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Updated
Pataki endorses Kasich
Ohio governor John Kasich is the recipient of the (latest) George Pataki nod:
Former candidate George Pataki endorses John Kasich after previously endorsing Marco Rubio
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) April 14, 2016
But it’s unclear how many are the actual votes over which Pataki holds sway...
So with the George Pataki endorsement, I guess John Kasich is now the favorite in Peekskill?
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) April 14, 2016
Kasich polls second in New York, far behind Trump but a few points up on Cruz.
The Bernie Sanders campaign has suspended its Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Zimmerman, after it emerged that Zimmerman had used a vulgarity to disparage Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Facebook, the New York Times reports:
“She has been suspended while we investigate the matter,” Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Senator Bernie Sanders, wrote in an email.
Zimmerman had called Netanyahu “arrogant, deceptive, cynical” and “manipulative.”
Bernie was losing the Jewish vote in New York by a 2 to 1 margin before this totally self-inflicted injury https://t.co/x7aAm10RG8
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) April 14, 2016
George Pataki, the thrice-elected Republican governor of New York and a former presidential candidate, is about to make an endorsement in the presidential race, the New York Times reports.
It’s not Trump, apparently.
NEW YORK - @GovernorPataki teases a presidential endorsement in mere minutes. Confirms: it won't be Trump. pic.twitter.com/q6PjP7UWNF
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 14, 2016
A sizable protest has arrived at the gates of the annual GOP gala in midtown Manhattan. The Guardian’s Jana Kasperkevic has been speaking with marchers calling for a higher federal minimum wage, while Alan Yuhas is among the mass of media waiting to be processed into the event – and now the two groups have collided, along with an anti-Trump protest and a bunch of would-be commuters.
Signs of the times. pic.twitter.com/ablQcfS8nn
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) April 14, 2016
There were a lot of unhappy commuters in midtown on Thursday as New York Republicans held a gala dinner at Grand Hyatt, next door to Grand Central, Jana writes:
“What the hell are they protesting now?” asked an annoyed man in a suit as hundreds of low-wage workers marched past him, going East on 42nd street.
“C’mon, people gotta get home!” complained another as the Fight for $15 protest came upon an anti-Trump rally that in itself was more than a hundred of people.
Across the street in front of the entrance the Grand Central, a white man and an African-American woman got into an altercation but were quickly separated by the police. Inside the hotel, a handful of protesters were arrested and were later led into an NYPD van waiting outside.
As they were loaded in and their possessions placed into plastic bags by the police, the crowd outside cheered and clapped.
Security grab the protesters banners, encircle the group, ask reporters back in what becomes a crush of guards/press pic.twitter.com/HpGwr9KePY
— Alan Yuhas (@AlanYuhas) April 14, 2016
Low-wage workers march on GOP gala
A few hundred low-wage workers gathered in Times Square Thursday afternoon to march across town to the Grand Hyatt hotel, where a GOP gala was to be held later in the evening.
Before the march, the crowd heard from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who recently signed a bill increasing New York’s state minimum wage to $15 by 2022, given inflation targets.
“Turn on the TV news, everybody says the same thing: ‘There’s a lot of angry people in America’,” said Cuomo. Middle-class Americans should be angry, he continued, because the American middle class has been moving backwards.
If those gathered were angry, it was at a politician whose name they refused to say out loud. Instead, as workers took turns coming up to the stage they said they were tired of politicians who used them as punching bags and politicians who wanted to build walls.
Could they have been speaking of Trump?
Jumal Tarver, 37, a McDonald’s worker, was at the rally and march.
“I definitely think that [Republicans] want the wages to stay the same as they are or be even lower,” Tarver said. “It’s hard for us to survive off of $8.75 or $10.50 an hour. On $15 an hour, we will be able to do what we need to do to support ourselves and our families.”
Tarver earns $10.50 an hour and is a father of two – a 13-month-old and a 7-year-old. Being paid $15 an hour will make it possible for him to take care of his family, he said.
What is the one thing he would like to tell Donald Trump?
“If you don’t stand for something, you fall for anything.”
“Who told you that you’re all that popular now?” was the first question John Kasich got at his MSNBC town hall in Jericho, Long Island this morning – from an apparent supporter of Donald Trump – after he made his case to host Chris Matthews and the assembled New Yorkers that he was gaining momentum and was the man to beat Hillary Clinton in November.
