That’s it from us tonight.
Here’s a summary of the Final Five event, by the Guardian’s David Smith and Ben Jacobs:
Just hours after Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump launched high-profileattacks against one another on foreign policy, the standoff continued into the night in back-to-back interviews on CNN’s The Final Five candidates’ forum, writes Lucia Graves.
The event featured interviews from all the remaining candidates in the 2016 election, but interviews with John Kasich and even Ted Cruz seemed like mere accents – distractions, even – in a larger, highly gendered standoff between Clinton and Trump that could foreshadow a general election in which the politics of sex and sexism is at the fore.
Read more here:
Summary of the 'Final Five'
In an event billed as the single greatest meetup of the five remaining presidential candidates, the three Republican and two Democratic presidential candidates who joined CNN’s “Final Five” town hall event did little to shock viewers – or even to venture far from the scripts they read during the Aipac convention meeting earlier today – but here are some of the highlights:
- Ohio governor John Kasich couched himself as a strong anti-interventionist, telling Anderson Cooper that “we should have let Gaddafi stay there” during the Libyan civil war. “Anytime you mess in a civil war, any time you start to get in the middle of these problems directly, which is what we did, you’re gonna create problems,” Kasich said.
- Texas senator Ted Cruz attempted to tie foe Donald Trump to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, telling Wolfe Blitzer that “What Donald Trump does is the same thing that Hillary Clinton does” on matters of state. “Today, at Aipac, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton before him promised to move the embassy [to Jerusalem],” Cruz said, of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. “The difference is that when I promise to do something, I do something.”
- Cruz got testy when Blitzer highlighted the history of his foreign policy advisor Frank Gaffney – who has said that Barack Obama is a hidden Muslim, that Chris Christie committed an act of treason by hiring a Muslim to a government position, that Saddam Hussein was behind the Oklahoma City bombing and that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the state department (more on Gaffney here) – dismissing questions about his stances as “silly.” “I’m actually interested in talking about problems in this country,” Cruz said.
- Donald Trump, when asked why he is so popular with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, pled ignorance. “I don’t know [why they support me], because I am the least racist person you’ll ever meet, so I don’t know,” Trump said.
- Trump also said that the 1,237-delegate required to win the Republican presidential nomination is “a little unfair, because I have been competing against – we started with over 17 people ... When you talk about the majority plus one, it’s a very unfair situation because we had so many people running for office.”
- Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was more than conciliatory towards her sole Democratic opponent. “Senator Sanders and I have run a campaign based on issues – we haven’t been personally attacking each other and running negative ads,” Clinton said, speaking admiringly of Sanders’ zeal.
- Clinton also said that she is held to a different standard than her male counterparts, particularly in relation to the volume of her voice and requests that she “smile more.” “I don’t hear anybody say that about men – and I’ve seen a lot of male candidates who don’t smile very much and who talk very loud,” Clinton said.
- Vermont senator Bernie Sanders denied that his candidacy is functionally over, despite a yawning gap in the delegate count between himself and Clinton. “I think we have a road – a narrow road – but a road to victory,” Sanders said. “We’re going to drive up the voter turnout in November no matter who the nominee is ... I am not a quitter – we are gonna fight this to the last vote.”
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Hillary Clinton has moved toward a number of your positions, Anderson Cooper said. “If you could move her on one more policy, what would it be?”
“It is not what a candidate says during a campaign,” Ssanders said; what is important is “what your record is and what your history is.”
“Most Americans understand that somebody cannot be an agent for change when they are so close to some of the most powerful special interests in this country,” he continued. “I think people have got to take everything into consideration.”
“Hillary Clinton is the candidate of the establishment,” he said. “She has the support of public officials across America. What is also clear is that we are running an insurgent campaign across the country.”
“I think as people look at our records, how we raise money, what our views are on income and wealth inequality,” Sanders concluded, “that is Bernie Sanders, and that is why we are creating so much excitement at the grassroots level.”
On calling Donald trump a “pathological liar,” Bernie Sanders said that Trump may have a compulsion toward lying.
