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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Sam Levin in Salt Lake City, Utah and Tom McCarthy in New York

Hillary Clinton: Trump's 'stream of insults' are 'absurd' – as it happened

Hillary Clinton: doesn’t want to respond to Trump’s comments about her ‘stamina’ and ‘strength’.
Hillary Clinton: doesn’t want to respond to Trump’s comments about her ‘stamina’ and ‘strength’. Photograph: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Idaho, Utah prepare for caucuses

We’re shutting down this blog and will be back soon to live-blog the results in Arizona, Utah and Idaho. Here are some highlights from the day:

Guardian reporter Jason Wilson is in Idaho where Democrats say they are anticipating a large turnout for the caucus:

Dean Ferguson, Idaho Democratic Party communications director, said he is expecting a record turnout for the state’s caucuses.

“It’s spooky, actually. We’ve got a reservation system. We’ve got 18,000 people reserved already. In 2008, which was a year where everyone was excited, we got 21,000 in total. It’s going to be more than 2008,” he said.

Bernie Sanders volunteers in Idaho.
Bernie Sanders volunteers in Idaho. Photograph: Jason Wilson/Jason Wilson for The Guardian

In the Idaho Centre in downtown Boise, hundreds of volunteers - many of them young voters - are preparing for the imminent arrival of up to 10,000 Ada County caucusgoers.

Jill Kuraitis, a veteran of Idaho’s progressive movements, said she’s never seen a race energise this age group in this way.

“Look at the volunteers,” she said. “I’ve never seen so many millennials involved in caucuses.”

Kuraitis herself was torn on who to back, but she predicted that the night in Idaho will belong to Bernie Sanders.

The GOP in the Virgin Islands has taken the unusual step of disqualifying six elected delegates and replacing them with alternates – a move that gives Donald Trump and Ted Cruz new delegates.

John Canegata, chairman of the USVI GOP, said in a statement:

Rule 11 automatically disqualifies and strikes from the Virgin Islands delegation to the Republican National Convention anyone who fails to comply with party rules. The party rules commanded me to inform the Republican National Committee of this automatic action, which I did in a letter to chairman Reince Priebus.

John Yob, former advisor to Rand Paul, was one of the ejected delegates. Yob released a statement criticizing the chair:

The Chairman is not a dictator and can not unilaterally break the USVI GOP rules to hand select his preferred delegates. He has unfortunately decided once again to either not read the rules or not follow the rules ... We are confident we will be properly certified by the certification committee.”

The six disqualified delegates had not pledged primary support to a specific candidate. These kinds of disputes could become crucial during a contested Republican convention.

Donald Trump is back on CNN now promoting torture and Muslim surveillance on a phone call with Wolf Blitzer:

We can’t continue to be the stupid people. We can be nice about it, we can be politically correct about it. But we’re being fools. We’re being absolute fools ... We’re not going to have a country left.

We have to change our law on the waterboarding thing. We have to be able to fight on an almost equal basis ... It’s your minimal form of torture.

Asked if he would immediately torture a suspect, such as Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris attacks, Trump responded: “He may be talking, but he’ll talk a lot faster with the torture.”

Trump also said he agrees with Ted Cruz’s controversial call to secure and patrol “Muslim neighborhoods”, saying: “That’s a good idea. I would support that 100%. I bet you the local police know much more than what’s going on than anybody would understand.”

Like Cruz, Trump compared surveillance of Muslims to targeting gangs: “[Police] know the gang members. They know everything. And local police know plenty about the Muslims, too.”

Ted Cruz is defending his controversial statements on Muslims earlier in the day after facing backlash for saying “we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized”.

In a CNN phone call, Cruz compared targeting Muslim neighborhoods to fighting gangs:

It’s doing what law enforcement does in any circumstance. If you have a neighborhood where there is a high level of gang activity, the way to prevent it is you increase the law enforcement presence there and you target the gang members to get them off the street ... I’m talking about any area where there’s a higher incidence of radical Islamic terrorism.

Cruz also compared his proposal to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s highly controversial surveillance of Muslims via the New York police department:

Ohio governor John Kasich, meanwhile, cautioned against monitoring Muslim Americans, telling reporters in Minneapolis:

We are not at war with Islam; we’re at war with radical Islam ... In our country, we don’t want to create divisions where we say, ‘O.K., well your religion, you’re a Muslim, so therefore we’re going to keep an eye on you.’

