kingmaker in GOP politics, “they can’t toy with me like they with everyone else.” Trump had long been cagey about participating in Thursday’s debate because of adversarial questioning from anchor Megyn Kelly in the first debate. Her questioning led Trump to say that he thought “there was blood coming out of her wherever,” a comment widely believed to refer to menstruation. In his press conference Tuesday, Trump merely called Kelly a “lightweight.”
Updated
With the news that Donald Trump will be joining the rest of the (realistic) candidates on the debate stage on Thursday, Fox News public relations is pulling no punches:
This statement from Fox on Trump is really something. pic.twitter.com/3eRrmY6l9D
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) January 26, 2016
Fox News announces the lineup for the final primary debate before Iowa
Fox News Channel has announced the lineup for Thursday night’s primetime Republican presidential primary debate - and yes, before you ask, there is an undercard.
In order to qualify for the final primetime debate before the Iowa caucuses - where Donald Trump is front and center, as he has been in every Republican primary debate since August - the candidates must have placed in the top six spots nationally in an average of the five most recent national polls, or placed within the top five in Iowa or New Hampshire in an average of the five most recent state polls recognized by Fox News.
The lineup for the primetime debate, in order:
- Donald Trump
- Ted Cruz
- Marco Rubio
- Ben Carson
- Jeb Bush
- Chris Christie
- John Kasich
- Rand Paul
In order to qualify for the undercard or “kiddie pool” debate, candidates must have registered at least one percent in a single poll of the five most recent national polls recognized by the cable news network.
The undercard lineup is as follows:
- Carly Fiorina
- Mike Huckabee
- Rick Santorum
- Jim Gilmore
That’s right - Jim Gilmore, who hasn’t appeared on a debate stage in months, has been invited to the undercard. Get ready for #GilMentum, people.
Updated
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri was called for jury duty today - and to the delight of bored politicos/weirdly avid fans of small-town judicial proceedings, livetweeted the experience. A few of the best tweets:
Yep. Just reported for jury duty.On my bucket list to serve. Betting lawyers boot me...use peremptory challenge. pic.twitter.com/lebEiTiF9Y
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
As usual Callow has succinct advice. "@publiceyestl Sit near an outlet." Check. pic.twitter.com/QnfertUqZZ
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
Hiding in corner as judge explains to large juror pool that we get paid only $10 a day. That's #moleg not DC folks.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
By rough calculation I count 2 knitters, with rest of the about 150 potential jurors divided equally between reading paper & reading screens
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
Are you crazy? No way I want the remote. I work for these people... https://t.co/3j8X28gLbV
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
OMG. I got called. On my way to courtroom. Yes!
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
A lawyer I know just walked by me in hallway, did double take, said hello and "they don't want lawyers" 😩
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
HOLY X@#*! I am on the jury. Now must go social media silent re:trial. Don't worry, I'll share after verdict.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 25, 2016
The wheels of justice continue to turn.
This video of a Maine grade-schooler bursting into tears when told that she’s meeting Donald Trump - tears of joy, we should clarify - is making the rounds. The YouTube comments section beneath the video is... well, a YouTube comments section.
Justice Barack Obama isn’t just the name of our new post-punk garage band - it could be the president’s next title, if Hillary Clinton has anything to say about it.
At a campaign event in Iowa, an audience member asked Clinton whether she “would you consider appointing Obama,” a former constitutional law professor and president of the Harvard Law Review, to the US supreme court. After admitting that she’d never been asked that particular question before, Clinton responded with great enthusiasm: “I tell ya, that’s a great idea!”
It’s not the first time the possibility of Obama joining the nation’s highest court has been floated - his cerebral affect, preference for compromise and equanimitous disposition has had pundits positing a potential second act to Obama’s service in the federal government since his first term.
Updated
Reporting from the snow-dusted cornfields of Iowa, the Guardian’s Dan Roberts writes that a growing number of Iowa union chapters are ignoring national leadership and backing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders:
Sanders still only has formal backing from a handful of national unions – but increasingly it does not matter.
