Today in Campaign 2016
Happy Tax Day!
While you cram to remember how many dependents you have and try to justify your walk-in closet as a home office before the filing deadline, here’s a rundown on the biggest political news of the day:
- Billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump aired his frustration at Colorado’s quirky delegate assignment process in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he wrote that the will of the people has been circumvented and people should be outraged. “Let me ask America a question: How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family?” Trump asked. “I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club - the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests - grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated.”
- Vermont senator Bernie Sanders launched one of his most powerful indictments of modern capitalism in his campaign at the Vatican today. “I have been enormously impressed with Pope Francis speaking out and his visionary views about creating a moral economy, an economy that works for all people, not just the people on top,” Sanders told a group of reporters who had gathered just outside the Vatican gates. “And what he has said over and over again: we cannot allow the market just to do what the market does, that is not acceptable.”
- The New York Post - the iconic New York tabloid responsible for such timeless woodcuts as Headless Body In Topless Bar and Khadafy Killed By Yankee Fan - has endorsed the presidential campaign of Queens native Donald Trump. “Trump is now an imperfect messenger carrying a vital message,” the Post’s editorial board writes. “But he reflects the best of ‘New York values’ - and offers the best hope for all Americans who rightly feel betrayed by the political class.”
- When he was Texas attorney general, Ted Cruz defended a state law making it illegal to peddle sex toys such as dildos in the state. The brief took a dim view of masturbation, which it called “autonomous sex,” and warned that couples willing to use sex toys may also “believe that hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy would enhance their sexual experiences.” A Cruz spokesman now says the senator was just defending the law because he had too, but he actually thought it “uncommonly silly.”
- Ohio governor John Kasich told a college student concerned about rape not to go to parties “where there’s a lot of alcohol” during a town hall campaign event in Watertown, New York. The young woman who identified herself as a first-year student at St Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and asked the candidate what he would “do in office as president to help me feel safer and more secure regarding sexual violence, harassment, and rape.” His response:
Well, I would give you – I’d also give you one bit of advice. Don’t go to parties where there’s a lot of alcohol.
That’s it for today - tune in tomorrow for more up-to-the-minute coverage of the top political news of the day.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called Pope Francis a “visionary” and praised his efforts to create a “moral economy” during his visit to the Vatican today. Earlier, Sanders addressed a Vatican conference on social justice and decried the gap between the world’s haves and have-nots.
The lede from this Weekly Standard piece about the battle for delegates in the US Virgin Islands may be our favorite thing this week:
Making sense of the 2016 Republican primary is a task best left to future historians, but here’s one rough measure of how crazy things have become: Results of one hotly contested primary in March are still being disputed. And the fight has gotten so bitter that negative campaign ads are being run on the radio—not against one of the GOP candidates but against one of the lowly 2,472 elected delegates tasked with going to the Republican convention and voting for the party nominee. The story involves a multigenerational rivalry between two Republican powerbrokers from Michigan, and at stake are six delegates awarded to the U.S. Virgin Islands—a primary most Americans likely don’t even know exists.
For years, get-out-the-vote organizers in Arizona have been knocking on supporters’ doors in the days before an election and offering to take their sealed absentee ballots to the nearest polling station so they arrive in time to be counted.
In the sprawling urban jungle that is Phoenix, the state’s major population center, many poorer voters without a car struggle to get to the polls and are grateful for the help. For some down-ballot races – when teachers and parents are out lobbying for a bond or special tax to help local schools, say – it’s common for voters to place their completed ballots in a box on their street and for an organizer to pick up and deliver them.
Now, however, this perfectly routine practice has been branded “ballot harvesting” and outlawed under a draconian new voting law passed by Arizona’s Republican-dominated state legislature last month.
House Bill (HB) 2023 wasn’t in force for the 22 March primary but it will be, barring a court injunction, for November’s general election. Anyone caught helping a voter deliver an absentee ballot, with certain exceptions for the infirm, could now face a $150,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
The reason? According to the bill’s sponsors, it is to stamp out the possibility of fraud or voter coercion. “People show up with boxes and boxes of ballots that they have collected somehow,” said Arizona party official Tim Sifert. “The chain of custody is very suspicious. It’s rife with opportunity for mischief.”
