Closing summary
Here’s a summary of the biggest stories of the day as we prepare for Super Tuesday:
- Donald Trump blamed a faulty earpiece as his reason for failing to disavow the endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during a TV interview.
- A vicious Trump rally in Virginia today saw a Time photographer get choked and thrown to the ground by a secret service agent, around 30 black students get kicked out of the event for unknown reasons, Black Lives Matter protesters storming the floor on numerous occasions and supporters outside climbing on to the roof as the venue was full.
- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are calling on Trump to allow the New York Times to release its off-the-record interview with the billionaire, where he supposedly says he may not stick with his current immigration policies.
- Bernie Sanders campaign raised nearly $6m today, bringing it to $42m in contributions for the month of February.
- Trump and Hillary Clinton lead in the polls for tomorrow’s primaries.
Updated
Wonder who he’ll vote for?
Ted Cruz will vote at Montrose's West Gray Community Center in Houston tomorrow morning, per his campaign.
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) March 1, 2016
But at Bernie Sander’s rally in Boston this evening, voters were fleeing while the candidate was still talking, in this video by reporter Dan Roberts.
Roberts notes that it was very hot inside the rally -- and not cause candidates were feeling the Bern (yes that’s two ‘feel the Bern’ references in the last two posts, #sorrynotsorry).
Kiwis are feeling the Bern, with an AP report on voters in Wellington, New Zealand:
Democratic Party supporters living in New Zealand’s capital Wellington turned up at a local bar to become the first in the world to cast Super Tuesday votes in the US presidential primary.
The vagaries of the international dateline meant that US citizens living in Wellington got to vote almost a day ahead of many back home when they cast ballots just after midnight Tuesday local time. Wellington was the first of 111 cities in 41 countries outside the US to cast ballots.
At the Public Bar and Eatery, voters cast 28 ballots. Senator Bernie Sanders picked up 21 votes while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton picked up six. One ballot was spoiled.
The results remain unofficial until confirmed later this month at the global voter tally center in Germany.
Don’t expect Melania Trump to be planting vegetables in the White House and getting kids dancing in the style of Michelle Obama’s reign.
“I would be different than any other First Ladies,” said Melania Trump in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.
After a very long pause, she added “I will help women. I will help children. They are our future, they need our guidance and help. Also, I am involved in many, many charities, so I will choose one or two that are very dear to me.”
A disturbing report from USA Today says that black students were ejected from a Trump rally today, despite not protesting the candidate:
About 30 black students who were standing silently at the top of the bleachers at Donald Trump’s rally here Monday night were escorted out by Secret Service agents who said the presidential candidate had requested their removal before he began speaking.
The sight of the students, who were visibly upset, being led outside by law enforcement officials created a stir at a university that was a whites-only campus until 1963.
“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said a tearful Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, who was among the Valdosta State University students who was removed. “They said, ‘This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.’ But I paid my tuition to be here.”
Bernie Sanders wasn’t able to watch the Oscars last night because he was giving a speech in Colorado, but it hasn’t stopped it being a big part of the campaign today.
First there was the light-hearted quiz on his charter plane to see who could pick the most category winners in advance. (Suffice to say The Guardian did not win).
Now here before 3,600 people Boston, there is a more serious, and potentially significant reference to an acceptance speech by Big Short director and screenwriter Adam McKay, who picked up an award for best adapted screenplay.
The film, which charts the story of a handful of sceptics who correctly predicted the banking crash, is a big favorite of Sanders and his wife Jane.
But nothing made them happier than the none-too-subtle political reference in McKay’s acceptance speech , which Sanders gleefully repeats tonight.
“Most of all, if you don’t want big money to control government, don’t vote for candidates that take money from big banks, oil or weirdo billionaires: Stop!” said McKay.
Who could he possibly mean?
"I look around tonight and I think we're going to win here" Sanders tells Boston rally "You led the last revolution" pic.twitter.com/qh5qXlgVzc
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 1, 2016
Sanders raises over $5.7m in one day
Bernie Sanders raised over $5.7 million for his campaign today, in a final big fundraising push before tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primaries.
Earlier today his campaign emailed supporters saying the Vermont senator had $36.1 million from 1.2 million people this month and they were pushing to rise that total to $40 million by the end of the day.
Now the Sanders’ campaign sits at $41.8 million in contributions for February.
That’s double the $20 million in contributions from Sanders supporters in January.
One of Sanders favorite speech lines -- and one his supporter know and shout along with him -- is that his average campaign donation is $27.
Top Republicans are freaking out about the likelihood of Donald Trump winning big in tomorrow’s Super Tuesday, with governors chatting about it on a conference call today, reports Politico:
Trump’s march to the nomination has set off a wave of anxiety across the Republican Party establishment as top officials weigh whether to endorse him — or denounce him as anathema to the party’s values. Reflecting that angst, on Monday morning, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the heads of the Republican Governors Association, convened fellow governors for an unusual conference call to discuss how the primary was unfolding — and Trump was a central topic of conversation.
At one point during Monday’s call, which lasted around 30 minutes, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to discuss last week’s bombshell decision to back Trump. According to two sources familiar with the call, Christie mounted a detailed defense of his endorsement, explaining that he’d known the real estate executive for over a decade and had grown confident in his ability to lead the country.
Unsurprisingly, Melania Trump denied that her husband Donald is a racist or anti-immigrant, when asked about it by Anderson Cooper -- although she did say that undocumented migrants were criminals.
No he’s not. And he’s not anti immigrant. He wants to keep america safe, he wants to have illegal immigrants taken care of… they don’t pay taxes, they are criminals, they are not good for America
Trump immigrated to the US from Slovenia. “I obeyed the law, I did it the right way, i didn’t just sneak in… and that’s what people should do,” she said.
Updated
Anderson Cooper quizzed Melania Trump on her husband’s reluctance to disavow white supremacist leader David Duke’s endorsement of a Trump presidency.