Bernie Sanders made an unplanned stop at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff on Tuesday, catching up with students who were playing with puppies to destress during midterms:

In the lead up to the Utah caucus tonight, Bernie Sanders is highlighting polls showing that he could beat Donald Trump by wide margins in this state that has not gone blue for half a century.

The Guardian talked to some conservative Mormons voters who illustrated why Trump could actually lose to a progressive candidate in a state like Utah.

Cameron Moon, 26, said he plans to support Ted Cruz, but if it came down to Trump v Sanders in November, he would have to consider writing in another candidate – or possibly choosing the Democrat:

Here’s why I would vote for Bernie over Trump in a hypothetical situation. Bernie at least has respect for other human beings. I feel like if I voted for Bernie, it would be because I was relying on Congress to contain him and to do their duty and to prevent the kind of legislation from getting passed that he wants to get passed.

He at least wouldn’t embarrass us or damage our international relations. He would at least be a leader that other countries would respect. If Bernie ever were to get elected, Congress would become the most conservative, most Republican-controlled Congress in decades ... So maybe I would vote for Bernie, I don’t know.

Cameron Moon
Cameron Moon Photograph: Sam Levin for the Guardian

Jake Lee, a 25-year-old Ted Cruz supporter, said Trump v Sanders would be an impossible choice for him:

We have this very strong idea in the [Mormon] church that we’re all representing and supposed to exemplify Jesus Christ ... As missionaries, we have this super cookie-cutter suit and tie and the plaque that says ‘representative of the church of Jesus Christ.’ That’s kind of what I feel like I’m supposed to be doing on this earth ... and I don’t feel like God would be pleased with me if I supported somebody like Donald Trump.”

Jake Lee
Jake Lee Photograph: Sam Levin for the Guardian

Updated

Republican candidates on Brussels attacks

Listen to Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Donald Trump respond to the deadly Brussels attacks on the day of key elections in Utah and Arizona.

“Mormons for Hillary” may not be a huge group in Utah, but some Democratic members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are ramping up support for the former secretary of state in advance of the Tuesday night caucus.

Miriam Hyde, a 61-year-old Mormon for Hillary Clinton in Salt Lake City, said “there’s not a lot of us”, but that there are more closet Democrats within the Mormon church than people may realize.

“People would quietly come up to me and say, ‘I can’t say this, but I’m a democrat, too,’” she said. “I’ve been able to kind of loosen them up and say okay, make sure you come to the caucus.” But she admitted that many in the church are still “scared of democrats” and “they think Hillary is really scary”.

Hyde said she tries to persuade her Mormon friends by pointing to Clinton’s experience and reminding them of the sexism the candidate has faced. “Her ideas are certainly progressive, but certainly nowhere near Bernie Sanders, but she knows how the government works. She’s been in it for years and years.”

“Most democrats here tend to be pretty moderate,” she added. “Hillary is strong enough to stand up and get these things done in a rational way.”

Hyde also reminds Mormon voters that Clinton is a religious woman with family values: “She believes in god. She prays. I say that she’s not a heathen ... And she stayed with her husband during the most trying of times. She kept the family together.”

This looks like... entertainment:

Here’s the top of the People story:

Move over, Judge Judy. There’s a new TV courtroom judge coming to town – and it’s none other than former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The onetime vice presidential candidate has been tapped to preside over a new reality court show that would premiere next year. She signed a deal in February with Montana-based production company Warm Springs, a source close to the process tells PEOPLE.

Read the full piece here.

Update: Sounds like it’s not necessarily coming to a screen near you... yet:

Updated

Three Mormon missionaries among Brussels injured

Three Utahns serving as missionaries for the Mormon church were injured in the attacks in the Brussels, Belgium airport, according to Utah Governor Gary Herbert.

“It is not uncommon for innocent victims to be targeted in these terrorist attacks, but seldom do we see people of faith who have forsaken everything—family, friends, school and careers—in order to share a message of hope and love with the world also fall victim,” Herbert said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Utahns injured are 66-year-old Richard Norby, 20-year-old Joseph Empey and 19-year-old Mason Wells, according to the Associated Press.

“To the Norby, Empey and Wells family, please know that the state of Utah is united in prayer at this time for the health and well being of your missionaries. As Utahns, we stand together with our fellow Americans and those around the world in our resolve to put an end to these acts of terror,” Herbert said.