“He just says things off the top of his head!” Sanders said incredulously. “Time after time he says things that are just not true, and I think more and more people understand that.”
“There is a reason why this guy will not be elected president of the United States. That type of temperament, that type of violence,” Sanders said, “is not what the American people want.”
“There’s no question that he has authoritarian tendencies,” Sanders said, echoing fellow senator Elizabeth Warren’s remarks earlier today. “I think that does he have a tendency toward authoritarianism... I think the evidence largely points in that direction.”
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“If Clinton clinches the nomination, are you hurting the Democratic nominee by remaining in the race?” Anderson Cooper asks.
“I think we have a road - a narrow road - but a road to victory,” Sanders said. “We’re going to drive up the voter turnout in November no matter who the nominee is.”
“I am not a quitter - we are gonna fight this to the last vote.”
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“In your view, in what way does Merrick Garland fail the progressive test?” Anderson Cooper asked.
“He’s widely respected, clearly a very intelligent man,” Sanders acknowledged, but “I believe that the supreme court decision six years ago on Citizens United was one of the worst court decisions in the history of our country... I do have a litmus test for a supreme court nominee, and that is I want that nominee to be loud and clear in telling the American people that he or she will overturn that decision.”
Bernie Sanders, on criticism of Cuba:
Let’s not get into red-baiting here!
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Would normalizing relations with Cuba entail inviting Raul Castro to the White House, Anderson Cooper asked.
“The last I heard, we’ve invited the leaders of Saudi Arabia, we’ve invited the leaders of China, we’ve invited the leaders of a lot of authoritarian countries to the White House - I think Cuba should be treated similarly,” Sanders responded.
Bernie Sanders just called for the United States to be an honest broker in negotiations for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, breaking from the many Aipac-pandering policy statements fellow candidates have been making about Israel today.
Many Democrats have called for the same thing Sanders just did, but none of them was a Jew running for the presidency of the United States. Savor the moment.
“We are allies with Saudi Arabia, and it is time that they work with us - in fact, in my view, Isis is a real threat to Saudi Arabia,” Bernie Sanders says, of attempting to unite Saudi Arabia with its geopolitical foe, Iran.
“That’s what our job is - to try to bring these countries together,” Sanders said. “We are not the policemen of the world.”
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Anderson Cooper asked Bernie Sanders “would you continue that much military aid” to Israel?
“Israel needs military aid,” Sanders said, “but this is what I will also tell you. I want to see the United States providing economic stimulus to the region... I want to see the international community, with the help of Israel, with the help of the United States, rebuilding the devastation in Gaza.”
“I don’t know the answer to that one as well.” Sanders said, regarding the placement of the American embassy in Jerusalem. “I am sympathetic to what president Obama has done in that area.”
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Bernie Sanders joins Anderson Cooper on CNN's town hall
“Is there any message people should read into” you skipping Aipac, Anderson Cooper asked Bernie Sanders via satellite.
“I wanted to be there - it was simply a question of scheduling,” Sanders said.
“Israel must continue to exist as an independent, free state. But if we are to have lasting peace, we have also got to work with the Palestinians,” Sanders said. “It cannot be that the United States just takes the side of Israel.”
“Overwhelmingly, the United States, time and time again, has looked aside when Israel has done some bad things. I think, for example, that the growth of settlements in Palestinians territories is not acceptable to me,” Sanders said. “I think there is no question that there’s enough blame to go around on both sides. Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks... but I think the United States is stronger when we work with both sides.”
Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton if she is being held to a different standard from her male counterparts. This, after having asked if relations with Israel might be affected by tendency to get emotion, to lose her cool, and by reputation as the “yeller-in-chief”.
Her response was dead-on: “I don’t hear anybody say that about men – and I’ve seen a lot of male candidates who don’t smile very much and who talk very loud,” Clinton said.
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“Every time I have a job, I get really, really high ratings,” Clinton noted, speaking of her discomfort with campaigning versus governing. “Whenever I have a job, I work really hard to do it to the best of my capacity.”
“Doing the job, getting results for people, making a difference for our country, that’s what I feel best at and what I’m committed to doing,” Clinton said. “But actually going out and campaigning, it is harder. It is harder for me.”
