The Presidents’ Day live blog of the 2016 race for the presidency is coming to an end: none of the presidential candidates weighed in on where to put the apostrophe. They said some stuff about each other, though.
- Donald Trump threatened to sue Ted Cruz, his Republican rival for the party’s nomination, over his eligibility and the “lies” recited by his campaign. Because Cruz was born a dual Canadian-American citizen, in Canada, Trump says his eligibility is in question. He also called him “totally unstable”, “a basket case” and “unhinged”.
- Cruz bookended his day with further attacks on Trump, saying the billionaire must be afraid of losing in South Carolina. He also said that Trump and Marco Rubio do nothing but shout “liar” when anyone looks at their record.
- George W Bush emerged from retirement to campaign with his brother, Jeb, in South Carolina. The former president will headline an event with his brother on Monday night – his first campaign appearance, and one of his few public appearances, in the seven years since he left office.
- Bill Clinton appeared at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton, who’s spent the the last 16 years of his retirement working as a senator and former secretary of state (and professional speaker). The ex-president spoke in Palm Beach, Florida, implicitly attacking Bernie Sanders’ plan for free college and selling the audience hard that his wife “realizes that black lives matter”.
- And Trump, not content with one headline, also made a veiled threat to run a third-party campaign, even though he signed an agreement to stay within the Republican party. That pledge, he said, is “in default” thanks to the large number of “lobbyists and donors” at the most recent debate. The RNC told the Guardian that candidates had the majority of seat tickets.
NB via Garner’s Modern American Usage: “The spelling with the apostrophe is better and more common. It’s also the original spelling. Until 1971, Lincoln’s Birthday (12 February) and Washington’s Birthday (22 February) were both observed as federal holidays.”
Richard Nixon put ‘em together and proclaimed “the Presidetns’ Day” on the third Monday of the month, to honor all past presidents. “Washington’s Birthday is still the name officially adopted by the federal government.”
Former president Bill Clinton encounters a Trumpista on the trail.
Interrupted by Trump supporter, @billclinton says his foundation used Trump's money "better than he’s using it now."https://t.co/2ThdGx6gZa
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 15, 2016
George W Bush’s reappearance in South Carolina heralds a new turn in the race: Bush beat out John McCain in the state in 2000, but it’s been a long 16 years and it’s not clear whether the former president can help his brother’s fortunes.
One sign for Jeb! and George W. rally, the other for dinosaurs in North Charleston pic.twitter.com/xideIkzhqW
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 15, 2016
Ted Cruz has given his first response to the enfilade of attacks from Donald Trump today. He’s response is a tweet.
You cannot simply scream “liar” when someone points out your actual positions: https://t.co/DI5HnSln62
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 15, 2016
On the campaign trail he offered a slightly less polished response, the Wall Street Journal’s Janet Hook tweets.
Cruz responds to Trump attack: "The only explanation is that his internal polling numbers in SC must be plummeting following that debate."
— Janet Hook (@hookjan) February 15, 2016
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Trump has ended the press conference, which featured not only insults for Ted Cruz but two curious answers to policy questions. The Guardian’s own Ben Jacobs asked about the Voting Rights Act, the heart of which the supreme court narrowly struck down in 2013. From Ben:
Asked whether Section V of the Voting Rights Act should be reauthorized, Trump said “I’ll look into it.”
Section V, which was effectively invalidated by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2013, required the federal government to give preclearance to any changes in voting rules and processes in a number of states and jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in elections. This included South Carolina.
The implicit meaning of Trump’s response: I have no idea whatyou’re talking about. Trump was also asked about undocumented people protected by Barack Obama’s DACA orders, and who are colloquially called “Dreamers”.
The billionaire surprisingly said “I think it’s great,” but context shows he’s more fond of the dreaming than the deferred deportations.
“I want dreamers to come from the United States,” he said. “I want the people in the United States that have children, I want them to have dreams also. We’re always talking about ‘Dreamers’ for other people. I want the children that are growing up in the United States to be dreamers also. They’re not dreaming right now.”
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Ted Cruz’s attacks on Donald Trump have increased in the last few weeks, as the Texas senator tries to repeat his victory in Iowa with evangelical voters. My colleague Sabrina Siddiqui reports from Florence, South Carolina
Texas senator Ted Cruz unveiled a new ad on Monday attacking Donald Trump’s prior stance on abortion, as the battle between the two Republican frontrunners heats up before South Carolina’s evangelical voters.
