First half of two-night Republican town hall event on CNN concludes
Some quick evaluations of the performances by Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz:
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Ben Carson had the benefit of being the first candidate on the state tonight, with a fresh audience in both the room and in TV Land. He was commended by moderator Anderson Cooper and by audience members for his even-keeled temperament and affect, but the candidate, already polling far below the top tier in South Carolina, may have been cursed by his own affability on a question about replacing the late Antonin Scalia on the supreme court. “I probably would take the opportunity to nominate someone,” Carson said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that person is going to be acted on or confirmed. Why not do it?” Carson’s lamentation about the destructive nature of partisanship is noble, but will do little to endear him to conservative South Carolina primary voters who dread the prospect of Barack Obama replacing Scalia - a justice of whom Ted Cruz later said: “What Ronald Reagan was to the White House, Scalia was to the supreme court.”
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Marco Rubio’s pushback against Barack Obama - who, it bears noting, is not a candidate for the Republican nomination - on the issue of immigration was a momentary lapse in focus in what was otherwise a good night for the Florida senator. The high point, at least in terms of combating the #MarcoBot stereotype Rubio has been fighting, may have been his comments on race and racism in America, mentioning his childhood in Las Vegas during the Mariel boatlift. “Whether you agree with them or not, if a significant percentage of the American family feels that they are being treated differently than anyone else, we have a problem then we have to address that as a society and as a country,” Rubio said about racism. “I do not believe we can fulfill our potential as a nation unless we address that. I’m not sure there is a political solution to that problem, but there are things we can do.”
- Ted Cruz started out strong, deftly ignoring attempts by Cooper to goad him into attacking Donald Trump head-on and putting his Harvard law degree to good use in detailing why his Canadian birth doesn’t preclude him from the presidency. But a mind-numbingly long answer on his history of antagonizing congressional colleagues in the US Senate - at least, I think that’s what the original question was about - shifted dangerously close to the same stump-speech autopilot that Rubio has faced such intense criticism for. Cruz later talked about the importance of “having fun” on the campaign trail - he might want to take his own advice next time.
That’s it for tonight’s coverage of the first half of CNN’s Republican town hall. We’ll be back tomorrow for part two, as well as on Friday, Saturday, and every day until the sweet release of Election Day in November.
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Ted Cruz said: “Barack Obama, in the first weeks of his administration, sent the bust of Winston Churchill back to the United Kingdom. If I’m elected president, Winston Churchill is coming back.”
WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN? THIS IS LIKE LISTENING TO A RADIO SHOW YELL A BUMPER STICKER AT A PRINTOUT OF AN EMAIL FORWARD. COULD THIS BE ANY MORE TRIFLING AND STUPID?
[Ed note: The bust was loaned to then-President George W Bush by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and returned as a matter of protocol. A separate bust of Churchill, given to then-President Lyndon B Johnson, remains in the White House today.]
Would it kill Republicans to crack a joke? Actually, some of them, I think it might.
– Ted Cruz, on the need to “let loose” on the campaign trail.
Which cabinet position would Cruz fill first?
“It would be a three-way tie between secretary of state, secretary of defense and attorney general,” Cruz says. “When it comes to defense, we have to begin rebuilding our military immediately. When it comes to state... moving the embassy to Israel tells Israel, it tells our allies, it tells our enemies that America is back.”
“We need someone strong, someone who represents this country,” Cruz says of a potential secretary of state. “A secretary of state in a Cruz administration would be someone like John Bolton.” As for an attorney general, Cruz declares that “the lawlessness of the Obama administration has been one of the saddest legacies”.
“The only fidelity of the department of justice will be to the laws and constitution of the United States,” Cruz concludes.
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This is a strange election season in many ways.
– Ted Cruz, on being called a liar by Marco Rubio and Donald Trump
Ted Cruz, who sits on the Senate judiciary committee, tells Anderson Cooper that he would not endorse a committee hearing on whomever Barack Obama nominates to fill the supreme court seat formerly occupied by the late Antonin Scalia.
“They should not” get a hearing, Cruz says. “For 80 years, it has been the practice that the senate has not confirmed any nomination that has occurred during an election year ... I don’t think it would be fair to the nominee.”
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Earlier Cruz was asked about Obama’s planned visit to Cuba. Is that something he would do?
It is not as long as Castro is in power. And I will say I was saddened to hear that [but] I wasn’t surprised. This was foreshadowed for a long time.
Ted Cruz is asked to defend his status as a natural-born citizen of the United States
“The law under the constitution and federal law has been clear from the very first days of the republic,” Cruz says. “The child of a US citizen is a US citizen by virtue of birth.”
“I was a citizen by birth by virtue of my mother’s citizenship... it was the act of being born that made me a US citizen,” Cruz says. Of the possibility of Donald Trump suing him on the matter - “you can never write off the possibility of Donald Trump suing you,” Cruz says - “if he wants to file a lawsuit, he can file it and lose.”
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Ted Cruz thinks that the fluctuations in the oil market are created by fiat currency and thinks that a dollar tied to a fixed amount of gold is a stable dollar that would level out fluctuations in the oil market.
That is a really interesting economic idea with nothing that could contradict it apart from, say, the history of America in the 19th century.
“Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is, as you know, fraught with complications,” Ted Cruz says. “When it comes to Saudi Arabia, we need ot have real scrutiny and real pressure.”
“They are not seeking our interests - they are seeking their monetary interests,” Cruz elaborates. To combat the “stranglehold” foreign nations have on American energy, Cruz says, we need to develop American-sourced energy sources. “This country is blessed with abundant natural resources... but you shouldn’t have government picking winners and losers. There shouldn’t be any subsidies.”
Ted Cruz said tonight – incorrectly – that Trump had said George W Bush should be impeached during the last debate. He said: “To see, on a Republican presidential stage a candidate suggesting that we should have impeached George W Bush, that really draws into question the judgement of that candidate to be commander in chief.
But, though Trump attacked W Bush’s record at the last debate (and said in 2008 that he would’ve been happy to see Pelosi impeach Bush), he actually deliberately avoided suggesting he ought to have been impeached.
Perhaps Cruz was banking on most South Carolinians having skipped it?
(And, yes, it seems like one could spend all night fact checking Ted Cruz.)
A pastor asks Ted Cruz about the “growing threat” against religious values in the United States, an area of particular focus for the Cruz campaign.
“We are seeing an assault on Judeo-Christian values, we are seeing an assault on religious liberty, and we need a president who will stand up and protect those values,” Cruz says, declaring that candidates should be held to a higher standard than just parroting pro-life, anti-gay marriage statements.
“You shall know them by their fruits,” Cruz quotes the Bible, referencing his history of fighting Planned Parenthood in court and protecting a statue of the ten commandments in front of the Texas capitol. “In June of last year we saw a decision from the supreme court that was nothing short of tragic... I think there’s something really wrong when Republican candidates are echoing the talking points of Barack Obama.”
“When it comes to religious liberty, if I’m elected president I intend on the first day I enter office to instruct... every government agency that the persecution of religious liberty ends today.”
“We will not be drafting our daughters into the front lines ... I’m the father of two daughters. Women can do anything, but the idea that the federal government could forcibly conscript women into service doesn’t make any sense.”
It’s like Cruz is saying Women can do anything, except this one thing, for no reason I can come up with, because I said so, and they’re women. Unless he’s just objecting to people being drafted into combat, in which case, please condemn that happening to men, too. Because I am a lazy man, and there is no United States Army Nap Battalion.
