That’s it from this blog for the night. But fear not ... our live political coverage continues with a Republican debate right over here.
Stuart Stevens, a strategist for the Romney campaign, says that if there was one person begging for something in 2012, it wasn’t Romney:
In '12. @realDonaldTrump begged to moderate debate. Romney said no. He begged to be on campaign plane. No. Begged for convention slot. No.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) March 3, 2016
Why invite Trump to deliver a convention keynote when you have Chris Christie?
Update:
@stuartpstevens wait. Didn't he get a convention slot that got washed out by hurricane prep?
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) March 3, 2016
No. Was never scheduled as speaker. It was a point of some...discussion. https://t.co/loe9Olj6X0
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) March 3, 2016
Updated
Sanders gets his ears lowered in Kansas (which caucuses on Saturday):
Just getting a trim - @BernieSanders stops for a haircut in Lawrence, KS. Press corp in tow pic.twitter.com/yWmhk1BOTn
— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) March 3, 2016
Updated
Hometown paper endorses Rubio
Marco Rubio earned some much-needed positive news with the endorsement of his hometown paper, the Miami Herald, writes Guardian politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui:
As attention quickly shifts to the March 15 Florida primary, now a do-or-die moment for Rubio’s presidential ambitions, the editorial board made its announcement late Wednesday.
“Floridians should not be stampeded into thinking that it’s all over,” the paper wrote:
In the Republican race, in particular, they have an opportunity to change the course of a deeply discouraging — even embarrassing — campaign narrative by boosting the chances of native son Marco Rubio, the best remaining candidate with a mostly positive message and a practical chance to win the nomination.
The board further expressed doubt that frontrunner Donald Trump had a lock on the Republican nomination, despite his back-to-back wins in early states New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and big victories on Super Tuesday. Rubio has thus far won just one of the states, Minnesota, of the 15 that have taken to the polls in the Republican primary.
Rubio is now pinning all of his hopes on Florida and implored voters in Miami earlier this week to “send a message” that would reset the narrative of the race. The senator is currently trailing Trump in his home state by double digits, according to most publicly available polling, although his aides have said their internal numbers show a closer contest.
The Miami Herald, the largest newspaper in south Florida, also endorsed Rubio when he ran for the US Senate in 2010 as an underdog.
This time, the editorial board named several points of difference with the senator – including his positions on abortion, gun control, the health care law, and climate change, as well as his opposition to restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba and low Senate attendance record. It nonetheless said Rubio “does not occupy the same extremist terrain” as Texas senator Ted Cruz and was best positioned to unify a fractured Republican Party.
Rubio also secured the backing of New Mexico governor Susana Martinez, who has often been named as a potential vice presidential pick for the eventual Republican nominee.
“The stakes for our great country are too high – and the differences between the candidates too great – for me to remain neutral in this race,” Martinez said in a statement. “I wholeheartedly trust Marco to keep us safe and ensure a better tomorrow.”
Rubio’s campaign later announced that she will join him on the campaign trail in Kansas and Florida in the coming days.
Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, confirmed on Thursday that he would remain neutral ahead of the state’s primary. That, too, was a source of relief for Rubio, following numerous reports that Scott was moving toward endorsing Trump.
Romney exploring contested convention – CNN
Anyone for a ROM-inee? Romney has instructed his closest advisers to explore the possibility of stopping Trump at the Republican national convention in July, CNN reports.
Based on conversations with Romney advisors, the report says the plan is: hope Trump doesn’t hit 1,237 delegates, then “lock” the convention to make way for a plan B nominee.
Money graph:
But implicit in Romney’s request to his team to explore the possibility of a convention fight is his willingness to step in and carry the party’s banner into the fall general election as the Republican nominee.
Trump predicted today that Romney would take a third tilt at the White House windmill.
Updated
The Obamas will stay in Washington post-White House, until Sasha Obama finishes high school, USA Today reports:
“We’re going to have to stay a couple of years so Sasha can finish. Transferring someone in the middle of high school — tough,” Obama said while eating lunch at a Milwaukee restaurant.
Beyond that? “We haven’t figured that out yet,” he said.
You can stay at ours if you need a place to crash. Hope Bo and Sunny are ok with cats. https://t.co/CQQKL4LuBz
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 3, 2016
Updated
Video: Christie defends demeanor at Trump event
Here’s a video excerpt of New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s remarks earlier today about the Look Of Doom that befell his face as he stood behind Donald Trump at a post-Super Tuesday news conference earlier this week:
“No I wasn’t being held hostage, no I wasn’t sitting up there thinking ‘oh my god, what have I done.’”
