Final hours before Nevada, South Carolina
We’re now 13 hours away from the start of the Nevada Democratic caucus and six hours away from the launch of the Republican primary in South Carolina. You can read a full report of the day’s developments here. This blog is now closed – below is a summary of some key points:
- Donald Trump and Pope Francis sort of made amends.
- A group supporting Ted Cruz released an anti-LGBT robocall in South Carolina.
- Bernie Sanders surprised workers at the Caesars Palace hotel.
- Chelsea Clinton stumped for her mother in Nevada, focusing on gun control.
- Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton made their final pitches to Nevada voters in dueling Friday night rallies, both attacking Trump.
Updated
Bad timing for Hillary Clinton: On the eve of the critical Nevada caucus, the state department has released another round of her emails. This latest batch contains 562 emails, which includes a total of more than 1,100 pages.
In the releases, 64 of them are now deemed classified with a “confidential” label – the lowest tier of classification. Politico has compiled some of the most notable selections in the Friday release.
The news of the emails came at about the same time as Bernie Sanders got a nice gift from the media – a verified photo of him getting arrested as a young protester in Chicago.
Hillary Clinton’s rally has ended with “Fight Song” playing in the background.
After final NV rally, Hillary Clinton descends into audience as "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten rips out of speakers. pic.twitter.com/CMJKqi5TJQ
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 20, 2016
Hillary Clinton is praising Obama in her speech, one day after she called out Sanders for his previous comments about the president and his switch to the Democratic party:
I want to say something about the president. I ran a rough, tough campaign against him in ‘08. When I dropped out, I endorsed him ... I was thrilled when he got elected ...
I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves.
Bernie Sanders rally ends with song and dance and “This Land Is Your Land”.
Bernie Sanders' Henderson rally ends with Cold War Kids' version of "This Land Is Your Land" pic.twitter.com/AZGXK8lOlj
— arit john (@aritbenie) February 20, 2016
Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are attacking Donald Trump in their speeches.
Sanders: “Not only will we fight the racism and the xenophobia and the bigotry of Donald Trump, together we are going to demand that congress pass comprehensive immigration reform and a path towards citizenship.”
Clinton said she wants to make colleges free, but: “My college plan does not include making it free for Donald Trump’s kids ... I want us to spend money on kids who need the help.”
Hillary Clinton takes the stage
Hillary Clinton has started her final speech by thanking her supporters and volunteers:
I know how hard so many of you have worked. I am so grateful for this campaign, for all the organizers and staff and I am particularly grateful for all the volunteers. It all culminates tomorrow at 11am when you and all the people you have touched and talked to come to caucus. That will be the moment when people are asked to step up ... and make clear the kind of country we want.
We need to knock down every barrier that stands in the way of Americans getting ahead and staying ahead.
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, actress Eva Longoria is stumping for Hillary Clinton.
Eva Longoria stumping for Clinton in Las Vegas: "If Hillary doesn't inspire you, you aren't paying attention" pic.twitter.com/LmyT5PJqEw
— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) February 20, 2016
Sanders is appealing to Latino voters, African Americans and workers in his final speech before the Nevada caucus:
This campaign is gaining momentum because we are listening to the pain of the people. We are listening to the workers ... who are telling us they can’t make it on $9 an hour.
We are listening to our brothers and sisters in the Latino community who are demanding to get out of the shadows and want a path towards citizenship. We are listening to our African American brothers and sisters who are telling us they are tired of a criminal justice system which is broken. We are listening to the women who say … ‘We are tired of working 79 cents on the dollar compared to men.’
Bernie Sanders takes the stage
After two hours, Bernie Sanders finally took the stage, sounding very confident:
We are going to win here in Nevada. What a fantastic turnout thank you all for being here tonight. What’s more important is you’ve gotta be in caucus tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning, all of you have the opportunity to make American history. That’s not just phraseology. That’s reality. It could well be that 10, 20, 30 years from now, people will look back at what happens in Nevada and say this was the beginning of the political revolution. When we began this campaign nine months ago, we were at 3% at the polls. We were way behind ... Guess what? Things have changed.”
A pro-Ted Cruz, anti-gay robocall going out to voters the night before the South Carolina primary paints Donald Trump as a candidate who is supportive of LGBT rights, BuzzFeed reports. The Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee paid for the recording, which features Trump responding to a question asking whether LGBT people can look forward to an expansion of rights.
Trump responds: “Well, you can. And look, that’s your thing, and other people have their thing. We have to bring all people together.”
The robocall narrator then says:
It’s not about tolerance anymore. It’s about mandatory celebration. It’s about forcing people to bake cakes and photograph gay weddings. Forcing clergy to officiate. It’s about transgender bathrooms in your child’s school. It’s about tearing down our Judeo-Christian values. It’s about tearing down our America. Ted Cruz for president — now, before it’s too late.
Paul Lewis, west coast bureau chief, finds this couple in the crowd at the rally in Henderson:
"Bernie says F-you to the system - like I feel," Sara Hughes tells me, while her boyfriend Michael Darata looks on. pic.twitter.com/i3heGBnQdd
— Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) February 20, 2016
The Sanders’ campaign kept referring to this event confusingly as a “concert”. That only made sense when we arrived at he open air pavilion.
American actor Gaby Hoffman, from television shows Girls and Transparent, just appeared on stage to lament the fact she can’t caucus tomorrow. Now there’s music from a band called Cold War Kids (sorry, I don’t know them, but appropriate name for a socialist presidential candidate). This really is much more rock concert than Democratic political rally. And to prove the point, I found these two...
Back in South Carolina at his final rally before the caucus, Donald Trump just told an urban legend about John Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The story has been debunked by the website Snopes and seems to originate from chain emails. The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports:
Trump claimed that Pershing summarily executed “50 terrorists”. In the real estate mogul’s telling, “they were having terrorism problems just like we do. And he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men, and he dipped 50 bullets in pig’s blood.”
Here are the crowds at the dueling Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders rallies on the eve of the Nevada caucus:
Best guess, there's ~400 here for Clinton rally at Clark Co Govt Center Amphitheater in Las Vegas on caucus eve. pic.twitter.com/CzqvGOm96C
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 20, 2016
Henderson, Nevada: The line at Bernie's Future to Believe in Rally is 🍌BANANAS🍌 #FeelTheBern #NVcaucus pic.twitter.com/3P8flbdOjY
— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 20, 2016
The Chicago Tribune has unearthed a photo of young activist Bernie Sanders getting arrested in 1963. The paper says that the 21-year-old Sanders, then a University of Chicago student, was being taken by Chicago police toward a police wagon.
On the campaign trail, Sanders often talks about his civil rights activism starting at a young age.
Arrest photo of young activist Bernie Sanders emerges from Chicago Tribune archives https://t.co/HFyQtWTnkp #Chicago pic.twitter.com/s0P0nXT4Qk
— Chicago Trib Photo (@ChiTribPhoto) February 20, 2016
Bernie Sanders surprise stop
Bernie Sanders made a surprise stop in the basement of the Roman-themed Caesars Palace hotel and casino, turning up in the canteen to meet workers in the Culinary Union.