When asked about Donald Trump’s assertion at the last Republican presidential debate that George W Bush didn’t keep the United States safe because the 9/11 terror attacks happened under his watch, Ted Cruz questions Trump’s judgment.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Cruz says. “Listen - I like Donald. I am not gonna engage in personal attacks - but his policies don’t make sense.”
Why does Ted Cruz think that saying “radical Islamic terrorism” does anything to stop terrorism? It’s so exhausting hearing the Beetlejuice theory of military policy.
How many times do you have to say it for it to work? Do you have to say it really loud? Do you have to say it in a mirror, with the lights off, holding a candle? Who then defeats the terrorists? Is it Bloody Mary or The Candyman?
Also, it’s just such a funny argument to make from someone who has to constantly distort the record to advance his points. If naming something what it actually is magically solves problems, it’s puzzling that Cruz is so averse to telling the whole truth and nothing but in many other circumstances.
After saying that he will “shamelessly waffle” and not decide between Clemson and South Carolina, Ted Cruz is asked by an undecided voter about his wife’s potential role in a Cruz administration.
“She’s got a real heart for economic development,” Cruz says, in part because of her background as the child of Christian missionaries and in part because of her role as a managing director at Goldman Sachs. “Heidi has a real heart here in America... empowering them to achieve the American dream.”
On Ted Cruz’s assertion that the majority of inmates at Guantánamo return to terrorism, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center told a Senate panel on 5 February that only 6 of the 88 detainees released by Obama are “directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities”.
But when it comes to detainees released by George W Bush, he’s right.
Read more about the actual facts on Guantánamo detainees at The Guardian:
Ted Cruz said that Planned Parenthood had been “implicated in multiple federal felonies” as a result of the debunked Center for Medical Progress videos.
It’s factually untrue: a federal judge ruled in December 2015 that there was no evidence of a crime on the tapes. In January 2016, a Texas grand jury impaneled to investigate Planned Parenthood instead indicted filmmaker David Daleidan and Sandra Merritt on charges related to tampering with government records and the purchase and sale of human organs.
There has never been an administration more hostile and antagonistic toward Israel than this administration.
– Ted Cruz, on Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
Ted Cruz is the only panelist at tonight’s town hall to come down hard on Anderson Cooper’s repeated question about whether Apple should be compelled to create a backdoor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enter the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.
“Anytime you’re dealing with issues of security and civil liberties, you’ve got to strike a delicate balance,” Cruz says. “I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
“I’ll confess - I laughed out loud” when I saw Donald Trump’s letter threatening to sue me, Cruz says.
“This letter really pressed the bounds of the most frivolous and ridiculous letters I’ve ever seen,” Cruz says. “His argument in the letter is running his own words in the ad is defamation.”
Senator Ted Cruz takes the stage at CNN's town hall in South Carolina
Anderson Cooper’s first question: “How does it feel out there for you?”
“Look, it feels fantastic,” Cruz says, asserting that he’s rebuilding the “Reagan coalition” of voters. “We won among conservatives, but we also won among evangelicals. We won among Reagan Democrats and we won among young people.”
At the close, Cooper and Rubio had an interesting exchange about football, which Rubio played when he was young. Back then, he admitted, they taught you to tackle with your head, which he admitted (to laughs) that the Democrats would say explains everything you need to know about Rubio.
But, in reply to Cooper’s question about the dangers of football, he mentioned that his daughters do competitive stunt cheerleading, and he drives a car. Both those things have risks. That’s true!
Unfortunately, as anyone who’s done either know, brain damage from both ensues when something goes horribly wrong: CTE-related brain damage in football, even without tackling with anything at all, begins accruing on every play during the natural, normal execution of the game. Football fans know this.
It was a silly answer to give, especially considering that even serious and informed football fans are flummoxed about what to do. Simply throwing up his hands and saying, “We need to try something!” would have worked.
But just note that, on the spot, Rubio defaulted to toeing the party line and the empty rhetoric of billionaire management.
No. No! I’ve never been to a rave! It’s a Republican primary, Anderson!
– Marco Rubio, on his fondness for electronic dance music.
Responding to Ted Cruz’s comment that he’s “behaving like Donald Trump with a smile,” Rubio laughs.
“Donald smiles! I’ve seen him smile!” Rubio says. “Ultimately, it’s not about me, it’s not about Ted, it’s not about Donald, it’s about what this country’s gonna look like when my 15-year-old daughter graduates from college.”
“When the stakes are that high,” Rubio continues, “that’s what I’m going to spend 99% of my time talking about.”
An undecided South Carolina voter asks Marco Rubio about Ronald Reagan’s history of being, compared to the contemporary Republican field, more moderate on immigration, particularly refugee resettlement.
“Policies have to reflect the times in which you live,” Rubio says. “In America, there was a time where nobody locked their doors. Now everybody locks their doors. It’s not because we hate the people outside of our homes - it’s because we love the people inside of our homes.”
“If we accept 10,000, and 9,999 of them were good people, and one of them was an Isis killer, we’d have a big problem,” Rubio elaborates. “If we don’t know who you are, and we don’t know why you’re coming... we’re not going to be able to let you come, because the threat is so real.”
The most important job I will ever have is not to be president of the United States - it will be father to my four children.
– Marco Rubio
On the recent supreme court vacancy, Marco Rubio reaffirms statements he has made criticizing Barack Obama for going forward with plans to nominate a replacement for the late justice Antonin Scalia in an election year.
“I would respect that precedent,” Rubio says, referring to disputed claims that a new justice has not been nominated and confirmed in an election year in eight decades. “Bottom line is, there will be someone filling that vacancy and I think the new president should be filling that vacancy.”
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Rubio was asked about law-enforcement discrimination against African Americans and gave a really empathetic answer. He talked about having a young African-American friend who has been pulled over seven times and never given a ticket; he wondered what that friend is supposed to think or friend is supposed to do. Rubio says that when a member of the American family feels persecuted, we have a problem.
You could tell that he’s thought about this. You felt like you were on the verge of seeing him connect with something – with the idea that there is systemic oppression and harassment of African Americans, even. It seemed like he was about to have a breakthrough.
Instead, he said: “I’m not sure there’s a political solution, but there’s something we can do.”
Then he segued into some talking points about failing public schools and mentioned a single charity group in New York.
I guess that’s what we can do. All of it.
They’re not some sort of special Jedi Council.
– Marco Rubio, on the Fed.
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Anderson Cooper asks Marco Rubio if he has ever “felt the sting of racism.”
“Some of the neighborhood kids, older kids, were taunting my family,” Rubio says of his childhood in Las Vegas during the Mariel boatlift in 1980. “I never saw it a reflection on America, I saw it as a reflection on those kids and what they were hearing.”
Citing the record-setting racial diversity of the Republican field this year, Rubio says that “that tells you a lot about the Republican party.”
Rubio deservedly gets a lot of grief for being an empty suit – which, the vast bulk of the time, he is – but he seemed human and fairly sharp on the issue of Apple’s encryption of the San Bernardino shooter’s phone. It’s a mess, but he made it sound like the thoughtful mess that it is. He acknowledged the danger of creating backdoors to encryption that criminals could use but, pointedly, the small-government conservative did not acknowledge the ability of the government to abuse it.
That said, he also noted that companies outside the US would not be compelled to follow our backdoor encryption models, which is good point! But, after all that, he decided, “We are going to have to figure out a way forward” that would also acknowledge “exigent circumstances”.
This is sort of a big problem for Rubio because it was relatable and thoughtful stuff, but it was not an answer. It was definitely better than the really sharp, definitive and emphatic non-answers he normally gives, but it still wasn’t an answer.
