Today in Campaign 2016
One of the most important skills that a president can possess is crisis management - the process by which a leader and their supporters handle an event that poses a threat to themselves, their administration or to the American people.
If crisis management is a skill honed through practice, then Donald Trump got a good dose of training on the subject today, as the billionaire Republican frontrunner’s campaign struggled to juggle the aftermath of his disastrous comments on abortion with the continued fallout from his campaign manager being charged with battery.
While Trump’s woes - as usual - took over most of the news cycle, other would-be crisis managers faced their own difficulties as another week of campaigning comes to a close:
- John Kasich has released a statement on Donald Trump, declaring him “not prepared to be president.” “He proposed punishing women who received abortions, attacked the Geneva Conventions and said he’d nominate supreme court justices based on who will look into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.” Kasich still hasn’t out and said he would not support Trump as the nominee, however.
- Donald Trump released a letter from his tax lawyers, who say he hasn’t released his federal tax returns – and in the process revealed what he’s really worth – because of a 14-year continuous audit by the IRS. Trump’s tax returns are “inordinately large and complex for an individual” Translation: Trump is being audited, and he won’t release the older tax returns because they’re related to business that’s being audited in the newer tax returns. But he could legally release any of them if he wanted. You can read the full letter here.
- Trump’s threat to not support his party’s eventual nominee may end up costing him as many as 50 delegates in his race to clinch the Republican nomination. South Carolina required all candidates on its primary ballot to sign a pledge declaring their loyalty to the eventual winner of the Republican presidential nomination as a precondition for being placed on the ballot. Trump, of course, has reneged on that pledge.
- Party chair Reince Priebus held a meeting with the billionaire frontrunner today, which lasted approximately 50 minutes and touched on the subject of... nobody knows. But we have a few good guesses that it had something to do with declaring that women who have abortions should be legally punished in some way.
- At a rally in upstate New York today, former secretary of state and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton lost her patience with an activist for Greenpeace who asked her whether she will reject money from the petroleum industry in the future, declaring that she was “tired of the Sanders campaign’s lies.” Sanders hit back with a fundraising email that highlighted her relationships with numerous members of the fossil fuel industry.
- Trump continued damage-control operations late into the night. “If you answer one question inartfully or incorrectly in some form, or you misunderstood it or you misspoke, it ends up being a big story,” Trump told the New York Times. “That doesn’t happen with other people.”
That’s it for today - we’ll catch you tomorrow, the next day and every day until Election Day!
Updated
The executive director of the US Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency tasked with widening access to voting, used his position to help push legal obstacles to voter registration in three states, according to the Associated Press.
Brian Newby, the official in question, used his position to unilaterally declare that residents of Alabama, Georgia and Kansas could no longer register to vote by using a national form without providing proof of American citizenship.
According to the Associated Press, Newby did so with the knowledge of Kansas’ Republican secretary of state Kris Kobach, whom Newby emailed in June to say that “I think I would enter the job empowered to lead the way I want to.”
Kobach has been a fervent proponent of voter ID laws, which he says curb voter fraud. Critics have alleged that purported concern about voter fraud - the existence of which is hotly disputed - is in fact a cover to curb voter registration among economic and racial demographics who tend to vote Democratic.
Do you have what it takes to betray the Colonies?
California lawmakers have approved the nation’s highest statewide minimum wage of $15 an hour, to take effect by 2022 after it was hailed by Democrats as an example to the nation as it struggles with a growing gap between rich and poor.
The legislation now goes to Governor Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law after previously working out the plan with labor unions. The state of New York was considering a similar move.
About 2.2 million Californians now earn the minimum wage. The University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education projected the increase would have a ripple effect for those whose wages would increase to keep pace.
The researchers project it would increase pay for 5.6 million Californians by an average of 24%. More than a third of the affected workers are parents. Latinos would benefit most because they hold a disproportionate number of low-wage jobs, the researchers said.
Donald Trump: I "misspoke" on punishing women who have had abortions
Billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump continued damage-control operations after the candidate declared on Wednesday that women who had abortions would be legally punished if the procedure became illegal.
“If you answer one question inartfully or incorrectly in some form, or you misunderstood it or you misspoke, it ends up being a big story,” Trump told the New York Times. “That doesn’t happen with other people.”
Trump’s campaign issued a statement backtracking on his comments within three hours, but the outcry from both the left and the right has dominated the news cycle, with Trump apparently being summoned to a closed-door meeting with Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus this afternoon.
While acknowledging that he “misspoke” on the issue of criminalizing abortion, Trump told the New York Times that he was being subjected to undue scrutiny.
“I’m asked hundreds of questions a day,” Trump said. “You multiply that by months and months and months, and every once in awhile, if you misspeak - I was very focused on the topic of the Catholic Church.”
“The difference is that if I say something that’s off, if I say something that’s off one way or another, it gets massive publicity,” Trump continued. “If somebody else does it, nobody cares.”
Merrick Garland once ruled to keep Corey Lewandowski from getting his gun back
Anyone who has lived in the nation’s capital knows that Washington, DC, is a tight-knit community, but a connection between Barack Obama’s supreme court nominee and Donald Trump’s campaign manager? That’s odd even for Washington.
As it turns out, Merrick Garland, the federal appeals court judge currently up for consideration to fill the vacant seat on the supreme court, was once one of three judges who stymied efforts by Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, to get his gun back after he was arrested for bringing it into an office building on Capitol Hill.