The television spot opens with ominous warnings about the balance of the Supreme Court – a subtle reference to the vacancy left in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death on Saturday.
“Life. Marriage. Religious liberty. The Second Amendment. We’re just one Supreme Court justice away from losing them all,” a narrator says against the backdrop of imagery of the Court.
It quickly pivots to an interview with Trump in 1999, in which the real estate mogul insisted he would not outlaw late-term abortions.
“I’m very pro-choice,” Trump says in the clip, a position he repeats when pressed again for his view of late-term abortions.
The narrator returns to declare: “We cannot trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions.”
Cruz and Trump have locked horns in a bitter contest for the Republican nomination. Cruz scored a resounding victory in the Iowa caucuses this month, while Trump overwhelmingly won the New Hampshire primary last week.
Cruz has sought to highlight Trump’s past support for liberal policies, seeking to undercut the idea that he is a true conservative. Trump, for his part, has recently pointed to Cruz’s support for Chief Justice John Roberts while serving in former President George W Bush’s administration in 2005. (Roberts has drawn conservative ire for casting the deciding vote to uphold Barack Obama’s healthcare law, in 2012 and 2015.)
Trump holds a commanding lead of 38% in South Carolina, based on an average of publicly available polling, while Cruz sits in second at 21%.
Within the Republican field, Jeb Bush has led the charge in questioning Trump’s conservatism. The former Florida governor is seeking a comeback in South Carolina, but trails in the polls behind Trump, Cruz and Florida senator Marco Rubio.
Cruz, holding an ardent following among grassroots conservatives, is regarded as better positioned to make the case that Trump is simply not credible as a Republican candidate. The coming weeks will determine whether or not the Texas senator is able to succeed
Trump’s press conference careens onward. He’s asked about undocumented people living in the United States, and specifically those called “Dreamers” after the executive actions by Barack Obama to protect them from deportation.
“I want dreamers to be Americans,” Trump says. But it’s not all nationalism. “I think it’s great,” he says. “I want dreamers to come from the United States”
He’s asked about race issues. Barack Obama “has done nothing for African Americans,” Trump says. “He got a free pass, and he shouldn’t have.”
What about that defeat in Iowa, a reporter asks. “If they had a strong leader in Iowa in terms of the Republican Party,” the billionaire answers, “they should overturn that election.”
He’s asked about his veiled threat – and we’re talking a veil of gossamer – to run a third-party campaign because of his disputes with the Republican National Committee. “This happened twice before,” he says, “and they don’t listen.”
“The bottom line is the RNC is controlled by the establishment … by the special interests and the donors … that’s why the Republican party for president has lost so much for so long.”
Trump insists: “I don’t have donors, I don’t have special interests.”
Trump threatens suit against Cruz
“Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual,” begins a Trump campaign statement indicating that the billionaire is fed up by what he calls his rival’s. In a longwinded, first-person statement Trump goes through Cruz’s attacks point by point and tries to refute them.
He is the single biggest liar I’ve ever come across, in politics or otherwise, and I have seen some of the best of them. His statements are totally untrue and completely outrageous. It is hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a Christian could be so dishonest and lie so much.
Trump statement also goes on: “Cruz has become unhinged and is lying with the hopes that his statements will go unchecked until after the election and he will save his failing campaign.”
One of the ways I can fight back is to bring a lawsuit against him relative to the fact that he was born in Canada and therefore cannot be President. If he doesn’t take down his false ads and retract his lies, I will do so immediately. Additionally, the RNC should intervene and if they don’t they are in default of their pledge to me.
The statement runs through gun control, the supreme court, etc, and also suggests Cruz is the hypocrite here: “Cruz was responsible for getting Bush to put in the judge that failed to vote against Obamacare twice.”
The billionaire is simultaneously giving a press conference in South Carolina, where he says: “what Cruz says is incredible. … I will bring that lawsuit if he doesn’t apologize.”
He rants a bit about how Cruz’s campaign called voters in Iowa to falsely say that Ben Carson, another Republican seeking evangelical voters, had dropped out of the campaign. Cruz has apologized for the tactic; Carson has refused to say whether he accepts it (presumably not).
Meanwhile Trump responds to Cruz’s criticism of Maryanne Trump Barry, the billionaire’s sister and a federal judge on a powerful appeals court. This morning Cruz suggested that she, like her brother, is neither a conservative nor to be trusted.