Mormon voters reject Trump immigration, religious views

The attacks came just before the Tuesday GOP caucus in Utah where immigration has become a particularly hot-button issue. Many Republican Mormon voters, even those with very conservative views on immigration and counter-terrorism efforts, oppose Donald Trump in part due to his outlandish proposals like banning all Muslims.

Political experts say that Mormon voters value religious freedom, and the church last year even issued a statement indirectly condemning Trump’s proposed Muslim ban, citing a quote from Mormon founder Joseph Smith on respecting other religions.

Because so many Mormons serve as missionaries overseas or have family members abroad, they tend to be less inclined to support extreme anti-immigration policies.

This is one of the reasons why Mormon voters could turn Utah blue in November if Trump is the GOP nominee, as the Guardian reported in an an analysis of the Utah Republican caucus.

This content is cross-posted with our live blog coverage of the Brussels attacks

Updated

Barack Obama and family are in Havana at an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team.

The president did the wave:

Let’s get awkward: how bad was Obama’s ‘handshake’ with Castro?

The moment where politicians risk a hand towards a mutual greeting will always be fraught. Each second is loaded with micro-decisions, like a high-stakes game of rock, paper, scissors. Who is going for what? With handshakes, there is always a winner.

Here are five of the most awkward greetings between leaders in the history of politics:

Clinton: Trump's 'stream of insults' 'absurd'

Hillary Clinton just popped up for an interview on CNN, to be asked about Donald Trump accusing her at a candidates’ forum last night of lacking the “stamina” and “strength” needed for the presidency.

Did she wish to reply?

“No, I really don’t,” Clinton said:

I don’t want to respond to his constant stream of insults. I find it really, at this point, absurd.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s not worried that Donald Trump will cost Republicans control of the chamber in November’s election, the Associated Press reports:

With Trump leading the race for the GOP presidential nomination, some in the party worry that his unbridled comments about women, Hispanics and others will cost Republican candidates in swing House districts.

Ryan says he’s not concerned because House Republicans are crafting an agenda to put the country on the right track. The Wisconsin Republican said Tuesday “We are in control of our own actions.”

Ryan, who was Mitt Romney’s 2012 running mate, has shushed talk of his swooping in at the national convention to claim the Republican presidential nomination. But he just announced a speech on the “state of American politics”, open to media and interns only:

Updated

Barletta, endorsing Trump: 'voters are smart'

Pennsylvania congressman Lou Barletta, who as a city mayor spearheaded nationally controversial efforts targeting undocumented migrants, has endorsed Donald Trump for president.

“Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has proven that he is the leader our country needs to change the way Washington does business, and I am proud to give my full endorsement and support to his candidacy,” Barletta said in a statement.

As I have said before, I am discouraged that certain members of the Republican Party have spent more time trying to figure out how to stop Donald Trump than they have trying to understand why he is so popular in the first place. Voters are smart. We need to listen to the voters instead of elitists trying to tell us right from wrong. In state after state, voters have made it clear that they want change and are tired of the way things are being done in Washington. I think Donald Trump is the best person to bring the change that Americans are demanding.”

Barletta in 2007, when he was mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and Hispanic groups sued to overturn a city law targeting landlords renting to undocumented migrants and employers of undocumented migrants.
Barletta in 2007, when he was mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and Hispanic groups sued to overturn a city law targeting landlords renting to undocumented migrants and employers of undocumented migrants. Photograph: Mark Moran/AP

(h/t: @bencjacobs)

Updated

Becca Schwartz, a self-described “Jewish ex-Mormon lesbian”, said that Utah’s LGBT voters and other progressives who have left the Mormon church are lining up behind Bernie Sanders, writes the Guardian’s Sam Levin in Salt Lake City:

“It comes down to equality in every realm – gender, color of your skin, sexual orientation, financial standing in life,” said Schwartz, who lives in Salt Lake City and has been rallying for Sanders with Autumn Hickman, her girlfriend of five years, in advance of the Tuesday caucuses.

“It’s time for every American to have a decent quality of life.”

Becca Schwartz, left, and Autumn Hickman.
Becca Schwartz, left, and Autumn Hickman. Photograph: Guardian

Schwartz, a 31-year-old health care manager, and Hickman, a 40-year-old airline supervisor, both were previously members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but they eventually came out of the closet and left the Mormon faith.