According to USA Today, Lewandowski - who has been charged with battery for allegedly assaulting a campaign reporter at a Trump event in Florida - fought legal battles for four years in an effort to get the gun returned to him.
An appeal of his federal lawsuit in hopes of receiving his gun and payment for mental anguish landed in Garland’s court in 2003, where a panel composed of Garland and two conservative judges denied Lewandowski’s claim.
Updated
Bernie Sanders’ campaign spokesman Michael Briggs has issued a statement after Hillary Clinton declared on video that she was “sick of the Sanders’ campaign lying about” fossil-fuel industry donations to her campaign.
“The truth is that Secretary Clinton has relied heavily on funds from lobbyists working for the oil, gas and coal industry,” Briggs said. “According to an analysis by Greenpeace, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her super-PAC have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry. In fact, 57 oil, gas and coal industry lobbyists have directly contributed to Clinton’s campaign, with 43 of them contributing the maximum allowed for the primary. Eleven of those 53 lobbyists are working as bundlers and have raised over $1.1 million in bundled contributions between them.”
“If Secretary Clinton wants to discuss this and other important issues she should stop stalling and agree to a debate in New York before the April 19 primary election,” Briggs said.
An incredibly creepy new advertisement aired on behalf of John Kasich’s struggling presidential campaign takes Donald Trump’s nickname for Texas senator Ted Cruz to an extremely uncomfortable level.
“Many just call him Lyin’ Ted,” the ad begins, using Trump’s nickname for Cruz, saying that he “lied about Ben Carson to steal a win in Iowa.” The ad goes on to list several other ostensible untruths as Cruz’s nose winds its way around his head, a la Pinocchio. Cruz, the ad says, “lies about being best for the GOP when polls show he can’t even beat Hillary Clinton.”
“If Ted Cruz’s mouth is moving, he’s lying,” the ad finishes.
Susan Sarandon and Debra Messing have declared their Twitter feud over after the two actors got into a public spat over their support for Bernie Sanders andHillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race.
The feud began when Sarandon implied that she would vote for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump if Sanders, her preferred Democratic candidate, lost the nomination to Clinton.
“I think a lot of people are like, ‘Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to vote for [Clinton],’” Sarandon said during an appearance MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayeson Monday. “Some people feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately.”
While Sarandon later clarified that she would never vote for Trump, her comments drew immediate fury – not least from Messing, a prominent Clinton supporter, who asked the Thelma and Louise star why she would not use her large platform to make clear that she would not vote for Trump.
1-What kind of revolution?! A WALL?! #ImWithHer but if it's Bernie/Trump I will ABSOLUTELY support BS. https://t.co/nqPGCDStCX
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016
2- the idea that Susan Sarandon wud say that NOT supporting Hillary in a HRC/Trump race is a legitimate choice for Democrats, is insane.
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016
3- There are people who need protections, and B Bernie or Hillary have that as a priority. Trump does not. https://t.co/oLueAHCaUe
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016
Sarandon defended herself, saying she was thinking more about first-time voters who might have a “dilemma” in voting for someone who they had not originally supported.
.@DebraMessing if it weren't for Sanders & whose interests HC doesn't represent, it is a dilemma. (2/2)
— Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) March 30, 2016
Republicans holding out hope that Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan might arrive as white knights at the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer might want to reconsider their options, if a new poll is any indication.
The newest national poll conducted by Public Policy Polling finds that onetime ticket-mates Romney and Ryan wouldn’t neautralize the Republican party’s forthcoming general election crisis. Romney, in fact, would perform even worse against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton than Trump.
Romney, once the Republican presidential nominee, has a favorability rating even more underwater than Trump’s: 65% of Americans view him negatively, compared to a mere 23% who view him favorably. (Trump, by comparison, is viewed negatively by 63% of Americans polled.) Both Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders lead Romney by double digits in a hypothetical faceoff, with Clinton taking 45% of voters to Romney’s 32%.
The newly minted speaker of the house would perform almost as poorly. Ryan’s hypothetical run against Clinton has him down six points, while he trails Sanders by seven points.
“Donald Trump doesn’t do very well against Hillary Clinton,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a released statement. “But it’s not clear the white knights the GOP dreams of would do any better.”
A teenager who was pepper sprayed in the face at a rally for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump may face a disorderly conduct charge after she allegedly punched a man in the face, according to the Associated Press.
Police in Janesville, Wisconsin, are recommending that charges be brought against the juvenile, who alleges that she punched the man after he touched her in a sexual manner. The man in question told police that he does not want to press charges.
Here's a video (and prev photo) taken by @derek94gt of the punch/pepper spray incident at the Janesville Trump rally pic.twitter.com/iVCHvsISDi
— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) March 29, 2016
Police chief David Moore told reporters that the charges would be for her punch, which was “an act of violence.”
“Clearly her punch was illegal,” he said.
Moore said that Janesville police have not identified the person who pepper sprayed the girl, but said that the person could face battery charges for the act.
Retired senior military officers and human rights advocates are reacting with disgust at Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s description of the Geneva conventions as a “problem” for the conduct of US wars, writes the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman.
At an appearance in Wisconsin on Wednesday that was obscured by his suggestion that women who choose abortion should face punishment, Donald Trump was also quoted as saying: “The problem is we have the Geneva conventions, all sorts of rules and regulations, so the soldiers are afraid to fight.”
