Good evening from New York City, where we’re wrapping up the first installment of the Guardian’s 2016 campaign liveblog. For the next 238 days, we’ll keep bringing you minute-by-minute coverage of the campaign trail, from the cornfields of Iowa to the convention halls of Cleveland. Hopefully, not every day will be as eventful as this one.
Tuesday shivered with antici... pation as rumors flew of a “yuge” endorsement for billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump at an event in Ames, Iowa. Rumors of a cold wind blowing in from the barren north proved accurate once news broke that Sarah Palin, half-term governor of Alaska turned conservative commentator and reality-TV queen, would endorse Trump’s candidacy for the Republican nomination.
In the rambling speech - Palin eschewed the use of a teleprompters the effete affectation of a decadent “weak-kneed, capitulator-in-chief” - the former vice presidential candidate declared that she was endorsing Trump “because, like you, I know that it is now or never. I’m in it to win it because we believe in America, and we love our freedom.”
In non-#TrumPalin news, Hillary Clinton benefitted from the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, the advocacy group of choice for your gay friends who want equal rights but don’t want to seem too gay. But on the heels of the endorsement - shadily dubbed “an endorsement that cannot possibly be based on the facts and the record” by the Sanders campaign - came the news that the newest CNN/WMUR poll in New Hampshire shows senator Bernie Sanders leading in the state by a Clintonian margin of 27 points.
Best tweet of the day goes to the Guardian’s Lucia Graves, who captured one of the more conspicuous absurdities in an already absurd day:
Trump says we're in times medieval times because Christians heads are being chopped off overseas. This is a speech about ethanol...
— Lucia Graves (@lucia_graves) January 19, 2016
Now, to rewatch streaming video of the riveting tale of an earnest Alaska governor, plucked from relative obscurity to lend fire, heat and heart to the presidential campaign of an older man in desperate need of a game change.
No, we’re not watching Palin’s endorsement speech again - we’re watching Game Change on Amazon Prime.
That’s it for fear and laughing on the campaign trail today - tune in tomorrow, all day, every day, as our team of reporters file from around the country, trailing the clown car so you don’t have to.
Dr. Ben Carson has temporarily suspended his presidential campaign following the death of a 25-year-old volunteer.
Rest In Peace Braden Joplin. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. pic.twitter.com/p87TCnD44p
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 20, 2016
Braden Joplin was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where the volunteer had been airlifted following a van crash on an icy interstate in western Iowa.
In a statement released by the Carson campaign, the candidate called meeting volunteers like Joplin “one of the precious few joys of campaigning.”
“America lost one of those bright young men today,” Carson continued. “I had the privilege of knowing Braden Joplin personally, and am filled with a deep and profound sadness at his passing. While we mourn this profound loss, I am thankful that our other campaign colleagues, Drew McCall, Aaron Ohnemus and Ryan Patrick Shellooe, have all been treated and released from the hospital.
“A presidential candidate asks a lot of his or her volunteers, working long hours in the cold, under-appreciated. They are the unsung heroes of the political process. The outpouring of support for Braden and his family from fellow candidates, as well as their staffs and volunteers, demonstrates that life will always transcend politics, and I thank them for their kind words. Please continue to keep Braden’s family and friends in your prayers as they struggle through this difficult time.”
Rivals of the presidential candidate also expressed their condolences.
“Young volunteers like Braden Joplin are the heart and soul of the democratic process,” Bernie Sanders stated. “Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”
Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer the @RealBenCarson staffers injured in a car accident in Iowa. By His stripes, we are healed. Is. 53:5.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 19, 2016
Just heard about the serious car accident involving @RealBenCarson staff and volunteers. Please join me in praying for them.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 19, 2016
Praying for the family of the young Ben Carson volunteer, Braden Joplin, who was killed in a tragic car crash in IA. A life taken too soon.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) January 20, 2016
Updated
Because Palin’s “word salad” was rather lyrical, actually, here is some instant analysis in the form of poetry. Allow Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier to take you gently into the night:
’Twas two weeks before Iowa and all ’cross the state, the Trump’ters were shrieking, all drawn there by fate. The bunting was hung o’er the stage with care in hopes Sarah Palin soon would be there. Then what to our wond’ring eyes did appear, than a bright poof of red hair to some loud bursts of cheer. He was joined by a woman so bedazzled and thin that I knew in a flash: it must be Palin.
Sorry, readers: between “we’re not going to chill, we’re going to drill, baby, drill” and all of the rest of the many, many rhymes that Governor Palin threw in her lengthy remarks announcing her endorsement of Donald Trump, I might never stop the rhymes in time.
Her new speechwriters – Palin’s rhetorical style has more often been compared to “word salad” than Dr Seuss – were clearly swinging for the fences in the Ames as though it was Palin’s personal Field of Dreams. But they were also clearly loath to abandon her most infamous catch-phrases and circa-2008 anti-Obama talking points.
Besides “drill, baby, drill”, there were references to teleprompters, apologies, organizing in Chicago, how much the media hates her and, in a nod 2012, “he built that”. (She did try to coin “The ABCs: Anybody but Clinton” but every other bad punster beat her to that.)
For his part, Trump looked clearly pained throughout Palin’s spotlight-hogging, fast-talking, quip-filled turn on his stage. Perhaps it was just indigestion but, then again, Trump’s not one for a scene-stealing supporting cast member – be it on The Apprentice or on his political stages.
He might keep her around for the cameras, but one suspects Trump might limit Palin to walk-on roles in the future.
Updated
In non-Sarah Palin news, Bernie Sanders’ campaign has reacted to news that the Human Rights Campaign endorsed former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in her quest for the Democratic nomination. Befitting the intended audience, the campaign’s reaction was suitably shady.
“It’s understandable and consistent with the establishment organizations voting for the establishment candidate,” Sanders campaign spokesperson Michael Briggs told the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson, “but it’s an endorsement that cannot possibly be based on the facts and the record.”
Considering Clinton’s impressive 24-point LGBT policy pledge and her status as the “establishment candidate” in the Democratic primary - the Human Rights Campaign isn’t exactly famous for bucking the status quo - the endorsement wasn’t a surprise to anyone familiar with the organization, but that didn’t keep Sanders’ campaign from heaping on the shade.
“Who knows what prompted the Human Rights Campaign to do what it does - I have trouble myself figuring why they do some of the things they do over the years - but I think the gay men and lesbians all over the country will know who has been their champion for a long, long time and will consider that as they make up their mind on support for his campaign,” Briggs said.
Summary: Sarah Palin has spoken - and it was something.
Yes, the Palin has spoken.
In a brisk, occasionally disorganized speech that eschewed the use of teleprompters favored by certain White House occupants, the former half-term governor of Alaska and one-time vice presidential nominee declared that billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump should – and would – be the next president of the United States.
