Today in Campaign 2016
On the penultimate day before the New York primary contests - a high-stakes primary for the first time in a generation - the five remaining presidential candidates each attempted to prove their New York bona fides, with mixed success.
Here’s a rundown of the biggest political news from the Big Apple (and upstate, too):
- Director Spike Lee created a new video – it’s a bit more than an ad – for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, featuring celebrities, children and a whole lot of Sanders, describing a need for the scales of economic justice to be righted. Have a look:
- But it wasn’t all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows from Sanders: The Vermont senator is backing legislation that would let Americans sue Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- Billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump told reporters in New York that he doesn’t think there will be violence at the Republican convention in July, but warned that his supporters would be “angry” if he is not selected as the nominee. “You’re going to have a very, very upset and angry group of people,” he said, adding that the primary voting system is “rigged” and crooked.”
- In a letter written to Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sanders’ presidential campaign has suggested serious campaign fundraising malpractice committed by the campaign of rival candidate Hillary Clinton. “I am writing to convey some extremely serious concerns that Bernie 2016 has regarding activities currently being conducted through the Hillary Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee created by the Democratic National Committee... and Hillary for America,” wrote Brad Deutsch, Sanders’ campaign counsel. The letter alleges that the Hillary Victory Fund - a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and 33 state Democratic committees - is funding Clinton instead of state party committees or downballot races.
- An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of more than £100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.
- And then this happened:
Donald Trump just called 9/11 "7-Eleven."
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) April 18, 2016
That just happened.
That’s it for tonight - tune in tomorrow for our wall-to-wall coverage of the New York state primaries!
We have video of billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump calling the September 11, 2001 terror attacks “7-Eleven,” a malapropism that might earn the strong defender of “New York values” a bit of criticism on the eve of the New York primary.
Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, the cofounders of the Benn & Jerry’s Ice Cream empire, were arrested this afternoon on the steps of the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, the company announced via a statement.
“There are two trends that everyone from Greenpeace to the NAACP has realized are making it impossible for much good work to get done,” the company stated, in a posting headed Why Ben and Jerry Just Got arrested. “The first is the flood of unregulated cash flowing into campaigns and elections. And the second is the wave of attacks in many states on citizens’ right to vote.”
Greenfield and Cohen, along with hundreds of other protesters, were arrested during a civil action called Democracy Awakening which seeks to bring public awareness to the influence of big money in the American political process.
“We all have a role to play in the fight for justice,” the statement said. “Democracy belongs in the hands of all Americans, not in the pockets of a few billionaires. And no citizen who wants to vote should ever be kept from the polls. Democracy Awakening inspired hope and created excitement that all participants will carry back home with them to their own communities.”
“This is how real change happens.”
The co-founders have been longtime political advocates, often using their platforms as ice creamers to bolster causes that they favor. In 2015, the company launched Save Our Swirled to bring awareness to climate change and changed the name of one of its flavors to I Dough, I Dough to celebrate the supreme court decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the US.
“Sometimes, when something really matters, you have to put your body on the line,” the statement concluded. “You have to take a stand.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on the libel suit filed today against billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump:
Donald Trump’s campaign manager allegedly boasted that the Republican frontrunner “could do what they wanted with Fox” and that the cable news channel was on their side, according to a libel lawsuit filed by a Republican strategist.
In the $2m defamation lawsuit filed Monday in New York City, Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus says that Trump, his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and the Trump campaign attempted to smear her after she criticized the candidate as a television pundit.
In particular, Jacobus alleges that Trump and his campaign targeted her “with the purpose of making her an object lesson, to those who might question Trump and his fitness for office, to incite a virtual mob against her, to destroy her reputation, and to bully her”.
Jacobus said she had met with the campaign in 2015 about a potential job as communications director after a staffer approached her. After two meetings, she ended the conversation, deciding that she had no interest in a position after deciding Lewandowski was “unprofessional” and “a powder keg”. However, after she criticized Trump on television months later, the candidate started tweeting about her, saying “Great job on @donlemon tonight @kayleighmcenany @cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy! @CNN.”
Donald Trump: 'We're gonna win, win, WIN!'