And though the crowd booed Matthews when he asserted that no one could have or should have believed the Bush Administration’s 2002 case for the war in Iraq (which Kasich, then a private citizen, did), it wasn’t exactly a Kasich crowd. His first interlocutor one of two Trump supporters who asked questions; the other opposed Kasich for not being tough enough on immigration and averred that an emergency room doctor in Texas had been burned alive outside the hospital by Mexican cartels (a possible reference to a Mexican doctor, Maria del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, who was killed in Mexico in 2014, though the details were completely wrong).
Kasich, though, took the tough questions from Matthews and the participants in good sport, laughing with Matthews as they went to commercial and even defending him to a by-then-hostile audience before the town hall, which airs at 7 pm EDT tonight.
In good humor, he also compared the race to the great cola wars of the 80s, essentially calling Trump “Coke”, Cruz “Pepsi” and himself “the un-cola” (which was, technically, 7-Up, though RC Cola would be a better comparison). Kasich’s references to the popularity of “Coke” were not the only lines likely to elicit snickers from a humorously-inclined audience, though: a strange exchange with Matthews over same sex marriage – Kasich has long said that he accepts the decision of the courts but is an advocate of traditional marriage - produced this strange exchange.
MATTHEWS: What should gay people do who love each other?
KASICH: What should they do?
MATTHEWS: If they love each other, what should they do?
KASICH: Well, they should love one another.
After the event, Kasich told reporters that he wasn’t inclined to expand on his statements, though he did repeat the “Coke, Pepsi and Kasich” line. It’s just too bad he didn’t use that one before the end of the southern primaries: being associated with Pepsi would’ve been even more devastating for Cruz in the state of Georgia, where Kasich didn’t earn a single delegate.
Hillary Clinton’s new campaign swag goes hard on the inevitability argument:
Donald Trump’s campaign has released a statement regarding the Palm Beach County prosecutor’s office’s decision not to file charges against campaign manager Corey Lewandowski:
“Corey Lewandowski is gratified by the decision to drop the misdemeanor charge and appreciates the thoughtful consideration and professionalism by the Palm Beach State Attorney and his staff who carefully reviewed this matter, as well as Mr. Trump’s loyalty and the support of his colleagues and family during this time,” the statement reads.
“The matter is now concluded.”
Just a reminder: Here’s the footage showing Corey Lewandowski grabbing reporter Michelle Fields.
The Palm Beach County prosecutor’s office told reporters that they had “seen a draft” of an apology written by Corey Lewandowski’s team for reporter Michelle Fields, but as of last night, Fields has yet to hear a word of it.
For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I'd be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven't heard back about it
— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016
Fields is also leaving the door wide open on a civil suit for defamation:
I think I'll pass on getting legal advice from a Trump shill. Thanks tho. https://t.co/YoPznOC9LB
— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016
More on the case: Throughout the controversy, Donald Trump stood by his top aide. He pointedly thanked Corey Lewandowski onstage celebrating his victories in the March 15 primaries, just a week after the incident in which he allegedly grabbed Michelle Fields. Further, in a press conference after Lewandowski was charged, Trump went to his defense. “I think it’s a very, very sad day in this country when a man can be destroyed over something like that,” the Republican frontrunner said.
Trump also suggested Fields had faked the entire incident, saying of the bruises on her arm, “how do you know those bruises weren’t there before? I’m not a lawyer. But, she said she had a bruise on her arm. I mean to me, to get squeezed, don’t you think she would have yelled out and screamed? Take a look at her facial expression, her facial expression doesn’t change. You say there are bruises on her arm? How did they get there? Who put them there?”
Fields, who resigned from her position with the right wing website Breitbart in the fallout from the incident, has left open the possibility of filing a lawsuit for defamation against both Trump and Lewandowski over their comments about the incident.
As expected, Florida prosecutors have elected not to file charges against Donald Trump’s campaign manager for assaulting a reporter in Jupiter, Florida, at a campaign event in March.
“This office will not be filing charges against Corey Lewandowski for battery,” said Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg, who said that although there was probable cause for Lewandowski’s arrest, there was a “reasonable hypothesis of innocence” regarding Lewandowski’s behavior.
In describing the events of the alleged battery, Aronberg told press that following a rally, reporter Michelle Fields “was directed to the back of the room” but then “returned to the pathway area and walked directly along Mr Trump, attempting to ask questions of him. It appears based on the freeze-frames of the recording,” Aronberg continued, “that Ms Fields brushed or touched Mr Trump’s arm.”
It was after this brush, Aronberg said, that Lewandowski “reached forward and grabbed Ms Fields’ arm, pulling her away from Mr Trump.”
