Summary
- Bernie Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton to a debate before the New York primary, and said the influence of “big money” in Hillary Clinton’s campaign is “obscene”.
- He criticized wealthy people who would pay thousands of dollars to attend a pro-Clinton event hosted by actor George Clooney. “I have a lot of respect for George Clooney, he’s a great actor, I like him,” Sanders said.“It’s not Clooney, it’s the people who are coming to this event have undue influence over the political process.”
- Donald Trump declared the entire world unsafe, saying: “I don’t think America’s a safe place for Americans, you want to know the truth. I don’t think Europe is a safe place.”
- The Republican frontrunner said “Nato is obsolete” and should be restructured to combat terrorism. He also ruled out internment camps for Muslim Americans, but added: “Muslims in our country have to report bad acts.”
- Texas senator Ted Cruz accused Trump of fabricating a tabloid story about extramarital affairs. “He refuses to debate because he doesn’t want to America to see his lack of knowledge,” he said. “So what does he do? He attacks my wife.”
- Cruz also defended a plan to “fight Islamism at every level” by sending police to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods”. New York’s police chief scorned the idea on Saturday, saying Cruz “knows nothing about counterterrorism”.
- Trump denied any part in the tabloid fiasco, and accused Cruz of committing a federal crime by coordinating with a Super Pac. “Just so you understand, that Super Pac is very friendly to Ted Cruz,” he said. “He knew all about it, 100%.”
- Secretary of State John Kerry said the 2016 campaign has been “an embarrassment” to the US abroad. “It upsets people’s equilibrium about our steadiness,” he said, of the questions posed to him by world leaders. “It’s clear to me that what is happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
- Hillary Clinton did not appear on any news show, and took no questions about her losses by large margins on Saturday in Washington state, Alaska and Hawaii. She leads Sanders by more than 200 pledged delegates, and tentatively by more than 400 “superdelegates”, who are not bound to vote according to their state’s results.
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As we creep closer to the Republican convention, delegates who are not bound to vote according to their state’s results will become increasingly important in the campaign to keep Donald Trump from winning the nomination.
The University of Georgia’s Josh Putnam breaks down some of the math.
Update on current unbound Republican delegates (3/27/16). [MTP overstated number this morning.] pic.twitter.com/jJ9K8SCnGY
— Josh Putnam (@FHQ) March 27, 2016
The candidate indulges in media criticism on his favorite medium – though it’s not clear where the plaudits are coming from.
Wow, sleepy eyes @chucktodd is at it again. He is do totally biased. The things I am saying are correct. - far better vision than the others
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2016
My statement on NATO being obsolete and disproportionately too expensive (and unfair) for the U.S. are now, finally, receiving plaudits!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2016
Cruz: patrols would fight 'Islamism'
On Fox News Sunday this morning, Ted Cruz defended his plan to mount patrols in US neighborhoods in order to fight “Islamism”.
“This is pro-active law enforcement. It’s addressing the problem using all the tools at the disposal of law enforcement to defeat the enemy.”
He accused the Obama administration of “pursuing a policy of weakness and appeasement. We’ve seen these attacks over and over. For seven years, Obama and Hillary Clinton have refused to acknowledge what were fighting.”
“The threat comes from radicalization. We can’t become Europe with its failed immigration policies. We can’t repeat their mistakes. We can’t be forced to live under Sharia law. We need to engage and find this enemy. We have to fight Islamism at every level.”
Moving away from how exactly these police patrols and surveillance would work, or not violate civil and privacy rights of American citizens, Cruz criticized the Obama administration over “political correctness”.
“Hillary and Obama are more mad at me than they are at the terrorists murdering us,” Cruz said. “If I become president we will carpet bomb Isis into the ground. We will use military force to destroy the enemy. We wont engage in national building. We’ll get the job done and get the hell out.”
He then changed tack again, and said that Donald Trump makes personal attacks because he has no answers on foreign policy or security questions.
“So what does he do? He attacks my wife. He sent out a nasty tweet, bragging his wife was so attractive,” Cruz said.
“Attacking spouses and children is off-limits. But this is what Donald does when he gets scared: he attacks. He doesn’t know what to do. It’s a sign of how scared he is. He refuses to debate because he doesn’t want America to see his lack of acknowledge.”