It wasn’t quite the picture shot expected, as it seems no one had told the employees the candidate for president was coming. The basement was not open, and a few workers stayed seated, chewing on food and looking a little nonplussed. That changed when a couple of guys in cook uniforms noticed the senator.
“Yeah,” one said. “Feel the Bern is here.”
Updated
Bernie Sanders brought out Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, a Cook County, Illinois commissioner who unsuccessfully challenged Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. In his speech, Garcia emphasized the diversity of Sanders’ supporters:
“We want our grandchildren to remember that we had the courage to envision what America could be like and what the world could be like if we invested in all of its people,” he said. “2016 [will be] the year that we burnished a new American mosaic by banding with the Native American peoples and the people who came from many parts of the world.”
Can Republicans vote in the Democratic caucus on Saturday? Some fear that a loophole in registration rules in Nevada could allow GOP voters to sign up and cast an “unethical” vote for Clinton or Sanders, according to a new AP report.
Because the Democratic party allows voters to register on-site on Saturday, some worry that Republican voters will show up and change their party affiliation. Some officials in the state have suggested that participating in both caucuses could constitute voter fraud. Democratic party chair Roberta Lange said:
After reviewing Nevada law, we believe that registering under false pretenses in order to participate in the Democratic caucuses for purposes of manipulating the presidential nominating process is a felony.
Sanders, Clinton ready for big Nevada rallies
Back in Nevada, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are preparing for their final campaign events before Saturday’s Democratic caucus. Sanders is hosting a concert and rally in Henderson featuring musical guests Cold War Kids, Chicano Batman and Fantastic Negrito.
In Las Vegas, Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton are hosting a “Get Out The Caucus Event” at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater.
Before the packed events begin, catch up on some of our earlier coverage of the high-stakes Democratic race in the “first in the west” caucus:
- A spat emerged between Sanders and Bill Clinton on the campaign trail Thursday
- Nevada was supposed to be an easy victory for Hillary Clinton, but Sanders’ radical reforms have attracted Latino workers and students
- From a cannabis church to a phone bank, here’s what it’s like on the campaign trail with Sanders
In his last rally before the election in North Charleston, Donald Trump didn’t mention the Pope, but instead reiterated his calls for a boycott of Apple until the company cooperates with the FBI to unlock the phone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, reports the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs from North Charleston, South Carolina.
“Apple computer, boycott Apple,” Trump complained. We want the secrets. They don’t want to open up the phones.”
Trump reiterated his support of waterboarding. He said “it’s borderline. Minimal, minimal torture.” He also added a debunked urban legend to his stump speech about John Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, who allegedly killed 49 terrorists in Trump’s telling.
According to Trump, the American war hero “took 50 terrorist, and took 50 men and 50 bullets” which he then dipped in pig’s blood. Pershing, whom Trump described as “a rough guy,” then “shot 49 of those people and the fiftieth person he said you go back to your people and you tell them what happened.” Trump took as the lesson from this, “we better start getting tough and we better start using our heads or we are not going to have a country folks.”
The story seems to stem from Pershing’s stint commanding an American garrison in the Philippines where he helped put down a rebellion on the island of Mindanao. It also seems to be entirely untrue, despite Trump’s pledge “this is something you can read in the history books.
T-minus eleven hours until polls open in South Carolina...
...and the closing day of the primary campaign down south couldn’t have been hotter.
With the Palmetto State primary seen as a make-or-break point for multiple down-ballot Republican campaigns, many of the candidates on the trail in South Carolina today took what we have dubbed the “drunken octopus” approach to campaigning: lashing out in every direction with bullet speed and mixed accuracy.
A few of the highlights from today’s Republican campaign news:
- Donald Trump continued his battle with the Vicar of Christ today, although both backed down from the brink of what we can only imagine would have been a war fought with highly gilded weaponry on both sides. Trump diffused some of the tension at an event in Myrtle Beach this afternoon, praising a “beautiful statement” by the Vatican stating that the pope’s statements on immigration were “in no way was this a personal attack”. “The pope is great, he made a beautiful statement this morning,” Trump said. “They had him convinced that illegal immigration is a good thing.”
- Meanwhile, Ted Cruz was introduced at an event in Columbia, South Carolina, today by another polarizing religious figure: Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame and infamy. Robertson, holding a bible the size of a phone book, introduced Cruz after a lengthy expository discussion about HIV being a symbol of God’s wrath. Cruz, in turn, suggested Robertson as a potential American ambassador to the United Nations.
- Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Ben Carson had a meeting in a storage closet, according to the Daily Beast. The 25-minute meeting, “held” before the Conservative Review convention event last night, was called by the Texas senator in a bit to bury the hatchet with Carson ahead of tomorrow night’s primary election in South Carolina.
- Trump reiterated a commonly held inaccuracy during an event in North Charleston, South Carolina, this evening, about an American general who discouraged Muslim terrorists in the Philippines by executing them with bullets soaked in the blood of swine...
- ...while also being called out for his past support for the Iraq War.
Up to speed? Good, because Waffle House beckons. And if anyone has heard from Jeb Bush, could you let us know? We’re a little worried.
Also seen at Donald Trump’s rally in North Charleston:
Trump renewed his call to boycott Apple in his North Charleston rally this evening. “Apple, Apple computer, boycott Apple,” said Trump. We want the secrets. They don’t want to open up the phones.”
Updated
Donald Trump is holding a campaign rally at the North Charleston Convention Center in Charleston, South Carolina, and leading his speech with a thoroughly debunked story about an American general who discouraged Muslim terrorists in the Philippines by executing them with bullets soaked in the blood of swine.
“He took fifty bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood, and he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up his fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people, and the last person, he told, go back to your people and tell them what happened,” Trump explained general, “and for 25 years there wasn’t a problem.”
The account, unfortunately for Trump, has been debunked - no contemporary account of this ever happening has been substantiated.
The crowd - perhaps unschooled in the obscure history of the American administration of the Philippines following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War - applauded wildly, regardless.
Meanwhile, in Nevada: it’s double-barrel action in the Las Vegas area tonight ahead of Saturday’s caucus for the Democrats. Guardian US senior reporter Maria L La Ganga has been tracking Hillary Clinton’s supporters ahead of a family affair to close out a very close contest out west. Enough to make you want to hit the road...
They came to Las Vegas from the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake because they had heard the race was tight here in Nevada and they wanted to help Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders. Sharon and Val Jones rented an egg-yolk-yellow Camaro, put down the convertible top and cruised the Strip waving a Hillary sign.
They never could have imagined what happened next. A limousine drove up beside them. The driver rolled down the window and told them that they could get shot for their trouble.
“He said ‘This is a very dangerous state to be doing that, because there’s a concealed carry law’,” Sharon Jones told Chelsea Clinton on Friday afternoon, when the first and possibly future First Daughter was stumping for her mother.