Part of it, Clinton said, is that campaigning “seems harder than women.”
“Are you held to a different standard?” Cooper asked, because of your gender?
“I don’t hear anybody say that about men - and I’ve seen a lot of male candidates who don’t smile very much and who talk very loud,” Clinton said.
“Senator Sanders and I have run a campaign based on issues - we haven’t been personally attacking each other and running negative ads,” Clinton said, speaking admiringly of her Democratic opponent.
“Are you in favor of expanding Obamacare to undocumented immigrants?” Anderson Cooper asks.
“There are two steps here: If someone can afford to pay for an insurance policy off the exchanges that were set up under the Affordable Care Act, I support it,” Clinton said. “But it’s not going to apply to people who are in need of subsidies in order to afford that because the subsidies have to be worked out in comprehensive immigration reform.”
As for deportation, Clinton says that “people who are already here have to be in a separate category... I want to stop the raids and the roundups. I don’t believe we should be breaking up families and deporting mothers and fathers,” Clinton said. “I want to get comprehensive immigration reform, and I want to start getting it as soon as I’m elected president.”
“But doesn’t allowing undocumented immigrants to stay reward them for breaking the law?” Cooper asked.
“I do think people have to pay a fine - because yes, they came here without legal authorization,” Clinton said. “But they should be in the pipeline and they should be given legal authority to work - which I think actually helps the whole economy.”
“Right now, there is no net migration from Mexico,” Clinton noted.
A very shrewd tactic on the part of Hillary Clinton to remind viewers of what Donald Trump has said. It may be shrewd politically, because Trump may be his own worst enemy. And personally, because, you know, Chelsea and Ivanka are pals, and it’s easier to answer a question about his personality by pointing to things he’s said than answering directly.
“I think when it comes to understanding what he would do as president, there are serious questions that have been raised,” Clinton said.
Trump said earlier that of lot of what he says is “show business” that “the people” will understand that. Clinton may well be banking on the fact that other people do understand– and they don’t like the idea of pomp rather than substance.
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Anderson Cooper asked about encryption of phones recovered from terror suspects, and whether technology companies should be compelled to unlock their own devices.
“I really want to see a resolution to this - now it’s caught up in the legal process, as you know,” Clinton said. “I think we’ve got a lot of really smart people in our tech community, in our government, who somehow have to come to terms with this.”
“You’re not taking a side,” Cooper noted.
“Sometimes you have to keep working a problem until you get some break in that... I hope it’s not an either/or,” Clinton said. “People working in the tech communitiy also have a stake in preventing terrorist attacks on our shores and keeping people safe. How do they do that?”
Anderson Cooper, noting that the US relationship with Cuba is rapidly evolving from decades of stagnation, asked Hillary Clinton about dissidents under Juan Castro’s Cuba.
“I support the president’s efforts to move the relationship forward,” Clinton said. “I know that the president will be meeting with some dissidents, and I heartily approve of that.”
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Noting that Hillary Clinton was “the designated yeller-in-chief” with Israel during the Obama administration, Anderson Cooper asks “how would your relationship with Israel be better?”
“I am staunchly in favor of Israel’s security, and although we may have differences, and we do... I think my firm commitment on Israel’s security puts me in a very sound position” to address relations with the nation. “In general, the relationship remains very strong and essential to United States foreign policy,” Clinton said.
“We engage in vigorous discussion - I like that!” Clinton said, about having ever yelled at Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu. “We have a raucous democracy, Israel has a raucous democracy... A give-and-take between friends is the best and most honest way to come to any resolution. So yes, I’ve had my disagreements, but I’ve also never strayed from my strong commitment to Israeli security.”
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Hillary Clinton joins Anderson Cooper at CNN's town hall
On the heels of her speech at Aipac, Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton about the Iranian nuclear deal, which has been roundly criticized by Iranian leadership.
“We have put a lid on the Iranian nuclear weapons program,” Clinton said. “I think on balance it was the right step to take, but I’ve also said, look... the slightest infraction needs to have consequences. I think it’s not trust and verify, it’s distrust and verify.”
