We’re closing up shop on today’s liveblog - stay tuned for our new liveblog, which will be tuned in to the Democratic presidential primary debate in Miami!
Summary
Guardian US contributor Christopher Barron has been watching the Fox News town hall with John Kasich. He finds that he is a serious candidate ... its just too bad for him that we live in very unserious times.
Ohio Governor John Kasich kicked off the Fox News primetime Republican love fest with a town hall moderated by Greta Van Susteren and attended by largely undecided voters in Illinois. Governor Kasich is a serious man and a serious candidate, unfortunately for him the Republican primary electorate seems to prefer Trump’s vaudeville act or Cruz’s televangelism to his sober policy prescriptions.
Kasich got specific on policy (though often in his rambling, stream of consciousness style). He spoke fluently on education, taxes, trade, health care, the economy and foreign policy - where, interestingly enough, he struck an almost libertarian tone.
While others in the race have tried to take on front-runner Donald Trump head on, showing a willingness to get down in the dirt, Kasich has chosen a very different path - his entire campaign is focused on being the adult in the race.
This town hall was devoid of the red meat and ramped up rhetoric you find at a Trump or Cruz or Rubio rally these days. It is clear Kasich is banking on the Republican primary electorate coming to their collective senses at some point. It doesn’t, however, seem to be a smart bet at this point.
Whatever happens to Kasich in Ohio on Tuesday, watching the arc of his campaign does make me wonder how far Jeb could have gotten if he would have taken this path rather than getting drawn into the brawls with Trump.
A Republican congressman has joined the growing chorus of people who have - implicitly or otherwise - compared Donald Trump to a European fascist leader in the 1930s.
Chris Stewart, of Utah, compared Trump to dictator Benito Mussolini during a forum at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, according to Buzzfeed.
“If some of you are, I’ll just tell you now, Donald Trump supporters, then we see the world differently,” Stewart said, “because I can’t imagine what someone is thinking.”
“I’m telling you, Donald Trump does not represent Republican ideals,” Stewart continued. “He’s our Mussolini.”
Stewart has endorsed Marco Rubio’s presidential bid.
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox says a Donald Trump presidency could lead Mexico and the US to a trade war that would hurt both countries, according to the Associated Press.
A day after Trump stretched his lead over GOP rivals with wins in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, Fox says that if he were to impose tariffs Mexico would have to react in kind.
Fox says: “We are going to lose everything in a trade war.”
He added Wednesday that it’s up to Hillary Clinton to “save” the United States from a Trump presidency. Fox also criticized Bernie Sanders as a proponent of the kind of “stupid” populism that has led to “demagogy” in some Latin American nations.
Nor does he like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who Fox said “denied their (Latino) origins”.
Ted Cruz just scored another major-ish endorsement
This morning, the Texas senator was greeted with the welcome addition of former Hewlett-Packard CEO and onetime Republican candidate for president Carly Fiorina to his roster of endorsers. This evening, Cruz has received the endorsement of another prominent female figure in the conservative movement: Meghan McCain, daughter of longtime US senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
“I was a huge Carly Fiorina fan and supporter,” McCain said on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News, stating that it was Fiorina’s endorsement of Cruz that moved her to support the Texas senator.
“I think her most notable moment was when Donald trump talked about her face, and she responded so eloquently during the debate,” she continued. “I think she has the capacity getting a lot of young conservative women taking a second look at Ted Cruz.”
“For me, honestly, I’ve been hesitant about Ted Cruz, and the Carly Fiorina endorsement has swayed my personal opinion,” McCain said.
Her father the senator has been less positive about Cruz, famously dismissing him as a “whacko bird.”
The Guardian’s Stuart Dredge spotted this... thing in Manhattan’s Union Square today:
Meanwhile, on the Democrat campaign trail... https://t.co/uQq1AwCNRd
— Stuart Dredge (@stuartdredge) March 9, 2016
Donald Trump is winning not just with voters, but with former New York Yankee outfielders as well.