Trump has previously advocated killing the families of terror suspects; torture “a hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding; and widespread bombing campaigns against Islamic State, which operates in civilian-packed areas. The Geneva conventions provide the basis for protections against war crimes, privileging the status of civilians and detainees during wartime.
Several retired officers said the comments called into question Trump’s fitness to serve as commander-in-chief, saying that service members operating in line with his predilections would be tasked with behavior ranging from the disgraceful to the illegal.
“Donald Trump cannot possibly understand [Geneva] because he has neither the experience, the expertise or the moral compass to grasp it,” said Steve Kleinman, an air force reserve colonel and an interrogations expert.
Geneva is “a fundamental moral and tactical construct that serves as a foundation for the law of armed conflict, because all wars, including the global war on terror, come to an end. We as a community of nations need to engage with one another and not be separated by horrible, immoral treatment of one side over another,” Kleinman said.
Hillary: "I'm sick of Sanders campaign's lies"
At a rally in upstate New York today, former secretary of state and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton lost her patience with an activist for Greenpeace who asked her whether she will reject money from the petroleum industry in the future.
Pointing her finger at the activist, Clinton said that she only takes money from employees of companies involved in the fossil-fuel industry, and called the accusations from opponent Bernie Sanders’ camp “lies.”
Updated
A succession of disturbing attacks on women have raised fresh questions about Donald Trump’s credibility as a presidential candidate and are an ugly reminder of his long-standing deeply questionable attitudes, writes the Guardian’s Jon Swaine.
In the space of a single week he has insulted an opponent’s wife’s looks, defended an aide for manhandling a female reporter and said women should be punished for having abortions.
But his persistent attacks on women, which have caused widespread outrage, and have heightened alarm about him within the Republican party have not come from nowhere.
From flippant offensive comments about women to serious allegations of assault from those he has encountered through his relationships and career, Trump stands accused of misogyny to a degree that has not been seen in mainstream American politics for decades.
Hillary Clinton could easily win not just the battle for the Democratic nomination but also the race for presidency, according to an article today by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Larry J. Sabato, the Director of the center who co-authored the piece, estimates that Clinton will win 347 electoral votes while Trump would take a total of just 191.
Sabato's March 31 Clinton v. Trump map, 347-191. https://t.co/23XSBHbxkl pic.twitter.com/gcLpmJ9mqv
— Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) March 31, 2016
A race between Cruz and Clinton would probably be closer, but the authors still expect Clinton to come out on top (though they don’t quantify by how much). The article forecasts the results by controlling for many factors which may change. As the authors explain “we don’t know the shape of the economy or terrorism, or the precise job approval rating of President Obama in the autumn, or the gaffes and scandals that may yet unfold on our way to the ballot box.”
The subtitle of the post reads “it’s a long way to November”. That caution from the present about the future is the most important caveat when reading analyses like this one. Americans have the right to change their minds, and many will.
Donald Trump thanked Wisconsin for putting him in second place out of three candidates on Twitter today.
THANK YOU, WISCONSIN! #VoteTrump
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2016
next Tuesday, April 5th! #WIPrimaryhttps://t.co/4tymy651ZP pic.twitter.com/IOBhOXeBiN
The Republican National Committee is keeping tight-lipped about Reince Priebus’ meeting with Donald Trump:
The Chairman and Mr. Trump had a productive conversation about the state of the race. The Chairman is in constant communication with all of the candidates and their campaigns about the primaries, general election and the convention. Meeting and phone conversations with candidates and their campaigns are common and will increase as we get closer to November.
Donald Trump's loyalty threat could cost him 50 delegates
Billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s threat to not support his party’s eventual nominee may end up costing him as many as 50 delegates in his race to clinch the Republican nomination.
South Carolina required all candidates on its primary ballot to sign a pledge declaring their loyalty to the eventual winner of the Republican presidential nomination as a precondition for being placed on the ballot. After deliberating, Trump signed the pledge in a much-hyped public event at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
Behind the scenes picture of my father signing the “pledge” --- I am very proud of him! @RealDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/VD6McLebvD
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) September 3, 2015
“I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands and we will go out and fight hard and we will win... I have no intention of changing my mind,” the billionaire said at the time. “I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge.”
But during a town hall in Milwaukee with CNN on Tuesday night, Trump revoked the commitment and declared that he had been “treated very unfairly” by the party and his opponents.
“Breaking South Carolina’s presidential primary ballot pledge raises some unanswered legal questions that no one person can answer,” South Carolina Republican chair Matt Moore told TIME. “However, a court or national convention Committee on Contests could resolve them. It could put delegates in jeopardy.”
Although Moore has backtracked - however slightly:
Regarding delegate questions today: to be clear, no one is seeking to unbind ANY of South Carolina's national delegates.
— Matt Moore (@MattMooreSC) March 31, 2016
Following a ballot-certification snafu that may have accidentally kept Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ name from being placed on the Democratic primary ballot in the upcoming Washington, DC, primary, a member of the federal district’s city council is preparing to submit emergency legislation to ensure that both Sanders and opponent Hillary Clinton will make it on the Democratic party’s ballot.
According to NBC’s Washington affiliate, DC city council member Anita Bonds, who also chairs the DC Democratic party, will put the legislation up for a vote as soon as this coming Tuesday.
Both Sanders and Clinton submitted the necessary paperwork to the local Democratic party before the March 16 filing deadline, but the party did not forward either candidate’s name to the DC board of elections until the next day. A voter filed a challenge to Sanders’ registration, igniting the issue. No such challenge has been filed against the Clinton campaign.