Then, during the time it took me to type that, he delivered an answer to a woman in the audience on college debt full of (clearly memorized) examples and ideas almost verbatim from his last book; even I could have written those statements at least halfway from memory having read it.
As he talked, he started speaking faster and faster and rhythmically rocking left and right on the balls of his feet. Left and right, left and right, left and right. So consider the human moment ended.
We should not lower standards for anyone, because this is not a game... It’s not about the gender, it’s about the ability to do the job.
– Marco Rubio, on women in combat positions.
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So, what “convicted cop killer” living in Cuba was Rubio talking about when he bashed Obama’s plan to visit?
Assata Shakur (and, if you recognize only the last name, yes, she was rapper Tupac Shakur’s step-aunt and godmother).
Cuba considers her conviction political and has consistently refused to extradite her; Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was driving a vehicle with two other members when pulled over by New Jersey State troopers in 1973. Shakur and one trooper were shot and survived; Trooper Werner Foerster and one of her passengers died of gunshot wounds. Shakur was convicted after a trial in 1977 that her lawyers have argued was prejudiced (and before and during which her lawyers believe that law enforcement interfered with her defense), but she escaped and fled to Cuba in 1979.
She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List today.
Read more on Shakur here:
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“I know I haven’t lived as long as some of the people running for president,” Rubio says, to a retired Army general, “but none of the people running for president has as much experience in national security matters as I do.”
Citing his service in the US senate on the intelligence committee, Rubio describes his prescience in naming Isis as a major threat to the security of the United States, as well as his vote against the use of force in Syria.
“It’s the hardest vote you have to make in Congress,” says Rubio. “No one running as a Republican has shown better judgment or has more experience on national security than I do.”
A woman on the verge of entering dental school, who expects to graduate with as much as half a million dollars in debt, asks Marco Rubio about his plan for making education easier and less expensive to access.
“I’m the only Republican candidate that consistently talks about student-loan debt,” Rubio says, in part because of his own student-loan debt, which he was only able to pay off after he wrote his book American Son, “now available in paperback.”
Citing accreditation reform, realistic scheduling options for non-traditional students and well-educated debt education for future college students, Rubio threw himself into this question.
Florida senator Marco Rubio says that Barack Obama’s plan to visit Cuba - reported tonight - is foolish, and that he would not consider such a trip unless it was under very specific circumstances.
“Not if it’s not a free Cuba,” Rubio says. “A year and two months after the opening to Cuba, the Cuban government remains as repressive as ever.”
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“President Obama has no standing” to address immigration, Rubio says, because two years of control of the White House and both chambers of Congress yielded no action.
“People won’t support a comprehensive approach to immigration,” Rubio says. “The only way forward is a step-by-step approach that begins by securing our border.”
“No progress will be made on immigration in this country until we prove to the American people... that we secure the border.”
Marco Rubio takes the stage at CNN's two-part town hall
Anderson asks Rubio how it’s feeling on the campaign trail, and whether he’s feeling the #MarcoMentum after South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s endorsement earlier today.
“I feel great about it - I mean, we feel a lot of energy,” Rubio says. “I feel good about what that’s gonna translate to, so we’ll see.”
I ran out of new things to say about Ben Carson about three months ago. All I could think of was to make fun of him; there’s nothing there.
And after telling Anderson Cooper that he enjoys classical music, “particularly baroque,” Ben Carson exits the stage.
Next up: Florida senator Marco Rubio.
I would relish running against either one of them - it would not be a problem.
-Ben Carson, on which Democratic presidential candidate he would rather run against.
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“If you are the Republican nominee, how do you plan to get your message out over a boisterous Democrat?” asks a town hall attendee, after noting Ben Carson’s “polite” demeanor.
“The key is not so much the volume with which you speak but its the content of what you say - that’s what’s going to make the difference,” Carson says. “When it comes to the general election, people who are running around saying things like ‘free college for everyone,’ it’ll be very easy to actually educate people as to the actual financial condition to our nation.”
“I look forward to such a challenge,” Carson concludes.
Ben Carson, when you decry the “facilities all around the country that are sitting empty because we’ve decided that it’s too expensive to house the mentally ill... And then they wind up in prison”, thank your friend Ronald Reagan for destroying public mental healthcare in the United States.
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On the issue of criminal justice reform, raised by a young woman who lost a close friend to murder, Carson says that the government needs to focus on providing criminals with the tools to successfully reintegrate into society.
“We have 5% of the population of the world and 25% of the inmates and that obviously means that something is askew,” Carson says. “We need to be thinking about whether they’re going there for life, or whether they’re going to be reintegrated into society,” and provide those who will rejoin society with practical training to become “a welder or a plumber or a whole host of different things.”
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Ben Carson believes that people should not drop out of school or go to jail, but that the government should promote the general welfare, not put people on welfare, and in fact back in the old days when people lived far apart sometimes someone would be picking apples and fall and break his leg, and his neighbors would get together and make sure that he remembered America’s values, and that’s why after 15,000 operations Ben Carson is not looking for a job.
Except the presidency. Which Anderson Cooper had to remind him he was actually looking for.
Let’s hope he finds it!
From Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier:
Ben Carson, who first noted that America had to compete with the billions of people in China and India, suggested that we had to “not waste” people in the job market.
But instead of suggesting things like paid child care and family leave, which would allow women to remain in the labor force in a cost-effective way (or even just noting that women’s labor market participation rate is lower than men’s), Carson suggested that we need to lower the high school drop-out rate from its current 20% (and reduce incarceration rates).
One problem: the Department of Education says that the high school drop-out rate is 7%.
In his MSNBC interview, Donald Trump refused to assign blame to either side in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
“I don’t want to get into it for a different reason, Joe, because if I do win, there has to be a certain amount of surprise, unpredictability, our country has no unpredictability,” he told Joe Scarborough.
The Republican frontrunner added: “If I win, I don’t want to be in a position where I’m saying to you, and the other side now say, ‘We don’t want Trump involved, we don’t want ... ’ Let me be sort of a neutral guy, let’s see what - I’m going to give it a shot. It would be so great.”
However, Trump reiterated his longstanding belief that the conflict represented “the toughest agreement of any kind to make” and formidable obstacle even for the author of The Art of The Deal.
Donald Trump admitted during his MSNBC interview that there was one reason that he continued to attack rival Jeb Bush, even after the former Florida governor had collapsed in the polls: “I hit Jeb because he’s sort of easy to hit, to be honest with you.”
I have multiple marksmanship awards from ROTC.
Ben Carson, apparently forgetting that his record with the ROTC is a bit ... checkered.
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A South Carolina voter asks Carson about gun rights: “What is your plan to preserve my rights to own a gun?”
“The second amendment is there for a very good reason: It’s so the people could assist the government in case of an invasion,” as well as in case “the government itself ever became tyrannical and attempted to rule the people,” Carson says.
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From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
Ben Carson’s insight about the Supreme Court shatters me to my foundations. Did you know that the founders intended for it to consist of jurists who “love America”, who “fully understood its constitution” and who understood it “should preserve its constitutional traditions”? Now I do, and the current court sounds so alien.
Now, in fact, we have activism. And incorrectness. If only we were correct.
But how to be correct?
What we need is a litmus test based on what kind of rulings and associations jurists have had over their lives. Not a series of questions for potential nominees, which nominees can prep for. And we definitely have to scrap the current voting system where potential justices grab a scotch egg out of the jar on the bar, and whoever draws the rotten egg becomes the nominee.