This afternoon, former Yankee Johnny Damon announced his support for the Republican frontrunner. Damon, a former contestant on The Apprentice, defended Trump’s controversial views on immigration in an interview with the New York Daily News.
“Everyone is calling him a racist. He just wants people to come into this country legally and fill out the proper paperwork. That’s how I’m viewing it,” said the two-time all star.
On Tuesday, former Yankee outfielder Paul O’Neill announced his support for Trump while attending the candidate’s election night press conference in Jupiter, Florida.
Trump even mentioned the five time World Series champion by name in the course of his meandering monologue.
While elected officials have been loathe to associate themselves with Trump, the Republican frontrunner has long kept up ties to the world of sports. He has rolled the endorsements of a number of NASCAR drivers and famously is friends with New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady.
With the endorsements of Damon and O’Neill, the Republican frontrunner is now supported by as many former outfielders for the New York Yankees as sitting GOP governors.
It’s been a good season for candidates who can channel the anger of the electorate and we saw that again on Tuesday night, when exit polls continued to turn up in favor of Donald Trump, while Bernie Sanders pulled off a surprise victory in Michigan.
The victories for Trump and Sanders come after a week when both men’s chances were being played down. Sanders’ campaign had been all but left for dead after he failed to make significant inroads with minority voters on Super Tuesday. Trump faced attacks from the party establishment (most notably Mitt Romney) and scorn from the media establishment for his habit of asking people to raise their hands and pledge allegiance to him at rallies, something Cruz quickly seized upon. “We’ve had seven years of a president who thinks he’s an emperor,” he quipped.
For a fleeting moment on Tuesday, it looked like Trump’s star might finally be fading. After all, on Saturday he only won by a few percentage points in Louisiana and Kentucky, while Cruz won handily in Maine and Kansas. But winning by less is still, to put it in Trump terms, #winning. And Tuesday’s results suggest the weekend was merely an ebb in the candidate’s current.
Fight Night in Miami: A preview of the Democratic debate
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are meeting tonight for their fourth one-on-one debate, and their second in less than a week. Coming on the heels of an embarrassing defeat in Michigan for Clinton (and a correlative win for Sanders) and less than a week before major primaries in Ohio and Florida, tonight’s debate will feature a resurgent Sanders and a defensive Clinton - a dynamic we haven’t seen on the debate stage since after Clinton’s massive win in South Carolina.
Before we get to the knock-down-drag-out, here’s a quick run-through of the whos, whats, wheres, whens and whys of tonight’s debate:
- Who’s going to be there? Aside from Clinton and Sanders, the event will be hosted by anchors Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, of Univision, and Karen Tumulty, of the Washington Post. The audience will largely be composed of Florida voters, with a sizable contingent of students from Miami Dade Community College.
- What’s the topic? Most of the Democratic primary debate moderators have taken an ecumenical approach to questioning the candidates, picking and choosing from current events, foreign policy, economic issues, social services and dumb questions from YouTube celebrities. With Univision as the debate’s co-sponsor, expect a fair number of questions around issues relating to Latinos, including immigration and social programs. With the college student contingent present in the audience, the cost of higher education and student-loan debt will likely make an appearance as well.
- Where is the debate being held? The Miami debate will be held at Miami Dade Community College, “the nation’s largest campus-based institution of higher learning and the most diverse.”
- When is the debate? The debate will begin at 9 p.m. EST, although since it’s being broadcast on CNN, it could drag the intro out for 47 minutes until a candidate actually takes the stage. (Sorry for calling you out, Anderson Cooper, but some of us have kids to babysit.)
- How can I watch it? The debate will be simulcast from Univision, CNN and the Washington Post’s website. Fusion will also hold a livestream of the debate.
Updated
This is what we call “poor advance work.”
Rubio stadium event in Hialeah. Stands empty; crowd in one end zone. pic.twitter.com/9zj0xslwSA
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 9, 2016
Marco Rubio is big into the clickbait-y email subject lines:
Granted, he continues that “If we hand the conservative movement over to Donald Trump by making him the Republican nominee, we will lose,” but the beleaguered Florida senator got your attention, right?