“I don’t know why [the] media needs to ask him so many times because he disavowed [him],” said Melania Trump.
“He disavowed many, many times. [The] media is just beating it up, beating it up all the time,” she added.
Anderson Cooper is chatting with Donald Trump’s wife Melania on CNN right now, and Melania says voters should expect Trump’s antagonizing tone to change after the election.
“He can have a different tone...He can really change. I know him and he could really change the words and the tone but he is who he is…. People agree with him because they are tired of Washington,” she said.
Disturbing footage from a new angle of the Time magazine photographer getting choked and thrown to the ground by a Secret Service agent at a Donald Trump rally today.
Here's new angle of the Time photographer being slammed to ground. https://t.co/GD6sLpB1bP (via @Maddie_Marshall) pic.twitter.com/JZ6qKFYfns
— Tim Hanrahan (@TimJHanrahan) February 29, 2016
Nascar endorses Trump -- a year after cutting ties to him
This just in from Valdosta, Georgia
Donald Trump announced his latest endorsements -- from the world of Nascar racing -- and channelled his inner Gordon Gekko during his final rally ahead of Super Tuesday.
The Republican frontrunner gained the support of Brian France, chairman and chief executive of Nascar, as well as “legendary” driver Bill Elliott and current drivers Chase Elliott, Ryan Newman and David Lee Regan.
Addressing a crowd of more than 5,000 people at Valdosta State University in Georgia, Trump said to cheers: “Can you believe that? I tell you what, if the people that like it and watch Nascar vote for Donald Trump, they can cancel the election right now. Nobody can win. Nobody.”
He did not add that Nascar’s popularity has waned in recent years.
Chase Elliott took the podium and told the gathering, many of whom held “Trump” placards: “This is a great guy. I think he can do some great things for us.”
Yet Elliott failed to note that last year Nascar refused to hold its banquet in one of Trump’s hotels after Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists.”
Today, in his usual freewheeling stream-of-consciousness style, the New York tycoon ran through pet subjects such as building a wall on the Mexican border, ditching Barack Obama’s health care reforms and how he has forgiven the Pope for taking a swipe at him. “Now I like the Pope again, OK?”
But his central pledge, reflected in supporters’ baseball caps and badges, was to make America great again. He unapologetically equated this with money in an ad lib that recalled Gekko in Oliver Stone’s movie Wall Street.
“My whole life has been money,” he declared. “I want money, I want money. Greed. I was greedy, I want more money, more money. Now they come up, ‘Donald, I’d like to give you $10m for your campaign.’ I go, ‘I don’t want it.’ It’s hard, because my whole life, I take money, take money. Now, I’m going to be greedy for the United States. I’m going to take and take and take.”
At that the crowd erupted in prolonged cheers, whistles and chants of “USA! USA!”
Sensing he had struck a chord, Trump went on: “We’re going to take, take, take, take. We’re going to become rich again and then we’re going to be great again... We can’t be great unless we’re going to make ourselves rich again.”
This includes taking on and beating the world’s second biggest economy, he argued.
China is killing us, folks. It’s the single greatest robbery, what they’ve done to the United States, in the history of the world. There’s never been a robbery like this. We have rebuilt China because we don’t have the right people negotiating for us and we have the best business people in the world. It’s going to end, folks.
The reality TV host also made a pitch to Georgia’s strong core of evangelicals, describing Christianity as “under siege”. He added: “For the evangelicals among you, I love you and we’re going to do good things together, believe me... When it’s Christmas, we’re going to start saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”
The crowd went wild once more.
Trump said the latest CNN poll showed him on 49%, far ahead of “little lightweight” Marco Rubio, and urged his supporters to show up at the polls on Super Tuesday. “My campaign, I spent less money than everyone else and I’m the frontrunner by far.”
Updated
Despite being last in the polls of the remaining five Republican hopefuls, John Kasich is still planning town hall events all this week.
TUESDAY, MARCH 1 - Virginia & Mississippi
- Arlington Election Day Town Hall 12:00PM EST
- Central Mississippi Republicans Gala Dinner: 6:30 PM CST
- Election Night Remarks 8:30 PM CST
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 - Michigan
- Ann Arbor Town Hall 10:00AM EST
- Genesee County Town Hall 2:30PM EST
- Macomb County Foreign Policy Town Hall 6:00PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 3- Michigan
- State of the Race Press Availability w/ Gov. Kasich & Chief Strategist John Weaver 1:00-1:15PM EST
FRIDAY, MARCH 4 - Michigan
- Ottawa County Town Hall 5:00PM EST
SATURDAY, MARCH 5 - Michigan
- Traverse City Town Hall 9:00AM EST
- Marquette Town Hall 2:00PM EST
- Saginaw County Lincoln Day Dinner (Gov. Kasich will be keynote speaker) 6:00PM EST
Dispatch from Sabrina Siddiqui in Miami, Florida
Ted Cruz on Monday said it was “disappointing” that Donald Trump did not immediately denounce David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in a recent interview, but stopped short of declaring it a disqualifying moment for the Republican frontrunner.
The Texas senator also managed to bring Barack Obama into the mix by suggesting the current president was responsible for racial tensions in the United States.
“I think that it is revealing of a willingness to traffic in some very ugly sentiments,” Cruz said of Trump during an appearance on conservative Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, while adding it was “very sad” that his opponent did not at first repudiate the KKK.
“This ought to be something that should be easy, that should bring all of us together,” Cruz said. “The Klan is repugnant. Racism and bigotry has no place in our society, and I thought it was disappointing that Donald was unwilling to say that when he was asked about it.”
Asked if he agreed with other prominent Republicans -- such as former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough -- that the incident was disqualifying, Cruz said there had been several attempts by Trump and his allies to make “a very explicit appeal to racial and ethnic prejudice.”