On the issue of his lack of political experience, Carson says that his ability to solve problems is more valuable in a presidential candidate than the ability to talk: “It’s the political class that has tried to convince everybody that they are the only ones who can solve our problems.”
According to Carson, the United States government was set up to be filled with “citizen statesmen”, rather than political professionals. “I can guarantee you that I have had more 2am phone calls than anybody else put together,” Carson said. “It’s we the people that need to assume, once again, the pinnacle position.”
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Having people become dependent on others is not compassion at all.
-Ben Carson, on Christian charity and the welfare state.
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Ben Carson says he “probably would” nominate a supreme court justice if he were president, even if it were his last year in office. As for how he would determine who he would nominate, “the litmus test would be their life,” Carson says, citing previous rulings, life experiences and evaluating what their potential opinions on issues like abortion would be through their previous actions.
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Anderson Cooper asks Carson about Apple’s refusal to unlock an iPhone belonging to the deceased perpetrator of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
“Apple ... don’t necessarily trust the government these days, and there’s probably a very good reason for people not to trust the government, but we’re gonna have to get over that, because today we’re faced with incredible threats,” Carson says.
“What we need is a public-private partnership when it comes to all of these technical things and cybersecurity,” Carson continues.
Updated
Fifteen minutes behind schedule, Ben Carson takes the stage
Anderson Cooper’s first question: “What’s harder: brain surgery, or politics?”
Carson laughs. “Brain surgery’s a lot harder!”
Updated
Donald Trump also condemned Apple for not cooperating with federal investigators to crack an iPhone belonging to one of the two perpetrators of the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California which left 14 Americans dead.
“I think it’s disgraceful that Apple is not helping on that,” Trump said. “I think security first and I feel - I always felt security first. Apple should absolutely - we should force them to do it. We should do whatever we have to do,” the Republican frontrunner said.
In his town hall with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Donald Trump backtracked on whether he might sue Ted Cruz over a campaign ad that uses footage of the Republican frontrunner saying that he is pro-choice.
“I don’t know that we’re going to have a lawsuit, but we certainly want to keep somebody honest,” Trump said. Still, Trump felt confident that he might succeed, saying, “I’ve had great success in business, I’ve had great success with lawsuits, I’ve had great success in things I do.”
In an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Donald Trump dismissed the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll which came out earlier today which showed Cruz with a narrow 28% to 26% lead nationally. It was the first time Trump had trailed in a national poll since the beginning of November.
“I think someone at the Wall Street Journal doesn’t like me. But I never do well with the Wall Street Journal polls. I don’t know, they do these small samples and I don’t know exactly what it represents” said Trump.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... billionaire Donald Trump - who is not scheduled to appear in tonight’s town hall event on CNN - will instead appear on rival cable network MSNBC in a pre-taped interview with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough.
That interview, which will run the gamut from his immigration stance to his suggested lawsuit against fellow candidate Ted Cruz, will be covered by the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs - right here in this liveblog.
Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson face off in town hall event in South Carolina
The winnowing field of Republican presidential candidates is about to begin the last nationally televised event before South Carolina voters take to the polls on Saturday for the first-in-the-South primary.
The first in a pair of town hall events will feature Texas senator Ted Cruz, Florida senator Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson - tomorrow night’s town hall will feature former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Ohio governor John Kasich and billionaire Donald Trump.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper is moderating both events.
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Mormon and Latino communities could offer Marco Rubio, who spent six years of his childhood in Nevada, a path to caucus success, report Sabrina Siddiqui and Daniel Hernandez:
Rubio’s family moved to Nevada when he was eight years old. His mother worked as a hotel maid at Imperial Palace on the strip. And though they only spent six years in Las Vegas, the Florida senator has often referred to his family’s stint there as a formative period in his life that has, in many ways, shaped his view of working-class America.
No other presidential candidate, Democratic or Republican, can claim to have such a connection with the state. On paper, Rubio would be well suited for a strong finish in its 23 February caucus, although his standing in the Republican race has grown more precarious after a disappointing showing in New Hampshire.
Rubio has made just five swings through Nevada as a presidential candidate, having divided much of his time between the first three early voting states – Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. But the senator’s few trips there have carried less an aura of a routine campaign stop than the feeling of a homecoming.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called out rival Donald Trump during a news conference in Seneca, South Carolina, earlier today, telling him: “If you want to file a lawsuit ... file the lawsuit.” The argument in question: a television ad the Cruz campaign ran suggesting that Trump is pro-choice, which Trump claimed is misleading and defamatory.
There are a couple things to say about the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll that shows Trump falling Cruz.
Trump to MSNBC on new NBC/WSJ poll showing him trailing Cruz: "I think someone at the WSJ doesn't like me...they do these small samples."
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 17, 2016
The first is that the poll was based on 800 registered voters of which 400 were GOP primary voters. If you agree with Trump that those numbers are low you had better reconsider your relationship with polling in general - such small sample sizes aren’t unusual at all (which is one of many reasons why polls aren’t all that accurate these days). And Trump certainly hasn’t had a problem proudly sharing similar polls in the past that have showed him in the leading position.
The second point worth making is that this is just one poll - we have no idea whether it’s an outlier or part of a new emerging trend until we see what other survey results say over the next few weeks. Real Clear Politics has an averageof all polls and it shows Trump safely leading Cruz by 18 percentage points.
So Trump’s skepticism is right - it’s just being voiced at a suspiciously convenient time.
Donald Trump may have delivered the shortest speech of his campaign in an outdoor rally in rural South Carolina, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports from Walterboro:
Donald Trump may have delivered the shortest speech of his campaign in an outdoor rally in rural South Carolina on Wednesday.
In front of a crowd of roughly one thousand, the Republican frontrunner delivered his stump speech in a crisp 24 minutes, a record pace for the normally verbose Trump. Appearing in front of a banner emblazoned with Low Country Sportsmen for Trump, the real estate mogul accepted the group’s endorsement in front of a crowd that started to shiver as the sun set.
Despite the fireworks earlier in the day, with Cruz holding a long press conference where welcomed a threatened lawsuit from Trump, the real estate mogul only took a cursory shot at the Texas senator. “Here’s a guy he fibs, he lies, he does stuff to Ben Carson,” Trump said of Cruz.
Some in the crowd didn’t seem to mind the short speech. As guests of the Low Country Sportsmen, they got to dig into several whole hogs that had been barbecued while drinking beverages out of red Solo cups.
Ted Cruz’s campaign released a scathing new ad on Wednesday that accuses rival Marco Rubio of pushing “amnesty for illegals,” reports the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui from Aiken, South Carolina:
The one-minute TV spot, which will hit the airwaves in South Carolina days before the state’s primary, draws a direct link between the immigration platform of Rubio and Barack Obama.
Zeroing in on the Florida senator’s sponsorship of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013, which Rubio has since disavowed, the ad features a mash-up of Obama and Rubio making the case to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in almost verbatim terms.
“Marco Rubio burned us once. He shouldn’t get the chance to sell us out again,” the narrator says.
Earlier in the day, Rubio told reporters Cruz was “lying” about his record and spreading misinformation to bolster his campaign.
Rubio and Cruz are locked in a bitter and increasingly ugly contest to emerge as the prohibitive alternative to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Recent polls have shown Rubio gaining ground in South Carolina, nipping just at the heels of Cruz’s second-place position.