Brady Campaign: Bernie Sanders' vote on crooked gun dealers "unforgivable"
One of the nation’s most influential gun-control advocacy organizations has come out strongly against Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, calling his vote in 2006 to keep law enforcement from shutting down gun dealers who operate illegally “unforgivable.”
“This is one of the most dangerous and potentially deadly pieces of special interest legislation to ever come before Congress,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a statement.
“And where was Bernie Sanders when it came to a vote? Right where the corporate gun lobby wanted him. Sanders voted to effectively tie the hands of law enforcement and shield gun dealers who knowingly sold weapons illegally and irresponsibly. Most gun dealers operate on the up and up, but the few ‘bad apples’ who flood our nation’s streets with crime guns need to be stopped, not granted a license to kill.”
The statement refers to H.R. 5092, a bill to soften punishments for firearm retailers and dealers that was introduced during Sanders’ final term in the House of Representatives before he became a US senator. The bill passed the House, but died in the senate.
“The Brady Campaign is calling on senator Sanders to renounce his shameful vote for this dangerous bill during tonight’s Democratic debate,” Gross continued in the statements. “His vote to protect irresponsible gun dealers, his repeated votes for gun industry special legal protections, and his five votes against the Brady Bill further affirm that, for Americans who have had enough of gun violence, Bernie Sanders is on the wrong side of the issue.”
The reigning Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhists and winner of the Nobel peace prize, may have learned a few things from Pope Francis after the pontiff’s public feud with billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
Namely: Don’t do it.
WATCH: The Dalai Lama shares his views about Donald Trump with ABC's @danbharris: https://t.co/wRICuOGhtbhttps://t.co/PdlLzxBaLW
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 9, 2016
“Oh, that’s your business!” the Dalai Lama told ABC News in an interview today, after he was asked “if you have any views on the presidential candidate in this country who is making the most noise, Donald Trump.”
“Firstly, I have no right or option to vote,” the Dalai Lama said, pointing out that he is only in the United States for a short visit. He did say that “sometimes I feel, oh, too much personal criticism” on the campaign trail.
“Serious discussion about policy matters, that’s useful,” the Dalai Lama said. “But sometimes, little bits of personal criticism in these things - that looks a little bit cheap. That’s my view.”
“Silly!” he said of the state of the Republican primary shaking his head.
Donald Trump is about to take his political roadshow to its biggest stage yet, report the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs and Zach Stafford:
On Friday, the Republican frontrunner will campaign in Chicago, the third largest city in the US. Since launching his campaign in June, Trump has filled arenas, stadiums, and airplane hangars across much of the country but has tended to stick to predominantly white and politically conservative areas.
But with his rally on the campus of the University of Illinois, Chicago, Trump will be campaigning in a city that is a Democratic stronghold and has a large minority population.
A Rubio spokesman seeks to spike rumors that the Florida senator would ever consider leaving the race before Florida votes on Tuesday:
I know for a fact this report is 100% false. Marco will be on debate stage tomorrow & 100% committed to winning FL https://t.co/OkovKzdyGG
— Alex Conant (@AlexConant) March 9, 2016
Bush to meet with non-Trump bloc
Former Republican hopeful Jeb Bush will meet with Marco Rubio today and with Ted Cruz and John Kasich tomorrow ahead of Thursday night’s Republican debate in Miami, multiple organizations reported.
Why? A Bush spokeswoman “wouldn’t say where or when the meetings will take place other than to confirm they will occur,” the Washington Post reported.
Updated
Clinton is inspired by the women of Avalon Bakery in Detroit.