Along with some world leaders, the US’s neighbors to the north have been watching the American elections with alarm, my colleague Ashifa Kassam reports from Toronto. The leader of Canada’s progressive party has labeled Donald Trump “a fascist”, and faulted prime minister Justin Trudeau for not condemning the Republican.
“Donald Trump is a fascist,” Tom Mulcair said at an event last week. “Let’s not kid ourselves, let’s not beat around the bush.”
He pointed to Trump’s proposals to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country and build a wall along the Mexican border as examples of how the leader was appealing to what he called “the lowest feelings in human nature”. The remarks surfaced this week after the NDP sent a videoclip to media.
Mulcair also attacked Trudeau’s reticence to speak frankly about Trump. “I will not hesitate to point out the fact that Mr Trudeau just shrugs his shoulders when he’s asked about Donald Trump and says, ‘Oh the relationship between Canada and the United States goes beyond any two individuals,’” he said.
“I’m sorry, if a fascist becomes president of the United States, I want to be on record as having opposed it long before that election.”
Trudeau, dubbed the anti-Trump by some in the US media, has shied away from offering his views on the possibility of Trump at the helm of Canada’s largest trading partner in recent months. “I’m not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now. I’m not going to support him either, obviously,” he said at a forum in early March.
Trudeau’s hesitation was later probed in an interview with the CBC. “I respect the American electoral process,” he demurred. “I have faith in what [Abraham] Lincoln referred to as ‘the better angels of American nature’, and I am looking forward to who I am going to work with after 4 November.”
Many have cautioned Trudeau to stay quiet. “Trudeau, as prime minister, should refrain from commenting on candidates in US presidential elections,” said Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States. “He will deal with whomever the electorate chooses.”
The question of how to engage with Trump is one leaders around the world are wrestling with, said said Brett Bruen, a former director of global engagement at the White House. He suggested actions rather than direct confrontation, such as Trudeau’s greeting of Syrian refugees at the airport, as an example. “That sends a very clear message but does not entangle him in a very dirty campaign in the US,” said Bruen.
You can read Ashifa’s full piece here, and watch Mulcair’s remarks below.
Only his second tweet of the day.
Just had a very nice meeting with @Reince Priebus and the @GOP. Looking forward to bringing the Party
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2016
together --- and it will happen!
Trump has left the Republican National Committee headquarters without making a statement to the press – even though there’s at least a dozen of them hovering about.
Media waiting for @realDonaldTrump at RNC pic.twitter.com/dj8rkWrrOY
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) March 31, 2016
Updated
Details are sparse about Donald Trump’s meetings with Republicans in Washington, but his campaign did announce a “House Leadership Committee” to “lead outreach” for the campaign in Congress.
Trump named two congressmen, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, to the effort.
“Congressman Hunter and Congressman Collins are conservative stalwarts,” the businessman said in a statement. “I am honored to have the support of these two well respected Members of Congress who share my vision of securing our borders, strengthening our military, treating our veterans with the respect and care they deserve and putting Americans first again.”
From the campaign:
Mr Trump is conducting meetings today in Washington DC. Earlier in the week, he announced that his campaign will be opening a Washington DC based office to coordinate his campaign’s work with the Republican National Committee, Congress, and his convention and delegate operations.
Meanwhile in New York, “the Bernie people came” to a rally for Hillary Clinton, in the candidate’s words.
Like Sanders, she’s ratcheting up the civil but pointed rhetoric: “As they’re leaving I want to say I have earned nine million votes in this election, already. I have one million more than Donald Trump. And I have two and a half million more votes than Bernie Sanders.”
WATCH: @HillaryClinton to "Bernie people" who disrupted New York rally: "We're very sorry you're leaving" https://t.co/yjjJu1ApOP
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 31, 2016
Trump meets Republican chair
Time’s Zeke Miller confirms the story circulating round Washington DC – that Donald Trump is in town in part to meet with the Republican party’s leaders, including chairman Reince Priebus.
RNC source confirms Trump is meeting with @Reince. Agenda unclear, but pledge comments are sure to be a topic
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 31, 2016
Earlier this week Trump reneged on his pledge to support the Republican party’s nominee no matter who that ends up being.
Updated
The Republican presidential candidates past continues to parade by.
Now it’s Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who is probably glad he helped change his state’s rules ban on running for two offices at the same time.
I have a major endorsement announcement to make tomorrow. Stay tuned...
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 31, 2016
Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, erstwhile presidential candidate, and sometime stage prop for Donald Trump, has called onto a radio show to defend the way he eats M&M.
The governor’s decision to pour a bag of candies into a box of the same candies, photographed at a basketball game, went over so well online that Christie called a WFAN radio show, Boomer and Carton, on Wednesday morning to explain himself.
“There’s a bag inside the box, you dope.”
Chris Christie pouring his bag of M&M’s into a bigger bag of MORE M&M’s is a savage and perplexing move pic.twitter.com/xynYXfswGc
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 26, 2016
“Why would you go bag-to-box?” the host asked. “Just eat ‘em out of the bag!”
Christie: “You know why? Because it’s easier to hold the box than to hold the bag.”
The host told him “that’s an interesting maneuver.” His co-host clarified: “it was just transferring the M&Ms from a soft paper into a box?”
Christie: “You get the box, you open the box. There’s a bag inside the box. Why they do it that way I have no idea. But you open up the bag, you pour the bag into the box, so it’s easier to hold.”