Reached for comment by the Guardian, Rubio spokesman Joe Pounder slammed Cruz in a statement:
“No amount of cheap video editing can cover-up for Senator Cruz’s lies about his own record of wanting immigration reform to pass, advocating for a path to legal status, and wanting to ‘compromise’ on illegal immigrants. Senator Cruz’s millions in attack ads can’t undo his lifelong record of putting politics ahead of conservative principles.”
Updated
And the money polls kept rolling in!
At the moment a new poll dropped showing billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump behind Ted Cruz for the first time among national Republicans, Bloomberg Politics released a poll showing the candidate holding a staggering 19-point lead over Ted Cruz among likely South Carolina Republican primary voters, with Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush duking it out in a close race for third place.
Trump dominates Cruz and the other candidates among nearly every demographic group, including besting Cruz among evangelical Christians. Trump is most trusted by the respondents to tackle nearly every issue.
Among the areas in which Trump scores highest: as the candidate who would be most feared by America’s enemies (57%); take on the “establishment” (51%); win the general election (43%); tackle illegal immigration (41%); and, somewhat surprisingly given Cruz’s background as a former Supreme Court clerk, appoint the best Supreme Court justices (24%).
Ted Cruz tops Donald Trump in new national poll
Donald Trump’s improbable seven-month ride atop national polls of likely Republican voters may finally be slipping: In a national poll conducted by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire businessman has lost his national lead, slipping behind senator Ted Cruz of Texas in a poll released justthisminute.
Cruz leads with 28% support nationwide among Republican voters, beating Trump’s 26% by two percentage points. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida follows in third place with 17%, trailed by followed by Ohio governor John Kasich’s 11%, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s 10% and former Florida governor Jeb(!) Bush’s 4%.
In the last iteration of the poll, Trump topped Cruz by 13%, 33% to 20%. But this latest poll, conducted between Sunday and Tuesday, comes after Cruz beat Trump in the Iowa caucuses, and after Trump’s universally panned performance in last weekend’s debate in South Carolina, in which he attacked former president George W. Bush over the September 11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq.
The four latest polls of Palmetto State Republicans - all conducted after the debate - show Trump with an average lead of 17.5 percentage points over Cruz.
In two other national surveys released today, Trump leads the GOP field by 15 and 20 percentage points, making the NBC/Wall Street Journal numbers a major outlier.
Updated
At a rally at the Parkway Ballroom in Chicago, Hillary Clinton promised to push for stricter gun laws and better law enforcement practices, saying the country owes it to the “mothers of the movement”, who have lost children to gun violence and police killings.
Clinton began by invoking the names of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was found dead in her jail cell following a traffic stop in Texas last summer, and Laquan McDonald, a young black man who was shot by a Chicago police officer in 2014. While Clinton spoke, Bland’s family nodded in agreement behind her.
“These stories cannot be ones that just provoke our emotions,” Clinton said. “They must move us to action. They must motivate every one of us to take on these issues reforming police practices and making it as hard as possible for people to get guns who shouldn’t have them in the first place.”
At the start of the rally, Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, joined by her daughters and husband, recited a poem she wrote about Clinton, a woman she described as having the “staying power” even after 20 years in politics.
“Now is the time and this is place / Now we are ready and Hillary is the face,” Reed-Veal began.
When she spoke about her daughter, Reed Veal began to tear up. Clinton reached out, and Reed-Veal finished her introduction.
Clinton has won the support of a coalition of mothers whose children were victims of gun violence, including Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton; and Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis; are planning to campaign for Clinton.
During Clinton’s remarks, which echoed a speech she gave in Harlem on Tuesday, she also took the opportunity to criticize Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, especially over his relationship with the president who remains wildly popular among Democrats.
“My opponent has been quite critical of the president. He has called him weak, he has called him disappointing he even tried to advocate for somebody to run against him when he ran in 2012,” Clinton said, while some in the crowd booed and jeered. “I am unapologetic,” she continued, above the applause. “I will build on the progress that President Obama has made.”
She also implied that Sanders was a dreamer with a host of big ideas that were unachievable in the current political climate.
“I won’t make any promises that I can’t keep,” she said. “We don’t need any more of those.”
Clinton returned to her native Chicago on Wednesday both to campaign and fundraise. After the rally, she was expected to attend two private fundraisers in the afternoon and a fundraising event in the evening.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said Wednesday he hoped Apple would “voluntarily” unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s phone, the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui reports from South Carolina:
“Ultimately, I think being a good corporate citizen is important,” Rubio told reporters while campaigning in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, while adding there was “no easy answer” on the issue of encryption.
“On the one hand this encryption is designed to prevent people from having unauthorized access to your private information. On the other hand there are terrorists and criminals who are using encryption to protect themselves.”
The Florida senator said the government would have to work collaboratively with the private sector to reach a solution. “The question is how can we work collaboratively with Silicon Valley and the tech industry to work through this issue we now face,” Rubio said. “America has a history in times of war, in times of challenge, of working with the private sector.
As president, he added, Rubio would seek out a way forward on encryption “that protects America’s privacy but still allows [the federal government] access to valuable information that can prevent future attacks.”
Is the Monmouth University poll showing Ohio governor John Kasich in the single digits in South Carolina spooking him out of the contest? Sure looks that way.
According to the Boston Globe, Kasich will not be in the Palmetto State for its Republican primary this Saturday - instead, he’ll be hosting a town hall meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts and will later attend a $2,700-per-person fundraiser in Boston’s bougie Back Bay neighborhood. The event pairing is likely an event to pave Kasich’s way for the Massachusetts Republican primary, to be held on March 1.
Kasich, who has been battling for fourth place in South Carolina, has previously stated that he’s not expecting to win the nation’s second primary. The Massachusetts primary, on the other hand, may be fertile ground for the more moderate Kasich.
It’s no secret that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders represents an overwhelmingly vanilla-white state, reports the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino - a problem that’s only going to snowball as the primaries move to the South:
His critics say that’s left him flat-footed in responding to issues of racial inequality. Remember Netroots Nation, when Sanders’s response to Black Lives Matter protesters inspired the ironic hashtag #BernieSoBlack?
As the primary race moves to more diverse states, Sanders is making a more concerted efforts to reach black voters. But Vermont’s black leaders told the Daily Beast that their senator Sanders did little to connect with them.
One leader said Sanders only wanted to discuss income inequality and dismissed attempts to address other issues.
“He just always kept coming back to income inequality as a response, as if talking about income inequality would somehow make issues of racism go away,” said Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity.
This criticism may prove problematic for Sanders as he courts voters who are dually and disproportionately affected by racial and economic inequality.
So far in his campaign, Sanders has addressed racism through the lens of economic inequality. Rather, she would tackle it as its own ugly form of inequality that is connected to and exacerbated by economic inequality.
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton drew a clear distinction between herself and Sanders on issues concerning race and implied that her opponent wasn’t up to the challenge.
“We have to begin by facing up to the reality of systemic racism,” she said, speaking in Harlem on Tuesday. “Because these are not only problems of economic inequality. These are problems of racial inequality. And we have got to say that loudly and clearly.”
On Wednesday, surrogates for Clinton piled on.
“It is disturbing to read that Bernie Sanders has a record of consistently turning his back against the Black voters in his very own state of Vermont,” said South Carolina representative Todd Rutherford.
“The lack of confidence that African-American citizens in Vermont have about Senator Bernie Sanders’ leadership is troubling and should be of concern to Black voters throughout the country,” said former NYC mayor, David Dinkins.
Sanders’ campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Updated
Whose endorsement would you rather have?