Despite Lewandowski’s insistence to the contrary - he has called Fields’ allegation that he grabbed her “delusional” - Aronberg said that “there is no reasonable doubt” that Lewandowski pulled her back, but that “under these circumstances it is not uncommon for a candidates’ inner-circle staff members to assist in clearing a safe pathway.”
“Although these factors might undermine Mr Lewandowski’s potential defense,” however, “they do not outweigh the reasonable hypothesis of innocence,” Aronberg said. “Law enforcement arrests are based on probable cause. State prosecutors, however, rely upon a good-faith basis.”
“Although the facts support the allegation that Mr Lewandowski did grab Ms Fields’ arm against her will,” Aronberg concluded, “the state will no-file this case.”
He added that “an apology would be encouraged.”
Florida prosecutors decline to press battery charges against Trump's campaign manager
Florida prosecutors have declined to press charges for battery against Donald Trump’s campaign manager, according to the Associated Press.
The news comes only minutes before a press conference is set to take place in Palm Beach, where Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg is expected to tell reporters that he will not seek to prosecute Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s top political aide, for forcibly grabbing reporter Michelle Fields after a March press conference.
Lewandowski yanked Fields as she attempted Trump a question as the candidate was leaving a press conference at a Trump-owned resort. He did so with enough force that it left bruises on her arm. Although there was an eyewitness and contemporaneous audio of the incident, Lewandowski tweeted that Fields was “delusional” and insisted he never touched her.
Clinton editorial: Trump's 'loose talk' on nuclear weapons is 'downright dangerous'
In an editorial written for the New York Daily News, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton lambasted Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s comments regarding nuclear weapons as “not just wrong,” but “dangerous.”
“These may be the most reckless statements on national security by any major presidential candidate in modern history,” Clinton wrote.
“Trump’s policies would reverse decades of bipartisan consensus,” she continued. “Even letting friendly nations go nuclear would make it harder for us to prevent rogue regimes from doing the same. Trump would risk unleashing an arms race in places like East Asia and the Middle East, expand the amount of nuclear material in the world and increase the chance of terrorists acquiring some of that material and using it to attack the US.”
In a conversation with the Washington Post’s editorial board, Trump declared that although “I don’t think we are going to start World War III... I always say we have to be unpredictable” regarding the use of nuclear weapons. “We’re totally predictable,” he added. “And predictable is bad.”
Barack Obama will give the commencement address at Howard University, the nation’s most prestigious historically black college, this May, in what the university’s president called “an extraordinary honor and privilege.”
“The president’s commitment to education, especially for those who can least afford it, dovetails with Howard’s commitment to provide these same students with a rigorous, intellectually-stimulating, and academically-challenging educational experience,” said Wayne A. I. Frederick. “As we look into the not so distant future, Howard will commemorate its 150th Anniversary in March 2017, emboldened by a legacy of addressing disparities that are inextricably intertwined with this nation’s legacy of equality and inclusivity. President Obama’s own legacy gives the Howard community great expectations for the leadership footprint it will leave on America and the globe.”
Obama is also scheduled to address the graduating classes at Rutgers University in New Jersey and cadets at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The New York democratic primary on 19 April is shaping up to be one of the most important of this election season, with more delegates up for grabs than any contest until California’s primary on 7 June. It’s also a deeply personal one for both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who both have close relationships with New York – Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, while Clinton has a home upstate.
As the candidates gear up for their final debate in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard on Thursday, we spoke to the diverse community of residents and local workers about the issues they care most about, and the candidates they feel best represent them. Their answers were as colorful and contrasting as the painted murals, parked vespas and shopping trolleys that dot the area.
Darren Carlyle: ‘Clinton understands minimum wage’
Carlyle, who has a two-year-old daughter and works at a supermarket near the Navy Yard, said that Hillary Clinton has his vote.
“Clinton understands the important issues more than the rest,” he said as he made his way through Commodore Barry Park to work.
At the top of those issues is the fact that the former New York senator has said she would fight to raise the minimum wage. Carlyle said having his wage raised to $15 an hour would completely change his life. He is currently living on just $9.50 an hour – a tough wage to survive on in New York City.
“She can do the job,” said Carlyle. “Her resume is real big. She has people around her, supporting her,” he added, explaining that he felt Bill Clinton did a good job the first time around.
Tessa Basore: ‘Bernie is all about the working class’
Basore, who moved the center of her company to Brooklyn three years ago from the Lower East Side, said that Bernie Sanders is the only solution she sees in these elections. “He has our best interest at heart and he is the only person I trust not to jump into another war,” she said.