So what did the women, who were married in 2005 in Massachusetts, do?
Val Jones: “I held my sign higher! We’re from Illinois, and we don’t take crap from anybody.”
And they drove proudly off, eventually ending up at a Clinton campaign office here in a gritty East Las Vegas mini-mall, where Sharon Jones asked the visibly pregnant Chelsea Clinton, “What is meant by common-sense gun control and what does Hillary plan to do about that?”
In any other circumstance, it would have been a softball question. Gun control is an issue that Clinton uses on a regular basis as a “big difference” to separate herself from Sanders and his voting record from gun-friendly Vermont.
And Chelsea Clinton wasted no time reminding the crowd that Sanders had voted five times against the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks for firearms purchasers in the United States.
First, however, she looked a little shocked – and so did the previously happy audience. After all, the campaign event started out with actress America Ferrera positing that “I could share a bottle of red wine with Hillary Clinton. ... Yeah, I think Hill and I could be BFFs if she gave it a chance.”
But there’s something about the specter of gun violence that can sober up a room pretty fast, and Friday afternoon was no different.
“I’m so sorry that that happened, and I’m really grateful that you stood up to the bullies,” Chelsea Clinton said. “Gun control is another one of those issues I didn’t know I could care more about until I became a mother.”
Updated
With a Bible verse and a plea for votes, Ted Cruz finishes his campaign event in an airplane hangar in Columbia, South Carolina.
The time for that media noise is over - this is our time.
– Ted Cruz, on the upcoming South Carolina primary.
In an airplane hangar in Columbia, South Carolina, Ted Cruz shifted from discussing the surprise vacancy on the supreme court to the importance of the role of commander-in-chief.
Opponent Donald Trump, Cruz said, declared earlier this week “that he would be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians,” to loud boos from the crowd.
“Let me tell you this: As president, I have no intention of being neutral. America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel,” Cruz shouted, to the loudest and most sustained applause of the event.
Ted Cruz presses on supreme court nomination: "We are one justice away"
“Justice Scalia was an American hero,” Cruz told the crowded airplane hangar outside of Columbia, South Carolina. “He was a lion of the law.”
“Justice Scalia’s passing leaves an enormous vacancy on the court, leaves an enormous void for a passionate, principled fighter for the constitution,” Cruz said. “We are one justice away from a radical five-justice liberal majority the likes of which this country has never seen.”
“We are one justice away from the supreme court striking down every restirciton states have placed over the last fourty years on abortion,” Cruz said, as a man who had earlier told Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson that people with HIV “reap what you sow” screamed “stop ‘em!”
“The second amendment doesn’t guarantee the right to keep and bear arms,” Cruz said with disdain, as another in the crowd shouted “baloney!”
“My cold, dead hands!” a third man shouted, quoting the famous words of the late actor and NRA activist Charlton Heston.
“You and me both, my friend,” Cruz responded.
Cruz later acknowledged that many of the justices responsible for some of the most iconic liberal victories in the nation’s highest court were, in fact, Republican nominees.
The fault, Cruz said, was with presidents who attempted to put “stealth” conservatives on the supreme court. “If you’ve lived 50 years of your life and you’ve never written, read or done anything to prove that you’re a conservative, you ain’t,” Cruz said.
Updated
Ted Cruz speaks in Columbia, South Carolina
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas walked onto the stage and asked the crowd about his wife, Heidi.
“Wouldn’t she make a great first lady?” he asked the crowd, which shouted in the affirmative.
“For all you parents out there, when my wife is first lady, french fries will be back in the cafeteria!”
“You wanna mess with the Almighty?”: Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson introduces Ted Cruz
Holding a bible the size of a phone book, reality television star Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame and infamy, introduced Republican senator Ted Cruz by way of a fire-and-brimstone sermon in Columbia, South Carolina.
In an airplane hangar on the outskirts of South Carolina’s capital city, Robertson - who became a cause celebre among social conservatives after he called same-sex marriage “evil” - declared that an increasingly godless United States is being visited by biblical plagues of sexually transmitted infections as punishment for the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage.
“You wanna mess with the Almighty?” Robertson asked the exuberant crowd, in a call-and-response dynamic redolent of a religious revival, complete with calls of “amen!” and “hallelujah!”
“Then that’s what happens.”
Robertson, who endorsed Cruz in January, began by warning the assembled South Carolinians that a government’s unwillingness to treat all its citizens - including the unborn - as “worth anything” lead to the rise of the Third Reich.
“That’s the way Adolf Hitler was,” Robertson said. “He said, these people here, I don’t think they’re worth anything. He tried to conquer the world, South Carolina! He was famous for murder, South Carolina! You know why? There was no Jesus.”
After pinning the atrocities of World War II on the “godless” Nazis and “Shintoists” in the Japanese empire, Robertson pointed out rising rates of sexually transmitted infections in the United States as a consequence of the decadent embrace of “unnatural acts” - that is, same-sex marriage.
“Do you not see a pattern? When you remove god almighty... from out of your life, out of your society, out of your culture, out of your ideology, then look out, because the murder is fixing to start. Every time.”
“What does the CDC say about morality?” asked Robertson. “About 50.5 million current infections are in men, while 59.5 million are in women, for a total of 110 million Americans with sexually transmitted diseases.”
“You reap what you sow!” screamed a man from the back.
“You reap what you sow, the man said,” Robertson repeated. “Don’t you get it? That’s fact.”
“Clean woman, clean man. They marry. They keep the sex between the two of them. You won’t get a sexually transmitted disease, ever. God was right all along.”
Pointing out that his ten minute speaking allowance had gone far overtime, Robertson introduced the main event.
“Let me introduce to you the next president of the United States: Senator Ted Cruz!”
After Cruz took the stage, he asked the crowd about Robertson.
“I love that man,” Cruz said. He then proposed nominating Robertson for the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Updated
Trump’s rally is in the exact same venue where George W. Bush appeared with Jeb Bush earlier in the week, reports the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs in North Charleston, South Carolina.
However, the room has been built out for a much larger crowd with preparations already made for an overflow room. The crowd for Trump is already more than half the size of that for Bush with an hour and a half to go before the Republican frontrunner appears.
There are several other contrasts between the two events, which being held in a convention center exhibition hall. In contrast to the Jeb Bush event, reporters are not being penned in for the entire time. The Trump campaign requires reporters to stay in a security pen when the candidate is in the building but not before. In contrast, reporters had little freedom to talk to attendees at the Bush rally. The other difference is that at the Trump rally, attendees have to pay for their own parking. It was free to park at the venue when the Bush brothers appeared.
The event also features a pop up Trump store where supporters can buy the full range of Trump merchandise from hats to t-shirts to mini megaphones.
Full price list for Trump merchandise pic.twitter.com/kLwRclWdF4
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 19, 2016
What would happen when the billionaire collided with the senator in Myrtle Beach, a city of jet ski shows and inner tubes, of biker rallies and a reputation for the real spring break experience?