Approval rating among SC GOP:
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 17, 2016
Haley (endorsed Rubio): 81%
Scott (endorsed Rubio): 75%
Graham (endorsed Jeb): 53%https://t.co/MqNnZQhlJp
Governor Nikki Haley will endorse Marco Rubio for president, it was reported on Wednesday, lending a major boost to the Florida senator’s campaign just days ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary, writes Guardian political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui in Aiken, South Carolina:
The Post and Courier first reported the endorsement, adding that Haley will appear alongside Rubio at an evening campaign event in Chapin.
Haley will become the third influential South Carolina official to back Rubio. The senator already has the support of Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Trey Gowdy, two of the state’s popular lawmakers.
Haley’s endorsement had long been sought by Republican candidates. Although her endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2012 did not help him to secure a victory in South Carolina, Haley has risen significantly in stature since then.
Haley, the second Indian American to be elected governor and first woman to hold the post in South Carolina, resurfaced on the national scene last year after a racially motivated church shooting in Charleston.
She was widely praised for her response, which included swift action to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state Capitol.
She also delivered the Republican response to this year’s State of the Union address, earning accolades for speaking out against the sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric that has taken hold of the GOP primary.
Rubio has lavished Haley with praise, particularly for how she handled the Emanuel AME church massacre, and told reporters Tuesday he would welcome her endorsement.
Updated
Sanders camp calls Killer Mike 'uterus' controversy 'gotcha' politics
A spokesman for Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has dismissed charges of sexism against Sanders supporter Killer Mike, the Atlanta-based rapper, as “gotcha” politics.
Speaking at a Sanders rally at Morehouse College in Atlanta on Tuesday, Killer Mike argued against the Hillary Clinton candidacy in part by quoting the activist Jane Elliott as saying, “Michael, a uterus doesn’t qualify you to be president of the United States.”
After a local reporter live-tweeted the line without the Elliott reference, the rapper was attacked on social media as sexist. That charge was amplified by the Clinton campaign, with senior communications adviser Karen Finney piling on on Twitter:
Based on her uterus? Must be ignoring @HillaryClinton lifetime of doing the work breaking down barriers for all. @KillerMike
— Karen Finney (@finneyk) February 17, 2016
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said Wednesday that Killer Mike, who has been campaigning widely for the senator, “doesn’t believe gender should be a reason to vote for or against someone.”
“That’s the point Mike was making when he quoted Jane Elliott, the internationally known educator,” said Briggs. “We need to get beyond the gotcha politics and get to the issues at the heart of the election.”
“I don’t and never will Hate or think less of women,” the rapper said in a tweet referring to former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, who also spoke at the rally. “Sen. Nina Turner is my Next Great Political Champ but I’m sorry No HRC for me.”
Killer Mike, aka Michael Render, and his supporters circulated transcripts of his speech to illustrate the context of his “uterus” remark:
FYI: That @KillerMike sound bite going around is pretty dishonest. Here’s the full context. Notice what’s missing. pic.twitter.com/nRR9jXcKAX
— Jonathan McIntosh (@radicalbytes) February 17, 2016
There’s video, too:
@KillerMike here’s the clip of your full quote in context to quiet the haters pic.twitter.com/W63tyqNA1y
— tonx (@tonx) February 17, 2016
And here’s the full speech. Elliott herself defended the rapper in an interview with the Huffington Post, saying, “it’s a ridiculous thing to be upset about”:
I sincerely see this woman as one of my greatest teachers. Thank U #JaneElliot pic.twitter.com/l6MbWFrOZk
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) February 17, 2016
But others who took up the discussion, including former Guardian US columnist Jill Filipovic and others, said the context did not excuse the statement.
C'mon guys. You know "Killer Mike was just quoting a feminist!" is not an excuse. Remember when Trump "quoted" someone calling Cruz a pussy?
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) February 17, 2016
Filipovic compared the controversy to recent consternation in Democratic circles at comments feminist icon Gloria Steinem and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright made about young women who support Sanders.
Albright warned there was a “special place in hell” for women who don’t support other women, and Steinem suggested that young women supporting Sanders were in it for the boys. Both later apologized.
Context for Killer Mike's comments matters. So did context for Gloria and Madeleine. And yet.
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) February 17, 2016
Updated
Haley endorses Rubio – Post and Courier
The local paper has the scoop: popular South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has thrown her support behind Florida senator Marco Rubio, as the state’s Republicans prepare to vote Saturday.
BREAKING: Gov. Nikki Haley endorses Sen. Marco Rubio for president. #scpol #SCPrimary #chsnews pic.twitter.com/1d56EtVmLP
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) February 17, 2016
Haley tangled with Donald Trump after her response to Barack Obama’s state of the union address this year, in which she called on Republicans to reject the “siren call of the angriest voices.” For some reason Trump thought she was talking about him.
Updated
Trump on Cruz lawsuit threat: 'Time will tell, Teddy'
The Donald Trump campaign has responded to Ted Cruz’s challenge to Trump to make good on a defamation lawuit threat over a Cruz ad.
“Donald I would encourage you, if you want to file a lawsuit challenging this ad, claiming it is defamation, file a lawsuit,” Cruz said at a midday news conference.
“If I want to bring a lawsuit it would be legitimate,” Trump replies, in a statement obtained by the Guardian:
Ted Cruz has already had one of his ads pulled off the air concerning Senator Rubio because it was totally false. Additionally, he was forced to apologize to Dr. Ben Carson for fraudulently stealing his votes in Iowa, and was embarrassed by his phony voter violation form. He is a liar and these ads and statements made by Cruz are clearly desperate moves by a guy who is tanking in the polls- watching his campaign go up in flames finally explains Cruz’s logo. I am pro-life and I do not support tax payer funding for Planned Parenthood as long as they are performing abortions. I have been clear about my position on this issue for years. I am also a strong advocate of the second amendment and a proud member of the NRA, as are my sons. I will repeal and replace ObamaCare and I would nominate a very conservative Justice to protect our freedoms and conservative values. If I want to bring a lawsuit it would be legitimate. Likewise, if I want to bring the lawsuit regarding Senator Cruz being a natural born Canadian I will do so. Time will tell, Teddy. - Donald J. Trump
(via @bencjacobs)
Cruz lawyers' response to Trump's cease and desist demand--> pic.twitter.com/ufsPNT1p9p
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) February 17, 2016
Updated
Our conception of how the general presidential race will look and feel is necessarily uninformed and subject to change. Many voters haven’t yet gotten to know the candidates. Minds can change depending on events or star signs or weather or who knows what. There are months to go in which any candidate may rise or plummet.
Nonetheless, pollsters are posing questions about theoretical general election matchups to voters. USA Today / Suffolk have dropped a new poll showing Bernie Sanders out-performing Hillary Clinton:
The nationwide survey, taken Thursday through Monday, underscores how formidable an opponent the 74-year-old democratic socialist has become against one of theDemocratic Party’s most established figures.
USA Today/Suffolk national:
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 17, 2016
Cruz 45 Clinton 44
Trump 45 Clinton 43
Rubio 48 Clinton 42
Kasich 49 Clinton 38
https://t.co/eP3ZKg6wNt
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, has scored an endorsement from an elected official! His first, according to FiveThirtyEight’s endorsement tracker.
Carson gets the nod from Maryland Representative Andy Harris, a fellow doctor at Johns Hopkins known for his solitary and staunch opposition to marijuana decriminalization in Washington, DC.