“We’ve had seven years of President Obama dividing us on racial and ethnic lines,” he continued. “The last thing we need is a president who tries to inflame those. And this ought to be something that brings everyone together, that bigotry is not welcome in our public life.”
Cruz’s comments follow a torrent of criticism among Republicans over an interview Sunday in which Trump declined several offers to rebuke Duke and the KKK. He later did disavow them in a tweet, but that hasn’t stemmed Trump’s rivals from seizing on it as a seminal moment that underscores why he’d be unfit for the presidency.
Florida senator Marco Rubio, who has taken an aggressive tack against Trump in recent days, said it made Trump “unelectable.”
Cruz did not appear to go quite as far, but told Hewitt he had an iron rule for politics that applied here.
“The Klan? Always bad. Nazis? Always bad. You’ll never go wrong with that rule -- either the Klan or Nazis, bad, bad, bad,” Cruz said. “And it seems somehow that Donald missed that briefing.”
Updated
Shout out to all the Guardian reporters who’ve been on the campaign trail for days/weeks/months, a writer-at-large for Esquire is already struggling on Day 1.
7 hours into my career on the campaign trail and I am ready to quit. How do you nerds do this every day?
— Luke O'Neil (@lukeoneil47) March 1, 2016
Beards for Hillary!
Trump’s rally at Radford today included aggressive scenes both in and outside the event...
The event at Radford was packed to capacity and several credentialed members of the media were unable to get past security and attendant police dogs, despite arriving early to the event. Hundreds of fans were also left outside.
Trump’s speech was screened for the assembled masses outside, but many continued to pound the doors to gain entry to the event. At one point, several people climbed onto the roof and had to be shown down by security.
“Let us in! Let us in!” fans chanted whenever hecklers were thrown out of the event.
Meanwhile, inside the venue a member of the press corps who had been going to Trump rallies all week called it the ugliest rally he had ever seen: “Don’t step out of the cage, that’s what you get.”
Read the rest of Lucia’s account of the rally here.
From Trump’s rally in Valdosta, Georgia:
Trump: "My whole life was money. I was greedy. I was greedy... Now I'm going to be greedy for the United States. I'm going to take, take..."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 29, 2016
"take. We're going to be rich again and then we're going to be great again... We can't be great unless we're going to be rich again."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 29, 2016
Reporter David Smith meeting the Trump supporters at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia
There is a long line of people for Donald Trump’s eve-of-Super Tuesday rally in Valdosta, Georgia. “It’s like July 4th!” said one motorist, passing to snap pictures. “That’s history right there: the real deal.”
The 5,300-seat sports arena at Valdosta State University is full to capacity with many more people standing on court.
Terry Bradman, 37, an industrial salesman, says this is the biggest event in Valdosta in his lifetime. “We need to support somebody who is going to support America. Trump says what’s on his mind. He doesn’t do political bullshit. He says what the American people have been thinking for years. Everybody’s tired of the Washington politics.”
Bradman supports Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US. “For now, yes, until we can get a hold of what’s going on.”
He also refuses to pass judgment of Trump’s Christianity. “Nobody’s a good Christian. We all have our faults but he’s doing the right thing. We all have skeletons, don’t we?”
John Lee, 47, who runs a small business selling “Christian clothes”, is wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the second amendment. “We want to see The Donald,” he says. “He has common sense. He doesn’t put up with wish-wash; he’s not your standard politician. He stands up for principle and takes care of his people.”
Lee is not worried about the New Yorker’s religious commitment. “What qualifies as a good Christian is between you and the Lord. No one can say whether you’re a good Christian or not.”
Asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border, Lee replies: “I don’t think it’s enough.”
Mary Holt, 67, a nurse wearing a “Trump 2016, says: “Donald Trump’s views and my views correlate on the border, education and the military. Everything he says. He might be prejudiced against illegal aliens but I don’t think he’s a racist in general.
“I’m tired of politicians saying what they’re going to do and not really meaning it. They just go to other countries on holiday.”
Not everyone is here to support Trump, however. B G Hiers, 69, a nutritionist, prefers John Kasich and Ben Carson. “There’s only so much that’s going to get done. There’s a small group of people who run this world. You know that. What upsets me is that people are still considering Hillary Clinton after what she did in Benghazi. For that alone she should be in prison.”
A 19-year-old student who gives his name only as David says: “I don’t agree with all Trump’s policies but I thought it was really cool I could go down the road and see potentially the next president of the United States. But I don’t think he can beat Hillary Clinton.”
And Charmaine Smith, also 19, has a simple explanation for her attendance. “My teacher told me it was an extra credit.”
Sanders promises to not quit after Super Tuesday
Bernie Sanders pledged to keeping running all the way to the Democratic convention on Monday, during a short press conference before a rally in Boston.
Asked if he was worried that a prolonged race is going to hurt the Democratic nominee, which initial results from early states suggests is increasing likely to be Hillary Clinton, Sanders laughed and insisted he was not quitting whatever the outcome on Super Tuesday.
“We started this campaign at 3% in the polls, 60% behind Hillary Clinton. We have rallied millions of people who want to see a government that represents all of us and not just the millionaire class,” he said.
“At the end of tomorrow I think 15 states will have spoken. Last I heard, we have a lot more than 15 states in the United States of America. I think it is more than appropriate to give all of those states and the people in them a chance to vote for the candidate of their choice.”
From Guardian reporter David Smith in Georgia....
At Donald Trump rally in Valdosta, Georgia. Long lines of people waiting to get in. "It's like July 4," says one. pic.twitter.com/r5qsRAFwOR
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 29, 2016
Trump endorsed by abortion-scandal congressman
Donald Trump just got an endorsement from a controversial Tennessee congressman famous for being embroiled in sex and abortion scandals.