I’ve seen films. I know how it works. I wanted to drink Bud Light in a rowdy bar. I wanted to wear wraparound shades on the top of my head. I wanted to punch a dweeb in the face and then dive-bomb into a pool.Ted Cruz and Donald Trump’s dueling campaigns had given me my chance.
On Friday morning, Cruz seemed ready to get into the spirit of the town. He showed up with his favorite bro, Phil “Duck Dynasty” Robertson.
The crowd was less into it. Cruz told them that last week’s debate had revealed personalities. He tried out a call-and-response with the audience.
Cruz: “Who’s best prepared to be commander in chief?”
Crowd: an awkward silence. Then about five people shouted: “Ted Cruz.” An elderly woman was loudest.
“One more justice on the left and the second amendment is written out of the bill of rights. One more justice on the left and our religious liberty is gone for a generation,” Cruz shouted, with a clenched fist.
He sounded like he was ready to grab his musket and charge at Washington DC, or Hillary Clinton, or any dweeb at the party who couldn’t tell Creed from real Christian rock.
“Nobody here should be confused what we are fighting for,” Cruz summarized. “We are fighting for the rights of our children and grandchildren.”
Inside Louie’s bar, which seemed to be the only bar in Myrtle Beach with more than 10 people in it, a woman gave a rousing rendition of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer. She wore a sash saying “40 looks good”. Her name was Nesha Madox, and she had travelled to Myrtle Beach from Charlotte “to party”.
“I’m scared,” she said, when asked about the election. “There’s no strong candidate. They’re so divisive.”
I asked Madox who she thought was divisive. She said Donald Trump.
“The way he speaks, I genuinely don’t believe he means what he says. But the way he says it, people who have hatred seize upon it,” she said. “He’s dividing the country.”
Madox returned to partying and I went for a walk around Louie’s. The man who had been singing Baby Got Back was called Tiger. He was 37.
“A lot of [the election] is pretty comical,” he said. “Some of the things these guys are out here saying, it’s pretty reckless.”
“The Trumps and others who are fearmongering … we’re better than that as a nation, as people,” Tiger said. I asked him what was important in this election.
“Minimum wage is a big issue,” he said. “Republicans are in favor of leaving it where it is. The reality is that a person working a full-time job on minimum wage, they are below the poverty line.”
I could feel the Bud Light kicking in. A woman called Melissa came over at the bar and ordered a pint of Stella Artois.
“I find politics so exhausting that I would rather crawl up in the fetal position and sleep right through it,” Melissa said. She said she worked for a “big” insurance company.
“Can’t we talk about something more fun?”
Vice-president Joe Biden gave a ringing endorsement of the two Democrats who want to succeed his boss on Thursday, telling two reporters: “I can live with either one of them.”
Politico’s published a transcript of their interview with the veep. Here’s a snippet:
Is Bernie Sanders really to the left of everybody?
Look, what Bernie is talking about now is mainstream. The mainstream is saying wait a minute, the concentration of wealth is a disaster, and it’s unfair. Full-blown capitalists are saying that’s true, that’s not right. I haven’t heard him lay out in detail what the socialist part of his agenda is.
Is Donald Trump for real?
I’m still not sure. You know, in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king. Has he gotten above 38 percent in any primary? He’s 38 percent in the minority party – a minority within the minority party.
You can read the whole interview here.
Let the inquest into what brand of mobile Donald Trump uses begin.
Boycott all Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities regarding radical Islamic terrorist couple from Cal
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2016
To be fair, Donald Trump did say that he “just came up with” his boycott against the computer giant...
Well this is awkward. Trump announces he's boycotting Apple - campaign setup merchandise store with iPad checkout pic.twitter.com/HPQNuXhnM8
— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) February 19, 2016
Music Break
The music selection in Delaney’s Pub in Columbia, South Carolina, has been truly epic - y’all are missing out. (Yes, we say “y’all” now - don’t ask.) While we get ready to ship off to Ted Cruz’s event with Duck Dynasty honcho Phil Robertson, plug in your headphones and enjoy the mix of glam rock, stadium rock, country rock and folk rock that is the soundtrack of South Carolina.
Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Ben Carson had a meeting in a storage closet, according to the Daily Beast. It reportedly did not go well.
The 25-minute meeting, “held” before the Conservative Review convention event last night, was called by the Texas senator in a bit to bury the hatchet with Carson ahead of tomorrow night’s primary election in South Carolina.
The retired pediatric neurosurgeon has been increasingly vocal with his displeasure with Cruz, whose campaign staffers told caucus-goers in Iowa that Carson had dropped out of the race in a bid to swing their support in his direction, then attempted to pass the hot potato to CNN.
The 2016 Committee, a super PAC affiliated with Carson, has spent buckets of money in an effort to pin the issue to Cruz, joining a dogpile with Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush all calling Cruz out for what they have called dirty campaigning.
Donald Trump has pledged to “do more for the African American people than Barack Obama has ever done”. Trump made the comments at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, ahead of the state’s Republican primary on Saturday.
A pro-Tec Cruz robocall is bashing fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for advocating for the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol.
The recorded message, according to the Charleston Post and Courier, also takes a swipe at governor Nikki Haley, who endorsed Marco Rubio this week.
“Put it in a museum, let it go,” the recording quotes Trump as saying about the flag. “That’s Donald Trump supporting Nikki Haley removing the battle flag from the Confederate memorial in Columbia,” an announcer elaborates.
“People like Donald Trump are always butting their noses into other people’s business,” the voice adds, stating that “Trump talks about our flag like it’s a social disease.”
The call is identified as coming from the Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee, a super PAC that describes itself as “committed to the election of Ted Cruz as President and likeminded conservatives to House and Senate races across the country”.
With less than 24 hours before the polls open in the Palmetto State, Trump is the current frontrunner, with a double-digit lead over Cruz in the state.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has officially called for a boycott of Apple products until the tech giant cooperates with the FBI’s demand to help unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.
“What I think you oughta do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number,” Trump said at a town hall event in South Carolina. “How do you like that - I just thought of that!”
Trump’s tweets after his call for the Apple boycott have all been sent from an Apple iPhone.
Apple refused to cooperate after a US federal magistrate ordered the company to help the FBI unlock the iPhone, with chief executive Tim Cook describing the demand as “chilling”. In a letter published on the company’s website, Cook responded saying Apple would oppose the order and calling for public debate.
“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand,” he wrote.
While Cook took pains to stress that Apple was “shocked and outraged” by the San Bernardino shooting last December – “we have no sympathy for terrorists” – he said company is determined to push back against the court order.
Updated
Ted Cruz faces multiple lawsuits questioning eligibility for presidency
Canadian-born senator and presidential Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency has officially moved from thought experiment to courtroom drama.
Lawsuits challenging the Texas Republican’s eligibility for the ballot have been filed in states three states, including Illinois, New York and Alabama. Fellow candidate Donald Trump has also threatened to sue over the issue, claiming that because Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, he is not a “natural-born citizen,” as required by article two of the US constitution, and is therefore ineligible for the presidency.