“Tomorrow is a big, big day,” Trump says at the conclusion of his speech.
“We have a movement going on like - they say they have never seen in this country,” he continues, his voice rising in volume and vehemence with every sentence. “As much as the media treats me unfairly, they do admit there’s probably never been anything like this.”
“So here’s the story: You’re gonna leave here and you’re gonna say that was a great evening, but more importantly, tomorrow you’re gonna go and vote, and you’re gonna make sure your friends go and vote,” Trump says.
“And you’re going to look back in 4 years and 12 years and 25 years, and you’re going to say, ‘that was the single more important vote I have ever cast.’ We’re gonna win on trade, we’re gonna win with Isis, we’re gonna knock the hell out of ’em fast, we’re gonna rebuild out military, we are gonna win with our military, you’re gonna be proud again.”
“We’re gonna take car of our vets, we’re gonna win on the borders, we’re gonna win with healthcare, we’re gonna win with Common Core ending and we’re gonna bring it back local, we’re gonna take care of our Second Amendment,” he continues, his voice nearly hoarse at this point.
“And folks, you’re gonna look back and you’re gonna see - we’re gonna start winning, winning, winning! We’re gonna win at every element of what we’re doing - we’re gonna win so much, you’re gonna get tired of winning!”
“America first, folks! America first!” Trump shouts, before leaving the stage at his final pre-primary rally in New York
Donald Trump declares that countries with US military presence need to pay for the privilege of American military protection. “We protect Japan, we protect Germany, we protect South Korea, we protect Saudi Arabia. And you know what? We’re dying with these deals!”
“Why are we doing this?” Trump asks, rhetorically.
“They’ve gotta pay us, folks - they have to take care of us,” he continues. “We have to straighten out our country they have to take care of us. I wanna keep doing it, I wanna keep it going, but you know what, at some point... they’re laughing at us.”
Meanwhile, at Bernie Sanders’ rally:
There are some close to Bernie Sanders who worry that expectations have been set too high for New York, where even coming within ten points of Hillary Clinton would once have been unthinkable, but the senator was having none of it at his last rally in Queens tonight.
“This is a campaign on the move,” he told the Hunters Point crowd after a lively warm-up from the actor Danny Glover and another young indie band, TV On The Radio.
“This is a movement that is sweeping America,” added Sanders. “From coast to coast, the establishment is getting very nervous.”
In short, whatever the media says on Wednesday morning, even a heavy loss to Clinton seems unlikely to dim the enthusiasm for Sanders to keep campaigning all the way to the Democratic convention. Many supporters still hope that his home state electorate may yet deliver the shock of the century.
“There is no place that’s more better, or more fun, or safer - or safer! remember that! - than a Trump rally!” says Trump, who earlier today said that “you’re going to have a very, very upset and angry group of people” at the Republican national convention in Cleveland this summer if he doesn’t win the party’s nomination, and “hoped” there would not be violence.
“I don’t want to act more presidential ’til we win,” Trump says.
Donald Trump, on his business acumen:
I got a million dollars, and I turned it into more than $10 billion.
“In the case of the Democrats, they have superdelegates. In our case, it’s worse, because it’s more sinister. It’s harder to see. But it’s actually more devious, and it’s worse,” Trump says, of the Republican party’s system of allocating delegates ahead of the party’s convention.
His voters have spoken, he says. “We want great trade deals, we want a strong military, we wanna take care of our vets, we wanna beat Isis and stop playing games, we wanna repeal and replace Obamacare, we wanna protect our great Second Amendment - so important! - we wanna end Common Core, end it, end it, end it, and bring education locally to Buffalo and all of the local communities!”
“And we wanna have strong strong borders, where people can come in legally! Legally! They come in legally!”
“Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!” the crowd chants.
“And we will build that wall!”
Donald Trump: 9/11 first responders displayed 'New York values'
In a long speech segment about true “New York values” - lambasted in advertisements, speeches and debates by Texas senator Ted Cruz ahead of the Iowa caucuses - Donald Trump says that “every great act of courage” by first responders and ordinary New Yorkers following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan is a true symbol of those values.
“What are New York values? Honesty and straight-talking,” Trump says. “I think that’s what we like, don’t you think? You see it in our work ethic. We work hard - we work hard and we’re proud.”