Republican Scott DesJarlais campaigns as an anti-abortion candidate but it emerged in 2012 that he and his ex-wife made a “mutual decision” for her to undergo two abortions while they were married.
One he attributed to her taking medication at the time that could have affected the pregnancy, and the second time was because their relationship was on the rocks.
DesJarlais, a doctor, also urged one of his patients -- whom he was having an affair -- to have an abortion.
However, on his own website he claims to be anti-abortion:
Congressman DesJarlais believes that all life should be cherished and protected.
And now, he’s a Trump supporter, the first Congressman from Tennessee -- one of the Super Tuesday states -- to openly back him:
While there are certainly things that I admire and respect in each of the remaining candidates, I believe Donald Trump is the candidate best poised to make America great again. As such, I was proud to cast my vote for Mr. Trump.
Trump himself now claims to be a pro-life candidate, a total flip from his 1999 announcement that he was “very pro-choice.” When questioned about that prior stance last year, Trump said his thoughts had “evolved.”
I hate the concept of abortion. And then since then, I’ve very much evolved. And what happened is friends of mine years ago were going to have a child, and it was going to be aborted. And it wasn’t aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child. And I saw that. And I saw other instances. And I am very, very proud to say that I am pro-life.
Updated
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are both calling for the New York Times to release its off-the-record interview with Donald Trump in which he apparently says he won’t necessarily stand by his immigration plans.
Currently those policies include building a wall between Mexico and banning Muslims from entering the US.
“I call on Donald, ask the New York Times to release the tape. And do so today, before the Super Tuesday primary,” said Cruz.
If @realDonaldTrump told The New York Times that he's lying to the voters, they have a right to know #ReleaseTheTapehttps://t.co/my666m3XYp
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 29, 2016
Rubio chimed in also demanding to know what Trump said.
Here are @marcorubio's full remarks calling for the release of the Trump tape, per his campaign: pic.twitter.com/AK41KB5VCM
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) February 29, 2016
Updated
From a chilly convention center in Minneapolis...
Bernie Sanders made one last pitch to the residents of Minnesota before they head to the caucuses on Tuesday night with a more-than-hour-long lunch time rally on a frigid Minneapolis Monday, in the cavernous downtown convention center.
Environmental activist Winona LaDuke and Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison served as welcomed, clearly well-known opening acts to Sanders himself (who Ellison noted was backstage with former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura), highlighting the Vermont senator’s record and campaign pledges on everything from environmental justice to diplomacy to the carceral state.
And, as they spoke, children played along the margins of the crowd, their parents keeping one eye on their progeny -- quite literally the future of this country being referred to on stage -- and another on the proceedings.
Sanders then took the stage to sustained cheering, though the lunch time crowd for the relatively last-minute weekday rally wasn’t as large as some of the audiences to which he normally speaks, and proceeded to push the same message and his supporters had heard all weekend: nothing is more important to his campaign than ensuring a large turn-out.
Then he turned, of course, to a rather professorial discussion of the problems facing America and his solutions -- a $15/hour minimum wage, college debt reduction programs, pay equity, affordable child care, single payer health care, immigration reform (by executive order, if necessary -- but, as the most vociferous supporters continues to applaud, slowly but surely, other audience members began drifting quietly out the back as the rally became more of a lecture and as the end of the lunch hour drew to a close.
Still, most of the crowd -- at least some of whom had been standing since 10:30 and a few of whom had pilfered chairs from the press pen -- hung on as Sanders continued, next elucidating what he called the “somewhat profound differences” between him and Hillary Clinton, each of which prompted boos from the audience.
Some of them -- like his claims that Clinton chose to have Super Pacs, though, legally speaking, Super Pacs choose candidates and candidates don’t have Super Pacs -- fudged the absolute truth. Others -- like his assertion that Hillary Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) and Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for China and the implication that she supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Cafta) -- were untrue (she wasn’t serving in the Senate for the first two and voted against the third), while his recap of her embrace of Henry Kissinger at the recent Democratic debate drew large jeers from the audience.
Still, he closed on a positive note well after the turn of the hour, to applause and greeted supporters on the rope line to the strains of Neil Young’s Rockin’ The Free World, as much of the audience rushed towards the door and the press pool headed towards the exit: Bernie’s day, which began in Colorado, won’t end at least until he gets to Massachusetts tonight.
Updated
More on the violent incident where a Time photographer was choked by a Secret Service agent at a Trump rally earlier today.
“We are relieved that Chris is feeling OK, and we expect him to be back at work soon,” said Time in a statement.
Time photographer Christopher Morris said“fuck you” to the SS agent who was moving him back into the press pen after Morris left it to take photos of Black Lives Activists interrupting the event. The agent then apparently choked Morris and threw him to the ground.
In the report from Time, it says Morris apologized for escalating the situation and that the magazine contacted the Secret Service to complain about the rough treatment against its photographer.
The Secret Service also released a statement on the event:
The Secret Service is aware of an incident involving an employee of the Secret Service that occurred earlier today in Radford, VA. At this time, our local field office is working with their law enforcement partners to determine the exact circumstances that led up to this incident. The Secret Service will provide further details as warranted once additional facts surrounding the situation are known.
Trump’s campaign distanced itself from the controversy. “We are not aware of all the details surrounding the incident and all future inquiries should be directed to local law enforcement,” it said in a statement.
Updated
Bernie Sanders, now en route from Minneapolis to Boston, where he will host a rally before heading home to Vermont for the night, plans to hold a question-and-answer session with the traveling press once their plane touches down.
To be contrasted with Hillary Clinton, who has become nearly off-limits to press in many settings, to the great consternation of her traveling press pack, and who has not held a Sanders-style press conference with reporters in... 87 days:
For those counting: It has been 87 days since Hillary Clinton held a press conference. She has done well over 120 events in that time.