In a stark illustration of his argument that revolutionary political change can only come from below, a growing number of local union chapters are choosing to ignore their national leadership and back Sanders on the ground instead.
“We have had quite a few visits here from all the different candidates and staffers,” says Steve Vonk, local president of the United Steelworkers, as he introduces Sanders to an enthusiastic meeting opposite a Bridgestone tire factory in Des Moines.
“We’ve had a lot of visits from Bernie’s folks. They have been very persistent. We’ve asked them all [the presidential campaigns] to bring their candidates, but we’ve only had one taker and he’s right at home in the union hall.
“I am going to caucus for Bernie,” he adds to loud cheers. “I can’t remember in my lifetime a public servant who truly cares as much about the poor, the middle class, working men and women as Bernie Sanders.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Daniel Hernandez reports from Las Vegas, where Donald Trump’s scathing rhetoric about Latin American immigrants is galvanizing a movement in the community to pursue American citizenship - and to register to vote in key battleground states:
In what campaigners are calling a “naturalization blitz”, workshops are being hosted across the country to facilitate Hispanic immigrants who are legal, permanent residents and will only qualify to vote in the 2016 presidential election if they upgrade their immigration status.
Citizenship clinics will take place in Nevada, Colorado, Texas and California later this month, with other states expected to host classes in February and early March in order to make the citizenship deadline required to vote in November.
Several labor unions and advocacy groups are collaborating on the project. In Las Vegas, organizers also intend to hold mock caucuses to educate new voters on the state’s complicated primary process. Nevada is the first early voting state to feature a large Latino population, and that group is eager to make itself known.
“This is a big deal,” said Jocelyn Sida of Mi Familia Vota, a partner in the Nevada event. “We as Latinos are always being told that we’re taking jobs or we’re anchor babies, and all these things are very hurtful. It’s getting to the point where folks are frustrated with that type of rhetoric. They realize the only way they can stop this is by getting involved civically.”
Trump, for his part, is clearly not worried.
"Minorities Line Up Behind Donald Trump" #Trump2016 https://t.co/ClcvOgWOMy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016
Updated
Ted Cruz can add another conservative media endorsement to his collection: radio host, political commentator, bestselling author and Twitter gadfly Dana Loesch.
In a statement released by the Cruz campaign, Loesch cited the Texas senator’s efforts to repeal Obamacare, protect second amendment rights and reduce the size of the federal government as the inspiration for her support. “I have said that I will pull for the most conservative in the race,” Loesch said.
As one of the original founders of the modern-day Tea Party movement, I watched grassroots conservatives support Ted Cruz’s David and Goliath success against Dewhurst and the Republican establishment. Cruz has fought to repeal Obamacare, shrink the size of government; he has defended our gun rights, our right to privacy, our sovereignty and borders. I personally feel that Ted Cruz is the best choice to reverse America’s road to ruin and am proud to support him in the 2016 Republican primary.”
Cruz is “thrilled” to have Loesch on board. “Dana is a fearless conservative who is not afraid to confront the liberal media bias head on,” the Cruz campaign released in a statement. “She is a passionate fighter for liberty and an important voice for conservatives. I am thrilled to have Dana on our team and work together to win the White House in 2016.”
Loesch’s endorsement comes on the heels of National Review’s publication of her “Against Trump” essay - flanked by 22 others - in which she stated that the current Republican frontrunner’s conservative bona fides “raises serious questions.”
Sheriff Joe Arpaio endorses Donald Trump
Another – big? – endorsement for Trump comes in, in the form of Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio, the New York Times reports.
Arpaio is to campaign for Trump in Iowa in the 6-day blitz to the caucuses.
To say that Arpaio is an immigration hard-liner is to understate it, and to fail to capture the sheriff’s Draconian methods, which the federal court system has deemed abusive and unconstitutional.
In 2012, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Arpaio, accusing him of racial profiling and numerous civil rights violations for allowing (and encouraging) his deputies to make broad sweeps of Latino neighborhoods and rounding up anyone who they suspect might be in the US illegally or who cannot produce papers on request.