“We’re builders, we make things, we have courage, and we do great jobs for our communities,” Trump continued. And after 9/11, “a strike at the heart of our city and the heart of our nation,” Trump said, “when you think of what we’ve done since then, and how we’ve reacted - that’s New York values, folks. That’s New York values.”
“Those are the values that we wanna talk about.”
“We are being ripped off, worldwide, by virtually every single country that we do business with. Every since country, no matter what,” Trump says. “Every single country that we do business with, we end up with the short end of the stick. And it’s going to end here - it’s giing to end here. We’re bringing our jobs back here.”
The crowd chants “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!”
He then began talking about the great sacrifices of New York police and firefighters in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks - or as he calls it, “7-Eleven,” the name of the convenience store chain.
After being interrupted once again by protesters - and telling them to “go home to mommy!” - Donald Trump vows to reignite the economy of the Rust Belt city.
“We are going to bring Buffalo back, we’re going to bring New York back, and we’re going to bring the United States of America back!” Trump promises.
Reading from a piece of paper with statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump declares that “Buffalo’s been hammered by our trade policies. Few cities in America have taken a harder hit,” Trump says. “Buffalo has lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs since 1990. Think of it. Three main reasons: NAFTA, Asian currency manipulation... nearly 40% of Buffalo’s lost jobs have occurred since 2001. Son’t worry - New York state has lost three out of four of its manufacturing jobs since the sixties.”
“We’re making horrible deals, we have people that don’t know what they’re doing, companies are moving to Mexico and everyplace else. We have Nafta, which is, by the way, a Clinton deal.
Trump reminds the crowd that “Bill Clinton was married to Crooked Hillary” - his nickname for the Democratic presidential frontrunner - “and that is a total disaster.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, another international trade deal, is “going to make Nafta look like peanuts,” Trump says. “We are going to cut it out, we’re going to stop it, it’ll be detrimental as hell to the people up here, and all of the people of the United States.”
Donald Trump begins rally in Buffalo, is immediately interrupted by protesters
“He’s a great, great football coach,” Donald Trump says of Rex Ryan as he takes the stage. “You’re gonna have a very very good season this year - you watch!” he told the long-suffering fans of the Buffalo Bills football team.
“I bid $1 billion for the Buffalo Bills - I bid a billion!” Trump said. “Which tells you I love Buffalo, right?”
Trump is then interrupted by protesters.
“What - already? That was quick.”
Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan is introducing billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump at a rally in Buffalo, New York, with a football story - as he does.
“We’re all here tonight because we all support Donald Trump,” Ryan said, to a roaring crowd.
“There’s so much I admire about Mr. Trump, and one think I admire about Mr. Trump is that he’ll say what’s on his mind,” Ryan said. Other politicians, he continued, “they don’t have the courage to say it. They all think it, but they don’t have the courage to say it. And Donald Trump certainly has the courage to say it!”
“And you know what? So do the people of New York. The other thing too that we all know is, this man is one of the greatest businessmen, obviously, you know, that we can ever remember.”
“When I’m here trying to introduce Donald Trump - what did we learn today? That he’s smart enough to give the ball to Herschel Walker,” he said, referencing Trump’s USFL football team in New Jersey.
There is a wistful mood at the last in a series of emotional outdoor rallies for Bernie Sanders in Queens tonight.
On a stunningly beautiful evening in a riverside park overlooking the Manhattan skyline, this could prove to be peak Bernie or the night before the biggest upset in recent political history.
But many of those waiting in the waning sunshine seemed proud of what the campaign has achieved so far - whatever happens next.
“I’ll be happy if they tie,” says Collette Houlihan, a 40-year-old office manager from Queens, who said Sanders was the first politician she has ever felt able to get excited about.
The crowd seems smaller than the record 28,300 who came to Prospect Park on Sunday or Greenwich Village last week, but there is little sign of nervousness about Tuesday’s primary showdown with Hillary Clinton, more a determination to hold onto the progressive gains that have been made.
One visible sign of the breadth of support is a group of several dozen union members from the Communication Workers of America, which went on strike against Verizon last week and has received vocal backing from Sanders.