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) February 29, 2016
Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson backed away today from his earlier promises to support whomever is the Republican nominee, after leading candidate Donald Trump didn’t distance himself from KKK supporters.
Instead, Johnson says he prays the nominee is a “person of integrity, intelligence, ideas, and courage.”
“We have such enormous problems facing this nation. I don’t like demagoguery on any side of the political spectrum and we have it across the political spectrum,” he said.
Hello, Amber Jamieson taking over the blog for the rest of the evening. This just in from reporter Ben Jacobs.
Christie ducks media questions
Chris Christie refused to answer “off topic questions” today at a press conference held to announce his newest nominee to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Christie, who controversially endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, insisted he would only take “on-topic questions” and when one reporter asked permission to do otherwise loudly proclaimed “permission denied.”
When asked why he was limiting the focus of the press conference and not taking “off-topic questions,” Christie said “because I don’t want to.”
The New Jersey governor’s failed presidential campaign revolved around town hall meetings in New Hampshire where he would take questions from all comers and billed himself as a straight talker willing to speak uncomfortable truths.
In addition to his endorsement of Trump, Christie announced another break from Republican orthodoxy on Monday where he insisted that Senate Republicans should hold hearings on whoever President Barack Obama nominates to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
Ventura: 'If Bernie goes down that means I may have to get in'
Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is one of several celebrities backing Bernie Sanders, but mainly so that he doesn’t have to run for president himself, writes Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:
The naval veteran, who also served as governor of Minnesota, was waiting backstage at the Sanders rally in Minneapolis to speak to the senator about a likely formal endorsement. It follows speculation that he was also thinking of backing Donald Trump instead.
Former wrestler and governor Jesse Ventura waits backstage to talk to Sanders, who he wants to win so he needn't run pic.twitter.com/b020hUDCq8
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) February 29, 2016
“I am an independent. I don’t support any Democrat or Republican, but remember Bernie is an independent and Trump is too,” Ventura told The Guardian. “I stand more with Bernie because of the war. Trump wants to continue the war, I don’t and I want out of it as fast as possible.”
It was unclear whether Ventura got what he wanted to hear from what was an extremely short encounter with Sanders but it was clear that ego was not in short supply.
“I also support Bernie because if Bernie goes down that means I may have to get in,” added Ventura. “The libertarians have offered to me that if I go to their convention, I could well get their endorsement. I want this revolution to continue.”
Chris Christie, last seen endorsing Donald Trump for president, is holding a news conference to make a state supreme court nomination. It’s unclear whether he’ll add remarks on the election. Live stream here:
Livestream now on of Chris Christie press conference in NJ https://t.co/JiYvKajLaE
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 29, 2016
But @GovChristie won't take Trump/KKK questions. I don't remember another restricted press conference from Trenton. https://t.co/1nigZdCXEf
— Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) February 29, 2016
Updated
Here’s the first video we’ve seen showing the secret service agent choke-slamming a photographer as the cameraman attempts to take pictures of protesters at a Donald Trump rally in Radford, Virginia:
Updated
James Brooks in Juneau, Alaska, writes for the Guardian about how Trump’s standalone campaign is charming Super Tuesday voters in the state:
It’s racing season in Nome, Alaska. Last week, Arne Handeland’s home hosted a team of snowmobile racers in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog. Next week, he’ll welcome dog mushers and fans of the thousand-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
In between, he’ll sit in the fire hall of this town of 3,800 people on the frozen Bering Sea and participate in an even bigger race. Its finish line is in Washington DC.
“I’m certainly thinking this one is somewhat more critical,” he said.
Alaska is among 12 states holding a Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, and thanks to a confluence of low population, high representation and a profusion of candidates, Alaska will influence the nation in a way that its three electoral votes and late time zone rarely allow in November. [...]
“Right now, we’ve just got to get a nominee that can beat Hillary or Bernie. That’s our job,” [state Republican party spokeswoman Suzanne] Downing said.
Updated
Minnesota nice? Clinton and Sanders deadlocked
The Guardian’s Megan Carpentier reports from the Twin Cities:
“People tend to lose the nuance in all political discussions,” Hannah Quinn, a student at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota – town motto: “Cows, colleges and contentment” – said about pushback from other liberals she’s received on social media since founding Carls for Hillary in 2015.
But while the polls show Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders neck and neck in this 77-delegate state and outsiders might consider the contest fractious, supporters on both sides of the divide are keen to embody the “Minnesota nice” ethos – which is not meant with a shred of irony.
“Primarily [my friends support] Bernie,” University of Minnesota student and Sanders volunteer Roland Taracks said on Sunday, after returning to Sanders’ St Paul headquarters from several cold hours of door-knocking. “However, there are a few people who do support Clinton and we’ve had great conversations.
“I think it’s really great to even have people my age talking about these really important issues and how they’re going to get done.”
Read the full piece here:
Times said to have recording of Trump undercutting own immigration stance
Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith reports that the New York Times has an audio recording of Donald Trump calling “into question whether he would stand by his own immigration views” in an off-the-record interview with the paper from January:
Sources familiar with the recording and transcript — which have reached near-mythical status at the Times — tell me that [a columnist’s reference to Trump’s flexibility on immigration] is a bit more than speculation. It reflects, instead, something Trump said about the flexibility of his hard-line anti-immigration stance.
Read the full piece here.
Why does the NYT have an off-the-record portion of its candidate interviews? Once they do that, why do they leak it? https://t.co/bI3pUpVmUk
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 29, 2016
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Video: Trump, the KKK and David Duke: four days of conflicting remarks
Updated
We’re not running the presses for the blog, but agree it’s noteworthy that Trump has snagged the endorsement of the Kansas secretary of state in advance of voting there on 5 March:
Stop the presses. Kobach endorses Trump. First statewide KS official to do so. #ksleg #election2016 pic.twitter.com/Ch7NKwR6xE
— Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) February 29, 2016
(h/t: @bencjacobs)
Updated
Here’s a video from another angle of the takedown of Time magazine photographer Christopher Morris by a secret service agent at what sounds like a particularly raucous Trump rally in Radford, Virginia.