A year later, a federal judge ordered the appointment of an independent monitor to watch Arpaio after finding that his office engaged in racial profiling.
Can Arpaio help persuade Iowans to vote for Trump? The real estate mogul has chalked up a real TriFecta today, with Falwell-Rocker-Arpaio.
Updated
A new Hillary Clinton ad says there’s more than one lifelong do-gooder in this race, reports Lauren Gambino:
Bernie Sanders has won praise for his steadfast dedication – over decades in public service – to fighting income inequality. In a new campaign ad, Hillary Clinton reminds voters that she, too, has kept up a decades-long commitment to protecting children and families.
The new 60-second spot features a montage of archival footage of Clinton speaking about children and families throughout her five decades in public life.
The ad, which is set to air in the days leading up to Monday’s Iowa caucuses, opens with a clip from a 1979 interview in which Clinton, then the bespectacled first-lady of Arkansas, says that she is interested in the “area of children”.
It continues with clips of the candidate speaking about children and families as a first lady, a state senator, a presidential candidate, secretary of state and presidential candidate again.
The ad ends: “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I’ve always approved this message.”
Fox mocks Trump for debate jitters
Donald Trump has been threatening to boycott Thursday night’s Republican debate over the presence of Fox News co-host Megyn Kelly, Trump’s top media bugbear.
Fox has smacked back at Trump in a statement obtained by CNN:
Fox News knocking Trump with a very Foxy statement https://t.co/p6Gwa4iZWY pic.twitter.com/nVgNeZ12FC
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 26, 2016
Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, can’t catch a break on this blizzard thing. All he wants to do is run for president of New Hampshire.
But there were tragic deaths at the weekend in New Jersey, and flooding, and tens of thousands of people lost power, and he is the governor, but the storm’s over now, and what is he supposed to do, go down there with a mop?
Or, as Christie put it in a stop on his resumed New Hampshire campaigning schedule Monday night,
I don’t know what you want me to do, you want me to go down there with a mop?”
It’s true, it is not for those who hold elected office to fill the heroic role of first responder in times of crisis. Unless, of course, you’re New Jersey senator Cory Booker:
On the topic of mops, @CoryBooker is in New Jersey right now helping constituents and Snapchatting the flood damage pic.twitter.com/8KqtcPsBl3
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) January 26, 2016
Booker, a Democrat, declined to draw a contrast:
.@CoryBooker: I can't speak to where @GovChristie wants to be; partnerships are so impt right now, I don't want to strain them w/ politics.
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) January 26, 2016
Wait, if this is true, then how come a single Republican candidate today alone has won endorsements from both Jerry Falwell and John Rocker?
Robert Gates, a Republican stalwart and former US defence secretary who served under eight presidents, has derided the party’s election candidates for a grasp of national security issues that “would embarrass a middle schooler”, Guardian Washington correspondent David Smith reports:
An ex-CIA director who first joined the White House under Richard Nixon, Gates joked that if frontrunner Donald Trump wins the presidency, he would emigrate to Canada. He condemned the media for failing to challenge candidates from both parties on promises he believes are unaffordable, illegal or unconstitutional.
“The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler,” Gates said of the Republican contenders at a Politico Playbook event in Washington on Monday. “People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable. Either they really believe what they’re saying or they’re cynical and opportunistic and, in a way, you hope it’s the latter, because God forbid they actually believe some of the things that they’re saying.”
Read the full piece here:
Trump threatens debate boycott over Kelly
Here’s more Donald Trump coverage for those Trump-famished politics watchers among you.
Trump has threatened to boycott Thursday’s Republican presidential debate because co-hosting for Fox News will be Megyn Kelly, Trump’s improbable and sort of inexplicable media nemesis.
You may remember that the last time the two met in a debate, last August, Kelly asked Trump about his history of negative comments about women, and afterwards he freaked out and seemed to accuse her of menstruating.