Folks doing a damn good job with these Chris Christie vines. Quick turnaround#TalkingHeadshttps://t.co/aF2pSgY4Iz
— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) March 3, 2016
Bad news for Marco Rubio...
Well, more bad news.
Florida governor Rick Scott has declared that he will not be making any endorsements before his state’s crucial winner-take-all primary on March 15, declaring that “I will not try to tell the Republican voters in Florida how to vote by endorsing a candidate before our primary on March 15. I believed in the voters when I first ran for office, and I still believe in them today.”
John Podesta, chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has declared that he has convinced the former secretary of state to explore declassifying any government documents that may relate to unidentified flying objects.
“I’ve talked to Hillary about that,” Podesta told KLAS-TV Politics NOW in Las Vegas. “There are still classified files that could be declassified.
“I think I’ve convinced her that we need an effort to kind of go look at that and declassify as much as we can, so that people have their legitimate questions answered. More attention and more discussion about unexplained aerial phenomena can happen without people - who are in public life, who are serious about this - being ridiculed.”
As reported in the Huffington Post, Podesta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton White House who has been a longtime advocate on the issue, told the station that “the UFO question has been discussed” with the former first lady.
It’s not the first time that aliens and their spacecraft have made an appearance - rhetorically, at least - on the Clinton campaign trail. In January, Clinton told a New Hampshire newspaper that she would “get to the bottom” of questions about how much the federal government may know about extraterrestrials.
In 2005, former president Bill Clinton told a Hong Kong audience that he has been attempting to crack any “X-files” the government might possess:
I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that reveal things, and if there were, they were concealed from me, too. I wouldn’t be the first president that underlings have lied to or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person sitting around somewhere hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But, if so, they successfully eluded me, and I’m almost embarrassed to tell you I did try to find out.
Podesta, who also served as a senior advisor to Barack Obama, has cited his inability to determine the truth about UFOs as one of his “biggest failures” while serving in government.
“I come in for my fair share of people raising questions about whether I’m off my rocker, but I’ve been a longtime advocate of declassification of records,” Podesta told KLAS. “People really want to know what the government knows.”
Updated
Donald Trump is the elephant in the room at CPAC as Republicans admit they’re “scared” of the billionaire’s seemingly inevitable nomination, reports the Guardian’s David Smith.
A leading Republican governor has urged America’s biggest annual gathering of conservatives not to “give up” on the party amid fears that nominating Donald Trump will cause devastating electoral losses for governors and senators.
Scott Walker, who made an ill-fated and short-lived bid for the presidency, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington that Republicans had made significant gains at state levels during Barack Obama’s presidency and this must not be put at risk.
“Some of you may be confused and dare I say even some upset by what’s happening in the presidential election,” the Wisconsin governor said. “I want to offer you some enthusiasm, some optimism today, and tell you no matter what’s happening there, the conservative movement is alive and well in states all across America.”
Describing Republican victories and achievements over the past seven years, he pleaded for grassroots work to continue with an upbeat, optimistic message. “We see positive reforms all across this great country but I just want to remind you that, no matter what you think about what’s happening in the presidential election, you can’t give up.”
In a speech today to the Plasterer’s and Cement Workers union, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called Republican frontrunner Donald Trump “an anti-American bigot.”
“Republican candidates have used some of the ugliest, most racist and destructive language I have heard in my lifetime,” Trumka said, admitting that while “Donald Trump is tapping into the very real and very understandable anger of working people,” his message is “a load of baloney and bluster.”
“He is also a bigot,” Trumka continued. “From his anti-American proposal to ban Muslims to his horrendous comments about women and immigrants, Trump is running on hate. It seems the only group he won’t criticize is the KKK.”
“Those statements and positions are bad enough - but what’s getting less attention is how Donald Trump really feels about working people,” Trumka continued. “He is fighting tooth and nail against workers at his hotel in Las Vegas... Trump was a major financial backer of Scott Walker and says he admired the way Walker took on public unions in Wisconsin. Finally, and most disturbingly, Trump says our wages are already too high. Can you believe that?” Trumka asked rhetorically. “Trump is advocating the polar opposite of our raising wages agenda.”
“You see, Trump says he’s with the American working class, but when you look close, it’s just hot air.”
Donald Trump: “I could have said, 'Mitt drop to your knees.'"
Billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has responded to former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s speech this morning, in which the former Massachusetts governor called Trump “a phony” and “a fraud.”
Appearing side-by-side with Maine governor Paul LePage, whom he called “a tough cookie,” Trump’s speech was almost immediately interrupted by protestors, but Trump was quickly able to move on to the topic of the day: Romney’s speech, in which the two-time presidential candidate said that Trump’s “third-grade theatrics” are not worthy of presidency.
Trump lambasted his one-time supporter, whom he said “begged” for his endorsement.
“I could have said, ‘Mitt drop to your knees,’ and he would have dropped to his knees,” Trump said. “Mitt is a failed candidate - he failed. He failed horribly.”
But Mitt Romney, Trump said, “is a choke artist.”
“That was a race, I have to say folks, that should have been won.”
Romney, for his part, said that if Trump were speaking with the same tone and content in 2012 as he is now, he would not have accepted the tycoon’s endorsement.
If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 3, 2016
Later in the speech, Trump revisited what he called Romney’s “turn” against him.
“Nobody could’ve been nastier than me in getting him not to run, by saying that he’s a choke artist,” Trump said, crediting himself with keeping Romney out of the 2016 race for the Republican nomination.
Updated
Fossil fuel barons have invested more than $100m in Republican presidential Super Pacs, report the Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson – raising concerns over special interests if GOP takes White House.
Fossil fuel millionaires collectively pumped more than $100m into Republican presidential contenders’ efforts last year – in an unprecedented investment by the oil and gas industry in the party’s future.
About one in three dollars donated to Republican hopefuls from mega-rich individuals came from people who owe their fortunes to fossil fuels – and who stand to lose the most in the fight against climate change.
The scale of investment by fossil fuel interests in presidential Super Pacs reached about $107m last year – before any votes were cast in the Republican primary season.
Chris Christie: “I’ve made a choice" to support Donald Trump
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has faced heated criticism in recent days following his endorsement of one-time rival Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, held a press conference in Trenton, New Jersey, this afternoon.
Although he attempted to highlight “a monumental day for New Jersey’s economic recovery,” Christie was quickly dragged into a bitter exchange with local journalists over his endorsement.
“I’ve been out of the presidential race for 22 days,” Christie said, “and I’ve been here 19 of those days,” Christie protested preemptively, before acknowledging that during that period, “I also endorsed Donald Trump for president of the United States, and I did it for one very simple reason: that Mr. Trump... is the best person to beat Hillary Clinton, and that as a Republican, I feel strongly that Hillary Clinton does not become president of the United States.”
“I’ve made a choice - some people agree with that choice, some people don’t agree with that choice,” Christie said, referring obliquely to former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, who has been vocal in criticizing her fellow Republican for his “cynical” endorsement of Trump’s candidacy. “That’s the way it goes. That’s what life is like in politics when you don’t sit on the sidelines.”
Earlier this week, six New Jersey-based newspaper signed an editorial calling for Christie’s resignation, calling the governor’s endorsement of Trump - and his refusal to talk about it with the press - “an “embarrassment” and “an utter disgrace.” The newspapers that called for his resignation, Christie said, “set themselves on fire” in a desperate bid for circulation.
As for the widespread mock-horror (and horrified mockery) that arose on social media after Christie’s vacant stare during Trump’s victory speech on Super Tuesday, Christie was dismissive. “All these arm-chair psychiatrists should give it a break,” he said.
Chris Christie is Jennifer Connelly at the end of "Requiem for a Dream." pic.twitter.com/YA7KQzOzVx
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) March 2, 2016
“This is part of the hysteria of the people who oppose my Trump endorsement,” he continued. “No I wasn’t being held hostage, no I wasn’t sitting up there thinking ‘oh my god, what have I done.’”
“I have no current plans to go out on the road with [Trump] again,” Christie said, “but I’m sure, at some point, I will do so.”
At one o’clock this afternoon, New Jersey governor Chris Christie will be holding his first press conference since Super Tuesday, when he stood at Donald Trump’s side in Palm Beach, Florida as the billionaire Republican frontrunner coasted to a comfortable delegate lead on the single biggest day in the nomination contest.
Christie has come under fire for endorsing Trump, whom he had previously criticized as not ready for the role of commander in chief, as well as for refusing to speak to the press about his endorsement, with six individual New Jersey newspapers calling for his resignation.