The party decides pic.twitter.com/pVOZ7ElTNF
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 17, 2016
Update:
Freakin Ben Carson got a congressional endorsement before Trump https://t.co/U5KMbjmRG4
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) February 17, 2016
Updated
Utah senator Mike Lee, possibly Cruz’s only friend in the Senate, plans to campaign in South Carolina tomorrow alongside Marco Rubio.
But Lee will campaign with Cruz, too, his spokesperson says.
CORRECTION: This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Lee plans to campaign in South Carolina with both Cruz and Rubio, not Rubio alone, as initially reported, which would have been a serious burn on Cruz.
![Who’s calling? Ted? Tell him I’ll see him tomorrow. Also Marco. [Lee winning in Utah in 2010.]](http://media.guim.co.uk/b8391ecf7d8e2432ed9050fbb85cab08459d7b88/0_120_2000_1201/1000.jpg)
Updated
Cruz: vote for Trump is vote to erase second amendment
Cruz is kneecapping Rubio, too. “Ethics matter,” says Cruz, who spread a false rumor in Iowa that Ben Carson had dropped out of the campaign and sent mailers to voters accusing them of a “voting violation.”
Cruz says Rubio campaign is falsely accusing his team of misconduct "with zero evidence."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 17, 2016
“It drives the narrative they want to sell,” Cruz says of Rubio campaign
Cruz: “Marco Rubio is behaving like Donald Trump with a smile.”
“The one candidate who has done a push poll is Marco Rubio,” Cruz says, adding: “Ethics matter.”
"I am not insulting anybody," Cruz says after lengthy critique of Trump and Rubio in Seneca, SC.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 17, 2016
“I think Justice Scalia’s passing this week elevated the stakes of this election,” Cruz says. He says South Carolina voters are asking themselves, ‘Who can I trust?’
Cruz says that Trump’s “four decades” of writing checks for “left-wing Democrats” proves that he doesn’t care about conservative justices. “We are one justice away from the second amendment being erased from the Bill of Rights.”
In case anyone missed that, Cruz puts a finer point on it:
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to erase the second amendment from the Bill of Rights.”
Cruz to Trump: so sue me
Cruz at peak Cruz:
Even in the annals of frivolous lawsuits, this takes the cake. And so Donald I would encourage you, if you want to file a lawsuit challenging this ad, claiming it is defamation, file a lawsuit.
“It is a remarkable contention that an ad that plays video of Donald Trump speaking on national television is somehow defamation.”
WATCH: @TedCruz challenges Donald Trump to follow through on alleged threat to file suit over anti-Trump ad. https://t.co/gCXS9FsiME
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 17, 2016
Cruz is going after Trump in this news conference, listing “pro-abortion Democrats” that Trump has contributed to:
Fascinating: @TedCruz staging a courtroom-style argument against @realDonaldTrump right now in front of reporters, cameras… w whiteboards!
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) February 17, 2016
Mystery posters revealed: @tedcruz lists off "pro-abortion Democrats" @realDonaldTrump has given to pic.twitter.com/r57iRAnrjJ
— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) February 17, 2016
Cruz says: "Donald Trump is a direct cause of Obamacare passing." Cites long history of contributions to Democrats.
— Matt Flegenheimer (@mattfleg) February 17, 2016
Ok but donations mostly to safe Dem seats like Rangel and Maloney https://t.co/D86w0WLcmO
— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) February 17, 2016
Updated
Cruz reads cease-and-desist letter from Trump's lawyer
At a news conference in Seneca, New Hampshire, Texas senator Ted Cruz is reading a cease-and-desist letter his campaign received from Donald Trump’s lawyer.
Cruz says the letter singles out an ad Cruz is running tarring Trump as pro-choice and unfit to pick the next Supreme Court justice. “We cannot trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions,” the ad says.
On Monday, Trump threatened to sue Cruz over the senator’s eligibility for president, saying that unless his rival stops telling “lies” he will take the issue of his birth in Canada to court.
.@tedcruz reads cease and desist letter from @realDonaldTrump lawyer pic.twitter.com/atJ8CmHpTG
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) February 17, 2016
Cruz says Trump campaign sent a cease-and-desist in response to the ad
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) February 17, 2016
Here’s the Cruz ad:
Will the South Carolina governor pick a horse in the South Carolina race?
The last big known unknown before SC: will @nikkihaley endorse? pic.twitter.com/YRih9Vsu0g
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) February 17, 2016
Speaking of polls – hey look there’s another one, conducted in South Carolina by Monmouth University’s polling institute, which agrees with the picture everyone else has taken in the state of a big lead for Trump, just three days out.
Among voters likely to participate in South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, the pollster reports, it’s:
Trump 35 – Cruz 19 – Rubio 17 – Kasich 9 – Bush 8 – Carson 7
LATEST POLL - SOUTH CAROLINA GOP: Trump winning everything and everyone (well, almost) - https://t.co/0R7DP8JFTy
— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) February 17, 2016
That 16-point lead for Trump is close to his 17.5-point lead in the state in Real Clear Politics’ polling averages. Monmouth sees broad support for Trump across pretty much all demographic groups:
Trump is the clear favorite of voters who have not been to college (53%), but also garners the support of about 3-in-10 voters with a college education. He leads among both men (36%) and women (34%); among voters under 50 years old (34%) and those age 50 or older (35%); among voters in veterans’ households (38%) as well as non-veterans (32%); and among evangelical Christians (33%) and non-evangelicals (37%) alike. Cruz (31%) barely nips Trump (27%) among very conservative voters, but Trump enjoys the most support of any candidate among somewhat conservative (40%) and moderate (41%) voters.
Updated
Clinton leads 10 of 12 early March primaries – poll
Is Bernie Sanders a national candidate?
The question is met with indignation by Sanders supporters, who point to repeated instances so far this election cycle of Sanders upending the conventional wisdom that he’s a niche candidate: by building a huge national network of donors, by drawing crowds of thousands from New Hampshire to Nevada to Michigan, by nearly beating Hillary Clinton in Iowa after trailing there in polls by double digits, by tying Clinton in two polls of Nevada voters, and by his whopping 22-point win in New Hampshire, which Clinton won in 2008.
And yet: a new Public Policy Polling survey poses the question of Sanders’ national viability with new urgency.
The poll finds Hillary Clinton leading the way in 10 of 12 states that will vote between 1 March and 8 March. Clinton holds double-digit leads in nine of those states, according to the poll. Sanders leads only in Massachusetts and in Vermont, his home state. He appears close to Clinton in Oklahoma, which is among 14 states to vote on 1 March.
Sanders has long suffered a perceived gap with Clinton among non-white voters and voters without a college degree – groups that figure heavily in the demographics of states that will vote in early March. Clinton has vociferously challenged Sanders’ attempt in particular to close the gap with African American voters.
“You can’t just show up at election time and say the right things and think that’s enough,” Clinton said in a speech to civil rights leaders in Harlem on Tuesday. “We can’t start building relationships a few weeks before a vote.” The argument appears to be holding with South Carolina voters, who polling averages say favor Clinton by more than 20 points.
Pollsters aren’t always right (!) and the numbers can change quickly. But the emerging national picture does not appear, as the latest numbers come in, to hold obvious good news for the insurgent candidate. To which his supporters might say, see you at the voting booth.
Ted Cruz: not a morning person
Candidates, they’re just like us! At least Texas senator Ted Cruz is, apparently. Because Cruz needs a tanker truck of coffee in the morning to succeed at basic functions such as blinking and speech, the Washington Post’s Katie Zezima entertainingly reports:
There are the emails with the 1 a.m. time stamp, dinners that start when some people go to bed and meetings that stretch late into the night. Don’t expect to see him bright and early on the campaign trail — in a field of GOP presidential candidates where 8 a.m. events happen with some regularity, Cruz starts late in the morning, often clutching a cup of coffee.