“I like that he is all about the working class and where he stands on the environment. Fracking is a big concern of mine. He is the only one talking about it in a real clear way.”
Basore says she cannot believe how scary this election season has been, with the rise of a voice like Donald Trump’s. “He is spiteful. Nearly everything he says insults someone. He shows so much disregard for everyday people.”
Another primary, another fight over delegate selection...
Politico is reporting that even though the New York Republican primary is still five days away, allies of billionaire frontrunner and Queens native Donald Trump are staging a “shadow campaign” for the actual delegates who will be selected to represent New York at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July. The move comes after several surprising delegate losses for the organizationally challenged Trump campaign, which needs 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination ahead of the convention.
New York delegates are only bound to their assigned candidate on the first ballot at the convention, and are thereafter released to vote for whomever they choose in the event of a contested convention.
Donald Trump’s biggest pre-campaign claim to fame may have been the runaway success of his reality show The Apprentice, but a few alumni of the show are reportedly planning a press conference to that’ll show Trump the business.
Former participants of the show Randal Pinkett and Kwame Jackson are preparing to join at least four other former contestants tomorrow in New York to denounce Trump’s presidential campaign ahead of the critical New York primary next Tuesday.
“Trump is passionately and strategically reigniting a dirty and divisive culture soaked in a history of prejudice, fear and hate,” said season four participant Marshawn Evans Daniels in a statement. “It is unpatriotic, anti-American, self-serving, regressive and downright lazy.”
“As alums of The Apprentice, we have had the opportunity to work with Donald in various capacities, including as employees of the Trump Organization,” said Pinkett. “Based on that experience and Donald’s campaign, we do not believe he is worthy of becoming president of the United States.”
Trump issued a whithering statement to the Associated Press in response.
“How quickly they forget,” he said in the statement. “Nobody would know who they are if it weren’t for me.”
“They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty,” he said. “They should be careful or I’ll play hours of footage of them individually praising me.
“Ask how successful they’ve been since they left,” he added. “Six failing wannabes out of hundreds of contestants - so sad!”
In an interview with the New York Times, Veep star and comedy icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus said that Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s MetroCard woes were “a perfect Veep moment,” and pointed out that in many ways, the current presidential campaign has out-Veeped the HBO series.
“The fact of it being so put under the magnifying glass and blown up was so bizarre. It was stupid and crazy,” Louis-Dreyfus said of the MetroCard moment. “I mean, what can she do in that moment? The card didn’t work. She’s got to try to have a sense of humor about it. I suppose you can make a self-deprecating remark. But it has to be innate. The minute there’s any falseness in your behavior, that will be picked up on.”
As for lessons that Clinton might take from her character, President Selina Meyers: “I think Selina’s experiences are just a playbook in what not to do. I guess she could look to that and say: ‘OK, great, I didn’t do that. So I’m ahead.’”
It takes about three minutes to walk from the lowbrow Emporium nightclub where Donald Trump is being feted at a Republican fundraiser tonight to the unmarked spot on the sidewalk in Patchogue where Marcelo Lucero died after being attacked by a pack of white teenagers in 2008, just days after Barack Obama became America’s first black president.
Lucero, 37, who worked at a local dry cleaner, was set upon by seven youths engaged in “hunting Latinos” and his killing was prosecuted as a hate crime.
“There are dozens and dozens of venues in this county where the local Republican party could hold this event and they have chosen the very road that is stained with Marcelo’s blood,” said Allan Ramirez, a retired local pastor and community organizer, standing next to the fence where Lucero had collapsed as he tried to get away from his attackers.
Ramirez said he had been “shattered” by the homicide at the time and had struggled to comfort Lucero’s family and the large local Ecuadorian community that had complained of years of slurs and violence in the town.
“Donald Trump has the right to speak, he just doesn’t have the right to spew the kind of hatred and rhetoric he has been promoting and which was going around at the time and led to Marcelo’s death. This presidential election is not a reality show,” he said.
Ohio governor John Kasich may be facing an uphill climb to the Republican nomination - he’s behind in every upcoming contest, he’s mathematically incapable of winning enough delegates to claim the nomination outright and his favorability numbers cancel themselves out with this favorability numbers - but he did get a sliver of good news today: Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Almond has endorsed his candidacy.