Cruz and numerous legal experts have stated that because the candidate’s mother was a US citizen at the time of his birth, he qualifies as a natural-born citizen. Others, however, aren’t so sure, and the matter has never conclusively been settled by the US supreme court.
In Illinois, the suit’s plaintiff is pharmacist and lawyer Lawrence Joyce. He told the Associated Press that he fears if Cruz becomes the Republican nominee, Democrats will use the citizenship question to get him kicked off the ballot in some states or Cruz will be forced to drop out and Republicans will replace him with a moderate candidate.
Joyce says he backs Ben Carson but is acting independently.
A Cook County judge set a hearing for 1 March on a motion to dismiss the suit filed by Cruz’s lawyer. By then, ballots for Illinois’s 15 March primary will be printed and early voting under way.
Asked about his eligibility during a CNN town hall event on Wednesday evening, Cruz said by law he has been a US citizen since the day he was born.
“I’ve never breathed a breath of air on this planet when I was not a U.S. citizen,” said Cruz at the time. “It was the act of being born that made me a U.S. citizen.”
Asked to address Trump’s threats, Cruz joked that one can “never write off the possibility of Donald Trump suing you.”
“There will still be some who try to work political mischief on it, but as a legal matter, this is clear and straightforward,” he said. “He is welcome to file whatever lawsuit he likes - that lawsuit would not succeed.”
Greetings from Columbia, South Carolina!
We’re liveblogging the countdown to tomorrow’s Republican primary from Columbia, the capital of and largest city in South Carolina.
Our bellies are full of barbecue from Southern Belly, a local fixture where we can recommend the Castro with Southern Belly Sauce (Wookie-size it if you’re feeling particularly peckish) and we’ve ensconced ourselves at Delaney’s Pub in the ultra-hip Five Points district. It’s popular with bikers, journalists and students - go Gamecocks!
In two hours, we’ll be joining Texas senator Ted Cruz and Duck Commander Phil Robertson - of Duck Dynasty fame/infamy - at the Eagle Aviation Hangar, where the reality television fixture will host a rally for Cruz in hopes of stirring the same last-minute surge in support that helped push the Texas senator to victory in the Iowa caucuses.
With the strains of Bobby Darin in our ears - Delaney’s is that kind of place - let’s catch up on the latest happenings in South Carolina, less than 24 hours before the polls open.
Updated
Trump slips below 30% in polls of South Carolina Republicans...
A third SC poll in 2 days has Trump under 30%—hadn't been one since 2015. From Clemson University:
— Taniel (@Taniel) February 19, 2016
Trump 28%
Cruz 19%
Rubio 15%
Bush 10%
...unless the competing, later-in-the-day poll with Trump at 36% is accurate:
Latest Emerson tracking poll in SC GOP:
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 19, 2016
Trump 36%
Rubio 20%
Cruz 19%
Bush 10%
Kasich 10%
Carson 6%
https://t.co/JALyBl95RW
Update:
Say what? Trump 27, Rubio 24 in SC... https://t.co/vnp6OuaphH
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) February 19, 2016
Updated
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There were spontaneous chants of “Feel The Bern” even before Bernie Sanders appeared in a school gymnasium in Elko, a snow-dusted town of fewer than 20,000 people in the Nevada desert, writes Guardian West Coast bureau chief Paul Lewis:
When the Vermont senator appeared on stage, and started speaking about how quickly political orthodoxies can change, he nimbly tied together gays rights and marijuana legalization in two sentences.
Bernie Sanders in a school gymnasium in Elko, a small, snow-dusted town in the Nevada desert. pic.twitter.com/4nUU2aK4Uz
— Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) February 19, 2016
“If we were sitting in this room 20 years ago, and someone stood up and said ‘You know, I think by the year 2015 gay men and women will be able to be legally married,’ the person next to them would have said, ‘What are you smoking?’ Which in fact raises another issue.”
Ever since he arrived in the state, Sanders has had Sheldon Adelson, the Republican billionaire donor and kingmaker - a powerful figure in Las Vegas, where he owns casinos and convention centers - in his sights.
“People like Sheldon Adelson think they have the right to buy elections,” Sander said, outlining his platform of diminishing the power of plutocrats in American politics. “Well, I respectfully disagree.”
Bernie Sanders, in a small school gymnasium in rural Nevada, speaks for more than an hour. pic.twitter.com/KI53Ka7S07
— Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) February 19, 2016
You get sense of cautious optimism around the Sanders’ campaign in Nevada right now. For months the Clinton camp had been hinting that diverse Nevada was in the bag for them, in part because of its heavily Latino population.
But as Maria L La Ganga and I write today, the Latino community’s commitment to “La Hillary” is starting to fray. You shouldn’t trust polls, especially ahead of Democratic caucuses. Yet the sense of a tightening race here has been compounded with surveys showing Sanders neck-and-neck ahead of tomorrow’s caucuses.
The Sanders’ plane arrived late last night, after his light spat with Bill Clinton over the former president’s record.
Updated
Trump: pope's statement 'beautiful'
Donald Trump diffused some of the tension between him and Pope Francis I at an event in Myrtle Beach this afternoon, praising a “beautiful statement” by the Vatican saying of the pope’s comments: “in no way was this a personal attack”.
The pope had angered Trump by saying a person who “thinks only about building walls... and not of building bridges, is not Christian”. Trump said the pontiff was “disgraceful”.
But Trump struck a more conciliatory tone just now.
“The pope is great, he made a beautiful statement this morning,” Trump said. “They had him convinced that illegal immigration is a good thing.”
Trump’s comments came after a call-and-response with the crowd over the wall Trump says he plans to build along the Mexico border.
“Who is going to pay for the wall?” Trump said.
“Mexico!” the crowd shouted.
It was an enthusiastic crowd. One man called Bill was wearing a hard hat and a high visibility vest. He was holding a sign saying: “I’m ready to work on the wall.”
Bill touted his masonry experience. “I’ve built walls. I’ve built concrete walls,” he said.
There were cheers as Trump came out on stage. He called Ted Cruz: “The biggest liar I’ve ever seen.”
Trump referenced a picture that the Cruz campaign apparently doctored, appearing to show Rubio shaking hands with President Obama.
“I’m not sticking up for Marco Rubio but I looked at this picture: Marco Rubio looked like he was about 4ft tall,” Trump said. “I never saw anything like it.”
A little later on some protestors started shouting something. I couldn’t hear what.
“Get them out! Get them out!” Trump shouted. “Don’t hurt them but get them out.”
Updated
Bill Clinton orders nachos
Politico tails the former president and Ohio Representative Marcia Fudget to a vegan joint in Las Vegas:
Rep. Fudge appeared stressed out about moving the President along and recommended taking an order to go. Clinton was fixated on the food.
“I’ll take the green chili enchiladas,” he said. “Are they good?”
Dougan said she had prepared a nacho sampler for him, which Fudge -- nudging -- also encouraged him to wrap up and take for the road.