The senator did single out one of Trump’s proposals: the US withdrawal from Nato, or at least an overhaul of the alliance’s structure and priorities.
“It makes no sense,” Cruz said. “It would hand a massive victory to Putin and Isis. Trump lacks any understanding of foreign policy.”
Then he reverted back to a discussion of a tabloid story alleging the senator had several extramarital affairs. “It came for Trump and his henchmen. It came from Roger Stone, the enforcer from Donald Trump,” Cruz said. “It’s all made-up lies. Total Garbage and a sign of just how long he will go.”
“He doesn’t want to talk about the issues. He has no answers. So he goes to garbage sleaze and lies. This has no place in politics.”
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Bernie Sanders makes one last run at a talk show: NBC’s Meet the Press, where Chuck Todd asks him about the tenor of his rallies – he says there’s “a lot of booing of Hillary Clinton” at those events.
You had no reaction recently, Todd notes, whereas a month ago you would quiet the crowds and observe your respect for your opponent.
“No, no reason at all,” Sanders tells Todd about the different reactions. “I respect Secretary Clinton here, I don’t want our supports to be booing her.”
He notes the differences again between his views and Clinton’s: “People respond the way they respond.”
Sanders says his campaign is “trying to differentiate our [views] on the war in Iraq, on fracking, on how we raise money, that is what the American people want to hear.”
He admits, though, that he worries Clinton won’t debate him before the approaching set of elections in Wisconsin and the north-east. “I do have a little bit of concern about that, but I certainly would like to see a debate in New York state.”
Finally, Todd asks whether Sanders has any conditions for supporting Clinton, should she become the Democratic nominee. “I hope very much that you’ll be asking her that question,” Sanders jokingly replies.
Todd then makes an implicit note – similar to the explicit one made by ABC’s Jonathan Karl – that Clinton declined to appear on any talk show this week.
Back on NBC, Todd asks Kasich about whether it’s possible to “redraw the map” in the Middle East, as the governor has previously suggested would be necessary to resolve conflicts there.
Kasich says he doesn’t think “we should do that”.
“I believe we should destroy ISIS, and then once it settles down, let the regional powers sort this out,” he says. The Kurds are doing just that in northern Syria and Iraq, he says, without mentioning that the US’s partner, Turkey, has periodically bombed its other partner, the Kurds, in the last year.
“Let the regional powers sort this thing out,” he says. “I think there could ultimately be a redrawing of the map, but western powers shouldn’t do it. Let them do it where they live.”
The NBC host asks about the horse race. What exactly is your plan to win with one state victory, governor?
“I’m beating Hillary by 11 points,” Kasich says, although he’s also losing the Republican nomination contest by almost 600 delegates. “I’m the only one that can win in the fall.” He says he’s going to do well in Pennsylvania.
Todd: What about the tenor of the race? What do you make of it?
The governor sighs. “Families have to be off-limits,” he says, alluding to the bizarre spat between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their wives and a tabloid story. “If this becomes the order of the day, what kind of people are we going to have in the future that are going to run for public office?
“There’s got to be some rules, and there’s got to be something that gets set there. Some decency.”
So are you still going to support Donald Trump if he’s the Republican nominee?
“We’ll see what happens,” Kasich says. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
Kerry: campaigns 'embarrass' the US abroad
Dickerson asks Kerry about the Syrian civil war, and the complex negotiations with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, his Russian and Iranian backers, Syrian rebels, and the US and European mediators who oppose Assad.
“If Assad is not going to move to the side and cede to the transition that Iran and Russia and all the other nations” have called for, Kerry says, “if he doesn’t do that there will not be peace in Syria.”
“It is not sort of a discretionary” argument, he says, asserting: “you can’t end the war” with Assad in power. He says the Russians agree: “They believe that the Syrian people must decide in the context of this political process.”
Have the negotiations strengthened Russia in the Middle East? Dickerson asks.
“Russia has a foothold” already, Kerry scoffs. “Russia built the air defense system of Syria years ago.”
“We have bases all through the Middle East, in Bahrain, in Qatar,” he goes on. “I see no threat whatsoever to the fact that Russia has some additional foundation in Syria where we don’t want a base, where we’re not looking for some kind of a long-term presence.”
Finally Dickerson asks about how the US presidential elections are being received by the world leaders whom Kerry meets abroad.
“They ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it,” Kerry says. “They’re shocked. They don’t know what is taking place.”