“Are you ready to make America great again?!” Palin asked the rambunctious crowd in Ames, Iowa. “Are you ready to stump for Trump? I’m here to support the next president of the United States: Donald Trump.”
Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump for Republican presidential nomination https://t.co/3uow9YBjA6 pic.twitter.com/yH1wn1h8hj
— The Guardian (@guardian) January 19, 2016
Palin, a huge figurehead in the American conservative movement, described Trump as a devoted conservative, a family man, and a staunch defender of American military.
“No more pussyfootin’ around!” she declared. “Our troops deserve the best! You deserve the best!”
Citing the support of “teachers and teamsters,” “cops and cooks,” “rock ‘n’ rollers and holy rollers,” Palin said that despite the presence in the race of “some friends who are running” - that would be Texas senator Ted Cruz, whose rise to the US senate was helped in large part by Palin’s endorsement in 2012 - “I am here because I, like you, know that it is now or never. I am in it to win it because I believe in America.”
Palin mocked the notion that Trump isn’t conservative enough to win the support of Republican voters, at one point calling out the Republican party establishment for being composed of hypocrites and “sell-outs.”
“He’s been going rogue left and right,” Palin said of Trump. “That’s why he’s doing so well! He’s been able to tear the veil off of this idea of the system.“
At one point, Palin winkingly acknowledging the assembled reporters in the back of the room, whose heads, she observed with a twirl of her index finger, were spinning. “Heads are spinnin’! Media heads are spinnin’!” she said with delight.
“This is gonna be. So. Much. Fun.”
Updated
“Yes, Barack, he built that, and that says a lot!”
Sarah Palin, in decrying criticism of Donald Trump as insufficiently conservative, has declared that some politicians are “wearing political correctness kind of like a suicide vest.”
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs’ verdict on Sarah Palin’s endorsement:
Sarah Palin makes Donald Trump sound like Cicero
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 20, 2016
Sarah Palin’s response to the increasingly loud allegations that Donald Trump isn’t conservative enough to win the Republican presidential nomination:
Oh my goodness gracious, what the heck would the establishment know about conservatism?”
Citing what she described as Republican capitulation on issues like gun control, Planned Parenthood and government spending, Palin railed against members of the “political establishment” for being hypocrites.
“Now they’re concerned about ideological purity?” Palin asked, exasperated. “Give me a break!”
Context-free highlights from Palin’s stumping:
- Trump “will never lie to the families of the fallen”;
- “weak-kneed, capitulator-in-chief” (Obama, not Trump);
- “no pussy-footin’ around”;
- “Can I get a Hallelujah?!”;
- “We’re not gonna chill - in fact, we’re gonna drill, baby, drill!”;
- “He’s a multi-billionaire - not that there’s anything wrong with that”;
- “KICK ISIS ASS”.
Updated
Sarah Palin, blindingly resplendent in an outfit assembled out of what appear to be high-caliber rifle shells, has vowed to help make Donald Trump the next president of the United States - a pairing that she delightedly pointed out is causing members of the press to go into fits of apoplexy.
“Heads are spinnin’! Media heads are spinnin’! This is gonna be. So. Much. Fun.”
“We all have a part in this!” she urged the assembled. “We all have a responsibility!” Citing the support of “teachers and teamsters,” “cops and cooks,” “rock ‘n’ rollers and holy rollers,” Palin said that even though she had been urged to support “some friends who are running” - that is, Ted Cruz - “I am here because I like you know that it is now or never I am in it to win it because I believe in America.”
Updated
Sarah Palin is onstage with Donald Trump!
“Thank you so much - it’s so great to be in Iowa!”
“Are you ready to make America great again?!”
"Media heads are spinnin'!" pic.twitter.com/CHYGJslnU1
— Matt Sullivan (@sullduggery) January 19, 2016
Updated
Donald Trump sums up his fans thusly:
They used to say ‘silent majority.’ I say it’s a noisy majority.”
What ever happened to Sarah Palin? Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves, who is currently in the room with Trump while we wait for the emergence of Palin, takes a look back at the reinvention of a political castaway:
Instead of thriving on the public mockery, as Trump has managed to do over the past several months, a curious thing happened: Palin faded into the background. McCain would attribute his loss to Obama, in no small part, to Palin. The next year, she announced she was stepping down as Alaska’s governor.
In the intervening years, Palin has lived on as more of a self-promoter-in-chief than anything. She penned a bestselling memoir. She worked briefly as a Fox News contributor. She signed up for a reality television show – twice.
Meanwhile, pundits have been writing and rewriting Palin’s political obituary, with every new act of self-reinvention. It’s something she and Trump have in common. And now, they have one more commonality to add to the list: they both want the Donald to become the Potus.
Read the full campaign sketch here:
Donald Trump, perhaps recalling French philospher Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin’s line about the political leader who must follow his acolytes, joined the crowd in Ames, Iowa, in an aloof “U-S-A!” chant as protestors were removed from the venue.
Protesters start shouting a vote for Trump is a vote for hate.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 19, 2016
The “U-S-A!” chant, along with rhythmic chanting of Trump’s last name, has become something of a code for event security that non-Trump supporters have infiltrated his political rallies. The use of the chants became insanely controversial (naturally) following the ejection of a Muslim woman in a headscarf from a Trump rally in South Carolina who wasn’t actually protesting.
Updated
Donald Trump, noting that “hundreds of people are still outside” attempting to enter the rally - held in what he calls “a very nice barn” - begins his rally in Ames by paying respects to Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign, who temporarily suspended his campaign after staffers for the Carson campaign were injured in a car accident earlier in the days.
But before long, Trump was back on his favorite topic: the huge (“yuge”) crowd.
“This is like the Academy Awards!”
Updated
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, on the scene in Ames, Iowa, reports that Aissa Wayne, daughter of country film star John Wayne, made a huge (yuge?) misstep while warming up the crowd before the expected appearance of Donald Trump and half-term governor Sarah Palin:
Aissa Wayne committed a major #gaffe while opening for Trump and Palin. The rally is taking place in Ames on the campus of Iowa State University, whose sports teams ares the Cyclones. At the end of her remarks, she told the crowd “go Hawkeyes!” The Hawkeyes is the name of the sports team of Iowa State’s arch rival, the University of Iowa.
Both schools earnestly compete to be the number-two institution of higher education in Iowa behind Grinnell College, an elite liberal arts college located in Grinnell, Iowa.
Just onstage at the Trump event in Ames, Iowa: Aissa Wayne - daughter of country film icon John Wayne - who was introduced by Dr. Sam Clovis. Why does she love Donald Trump? “He’s a strong leader, like John Wayne,” and “he’s gonna put everything back in the peoples’ hands.”
