Today in Campaign 2016
Before the weekend, here’s a quick rundown of how today’s campaign went down:
- Hillary Clinton hosted Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren at her Washington home this morning, fueling speculation that the pair could join forces to form an all-female ticket in the presidential election.
- Warren endorsed Clinton last night and, asked by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow if she felt confident she could be commander-in-chief if she became vice-president and had to assume the top job, replied: “Yes, I do.”
- The sole supporter of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential ambitions in the senate has officially changed his mind. Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, the first - and only - senator to endorse Sanders, told CNN late this morning that he will back presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election. “Certainly, I’m going to be supporting our nominee, and our nominee is Secretary Clinton,” Merkely told CNN’s Kate Bolduan - but his true passion is behind putting Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren at Clinton’s side.
- In a rare speech using a teleprompter, Donald Trump tried to appeal to evangelical voters this afternoon, saying “We will protect and defend Christian Americans.” At the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual summit in Washington DC, Trump tried to appeal to a conservative bloc of voters who have looked skeptically at the New York billionaire and boasted about how, in the Republican presidential primary, with evangelicals and “religion generally speaking.”
- Hillary Clinton delivered her first speech as the presumptive Democratic nominee not in a major electoral battleground but before hundreds of reproductive rights advocates, warning that Donald Trump would return America to a time “when life for too many women and girls was limited.” Days after becoming the first woman in US history to lead a major-party presidential ticket, Clinton drew upon a series of bellicose remarks made by Trump in reference to women - from calling them “pigs” and “disgusting animals” to suggesting they should be punished for having abortions - as part of a blistering indictment of her Republican opponent before the Planned Parenthood Action Network in Washington DC.
- Donald Trump responded to Elizabeth Warren’s criticisms:
Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2016
Donald Trump has no regrets “whatsoever” repeatedly calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.”
. @HallieJackson Q: Any regrets on calling (@elizabethforma) 'Pocahontas,' Mr Trump?
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) June 10, 2016
Trump: "None whatsoever." pic.twitter.com/tOnvWraU1i
Billionaire David Koch, the New York-based cultural philanthropist who forms one-half of the political Megazord that is the Koch Bros., reportedly won’t help fund the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month, an expression of apparent dissatisfaction with the state of the party and Donald Trump’s presence at the top of the party’s ticket.
Neither David nor his brother Charles will contribute to the RNC Host Committee this year, said Kenneth Spain, a spokesman for their company, Koch Industries. The billionaires are among the country’s biggest and most influential conservative donors.
Hillary Clinton delivered her first speech as the presumptive Democratic nominee not in a major electoral battleground but before hundreds of reproductive rights advocates, warning that Donald Trump would return America to a time “when life for too many women and girls was limited”.
Days after becoming the first woman in US history to lead a major-party presidential ticket, Clinton drew upon a series of bellicose remarks made by Trump in reference to women - from calling them “pigs” and “disgusting animals” to suggesting they should be punished for having abortions - as part of a blistering indictment of her Republican opponent before the Planned Parenthood Action Network in Washington DC.
“Anyone who would so casually agree to the idea of punishing women - like it was nothing to him, the most obvious thing in the world - that is someone who doesn’t hold women in high regard,” Clinton said. “Because if he did, he’d trust women to make the right decisions for ourselves.”
“We’re in the middle of a concerted, persistent assault on women’s health across our country. And we have to ask ourselves and ask everyone we come in contact with: Do we want to put our health, our lives, our futures in Donald Trump’s hands?”
Hillary Clinton seemed a little... stunned when asked about potential vice presidential possibilities earlier today:
Hillary Clinton hosted Senator Elizabeth Warren at her Washington home on Friday, fuelling speculation that the pair could join forces to form an all-female ticket in the presidential election.
The senator from Massachusetts arrived at Clinton’s house in an affluent, tree-lined suburb near Observatory Circle just before 10.40am and left about an hour later without taking questions from the media.
The women have had several conversations over the past month, the Washington Post reported.
Warren, 66, endorsed Clinton on Thursday night and, asked by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow if she felt confident she could be commander-in-chief if she became vice-president and had to assume the top job, replied: “Yes, I do.”
There is growing support within the Democratic party for Clinton to pick Warren, dubbed the “north star” of progressives with the sort of leftwing credentials that could win over disaffected supporters of Bernie Sanders and unify the party.
Could Hillary Clinton be indicted over her emails?
As an FBI investigation continues, expert opinion is divided. Some offer a view reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s famous remark that he experimented with marijuana but “didn’t inhale”. “I believe Clinton did break the law but at the same time I don’t think there’s evidence she committed a crime,” says Douglas Cox, associate professor at City University of New York School of Law.