“It upsets people’s equilibrium about our steadiness,” he concludes, a little sadly. “It’s clear to me that what is happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
Secretary of State John Kerry is on CBS’s Face the Nation, where he tries to reassure Americans that despite an extraordinary travel warning from the State Department for Europe, they should remain brave in the face of terrorism.
“We have to be vigilant,” Kerry says. “I would not tell any friend of mine or member of my family, ‘Don’t travel to Europe.’ But I would say, ‘be aware.”
“It’s really a matter of common sense, but there are guidelines and the State Department is ready to help anyone understand exactly what that means,” he said. “It means avoid a crowded place where you have no control over who may be there, have a sense of vigilance to watch who’s around you.
“If you see a guy walking into an airport with a black glove in one hand and nothing on the other and there are two of them the same way and they are pushing a big suitcase, maybe that tells you something.”
Host John Dickerson asks him about Barack Obama’s decision to continue with diplomacy in the aftermath of the Belgium attacks, and during his historic trip to Cuba. Obama was criticized for attending a baseball game with Raúl Castro the afternoon of the attacks.
Kerry is emphatic: “The president of the United States’ schedule is not set by terrorists.”
“Life doesn’t stop because one terrible incident takes place in one place,” he says. “The president of the United States has major diplomatic responsibilities.”
He also defends the US response in general. “He talked to the prime minister of Belgium from Cuba. I talked to the foreign minister from Cuba.” An FBI team is also working with investigators in Belgium, he adds.
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Ohio Governor John Kasich is apperaing n NBC’s Meet the Press, where host Chuck Todd asks him about the proposals from his rivals to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods and temporarily bar the US from Muslims.
Todd: Why do you think Republican voters are responding to those ideas from Trump and Cruz?
Kasich: “I think when they see things, it makes them very concerned and very nervous. And so it’s sort of a knee-jerk, I think.”
He says we need “to have intimate communication and coordination with our friends in the Muslim community. There is no question about it. I mean, in order to find out about the radicalized friends and neighbors, or people that you may not even know at all, who you observe doing things.”
He wants to reform Nato, too.
Kasich: “I think it needs to involve itself in policing and in intelligence gathering. Because when we look at Europe right now, we find there’s so many holes, and an inability of their, their ability to get their act together.”
He says Britain’s existential crisis over whether to leave the EU is a reflection of Europe’s broader drift, and an example of why Nato needs an overhaul.
“Look, either we hang together, or we hang separately, is really what the message from a good leader is,” Kasich says. “And frankly, it’s got to include our friends in the Arab Muslim community. We cannot beat this unless we do this, strengthen ourselves militarily, destroy Isis.”
Todd: what about security in the US? Are our subways safe enough?
Kasich: “I don’t want to overreact to this. You have to have your counter-intelligence community, which is made up of the FBI, sometimes Homeland Security, state and local law enforcement. And they need to do the assessments.”
Todd: so is everything peachy? What about an attack like Brussels?
“The governor takes the bait to criticize Barack Obama. “I wouldn’t have gone to a baseball game in Cuba,” Kasich says. “I would have come home. I would have called all the world leaders.
“I would have gathered my intelligence and military experts. And I would have sent them to Europe to sit down, to assess our vulnerabilities. I mean, I’m not overreacting here. But you also can’t underreact.
“When somebody says we ought to ban all Muslims from coming in, that is a statement that – it’s not based in reality. I don’t even know how you would do it. And secondly, we can’t be out there aggravating the very people whose cooperation we need.”
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Bernie Sanders appears next on the ABC show, for a brief Q&A.
“We’ve cut Secretary Clinton’s lead by a third,” the senator says. “Clearly we have the momentum. And I think at the end of the day we’re going to have more pledged delegates.”
“And then I think the superdelegates are going to have to make a very difficult decision.”
He says they’ll have to decide whether to vote with their state or not, and about whether he or Hillary Clinton has a better chance to beat Donald Trump in the general election.
“We think we have a real shot in New York,” he says, in addition to Wisconsin and California.
“I will not deny for one second that we still remain the underdogs, but we have come a long, long way.”
He says there are clear differences between him and Clinton: her backing from Wall Street sources and large corporations, her support for (regulated) fracking, her vote for the Iraq war and inclination toward military intervention, etc.