“Anybody here like John Wayne movies?” she asked the crowd, before declaring that her father, a noted draft dodger, “ dad loved America, and he loved and revered liberty.”
He also was a fan of immigration - to an extent.
Fun fact: Both John Wayne and Donald Trump had three wives. All three of Wayne's wives were Hispanic immigrants.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 19, 2016
Updated
“And almost as gaudy.”
“Palin’s brand among evangelicals is as gold as the faucets in Trump tower,” said Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2016
Priorities USA Action, the million-dollar Super Pac that supports Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, has released an, erm, succinct statement regarding Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump:
Updated
Bernie Sanders’ campaign has hit back against foreign policy experts who attacked his foreign policy agenda earlier today, the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reports. The analysts, who are backing former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, called Sanders’ strategy to combat Isis and normalize relations with Iran “puzzling” and “troubling”:
While conceding that Bernie Sanders has less foreign policy experience than Hillary Clinton, the Vermont senator’s campaign hit back against the assertion that his strategy on Isis and Iran is ill-advised, calling his judgement on important international issues “far superior”.
Sanders’s spokesman, Michael Briggs, pointed to Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq as exhibit A.
“Secretary Clinton voted for that war – one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of our country and a war which resulted in the kind of chaos and instability which allowed for the rise of ISIS,” Briggs said in a statement. “Senator Sanders not only voted against the war but helped lead the opposition to the war. Many of the concerns he raised in 2002 turned out, unfortunately, to be true.”
The remarks were in response to a letter published on Tuesday by 10 former senior US diplomats and national security officials who are supporting the former secretary of state that questioned Sanders’s grasp on foreign policy, citing his recent comments on normalizing relations with Iran.
During the debate on Sunday, Sanders was asked whether he would support the reopening of an embassy in Tehran and the restoring of normal diplomatic relations between the countries, which severed ties in 1979.
“I think what we have got to do is move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran, understanding that Iran’s behavior in so many ways in something that we disagree with,” Sanders replied.
He said he didn’t foresee opening an embassy in Tehran anytime soon, but compared the situation with Cuba, which has in the past year normalized relations with the US.
“I think the goal has got to be as we have done with Cuba to move in warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this world,” Sanders said.
In the letter, the diplomats cast Sanders’s view as a departure from the president’s foreign policy approach with Iran.
Briggs said a president SAnders would “do all that he could to destroy the barbaric Islamic State terrorist group” while continuing to work with Muslim allies to build a strong coalition against the organization. He has also pledged to do “everything he can” to keep the US from being drawn into another ground war in the Middle East.
Briggs added: “As president, Sanders also will work to prioritize military spending to make sure we are no longer fighting the Cold War but focus our resources and priorities in fighting today’s challenges, including international terrorism.”
Snap analysis: does Palin do anything for Trump?
From Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier:
There’s almost certainly a joke in the sad reality that Sarah Palin will officially jump onboard the Trump Make-America-Great-Again Express in the town of Ames, Iowa. Ames, you see, is home to the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service National Animal Disease Center (where the most recent “Past Event” listed on the website is “Year one of porcine epidemic diarrhea, what we learned”), but I think I’d rather quit this paragraph before I’m done.
Anyway: the real question isn’t over why Donald Trump is, uh, trumpeting his coveted Palin endorsement – they clearly speak the same language of bombast and Big Gulp to an audience hungry for big government jibes along with their ethanol subsidies (though Palin was opposed).
The question isn’t even: is this a liberal’s ostensible nightmare scenario? (Because it kind of is, but we’re still talking about the former governor of Alaska here, and it’s not like she’s going to be his running mate, really. Plus: wouldn’t liberals kind of secretly LOVE it if Palin ran? Wouldn’t Hillary Clinton’s entire campaign team, which could take off the next 292 days?)
My first question, while we wait for this dynamic duo to take the stage at the top of the hour, is this: who does Palin bring in to Camp Trump that he doesn’t already have? Palin, even for many conservatives, represents show(wo)manship over substance – and she isn’t exactly respected on her policy merits.
Or at least, that would be the question if Donald Trump’s entire campaign weren’t geared around maximizing his own press coverage in order to bump up his poll numbers. (You’re reading this, aren’t you?)
Sarah Palin still drags the press (and especially the liberal press – guilty as charged) around by our collective noses. Where Trump and Palin go, so go the television cameras. And that’s reason enough to bring her along the campaign trail, if not appoint her Interior Secretary in the Trump administration’s first term.
Lost in the TrumPalin Mania: CNN just dropped a new poll of New Hampshire Democrats, and it spells a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad primary day for Hillary Clinton.
According to the poll, Bernie Sanders’ lead over Clinton in New Hampshire has ballooned to 27 points, 60% to 33%, a boost of ten points since the same poll found Sanders holding 50% to Clinton’s 40% in late-November/early December.
Conducted largely before Sunday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina - a debate many analysts called for Sanders - the poll finds that New Hampshire Democrats are becoming tougher to convince to switch sides. Fifty-two percent of New Hampshire Democrats say that they have “definitely” decided who they will support in the state’s primary, up from 36% in the prior poll. Among decided voters, Sanders’ lead broadens to nearly 30%, 64% over Clinton’s 35%.
Republican Super Pacs are delirious with excitement:
BREAKING: @BernieSanders Opens Up 27 Point Lead Over @HillaryClinton In New Hampshire https://t.co/T7i50IE9wd #fitn pic.twitter.com/OykvBXSm5P
— America Rising PAC (@AmericaRising) January 19, 2016
Updated
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, reporting from the cornfields of Iowa, points out a potential complication to Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump less than two weeks before the Hawkeye State primaries:
One of the key issues helping Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Iowa is his support for ethanol. Ted Cruz is fiercely opposed to the government mandating the amount of ethanol which should be mixed into gasoline, and has alienated powerful interests in the ethanol lobby as a result. Trump’s big endorser, however, agrees with Cruz on corn-based fuels.
In a 2011 interview, Palin said “I think that all of our energy subsidies need to be relooked at today and eliminated”. The former Alaska governor added, “We’ve got to allow the free market to dictate what’s most efficient and economical for our nation’s economy... at this time, our country can’t afford the subsidies. Before, though, we even start arguing about some of these domestic subsidies that need to be eliminated - should be - we need to look at ending subsidies and loans to foreign countries and their energy production that we’re relying on, like Brazil.”
It’s unlikely that Palin’s opposition to ethanol will cause issues for Trump in the Hawkeye State. After all, that is the least of the controversies surrounding the former reality television star. But it’s notable that her endorsement is coming within hours of Iowa’s longtime incumbent GOP governor bashing Cruz and urging his defeat because of the Texas senator’s opposition to ethanol.