The hosts pressed him to explain the logic of this. “Listen, I run New Jersey, not M&M-Mars. I have no idea,” Christie answered.
A Wisconsin teen asked Ted Cruz to help him win a date to his prom on Wednesday, and the senator complied: “that’s strong. I’ve got to say, Alex, that’s strong.”
Here's a video a nice Wisconsin teen sent me of Ted Cruz asking his date to prom for him. pic.twitter.com/hYqaCdSH1Y
— Luke O'Neil (@lukeoneil47) March 30, 2016
But the teenager says that Cruz left out the final line of his note.
@sarahstarbie7 the didn't read the last line but he said "if I said the last line it would make national news" pic.twitter.com/vZz6KhFBlV
— Alex Canney (@CanneyAlex) March 29, 2016
Cruz belittles Kasich over Wisconsin
Ted Cruz just spoke to Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host, and used his time on Wisconsin’s most prominent conservative radio to relentlessly belittle John Kasich.
“If Kasich had dropped out before Illinois, I would have won Illinois and beaten Trump,” Cruz said. “What happened in Illinois could happen in subsequent states.”
He then took issue with Kasich’s argument that he’s the only Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton in a general election. “You’re not electable if you can’t win elections. He’s lost 30 nationwide,” he said, alluding to the race so far. Kasich has only won in his home state of Iowa, and has nearly 600 fewer delegates than Donald Trump.
“Part of the reason he does well against Hillary is that no one knows anything about him.”
Cruz threw in an aside about Trump’s comments from Wednesday about “punishment” for women who have illegal abortions. “Donald’s notion was bizarre and something with which I strongly disagree,” Cruz said.
The Texas senator has a narrow lead over Trump in Wisconsin, according to poll averages, and the state has a delegate system that awards 18 of its 42 delegates to the candidate who wins the state-wide vote. The remainder are awarded by Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts: three each to the winner of each district.
Running at 21% of the vote to Cruz’s 33%, per the polls, Kasich could spoil the Texan’s hopes to sweep all 42 delegates away from Trump.
Why We Are Endorsing Ted Cruz - Right Wisconsin https://t.co/vuo7asdWWG
— Charles Sykes (@SykesCharlie) March 21, 2016
In perhaps the least surprising turn of the 2016 election, the National Border Patrol Council has endorsed the Republican candidate who means to build a massive border wall.
“Unlike his opponents, Donald Trump is not a career politician, he is an outsider who has created thousands of jobs, pledged to bring about aggressive pro-American change, and who is completely independent of special interests,” the group said in a statement.
“We don’t need a person who has the perfect Washington-approved tone, and certainly NOT another establishment politician in the [White House].
“Indeed, the fact that people are more upset about Mr. Trump’s tone than about the destruction wrought by open borders tells us everything we need to know about the corruption in Washington.”
The group also praised Trump for enduring “the withering media storm”. “He did not back down one iota. That tells you the measure of the man.
“When the so-called experts said he was too brash and outspoken, and that he would fade away, they were proven wrong. We are confident they will be proven wrong again in November when he becomes President of the United States.”
Earlier this week my colleague Paul Lewis met with families divided by a border wall that already exists. They often meet there at the barrier, for “amargo y dulce” reunions.
Kasich ends the press conference. Sanders has finished too. Bill Clinton is still meeting with voters in New York – and he’s mentioned us!
Or at least he’s mentioned a Guardian column published on Monday, by Jill Abramson, the former editor of the New York Times. The Times’ Amy Chozick is with the former president, who is hosting an “organizing event” in the city.
Bill Clinton makes Jill Abramson's Guardian column central part of stump speech. "I woke up to an article written by the former NYT editor."
— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) March 31, 2016
Later this afternoon he’ll be doing three more events, one in Chelsea, near the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, one in south Tribeca, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center, and one at the United Federation of Teachers’ building, in the financial district. The events, unlike most staged by candidates themselves, are not being aired online.
Bernie Sanders lands in the city this afternoon as well, to hold a rally up in the south Bronx, alongside actor Rosario Dawson.
“I am with the Trump people, they just don’t know me,” Kasich insists.
“They see Coke, Pepsi and Kasich, when they’re out shopping,” he says. They go with what they know.
He gets as close as he ever has to disavowing Trump the hypothetical nominee: “If he were the nominee, at that point, I would have to determine how I felt.”
Trump is “pulling so many people apart,” Kasich says. “Terrible, atrocious” attacks on women, on Muslims, on “people who came here, came here illegally, but should have an opportunity to settle here, if they have not violated the law.”
“And then these absolutely absurd statements,” about building a wall and making Mexico pay for it. Kasich blames the press, or at least television, for giving so much airtime to the former reality TV star. “I don’t know how you people even deal with this,” he says. “You also have a responsibility in this business!”
“It’s an unsettling time but people are looking for a way to express their frustrations, and he’s a way to do it.”
Updated
Kasich takes a question. Will you support Donald Trump if he’s the nominee.
He doesn’t really answer. He says he believes Trump will not have the 1,237 delegates to win the nomination outright. He doesn’t think much of the other Republican in the race either.
“There’s a greater chance that you will fly out of this building,” he says, “and fly up to where the ball drops at the end of the year, than for Ted Cruz to have enough delegates to win the convention.”
Then he says he’ll do well in New York, and be “very competitive” in Pennsylvania. “Finally people are starting to hear the message that I have, and begin to understand the record, understand who I am.”
“I’m the only one that, frankly, can win in the fall.”