“First of all my sister has nothing to do with me,” Trump says. |First of all she’s a federal judge at high, high levels.” He calls her “a highly brilliant woman” who doesn’t want any stories written about her. “She’s very much like me in that respect” – the joke wins laughs.
“By the way my sister was appointed by Ronald Reagan,” he goes on. “Elevated I believe by the Clinton administration, but appointed, I believe, by Ronald Reagan.”
Updated
First sitting governor endorses Rubio
Kansas governor Sam Brownback has endorsed Marco Rubio for president, making Brownback the first current governor to publicly support a candidate.
The Rubio campaign announced the endorsement from the ultra-conservative governor.
“Just like Governor Brownback, Marco has consistently defended life, small government and free enterprise throughout his career in public service,” spokesman Jeremy Adlers aid in a statement.
Brownback also released a statement: “Marco Rubio has a proven track record of protecting life, defending religious liberty, and undoing Obamacare.”
Kansas will hold its caucuses on 5 March, just after the 1 March “Super Tuesday” votes in which 13 states will hold their primaries or caucuses. Brownback’s endorsement of Rubio is a blow to Ted Cruz, who has courted extremely evangelical voters and whose own hard-right politics are close to the Kansas governor’s.
Brownback has signed three anti-abortion bills since taking office, and last year revoked anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. He has also signed one of the biggest tax cuts in the state’s history, even though the state is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. It’s not clear whether Kansans will listen to Brownback: last fall support for the governor dwindled to 18%.
Checking in with Florida senator Marco Rubio, who’s being trailed by my colleague Sabrina Siddiqui in South Carolina. Rival Republicans have lambasted Rubio for his work with on a bipartisan immigration reform bill, even though it ultimately failed.
Rubio’s trying out his new line of defense: I never wanted that bill to pass anyway.
Rubio to reporters on Gang of 8 bill: "I don’t know anyone who thought they were just going to bring it up and pass it as is."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 15, 2016
Also of note is that Rubio’s put all his electoral eggs in the presidential basket. He’ll either be in the White House or unemployed in Miami come 21 January 2017.
Asked about term limits, Rubio notes he's not running both for pres & for re-election to Senate: "I am leaving one way or the other."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 15, 2016
And finally, Rubio gives his usual gentle takedown of Donald Trump: “I don’t think there’s any doubt Donald is not a career conservative.”
Is Donald Trump conservative? Rubio tells voter: "We're always looking for converts."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 15, 2016
Like a ghost of campaigns past, George W returns to the trial.
South Carolina is Bush country! https://t.co/koKt5KyU04
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) February 15, 2016
Trump has moved on to a Q&A portion of the event, taking questions from voters. My colleague Ben Jacobs is in the room and has managed to get a response from the Republican National Committee about Trump’s hint that he might still make a third-party run.
In a campaign event just outside of Charleston, the Republican frontrunner said that by packing the debate audiences with “lobbyists and donors”, the RNC was in default of the pledge that Trump signed last year, promising not to run on his own.
A spokesperson for the RNC told the Guardian:
Each candidate received 100 tickets which is the largest amount so far. The candidates as a whole were the largest group of ticket holders.
The language of the pledge is pretty straight forward. [It] simply states the candidates pledges to run as a Republican and support the nominee. Nothing more and nothing less.
In the past two debates, Trump has been booed by audiences after tangling with rival Jeb Bush on issues like the Iraq War and eminent domain. The Trump campaign has insisted that the audiences were packed with “donors and special interests”, a claim that has been repeatedly and vehemently denied by party leadership in the RNC.
Trump’s threat to run as a third party candidate is unusual, since it comes five days before the South Carolina primary in which the Republican frontrunner is expected to win easily. Normally, threats to bolt the party come from losing candidates, not winning ones.
Trump also addressed other topics besides his pledge. The Republican frontrunner spent much of the event railing against Ted Cruz, whom he called “the most dishonest guy I’ve ever met in politics” and promised, if elected, to advocate for Christians in the United States.
He also insisted he has no problem staying at a Holiday Inn. “I just want clean. If it’s clean and has a decent bed I’m happy. Clean is number one. “
Updated
Trump warns RNC about third-party run
The billionaire has hinted that his agreement with the Republican party not to run a third-party campaign might not be so agreed on after all.