An interesting line from Donald Trump’s press release regarding Sarah Palin’s “coveted” endorsement of his candidacy:
“Coveted.” “Influential.” “Sought after.”
Those are just a few of the superlatives that the Trump campaign has used to describe Sarah Palin’s endorsement of the real estate tycoon’s presidential bid in a just-dropped press release announcing her decision.
“Palin praised Trump’s leadership and unparalleled ability to speak the truth and produce real results,” the release states. “A trusted conservative, Palin has a proven record of being fiscally modest, staunchly pro-life and believes in small government that allows businesses to grow and freedom to prosper. Gov. Palin joined Mr. Trump in Ames on Tuesday, just two weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, to announce her endorsement of the GOP frontrunner.”
“I am greatly honored to receive Sarah’s endorsement,” Trump states in the release. “She is a friend, and a high quality person whom I have great respect for. I am proud to have her support.”
Sarah Palin may be “proud” to endorse Donald Trump for president, but she wasn’t always so sure that her endorsement was a good thing.
At press-only CNN function in Las Vegas on the eve of the fifth Republican presidential debate in December, Palin told CNN’s Jake Tapper that even though “it would be a nice problem to have” if the race came down to Trump and Texas senator Ted Cruz, both candidates would be smart to give her a wide berth.
"Are they seeking your endorsement?" "Not if they're smart." — @SarahPalinUSA
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) December 15, 2015
Trump has clearly ignored the former governor’s advice.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports from Iowa on Trump’s yuge endorsement:
Sarah Palin’s emergence at the junction of politics, celebrity and conservative populism prefigured the rise of Donald Trump. As John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008, Palin become a political superstar almost overnight. Her populist, folksy rhetoric made her beloved on the right while her lack of policy knowledge appalled many inside the Beltway.
After McCain’s loss, Palin, who famously went “rogue” by the end of the general election, soon resigned her position as governor and launched herself into media celebrity. She booked a well-paying gig as a Fox News pundit, wrote two bestselling books and starred in her own reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, on TLC.
Palin’s relationship with Trump goes back to 2011 when the two shared a slice of pizza at a Times Square pizzeria. Both were then publicly flirting with a presidential bid but neither Palin nor Trump eventually threw their hat in the ring.
Trump has since often praised Palin in public, and in July he suggested she would have a role in a potential Trump administration, telling an interviewer: “She really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person. She’s really a special person and I think people know that.”
Read Ben Jacobs’ full story on Palin’s announcement here:
Updated
Palin to endorse Trump
Sarah Palin will endorse Donald Trump for president, according to the New York Times, citing officials within the Trump campaign.
“I’m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,” Palin said in a statement provided to the Times by Trump’s campaign.
“I am greatly honored to receive Sarah’s endorsement,” Trump said in a statement. “She is a friend, and a high-quality person whom I have great respect for. I am proud to have her support.”
With less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the endorsement comes as a much-needed injection of conservative bona fides as Trump faces increased heat from senator Ted Cruz over his perceived lack of dedication to conservative policy.
Here’s some instant analysis from Ben Jacobs on the trail ...
... but stay tuned as the internet explodes and we follow Trump’s next appearance in Iowa.
Updated
Will former half-term governor Sarah Palin endorse Donald Trump’s presidential bid tonight?
The Donald won’t say, but the information blackout regarding Trump’s mysterious “very special guest” in Ames, Iowa, has some liberal journalists, bloggers and worrywarts terrified of a different announcement entirely: Trump’s selection of Palin as his running mate.
The Left-Wing Freakout Machine has already kicked into gear at the specter of Palin’s second vice-presidential candidacy:
Oh god what if Donald Trump makes Sarah Palin his running mate? https://t.co/TmJg0coXz5 pic.twitter.com/sOCzXQvq0H
— deathandtaxes (@DeathAndTaxes) January 19, 2016
Donald Trump is about to team up with America's worst nightmare https://t.co/lxX6uOpbWs pic.twitter.com/shyZx81Oi2
— UPROXX (@UPROXX) January 19, 2016
(August 2015) Could Trump be preparing to name Sarah Palin as running mate? https://t.co/5c3LHMjlY2 via @MailOnline
— Michael Wiley (@MinneMike) January 19, 2016
If - and this is an enormous “if” - Trump were to announce Palin as his running mate, it would be the first time that a candidate who had not secured the nomination declared his vice presidential pick in four decades. Prior to the 1976 Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan announced that Pennsylvania senator Richard Schweiker would be his running mate if he secured the Republican nomination. The move backfired, with Schweiker’s relatively liberal voting record alienating conservative delegates who had been leaning in Reagan’s direction, eventually holstering the nomination of Gerald Ford.
Updated
The Guardian’s Lucia Graves is at the Trump ethanol event (as is Ben Jacobs). The candidate appears to have strayed off-topic...
Trump says we're in times medieval times because Christians heads are being chopped off overseas. This is a speech about ethanol...
— Lucia Graves (@lucia_graves) January 19, 2016
Trump tells ethanol folks he's self-funding, that he won't be swayed by contributions, that he supports ethanol because "it's right."
— Lucia Graves (@lucia_graves) January 19, 2016
Mostly though, Trump's talking about winning: "If I don't win I'm not going to be so excited. I'm going to be the opposite of excited."
— Lucia Graves (@lucia_graves) January 19, 2016
Trump: "We're in medieval times."
— Philip Bump (@pbump) January 19, 2016
Actually, we are in a casino hotel ballroom but whatevs https://t.co/J1cJBMoakm
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 19, 2016
Updated
Clinton camp attacks Sanders' 'troubling' foreign policy views
A handful of foreign policy experts who are backing Hillary Clinton have attacked Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’s foreign policy agenda, calling his strategy to combat Isis and normalize relations with Iran “puzzling” and “troubling,” reports the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
The charges were leveled in a letter released on Tuesday and signed by ten former senior US diplomats and national security officials who are supporting the former secretary of state.
“The stakes are high,” they warn in the letter. “And we are concerned that Senator Sanders has not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences for our security.”
The letter pointed to Sanders’s call during the Democratic debate to “move aggressively” to normalize relations with Iran following recent developments in the nuclear deal. The letter-writers also criticized an earlier remark by the senator that Iran should forge a military coalition with Saudi Arabia – “two intense adversaries” – and send more troops to Syria.
Sanders’ “out-of-step” policy toward Iran could be reflective of his policies toward “Russia, China, our allies, nuclear proliferation, and so much else,” the letter warns.
The letter closes:“We need a Commander in Chief who sees how all of these dynamics fit together – someone who sees the whole chessboard, as Hillary Clinton does.”