He is leading “a movement that has already changed America”, CWA official Bob Masters told the growing crowd of supporters at Hunters Point Park as they waited for Sanders to arrive.
Updated
In just a few moments, we’ll be liveblogging Donald Trump’s penultimate rally in New York state. The billionaire Republican frontrunner will be holding a campaign event in Buffalo at 7 pm EDT, and will be introduced by NFL coach Rex Ryan.
Although some polls suggest Clinton’s once commanding lead may have shrunk in recent weeks, she remains an average of 13 points ahead, and few professional observers expect the former secretary state who represented New York for eight years in the US Senate – and even beat Barack Obama in the 2008 New York primary – will do anything other than win here again.
While Sanders plans to be off in Pennsylvania for more packed rallies before the next series of primaries on 26 April, Clinton is due to return to New York on Tuesday night for what she fully expects will be a victory party at the Sheraton hotel in Times Square.
And with Donald Trump even more comfortably ahead of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in polling for New York’s simultaneous Republican primary, a leading pro-Clinton fundraising committee has even begun reserving airtime for TV commercials ahead of what it considers to be the more important general election contest it sees looming in November.
Clinton campaign manager: Sanders allegations are 'frivolous and cynical'
Robby Mook, campaign manager for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has lashed out at the campaign of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders after an attorney for the senator’s campaign sent an open letter to the Democratic National Committee raising questions about its relationship with a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the DNC and 33 state Democratic committees.
“The Sanders campaign’s false attacks have gotten out of hand,” Mook wrote in a statement. “As Senator Sanders Faces nearly insurmountable odds, he is resorting to baseless accusations of illegal actions and poisoning the well for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself.”
“Instead of trying to convince the next generation of progressives that the Democratic Party is corrupt, Senator Sanders should stick to the issues and think about what he can do to help the Party he is seeking to lead,” Mook continued. “Furthermore, we call on Senator Sanders to end his frivolous and cynical lawsuit against the DNC, which continues to drain resources needed to help Democrats up and down the ticket win in November, and protect the progress we’ve made under President Obama.”
Ohio Republican have proposed a change to state law that would require any litigants in cases seeking to expand voting hours on Election Day to pay for the cost of keeping polling places open.
The bill, SB 296, was put forward by state senator Bill Seitz of Cincinnati, and would require a cash bond covering the full cost of “renting, heating, and lighting registration places; the cost of the necessary books, forms, and supplies for the conduct of registration; and the cost of printing and posting precinct registration lists” before a judge could order polls to stay open late. The bill currently has nine Republican co-sponsors.
“There will always be some excuse that some activist judge can seize upon,” Seitz told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Is this intended to retard these last-minute interventions? Yes, it is.”
According to a report from Yahoo News, Paul Manafort, the top delegate-corralling campaign staffer with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, lobbied on behalf of a group that the Justice Department has accused of being a front for the Pakistani intelligence service for more than five years.
Citing court records, the report points to Manafort’s work as a registered lobbyist for the Kashmiri American Council, the head of which was arrested in 2011 for concealing the transfer of $3.5 million from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to fund the organization.
Lobbying records show that Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, Manafort’s lobbying firm, was paid $700,000 by the Kashmiri American Council between 1990 and 1995.
An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of more than £100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.
The piece by Illma Gore, titled Make America Great Again, depicts Trump with a small penis. It went viral in February after the artist published it on her Facebook page and has since been censored on social media sites and delisted from eBay after the anonymous filing of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore.
Sanders campaign accuses Clinton campaign, DNC of financial misdeeds
In a letter written to Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign has suggested serious campaign fundraising malpractice committed by the campaign of rival candidate Hillary Clinton.
“I am writing to convey some extremely serious concerns that Bernie 2016 has regarding activities currently being conducted through the Hillary Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee created by the Democratic National Committee... and Hillary for America,” writes Brad Deutsch, Sanders’ campaign counsel.
The letter alleges that the Hillary Victory Fund - a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and 33 state Democratic committees - is funding Clinton instead of state party committees or downballot races.
“Extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by the [HVF] to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising, both of which appear to benefit only HFA by generating low-dollar contributions that flow only to HFA, rather than to the DNA or any of the participating state party committees,” Deutsch continues.