Mitt Romney has published the full text of his speech on the state of the Republican presidential primary on Medium - plus video on Facebook:
As Bernie Sanders’ candidacy falters, where can that rapturous energy be channelled? Into building an economy that serves ordinary people, and excludes the 1%, writes Nathan Schneider:
On Tuesday night I attended a Democratic caucus in a ballroom at the University of Colorado Boulder, where hundreds of college students rallied for the man they hope will become the oldest president in history. Speeches for Hillary Clinton received polite applause, while any reference toBernie Sanders caused a short period of rapture.
Those students helped Sanders win Colorado. But in most other Super Tuesday states, his bid for the Democratic nomination sputtered. I’m worried about what will become of the sense of possibility that this candidacy created – and the millions of young people who are done bowing to the dictates of capitalism. I’m worried about the fate – and the future – of the Bern.
Updated
John McCain condemns Donald Trump's "uninformed and indeed dangerous statements"
On the heels of former Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s speech on the state of the current Republican field, another former presidential nominee from the party has expressed “concerns about Donald Trump.”
John McCain, a US senator from Arizona who has been targeted in recent days for refusing to disavow Trump, released a statement saying that he echoes “the many concerns about Mr. Trump’s uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues that have been raised by 65 Republican defense and foreign policy leaders.”
“At a time when our world has never been more complex or more in danger, as we watch the threatening actions of a neo-imperial Russia, an assertive China, an expansionist Iran, an insane North Korean ruler, and terrorist movements that are metastasizing across the Middle East and Africa, I want Republican voters to pay close attention to what our party’s most respected and knowledgeable leaders and national security experts are saying about Mr. Trump, and to think long and hard about who they want to be our next Commander-in-Chief and leader of the free world.”
McCain has gone on the record saying that he will support the Republican nominee, no matter who it is.
Updated
Donald Trump is currently on Trump Force One.
On my way to see the great people of Maine. Will be landing in Portland in 2 hours. Look forward to it! #Trump2016
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2016
We will stay tuned for his reaction to Mitt Romney’s speech.
Turning to criticize the Democratic frontrunner, Mitt Romney declared that Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill “embody the term crony capitalism - it disgusts the American people and causes them to lose faith in the political process.”
And Trump, he said, will help her win.
“Trump relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself, but polls are also saying that he will lose to Hillary Clinton,” Romney said, saying that his refusal to disavow the support of a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan will replay in political advertisements “thousands of times.”
“He has too much to hide” to release his tax returns, Romney said. (Romney, himself, was attacked for not releasing his own tax returns during the 2012 campaign.)
“He calls for killing the innocent children and family members of terrorists,” Romney continued. “This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss. Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: he gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
“His domestic policies would lead to recession; his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe,” Romney said, “and this is a time for choosing - God bless us to chose a nominee who will make that vision a reality.”
Still, Romney vowed earlier in the speech not to endorse any particular candidate for the Republican nomination, and encouraged voters to use their vote wisely, relying on current polling to determine who they should support.
“Given the current delegate selection process, I’d vote for Marco Rubio in Florida, John Kasich in Ohio,” Romney said.
Updated
Mitt Romney turns to the issue of national security.
“Mr. Trump’s bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies,” Romney said. “And for what purpose? ... This recklessness is recklessness in the extreme.”
“Now, Donald Trump says that he is very, very smart,” Romney said, “but I’m afraid when it comes to foreign policy, he is very very not smart.”
“He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11. Wrong,” Romney said. “He saw no such thing. His imagination must not be married to real power.”
After calling Trump’s personal behavior “absurd, third-grade theatrics,” Romney asked the assembled Utahns to “imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does - would you welcome that?”
Mitt Romney: Donald Trump would lead US into "prolonged recession"
Former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney has begun his scorching indictment of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, decrying the billionaire as a “phony” and a “fraud” who threatens the future of the Republican party.
Speaking at the Hinckley Institute at the University of Utah, Romney “I’m not here to announce my candidacy for office, and I’m not here to endorse a candidate today.”
“I believe with all my heart and soul that we face another time for choosing, one that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party,” Romney said. After listing off China, Putin, Iranian mullahs and terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Romney said that America’s future relies on us “making the right choices,” rather than “improvident choices.”
If the Republican Party nominates Trump, however, “the prospect for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,” and if elected, “the country would sink into prolonged recession.”
“Whatever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there’s Trump Magazine, and Trump Vodka, and Trump Steaks!”
“Successfully bringing jobs home requires serious policies and reforms... you can’t punish business into doing what you want.
Bernie Sanders was the first candidate who ever got Molly Rhoads excited about politics - so she got him tattooed on her body.