“This is unbelievable,” he said of cashew cheese sauce and textured vegetable protein that covered the nachos.
Read the full piece here.
(h/t: @bencjacobs)
Sanders dumps dough into TV ads
Bernie Sanders’ “political revolution” will be televised. Hot off a big win in New Hampshire, the campaign has poured big money into broadcast ads.
If you live in Nevada, where Sanders has been polling neck and neck with Clinton ahead of Saturday’s Democratic caucus, that means a lot more Bernie on your TV.
How much more? Data from the Political TV Ad Archive, which logs televised primary election ads in major markets across the country, can give us an idea of how many ads are aired per day:
While the Political Ad Archive strives to be comprehensive, researchers say their dataset may be missing some individual ads.
But the overall trend is hard to dispute: Sanders has dwarfed Clinton on the Nevada airwaves over the past week. Whether potential voters have really been tuning in remains to be seen.
Updated
Former governor Sanford endorses Cruz
Texas senator Ted Cruz received a major last-minute endorsement from South Carolina congressman Mark Sanford on Friday.
Less than a day before polls open in the Palmetto State, Sanford, a congressman and former governor, appeared at a event in a Charleston theater to endorse Cruz. Introduced by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Sanford appeared on stage to back the presidential hopeful.
Sanford praised Cruz in particular for his opposition to ethanol subsides while campaigning in Iowa. “It is my firm belief if you don’t say it in Iowa, you’re not saying it in Washington,” said the South Carolina congressman. Sanford added “We need another fighter in Washington and in the Oval Office.”
The endorsement of the ardent fiscal conservative isn’t an unalloyed plus for Cruz. Sanford was tarred by scandal during his second term as governor when he disappeared for a week. Aides to the South Carolina Republican said Sanford was “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
However, it turned out that the married father of four was conducting an extramarital affair with an Argentinean woman and had been visiting her in Buenos Aires. Despite the scandal, Sanford, who had previously served in Congress from 1994-2000 returned to Washington D.C. in a 2013 special election representing a Charleston area district.
Sanford wasn’t the only special guest at the event, which was a town hall moderated by Hannity. There were cameo appearances from David Limbaugh, the brother of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, as well as Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty. In his brief appearance on stage, Robertson brandished a bible and proclaimed “bibles and guns brought us here.”
Cruz is currently in a dead heat for second place with Marco Rubio in South Carolina. Both candidates lag behind Republican frontrunner Donald Trump by double digits in most polls.
Cruz ad: 'Rubio burned us'
Ted Cruz has shaped his argument against Marco Rubio on immigration into a clenched fist of an ad, in which he accuses Rubio of breaking campaign promises not to support a path to legal status for undocumented migrants and of “using Obama’s talking points” to sell his 2013 “Gang of 8” immigration reform bill, which included such a path to legal status.
Cruz himself supported the bill, though he now says he tried to kill it.
Here’s the new Cruz ad, “Sales pitch”:
Tagline: “Marco Rubio burned us once. He shouldn’t get the chance to sell us out again.”
Speaking of Cruz, here’s an insightful data piece on how the numbers may be stacked against him in 2016:
Basically, Cruz is probably doomed. https://t.co/UT3TFWyeSh
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) February 19, 2016
But [apart from trailing in South Carolina polls] Cruz also faces a longer-term, potentially more devastating math problem that has received less attention: The states that are his most natural fits — those with the highest proportions of evangelical voters — are also the least likely to award their delegates on a winner-take-all basis. In other words, Cruz’s votes may not translate into delegates nearly as efficiently as his rivals’.
The death of supreme court justice Antonin Scalia has roiled the US presidential election, but there is one candidate whose campaign seems barely to have been affected: Donald Trump.
Here’s Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs:
While Scalia’s death dominated the start of Saturday’s Republican debate and the congressional Republicans’ vow to block his replacement meant it instantly became an intensely partisan issue, Trump has rarely focused on the controversy. In Saturday’s debate, Trump described Scalia’s death as “a tremendous blow to conservatism. It’s a tremendous blow, frankly, to our country,” but he has only infrequently raised the issue on the campaign trail, and then in passing.
On Wednesday, in Walterboro, South Carolina, Trump told supporters: “If you get the wrong person [on the supreme court], they’ll knock out the second amendment so fast your head will spin.” [...]
In contrast, the supreme court is such a critical issue for Cruz that the Texas senator has made it the center piece of his attacks on Trump. In an ad entitled Supreme Trust, Cruz – a former law clerk to ex-chief justice William Rehnquist – implies Trump can’t be trusted to appoint a conservative justice by focusing on comments Trump made in 1999 saying he was pro-choice. The ad so got under the real estate mogul’s skin that he threatened to sue Cruz, but it was his conservative bona fides rather than the link to the supreme court that seemed to bother Trump.
Read the full piece here:
A presidential election campaign so far marked by bluster and acrimony saw a more tender moment on Thursday when Republican John Kasich comforted a distressed supporter with a hug, writes the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch:
University of Georgia student Brett Smith, 21, said he had driven up from Georgia to see Kasich, the governor of Ohio, who was campaigning in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s Republican primary.
.@JohnKasich: "We don't have enough people that sit down and cry with that young man." #SCPrimaryhttps://t.co/4YsAkfXUj6
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 18, 2016
“Over a year ago, a man who was like my second dad, he killed himself,” Smith told the candidate. “And then a few months later, my parents got a divorce, and then a few months later, my dad lost his job. And I was in a really dark place for a long time. I was pretty depressed.
“But I found I hope,” he continued. “And I found it in the Lord, and in my friends, and now I’ve found it in my presidential candidate that I support. And I’d really appreciate one of those hugs you’ve been talking about.”
Read the full piece here:
Asked about the moment at last night’s CNN town hall, Kasich spoke about the role of pain in life, alluding to how he had lost both parents to an accident caused by a drunken driver.
Former presidential candidate Rand Paul weighs in on the death of Harper Lee:
Sad to hear of Harper Lee's passing. She was an important novelist who created great American literature. RIP. https://t.co/tBsCgqrRiB
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 19, 2016
Pope walks back Trump criticism
A spokesman for Pope Francis insisted Friday the pontiff was “in no way” launching an attack on Donald Trump, nor was he trying to sway voters by declaring someone who advocates building walls isn’t Christian, the Associated Press reports:
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, in an interview on Vatican Radio, stressed that Francis often speaks about building bridges, not walls, and that his remark on Thursday wasn’t “a personal attack” on the business mogul.
On Friday, Lombardi sought to put the pope’s comments in context, saying they were “in no way a personal attack or an indication on how to vote.” The radio interviewer told Lombardi that many have seen the comment as a kind of “excommunication, if we can call it that,” of Trump.
“But the pope said what we well know, when we follow his teaching and his positions: that one mustn’t build walls, but bridges,” Lombardi said.
“He has always said this, continuously. And he has said it also about migration issues in Europe, very many times. Thus, it’s not at all a specific question, limited to this case,” the spokesman said.