At best, the Sanders campaign alleges, the use of Hillary Victory Fund money to pay for direct mailing amounts to a contribution to the Clinton campaign by the DNC. At worst, “using funds received from large-dollar donors who have already contributed the $2,700 maximum to HFA may represent an excessive contribution to HFA from these individuals.”
The Clinton campaign has not yet responded to requests for comment.
As impressive as Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders’s New York campaign has been, writes Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts, those crowds of thousands may not translate where it counts tomorrow – at the ballot box:
But in the television studios and political salons, the focus is on the harsh reality of polling numbers and electoral mathematics ahead of Tuesday’s crucial primary election showdown between the two increasingly bitter rivals.
Although some polls suggest Clinton’s once commanding lead may have shrunk in recent weeks, she remains an average of 13 points ahead, and few professional observers expect the former secretary state who represented New York for six years in the US Senate – and even beat Barack Obama in the 2008 New York primary – will do anything other than win here again.
Read the full piece here:
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has dropped quite the line at the Hillary Clinton event in midtown Manhattan: “A woman voting for Ted Cruz is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders” (some people are sick of the line):
WATCH: @CecileRichards at Clinton rally: "A woman voting for Ted Cruz is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders" https://t.co/01YIyQUJEm
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 18, 2016
Updated
Fat leads for New York frontrunners – poll
A poll just released from Emerson College puts Hillary Clinton ahead of Bernie Sanders 55-40 in the New York primary, and Donald Trump ahead of John Kasich 55-21.
The poll finds a “massive advantage” for Clinton in key demographic groups including African Americans (72% to 22%) and Hispanics (56% to 33%). Sanders shows strong support in the poll among 18-34 year olds, winning 61% to 31%.
Trump displays horrible favorability with the electorate at large, rating negative 35 points in polling averages. But the Emerson poll finds his home-state favorability rating at a healthy +32, at 64-32. What do New Yorkers know about Trump that the rest of the country has yet to learn?
Read more about the poll, which had a margin of error of about 5 points, here.
Donald Trump gets out the vote:
Carly Fiorina rallies for Ted Cruz in Maryland:
She's in there somewhere! @CarlyFiorina at @tedcruz rally in Towson, MD #CruzCrew pic.twitter.com/2Kv93Pnmuu
— Sarah Isgur Flores (@whignewtons) April 18, 2016
And Teddy Roosevelt IV has endorsed John Kasich:
INBOX: Theodore Roosevelt IV Endorses @JohnKasich for President pic.twitter.com/5LKYOGy7UK
— Al Weaver (@alweaver22) April 18, 2016
Gabrielle Giffords stumps for Clinton in New York:
Gabby Giffords takes the stage for Clinton. Reminder: this is a woman who was shot in the head at point blank range pic.twitter.com/pCgoUewM7p
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) April 18, 2016
And Sanders strolls the Bronx:
Bernie Sanders takes an unannounced stroll in the Bronx. pic.twitter.com/vBQ5sGIQcy
— John Wagner (@WPJohnWagner) April 18, 2016
Updated
The Republican delegates fight
While no voters actually cast ballots at the weekend, the battle to capture delegates continued unabated – and continued to look good for Ted Cruz. But an anticipated strong showing Tuesday by Donald Trump in New York – and in northeastern states a week later – means the story of the Republican nominating battle is about to change again.
The new story may be that Donald Trump has regained momentum and may be cruising to outright victory in the form of 1,237 pledged delegates won before the national convention. That story, however, will hinge on Trump’s being able to stanch a delegate flow to Cruz – and on a victory in Indiana, by one analysis.
Here’s a roundup of stories with the latest on the Republican delegates fight. In short, Cruz won all 14 delegates at stake on Saturday in Wyoming, and he made inroads in Washington, which will award its 44 Republican delegates proportionally on an at-large basis and per congressional district (read further).
Cruz forces out-hustle Trump, look to pack Wash. state GOP convention – Jim Brunner, Seattle Times
The Most Important Primary Is ... Wait, Indiana? – Nate Cohn, New York Times
Updated
Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac Killer, one of the most enduring (endearing?) memes of the 2016 election cycle notwithstanding.