There are many ways to show your support for a candidate. Some buy bumper stickers or T-shirts. I, however, took what some might think was an extreme path.
Aartistic Inc, a tattoo parlor in Winooski, Vermont, is giving away free Bernie Sanders tattoos to anyone who wants one. I took this as an opportunity to show my support.
A question that I get asked daily is: “Will you regret it if he does not win?”
Poll klaxon!
Hours before the third-to-last Republican presidential primary debate is held on Detroit, Donald Trump is dominating the field in Michigan, while Ohio governor John Kasich is struggling to make it past last place in the must-win midwestern state.
According to a Detroit Free Press poll, Trump is winning the state with the support of 29% of likely Republican primary voters, followed by Texas senator Ted Cruz at 19% and Florida senator Marco Rubio at 18%. Kasich, of nearby Ohio, claims a mere 8%, tying with Ben Carson, who is not running for president anymore.
Kasich is also put in last place in another Michigan poll from Mitchell/Fox 2, winning a slightly less depressing 12% behind Cruz at 14%, Rubio at 19% and Trump at 39%.
Updated
Donald Trump, on former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke:
David Duke is a bad person who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years.
The Guardian’s Amber Jamieson asked Guardian readers who are voting for Trump why they support him. From firm conservatives to fed-up liberals, their answers were deeply revealing:
The Hispanic attorney (29, Florida)
‘He has demonstrated that he is, at heart, a caring person’
On paper, I probably look like a guaranteed Cruz or Rubio vote. I’m a millennial woman, my parents immigrated from Castro’s Cuba, I work as a trial attorney in Miami and I’m a born-again Christian. But I’m voting for Donald Trump, and I’ve convinced all my friends and family to do so as well.
My sister worked for him and has spoken glowingly of him for years, just like everyone else who actually knows the man. I trust her judgment more than any random pundit’s. Actions speak louder than words, and he has demonstrated that he is, at heart, a caring person through his many random acts of kindness. His peers say there are “two Trumps” – the brash character he portrays himself as, and the decent man they know behind closed doors. It’s clearly a strategy; his proclamations have kept him on the front pages for a sustained eight months.
The Occupy protester turned Trump supporter (24, New York)
‘His candidacy is ripping the soul of America apart – we deserve it’
Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them.
I don’t find conversations about how morally repugnant Trump is to be interesting when the rest of the candidates seem to also support imperialistic and fascist policies concerning drone strikes, torture and mass surveillance.
The yoga teacher (29, Tennessee)
‘Don’t publish my name. It would ruin my progressive image’
Bernie is a breath of fresh air, but I’m not sure he can beat Hillary. In a match between Bernie and Donald, I’d vote for the former. In a match between Hillary and Donald, I’d vote for the latter. It isn’t a vote for Trump, but rather a vote against the political establishment (which must be removed from office at any cost – even if it means electing a reality TV star for president). The stakes are too high. Hillary cannot win or the oligarchy will continue unabated.
And please don’t publish my name, it would ruin the whole “progressive” image (and my girlfriend might kill me).
Key endorsement news: New Mexico governor Susana Martinez, who is frequently included on lists of potential Republican vice presidential nominees, endorsed Florida senator Marco Rubio this morning, calling him “a compelling leader who can unite the country around conservative principles that will improve the lives of all Americans.”
“The stakes for our great country are too high - and the differences between the candidates too great - for me to remain neutral in this race,” Martinez said in a statement.
Rubio will campaign with Martinez, the nation’s first Latina governor, in Kansas tomorrow, after which she will appear with him at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. Martinez, who currently serves as chair of the Republican Governors Association, refused earlier this week to commit to voting for Donald Trump if he wins the Republican nomination.
Ahead of Mitt Romney’s 11:30 a.m. speech lambasting Donald Trump as a “fraud” and a “phony,” a trip down memory lane, when Romney accepted Trump’s endorsement for president in 2012:
Trump endorsed Romney from the Las Vegas strip ahead of the Nevada caucuses in a news conference, a gesture that he called “a great honor for me.”
Romney praised Trump after his endorsement, declaring that “Donald Trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works to create jobs for the American people. He’s done it here in Nevada, he’s done it across the country.”
“He’s one of the few people who stood up and said, you know what, China’s been cheating. They’ve taken jobs from Americans,” Romney continued. “I spent my life in the private sector, not quite as successful as this guy but successful nonetheless... I want to say thank you to Donald Trump and look forward to seeing you out on the trail.”