Video: Republican presidential candidate John Kasich told a female student concerned about sexual assault on college campuses that women should “avoid parties with a lot of alcohol.”
Kasich made the comments during a town hall meeting in Watertown, New York, adding that students should know that resources are available for them from the moment they enroll at an institution, and that there should be a confidential path towards seeking justice.
In celebration of Tax Day here in the US - hope that didn’t come as a surprise! - President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have released their tax returns from 2015, showing that the first couple had an effective federal tax rate of 18.7% last year.
The Obamas - who list their occupations as “US President” and “US First Lady” - reported a total income of $447,880 in 2015 and paid $81,472 in federal income taxes, as well as $16,017 in state income taxes to Illinois. The president’s income largely comes from his salary as president, although he also earned $60,745 in royalties from the sales of his book.
The president and first lady reported $145,425 in itemized deductions, including $64,066 in charitable donations.
Michelle Fields: Trump's campaign should apologize for 'defaming my character'
In her first interview since Palm Beach County prosecutors declined to pursue battery charges against Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the reporter he allegedly assaulted says that she wants an apology.
“I would just like an apology for defaming my character,” Michelle Fields told the Daily Beast. “That’s what I wanted from the very beginning. I never wanted this to blow up, never to end up leaving my job. I just wish they had done the right thing from the very beginning and we could all have moved on.”
“Instead, the Trump campaign defamed me,” Fields added.
Lewandowski yanked Fields as she attempted to ask 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.
After the Trump campaign and Trump supporters repeatedly insisted Fields was lying, she filed a report with local police in Jupiter, Florida. Several weeks later, police announced that Lewandowski had been charged with misdemeanor battery in the case. In doing so, police also released video obtained from the Trump resort that clearly showed Trump’s campaign manager grabbing the reporter.
“I don’t think him personally,” Fields said, when asked if she thought Trump was responsible for the actions of his campaign manager. “I think him and Corey handled this very poorly and defamed my character. If you’re trying to be the president, you should have the responsibility that the buck stops with you.”
Sarah Palin threatens voters will 'rise up' against Republican leadership
Former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin has warned that if the Republican party leadership prevents Donald Trump or Ted Cruz from winning the party’s presidential nomination, Republican voters “will rise up” against the party.
“How dare they!” Palin said with a groan in an interview with the Associated Press when asked about the possibility of a dark-horse candidate emerging as the nominee at the July convention.
“Ugh, these arrogant, arrogant political operatives who underestimate the wisdom of the people,” she continued. “No, the people - we will rise up and we will say: Our vote does count, our activism does count, and for those who would try to thwart that, they’re the ones who need to leave. We don’t need to leave.”
Trump has repeatedly charged the Republican National Committee this week of attempting to steal the presidential nomination out from under him, laying out his charges most directly in an editorial in this morning’s edition of the Wall Street Journal in which he said that “my campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.”
“How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?” Trump asked rhetorically. “Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.”
Updated
Here’s a transcript of an exchange between Donald Trump and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as they learned that Florida prosecutors would not charge Lewandowski with battery in the manhandling of reporter Michelle Fields:
Trump talks to Corey Lewandowski like he's a servant.https://t.co/74B416y6vT pic.twitter.com/KxGagC51Uv
— andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) April 15, 2016
Cruz tweets his conversation Thursday with late night host Jimmy Fallon in the guise of Donald Trump:
ICYMI: a phone conversation with "Donald Trump" on @FallonTonight: https://t.co/YHxk7qOEBb
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 15, 2016
Sanders is flexing his Vatican visit today in the form of campaign materials featuring the pope and seemingly conflating their missions, his and the pope’s:
Bernie walking a fine line on sort of claiming the endorsement of the Pope https://t.co/XGeLMcUMog pic.twitter.com/CsVTmkFTZV
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 15, 2016
Kasich advises student concerned about rape to avoid parties with lots of alcohol
Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich on Friday told a college student concerned about rape not to go to parties “where there’s a lot of alcohol”.
Kasich, the Ohio governor seen as a moderate in the GOP race, was participating in a town hall campaign event in Watertown, New York, in advance of the state presidential primary on Tuesday.