He argues that delegates will take their jobs seriously at the convention this summer, and that if it goes past a first ballot chaos won’t ensue. The reality TV tenor of the Republican race won’t survive, he insists. It’s going to be “less Kardashians, more who’s gonna be president.”
“Not that I have anything against the Kardashians, let them know.”
CNN is not cooperating with his plea for seriousness.
Enjoyable @CNN chyron moments ago: pic.twitter.com/CpgCA3PyT8
— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) March 31, 2016
Kasich attacks Trump, woos his base
John Kasich is giving a press conference in midtown New York to address the many controversies of his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
He’s rattling off a long list of things Trump has said that make him unprepared, in Kasich’s view (and many others’) to be president.
Yesterday’s comments about abortion and the “problem” of the Geneva Conventions. Last year’s belittling of “American heroes” who were prisoners of war, such as John McCain. His idea that “Nato is obsolete” and his comments suggesting a ban and religious test for Muslims.
Kasich says he believes “the religion of Islam has been hijacked by a handful of extremists” and that the US should rally with Muslims around the world to counter it.
“For those people who’ve been fervent Trump supporters, their frustrations, their problems, do not fall on deaf ears for me,” he says, mentioning stagnant wages, huge debts, labor woes of the working-class voters around the US – Trump’s base. “There are a lot of people out there who say, ‘why is no one speaking for me?’”
“I share their frustration,” he says. “I’m also a citizen, and I see what’s happening … To the Trump voters, there’s hope.”
He says Trump is moving in an “unmoored, untethered fashion”, and that he understands that Trump is “a vessel” for their frustrations.
“I want to offer myself up as a new vessel,” he concludes. “I take orders from no one other than my wife.”
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Sanders continues with his stump speech, drawing the differences between him and Clinton. She supported free trade deals, he did and does not; she voted for the Iraq war and has supported military intervention abroad.
“No more stupid wars that our young people die for,” he says, attacking politicians who talk of increased military action. “It’s not their kids that are going to go to war, it’s your kids.”
“We are not addressing the real crises in this country,” he says, boiling down his stump speech into bullets.
- “Campaign finance system which is corrupt and is undermining American democracy,” he says. “Democracy is not about billionaires buying elections.”
- He adds to this voting rights, and the efforts to roll them back in southern states with laws that limit early voting, require photo ID, etc. “I really get outraged by Republican governors who do not have the guts to participate in free and fair elections.”
- “It is a rigged economy,” he says, for crisis number three. “The top one tenth of 1% now own as much wealth as the bottom 90%.” He goes after the Walton family, the owners of Walmart, and highlights them as the recipients of subsidies: “get off of welfare, pay your workers a living.”
- “It’s a little bit stupid when struggling, working-class family have to subsidize the wealthiest family in America. We’re gonna end that.”
- Minimum wage to $15 an hour. Expanded social security benefits. Equal pay for women. College loan forgiveness and free public college.
- Sanders says that young people are on course to have a worse standard of living than their standards,“the American dream in reverse.”
- Climate change, a ban on fracking – a sensitive subject in western Pennsylvania, where the natural gas industry is immensely controversial – and the move away from fossil fuels toward developing renewable energy.
- Paying for all this with taxes on the rich, closing loopholes in corporate tax law.
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Sanders calls for Clinton's speeches
“I have here this morning a major announcement to make in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,” Sanders says. He’s going to release “all of the transcripts of all of the speeches that I have given to Wall Street.”
“Are you ready?”
“Here they are!” He throws his arms up into the air toward the crowd with a grin, and a little bit of “whoosh” sound, too.
“No transcripts, no speeches, not for $250,000, not for $2,000, not for $2,” he continues, starting to channel Larry David. “I just don’t know why Wall Street has not invited me to speak before them. You know I’ve got my cellphone on, I’m waiting for the call!”
Then he gets back to the righteous anger of his stump speech: “Their greed, their recklessness, and their illegal behavior, has done enormous harm to millions of people in this country.”
He debuted the joke at a Democratic debate earlier this year, but the crowd doesn’t mind at all. Clinton has said she’s willing to release the transcripts of speeches she gave to Wall Street firms, in all for more than $2m, though she has not yet done so.
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Bernie Sanders is holding an event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a huge crowd has turned out to a convention center for his speech.
“Let me begin by introducing myself to the state of Pennsylvania,” he says.
“I am a senator from the state of Vermont. I grew up in Brooklyn New York. My father came to this country at the age of 17 from Poland. And I grew up in Brooklyn in a three-and-a-half room, rent-controlled apartment.
“The lessons that I learned growing up with a family that has to struggle economically, is a lesson I have not forgotten and never will forget.”
He gets a big ovation for that. “We started this campaign at 3% in the polls, he says. “A lot has changed in the last 11 months.”
“We are fighting hard in Wisconsin, which has their primary on Tuesday, then in New York and then, on April 26, here in Pennsylvania!”
He’s in a spirited mood, going on about how he can not only win the Democratic nomination, but that several polls show him beating Donald Trump by about 20 points in a general election. He contrasts his campaign with Hillary Clinton’s, first by talking about her reliance on “big money”. His campaign, he says does not “beg Super Pacs” but has “gone to the working class and the middle class”.
“And in 11 months we have received more than six million individual campaign contributions. That is more contributions than any candidate in the history of the United States of America.”
The crowd is loving it, and boos vehemently when he brings up the “$15m from Wall Street” that has gone to Clinton’s campaign.