Inside Mexicantown Bakery in southwest Detroit, one employee has launched a mini-voter registration drive with employees to boost the anyone-but-Donald-Trump support.
“She’s making sure that everybody has their voter registration [filed] so they don’t vote for him,” said supervisor Ruth Gomez. “She’s kind of doing a campaign against Donald Trump.”
That sentiment is common among residents and employees in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of southwest Detroit known as Mexicantown. And while Trump is projected to continue his political insurgency by winning the Michigan primary next week, he is likely to face a much more hostile audience when he arrives in the majority-Democrat city for the Republican debate Thursday.
Among those in Mexicantown, his bombastic demeanor and hardline stance on immigration are increasingly common topics of conversation.
And now, in non-Trump-vs.-Romney news:
Before the plutocrat-on-plutocrat götterdämmerung overtook today’s campaign news cycle, tonight’s Republican presidential primary debate in Detroit was expected to be driving the cycle.
With retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson dropping out of the debate - and, as-yet unofficially, the race for the Republican nomination - there are only four candidates left onstage: Billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump, Texas senator Ted Cruz, Florida senator Marco Rubio and Ohio governor John Kasich. The debate will have a familiar dynamic: Trump enters as the dominant frontrunner, with Cruz and Rubio once again will be attempting to knock him down a peg. We’ll have a post later today with the knitty gritty whos, whats, wheres, whens and whys of tonight’s debate, but suffice it to say the event’s tone will likely be influenced by Mitt Romney’s 11:30 a.m. speech decrying Trump’s candidacy.
Speaking of Trump - and aren’t we always? - the billionaire released his health care policy last night, which combines traditional Republican talking points like eliminating the Affordable Care Act and turning Medicaid into a block-grant system for the states with reducing barriers of entry into the pharmaceutical market and lowering FDA restrictions on drug testing. Trump also, somehow, brought immigration into the mix.
Video of Van Jones and Jeff Lord debating whether or not a candidate should be required to disavow the support of the Ku Kluz Klan in 2016 has gone viral, after the Super Tuesday broadcast highlighted some of the more surprising dynamics of this year’s Republican primary campaign:
Also, greetings from the cover of this week’s issue of TIME:
We’ll be liveblogging Romney’s remarks, as well as the Republican presidential debate on Fox News and every other aspect of today’s campaign news. Stay tuned!
Leaked Mitt Romney speech: Donald Trump 'playing the American public for suckers'
Good morning, and welcome to our coverage of the day in US politics. Today was supposed to be about the lead-up to tonight’s Republican presidential primary debate in Detroit, but leaked comments from former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s speech on the state of the presidential campaign has overtaken all of that.
In a broadside against current Republican frontrunner – and, dare we say, prohibitive favorite for the party’s nomination – Donald Trump, Romney called the man who wishes to succeed him as the party’s standard-bearer a “phony” and a “fraud” who is playing voters for “suckers”.
Trump, in turn, has called Romney – whom he once endorsed – a “failed candidate”.
Romney plans to deliver his speech at 11.30am ET at the University of Utah, but leaked contents of his remarks have already made the contents of the announcement clear.
Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: he gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.
“The president of the United States has long been the leader of the free world,” Romney’s remarks say. “The president and, yes, the nominees of the country’s great parties help define America to billions of people. All of them bear the responsibility of being an example for our children and grandchildren.”
Romney also claims that Trump, if nominated, would help facilitate Hillary Clinton’s ascension to the White House.
“Trump relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself, but polls are also saying that he will lose to Hillary Clinton.”
Trump, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, did not hold back his disdain for the failed Republican nominee, describing Romney as “a man who begged me for my endorsement four years ago”.
“He failed in his campaign, it was a horribly run campaign, Republicans did not even go out to vote, it was a disaster,” Trump said. “He ran one of the worst campaigns in presidential history. That was an election that should have been won by the Republicans. He was a catastrophe.”
In a Twitter storm earlier this morning, Trump declared that establishment Republicans like Romney want to “kill the movement” that he has ignited among discontented voters.
Failed candidate Mitt Romney,who ran one of the worst races in presidential history,is working with the establishment to bury a big "R" win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2016
I have brought millions of people into the Republican Party, while the Dems are going down. Establishment wants to kill this movement!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2016
I am the only one who can beat Hillary Clinton. I am not a Mitt Romney, who doesn't know how to win. Hillary wants no part of "Trump"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2016
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