But this Cruz rally attendee brings up an interesting point: maybe he is?
Outside @tedcruz's campaign rally in Towson, MD, Asher Herzog just wanted to know if Cruz was the Zodiac Killer: pic.twitter.com/xJPNYQ14li
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) April 18, 2016
A Republican consultant has brought a $4m lawsuit against Donald Trump, his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and his presidential campaign for what she says was a smear campaign against her, the NY Daily News reports:
Cheryl Jacobus alleges Corey Lewandowski, the GOP presidential frontrunner’s campaign manager, “wrongly and maliciously” said on national television that she badmouthed Trump because he denied her a PR job. [...]
The suit says that Trump also tweeted February 5, 2016: “Really dumb @cherijacobus. Begged my people for a job. Turned her down twice and she went hostile. Major loser, zero credibility.”
Jacobus maintains in the lawsuit that she never asked for a job, let alone begged for one.
Read the full piece here.
On a day when Bernie Sanders joined Hillary Clinton in backing legislation giving US citizens the ability to sue Saudi Arabian interests over 9/11, Hillary Clinton has declined comment on whether she has read a section of the 9/11 commission report widely believed to detail ties between Saudi Arabian funders and al-Qaida.
Asked during a stop in Queens, New York, whether she had read the so-called 28 pages, Clinton said: “I am not commenting.”
She said she supported the legislation, sponsored by senator Chuck Schumer, who was campaigning with her. A pool report captured the moment:
“I think the administration should take a hard look at them and determine whether that should be done consistent with national security,” Clinton said. “But senator Schumer has the legislation that I support, do you want to add something, Chuck?
SCHUMER: yeah, this legislation -- look, if Saudi Arabia were complicit in terrorism and people were killed because of it, of course there should be a right of the families of the victims to go to court. Sen. Clinton and I stand together in saying that that should happen.
Rex Ryan, coach of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills, has announced he will introduce Trump before the candidate’s rally in Buffalo tonight.
Rex Ryan hints that he is going to introduce Donald Trump tonight in Buffalo. #Bills
— Vic Carucci (@viccarucci) April 18, 2016
Ryan took over the Bills in 2015 after five seasons with the New York Jets. Update:
You want less-hack Rex Ryan/Trump theme to joke about? Riff on how both win meaningless late-season games in campaigns of ultimate futility.
— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) April 18, 2016
Updated
Hillary Clinton is greeting recently-unionized workers at a Queens car wash during her final day of campaigning ahead of the New York primary, AP reports:
Clinton is citing the workers as evidence of how “real change happens.”
“It didn’t happen overnight,” she tells a small crowd at the Hi-Tek Wash & Lube. “You work at it every day.”
The remark echoes her recent attacks on rival Bernie Sanders, who she says promises an impossible-to-achieve “political revolution.”
Earlier on Monday, she stopped at a hospital in Yonkers and urged workers to support her at the polls. Clinton will join New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for a rally this afternoon.
Poll finds two-point race for Democrats
Bernie Sanders has pulled to within two points of Hillary Clinton, 48-50, in a hypothetical national matchup, according to a new WSJ/ NBC poll. The poll show significant tightening from a month earlier, when it measured the gap at 53-44:
Mrs. Clinton saw significant erosion in support among white men, younger voters and independents. Mr. Sanders has opened a 66% to 32% lead among white men, compared with a 54% to 41% spread in polls during the first quarter of 2016.
It's just very hard to reconcile upcoming state polls or recent results with a tied national race
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) April 18, 2016
Click through for more:
New WSJ/NBC poll: Bernie Sanders closes gap with Hillary Clinton -- her lead narrows to 50% to 48%https://t.co/AOxSsOvltM
— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) April 18, 2016
Updated
Trump: I hope the Republican convention ‘doesn’t involve violence’ – video
'Diversity coalition' to highlight Trump's non-racism
A group called the National Diversity Coalition is holding a meeting at Trump Tower this morning to highlight how not-racist Donald Trump is. Trump was scheduled to meet with the group.
“Donald Trump is a really, really good guy,” executive director Bruce LeVell, a businessman from Georgia, told the Washington Post at the weekend.