“I think that if you get paid $250,000 a speech, it must be an extraordinary, mind-blowing, earth-shattering speech,” he goes on. “It must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose.”
My colleague Mona Chalabi breaks down a new poll on the New York primary, as pollsters take stock of the state.
The New York primary is a huge milestone in the Democratic nomination calendar. With 291 delegates available, it could be a game changer for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. At the moment, Sanders has lags behind Hillary Clinton by 263 pledged delegates and time is running out to close that gap.
Previous opinion research has suggested that New York could be Bernie’s undoing - so far this year, two polls have showed that Hillary Clinton has a 21-point lead in New York and one found that the former Secretary of State could win by as much as 48 points. With less than three weeks until New York votes, a new poll of voters conducted by Quinnipiac University offers some hope – it puts Clinton on 54% of the vote and Bernie on 42%.
Net favorability ratings from #NewYork State poll on Presidential hopefuls #Election2016https://t.co/o2HO9dmayx pic.twitter.com/7PdWvapVnp
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) March 31, 2016
Donald Trump seen unfavorably by ***74 percent*** in his native New York City, per @QuinnipiacPoll
— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) March 31, 2016
Trump releases tax letter
Donald Trump has released a letter from his tax lawyers, who say he hasn’t released his federal tax returns – and in the process revealed what he’s really worth – because of a 14-year continuous audit by the IRS.
Trump’s tax returns are “inordinately large and complex for an individual”, they write. The letter reads in part:
“You [Trump] hold interests as the sole or principal owner in approximately 500 separate entities. These entities are collectively referred to and do business as The Trump Organization. These entities engage in hundreds of transactions, deals, and new enterprises every year. Because you operate these businesses almost exclusively through sole proprietorships and/or closely held partnerships, your personal federal income tax returns are inordinately large and complex for an individual.
“Your personal tax returns have been under continuous examination by the Internal Revenue Service since 2002, consistent with the IRS’s practice for large and complex businesses. Examination of your tax returns for the years 2002 through 2008 have been closed administratively by agreement with the IRS without assessment or payment, on a net basis, of any deficiency.
“Examinations for returns for the 2009 year and forward are ongoing. Your returns for these years report items that are attributable to continuing transactions or activities that were also reported on returns for 2008 and earlier. In this sense, the pending examinations are continuations of prior, closed examinations.”
Translation: Trump is being audited, and he won’t release the older tax returns because they’re related to business that’s being audited in the newer tax returns. But he could, legally, release any of them at any point. You can read the full letter here.
Trump’s critics have called for him to release the tax returns and reveal his true worth and business dealings; Mitt Romney, for instance, has suggested the returns contain a “bombshell” revelation. More prosaically, they could simply reveal that Trump is not worth the “TEN BILLION DOLLARS” [sic] that he told campaign finance officials he is worth.
There are cracks in his claims to be worth billions, including at a golf course in upstate New York. Trump told the FEC that the property was worth $50m, but he told a judge that it’s worth $1.4m as part of an argument that he should not have to pay high taxes on it.
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Retired senior military officers have denounced Donald Trump’s description of the Geneva Conventions as a “problem”, my colleague Spencer Ackerman reports. The former officers told him Trump’s ideas range from the disgraceful to the illegal.
“Donald Trump cannot possibly understand [Geneva] because he has neither the experience, the expertise or the moral compass to grasp it,” said Steve Kleinman, an air force reserve colonel and an interrogations expert.
Geneva is “a fundamental moral and tactical construct that serves as a foundation for the law of armed conflict, because all wars, including the global war on terror, come to an end. We as a community of nations need to engage with one another and not be separated by horrible, immoral treatment of one side over another,” Kleinman said.
At an appearance in Wisconsin, Trump said: “The problem is we have the Geneva Conventions, all sorts of rules and regulations, so the soldiers are afraid to fight.”
Trump has previously advocated killing the families of terror suspects, torture “a hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding, and widespread bombing campaigns against Islamic State, which operates in civilian-packed areas. The Geneva Conventions provide the basis for protections against war crimes, privileging the status of civilians and detainees during wartime.
“America’s military men and women swear to support and defend the constitution, including our obligations to adhere to treaties on the treatment of non-combatants,” said Paul Yingling, a retired US army colonel.
Yingling was the deputy commander of the armored cavalry regiment that recaptured the Iraqi city of Tall Afar from insurgents. He gained renown in military circles for criticizing the general officers who presided over the deterioration of the Iraq war.
“Prisoners of war and the family members of suspected terrorists are noncombatants. Torturing and murdering noncombatants are the actions of criminals and cowards. America’s military men and women are neither,” Yingling said.
Christopher Harmer, a former navy pilot and current analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said Trump’s dismissal of Geneva demonstrated he was “monumentally unprepared” for the White House.
“From advocating the assassination of women and children whose only crime is being related to terrorists, to speaking glibly of carpet bombing entire swaths of the Middle East, to opining that Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia should obtain nuclear weapons, Donald Trump comes across exactly as what he is: a reality TV star who has no idea about how US national security actually works in practice,” Harmer said.
“His candidacy is merely an embarrassment to the United States; if he were to actually become president, the damage he would do to our strategic relationships with our allies would be immense.”
Politico has learned where Donald Trump went off on Thursday after a week of blitzing the media and campaign trail with appearances. The businessman is in Washington DC for a private meeting with his new foreign policy team, the magazine reports.