In response to her “everything’s negotiable” comment directed at Donald Trump, Cooper asked if she thought that Trump is unqualified to be president.
“I am quoting him - I think it’s important to listen to what he says. You have to take him at his word,” Clinton said. “I think when it comes to understanding what he would do as president, there are serious questions that have been raised.”
“Who knows?” Clinton asked rhetorically, on whether there is a “real” Donald Trump. “I think you have to take him at his word: how he has behaved and what he has said.”
Hillary Clinton, Trump tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “doesn’t have the stamina” to be president, even though she and Trump are the same age.
Blitzer reasonably asks if Trump has any reason to say that – and of course, Trump doesn’t need reasons to say anything. Instead, he relies on subtle suggests that Clinton isn’t man enough to do a man’s job.
“Hillary Clinton does not have the stamina, doesn’t have the energy, she doesn’t have it. Doesn’t have the strength to be president.”
Trump knows why so many women dislike him, but he clearly doesn’t see that as a net loss as he continues through the race.
“I think she doesn’t have the stamina,” Donald Trump said, in response to a question about why he thinks Hillary Clinton doesn’t have the stamina to he president. “You watch her life. You watch how she’ll go away three or four days; she’ll come back. She’ll go - I just don’t think she has the stamina.”
“She’s always got problems, whether it’s Whitewater, or whether it’s the e-mails or - it’s always - it’s always drama. It should end. It should end. She shouldn’t even be running. Honestly, she shouldn’t be allowed to run based on the e-mails, okay, to be totally honest with you. She’s being protected. But Hillary Clinton does not have the stamina, doesn’t have the energy, she doesn’t have it. Doesn’t have the strength to be president, in my opinion.”
Wolf Blitzer quoted Fox News, which issued a statement criticizing Donald Trump’s “vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and... extreme sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate.”
“She’s got the obsession! She’s the one that puts me on her show every night! Look at her show!” Trump said. “Look at the airtime I get on her show, and I don’t do her show! She wants me to do it so badly. Roger Ailes wants me to do her show so badly. They want to have a primetime special on Fox network where Megyn Kelly interviews me. I said, what’s in it for me?”
“Now, in the meantime, she’s benefited greatly,” he said. “She’s hotter now than ever before because of me. She should give me at least of half of her salary.”
Donald Trump: “Nobody respects women more than I do."
Wolf Blitzer plays an ad from a Republican super-PAC:
“Has your language come back to haunt you?” Wolf Blitzer asks.
“No. I think people understand. I think people understand. First of all, half of that was show business. The dropping to the knees, that was in The Apprentice. The Rosie O’Donnell stuff. But I think people understand.”
“Look, these politicians... they say far worse when they’re in closed doors or where they’re with a group of people that they trust. A lot of that show business stuff. And you know in Florida, the amazing thing, they spent $38 million in negative ads on me, and you know what, I won by a record landslide. Pretty amazing.”
“But that’s not how you feel about women in those words?” Blitzer asks.
“Nobody respects women more than I do. Nobody takes care of the women - and they take care of me because they do such a great job.”
Donald Trump, on violence as his rallies:
We have not had anybody really hurt.
After noting that he used the word “riots” twice - which Trump nearly attempts to dismiss - Wolf Blitzer asks Donald Trump if he will “unequivocally say to your supporters, you don’t want any violence, you don’t want any riots at the convention?”
“Of course I would, 100 percent. But I have no control over the people!”
“These people have been disenfranchised,” Trump said, saying that they’re too mad to listen to him. “They lost their jobs. They make less money now than they made 12 years ago. People that are working hard and working double jobs are making less money now in real dollars than they made 12 years ago. They are - they see their jobs going to Japan and to China and to Mexico. Mexico, forget it, it’s the new China. You know what, they’re very - they’re not by nature angry people, but I will tell you, right now they’re angry people.”
But surely the greatest dealmaker in the world could calm them down, Blitzer asks.
“I’d certainly try,” Trump said. “I don’t want to see - but they’re very angry people. They have been misled by politicians for years, and they’re tired of it. And that’s why I’m doing so well, and that’s why I’m leading.”