But they’re not inspired back:
Perils of social pic.twitter.com/YU4nLx3M4G
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) March 9, 2016
Updated
Bloomberg’s Michael Bender explores Trump’s support base, starting with the scene last night at the Trump news conference at his Palm Beach golf course:
As has become Trump’s habit in South Florida, he invited club members to the news conference, and seated them in the first few rows. For all the huge rallies and talk of angry outsiders, this small, expensively dressed group is Trump’s real base. There are CEOs, insurance brokers, health-care executives, former debutantes, trophy wives, and a woman in a short, sparkling silver dress (and thick bracelet to match) with an animal fur wrapped around her like a sash.
Read the full piece here.
For all the huge rallies & talk of angry outsiders, this small, expensively dressed group is Trump’s real base. https://t.co/5kbNNTcrMP
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) March 9, 2016
Updated
Romney reads mean tweets on Kimmel
The former nominee acquits himself fairly well, do you think? On Jimmy Kimmel Live which has the running series Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.
From the comments / grab bag
What’s happening in the comments? We missed a lot of the action last night under the pressure of rapid results. So let’s dig in –
The Fiorina endorsement
>> Cruz:"Fiorina is a strong, principled leader "
Who is a proven liar - so she will fit right in at Camp Cruz.
Cruz calls for prosecuting Planned Parenthood on day one of a Cruz presidency, right after repealing every word of Obamacare, tearing up the Iran treaty and carpet bombing towns in Syria and Iraq. Shocking that the Planned Parenthood Liar would sign up with him.
Carly was the kiss of death of her own campaign - maybe she can be the kiss of death of his. Ted Cruz: America's dirty nuke.
A superdelegates sham?
The superdelegates thing is weird to me. Either you nominate your candidate on a convention, without popular vote, or you do the primary tour, and nominate on the popular vote.
Bernie Sanders' surprise competition kind of gives off the idea that democratic primaries are "for show", unless the party itself is divided between candidates. It's like they're pretending to care about what the registered voters think.
The party writes the rules for awarding delegates, the order in which states vote, the number of bonus delegates a state may get, and the selection of superdelegates, who indeed are not beholden to the rank-and-file voters. And if that sounds to you like a rigged game – well, why would you think that?
Bernie versus Donald
It is only Bernie who is capable of taking the air out of Trump's balloon. If Hillary becomes the nominee, people, without any doubt, will hand over WH keys to Trump that's how much independents and moderate democrats hate Hillary. So, vote Bernie and save the WH.
R.I.P. ‘politics as usual’
Just want to say thank you for finally presenting the Democrat delegate counts in a way which makes clear the difference between pledged and super delegates.
Scores of commenters down here in the cheap seats have been howling about this for weeks, so, well done Guardian.
Now.
The real story happening here, and I'll say this again and again—regardless of how the Democrat primary plays out ultimately—is that (to quote the early Guardian description of Sanders) an "unkempt socialist" independent Jewish candidate is running an extremely competitive presidential campaign financed 100% by the loose change in millions of Americans' pockets.
This is unprecedented, and when considered in tandem with the Trump phenomenon on the other side of the political aisle, means that US politics has been turned on its head.
We have no clue what the implications for "politics as usual" are in the US going forward, but certainly they will be profound.
THAT'S the real story, Guardian.
It's the most consequential political story in any of our lifetimes, and to lose sight of that by sacrificing it on the altar of partiality for Hillary Clinton's candidacy is nothing less than journalistic malpractice.
The energetic Republican gaming-out of ways to block Donald Trump has included a scenario in which the party gets Marco Rubio and John Kasich to stay in after losing their home states in order to continue splitting the vote with Trump to deny him the 1,237 delegates.
(It that sounds a bit Rube Goldberg, consider that a variant plan has Kasich calling on his supporters to vote for Rubio in Ohio and Rubio returning the favor in Florida in an effort to build a cooperative coalition to beat Trump. Or consider the current reports of advisers urging Rubio to drop out before he even has a chance to get beaten – or win – in his home state.)
That’s a long-winded way of introducing the general impression that if Rubio doesn’t win Florida next Tuesday, he’s toast:
Is Rubio finished if he doesn't win Florida? Sen. Jeff Flake (Rubio endorser): "Yes. I think everybody knows that."