Sajid Tara, a Pakistani immigrant, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying he was organizing Muslims to get involved with the group: “Being an American-Muslim, I am concerned about terrorism overtaking my religion. This is our country we are talking about.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s right-hand man at his organization, is coordinating efforts with the group. He’s pictured below in the pink tie.
Great day with thousands of multicultural supporters for Donald Trump today! pic.twitter.com/UPZWjPfFCp
— NDC For Trump (@NDCTrump) April 18, 2016
Updated
WTF is wrong with John Kasich?
That’s a headline in today’s New York Post, which has endorsed Donald Trump.
It’s another story about someone using utensils to eat pizza – a major faux pie in NYC.
Update: Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs was on the Kasich-pickles scene, and notes that the pickles in question were new pickles – not sours, not half-sours – and, quote, “What’s the point of eating a pickle if it’s a glorified cucumber?”
John Kasich eats a pickle pic.twitter.com/GImYUjRDzF
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) April 16, 2016
@Bencjacobs @MattLech Boulevard of Broken Dreams (aka Nighthawks Eats a Pickle)#Kasich pic.twitter.com/S071GVoUYj
— Sundaynista (@Sundaynista) April 16, 2016
Updated
Why are the other candidates failing to capitalize on the easy opportunity to score points off the anti-government resentment that attends tax day (that’s today)?
Ted Cruz is not failing to capitalize: he made a video with a baboon and a calculator:
The Cruz camp also has put out an animated video explainer of what’s in his tax plan, prominently featuring an artist’s rendering of the post card Cruz is telling voters they will be able to use to file taxes under his presidency:
It's Tax Day! Join the fight to #AbolishTheIRS: https://t.co/QjbHUcdxzUhttps://t.co/c8wQ4ye5rx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 18, 2016
Cruz’s video does not use the phrase “value-added tax” to describe his 16% tax on businesses, sensitive to criticism that provision amounts to a hidden tax for consumers. The tax would be levied on “gross receipts from sales of goods and services, less purchases from other businesses, including capital investment,” according to Cruz’s plan. Read more here.
Why aren’t the other candidates having this kind of fun with tax day?
Over half a century of filing my taxes and I know I do not know if I have done so correctly. It remains a known unknown. #TaxDay
— Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) April 18, 2016
How sticky are the superdelegates?
Is Hillary Clinton 682 delegates ahead of Bernie Sanders, in the race to 2,383, or merely 244 ahead?
It depends on whether you count superdelegates. Some people argue that it’s inappropriate to count them because they can switch. Others say it’s inappropriate not to count them because they probably won’t switch. But then some switched from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama in 2008. But then that race was much closer by every measure and Obama was more attractive to the establishment than Sanders.
Among other measures, Sanders’ outsider status is captured by a lack of endorsements of him by senate colleagues. He has one senator on his side, Jeff Merkley of Oregon (just like Donald Trump, who has Jeff Sessions of Alabama).
Merkley does not think that elected officials serving as superdelegates are likely to switch from Clinton to Sanders “unless there’s something like a John Edwards blow-up” – but “those who are not in elected office, the other superdelegates, they are much more likely to switch sides,” he told MSNBC Monday:
Sanders backer Jeff Merkley: "unless there's a John Edwards-like blowup" no Dem elected will flip from Clinton https://t.co/6mYmvlMarF
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 18, 2016
Here’s the current delegates tally on the Democratic side:
Updated
Sanders backs bill allowing Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over 9/11
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is backing legislation that would let Americans sue Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the AP reports:
The bill is opposed by the Obama administration. But’s important to families of 9/11 victims, some of whom believe Saudi officials played some part in the attacks.
Sanders spoke in favor of the legislation Monday on NBC’s “Today Show” on the eve of the New York presidential primary. He says it’s important to have a full understanding of the “the possible role of the Saudi government in 9/11.”
U.S. inquiries have not reported a link between the Saudi government or its senior officials and the attacks. But Sanders notes that some conclusions remain classified.
Sanders says Saudi Arabia promotes an extreme and “very destructive” version of Islam.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the September 2001 attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Center and killed thousands, were citizens of Saudi Arabia.