A young woman who identified herself as a first-year student at St Lawrence University in Canton, New York, asked the candidate what he would “do in office as president to help me feel safer and more secure regarding sexual violence, harassment, and rape,” according to an ABC News report.
Kasich told the student to draw on school resources. “You ought to absolutely know that if something happens to you along the lines of sexual harassment or whatever ... you have a place to go where there is a confidential reporting, where there is an ability for you to access a rape kit, where that is kept confidential, but where it gives you the opportunity to be able to pursue justice, after you have had some time to reflect on it all,” he said.
The student said it was an issue she had to worry about.
“Well, I would give you – I’d also give you one bit of advice,” said Kasich, who has twin 16-year-old daughters. “Don’t go to parties where there’s a lot of alcohol.”
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Christina Freundlich released a statement saying: “Republican presidential candidates like John Kasich and Donald Trump are insulting women every day on the campaign trail by blaming victims of sexual and domestic violence.”
Kasich came in for criticism in February for attributing an election victory in part to women “coming out of kitchens” to support him.
“How did I get elected? I didn’t have anybody for me,” Kasich told a Virginia audience. “We just got an army of people and many women who left their kitchens to go out and go door to door and to put yard signs up for me all the way back when things were different.”
Updated
On Wednesday we reported on the thousands of belligerent phone calls from Donald Trump supporters, including death threats, flooding the office of the chairman of the Colorado Republican party following the convention result awarding delegates to Ted Cruz. We linked to an IndyStar report detailing similiar problems in Indiana.
Now the Republican Party chairman in Howard County, Indiana, has detailed those problems in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
The first email I opened had the subject line, “Trump Bull****.” The message was pretty simple: “You sorry mother******! I hope the worst for you and yours!”
The next email had the unambiguous subject line, “Traitor of the people and what was the Conservative party/now the conjoined twin of the Progressive left.” This missive carried a religious message: “God calls me to pray for my enemies and you are my enemy. Your thinking causes you to be a traitor to the citizenry. Imagine the disgrace U R.”
What was the heinous offense that I committed that made me, according to one person, “the biggest traitor since Benedict Arnold?”
Read the full piece here.
Cruz believes Texas dildo law was 'silly'
On Wednesday we reported on a legal brief Ted Cruz’s team produced when he was Texas attorney general defending a state law making it illegal to peddle sex toys such as dildos. The brief took a dim view of masturbation, which it called “autonomous sex,” and warned that couples willing to use sex toys may also “believe that hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy would enhance their sexual experiences.”
ACruz spokesman now says the senator was just defending the law because he had too, but he actually thought it “uncommonly silly,” AP reports:
Cruz campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart sought to distance the presidential candidate from his old legal brief, noting in an email that as solicitor general, Cruz had an obligation to defend Texas’ laws in court, regardless of whether he agreed with them.
“Senator Cruz personally believes that the Texas law in question was, as (Supreme Court) Justice (Clarence) Thomas said in another context, an ‘uncommonly silly’ law,” Stewart said. “But the office was nevertheless duty-bound to defend the policy judgment of the Texas Legislature.”
The case in question is a doozy of a sex toy sting: “Joanne Webb, a 43-year-old mother of three and former fifth-grade teacher, was arrested in 2003 after selling a sex toy to an undercover police officer during a gathering of adult couples similar to a Tupperware party held at a home in a Fort Worth suburb.”
Cruz replies to Trump op-ed
In reply to Donald Trump’s contention in the Wall Street Journal this morning that the Colorado presidential delegation was essentially stolen, Ted Cruz points out that the delegates were elected, which is true. Tens of thousands of Colorado Republicans participated in caucuses at which delegates to county conventions were elected. There was simply no presidential preference poll at the caucuses, as there are for other states.
Delegates elected to the county assemblies then elected district delegates, who elected state delegates, who elected national delegates at the state convention. Read more here and here.
.@tedcruz response to Trump WSJ OpEd: "65,000 people voted in the state of Colorado. Donald is unhappy with how they voted"
— Jessica Hopper (@jesshop23) April 15, 2016
Updated
Here’s the scene outside a Donald Trump rally in Plattsburgh, New York, which is so far north it might as well be Canada:
Trump t-shirts, some with crude slogans, are selling well. pic.twitter.com/DwN1S2eJhq
— Matthew Dickinson (@MattDickinson44) April 15, 2016
Bill Clinton 'disappointed' by Sanders take on South
At the debate last night, Bernie Sanders argued that his campaign was basically strong and had been all along with the notable exception of the deep South. “We got murdered in the deep South,” Sanders said, “the most conservative part of this great country.”