Karl asks whether Sanders would consider Clinton as a running-mate. The senator says he’s not thinking about that kind of thing right now.
And finally Karl asks about the war against Isis in Syria and Iraq.
“Of course I am opposed to the United States getting involved in perpetual warfare,” Sanders says, adding that he supports President Obama’s policies. Muslim forces have to do most of the work, he says.
“The United States should have special forces there, we should have air support and air attacks, and we should be training the troops.”
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Trump: convention system is a 'disgrace'
Finally, Karl asks Trump about the convention and Republican rules should no candidate manage to secure the nomination on the first ballot among delegates. The attending delegates will have authority to write the rules to this year’s convention.
“The tabulation system is a broken system. It’s not fair,” Trump says. “What’s going on in the Republican Party is a disgrace.”
He alludes to a Wall Street Journal report about how Ted Cruz’s campaign is out-maneuvering Trump in internal contests to choose delegates for these rule-writing committees.
“I won Louisiana and now I hear [Cruz’s] trying to steal delegates. You know, welcome to, uh, the Republican Party,” Trump says. “I won Louisiana and now I hear he’s trying to steal delegates.”
“I have so many more votes and so many more delegates. And, frankly, whoever at the end, whoever has the most votes and the most delegates should be the nominee.”
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'Nato is obselete,' Trump claims
The ABC host now shifts away from his first questions, on tabloids and Twitter, to questions about terrorism and the role of Nato in global security.
“I don’t think America’s a safe place for Americans, you want to know the truth,” Trump says. “I don’t think Europe is a safe place.”
“Lots of the free world has become weak,” he continues. “We’re going to have problems, just as big or bigger.”
Then he elaborates a bit on his idea that the alliance that defined the second half of the 20th century, Nato, needs an overhaul.
“I think Nato is obsolete,” Trump says. “I’m not saying Russia is not a threat but we have other threats, and Nato doesn’t discuss terrorism.”
“We pay, number one, a totally disproportionate share of Nato,” Trump continues, before rambling about how “we’re the ones always fighting on the Ukraine”.
There are no American soldiers fighting in Ukraine, where pro-Russia militants have been waging war with government forces for more than a year, and where hundreds of people have died.
“How come the countries near the Ukraine,” Trump asks, “how come they’re not at least protesting?”
Baltic states, including Nato allies, have repeatedly asked for help, and Germany has played a key role in negotiations between the Kremlin, Kiev, and rebels. But “I don’t hear from the other countries,” Trump avers. “I don’t hear from Germany.”
Trump wants Nato “readjusted to take care of terrorism or we’re going to have to set up a new coalition” because “terrorism is out of control.”
Karl asks Trump whether he would rule out interment camps for Muslim Americans, in addition to his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States.
“I would rule it out, but we’re going to have to be very smart, very vigilant,” Trump says. “Muslims in our country have to report bad acts.”
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Karl asks whether Republican delegates should be allowed to carry guns into the party convention this summer in July, as more than 24,000 people have asked.
Trump pleads ignorance, as he did when asked to condemn white supremacist groups a few weeks ago.
“I haven’t seen the petition at all,” he says, “I’ll certainly take a look at it.
“I’m a very, very strong person for second amendment.”
Trump has declared himself an enemy of gun-free zones, like the arena where the convention will be held, and like the venues of Republican debates and several of his own golf courses and hotel properties.
So what were you talking about when you threatened to “spill the beans” on Ted Cruz’s wife, the ABC host asks Trump.
“There are things about Heidi that I don’t want to talk about,” he says. “You could look.”
Karl then asks Trump about Twitter and tasteless retweets. “It’s a new way of communicating, it’s very effective,” Trump says.
“I have 15 or 16 million followers,” between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, he claims. “Other people don’t like it because they have 15 followers.
“I’m not going to be doing it very much as president. I will act in the best interests of our country,” he adds though, “whether that’s counterpunching or not.”
Trump denies part in tabloid, accuses Cruz of federal crime
Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is up on on ABC’s This Week, with Jonathan Karl. The host asks the businessman about the feud with Ted Cruz over their wives and a tabloid story that accuses Cruz of having extramarital affairs.
Cruz says Trump fabricated the story.
“I had nothing to do with it,” Trump says. “The campaign had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
“He’s got a problem with The National Enquirer. I have no control over The National Enquirer. I didn’t even know about the story. I just got it last night. Somebody sent it to me over to read, so I could at least see what it said.”