In Schwartz’s family, five of seven children all eventually came out as queer – and all left the church, she said. They’re big Sanders fans now. “Bernie Sanders can beat Donald Trump here,” she added, citing a recent poll showing that highly conservative Utah could select a Democratin November if Trump is the GOP nominee.

“This could be a historic year for Utah,” Schwartz said.

Hickman said it’s not hard to support Sanders given the current pool of candidates: “He’s the only responsible adult in the room.”

Cruz: 'patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods'

In a new statement on the Brussels attacks, Republican hopeful Ted Cruz has called for a law enforcement focus on “Muslim neighborhoods”.

“We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized, Cruz said in a statement posted to Facebook.

“We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” Cruz said:

We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.

We need to secure the southern border to prevent terrorist infiltration.

And we need to execute a coherent campaign to utterly destroy ISIS.

The days of the United States voluntarily surrendering to the enemy to show how progressive and enlightened we can be are at an end. Our country is at stake.

Read the full statement here.

The Arizona Republicans are voting in a winner-take-all primary, with the prize being 58 delegates.

Here’s our delegate tracker for the Republican side:

repbulicans

Utah Republicans will caucus with 40 delegates at stake, to be shared out proportionally unless any one candidate claims more than 50% of the vote, in which case he wins all 40. Could Cruz cross the wire? Mitt Romney at the weekend warned Utahns that a vote for Kasich was a vote for Trump. And Cruz’s ground game is strong in both states. There’s not much polling in Utah, but Cruz appears to be far in the lead.

Arpaio: Trump reminds me of me

As Arizona votes, the controversial sheriff of Maricopa county, Joe Arpaio, has spoken at length with Guardian US west coast bureau chief Paul Lewis.

“Arizonans searching for a glimpse of what a Trump administration would be like could do worse than reflect on the 23-year reign of the Maricopa County sheriff,” writes Paul:

Arpaio, who has been found to have systematically racially profiled Latinos, runs a notorious jail in which inmates are housed in tents – a facility that even he has joked is comparable to a concentration camp.

He once launched an investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate, which he still maintains is a forgery. Trump, who once offered $50m to see the same birth certificate, has avoided questions on the issue since launching his campaign for the White House.

During an eve-of-election interview with the Guardian that lasted close to two hours, Arpaio, 83, reflected on how he had been thrust to the centre of both the Republican and Democratic races, and toyed for the first time with the possibility of a role in a Trump administration.

‘This guy is different.’

He likes the sheriff. ... This guy is different. I don’t have an ego because I got a guy that might become the president that likes the sheriff. They all like me until they get elected. But he’s different.

Clinton draws a tacit distinction between herself and Trump, especially, in their views on responding to terrorism:

Sanders: this 'barbarism cannot be allowed'

Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders has issued a statement on the Brussels attacks. Here it is in full:

We offer our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this barbaric attack and to the people of Brussels who were the target of another cowardly attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. We stand with our European allies to offer any necessary assistance in these difficult times.

Today’s attack is a brutal reminder that the international community must come together to destroy ISIS. This type of barbarism cannot be allowed to continue.”

Trump asserts that his take on terrorism – how would you summarize it? “Threats exist so close the borders and ‘bomb the shit out of ’em’”? – has proven “far more correct” than anybody’s:

Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford dies

Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who succumbed to a scandal surrounding his use of crack cocaine but remained in politics, has died after fighting cancer, the Associated Press reports.

Ford had been in the hospital since late February. His chief of staff said last week that doctors were working on building his strength to be able to resume chemotherapy. In October 2015, doctors discovered two cancerous growths on his bladder. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.

Ford speaks to supporters after being elected as a councillor in the municipal election in Toronto in October 2014.
Ford speaks to supporters after being elected as a councillor in the municipal election in Toronto in October 2014. Photograph: Fred Thornhill/Reuters

Brussels attacks: candidates respond

The first responses of the four US presidential candidates to the attacks in Brussels included expressions of solidarity, vows to defeat “radical Islamic terrorism”, criticism of Barack Obama, calls for and against torture and calls for and against closed borders.