So now Trump claims to be considering boycotting Thursday’s debate. He’s just launched a Twitter poll to answer the question. So far 1,344 people have voted and it’s about half-half.
Should I do the #GOPdebate? https://t.co/cjTywwIl85
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016
In addition to his Twitter poll, the would-be-next-president has also taken to bitching on Instagram:
“Make America Great Again and Also Safe from Meanie Megyn Kelly” would not fit on a hat.
Updated
John Rocker, the former Major League Baseball pitcher and late-1990s avatar of cinched ignorance, has scanned the Republican presidential field and identified a candidate he can get behind: Donald Trump.
“I think [Trump] has really woken America up,” Rocker told The Daily Caller, saying he was “absolutely” endorsing the mogul.
Rocker was temporarily suspended from baseball after he was asked by Sports Illustrated in 1999 whether he would ever play for a New York City team.
“I’d retire first,” Rocker said:
I’d retire first. It’s the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing...
“The biggest thing I don’t like about New York are the foreigners,” Rocker continued:
You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?
Updated
And they’ve all, come, to look for Ameerrrriiicca
Gray and flat Iowa landscape today. pic.twitter.com/e45u52QqjU
— Dan Balz (@danbalz) January 26, 2016
Updated
The Bern. Are you feeling it? Do you feel it now?
Bernie Sanders in 1988, on C-SPAN, as mayor of Burlington pic.twitter.com/yjdlSbkfVa
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) January 26, 2016
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders does not think his campaign will match the historic momentousness of Barack Obama’s 2008 run, reports Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts in Des Moines:
An upbeat Sanders was enjoying the support of the Des Moines steelworkers union this morning. But there was one comparison he wasn’t going to make when pressed on parallels between his recent Iowa surge and that of a certain senator from Illinois eight years ago.
“Obama in 2008 ran a campaign which is really going to stay in the history books,” replied Sanders when asked if he could reach similar levels of support here. “It was an unbelievable campaign. In places they ran out of ballots, as I understand. The [Iowa caucus] turnout was so extraordinary nobody expected it. Do I think in this campaign we are going to match that? I would love to see us do that. I hope we can. Frankly, I don’t think we can.”
At least he was getting asked the question, though. The press pack following Sanders has mushroomed in recent days after months of sparse attendance at his events.
Updated
Video: highlights from the Democratic town hall meeting in Iowa
From the comments / Trump's endorsement
We asked you who you thought would be the “very powerful endorsement” unveiled today by Donald Trump. You did not have much time to answer, and yet answer you did. We did not identify any correct “Falwell” guesses – but there were strong entries otherwise. Viz.:
And... reaction:
Jerry Falwell. No surprise there. Christian fundamentalist siding with the hate monger.
“Tonight’s rally” for Trump would be at the University of Iowa field house in Iowa City, Iowa, beginning at 7.30pm ET. Falwell will be there.
NBC embed @alivitali confirms Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of @LibertyU, is Trump's "very special guest" and endorser at tonight's rally
— Marianna Sotomayor (@msotomayor12) January 26, 2016
Ted Cruz, who launched his campaign at Falwell’s Liberty University, wanted to be the one hosting Falwell this week in Iowa. But Cruz did not get Falwell, and he did not get senior Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, who appeared at a Trump rally at the weekend (without officially endorsing Trump).
Which endorsement matters most in Iowa? Do any of them?
But in superheated campaign context, Grassley appearance may be more valuable to Trump than to others. https://t.co/1uv23mF1NY
— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 26, 2016
Donald Trump: the candidate evangelicals choose when evangelicals choose a candidate.
Great honor- Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. of Liberty University, one of the most respected religious leaders in our nation, has just endorsed me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016
Jerry Falwell Jr is the third Corinthian.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 26, 2016
Updated
Rumors of a Falwell endorsement of Trump had percolated last week, before it turned out that it was former Alaska governor Sarah Palin who was getting behind the Donald.
Who’s Jerry Falwell Jr? The son of an influential, late televangelist by the same name, who was famous for jeremiads against homosexuality and for organizing “faith voters” to bring political pressure to bear under the banner of his “Moral Majority.”