— Ali Weinberg (@AliABCNews) March 9, 2016
Video – Carly Fiorina endorses Ted Cruz: ‘He doesn’t care about DC cocktail parties’
Here’s another moment of political vertigo brought to you by the 2016 race for the White House:
My fellow conservatives, stand with me to support the next President of these United States, Ted Cruz. https://t.co/iGyKHSWKWd
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) March 9, 2016
Cruz is not leveraging his presidential run as a merchandising opportunity. Loser!
CRUZ: "I don’t have any steaks to sell you, I don’t have any wine, I don’t have any cleaning products. This isn’t abt us, this is abt you."
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) March 9, 2016
Actually there’s all kinds of junk you can buy in the Ted Cruz store at tedcruz.org – a cooler, a foam finger, a fan jersey, a yoga mat and a pretty snazzy looking spatula.
Just cookin’ with my Ted Cruz spatula. Who wants eggs.
We had some koozies made for a party once. I’m a koozie mogul!
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) March 9, 2016
Updated
Ted Cruz does not appear to have been what prevented Marco Rubio from winning Hawaii last night. Trump defeated Cruz in the caucuses 42-33 and Rubio ran a distant third.
But yesterday team Rubio accused Cruz of more “dirty tricks” in spreading rumors on the islands that Rubio was a dropout. Cruz emails to Hawaii supporters highlighted a CNN report about advisors seeing no path to the nomination for Rubio.
“Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies,” a Rubio spokesman was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
The Cruz camp similarly spread reports that Ben Carson was a dropout in advance of the Iowa caucuses.
Rubio on teaming up with Cruz for GOP ticket: "I don’t think that’s something you’ll see for some time, if ever."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) March 8, 2016
Cruz: 'blessed' to have Fiorina's support
Here’s the Cruz camp statement on Fiorina’s endorsement:
Carly Fiorina is a strong, principled leader and woman of faith,” said Cruz. “Our campaign is stronger with her leadership and her voice. Her story embodies the promise that in America anyone can start as a secretary and become a Fortune 50 CEO. Carly speaks the truth with courage, doesn’t back down to the Washington powerbrokers, and terrifies Hillary and the Democrats. We are blessed to have her support, and together I am confident we will continue to unite conservatives so that every American has the opportunity to achieve the unimaginable.”
During the eight months of her candidacy, Fiorina showed a penchant for hitting Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton. “Unlike another woman in this race, I actually love spending time with my husband,” she said at a January debate.
Remember Fiorina's strength b4 ending bid: hitting H. Clinton HARD. Likely same role as Cruz surrogate. Cld it help him make gen elex case?
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) March 9, 2016
There’s a Trump-sized wall between Cruz and the general election, of course. Can Fiorina help ?
Honored to earn @carlyfiorina's endorsement: https://t.co/DQARLNSKMV
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 9, 2016
Join the #CruzCrew: https://t.co/d6gn8DV1xy pic.twitter.com/IBgCuNG227
Fiorina, who didn’t win many votes but did win respect for sharp debate perfomances that propelled her out of the bottom tier of candidates and into the public eye, suspended her campaign almost a month ago to the day, on 10 February.
Here’s part of what she said upon leaving the race:
I’ve said throughout this campaign that I will not sit down and be quiet. I’m not going to start now. While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them.
Does the Cruz endorsement fit that bill? Here’s a Fiorina’s spokesperson:
"The only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz...and that is the only way we are going to beat Hillary Clinton" @CarlyFiorina
— Sarah Isgur Flores (@whignewtons) March 9, 2016
"When they say Ted won't go along to get along, I say: You go Ted." @CarlyFiorina
— Sarah Isgur Flores (@whignewtons) March 9, 2016
Fiorina endorses Cruz
Look who appeared in Florida for senator Ted Cruz:
There is a surprise mystery guest at this Miami Cruz rally
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) March 9, 2016
It’s former Hewlett Packard CEO and former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
Carly Fiorina endorses Ted Cruz in Miami; "I checked the box for Ted Cruz" when voting in VA last week
— Katie Zezima (@katiezez) March 9, 2016
"Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin." -- Carly Fiorina
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) March 9, 2016
Updated
Does anyone even have the stomach to digest more polling after what happened last night?