Trump for months had declined to name his foreign policy advisers, and has said that he largely relies on himself when it comes to matters of national security and international relations.
“I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are,” Trump said earlier this month. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”
A week later, he rattled off the names of five men who are sources of regular advice on national security: Walid Phares, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Joe Schmitz, and Gen. Keith Kellogg.
The list, however, provided little reassurance to those concerned about Trump’s readiness to become commander in chief, as many of his named advisers are either unknowns or have mixed reputations among GOP national security pros.
John Kasich has released a statement on Donald Trump declaring him “not prepared to be president”. He still hasn’t out and said he would not support Trump as the nominee, however.
The statement reads in part:
“The past 24 hours revealed in the clearest way yet that Donald Trump is not prepared to be president. On top of all his previous inflammatory statements, yesterday he proposed punishing women who received abortions, attacked the Geneva Conventions and said he’d nominate supreme court justices based on who will look into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.
Donald Trump is not ready to be commander in chief. He talks loosely about the use of nuclear weapons and of dismantling Nato. America is facing major challenges at home and abroad and cannot afford to elect a president who does not respect the seriousness of the office.”
Kasich was in New York yesterday meeting voters and local Republican politicians. His campaign does not list him for any events today.
*Update: the campaign has announced Kasich will speak to the press in midtown New York, at 11.10am local time. He’s going to appear at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel “to address Trump comments”, according to a release.
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Cruz jokes about hitting Trump with car
Ted Cruz faced an unusual question on Wednesday night: “Who do you like better, Obama or Trump?”
The senator was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and joked with the comedian about hitting his opponent with a car.
“I dislike Obama’s policies more, but Donald, uh, Donald is a unique individual,” Cruz said. “If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the back-up camera, I’m not confident which pedal I’d push.”
They also talked about crying at Star Wars, Mueslix and Cruz appears to allude to the meme that he is the Zodiac killer.
And Stephen Colbert also met with a prominent senator last night: Democrat Elizabeth Warren took to his CBS show to talk to talk about the election, and he pressed her on whether she supports Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
She was cagey. He called her a “Vultron candidate”. She made fun of Donald Trump.
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Bernie Sanders in the south Bronx, Hillary Clinton’s off to upstate New York, Ted Cruz has his wife campaigning in Wisconsin and Donald Trump is … taking a break.
Here’s what’s up on the schedule for Thursday, 31 March:
- Bernie Sanders is holding a rally in Pittsburgh this morning (tentatively 10.30 Eastern), with an eye to blue-collar Pennsylvanians who live in and around Steeltown.
- Hillary Clinton is near her home in Westchester, New York, for a rally at 1pm ET, while her husband Bill is down in the city holding three rallies on her behalf.
- Clinton also is scheduled for an event in Purchase, New York, and then set to head off to Boston, Massachusetts, for an “evening fundraiser” with Forest Whitaker and a fundraiser with the former president of the Boston Red Sox.
- Heidi Cruz and Carly Fiorina are stumping for the Texas senator in Green Bay, Appleton and Wausau, Wisconsin, today, at (10.30am, 12.45pm and 4.30pm local times, respectively). The campaign schedule doesn’t list Ted Cruz himself as making an appearance, though he was in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and is likely fundraising, courting Republican leaders, etc.
- Sanders then departs the Keystone State for the south Bronx. He’ll be holding an evening rally at Saint Mary’s Park, a slice of green south of 149th St, with actor Rosario and Grammy winner Residente.
- Donald Trump is nowhere to be found … except for TV, where he is everywhere. His campaign schedule says his next event ins’t until Saturday, in Wausau, Wisconsin.
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Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of the 2016 campaign for the White House, a race dominated by one man and his indefatigable ability to upset: Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, the Republican frontrunner for president said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have illegal abortions. After a huge and swift outcry, including from members of his party, he retracted his statement, saying he supported granting states the authority to ban and prosecute.
“The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed – like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions,” he said in a statement.
In 1999, when he was mulling a run for the presidency, Trump told NBC he was “pro-choice in every respect”. But his position has starkly changed as a 2016 candidate.
The latest controversy from Trump came only a day after he turned the tables on conservative conventions, reneging on his pledge to support the Republican nominee no matter who ends up being selected.
He abandoned the pledge only hours after Florida police charged his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, with battery against a reporter. Trump defended the aide, mocked the reporter and suggested her pen could well have been “a little bomb”.
Looming over these controversies – not to mention Trump’s suggestion that more Asian countries should develop nuclear weapons – is Wisconsin’s primary on 5 April, where Trump will be put to the test. Texas senator Ted Cruz, endorsed by the governor there, narrowly leads Trump in an average of polls, 33.7% to 29.9%. Ohio governor John Kasich, adamantly staying in the race, trails at 21.8%.
Cruz and Kasich hope to win enough delegates to force Trump into a contested convention this summer, where after an initial vote delegates will be unbound from state results.
For Democrats, the focus is on both Wisconsin and New York, a state with 291 delegates at stake. The diverse electorate of working-class whites upstate, minority majorities in New York City, financiers and progressives has made for a surprisingly competitive race. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton represented the state in the Senate for two terms, and set up her headquarters in Brooklyn. Bernie Sanders grew up in the outer borough, retains his thick Brooklyn accent and has found ready allies in the young people and progressives who’ve taken over the area.
Both have turned their ire to the third New Yorker in the race, Trump, the lifelong emblem of city tabloids, skyscraper branding and the borough of Queens.
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