Fallwell, Jr, is more a second amendment guy.
In December, Falwell urged Liberty University students, staff and faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus to counter any possible armed attack like the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The AP reported:
Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,” President Jerry Falwell Jr told an estimated 10,000 students at the weekly convocation held on Friday in Lynchburg.
The call-to-arms was met with rousing applause from students, but some said Falwell went too far when he appeared to be referring specifically to Muslims, the News & Advance reported.
“I’ve always thought if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” Falwell said. The final words of his statement could not be clearly heard on a videotape of the remarks.
Updated
Falwell endorses Trump: Washington Post
Jerry Falwell, Jr, the president of Virginia-based Liberty University, the country’s biggest evangelical university, has endorsed Donald Trump six days before the caucuses in Iowa, a state with a goodly share of evangelical voters, the Washington Post scoops:
BREAKING w/ @wpjenna: Jerry Falwell Jr. endorses Trump, gives blessing days before caucuses https://t.co/q5jEuvbGqo
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 26, 2016
Falwell called Trump “a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again.”
Trump responded:
It is truly an honor to receive Jerry’s endorsement. Not only is he a high-quality person, with a wonderful family, whom I have great respect for – I also consider him a very good friend and his support means so much to me.”
Updated
How exciting is this via crack Washington Post politics journo Robert Costa?
stay tuned...
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 26, 2016
This is the thrill of a big national American election right here. What is it? Is it something? Is it nothing?
I'll guess something about Trump https://t.co/hHwkelXIQu
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) January 26, 2016
Hit the comments
and give us your guesses, please.
The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui is on the Marco Rubio trail in Iowa this morning. They’ve been to Pella and to Oskaloosa so far.
Here’s an elegant symmetry from Sabrina’s morning. At the Pella event, Rubio spoke about the millions spent on attack ads against him:
Rubio tells Iowans over $20 million in attack ads have been spent against him: "You don't get that money from $50 grassroots donations."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 26, 2016
Then, in Oskaloosa, Rubio ran into a voter who confronted him about something she saw in one of the ads, on his record on immigration:
Voter asks Rubio to clarify his work on Gang of 8. "When I'm president ... that's not the way we're going to do it," he says.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 26, 2016
The woman said she was confused by a super PAC ad attacking his immigration record. https://t.co/aSWztP2hhk
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 26, 2016
Negative ads in Iowa aren’t limited to anti-Rubio Super Pacs nor even Super Pacs. The Ted Cruz campaign has taken direct aim at Donald Trump in a new ad with the tagline “Donald Trump. New York values, not ours”:
Our new TV ad starts airing statewide in Iowa tomorrow... #IACaucus https://t.co/ntbfiNKtZx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 25, 2016
New study reveals that tackling improves odds to win football games. Some teams decide to try it out. https://t.co/SN1IpjfFAx
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) January 26, 2016
P.S.:
Your biggest ad spenders in Iowa: Team Bush $14.9M Team Rubio: $11.8M Team Clinton: $9.4M Team Sanders $7.4M https://t.co/gJrapcETGr
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) January 26, 2016
Updated
There are a couple good new Donald Trump Twitter parody accounts going at the moment.
England, France, they are taking advantage of us because our leaders have been stupid. That will change.
— Donald J. Hitler (@realdjhitler) January 26, 2016
.@TrumpRetweeps tweets out the Twitter bio of anyone @realDonaldTrump retweets. https://t.co/1WOhhxQ3VP
— Eric Zuckerman (@EricZuck) January 26, 2016
Just a regular Joe, with a regular job. Your average white, suburbanite slob.
— Trump Retweeps (@TrumpRetweeps) January 24, 2016
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran strong for president in early November of last year, has tweeted out a vote of confidence in his candidacy that ran in the Des Moines Register, the influential news outlet serving the influential early-voting state.