“The pope said clearly that he wasn’t stepping into voting issues in the electoral campaign in the United States,” Lombardi added. He said the pope was also “giving the benefit of the doubt” on what Trump had said.
What do you think? Do you buy the pope’s explanation? Tell us in the comments!
Read earlier:
Updated
Here’s more from Adam Gabbatt on the huge line to get into the Donald Trump rally in Myrtle Beach:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a line as long as the one to get into Donald Trump’s rally in Myrtle Beach. And I’ve been in the Guardian office when someone has brought in free cake! Wahay!
The press line was thankfully much shorter. I was behind a very tanned man wearing a beige plaid jacket. You have to get inspected by a secret service person to enter.
“Are you armed?” he asked the tanned man. He wasn’t.
I stepped forward and was not asked if I was armed. I feel a bit disappointed.
Anyway the event is in a newly constructed sports center. It’s about the size of three football pitches, although Trump isn’t using all of it. There are a lot of people in here.
We just heard the message that I believe plays at all Trump’s events (this is my first) telling the audience what to do if a protestor pipes up.
The crowd is not to “touch or harm the protestor” the message said.
“Why!?” one man shouted.
Update: Trump swag.
"Bomb the Shit out of Isis" T-shirts at Trump rally in Gaffney pic.twitter.com/ukXvbbNtKF
— Demetri Sevastopulo (@DimiSevastopulo) February 19, 2016
Updated
After missing a planned appearance in South Carolina at the Conservative Review forum last night due to a reported scheduling conflict, Florida senator Marco Rubio has had to cancel an event in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, due to plane issues.
Rubio event in Pawley's Island cancelled-- Rubio's plane stuck in Columbia
— Ines de La Cuetara (@InesdLC) February 19, 2016
It looked like a good crowd, though:
And @marcorubio no shows at his own event. Just cancelled. Everyone going home. pic.twitter.com/7V3Zimjnb1
— Ron Nehring (@RonNehring) February 19, 2016
From the comments / Clinton-Freeman ad
We asked and you answered: How about that Hillary Clinton ad featuring Morgan Freeman? It gets a resounding meh:
Here’s the Sanders ad in question, “It’s not over”:
Guardian Washington correspondent David Smith is at the Supreme Court, where late justice Antonin Scalia is lying in repose. David tweets these pictures and descriptions of the scene:
Watching the hearse. pic.twitter.com/xLu9nqfTvA
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 19, 2016
Pallbearers slowly walk with Scalia’s casket, draped in the Stars and Stripes, as a crowd watches from across the street.
Scalia's casket on a catafalque first used for Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. pic.twitter.com/jXt0Jt7QIp
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 19, 2016
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt goes to check out a Donald Trump rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and discovers an epic line:
Clyburn endorses Clinton
Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the assistant Democratic leader in the House and a 23-year veteran of Congress, is holding a news conference to endorse Hillary Clinton.
Cyburn says his head wanted him to remain neutral, but his heart was with Clinton: "My heart has always been with Hillary Clinton."
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) February 19, 2016
Jim Clyburn says Clinton is "far and away the best choice" on criminal justice reform and voting rights.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 19, 2016
Clyburn: I believe Hillary Clinton is best choice to conquer these challenges; equal pay for equal work; income inequality.. #CNN
— Lisa Mirando (@LisaMirandoCNN) February 19, 2016
Clyburn is a BIG public get for HRC, he's a close confidant of Pelosi, has huge sway within CBC and controls 1 helluva operation in SC
— Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) February 19, 2016
Updated
From the comments / grab bag
While we wait for you to weigh in on the Clinton / Freeman ad, let’s see what is catching your interest below the line. Here’s a sampler:
Sanders and the non-white vote
Sanders: "We have got to make police forces look like the people they are serving"
Nice. More of this stuff, and blacks and hispanos just might to start to wonder "why on Earth do we keep believing Hillary is in any way better?"
Too much entertainment news
Just in the space of a mere handful of posts we have, let's see now, Britney Spears, Phil Robertson, Michael Jackson (who is dead, btw), the Pope, a cartoon dog ....
Once again the Guardian sets new benchmarks in their feverish pursuit of the Huffington Post's compelling content and style.
Mea culpa.
How Trump’s pope spat plays
The Pope just got Trump the Southern Baptist vote. Don't they still consider any pope as an Anti-Christ?
The political implications of Trump’s fight with the pope are compelling to ponder. The basic point to be made is that there are fewer Catholics and more conservative Baptists and evangelicals in the southern states about to vote, which award their delegates proportionately, meaning a narrow win is worth less, and more Catholics in the northerly states to vote later, many of which are winner-take-all.
Politico has a good analysis of how Pope Francis’ political pronouncements may not hold “much sway with the conservative evangelicals who will be voting [in South Carolina] on Saturday — particularly given that many, even those who respect him, consider him a liberal.
This pope is left-leaning, and most evangelicals are right-leaning,” said Tony Perkins, the influential head of the evangelical Family Research Council and a Cruz supporter. “They don’t have a huge amount of allegiance to this pope.”
Yesterday we heard from Trump fans in South Carolina and elsewhere who were angered by their candidate’s fight with the pope – angry at the pope.
Asked one attendee at Trump event what she thought of Trump's Pope comments. "That was shocking to hear. (pause). From the Pope."
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) February 18, 2016
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talkbox, said, “Given the pope’s political leanings I’m surprised he isn’t on the campaign trail for Bernie Sanders.” Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, Jr., said: “Jesus never intended to give instructions to political leaders on how to run a country.”
It’s a nigh-on pope backlash.
Here’s a related point:
What is the first thing that springs to mind when you here the words: 'The pope and the Catholic church'? Mine are corruption and kiddie fiddling, The Pope should get its own house in order before criticising others.
Also voiced by Simon Jenkins in today’s paper:
Of course the pope is right to champion bridges not walls, compassion not damnation. But he should first examine the beams in his own eye rather than the motes in others. He too is a man of walls and damnations. Priests should beware of attacking those who at least have the guts to seek the public’s verdict on their views.
Updated
The New Yorker copy-edited Trump’s encyclical on the pope:
The @NewYorker has copy-edited Donald Trump.
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) February 18, 2016
Get out your red pencil... https://t.co/UFqkLWcIVK pic.twitter.com/K3KHBadWCf
Click through for full effect.
Morgan Freeman narrates Clinton's story
For a new ad. “Her life’s work has been about breaking barriers and so would her presidency,” Freeman says.
Does the ad work for you? Does having the single voice Americans most associate with the wisdom of experience, grandfatherly comfort and steely yet compassionate resolve in the face of a whole history of adversity narrate a commercial really make sense, campaign-strategy-wise?
The latest South Carolina poll of likely Republican voters is making headlines - which is completely unsurprising, writes Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi:
When enormously expensive polls are conducted by news organizations, they have a built-in incentive to report that the results are very exciting indeed.