“I had nothing to do whatsoever with the National Enquirer.”
For him to try and say it,” he adds, is “disgraceful”.
“By the way he’s the one who started it,” Trump says. “Melania did a covershoot for GQ, a very strong modeling picture, no big deal … it was fine, and from what I hear somebody bought the rights to it … and just so you understand, that Super Pac is very friendly to Ted Cruz.”
“He know all about it, 100%,” he concludes, a casual accusation that Cruz violated federal law by coordinating with a Super Pac. “He’s very close to the Super Pac.”
“There’s no way in a million years that Super Pac did that without his absolute knowledge.”
ABC: Do you condemn this story?
Trump: “I don’t care. I’m really, I don’t care. The National Enquirer did a story. It was their story. It wasn’t my story. It was about Ted Cruz. I have no idea whether it was right or not. They actually have a very good record of being right. But I have absolutely no idea.”
“Frankly, I said, I hope it’s not right.”
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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, chair of the Homeland Security committee, is next up on the CNN program. Tapper asks him about whether US intelligence is concerned about terror attacks in the United States.
“We’re being told there are no credible threats,” Johnson says, though he adds it would “make sense that there are more plots being hatched in Europe”.
Johnson, a Republican, quickly criticizes President Barack Obama for having “not shown the leadership” necessary.
Then he says the United States needs to assemble a “coalition of the willing” – this is what the Bush administration called the group of nations that joined the US invasion of Iraq, a far smaller group than the Nato alliance that went to war in Afghanistan after the September 11 2001 attacks.
“President Obama took off the table,” Johnson says, “the very ingredient that’s going to be necessary, and that is American troops on the ground.”
Americans overwhelmingly do not want to send ground forces into Syria, research shows, and a majority believe the Iraq war was a mistake. Last year Obama sent special forces soldiers into Syria and Iraq, although American forces withdrew formally from Iraq in 2011. An American marine died in an Isis attack on a base near Mosul last week.
“I don’t think we need to have that many of them,” Johnson says. “We have to assemble the leadership.”
Johnson says the “historic blunder of President Obama was leaving Iraq” and that “we have to learn the lessons of history”.
“We are not taking this threat seriously enough, and it is highly concerning.”
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Sanders: 'big money' for Clinton is 'obscene'
Finally Tapper asks Sanders about an event hosted by the actor George Clooney in support of Clinton – costing thousands of dollars per plate.
Sanders’ campaign manager called the price tag “obscene” earlier this week.
“It is obscene that Secretary Clinton keeps going to big money people to fund her campaign, and it’s not just this Clooney event,” Sanders tells CNN. He says she also relies on Super Pacs, Wall Street and big drug companies.
“We have on the other hand received six million individual campaign contributions, averaging $27 a piece.”
“I have a lot of respect for George Clooney, he’s a great actor, I like him,” Sanders continues, clarifying that he’s making “a criticism of a corrupt campaign finance system.”
“It’s not Clooney it’s the people who are coming to this event have undue influence over the political process.”
Tapper asks Sanders about how he would confront Isis, and how he would improve security to prevent the kinds of terror attacks like those the world saw in Belgium last week.
“In fairness to the president,” Sanders says, “his job is twofold. Number one to destroy Isis, and let’s be clear we are making, on the military field, real progress.”
“They are retreating, they have, I think, 30-40% of the territory [in Iraq and Syria]. But what the president is also trying to do is make sure the Untied States [and its soldiers] do not get sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East.”
What about actual improvements to intelligence – Clinton has for instance called for beefed up surveillance…?
Sanders gives a vague answer, saying he supports “better intelligence sharing”, including internationally and more attention to social media. But he adds that when “somebody is willing to kill himself” with a suicide bombing, “this is not so easy to contain”.
Nonetheless, he says, “when you have attacks that take place, when you have 30 people” killed, “something went wrong”.
“This is not a criticism of the intelligence agencies but we have to improve our efforts.”
“Obviously we want to prevent those attacks before they take place,” Sanders says. “We know those people who are planning attacks against our European allies and we have got to do everything we can to destroy them.”
He paraphrases remarks of the King Abdullah II of Jordan: “The fight going on there is a fight for the soul of Islam.