It’s a letter to the editor. Jim Wiese of Iowa City has “met Dr. Carson on three different occasions and I can assure you that he is a great American patriot who truly loves his country,” he writes. Click through for more.
"Ben Carson has skills needed to unite Americans" https://t.co/FtIcyrn3yB via @DMRegister
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 26, 2016
Bernie does Bernie
Meet the new Bernie Sanders: he’s now a real candidate, against Clinton’s robot, writes Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves:
When you come at Bernie Sanders on how old he is, you’d better, as they say in Brooklyn, come correct.
So when the CNN moderator sat down right next to the socialist turned real-life presidential frontrunner on Monday evening in Iowa and, after mistaking his age for 75, initially kind of half-joked – in that TV personality kind of way – that the 74-year-old senator was going on 75, well, the old man’s picked up some campaign-trail charm, now hasn’t he?
“I’m GOING on 75,” came the legitimately endearing faux-exasperation. “So are you!”
Then the moderator followed him across the stage at CNN’s faux-debate and purported to be tired. Sanders, as if inhabiting Larry David’s Saturday Night Live caricature because he smelled the votes a yuk away, deadpanned: “If you followed me around today, you’d be a lot more tired.”
Oh, yeah, the still-a-socialist candidate also lectured tirelessly about his hard-left agenda in first-in-the-nation flyover country. “We will raise taxes,” Sanders declared. “Yes we will.”
But meet the new Bernie Sanders: still lecturing, only now with a human course correction that could beat an increasingly robotic and vulnerable Hillary Clinton with less than a week to go before people actually – finally – start voting for a new American president.
Read the full piece here:
Trump has boasted of a “very powerful endorsement” today.
Could he mean South Carolina state senator Jake Knotts, who is to appear with the Donald at a rally in Lexington, S.C., on Wednesday?
South Carolina is the third state to go in the American nominating bonanza. There’s not much polling in the state, but Trump has always looked strong there and the state’s conservative, pro-military but not pro-immigrant Republican electorate seems a fit with him.
So who is Jake Knotts? In 2010 he called Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of the state, “a raghead,” the Washington Post reminds us.
Trumpian to a T.
Trump outdoes himself in new polls
Another day, another batch of numbers, writes Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi:
And as is so often the case, the latest US presidential election polls seem to be sending different messages about who’s up and who’s down. Here are a few words of analysis that might help you make sense of it all.
1
A CNN/ORC poll out today shows Donald Trump polling at 41% nationally while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails at a mere 19%.
Change: This is the highest level of support Trump has received since CNN/ORC began polling this Republican nomination race.
Method: A random national sample of 1,002 adults contacted by telephone between January 21 and 24.
Margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points.
2
A national poll from the Washington Post/ABC News gives Trump 37% of support while Cruz comes in second with 21%.
Change: Trump’s support is steady compared to a month ago.
Method: 356 Republican-leaning registered voters were contacted from January 21 and 24.
Margin of error: +/- 5.5 percentage points.
3
Today’s Quinnipiac University poll of Iowa voters has Trump polling at 31% and Cruz at 29%.
Change: Virtually no change since their last Quinnipiac poll earlier this month.
Method: 651 Iowa likely Republican Caucus participants were contacted between January 18 and 24 by real people via landlines and cell phones.
Margin of error: +/- 3.8 percentage points.
Analysis
That CNN/ORC poll might sound like the best of the bunch (decent number of respondents, low margin of error), but when you take a closer look it gets tricky.
That’s because the topline numbers about Republican candidates are only based on 405 registered voters who are Republicans or Republican-leaning. Suddenly, the margin of error jumps to 5 percentage points.
That doesn’t change the fact that Trump appears to be significantly ahead of Cruz nationally (although the margin could be much narrower at 36-24) but it does show the fragility of polling numbers that are based on such a small number of US voters.
Here’s another thing that’s worth keeping in mind: It’s easy to focus on answers to the rather simplistic (and very hypothetical) question:“If the primary or caucus in your state were today, for whom would you vote?” But it’s every bit as interesting to consider what people say when they’re asked who they definitely wouldn’t vote for and who they might vote for.