Trump complains that everybody in the debate room on Saturday was wealthy and powerful – the lobbyists and donors whom Trump accuses of pulling politicians’ strings.
He says that the debate was “a disgrace from the RNC,” using the abbreviation for the Republican National Committee. He says he signed a pledge, “but the pledge isn’t being honored by them.”
“Those tickets were all special interest people. I know ‘em!”
He says it was surreal to see familiar faces out in the crowd: “they’re booing me because they’re having fun!”
Trump says he knew one guy personally: “he’s going ‘boo, boo!’ And he’s waving at me,” Trump says, mimicking a little wave and snigger, a sort of Republican donor imp. Trump says he couldn’t believe it: “I’m saying this is crazy! But I know many of these people. … That was a wealthy room.”
He rhymes, “it’s a double-edge pledge”, though he doesn’t say explicitly say what the Republican party agreed to do regarding the debate crowd.
Back to the Republican party: “as far as I’m concerned they’re in default of the pledge.”
He throws in another diss at Ted Cruz: “You’ve got a very unstable guy in Cruz, he’s nuts . … So anyway I have to be very careful.”
Updated
Donald Trump is Trumping in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, talking smack about his rivals to some voters at a Holiday Inn.
He’s talking about last names. He prefers a clean, unpunctuated surname: “better than a hyphen, it’s better than exclamation points.”
“When it comes to the other candidates, we will do a job. I’m not influenced at all by anything have to do at all with money,” the billionaire businessman says.
He says that Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio et al are the kind of people who hold a Bible in are “willing to lie about anything”. Plus, “they just put up money like it’s water.”
He says Cruz’s donors in particular are “a who’s who”. “Take a look at the gay marriage issue and then take a look at who is donors are,” Trump says. “Take a look at what he said about gay marriage when he was working at law offices in Manhattan.
Somehow or other he segues from the Bible to talk about Christianity, which he says: “is being chopped away at: chop, chop, chop.”
“We have to give the power back to Christianity,” he says, adding that it’ll be a good thing when it happens. “We’re gonna say Merry Christmas at christmas … cause you can’t say it anymore, you can’t say it!”
My colleague Ben Jacobs is at the Inn and tweeting from the scene.
Trump: Jeb is just Jeb but Ted Cruz is the most dishonest guy I've ever met in politics.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 15, 2016
Trump: Rubio is a calm sort of guy. Especially when he is under pressure and than he gets real calm.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 15, 2016
Updated
Hello, and welcome to our coverage of the race for South Carolina, the third to vote in the 2016 presidential primaries – and the place where a reclusive ex-president will at last jump back onto the campaign trail.
George W Bush has returned – his quiet, self-imposed exile of impressionist art ended so that he can help his brother, Jeb!, in one of the most chaotic Republican primaries in modern history. Billionaire realty star Donald Trump remains at the top of the polls, in South Carolina and nationally, despite falling into traps laid by Texas senator Ted Cruz in a debate on Saturday night.
“And Donald has this weird pattern, when you point to his own record he screams, ‘Liar, liar, liar,’” Cruz said, attacking Trump over his erstwhile liberal feelings.
Trump walked into it. “You probably are worse than Jeb Bush,” he said, adding: “This guy will say anything, nasty guy. Now I know why he doesn’t have one endorsement from any of his colleagues.”
But Trump has strolled into disasters before and walked out unscathed. Florida senator Marco Rubio, on the other hand, is still trying to calculate a recovery from mistakes made in New Hampshire. The once ascendant senator is back to basics in South Carolina, alongside the stray candidates in the field: Ben Carson and John Kasich. (Jim Gilmore, whom we all remember fondly vaguely, also quit.)
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has also brought her family to the frontlines … with mixed results. Her husband Bill, who helped secure his own presidency by telling Americans “I feel your pain”, has claimed to feel your race too.
“Unless your ancestors, every one of you, are 100%, 100% from sub-Saharan Africa, we are all mixed-race people,” he told a crowd in Tennessee on Sunday.
Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders, has meanwhile ramped up operations in Nevada, where he hopes to put up stronger numbers than the southern states where he is not as well known. Clinton has her partisans there too, however: a group calling itself “Hookers for Hillary” is now stumping for the former secretary of state.
My colleagues Ben Jacobs and Sabrina Siddiqui are in South Carolina with the campaigns, and we’ll be bringing you all the updates of the day.
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