It feels, when we’re talking about polls, like we’re talking about data that under certain conditions suggests basic features of the reality in which we live and breathe. But then Michigan happens and it is once again driven home that we might as well have been discussing a hookah-smoking blue caterpillar and a baby turning into a pig. Except at least that would’ve had some entertainment value.
Anyway, three pollsters are still at it this morning in Florida and Ohio, the big 15 March prizes, and they seem to bring glad tidings for Donald Trump, glum news for Marco Rubio and a glimmer of hope for John Kasich.
Florida
_____________________________________________Trump______Rubio______Kasich
Quinnipiac (likely GOP voters) _______45___________22
CNN/ORC (some likely voters)________40___________24
U. of North Florida (likely voters)____36___________24
Ohio
Quinnipiac__________________________________38__________________________32
CNN/ORC____________________________________41__________________________35
Updated
Trump presents non-Trump products to demonstrate strength of brand
If you missed Donald Trump’s hourlong victory news conference / sales meeting in Florida last night, you can watch the highlights – all minute of them – below.
There’s quite a little story actually that has emerged from the Trump appearance, which was held at one of his golf clubs outside Palm Beach.
The centerpiece of Trump’s staging was a pile of steaks and rows of wine bottles and magazines and pallets of bottled water and boxes of who knows what.
Update: the steaks appear to have been halal! Donald Trump: accommodating of Muslims.
Trump brought all that stuff out, he said, to show how his enemies were lying about various products he’s branded over the years. Because his enemies have said he fails all the time. The list of his failures usually includes Trump University, Trump steaks, Trump magazine, Trump vodka... and Trump airlines. But the room was too small for a plane. And Trump argued that those other concerns were still alive.
But here’s a remarkable demonstration of Trump’s... chutzpah. All those props he presented to illustrate the durability of his brand – he walked off his dais at one point to handle the steaks, which were shrink-wrapped, and he told reporters all to take a bottle of wine – it was all fake, reports Mashable’s Jonathan Ellis.
- Trump Steaks: fake
— Mashable (@mashable) March 9, 2016
- Trump Water: generic
- Trump Vodka: gone
- Trump Magazine: fake https://t.co/xcm004vGJQ pic.twitter.com/JT1CoharVa
Here’s a snippet of Trump’s appearance:
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders had a grand-slam night last night with an unexpected (for those with any faith in polls) win in the Michigan primary over Hillary Clinton.
Sanders was supposed to be behind in Michigan by 20 points. But then it turns out he was slightly ahead. So what else that we thought we knew about this election isn’t true?
The Democratic candidates themselves may get a chance to discuss the result in Miami tonight, where they are scheduled to meet for a debate, their eighth.
It was a big night too for Donald Trump, who topped 47% – his best finish yet – to win Mississippi and who won Michigan by more than 11 points. Then he took the stage in a country club ballroom in Florida next to a pile of steaks (not Trump steaks?!) and cases of vodka and invited Republican holdouts to join his movement.
Check out all the results here:
Clinton partisans, however, have spent the past 11 hours or so pointing to the following figures ...
... and in fact Clinton did gain delegates on Sanders last night, thanks in part to her huge 83-17 win in Mississippi. But that number 2,383 somehow did not appear to come much closer.
Here’s where the Republican race stands, delegates-wise:
We have a wealth of politics news to catch up on today. What’s your take on what happened last night? What’s going to happen in Ohio in six days (remember the Democratic race is not, like the Republican contest, winner-take-all)? Thanks for reading – and for pitching in!
Good for Fiorina. Time for Rubio and the rest of the low performers to drop out and get behind Cruz.