In a write-up of their poll, the Washington Post added up respondents’ first and second choices and found that the race tightened a little, with Trump at 49% and Cruz at 39%.
One last point to keep in mind: Research has repeatedly shown that one of the best ways to predict whether someone will vote is to look at whether they have voted in the past. As Ryan Struyk at ABC points out, those Quinnipiac polling numbers look very different when you only take previous voting attendance into account.
From new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa: Previously attended (67%): Cruz 31, Trump 28, Rubio 12. First-timers (33%): Trump 38, Cruz 25, Rubio 15.
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) January 26, 2016
Still, whichever way you slice these numbers, there’s one clear takeaway: Trump is doing great.
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Hilarious Rubio football video
This is great. Independent Journal Review revisits the time last year when Marco Rubio bonked a kid in a head with a football. Here Rubio completes the pass.
But then it gets really playful and really good. Have a look. Amazing Ben Carson cameo. Talk about Gifted Hands:
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Thrice-elected Republican governor of New York and nonstarter 2016 presidential candidate George Pataki has thrown his support behind Florida senator Marco Rubio.
George Pataki just endorsed @marcorubio on Fox News.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 26, 2016
The biggest endorsement news since nonstarter 2016 presidential candidate Rick Perry endorsed Ted Cruz yesterday? Inarguably.
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Did you watch the Democratic candidates’ forum last night? Hillary Clinton faced an uncomfortable question from the audience about why she does not inspire young people, and Bernie Sanders had to grovel for calling Planned Parenthood “establishment”.
Who won? It’s a forum, everybody wins! Read our full coverage here. Here’s the Clinton moment:
‘Very powerful endorsement today’, quoth Trump
Donald Trump is saying he’s got another big fish in the net. Sarah Palin was just a “special guest”, so who’s “very powerful”? Here’s video of the audio (because this is how we do TV now) of Trump’s boast:
VIDEO: @realDonaldTrump announces 'a very powerful endorsement' will be coming today. https://t.co/cJsMBcVcdY
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 26, 2016
Low whistle
New ABC/WaPo poll: 64% of Republicans now expect Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee, up sharply in last two months: pic.twitter.com/Xp1W7lwF8d
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 26, 2016
There is a slew of new polling out this morning, and it all looks good for Trump, especially nationally where a CNN/ORC poll has him at 41%, followed by Texas senator Ted Cruz at 19%.
But what about Iowa, which caucuses on Monday? The race between Cruz and Trump in Iowa remains tight, the way Quinnipiac sees it. And Jeb! is up a point!
Trump, Cruz Go Down To The Wire In GOP #Iowa Caucus Poll https://t.co/OjrPo806Vt #Election2016 #IAcaucus pic.twitter.com/FXLBflwNOw
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) January 26, 2016
As for the Democrats, an NBC News/Survey Monkey poll has Hillary Clinton holding a large national lead of 51-37 over Sanders, which is right in line with the polling averages.
Isn’t it strange how the first time Trump says something you kind of dismiss it, but then he does that trick where he says it again right away and then you catch yourself thinking: “Huh, Ted Cruz. Seems kind of nervous. Huh, America, we never win anymore. Huh, deals, why does Obama make such stupid deals.”
Trump on Cruz: “He really does lie. He’s so nervous. I saw him the other day, he’s so nervous."
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) January 26, 2016
Here’s how some of the Guardian politics team is deployed today:
Dan Roberts will be with Bernie Sanders in Des Moines, Iowa, where the senator is to meet with steel workers. Later in the day he’ll catch Hillary Clinton in Iowa as well, and even later in the day, Sabrina Siddiqui will catch Clinton again.
Sabrina will also cross paths with Ted Cruz in Iowa today, while Ben Jacobs has his sights on a Donald Trump rally this afternoon. David Smith reports today from the White House.
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"I'm thinking of somebody verrrrrrry powerful"
Since he's doing a Vulcan mind meld, it would have to be Mr. Spock.