Supreme Court weighs Obama immigration actions
“The US Supreme Court takes up a case on Monday probing the limits of presidential powers as the justices weigh whether President Barack Obama overstepped his authority with unilateral action to protect millions of people in the country illegally from deportation,” Reuters reports;
The case, pitting Obama against 26 states led by Texas that filed suit to block his 2014 immigration plan, is one of the biggest of the court’s current term ending in June.
The court is evenly divided with four liberal justices and four conservatives following the February death of conservative Antonin Scalia. That raises the possibility of a 4-4 split that would leave in place a 2015 lower-court ruling that threw out the president’s executive action that bypassed the Republican-led Congress.
The fate of Obama's immigration plan is in the Supreme Court's hands: https://t.co/8Wx1LGr2e1 pic.twitter.com/FBj5dwbCGL
— Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) April 18, 2016
Obama took the action after House of Representatives Republicans killed bipartisan legislation, billed as the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in decades and providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, that was passed by the Senate in 2013.
Read further here.
Updated
Look who showed up at a rally in Washington Heights, near the northern tip of Manhattan, Sunday: Twirlary Clinton.
Clinton spoke briefly at the event, a block party hosted by representative Charlie Rangel, who has been in Congress for 45 years. That’s New York state senator Adriano Espaillat giving her a spin.
We mentioned the great weather over the weekend. People had to dance.
WATCH: New York state senator twirls @HillaryClinton during Washington Heights block party: https://t.co/ORhybbGqnU
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 17, 2016
Spike Lee's five-minute Sanders ad
Spike Lee has created a new video – it’s a bit more than an ad – for Bernie Sanders. There are celebrities. There are children. And there’s a lot of Sanders, describing a need for the scales of economic justice to be righted. Have a look:
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. New York had a weekend of glorious weather and that gave the candidates some of their biggest and most boisterous rallies yet, with Bernie Sanders drawing nearly 30,000 fans to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Donald Trump getting a hero’s welcome on Staten Island.
The action continues today with a Hillary Clinton rally with former Representative Gabrielle Giffords in midtown Manhattan; multiple John Kasich rallies upstate; a Trump event this evening in Buffalo; and a nighttime Sanders speech in Queens.
Ted Cruz, who has not found much love in the Empire State, is campaigning today in Maryland, one of five states to vote on Tuesday 26 April. Cruz won all 14 delegates at stake on Saturday in Wyoming, after Trump made little effort to win the rural state.
New York, of course, votes tomorrow – and the Democratic race may be closer than it appears, write Dan Roberts and Lauren Gambino:
A new poll released by Gravis on Sunday night suggests the gap between [Clinton and Sanders] in New York may have narrowed to as little as six points, with Clinton at 53% and Sanders at 47%.
Though still large enough apart to leave Clinton the comfortable favourite – especially since New York primaries bar independents and even Democrats needed to register weeks ago – it is a dramatic narrowing from the 48-point lead Clinton enjoyed a month ago. Two other recent polls show the gap down to 10 points, and poll averages show a 12 point gap.
So Sanders wasted no time in Prospect Park. He dove into a litany of reasons why his supporters should be suspicious of a candidate whom he once promised not to attack with negative campaigning.
“Secretary Clinton has chosen to raise her money in a different way,” the senator began, after a typical denunciation of campaign finance rules, and before an attack on Clinton’s support for free trade agreements and fracking.
Donald Trump visited Staten Island, New York City’s token Republican borough, on Sunday, and Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs was there to witness the reception he received:
And though Trump has no feats of real estate to brag about on the island, it’s close enough to Manhattan that Staten Islanders have been reading about the billionaire for decades in the tabloids but far enough removed that they have been voting for candidates of white backlash since Richard Nixon.
The result is fertile territory for Trump: one poll of Staten Island Republicans has him getting 70% of the vote there, and he’s even been endorsed by the county party chair and many local officials, making the candidate with no political experience an unlikely “establishment” choice ...
The crowd was so passionate that Trump occasionally had difficulty finishing his speech – he could hardly mention the name of his main rival, Texas senator Ted Cruz, without someone reflexively shouting: “Lyin’ Ted!”