It is a violation of federal records law to remove or destroy material, Cox notes, although Clinton “in part” fixed this by returning thousands of emails. More important in assessing whether a crime was committed is the question of intent, Cox says. “While there were warnings and memos that she should have been aware of, from a prosecution side they would need to prove her knowledge and intent and have evidence of that to bring before a jury.”
Cox believes such evidence is lacking. In this sense the case is different from those of retired general David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, and Sandy Berger, ex-national security adviser, both of whom handled information they knew was classified and were wilfully deceitful.
But a minority disagree with this analysis. Republican congressman Chris Stewart, who as a member of the House intelligence committee has read secret emails found on Clinton’s server, says: “She did reveal classified means. She did reveal classified methods. She did reveal classified human assets.”
In a rare speech using a teleprompter, Donald Trump tried to appeal to evangelical voters this afternoon, saying “We will protect and defend Christian Americans.”
At the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual summit in Washington DC, Trump tried to appeal to a conservative bloc of voters who have looked skeptically at the New York billionaire and boasted about how, in the Republican presidential primary, with evangelicals and “religion generally speaking.”
Trump hit key talking points saying “we want to uphold the sanctity and dignity of life” and asserted “marriage and family is the building block of happiness and success.” He also emphasized the current vacancy on the Supreme Court, arguing that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will “appoint radical judges who will legislate from the bench and the will of the people will mean nothing.”
The candidate who has been mired in controversy after asserting that the federal judge presiding over a lawsuit against him is biased because he is “Mexican,” addressed the topic indirectly. Trump, whose comments have been called racist by many in his own party, including Speaker Paul Ryan, said “freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color or the color of their skin.”
The presumptive Republican nominee also issued a challenge to Clinton, his opponent in November. He told the crowd “I am challenging Hillary Clinton to replace her support for an increase in refugee program for new jobs in the inner city.”
Trump, who called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in November, argued “We have to temporarily stop this whole thing with refugees where we don’t know what’s coming.” Instead, Trump said “we have to take care of the people that are here.” He did not elaborate on how the two were mutually exclusive.
The speech though was well-received by the crowd which gave Trump a standing ovation. It marked a major change from a September appearance to different social conservative group at the same venue where Trump waved a Bible and discussed his love for Christmas at length.
And with that, Donald Trump’s 24-minute address to the Faith and Freedom Conference comes to an end.
Donald Trump zeroes in on general election opponent Hillary Clinton, telling the audience that “she’ll appoint radical judges who will legislate fro the bench ... and the will of the people will mean nothing.”
“Her judges will abolish the second amendment and abandon the rule of law,” Trump continues, and says Clinton would push to legalize abortion access “up until the moment of birth.”
“Her policies will be a crushing blow to all poor people in this country. Her education policies, her economic policies, her immigration policies, her trade policies will plunge our poor African American and Hispanic communities into turmoil and, even worse, despair.”
“Hillary Clinton has jeopardized - totally jeopardized national security,” Trump says, telling the audience that the White House announced yesterday that Clinton is under criminal investigation for using a private email server “to hide her corrupt dealings.” (The White House did not make such an announcement.”
“A little freedom of speech, what are you gonna do,” Trump says. “These are professional agitators. They’re sent here by the other party, believe me.”
“Now, where were we?”
Reading from a teleprompter, Donald Trump goes down a laundry list of evangelical pet issues, saying “we want to uphold the sanctity and dignity of life, marriage and family as the building block of happiness and success.”
“So important,” he adds.
“Freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color or the color of their skin,” Trump says. “Should not be judged that way.”
“We must continue to forge our partnership with Israel and work to ensure Israel’s security,” Trump says. “Hillary Clinton - or, as I call her, Crooked Hillary Clinton, she’s as crooked as they come - refuses to even say the words radical Islam. Refuses to say the words! This alone makes her unfit to be president. In fact, she wants a 500% increase in Syrian refugees to come into our country. No good. No good. No good, can’t do it. We don’t know where they come from.”
Trump is then interrupted by a series of protesters who appear to be from #CodePink, chanting “Refugees are welcome here!”
“Crazy what happens here,” Trump says.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump mounts the stage at the Faith and Freedom Conference, a meeting of influential evangelical Christians and social conservatives in Washington, DC.
After being introduced by Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and chair Ralph Reed, Trump promises the crowd “we’re gonna have a big, big victory in November, you’re gonna be very happy.”
Donald Trump speaks at Faith and Freedom Conference
Watch it live here:
Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'does not see all Americans as Americans'
Hillary Clinton takes a direct rhetorical shot against Donald Trump, who she says “wants to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade; he, of course, wants to defund Planned Parenthood, and he wants to go after so many rights we have, including the right to access to safe, legal abortion.”
“He actually said women should be punished for having abortions,” Clinton says, her voice hushed. “Now, once he said that, there was an outcry - as there should have been, and he tried to walk it back - he’s been doing that a lot lately - but anyone who would so casually agree to the idea of punishing women, like it was nothing... that’s someone who does not hold women in high regard.”