“Like the rest of the nation, Rhode Islanders are looking for a leader who can deliver,” Almond said in a statement. “From balancing the budget in Congress to helping Ohioans rebuild their economy and create over 417,000 new private sector jobs, John Kasich has an unrivaled record of results. As poll after poll demonstrates, he is the only Republican candidate who can unite the party and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall. I’m proud to stand with him and his team.”
“Governor Almond has tremendous experience and credibility in Rhode Island,” Kasich said in the same statement. “It’s truly an honor to receive his endorsement and welcome him to our state leadership team.”
The newest poll from Monmouth University shows that billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump holds a double-digit lead in Pennsylvania’s upcoming Republican primary - but points out that due to the state’s delegate allocation process, even a runaway victory with the popular vote may not net him as many convention delegates as he may need to eventually his the crucial 1,237-delegate majority.
The poll found that 44% of likely Republican primary voters in Pennsylvania support Trump, compared to 28% who support Texas senator Ted Cruz and 23% who support Ohio governor John Kasich.
Pennsylvania’s 54 district-level delegates are not officially bound to any candidate, which may present a problem for Trump. “It looks like Trump should be able to bank the 17 statewide delegates in Pennsylvania” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “The real question is how the directly elected district delegates will vote at the convention in July.”
Meanwhile, Kasich’s “native son” status - he was born in Pennsylvania, although 95% of Pennsylvania Republican voters told Monmouth that they don’t care - has done little to help him in the state. Just 56% of likely voters have heard that he was born in Pennsylvania, and just 3% said that this fact makes them more likely to support his candidacy.
National poll: Donald Trump leads by double digits
He may be the most unpopular politician in modern presidential campaign history, but among Republican voters, billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump is still number-one. According to a new national poll from CBS News, Trump has maintained a double digit lead over Texas senator Ted Cruz despite numerous calamities that would have ended the campaigns of less enduring candidates: 42% of Republican primary voters said that they would like to see Trump take the Republican nomination. Trailing by 13 points, Cruz is supported by 29% of national Republicans, while Ohio governor John Kasich wins the support of 18%.
The trendlines may be changing, however, as Trump’s lead in the same poll was 20 points last month, with the CBS News poll pointing to narrowing pluralities from male voters, conservative voters and voters with incomes higher than $50,000 per year. Trump still leads Cruz among men, women, Republicans, independents, white evangelicals and voters without college degrees.
If the race goes to a contested convention, many of Trump’s supporters are in it ’til the end. Nearly two-thirds - 63% - of Trump’s supporters say that if he fails to win the Republican nomination despite winning the plurality of delegates in the primary process, he should run as an independent or third-party candidate.
The financial industry looms large in the coming New York primary – and some bankers say they’ll push for Bernie Sanders even if his policies could hurt their careers, reports the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington.
A few months ago, Democratic party leaders attended a meeting in New York with some of the titans of Wall Street, among them heads of brand-name hedge funds and top private equity firms. The gathering was billed not as the usual high-dollar fundraiser but as a bridge-building exercise in which powerful financiers could vent their opinions privately to Democratic bosses.
Two US senators who formed part of the Democratic delegation kicked off the meeting by inviting the financiers to air their concerns about party policy. One of the big name Wall Street figures stood up, proclaimed grandly that he was speaking on behalf of every financial person in the room, and then slammed into the Democratic lawmakers for having had the audacity even to consider disbanding a low-tax arrangement popular with hedge fund managers known as “carried interest”.
“That was startling to me,” said one of the other financiers present in the room that day. “Here was a gathering of Wall Street’s greatest minds and what were we discussing? Not how to generate more jobs or create an economy that works for everyone, but how to protect our vested interests and tax advantages.”
Let’s call the financier speaking here by the false name Frank. He is one of a rare and fascinating breed which Politico has dubbed Bankers for Bernie – high-profile Wall Street figures who, unlike most of their peers, are prepared to abandon pure self-interest and embrace the radical financial reforms espoused by Bernie Sanders.
Even Asher Edelman, one of the real-life templates for Gordon “greed is good” Gekko of the 1987 movie Wall Street, has joined the club, writing in the Guardian that only Sanders is “committed to honest solutions” to the crisis of income inequality.
Another day, another poll showing massive unfavorables for Donald Trump.
According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll released this morning, more than two-thirds of American voters - 67% - have an unfavorable view of the billionaire Republican frontrunner. Of those, 53% said that they have a “strongly unfavorable” view of Trump; only 31% of those surveyed have a favorable view.