The rally was protested repeatedly by activists representing Black Lives Matter and others.
Reporter at Trump Rally accuses SS agent of choking him. pic.twitter.com/Q4oigVt3qf
— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) February 29, 2016
Another video---very clearly Secret Service agent https://t.co/uxsWPGU8nJ
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 29, 2016
Update:
The reporter was filming protesters and got into a scuffle with Service. Not arrested. No statement from Service per @CandaceSmith_
— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) February 29, 2016
Update 2:
Time photographer Chris Morris tells @Acosta @KristenhCNN he was assaulted first, he never hit the agent, & won't press charges
— Noah Gray CNN (@NoahGrayCNN) February 29, 2016
Update 3:
Here's moments prior. The reporter says "f*ck you" — that's when it got physical pic.twitter.com/h9K2wIbEWQ
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) February 29, 2016
Update 4:
Looking at video from Virginia, all the problems seem to be caused by Secret Service and Trump security acted responsibly & appropriately
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 29, 2016
Update 5:
Trump campaign statement on altercation between photographer and Secret Service agent in press pen at event in VA. pic.twitter.com/oiG3vw8EhL
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 29, 2016
Updated
Thomas breaks 10-year silence to ask question
Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas posed his first question from the bench in ten years on Monday, to challenge a lawyer arguing in favor of gun ownership restrictions for domestic violence offenders.
Thomas weighed in at the end of a little-followed case probing, in part, whether a federal ban on access to firearms for people convicted of domestic violence offenses should apply to lower-level state convictions for “reckless” domestic assault.
Thomas challenged a lawyer arguing in favor of a broader gun ban to support her position with analogies. “Can you give me another area [of law] where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?” Thomas said, according to reporters in the room. He proceeded to ask multiple follow-up questions.
Thomas has said he thinks there is “no need” for the justices to pose questions to lawyers arguing cases before the court. Critical observers have accused him of simply not paying attention in court, noting that he has often reclined and stared at the ceiling with heavy eyelids as arguments played out.
“I don’t see where that advances anything,” Thomas said last year in a speech at a college. “Maybe it’s the Southerner in me. Maybe it’s the introvert in me, I don’t know. I think that when somebody’s talking, somebody ought to listen.”
Thomas’ opinion about the uselessness of oral arguments is not shared by the other justices, and was particularly not shared by Thomas’ late friend and colleague, Antonin Scalia, who died two weeks ago.
While Thomas had not asked a question from the bench for ten years as of last week, Thomas was heard to crack a joke under his breath in 2013.
Violence against journalist at Trump rally
Reporters at the Trump rally in Radford, Virginia, where Trump delivered one of his accustomed scathing critiques of the media, witnessed a security officer – secret service according to this Independent Journal reporter – take down a photographer by the neck:
Secret Service agent choke slams reporter pic.twitter.com/jdsHOlylSB
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) February 29, 2016
This Trump rally in Radford, Va. has been interrupted by protestors (who have been escorted out) 7 times this rally. Thats more than usual
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) February 29, 2016
“He grabbed me by the neck,” the photographer exclaims. Circumstances unclear, more to come.
Update:
Reporter said to be @TIME photographer Chris Morris. https://t.co/CxCliygozN
— Brian Ries (@moneyries) February 29, 2016
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Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the progressive standard-bearer whom supporters tried to lure into the presidential race last summer, has published an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling for more workplace family leave.
Hear, hear, says the Sanders camp:
Great article by @ElizabethForMA. This is exactly what our campaign is talking about.https://t.co/0On6YyxDvy
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 29, 2016
“The [Family Medical Leave Act] was a huge step forward for working families, but let’s be honest: It’s not nearly enough,” Warren writes:
Allowing for unpaid time off after your dad has a stroke or you get hit by a car is the very least our country can do for families struck by a crisis. There’s much more to do:
First, raise wages. No one who works full-time should live in poverty — and that starts with raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It also means passing equal-pay laws. The gender pay gap can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional wages over a lifetime of work for women doing the same jobs as their male colleagues. And finally, it means protecting workers’ right to organize. Unions help workers secure higher wages for their members, by almost 14 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute, but they also increase wages for all workers, union or not.
Read the full piece here.
Here’s a sampling of what the candidates are up to today. Florida senator Marco Rubio is in Atlanta, amid a four-state southern blitz:
A look @marcorubio's full day of campaigning before Super Tuesday. 5 events across 4 states - 1,016+ miles pic.twitter.com/mBsm1g6iuJ
— Sean Gallitz (@seangallitz) February 29, 2016
Bernie Sanders is in Minneapolis, to proceed afterwards to a 7pm rally in Boston, before flying to Vermont tonight.
Ohio governor John Kasich is hosting a rally in Vermont –
Kasich's wife now on stage talking about Ohio program to help women get out of prostitution. pic.twitter.com/qEsfBOSX27
— Matthew Dickinson (@MattDickinson44) February 29, 2016
[The first question for Kasich was a request for Donald Trump’s autograph. Via the Washington Post:]
First Q to Kasich: "Can you get me Trump's autograph?"
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) February 29, 2016
Lots of boos.
Kasich: "Well, I can ask him, but why don't you send him an email?"
While Clinton is in Massachusetts:
Hillary Clinton with Rep. Neal in Springfield, MA. @ the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum. @HillaryClinton #SuperTuesday pic.twitter.com/co7zn9yJHY
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) February 29, 2016
Trump is in Radford, Virginia [live stream]:
He has just repeated his promise to introduce first amendment restrictions if elected. Under his presidency, Trump said, if a media outlet publishes something that is not accurate by the lights of the subject, “We’re going to get them through the court system to change, and we’re going to get them to pay damages.”