A closer look at the latest numbers from Wall Street Journal and NBC show that the headline “Donald Trump’s Lead Slashed in South Carolina” is a little exaggerated. Compared to the last time the poll was conducted a month ago, Donald Trump’s support in South Carolina has fallen 8 percentage points. Since support for Ted Cruz has also risen 3 percentage points over the same period, Trump’s overall lead has fallen 11 percentage points. The new poll has Trump up 28-23 on Cruz.
Here are some crucial bits of context for those numbers. The respondents we’re talking about here are 722 likely GOP primary voters. The margin of error on this poll is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points and in the January poll it was 2.8 percentage points. At their extremes, those errors mean that Trump’s lead might have fallen by as little as 2 percentage points.
Even more importantly, these surveys aren’t conducted with the same respondents - in other words this isn’t necessarily a good indication of Republicans who are changing their minds. The pollsters might simply have captured a different group of responses. That’s particularly problematic since primaries are much harder to poll than national elections anyway.
Finally, polling averages suggest that this poll is an outlier. According to Real Clear Politics, Donald Trump’s chances of success in South Carolina look very secure since, across all polls, the Republican billionaire has a lead of 14.8 percentage points.
Trump and the Central Park Five: the racially charged rise of a demagogue
Here’s the top of a report this week from Oliver Laughland:
Yusef Salaam was 15 years old when Donald Trump demanded his execution for a crime he did not commit.
Nearly three decades before the rambunctious billionaire began his run for president – before he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, for the expulsion of all undocumented migrants, before he branded Mexicans as “rapists” and was accused of mocking the disabled – Trump called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York following a horrific rape case in which five teenagers were wrongly convicted.
The miscarriage of justice is widely remembered as a definitive moment in New York’s fractured race relations. But Trump’s intervention – he signed full-page newspaper advertisements implicitly calling for the boys to die – has been gradually overlooked as the businessman’s chances of winning the Republican nomination have rapidly increased. Now those involved in the case of the so-called Central Park Five and its aftermath say Trump’s rhetoric served as an unlikely precursor to a unique brand of divisive populism that has powered his rise to political prominence in 2016.
“He was the fire starter,” Salaam said of Trump, in his first extended interview since Trump announced his run for the White House. “Common citizens were being manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty.”
Read the full piece here:
'El Viejito' for president: why Latinos in Nevada are switching to Sanders
Here’s the top of an overnight report from Paul Lewis and Maria L La Ganga:
Hillary Clinton posters are in their apartment window and Bernie Sanders stickers are on their car. The Macias family are similar to many Latinos who find themselves unusually torn ahead of Nevada’s Democratic caucuses.
But this family has more at stake than most. Tomasa Macias, the 50-year-old matriarch, collapsed and died last year while cleaning the toilets at a Las Vegas convention center owned by the billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson.
Her family are united in their belief that America’s unforgiving working conditions are to blame for the the severe stroke she suffered on 5 May. But they are divided over which Democratic candidate would best serve the country’s working poor.
Theirs is a familiar story in Nevada, the third state to host a Democratic presidential contest, and one in which the fractured Latino vote threatens to further erode Clinton’s aura as the party’s nominee-in-waiting.
Read the full piece here:
“Pope Francis can’t promise Americans any of this amazing stuff but I can!”
That’s the kicker of the latest editorial cartoon by First Dog on the Moon for the Guardian, which satirizes the flame war between Pope Francis and Donald Trump.
Here are the first 1.5 cells:
Have a look!:
Trump confronted with past support for Iraq war
Here’s the top of an overnight report from Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs:
Donald Trump, who has made his opposition to the Iraq invasion one of the bedrocks of his campaign, was left scrambling during a CNN town hall when confronted with a newly uncovered interview in which he supported the conflict.
The interview, reported by BuzzFeed, was from 2002 when Trump sat down with radio shock jock Howard Stern and was asked directly whether he advocated invading Saddam Hussein’s country.
Trump replied: “Yeah I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Asked by CNN moderator Anderson Cooper about the statement, the Republican frontrunner simply responded: “I could have said that.”
Trump then insisted that his past support for the war did not matter because “by the time the war started I was against it”.
Read the full piece here:
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. With a Republican primary in South Carolina and Democratic caucuses in Nevada happening tomorrow, you can imagine the buzz on the campaign trail today.
Adam Gabbatt will be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for a Ted Cruz rally with the Duck Dynasty reality show stars, and then will rush off to a Donald Trump appearance in the same city. Paul Lewis will be with Bernie Sanders in Sparks, Nevada and elsewhere, while Maria L La Ganga will be on the trail of Hillary Clinton, who ends the day with a rally in Las Vegas. Meanwhile Sabrina Siddiqui will catch up with Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and Ben Jacobs will check out Trump in North Charleston.
Photograph: Dave Kaup/Reuters
But first, about last night. The Democrats held a forum in Las Vegas while the Republicans held a double-town-hall in South Carolina, with the exception of Florida senator Marco Rubio, who had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t make it. There were quite a few good lines to come out of the night. Here’s a sampler:
Trump: ‘I don’t like fighting with the pope’
Donald Trump tried to play down his spat with Pope Francis over the Christianity or otherwise of building walls, though he could not help noting: “He’s got an awfully big wall at the Vatican.”
“I don’t like fighting with the Pope,” Trump said and insisted that the Holy Father was “a wonderful guy”. “He’s doing a very good job. A lot of energy,” he said. “I like him as a personality.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich weighed in:
First of all, I’m pro-pope. Put me down in the pro-pope column.
Bernie Sanders: first woman president?
“Gloria Steinem made me an honorary woman many, many years ago,” Sanders said. “I accepted it.”
More from Sanders:
We have got to make police forces look like the people they are serving.
Clinton on Trump: ‘basta!’
“I was the first person to call out Donald Trump,” Clinton declared. “I said basta!”
Bill Clinton added at a Democratic campaign dinner in Las Vegas:
I often think that I am useless to Hillary in this campaign because I’m not mad at anybody.
Being in Vegas for #PieceOfMe is amazing for so many reasons... Especially when you get to meet @HillaryClinton! pic.twitter.com/OMEIKYpLec
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) February 19, 2016
Trump defends Michael Jackson
Trump said he knew “the real story of Michael Jackson”.
Michael was an unbelievable talent who lost his confidence, and believe it or not, when you lose your confidence in something, you can actually lose your talent.
Trump also expressed his admiration for McDonald’s, because of its cleanliness and mentioned he had Kentucky Fried Chicken the other night as well.
Cruz: one justice away from a ‘radical’ Supreme Court
Our very Bill of Rights hangs in balance, one justice away from a five-justice radical leftwing majority the likes of which our county has never seen.
Updated
Regarding the Hillary ad above:
Morgan Freeman, paid actor who's done VO's for clients such as VISA for somewhere between 1 and 2 million dollars, (Forbes,http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/11/jon-hamm-morgan-freeman-kiefer-sutherland-business-entertainment-voiceovers.html)
or Bernie's camp, giving voice to Eric Garner's daughter with her own testimonial, in her own words.
That's power.