No reply yet from the Sanders campaign.
Updated
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on the Branstad bombshell:
Terry Branstad is almost as much an Iowa institution as corn – and now he’s telling Iowans not to support Ted Cruz.
The longest-serving governor in the history of the United States, Branstad, now in his sixth term in Iowa’s statehouse, had pledged to stay neutral in the caucuses. However, in a television interview today, Branstad told reporters that he wants to see Ted Cruz defeated.
One of the driving motivations of the feud is Cruz’s fervent opposition to ethanol, the corn-based gasoline variant, which is a major driver of industry in Iowa. Cruz has long vocally opposed it, while Branstad has spent decades advocating for expanding use of ethanol.
The governor’s son Eric leads a bipartisan pro-ethanol lobby group which has launched hundreds of thousands of dollars of negative ads against Cruz on the subject.
In openly denouncing Cruz, Branstad is putting his tremendous popularity among local Republicans on the line. The question, though, is whether Branstad, who is increasingly viewed by ardent conservatives as a pillar of the GOP establishment, has much influence with the type of voters who support Cruz.
This still shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement. Although Branstad’s circle is very close to New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the governor is staying neutral. In fact, he last endorsed in a competitive caucus in 2000, when he was in the midst of a 12-year hiatus from elected office and backed Lamar Alexander.
With Donald Trump appearing at an event held by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Tuesday, however, Branstad’s move is bound to redound to the New York real estate mogul’s benefit. Trump has become a vocal advocate for ethanol.
And this development shouldn’t just help Trump. The past two Iowa caucus winners, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, are both strong supporters of renewable fuels and are seeking to compete with Cruz among social conservatives.
Carson cancel events after volunteers hurt in crash
The campaign of Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, has released a statement saying that Carson “has cancelled all remaining campaign events today” after three campaign volunteers and a campaign employee were injured when their van “hit a patch of ice and flipped on its side where it was struck by another vehicle.”
One volunteer was transported to the trauma center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the Carson statement says. The other three van occupants were being “checked out” at a local Iowa hospital.
Carson was said to be traveling to Omaha to be with the family of the volunteer in the trauma center.
I'm suspending all campaign activities today due to a car accident involving members of our team. Full statement: https://t.co/Uf9HZrn2P6
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 19, 2016
Updated
From the comments
More on the Palin / Trump rumors...
Palin is the female Trump. They both say what's on their mind, as embarrassing as that is. They both can talk for hours and say absolutely nothing. They both know nothing about how the American government operates.
I thin that Trump and Caribou Barbie are a perfect match.
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt leaves a second Sanders event in Iowa feeling slightly ill-used. “I’ve just been at Bernie Sanders’ event at Santa Maria vineyard and winery, in Carroll, Iowa. I feel a bit cheated,” Adam writes:
I thought there would be wine and cheese. You know, given it is at a winery. There was neither.
Instead supporters were packed into a warm function room, for a similar speech to the one Sanders gave in Fort Dodge this morning. The top one-tenth of one percent have more money than the bottom 90%. Healthcare sucks. No one was prosecuted over the financial crash.
People often say they like Sanders because of his integrity and consistency. He contradicted himself a couple of times here, though.
“I’m not that much into polls and all that stuff,” Sanders told the crowd, before citing two polls that showed him as being more likely than Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump.
“You won’t hear me attacking my Democratic colleagues,” Sanders also told the crowd. Perhaps this was technically true, although this line didn’t take much decoding: “Without naming any names, Goldman Sachs also provides very, very generous speaking fees to some of the candidates.”
Cruz: I love Sarah Palin
Ted Cruz speaks up on the friction that developed today between his camp and the Palin clan.
Cruz is taking the head-down, vigorous tail-wagging approach:
I love @SarahPalinUSA Without her support, I wouldn't be in the Senate. Regardless of what she does in 2016, I will always be a big fan.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 19, 2016
Updated
The Republican National Committee has decided to take its late February presidential debate – a surefire ratings bonanza – away from NBC and give it to CNN, in late-breaking fallout from a controversy attached to an earlier debate hosted by NBC cable channel CNBC. CNN reports:
The decision comes two-and-a-half months after the RNC suspended its partnership with NBC News because of CNBC’s handling of the third GOP debate in October, which the Republicans said devolved into a series of “gotcha’ questions
Ouch.
Shoker, indeed.
Wow, the highly respected Governor of Iowa just stated that "Ted Cruz must be defeated." Big shoker! People do not like Ted.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2016
(see earlier for context on Branstad coming out against Cruz)
BREAKING via the Des Moines Register: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee says he has never tasted beer.
Huckabee says he’s never tasted beer. Not opposed to it, just never liked the smell. @GovMikeHuckabee #iacaucus
— Kathie Obradovich (@KObradovich) January 19, 2016
Does this change anything? We can’t tell. (thx @lgamgam)
Rand Paul thinks the polls that show him flailing in Iowa are inaccurate, reports Adam Gabbatt from the Hawkeye State (Paul is at 3.7 points in Iowa, according to polling averages):
They are inaccurate, he says, because young people don’t show up in the polls. This is important because his campaign has specifically focused on young people. The rest of the Republican presidential candidates, according to Paul, have ignored them.
“A lot of younger people don’t answer their phone and in fact aren’t on any kind of polling,” he told the Guardian on Monday, at an event in a Des Moines barbershop. “In fact I’ve yet to meet a college student who’s ever taken a presidential poll. So we think we’re going to surprise some people.”
[...]
The Guardian asked why students should vote for him over the Democratic-socialist Vermont senator. “Because I’m not crazy,” Paul said.
Rand Paul’s father, Ron Paul, was the surprise success of the 2012 Republican primaries. A devout base of youngsters propelled Paul the elder to third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire before he fell away.
Updated
This is not a parody. Donald Trump was asked by the Christian Broadcasting Network whether he cries.
“I know people like that,” Trump replied:
CBN: “This is my Barbara Walters question… I’m curious, have you cried before? Has that been something that you’ve done in your life?”
Donald Trump: “Well, that’s even beyond a Barbara Walters question, she has never asked me that. No, I’m not a big crier. I like to get things done. I’m not a big crier. I’m not someone who goes around crying a lot. But I know people like that. I know plenty of people that cry. They’re very good people. But I have not been a big crier.”
(transcript via Vox)
The mayor of Flint, Michigan, whose residents are drinking from water bottles after their drinking water was rendered toxic, endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, praising her campaign’s work in spotlighting the crisis there, reports the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
“If this was a test, she has really come to the forefront and passed it because we in Flint need some help and we need it now,” mayor Karen Weaver said on a conference call organized by Clinton’s campaign.