Cruz is a “night owl,” his wife Heidi says, telling voters her husband shares nocturnal tendencies with his mother.
“When he comes home from the campaign trail, they’re often in the living room talking late, late into the night” over tea, she said last month.
Enjoy the full piece here.
(h/t: @bencjacobs)
Updated
A long Bernie Sanders video spot featuring Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who died after being placed in a chokehold by police, is circulating widely in advance of the Democratic South Carolina primary in 10 days. A majority of South Carolina Democratic primary-goers are African American. Erica Garner has been appearing with Sanders on the campaign trail in the state.
“I’m behind anyone who’s going to listen and speak up for us. And I think we need to believe in a leader like Bernie Sanders,” Erica Garner says in the video. “He’s not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. He’s not scared.”
Garner tells her father’s story and about how the family has dealt with his death:
I was able to see my dad die on national TV. They don’t know what they took from us. He wasn’t just someone that no one cared for him, or no one loved him. He was loved dearly...
I’m just trying to get the truth out there to tell his side of the story. He was being the loving, caring man that he was, and he was murdered.
The spot gets an approving nod from Republican strategist Rick Wilson:
Set aside partisan considerations, but the Bernie Sanders Eric Garner ad is a damn work of art. It's brilliant, grim, and perfect.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 17, 2016
You don't have to agree with its politics. It's an ad that combines craft, art, message, and is an emotional gut punch to his weak demo.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 17, 2016
Donald Trump was on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. Well, Trump called into the show, at least. Colbert is from Charleston, South Carolina, where Republicans plan to vote – apparently a lot of them for Trump – on Saturday.
Trump calls in. Colbert asks him what he’s wearing. Trump says he’s wearing “a very beautiful blue suit with a very poor tie but the tie will get better as the day goes on.” Weird. Then Trump says he hopes South Carolina will vote for him. “We’re going to make America great again.” Colbert challenges Trump on his “potty mouth.” Trump: “I’ve decided to stop” talking dirty. “These are very minor words, and in many cases I actually bleep them out myself,” he says. Go bleep yourself? Colbert says he should keep a swear jar and every time he cusses he should put a billion dollars in there. Then Trump says the senate “has a right... not to vote on [a new Supreme Court nominee]. Look, if I was the president I’d be pushing.” Trump tries a southern accent: “Please vote for me, y’all.” Exeunt.
Updated
Cruz bears talons in hawkish South Carolina
After being battered on national security in Iowa by Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz is taking no chances in the ultra hawkish state of South Carolina, writes Guardian political correspondent Ben Jacobs:
Proclaiming that he wants a military with “more tooth and less tail”, Cruz went on a statewide tour on Tuesday to tout his national security credentials. Starting with a speech on board the USS Yorktown, a decommissioned aircraft carrier from the second world war, the senator from Texas laid out an approach that relied on beefing up the US armed forces with occasional doses of red meat for social conservative voters.
In a campaign stop in Columbia, Cruz pledged to increase the US army’s enlistment by 75,000 troops as well as add more ships to the navy and more planes to the air force. However, he made clear that these additional soldiers would be mostly men, casting scorn upon those Republican rivals who want to “draft our daughters into combat”.
Read the full piece:
Donald Trump for some reason is highlighting Barack Obama’s opinion that he, Trump, “will not be president” (Trump misquotes Obama as saying “never”):
Interesting how President Obama so haltingly said I "would never be president" - This from perhaps the worst president in U.S. history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2016
Update: South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who is stumping this week in the state for Jeb Bush, has an opinion to share about a potential Trump nomination as the 2016 Republican presidential candidate:
If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee for President, we will get slaughtered in November 2016. And frankly, we will deserve it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 17, 2016
Graham means that with Trump at the top of the ticket, Republicans could lose their eight-seat senate majority and down-ballot races galore.
Update update: Twitter fight #politics:
.@lindseygraham, who had zero in his presidential run before dropping out in disgrace- saying the most horrible things about me on @FoxNews.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2016
I will beat Hillary easily, but Lindsey Graham says I won't, and yet he got zero against me- no cred! Why does FOX put him on?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2016
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This isn’t American politics but we trust you to handle the cognitive dissonance in the name of maximum information flow to the readership:
[UPDATE: There has been some confusion registered to the presence of the Duchess of Cambridge in our American politics live blog. We apologize for the confusion. To further clarify: the below does not pertain, as far as we know, to the 2016 race for the White House™. Rather it is something we saw on the Internet that we thought you, our readers, might like to see too. Did we misjudge you? Does this picture ruin, for you, what otherwise is a pleasing narrative politics blog thread? Let us know in the comments! – T.M.]
Say, "Delete your account, lol." (Getty) pic.twitter.com/uBb041ZUZK
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) February 17, 2016
Here’s what’s actually happening in this photo, per AP: ‘Kate, Duchess of Cambridge talks with the Executive Editor of the Huff Post UK, James Martin, centre, and Editor in Chief Huff Post UK, Steven Hull, right, after launching a story on “Early Intervention in Mental Health Care” on the Huffington Post landing page in the “News Room” at Kensington Palace, London, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016.’
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Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Three days from now, Democrats caucus in Nevada and Republicans hold a primary in South Carolina. Here’s what’s happening:
Nevada neck-and-neck?
In a CNN/ORC poll of likely caucus attendees published Wednesday, 48% said they supported Hillary Clinton and 47% backed Sanders. Be advised that the Nevada caucuses have proven tricky for pollsters in the past. This is the second recent poll to show a Nevada tie, FWIW.
Big TV buy news from NV:
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) February 17, 2016
Hillary outspending Bernie $1.5M to $1M today thru caucus
Trump made $400K buy this week.https://t.co/gzAxm22poV
The same poll showed Trump way ahead in Nevada among likely caucus-goers, with 45% to Marco Rubio’s 19%, and Clinton with a large lead in South Carolina, where Democrats vote on Saturday 27 February.
The president got some things off his mind in a news conference yesterday, including the need for the Senate to consider his next supreme court pick ...
The constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen. When there is a vacancy on the supreme court, the president of the United States is to nominate someone. The Senate is to consider that nomination, and either they disapprove of that nominee, or that nominee is elevated to the supreme court ... There is more than enough time for the Senate to consider in a thoughtful way the record of a nominee that I present and to make a decision.
... and his perception that Donald J Trump will not be the 45th US president:
I continue to believe Mr Trump will not be president, and the reason is that I have a lot of faith in the American people, and and I think they recognize that being president is a serious job.
Point, counterpoint:
This explains why we (wrongly) keep assuming voters will magically come to their senses & reject Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/NJXbxfhVEZ
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) February 17, 2016
Then again, normal usually happens.
Our team in the field today includes Ben Jacobs with Donald Trump and Sabrina Siddiqui with Marco Rubio. Later Sabrina will attend a town hall featuring three Republican candidates: Carson, Rubio and Ted Cruz. As counter-programming to the town hall, Trump is holding an event of his own, some kind of love-in tonight with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
Hey, look, it’s American politics in a nutshell. Jeb Bush’s America ...
America. pic.twitter.com/TeduJkwQF3
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 16, 2016
... versus Bernie Sanders’ America:
Honorable mention:
i dont know why we're doing this but
— Holly Green (@winnersusedrugs) February 16, 2016
America pic.twitter.com/KMR4MnW5lS
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