The comment was seen by some as ill-considered for its disparagement of an entire region. But are Southern Democrats particularly conservative?
If southern Dems are so conservative, then why is the median southern Dem member of Congress slightly more liberal than outside south? (1/2)
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) April 15, 2016
Bill Clinton took up the Sanders comment in a New York campaign stop Friday on behalf of his wife.
“About the only thing that disappointed me about that debate last night was the sneering reference that her opponent made to the mammoth victory that she won in the South,” Sanders said. “‘Well that’s just the south. We know how conservative they are.’ Well, excuse me...”
.@BillClinton on "sneering reference" Bernie Sanders made to @HillaryClinton's "mammoth victory" in the South.https://t.co/og4Xa8GX89
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 15, 2016
Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, who has repeatedly criticized Trump for what Sasse judges to be an incomplete commitment to conservatism, says he’s voted early for Ted Cruz.
Sasse becomes only the fourth senate colleague to explicitly back Cruz, after Mike Lee of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and James Risch of Idaho.
Nebraska Republicans are scheduled to hold their primary on May 10. The state, with a high proportion of voters who identify as conservative Christians and who might share Cruz’s expressed skepticism about “New York values”, looks like promising ground for Cruz, who has performed well in neighboring Kansas, Wyoming and, yes, Colorado.
Happy to report that Melissa and I just early-voted for @tedcruz to #StopTrump. Time for conservatives to unite here in winner-take-all Nebr
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) April 15, 2016
Updated
Hillary Clinton is out with an ad touting her New York Daily News and New York Times endorsements. The Daily News calls her a “true Democratic champion”:
The New York Post - the iconic New York tabloid responsible for such timeless woodcuts as Headless Body In Topless Bar and Khadafy Killed By Yankee Fan - has endorsed the presidential campaign of billionaire Queens native Donald Trump.
“Trump is now an imperfect messenger carrying a vital message,” the Post’s editorial board writes. “But he reflects the best of ‘New York values’ - and offers the best hope for all Americans who rightly feel betrayed by the political class.”
Acknowledging that Trump is “a rookie candidate” making “rookie mistakes” in his presidential campaign, the editorial board nonetheless declares that the candidate “has the potential - the skills, the know-how, the values - to live up to his campaign slogan: to make America great again.”
The New York Post skews conservative in its coverage - its longrunning series of Anthony Weiner jokes is a good use-case - but didn’t waste ink commenting on the Democratic candidates for president, or on the non-Trump Republican candidates.
Cruz snags Rubio delegates in Oklahoma
While Trump writes op-eds in the Journal, Cruz continues to pick off delegates, this time in Oklahoma:
Some news: Oklahoma's CD2 & CD3 reportedly chose 2 Cruz backers to occupy Rubio's unbound spots (h/t @todayinthezach). 2 more votes for Cruz
— Taniel (@Taniel) April 15, 2016
The delegates are available because Oklahoma has decided that delegates won there by Marco Rubio don’t have to stick with Rubio – as Rubio himself would prefer, in hopes of wielding influence at the July convention. Rubio has 172 delegates now; NBC reports that 34 are up for grabs, from three states:
Only 34 of the 172 delegates Rubio won in the primaries will be immediately up for grabs on the first ballot in Cleveland. That development is opening up a fierce competition to win these lapsed Rubio delegates, which are located in Oklahoma, Minnesota and Louisiana.
“Our state rules say if someone is not on the ballot, they are free to vote for whomever they choose,” said Oklahoma GOP chair Pam Pollard, “and I support that.”