The endorsement appeared unplanned. Asked if she was endorsing Clinton after heaping praise on the former secretary of state and her campaign team, Weaver laughed. “Yeah, it does sound like it, doesn’t it? I want Hillary.”
Clinton had dispatched her campaign’s national political director, Amanda Renteria, to Flint to meet with the mayor and get a better understanding of the situation on the ground.
Over the weekend, President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, where a lead-poisoning crisis in the city’s water supply has left residents without safe water for nearly two years. The state’s governor, Rick Snyder, has been lambasted by residents and Democratic politicians for what they say was a slow response to the crisis.
Update: Busy day for the Flint mayor:
WH: Flint MI Mayor Karen Weaver met with Valerie Jarrett at the White House today & is expected to meet POTUS before the end of the day.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 19, 2016
Updated
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is staking his presidential candidacy on a strong performance in New Hampshire, is unusually frank about challenges in his marriage in a new book, American Governor, by public radio reporter Matt Katz.
In the book, Christie describes going to a couples counselor with his wife, Mary Pat, to face “really challenging times.” The New York Times has published brief Christie quotations from the book:
I don’t know what either one of us thought marriage was exactly going to be like, but what was happening was not what we thought.”
“We had some fairly challenging times — really challenging times.”
“Finally, when we felt like we definitely liked each other, then we had kids.”
“We wanted to be sure, and we didn’t want to bring children into a world and a relationship that we didn’t think was good and stable.”
Christie also describes how the couple ducks into her walk-in closet, out of earshot from their four children, to argue. Read the full piece here.
The plot thickens – former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s official Twitter has linked to a post by her daughter, Bristol Palin, which is critical of the Cruz campaign for rather mildly criticizing Palin based on the mere rumor (or do they know more?) that Palin is preparing to endorse Trump.
Now Bristol’s involved too! This should end well.
Here’s what Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN:
I think it [would] be a blow to Sarah Palin, because Sarah Palin has been a champion for the conservative cause, and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly, she would be endorsing someone who’s held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion.”
Is THIS Why People Don’t like Cruz? https://t.co/Qv3iih071S
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 19, 2016
Bristol writes:
Is my Mom going to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States?
That’s the rumor, and I’ve been too busy with diapers to delve too much into politics these days. But the rumors were enough to cause staffers from Ted Cruz’s office to slam my mom. [...]
After hearing what Cruz is now saying about my mom, in a negative knee-jerk reaction, makes me hope my mom does endorse Trump. Cruz’s flip-flop, turning against my mom who’s done nothing but support and help him when others sure didn’t, shows he’s a typical politician. How rude to that he’s setting up a false narrative about her!
Read the full piece here.
From the comments: Palin / Trump rumors
Here’s a modest selection of your thoughts on whether Trump’s special guest this evening is none other than Sarah Palin. Notably no one is predicting that Palin will appear on behalf of Trump. You’re thinking more along the lines of a Nazi:
Very special guest? My goodness, his campaign finally managed to clone Goebbels ! What a coup!
Updated
Branstad trashes Cruz
Terry Branstad is an establishment Republican without peer in Iowa, the longest-serving governor in US history, and, it emerges, a total hater on Texas senator Ted Cruz, CNN reports:
Asked by a reporter "so you want to see him defeated?" Branstad answers: "yes."
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) January 19, 2016
Branstad, who has not made an endorsement in the race, might have reason to speak up: A poll earlier this month by the standard-setting Des Moines Register found Cruz with a three-point-edge over the rest of the Republican field in the state.
(h/t @alexburnsnyt)
Updated
“Donald Trump loves John Wayne.” That’s the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, who has just emerged from the Trump event, with this:
In an appearance at the John Wayne Museum in Winsterset, Iowa, the Republican frontrunner raved about the late Hollywood star whom he said had “made such an impression on him.”
In a policy-light event and press conference at which Trump was introduced by Wayne’s daughter Aissa, the real estate mogul spent most of the time raving about his love for the late movie star, who he thought “represented strength, represented power.”
Much of the brief press conference was like a normal Trump event. He boasted, “I always like to threaten and sue reporters and sometimes I do actually.”
When asked by the Guardian about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, Trump dodged on policy: “It’s a shame, it shouldn’t happen, but again, I don’t want to comment about that.”
Trump got shots in at a rival, saying of Ted Cruz, “He’s got a rough temperament. You can’t call people liars on the Senate floor when they are your leader.” He continued:
People are talking his temperament. I haven’t been talking about his temperament but he to be careful because his temperament has been questioned a lot.”
#Veepstakes pic.twitter.com/Dh2ZNXAl31
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 19, 2016
But on a rumored endorsement from Sarah Palin, Trump played uncharacteristically coy. “I’m a big fan of Sarah Palin,” he said, but declined to elaborate on the endorsement. Trump did say that “everyone is going to be very impressed.”
In the meantime, Trump seemed happy to bask in the glow of John Wayne, who his daughter insisted would have backed Trump if he were alive today. To Trump, Wayne was somehow a lode star.
“I was such a fan of John Wayne and the one meeting I had with him, such an amazing meeting, he said some things to me that were very special,” Trump said.
The Trump endorsement event is scheduled to begin at 5PM central in Ames, Iowa tonight.
Updated
Trump’s done. “We love John Wayne, and we love John Wayne’s family,” he says.
Somebody else he mentioned loving in his appearance:
The Palin buzz surrounding Trump’s mystery guest this evening – or will it be Jerry Falwell Jr, or some disappointing option (c)? – has journalists tracking flights from Anchorage.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs was on the scene:
Trump won't say if it's Sarah Palin but said he's a big fan of hers.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 19, 2016
What do you think? Is Palin about to endorse Trump? Or are people just getting a little silly of a Tuesday?
Let us know in the comments and we’ll feature your best!
Updated
Trump's Iowa director trashes media
In reply to a question about Trump’s ground game in Iowa, Trump calls up his Iowa state director, Chuck Laudner, who proceeds to tell the media we’re crap.
In the interest of accuracy in reporting, please note that Laudner does not use the word “crap”.
“We feel really good about our chances,” Laudner says. “We feel really good about our reach. And I think you’re going to have a surprise on caucus night.”
But Laudner will not be sharing details of the Trump ground game, he says, because the media, he says, will not get it right. Then he shares some details. The campaign had 13 caucus trainings in Iowa in the last week, Laudner says. He said turnout for one event had been reported as 12, when turnout was actually 120 “and you know it.”
“That’s why we don’t talk to you folks all that much about the ground game. Because you’re welcomed in, we get your cameras in, and you misreport.”
Trump grabs the mic back and says:
One thing I like about Chuck is, he doesn’t want to bother with the press.