“This is a man who has called women pigs and dogs and disgusting animals,” Clinton continues. “When he says that pregnant women are an inconvenience to their employer, what does that say?”
“Everything I’ve seen tells me that life is freer, fairer, healthier, safer, and far more humane when woman are empowered to make their own reproductive health decisions,” Clinton says.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Donald Trump has shown us who he is - and we believe him,” Clinton says. “He does not see all Americans as Americans. So this election isn’t about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans - they’ll be there, don’t worry - but this election is profoundly different. It’s about who we are as a nation.”
“So here’s my promise to you today: I will be your partner in this election, and over the long haul,” Clinton concludes. “We are stronger together, and we’re going to make history together in November!”
Hillary Clinton, on abortion access:
Defending women’s health means defending access to abortion. Not just in theory, but in reality.
“Republicans, led now by Donald Trump, are working to reverse” abortion access, Hillary Clinton says, before launching her first salvo against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“When Donald Trump says ‘let’s make America great again,’ that is code for ‘let’s take America backward.’ Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all. Back to the days when abortion was illegal, women had far fewer options, and life for too many women and girls was limited.”
“Well, Donald, those days are over,” Clinton vows.
“We are not going to let Donald Trump or anyone else turn back the clock - and that means we’ve got to get to work.”
“I am deeply conscious of the reality that this victory belongs to generations of brave women and men who fought for the radical idea that women should determine our own lives and futures,” Clinton tells the audience.
“I want to start by saying something you don’t hear often enough: Thank you.”
“As president, I will always have your back,” Clinton vows, “because I know that for a century, Planned Parenthood has worked to make sure that women, men, young people who count on you can lead their best lives.”
Hillary Clinton addresses Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has mounted the stage at a meeting of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of the eponymous women’s health organization.
“She’s our friend, she’s a fighter, she’s our leader, and she’s going to be the next president of the United States,” Clinton is introduced by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, as Fight Song plays over the speakers.
“I have to say, pink never looked so good,” Clinton tells the pink-clad audience.
Dan Roberts in Washington and Mona Chalabi in New York
Nearly six times as many Bernie Sanders supporters are prepared to shift their support to Hillary Clinton than vote for Donald Trump in November, according to an exclusive new poll which suggests Democrats are in a strong position to convert energy from their passionate primary contest into general election success.
However, the research, conducted by SurveyUSA for the Guardian, also shows that if Sanders were to find a way of staying in the presidential race, it could hand the White House to Trump, who would beat Clinton by three percentage points in that scenario.
Carried out the day after the California primary, the polling news comes amid residual pressure from some Sanders supporters for him to continue his struggle – either as an independent or perhaps by replacing Jill Stein, the Green party candidate, on that party’s ticket.
But the survey of 1,408 registered voters reveals limited appetite for this option, which would split the progressive vote. Presented with a four-way choice of Trump, Clinton, Sanders and libertarian Gary Johnson, 35% would vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, versus 32% for Clinton, 18% for Sanders and 4% for Johnson.
Yet when Sanders is removed from the equation and voters are offered the more expected lineup of Trump, Clinton, Stein and Johnson, it is the presumptive Democratic nominee who emerges on top with 39%, followed by Trump on 36%, Johnson at 6% and Stein on 4%. Only 5% of respondents told pollsters they would “stay at home and not vote” in this scenario.
Georgia senator David Perdue’s spokesperson has released a statement about the senator’s “prayer” for President Barack Obama, in which Perdue quoted Psalm 109:8, which reads “Let his days be few.” The unread line following Perdue’s quotation reads: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
Perdue spox: "He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that."
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) June 10, 2016
Bernie Sanders loses sole supporter in the senate
The sole supporter of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential ambitions in the senate has officially changed his mind.
Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, the first - and only - senator to endorse Sanders, told CNN late this morning that he will back presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election.
“Certainly, I’m going to be supporting our nominee, and our nominee is Secretary Clinton,” Merkely told CNN’s Kate Bolduan - but his true passion is behind putting Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren at Clinton’s side.
“Every progressive in America is hoping that the conversation in Secretary Clinton’s house is all about how Elizabeth Warren would be a wonderful vice president of the United States,” Merkley said. “It ties in so much to Bernie Sanders’ campaign. In his campaign, he fought for big ideas to take on big challenges.”
“I’m ready to say that Elizabeth Warren would make a great vice president.”
In April, Merkley told MSNBC that he was endorsing Sanders, who he said “has the boldest, most fierce vision on the biggest issues facing America and the world.”
Updated
In a fawning interview with Breitbart News, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that he plans to address racial inequality by returning jobs from overseas.
“I plan to help Hispanics and African Americans because I’m going to bring jobs back to the country,” Trump said.