Sanders faces stiff competition in Clinton's home-state Arkansas
Former Arkansas Democratic governor Jim Guy Tucker is dressed in a neat blue-and-white checked shirt and blue slacks, and is sitting in a chair next to a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the Arkansas River. Thinking of an anecdote to explain his state, he is smiling, writes Guardian columnist Jeb Lund:
“I used to kid all the time: Arkansas is small enough, hell, if you don’t know somebody, you’re at least related to ’em.”
It seems too homespun, until you connect some dots. I’m sitting opposite Tucker for the very first time because he goes to church with my uncle-in-law, who used to be a minister, which is when he met my stepfather-in-law, who used to preach at the historically black Allison Memorial Presbyterian, where he met Reverend Marion Humphrey, who later became a circuit court judge. Twenty-four hours later, I’ll see Humphrey’s face grinning up from a supreme court endorsement placed on my car outside a Hillary Clinton rally.
All those connected dots are there just for someone who isn’t even from here. So you can imagine how many radiate outward from someone who spent 12 years in the Governor’s Mansion, like Hillary Clinton. And, if you’re working for the Bernie Sanders campaign, you don’t have to. It’s a reality you face every day.
From 1976 to 1986, Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill ran a state-wide campaign every two years, from an early successful attorney general’s race to four successful gubernatorial races and one that failed, back when the state constitution limited the governor’s term to two years. Then there was the 1990 gubernatorial election, the 1992 presidential election, and again in 1996. Hillary participated in all of them.
Read the full piece here:
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What’s super Tuesday all about? Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi has written a primer on all 13 locations (12 states plus American Samoa) that will, together, shape the rest of the race. Consider, for example, Texas:
Texas
Primaries held: Democratic and Republican presidential primaries.
Delegates: 155 Republican delegates, 251 Democratic delegates.
Things to watch out for: Just watch everything. With so many delegates, Texas will be an incredibly important state in determining the presidential candidates in this election. Cruz is leading in the polls in Texas; a win could help turn the candidate’s fortunes around at the national level. In 2008, Texans voted for Clinton, a fact which might still work in her favour eight years later.
Demographics: In the last national election, Texas had one of the lowest turnout rates in the country. After New Mexico, this is the most important Latino voting state in the country – 35% of voters here are Hispanic.
Read the full piece here:
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts explains how the day will unfold:
Bigger than India and more populated than Germany, the dozen US states that vote for presidential nominees on Super Tuesday are where the race for the White House gets real.
The cosy coffee shops of Iowa and New Hampshire are a distant memory. Candidates can no longer rely on meeting voters in person or plastering towns with billboards to make a difference and are taking to the airports and airwaves to compete in a final, frantic weekend from Alaska to Texas.
By Wednesday morning, the lead could be firmly under the control of the only two candidates – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – famous enough that they do not even need television advertising to bridge the vastness.
Among Republicans, the very real prospect that Trump could break clear with wins in as many as 10 of the states up for grabs is already inducing something close to panic.
Read the full piece here:
And for those who prefer video:
Muslim candidate aims to break boundaries in Minnesota
Ilhan Omar is unsure if it was seven or eight people who held her down and repeatedly hit her at a Minnesota party caucus in 2014, where she was working as an aide after falling for politics at a young age, writes the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch:
Two years after the attack, which left Omar with a concussion, she is returning to that same district caucus as a candidate on Tuesday. If she is elected, it is believed she will be the first Muslim, east African woman to hold elected office in the US.
And to win the seat in the statehouse would mean overcoming a string of identifiers that have become slurs for some candidates in the US presidential election: refugee, immigrant, woman, Muslim.
“All of these identities that I carry are going to be an obstacle,” Omar said. “I wear a hijab and that’s going to be a problem, but once one person is able to do that, it then allows other people to dream too.”
Read the full piece here:
Updated
Republican Lamar Alexander, the senior senator from Tennessee, which votes tomorrow, has endorsed Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio – making Rubio’s fourteenth endorsement from among his senate colleagues, including seven in the last two weeks.
Also announcing an endorsement of Rubio today was former senator Tom Coburn, a popular figure in Oklahoma, which also votes tomorrow.
"He simply lacks the character, skills and policy knowledge to turn his grandiose promises into reality." -- Tom Coburn on Trump.
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) February 29, 2016
Ohio governor John Kasich and Donald Trump can boast one senatorial endorsement each. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz have yet to pick one up.
Trump did score a rare anti-endorsement Sunday from Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, who said that if Trump is the nominee, he will vote for a third candidate.
“Conservatives understand that all men are created equal and made in the image of God, but also that government must be limited so that fallen men do not wield too much power,” wrote Sasse on Facebook. “A presidential candidate who boasts about what he’ll do during his ‘reign’ and refuses to condemn the KKK cannot lead a conservative movement in America.”
Updated
Huge February $$$ haul for Sanders
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign has raised more than $36 million in February and is pushing his supporters to help him top $40 million for the month by the end of the day, the AP reports:
Sanders faced an end-of-the-month deadline in his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. Entering the month, he had raised nearly $95 million since launching his campaign last April.
Sanders has raised most of his campaign money online in small increments and has made overhauling the campaign finance system a central part of the race.
The Clinton campaign has not yet put a number on its February haul.
Happy Leap Day!
Is Trump nigh on inevitable?
If Trump performs well on Super Tuesday – aka tomorrow – would that make him the inevitable nominee?
In short: No. But for Trump’s nomination bid to fail after a strong Super Tuesday showing – a sweep of the 11 states holding Republican voting, say – would require a sudden collapse of support for Trump and a fundamental reordering of the race.
Elegant data crunching by the New York Times’ Upshot project found that, given a Super Tuesday romp by Trump, he wins the nomination in most scenarios if he can hold his post-Super Tuesday share of the vote at around 32%.