Trump mum on Palin rumors
The Trump/ John Wayne event gets going. The late actor’s daughter, Marisa Aissa Wayne, introduces the Donald. “Hopefully for America, he’ll be the next president of the United States,” she says.
She says the country needs “someone who’s strong, like John Wayne. And I’ll tell you what, if John Wayne were around, he’d be standing right here.” Either that or spouting racist views in Playboy?
Trump returns the favor:
“I’ll tell you, I’ve been a longtime fan.”
Then he takes questions. He’s asked whether his big special guest this evening is former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (see earlier). He says that he loves Palin but he’s not saying who’s joining him on the stump tonight.
Sounds like not Palin.
More from Trump:
I’ve never been a yuge fan of endorsements. It’s more the candidate... I think you’ll be impressed with the endorsement we’ll get later on.
Updated
How the Iowa caucuses work: a confusing election process explained
The Iowa caucuses are perhaps the most important yet mysterious contest in American politics, writes the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, who knows from Iowa:
The concept of an election is familiar to everyone – but by its very name, a caucus sounds different and archaic. However, give or take a few wrinkles, the Iowa caucuses are simply another election, held on a cold winter’s night in the Hawkeye state. But those wrinkles do matter quite a bit.
What is a caucus?
On 1 February, caucuses will be held in each of Iowa’s 1,681 precincts.
These comprise the first part of a four-stage process that will choose the state’s delegates to each party’s national convention, where the presidential nominee is formally selected.
After the caucuses on 1 February (technically the precinct caucuses), there are county conventions and congressional district conventions, which all build to a state convention in the spring at which the national delegates are selected. It all fits together sequentially like a Russian nesting doll. Attendees at the precinct caucuses elect delegates to the country conventions, who elect delegates to district conventions, and on up the food chain.
The precinct caucuses are simply the first step in that process.
Read the full piece below, and come away educated!
It was a typically passionate speech from Bernie Sanders here in Fort Dodge, Iowa, writes The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt:
The rally was held in the “Fort Museum Opera House,” which seemed like less of a venue for opera and more a hall where a barn dance might be about to take place. There are exposed wooden rafters. A balcony with pine wood poles rings the hall, looking down on the stage. There was a man wearing a cowboy hat.
Sanders began with a criticism of the media. That’s always a bit awkward when you are a member of the media. There were about 15 of us at the back of the hall. I averted my gaze from the few crowd members who turned round to stare at us.
There isn’t a proper discussion of the issues in the media, Sanders said.
“If I slipped on a banana peel here it would be on the front page of the newspaper,” he said. You bet it would. I love slapstick.
He told the crowd that when he started running, people told him Hillary Clinton was the “inevitable candidate”. But Sanders said his position in the polls showed that “the inevitable candidate does not look quite so inevitable as she did 8 months ago”.
Sanders took questions. An 11-year-old boy called Jensen asked what the senator would do to make America’s healthcare better. That is an excellent question, Sanders said.
He said the Affordable Care Act has already “provided health insurance to 17m Americans who otherwise would not have it”. He bounced his right forefinger along in the air as he said this, like he was playing an invisible xylophone.
Sanders said if he was elected president he would ensure that people did not have to pay premiums of thousands of dollars. Or spend their savings on medication. He asked Jensen if he wanted to hear a story. I didn’t hear Jensen respond, but he got a story anyway.
“In the 1990s,” Sanders began. “I took a bus load of women to Montreal.” The women had breast cancer, he told Jensen. It seemed a strange story topic for an 11-year-old child, but whatever works.
The women were able to buy the same medication there that they had been prescribed in the US, Sanders said.
“You know what they paid? One tenth the price that they were paying in the United States. Tears came out of their eyes.”
At the end the crowd lined up for selfies with Bernie. He obliged. He shook hands. He signed something. He eventually made it through the throng and escaped through a back door.
His next stop is a winery in Carroll, an hour west of here. Let’s hope there are no banana skins.
Updated
The live video feed of the Donald Trump event at John Wayne’s birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, is now... live. The candidate has yet to materialize. Will he be wearing a cowboy hat reading “Make America Great Again, Partner”? You can watch in the video player at the top of the blog there.
Here’s a cool snapshot from a Ted Cruz event this morning in New Hampshire, via CNN. Cruz is currently truckin’ along in fourth place in polling averages in the state, behind Trump, Rubio and Kasich. The Granite State votes in exactly three weeks, on Tuesday, 9 February.
Jammin' with @tedcruz -- North Conway, NH #fitn pic.twitter.com/QGtruWYUjj
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) January 19, 2016
Kasich pops in New Hampshire poll
The American Research Group, which gets a lackluster C-minus grade in FiveThirtyEight’s authoritative pollster rankings but which nevertheless is a serious outfit that conducted 600 telephone interviews for its latest New Hampshire survey, finds a dark horse moving up in the Republican field in the Granite State:
Ohio governor John Kasich! Posts 20 points for a second place showing behind Trump at 27:
What-the-wha? NH poll, ARG Trump 27 Kasich 20 Rubio 10 Cruz 9 Christie 9 Bush 8 https://t.co/Gt1P6PPEME
— Bill Scher (@billscher) January 19, 2016
Kasich is polling at what might be called a lackluster 2.3 points in Real Clear Politics’ national Republican polling averages – plenty of room for improvement there. But the former chairman of the House budget committee and popular governor of a key swing state has been focusing his campaign efforts on New Hampshire, hoping that his message of methodical conservatism will strike a chord with the state’s pragmatic voters.
John Kasich? Well, I've seen it all.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) January 19, 2016
UPDATE:
BTW, the ARG poll is the first NH poll in which any candidate not named Trump hit 20% since early June.
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) January 19, 2016
Updated
Now that’s a backdrop! Our Ben Jacobs will have a dispatch from Trump’s event at John Wayne’s birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, shortly.
The setting of @realDonaldTrump's first Iowa event today. pic.twitter.com/7PkmWqWuDV
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) January 19, 2016
Sanders: I can beat Trump
Bernie Sanders is telling a crowd in Fort Dodge, Iowa, that he has a better chance of beating Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton does, which is not a sentence we would have expected to find ourselves typing, six months ago.
Our Adam Gabbatt is there:
.@BernieSanders campaigning in Fort Dodge, Iowa. "No power points, no marching bands. This is it." #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/Su0SjwWn4k
— Adam Gabbatt (@adamgabbatt) January 19, 2016
“From the bottom of my heart, if you want somebody who is going to beat Donald Trump, I think Bernie Sanders is that candidate!” Sanders says.