Here’s the delegate race, omitting Rubio:
Ted Cruz is in Binghamton for a town hall event with Fox News star Sean Hannity:
.@tedcruz at #ForumTheatre in upstate #NY for a Town Hall w/ @seanhannity #CruzToVictory #CruzCrew #Cruz2016 pic.twitter.com/wGdRDZiEeN
— bruce redden (@brucereddenjr) April 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders launched one of his most powerful indictments of modern capitalism in his campaign in the Vatican on Friday, saying that the greatest challenge facing the world was a moral imperative to redirect “our efforts and vision to the common good”, writes the Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner:
The sweeping remarks were delivered in the shadow of St Peter’s dome, just about an hour after the Democratic presidential candidate touched down in Rome to take part in a conference in Vatican City.
Sanders praised the Roman Catholic church for its consistent social teachings on economic matters, saying “there are few places in modern thought that rival the depth and insight of the church’s moral teachings on the market economy”.
Alluding to the words of Pope Leo XIII over a century ago that pointed to the “enormous wealth of a few as opposed to the poverty of the many”, he said the situation was far worse today.
Read the full piece here:
The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui is in the press pool with Hillary Clinton at the Corsi Senior Center on E 116th St in East Harlem.
Clinton arrived at about 10:45am ET and was expected to address a group of seniors here, but she will first tour one of the apartment units attached to the senior center, Sabrina reports.
Also: dominoes.
Hillary Clinton plays dominoes - and wins - at a senior citizen home in East Harlem. pic.twitter.com/wv8ejHXbqe
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) April 15, 2016
The building includes low-income housing for seniors and is managed by the New York City housing authority. It is under the Union Settlement Association and is funded by the NYC Department for the Aging, according to this particular facility’s program manager Luz Lara. She added that the center predominantly services Latinos, but has seen a growing number of Asian Americans and African Americans.
The senior center, which is below the housing, was bustling with seniors playing pool and dominos in a recreational room prior to Clinton’s arrival. The center services roughly 100 seniors a day, per the manager. In addition to the tenants, others come here for lunch, to socialize, and to receive case assistance for housing and medical needs.
Updated
It appears that Hillary Clinton went out after the debate last night and ended up crashing on a couch in east Harlem, and now is trying to figure out why she is in this kitchen.
(In fact Clinton is on a tour of a New York City Housing Authority building for seniors.)
Via local NY1:
More @HillaryClinton in East Harlem. pic.twitter.com/zUQANAdHBG
— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) April 15, 2016
Updated
Trump blasts Colorado in op-ed
Donald Trump has aired his frustration at Colorado’s quirky delegate assignment process – it’s a long story involving the state Republican party’s decision to skip a presidential preference vote at 1 March caucuses – well let’s read political scientist Josh Putnam, the authority on these things, on why they took that decision:
that decision could be chalked up to a desire to skirt the new-for-2016 national party delegate binding requirements, a misunderstanding of the national party rules, or division within the state party organization. In reality, it is a little bit of all three. Practically though, the “how Colorado came to this point” question is less important than the “what effect the decision will have” one.
Whatever the reasons for Colorado Republicans’ decision this year to assign delegates at a state convention, the result is plain: Ted Cruz won them all, after Trump failed to build an organization in the state to contest the convention and declined an invitation to speak at it.
Trump has aired his frustration in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he says the will of the people has been circumvented and people should be outraged.
Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family?
I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated.
No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice.
The full piece is here. He surely would have registered the same objections had he won the delegates as Cruz did.
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Last night was debate night for the Democrats, and, like any two bigshots with a score to settle, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met down on the docks to sort out their differences. It was a rather bareknuckle affair that saw Sanders hitting Clinton for ties to banks and Clinton bruising Sanders over what she said was a lack of practical planning to back up his bold vision.
Sanders has now flown to the Vatican to participate in a conference on economic and social issues. Stephanie Kirchgaessner will be with him in Vatican City. It is not thought he will meet the pope.
While the Democrats debated, Republicans dined at a $1,000-a-plate celebration for the state party. The event was protested heavily by large groups who turned out to call for a higher federal minimum wage or simply to object to the existence of Donald Trump. Here’s our news report:
Today we are following Bill and Chelsea Clinton campaigning in New York; Ohio governor John Kasich in Watertown and Utica, New York; Texas senator Ted Cruz in Binghamton and Rochester; and Donald Trump in Plattsburgh and in Hartford, Connecticut. Sabrina Siddiqui will be on the trail with Hillary Clinton.
Did you watch the debate last night? Who do you think turned in the stronger performance?
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