Despite the abysmal numbers - Trump is by far the least-popular person running for the White House - it could have been much worse for the real estate tycoon. The survey results are functionally unchanged from the last iteration of the poll, published in march, which showed a 67% unfavorable rating and a 30% favorable rating.
Given that in between that version of the Washington Post/ABC News poll, Trump declared that women who have had abortions should be legally punished and his campaign manager was arrested for assaulting a reporter at a campaign rally, it’s surprising the numbers aren’t worse. The takeaway: The people who like Trump aren’t going to stop liking him anytime soon - or at least until he fulfills his longstanding threat to shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
The rest of the Republican field is faring only slightly better: Texas senator Ted Cruz is viewed favorably by only 36% of voters, with 53% viewing him unfavorably. A full third - 33% - view him “strongly unfavorably,” according to the poll. Ohio governor John Kasich is, at best, seen neutrally, with both his favorability and unfavorability rating at 39%.
After a raucous appearance onstage in Washington Square Park with Spike Lee, Rosario Dawson and the band Vampire Weekend, Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders continued his star turn with a late-night appearance on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
On the show, Sanders described himself as at home in the upcoming series of Northeastern primaries - a Brooklyn native, Sanders has represented Vermont in Congress for more than three decades - and said that the importance of Southern states in early Democratic primaries “distorts reality.”
“Since we’ve been out of the South, we’ve been doing pretty well,” Sanders said, although “the day will come when progressives will win in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.”
The audience - and the host - laughed at the idea.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has condemned remarks by a frequently foulmouthed campaign surrogate who used the phrase “corporate Democratic whore” during a massive rally in Washington Square Park last night.
Oncologist and health care activist Paul Song used the term while criticizing Sanders opponent Hillary Clinton’s ties to insurance companies, telling the crowd of 27,000 people that “Medicare-for-all will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are beholden to Big Pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us.”
Dr. Song's comment was inappropriate and insensitive. There's no room for language like that in our political discourse.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 14, 2016
It was only one of numerous instances that Song used aggressive or scatalogical language during last night’s speech; he also said that the status quo “sucks” and that platitudes about the health care industry are “bullshit.”
Song apologized on Twitter for using the term, saying that he was not calling Clinton a “whore” but was instead referring to Congress.
I am very sorry for using the term "whore" to refer to some in congress who are beholden to corporations and not us. It was insensitive.
— Paul Y. Song (@paulysong) April 14, 2016
What to expect on the campaign trail today
Good morning, and welcome to today’s edition of the Guardian’s politics live blog.
It’s debate day in Brooklyn, where former secretary of state and US senator from New York Hillary Clinton will face off with Vermont senator and Brooklyn native Bernie Sanders in what promises to be the biggest confrontation in the borough since the riot scene in Newsies. The much-rescheduled debate, airing live from the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 9pm ET on CNN, is Sanders’ last, best shot at making a move to win what has long been seen as a safe state for Clinton.
On the heels of a massive rally in Washington Square Park last night – our liveblog from the scene is worth the read – Sanders is entering the debate with an upswing in popularity that still leaves him behind Clinton, a New Yorker since she and her husband moved to Westchester County in 2001. Even a close second, while a major victory for a candidate who once found himself more than 30 points behind, would likely fail to change the dynamics of the race, raising the stakes of tonight’s engagement even higher.
Afterwards, Sanders is set to cool his heels on a late-night flight to Rome, where he is to attend a conference at the Vatican with Pope Francis on Friday.
On the Republican side of the aisle, Ohio governor John Kasich will be holding a town hall meeting in Jericho, Long Island, at noon, and the New York State Republican Committee’s annual gala is set for tonight at the Grand Hyatt New York – the first building that billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump ever built in Manhattan. The real estate tycoon is expected to attend, as are protesters, who have become a fixture on the Trump campaign trail.
Down on the Hill, congressional leaders are set to join victims of gun violence and advocates for firearm reform at a press conference 10 am ET to counter the visit of the gun lobby’s National Shooting Sports Foundation to Washington. House speaker and absolutely-promises-not-to-be presidential candidate Paul Ryan will also hold his weekly press briefing at 11.30am ET.
We’ve got a great team covering all of this today: Ed Pilkington, Lauren Gambino and Tom McCarthy will be on the scene in Brooklyn tonight with the sparring Democratic candidates; Megan Carpentier will join Kasich’s town hall in Jericho; Alan Yuhas and Jana Kasperkevic will be at the GOP gala tonight; and Sabrina Siddiqui will be with the Clinton campaign.
Let’s get the ball rolling ...