Here’s a roundup of the presidential candidates’ initial responses to the Brussels attacks ( senator Bernie Sanders has not yet released a statement Update: Sanders has issued a statement here):

Updated

Aipac president distances group from Trump remarks

The president of Aipac, the pro-Israel lobby, has taken the conference stage Tuesday morning and said that an exuberant reception by the crowd Monday night for a Donald Trump attack on Barack Obama was not appropriate and that the applause was not representative of what the group agrees with or condones.

Aipac president Lillian Pinkus said the group takes “great offense” to Trump’s comments, JNS reports.

“With President Obama in his final year - YAY!” Trump said, to perhaps the most sustained applause of this evening’s session. “He may be the worst thing to ever happen to Israel, believe me. And you know it better than anyone.”

Pinkus with the vice president at Aipac Sunday.
Pinkus with the vice president at Aipac Sunday. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Media

“While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the president of the United States and our president, Barack Obama,” Pinkus said.

“There are people in our AIPAC family who were deeply hurt last night,” she said. She regretted that “so many applauded a sentiment that we neither agree with or condone.”

Updated

Democracy Now! host: media 'manufactures consent' on Trump

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman has called out the TV media for ignoring a large Bernie Sanders rally in Phoenix last Tuesday night, and instead engaging in a holding pattern in advance of a Donald Trump victory speech. “But it’s not only the networks,” she says, recalling a string of anti-Sanders pieces in the Washington Post.

“The media manufactures consent, as Noam Chomsky says,” Goodman tells host Brian Stelter. “This exposure for Trump is very frightening. Yes, there is now some critical coverage, but for the year 2015, as the snowball rolled and got larger and larger, he got 23 times the coverage of Bernie Sanders.”

Updated

In Havana, Obama remembers to mention that two leading 2016 presidential candidates (Marco Rubio won a state, he qualifies as leading) were/are Cuban-American.

Those two candidates, Rubio and Ted Cruz, also happen to be two of the most prominent critics of the Cuban regime on the American landscape. Raúl Castro is in the Gran Teatro audience.

Obama held out the presidential race as a great example of American diversity and individual mobility: “You have two Cuban Americans running against the legacy of an African American president.”

Updated

Obama: 'the world must unite'

Obama is delivering his speech at the Gran Teatro in Havana. “I want to comment on the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels,” he says.

The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium and we stand in solidarity with them.

Obama at the Gran Teatro.
Obama at the Gran Teatro. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

“We will do whatever is necessary to support our friends and ally Belgium in bringing to justice,” he adds.

The world must unite. We must be together, regardless of nationality, or race or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism. We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people around the world.”

The White House simultaneously released a description of a call between Obama and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel:

President Obama spoke today by phone with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel to offer his condolences on behalf of the American people following today’s horrific terrorist attacks in Brussels. The President reaffirmed the steadfast support of the United States for Belgium, and offered any assistance necessary in investigating these attacks and bringing those responsible to justice. The President reiterated that the United States stands together with the people of Belgium, as well as NATO and the European Union, and once again pledged the full cooperation and support of the United States in our shared commitment to defeat the scourge of terrorism.

Our live blog coverage of Obama’s trip to Cuba is here:

Updated

Here’s video of NBC hosts talking with Donald Trump on the phone about the Brussels attacks. Brussels is “a total mess” because of unregulated borders, in Trump’s assessment:

Bill Clinton decries 'awful legacy of last eight years'

Former president Bill Clinton went off-message in a speech in Spokane, Washington, Monday evening, including in his stump pitch on behalf of his wife a dim assessment of the presidency of Barack Obama, whose legacy Hillary Clinton has eagerly embraced in the primary season.

A pro-GOP political group offered the footage to YouTube:

Bill Clinton said:

If you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that when we were practicing trickle-down economics, then you should vote for her because she’s the only person who basically had good ideas, will tell you how she’s going to pay for them.

A spokesperson for Bill Clinton said the former president was referring to Republican congressional obstructionism:

Republicans seized on the former president’s comments as all that needed to be said about the administration in which his wife served as a cabinet secretary. Hillary Clinton rival Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, defended Obama’s record:

The Hillary Clinton camp – with visible exertion? – used the moment to turn on Sanders:

Updated

Clinton: people 'will not be intimidated by these vicious killers'

Hillary Clinton has released a statement on the Brussels attacks. Here it is in full:

Terrorists have once again struck at the heart of Europe, but their campaign of hate and fear will not succeed. The people of Brussels, of Europe, and of the world will not be intimidated by these vicious killers. Today Americans stand in solidarity with our European allies. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and wounded, and all the people of Belgium. These terrorists seek to undermine the democratic values that are the foundation of our alliance and our way of life, but they will never succeed. Today’s attacks will only strengthen our resolve to stand together as allies and defeat terrorism and radical jihadism around the world.