UPDATE: let’s take a sidelong glance at the polls, while we’re at it. Real Clear Politics’ polling averages have Clinton up 12.7 points on Sanders nationally, with the discernible trend represented by a wee curlicue in recent weeks upwards for Clinton and downwards for Sanders. Clinton’s lead in Iowa has been shaved, however, to a mere 4 points, and Sanders remains ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire, with a current lead of almost 7 points.
Updated
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to an election-year review of President Barack Obama’s executive order to allow up to 5 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to “come out of the shadows” and work legally in the United States, the Associated Press reports:
The justices said they will consider undoing lower court orders that blocked the plan from taking effect in the midst of a presidential campaign that already roiled by the issue.
The case will be argued in April and decided by late June, about a month before both parties’ gather for their nominating conventions.
The immigrants who would benefit from the administration’s plan are mainly the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Texas is leading 26 mainly Republican-dominated states in challenging the Democratic administration’s immigration plan.
So far, the federal courts have sided with the states to keep the administration from issuing work permits and allowing the immigrants to begin receiving some federal benefits.
If the justices eventually side with the administration, that would leave roughly seven months in Obama’s presidency to implement his plans.
Read the full piece here.
Largest LGBT advocacy group endorses Clinton
HRC is backing HRC.
Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, announced Tuesday that it is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.
“All the progress we have made as a nation on LGBT equality – and all the progress we have yet to make – is at stake in November,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement.
Clinton speaks in a video produced to accompany the announcement, which goes hard on the nightmare quality of certain Republican candidates on LGBT issues.
“They want to take us backwards. She will fight to take us forward,” the narrator intones:
Read further:
Updated
Factoid alert
One year from today will be @BarackObama last full day in office.
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) January 19, 2016
Supreme Court to review Obama immigration actions
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to executive actions taken by Barack Obama affecting the status of up to 5m undocumented migrants, the Associated Press reports.
The court was hear arguments this spring and issue a decision by the end of term in June.
Watch this space, we’ll have more as the story develops.
UPDATE: The case pertains to executive actions affecting mainly parents of US citizens and permanent residents. Read more here.
Updated
What’s Canadian about Ted Cruz?
His tax plan!
Solid yucks in a new web video from the Marco Rubio-aligned Super PAC Conservative Solutions PAC:
“Cruz want a value-added tax, like they have in Canada and European socialist countries,” the ad warns.
(h/t: @jwpetersnyt)
Updated
Trump Bible reference falls flat at evangelical school
As prelude to his anticipated campaign trail appearance this evening alongside possibly Jerry Falwell, Jr., Donald Trump spoke Monday at Falwell’s school, Liberty University in Virginia.
The famed salesman shared with attendees details of his faith life, but his pitch wasn’t perfect, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reported:
“I am a Protestant and I am very proud of it,” Donald Trump told Liberty University, the largest evangelical institution of higher education in the United States, on Monday, as he attempted to appeal to this key demographic in the Republican primary.
The GOP frontrunner also told the crowd that if he is elected, “every store will have to say Merry Christmas”. But a biblical reference fell flat when he introduced a passage from 2 Corinthians as “Two Corinthians” rather than “Second Corinthians.”
Otherwise, Trump did not seem to tailor his address to the crowd of clean-cut Christian students. Instead, the real estate mogul talked about his poll numbers and discussed his desire to build a wall on the Mexican border, which he claims that Mexico will pay for.
Read the full piece here.
Hello and welcome to the premiere installment of the Guardian’s 2016 elections blog-explosion, where for the next 293 days, starting today, we will bring you rolling live-wire coverage of the presidential campaign, minute-by-minute.
It’s fear and laughing on the campaign trail, all day, every day, with our team of reporters out following the clown car so you don’t have to. Curtain!
Perhaps the most tantalizing political “news” going this morning is that Donald Trump has promised that “a very special guest” will join him at an Iowa rally later today, and people have fantasized that it might be Sarah Palin, although it might possibly only be Jerry Falwell Jr, the Christian school president who recently called on students to “end those Muslims” with personal guns.
But how great would Palin be, huh! Like a bandoliered Angel Gabriel. In any case, Trump is starting his day with an appearance in Iowa alongside John Wayne’s daughter, so voters will not be deprived of a generous dose of heroic western legendary hoo-ha.
Here’s how some of the team is deployed today:
Ben Jacobs in Iowa with Trump
Ben will be following Donald Trump on the trail today, which includes a special event at John Wayne’s birthplace in Winterset, Iowa. Trump will also be stopping at a summit held by the ethanol lobby, which has been losing influence in Iowa this cycle. With three different events, this will be one of the busier days of the campaign for Trump. Until recently, the real estate mogul would only hold one event a day.
The first Trump event will represent a particular challenge because it is outdoors – although Iowa is starting to enjoy a comparative heat wave after days of subzero temperatures so it is expected to be a balmy 19F on Tuesday morning. [#factcheck: It’s actually nine (9). –ed.]
Lucia Graves in Iowa ... also with Trump
Lucia will be on the Trump trail as well, beginning with that event at John Wayne’s birthplace. Lucia says that the focus for her will be more on the folks in attendance then on Trump himself.
Then, once she’s thawed, Lucia will hit the evening rally at Iowa State University, where Trump has been teasing on Facebook that he’ll make “a major announcement” with that “very special guest” I mentioned earlier.
Adam Gabbatt in Iowa with Sanders
Adam will be following Bernie Sanders around today as he treks across the west of the Iowa. One event, at a winery in Carroll, looks particularly exciting, Adam writes: “Hopefully there will be free wine.”
Yesterday Adam went to a barbershop with Rand Paul, where he [Paul] did not have a haircut but did eat some brisket.
Let’s catch up with more of what Adam’s been doing. On Sunday, Adam writes, he “was lucky enough to run into 2012’s Rick Santorum. I got even luckier when he let me have my picture taken with him. Today will have to be pretty special to top that, I think we can all agree.”
Sabrina Siddiqui heading back from Iowa
Sabrina returns today from her trip to Iowa, where Marco Rubio wrapped up a two-day swing through the state over the long weekend. Rubio made three stops on Saturday and five stops on Monday, in front of crowds ranging from 200 to 600.
Most of the Florida senator’s events were town hall-style forums, where he fielded questions on a wide range of issues, including Trump’s proposed Muslim ban, entitlement reform and police brutality. Although Rubio is trailing Trump and Texas senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa polls, many voters said they were still shopping around even with just two weeks remaining until the caucuses.
In other news...
“Hello. I’m Ivanka Trump”
First Bowie, then Rickman and now...
Take It Easy, Glenn Frey, it's your turn for that Peaceful Easy Feeling. For the rest of us it's gonna be a Heartache Tonight #TheEagles
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 19, 2016
And ...
Updated
What would be more glorious, more fitting than a Trump / Palin ticket. I can only pray for this great gift to the comedy gods.