“And at the end of the day it will be Muslim troops on the ground … that will destroy Isis … I will do everything that I can to keep the United States from getting sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East.”
This reluctance and caution about intervention, he says, is “one of the big differences between Secretary Clinton and myself”.
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First up this Sunday morning is Senator Bernie Sanders on CNN’s State of the Union, with host Jake Tapper.
He notes that Clinton has narrowed the gap in pledged delegates to within 250. Then he asks Sanders’ whether white voters are critical to victory in the Democratci race.
“I think every vote is pivotal, we are now winning state after state with the Latino vote,” he says. “We’re doing extraordinarily well with young people, and we do think we have a path toward victory.”
He says that things get easier as primary season moves forward. “The south is the most conservative part of America. We did not do well there,” he admits. “We’re out of the south, we’re heading to the west coast, the most progressive part of America.”
“A lot of superdelegates have pledged to secretary Clinton,” he says, but then argues “in poll after poll are beating Donald Trump by much larger margins.
Sanders argues “the momentum is with us, a lot of these superdelegates may he rethinking their decision, a lot of them have not declared”.
“I think their own constituents are going to say to them, ‘why don’t you support the decision of our state and support Senator Sanders?”’
Tapper: will you support Clinton if she doesn’t get behind a singlepayer healthcare system?
Sanders: “I don’t think we have ever framed things in that sense. First of all I don’t want to talk about what happens if we lose. We are in this to win.”
He continues: “We’re talking about real issues impacting the American people. Why is the middle class disappearing? Why is it that we have massive wealth inequality?”
Sanders celebrates and Trump talks policy
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the day after Bernie Sanders’ sweep through three western states, where he defeated Hillary Clinton by huge margins and cut into her delegate lead for the Democratic nomination for president.
- In Washington state Sanders won 73% of the vote and 25 delegates, leaving Clinton with 27% and nine delegates.
- In Alaska he won 82% of the vote and 13 delegates. Clinton won 18% and three.
- In Hawaii he won 71% of the vote and 17 delegates. Clinton won 29% and eight.
- Sanders still trails Clinton by a huge margin in “superdelegates”, party officials who are not bound to vote according to their state results.
The senator from Vermont hit the trail in Wisconsin, the next state to vote, with an optimism about his chances to defeat the former secretary of state.
“Don’t let anybody tell you we can’t win the nomination,” Sanders told supporters in Madison. “We have a path toward victory.”
He faces a difficult road. Although Wisconsin’s working class and white voters may find a lot to like in Sanders – possibly enough to hand him an upset win akin to his victory in Michigan – the election schedule soon swings to the north-east, where Clinton has advantages in more diverse electorates and “closed” primary elections.
And the Republican candidates are still squabbling over each others’ personal lives while reporters struggle to get them to talk about substance.
- Frontrunner Donald Trump told the New York Times he would consider a number of foreign policy changes that would vastly reduce the US’s role abroad. He suggested letting Japan and South Korea develop nuclear weapons, an end to US oil purchases from Saudi Arabia, and ending sanctions on Iran so American companies could at least sell products there, now that a nuclear deal helps their economy.
- “Not isolationist, but I am America First,” he said, invoking – apparently unwittingly – the 1930s isolationist group that was led in part by Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh.
- Texas senator Ted Cruz was also put back on his heels over calls to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods”. New York’s police chief said Cruz “knows absolutely nothing about counterterrorism” in the city, Muslim Americans said he perpetuated all too common bigotry, and experts called Cruz’s advisors “terrifying”.
- Cruz also called his rival “a rat” earlier this week, adding: “…but I have no desire to copulate with him”. He accused Trump of fabricating a tabloid story about extramarital affairs, after the businessman made a cryptic threat to“spill the beans” about the senator’s wife.
- But Cruz still hasn’t said he would not support a nominated Trump. “I do not make a habit out of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family,” was the closest he came.
- And John Kasich has defied calls to quit the race, even though he has fewer delegates than Marco Rubio, who quit almost two weeks ago. Although more moderate than Cruz, the Ohio governor has been rejected by party leaders like Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney, who say they like him but think he has no chance at the nomination.
We’ll hear what they all have to say this morning about the race, each other and possibly the actual issues facing the US and the world. And in Mexico, some folks set fire to an effigy of Trump in a shower of fireworks and sparks. The head blew up.
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