Clinton at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Monday.
Clinton at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Monday. Photograph: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Updated

Obama to speak on Brussels

President Barack Obama plans to address the Brussels attacks in a scheduled address in Havana due to start in about 20 minutes.

We’ll bring you the main points in this blog. If you’d like to follow the speech more closely, our live blog coverage of Obama’s trip to Cuba is here.

Update: here’s a live video stream:

Updated

Video highlights – Monday night candidates’ forum:

During a CNN forum on Monday night, Donald Trump said he would not rule out havingTed Cruz as his vice-president. ‘Crazier things happen in politics,’ Trump told CNN presenter Wolf Blitzer. All five candidates from both parties appeared separately on the show, with Trump, Cruz and Hillary Clinton all trading blows.

Cruz: 'when I am president' 'we will name our enemy'

Texas senator Ted Cruz has released a statement on the Brussels attacks:

Our hearts break for the men and women of Brussels this morning. Make no mistake – these terror attacks are no isolated incidents. They are just the latest in a string of coordinated attacks by radical Islamic terrorists perpetrated by those who are waging war against all who do not accept their extreme strain of Islam.

Cruz at the Aipac conference Monday.
Cruz at the Aipac conference Monday. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Radical Islam is at war with us. For over seven years we have had a president who refuses to acknowledge this reality. And the truth is, we can never hope to defeat this evil so long as we refuse to even name it. That ends on January 20, 2017, when I am sworn in as president. We will name our enemy – radical Islamic terrorism. And we will defeat it.

Donald Trump was the first presidential hopeful to respond to the Brussels attacks, tweeting and then appearing on multiple television shows to promote an anti-immigration policy and endorse torture.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

“We have to be very careful in the US, we have to be very vigilant as to who we let in this country,” Trump told Fox & Friends.

Trump said if he was president, his strict immigration policies would already have been in a place. If he was in a position to respond to the Brussels attacks, he said, he would give US citizens a “pep talk”.

He also endorsed the use of torture for people who have information on terrorists.

“If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding,” Trump told the Today Show. “You have to get the information from people.”

He told Fox these attacks are “not our fault”, but rather the fault of immigrant communities that do not inform authorities about neighbors’ suspicious behavior.

Trump also tied the Brussels attacks to the mass shooting in San Bernardino, which was carried out by married couple Syed Rizwan Farook, a US citizen, and Tashfeen Malik, who entered the US on a K-1 visa.

“Everyone knew what was going on and nobody reported them,” Trump told Fox.

Under a Trump presidency, he said, the US would be very vigilant and very strong.

“In my opinion, this is just the beginning,” he said. “It will get worse and worse.”

Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Our live blog coverage of fatal explosions at an airport and in a subway in Brussels, Belgium, in which dozens have died, is here.

“Terrorists struck Brussels but it was Europe that was targeted,” said French president François Hollande.

Among the presidential candidates, Donald Trump responded to the attacks first, calling into Fox News to say “I’d close up our borders” and writing on Twitter:

Ohio governor John Kasich released a statement:

Today is primary and caucuses day for both parties in Arizona and Utah, and Democrats are participating in caucuses in Idaho. Ted Cruz is the frontrunner in Utah, where a high proportion of Mormon voters appears to have rejected Trump, while Trump seems ahead in the border state of Arizona, where his anti-immigrant message has found traction. Here’s Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi’s cheat sheet for those contests:

The Washington Post, meanwhile, has published the transcript of a meeting between Trump and the paper’s editorial board. Here is a snippet:

Washington Post: If you could substantially reduce the risk of harm to [American] ground troops, would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out Isis?

Trump: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent $18m worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting …

Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton attacked Trump at a forum Monday night in which the five candidates appeared in succession, accusing him of “bigotry and bluster and bullying” and inciting violence at his campaign rallies. In return, Trump said Clinton lacked the “stamina” and “strength” needed for the presidency.

We have a lot more to cover today. Here are the states of the races:

Republicans
Democrats

Updated

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