His opponent, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, “doesn’t know how,” Trump said. “I’m going to rebuild the infrastructure of the country, she wouldn’t know where to start.”
Last night, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders declared in what may end up being his penultimate campaign speech that “young people are catching on - they are the future of America, and they are damn determined to shape the future of America.”
The presidential candidate’s popularity with college-aged voters is well documented - which makes the just-reported poaching of his head of campus organizing all the more surprising. According to Buzzfeed, Kunoor Ojha, Sanders’ national student organizing director, has jumped to rival Hillary Clinton’s team. Ojha is the first Sanders staffer to officially jump ship after the former secretary of state clinched the Democratic party’s nomination on Tuesday.
Ojha, who also served as Sanders’ New Hampshire campus director, will be serving in a similar role for Clinton, whose backing among young voters has been less fervent.
Another colleague declares that Elizabeth Warren is ready to serve as Hillary Clinton’s vice president...
Great speech on our justice system from @elizabethforma last evening. I've served w/ her & know she's absolutely qualified to be potus
— Bob Casey Jr. (@Bob_Casey) June 10, 2016
Donald Trump: Elizabeth Warren has a 'nasty mouth'
Donald Trump has responded to Elizabeth Warren’s criticisms:
Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2016
At a speech to the American Constitution Society in Washington DC last night, Warren hit out at Trump as “just a businessman who inherited a fortune and kept it rolling along by cheating people.”
She described him as “a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who … serves no one but himself”, and said his attacks on Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over the Trump University suit, was “exactly what you would expect from somebody who is a thin-skinned racist bully.”
In an interview with Time Magazine, Donald Trump declared that his refusal to focus on policy is what his supporters want from their candidate.
“My voters don’t care and the public doesn’t care,” Trump said. “They know you’re going to do a good job once you’re there.”
Trump also said that the massive disparity in the size of his campaign staff with that of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee - roughly six-to-one, according to Time - just makes his operation more streamlined.
“We had 73 people. She had 873,” he said. “It’s called lean and mean.”
“Hillary’s campaign is crazy,” he continued. “I look at her staffing, and I mean she’s got the United States government there ... She’s got people that sit in cubicles writing policy all day. Nothing’s ever going to happen. It’s just a waste of paper.”
Updated
Donald Trump has publicly refused to disavow his racialized criticism of the sitting federal judge presiding over the multi-state fraud suit against Trump University, but according to campaign surrogate Ben Carson, he’s more circumspect in private.
“He fully recognizes that that was not the right thing to say,” Carson told Politico in an interview. “He was probably talking out loud rather than thinking. That’s not a good thing to do when everything you say is going to be analyzed.”
At the apex of the criticism of his comments, in which Trump declared that judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Latino background meant that he could not preside over a case involving Trump without bias, Trump released a statement declaring that his criticism had been “misconstrued” and vowing to never address the matter again.
“I do not intend to comment on this matter any further,” Trump said.
Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, DC, this morning, Georgia senator David Perdue told attendees to pray for President Barack Obama:
We should pray like Psalm 109:8 says: Let his days be few.
The next line in that particular Psalm: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
Today in Campaign 2016
Good morning! Welcome to the Guardian’s campaign liveblog.
With the general election campaign (almost) in full gear, the arc of this week’s political narrative has been the phoenix-like resurgence of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – if not from the ashes, at least from terrible polling numbers. With key endorsements from Barack Obama and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, Clinton appears to be well on her way to the kind of party unity that so distressed supporters who fretted it may never come.
Now, speculation about Clinton’s campaign moves from party unity to the top ticket – specifically, who Clinton will select as her running mate. While Warren told Rachel Maddow last night that she is “very happy” with her role in the Senate, the Washington Post reports that the two will meet privately this morning.
Meanwhile, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump – fresh from his trip to the burn ward – is dodging continued fallout from incendiary comments he made about a sitting federal judge. What kind of fallout? The kind where the senate majority leader says that Trump “doesn’t know a lot about the issues” and says he is open to withdrawing his endorsement.
Silver lining:
Thank you Roseanne, very much appreciated. https://t.co/COXEJ1In8D
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
Before we’re off to the races, here’s what we’re anticipating on the campaign trail today:
- A light day for Clinton, with only a single event scheduled. The former secretary of state will be speaking at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in Washington DC at noon ET. The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui will be attending.
- “We’re thrilled to have Secretary Clinton join us at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund membership event,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a release. “The stakes are higher this year than in any other election in memory.” Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Clinton in January.
- Leaked talking points from the planned remarks indicate that Clinton plans to focus on Trump’s record on women’s issues – and to call him “frightening” on the subject of reproductive choice.
- Trump, meanwhile, will attend the Faith and Freedom conference this morning, and will hold a rally at the Richmond Coliseum in the Virginia capital at 8pm ET. Both will be attended by the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs.
Updated