Trump won South Carolina with 32.5 points, he won New Hampshire with 35.3 points and he won Nevada with 45.9% of the vote.
So how does Trump’s support look in the states to vote after Super Tuesday? In a word, strong. A CNN/ORC poll published this morning, for example, found Trump with a whopping 33-point lead nationally, 49-16 over Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz notched 15 points and Ben Carson 10.
If Trump’s support in the next few weeks is anywhere close to what’s reflected in the poll, he wins running away.
Trump led with every group surveyed by the poll of 306 registered voters who described themselves as Republicans and 121 who described themselves as Inependents who lean Republican. The margin of error was +/- 5 percentage points.
What's remarkable in new CNN poll with Trump 49% - it holds in every group.
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) February 29, 2016
Men 50%
Women 47%
Under 55 47%
Over 55 50%
Grad 46%
No grad 50%
Bernie Sanders: pressing on
Bernie Sanders is trying to put as much distance between his devastating flop in South Carolina and the eleven states voting on Super Tuesday as possible, writes Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts on a bus heading to Denver airport:
In three days, we will have travelled more than 6,200 miles and visited 9 cities in 8 states on a whirlwind tour designed to prove there is life in the revolution yet.
The stops are well chosen. The weekend rallies in Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Fort Collins, Colorado have been as packed and as raucous as anything this campaign has seen so far.
Only the stop in Rochester, Minnesota, on the night of the South Carolina blow-out felt flat – a mood not helped by Bernie’s refusal to even mention the defeat in his speech.
Some supporters are in a more realistic mood, with many conceding they would reluctantly vote for Hillary Clinton if necessary and increasingly focused on stopping Donald Trump, whatever the cost.
“I was a registered Republican my whole life until I decided to vote for Bernie Sanders,” said Dawn Sullivan, a 47-year-old civil engineer in Oklahoma City. “My number one thing is the money in politics right now. Corporate welfare is unacceptable.”
She says she couldn’t bring herself to vote for any of the Republicans running this year – “Marco Rubio maybe” – but is hopeful that the angry Democrats in places like Oklahoma will still surprise pundits in the Democratic primary. “I think Bernie still has a chance. It’s going to be tight.”
The campaign is determined to press on whatever happens on Tuesday, already making plans for its next big trip and focusing on signs of strong support in states like Michigan, California and New York. It hopes to raise a record $40m in February to keep paying for all the jet fuel.
The traveling press pack which accompanies the senator on his Boeing 737 charter is less sure and the marathon tour has an end of term feel for those who have been following it longest.
The caravan is now heading back to Minnesota where Sanders is hoping for a more uplifting welcome in the twin cities and then a loud last rally this evening in Boston. Tonight we return to campaign headquarters Burlington Vermont, where everyone is hoping for a few hour of calm before the storm of results hit on Tuesday night.
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A last post on Trump and the global ultra-nationalist movement, demagoguery and racism – before we turn to other news. Here’s a round-up of our coverage through the weekend:
And a bonus – John Oliver on Trump:
A Super Pac supporting Marco Rubio is going after Trump for the Republican frontrunner’s repeated failure to disavow support from the Ku Klux Klan and other groups tied to the white nationalist movement which Trump said he could not pass judgment on without further study:
.@realDonaldTrump had 3 chances to disavow David Duke & the KKK, he failed. New ad out today from @cspac https://t.co/9ysIKS5L1q
— Jeff Sadosky (@JeffSadosky) February 29, 2016
Trump faults earpiece for non-stance on KKK
This morning on the Today show, Donald Trump was asked about the Sunday CNN appearance in which he declined to reject the support of David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader.
Trump said he didn’t hear the question, and claimed a tech SNAFU:
Trump on Today about Duke/KKK exchange yesterday: "I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad ear piece and I could hardly hear him."
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) February 29, 2016
Do you buy Trump’s excuse?
This is a lie. He heard Duke's name and repeated it. And he clearly knows who Duke is. https://t.co/ZI5NQt1TDd
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 29, 2016
In case you're uncertain about the "lousy earpiece" thing being a lie, he repeated Duke's name back in the interview pic.twitter.com/xdbak8isnt
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) February 29, 2016
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. It’s a race that appears to be streamlining, with strong favorites in both parties going into tomorrow’s Super Tuesday voting in 12 states.
If Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump perform as well as the polls project them to across the south – if they perform half as well as the polls have them doing – then each will seem to have wide and direct paths to the nominations. But there’s a lot of voting to be done meanwhile.
Big news lines from the weekend include Clinton’s whopping 47.5-point victory over Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina Democratic primary; Trump nabbing his first endorsement from a senator, in Alabama immigration hawk Jeff Sessions; and Trump on CNN Sunday declining to disavow the support of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, though he had disavowed Duke’s support on Friday.
Host Jake Tapper asked Trump: “Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this elections?”
“Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” Trump’s answer begins. It goes downhill from there:
Tapper: “Would you just say unequivocally that you condemn them and you don’t want their support?”
Trump: “Well I have to look at the group, I mean I don’t know what group you’re talking about, you don’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. Look, if you would send me a list of the groups I will do research on ’em...”
Tapper: “The Ku Klux Klan.”
Trump: “Honestly I don’t know David Duke, I believe I’ve never met him … and I just don’t know anything about him.”
Trump later tried to alter his non-stance on the KKK by tweeting a link to his disavowal Friday. Clinton was asked for her response by no less than actor-director Tony Goldwyn at a campaign stop in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday. “Pathetic,” she said.
On Monday morning, speaking to NBC, Trump blamed the whole CNN imbroglio on “a lousy earpiece”.
WATCH: @HillaryClinton responds to Trump's comments on David Duke: "Oh, that's pathetic."https://t.co/iPPEVzSPOg
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 28, 2016
In other news this morning:
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