Donald Trump, whose candidate forum interview is currently airing, told the Washington Post’s editorial board on Monday that he would be a hawkish president who leaves a light footprint.
You don’t have to be a policy wonk to know he wants two things that don’t go together. The more the media focuses on Trump’s foreign policy, the more vulnerable he is going to appear, because the bottom line – repeated references to his “hands” aside – is that he tends to sound like Barack Obama.
“We’re spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East. You know where we are now? We’re further back than we were 15 years ago. We are in such bad shape. The Middle East is a disaster for us,” Trump told Wolf Blitzer. “And in the meantime our country is crumbling, we have a country, the roads are no good. “
Here’s what Obama said in 2011 (bolding mine):
We are a nation whose strength abroad has been anchored in opportunity for our citizens at home. Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times. Now, we must invest in America’s greatest resource – our people. We must unleash innovation that creates new jobs and industry, while living within our means. We must rebuild our infrastructure ... America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home.
The Republican frontrunner is not sounding so Republican, despite his repeated indictments of the Obama presidency.
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Donald Trump says 1,237-delegate requirement is "a little unfair"
“Let’s say you show up in Cleveland at the Republican convention, and don’t have that the magic number of 1,237 which is the number you need to be guaranteed on the first ballot if you’re going to be the Republican - let’s say you’re 20 or 100 short,” Wolf Blitzer floated. “The chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, he says that that’s not the rules, that they would have to go along with the rules. What would happen if you’re just short?”
Trump complained, saying that the 1,237-delegate required to win the presidential nomination is “a little unfair, because I have been competing against -- we started with over 17 people. Then we go down to 15, and then 12, and 11 and 10. And I had many, many people that I’m competing with.”
“When you talk about the majority plus one, it’s a very unfair situation because we had so many people running for office, so one would get 2 percent, one would get 4 percent, one would - and I was always in the lead,” Trump said. “I mean, just about from the beginning I’ve been leading. But it’s very unfair when I have all of these people running, it’s not like I’m running against two people or three people, Hillary is running against one person. So I think that’s very unfair.”
“Mathematically, it’s unfair,” Trump said again. “It’s almost impossible to believe that I should do that, that I would be able to do it. I think I’ll be able to do it.
But I will say this: If I was at 1,190, so I’m a little bit off, and I have millions of votes more than anybody else - because right now I have 2 million votes more than anybody else running for office, by a lot. It’s not even close.”
“I have millions of votes more than anybody else that’s running - millions of votes ... so mathematically it’s unfair.”
Donald Trump: "I am the least racist person you’ll ever meet"
“Why do you think these white supremacists, these various white supremacists out there are supporting your campaign?” Wolf Blitzer asked Donald Trump.
“I don’t know, because I am the least racist person you’ll ever meet, so I don’t know,” Trump said. “And I don’t know that they really are. I mean, you’re telling me that, so I don’t know...”
Blitzer noted that the Anti-Defamation League, an organization working against anti-Semitism, put out a list of white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are working for and supporting Trump’s campaign.
“I just don’t know. I mean, you are telling me this, but I don’t know why. I am certainly the least racist person,” Trump insisted. “I don’t want their support, I don’t want their support, I don’t need their support.”
Wolf Blitzer also played a clip from Clinton’s speech during the Aipac conference today in which she implicitly compared Donald Trump’s candidacy to that of Adolf Hitler. “Encouraging violence, playing coy with white supremacists, calling for 12 million immigrants to be rounded up and deported, demanding we turn away refugees because of their religion and proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the United States - if you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence condemn it. If you see a bully, stand up to him.”
Trump ignored the substance of Clinton’s argument.
“I mean, look, we have to be vigilant,” Trump said. “Our country is under siege. We’re under attack. We’re under attack in virtually every way: Our economy is falling apart; we’re sitting on a big fat bubble; our trade deals are no good; our health care is no good; our security is no good.
“Look what happens in our country! Our security is no good. People are pouring across the border. People that are convicted criminals are pouring across the border. We have to be vigilant, we have to be smart or we’re not going to have a country any longer.”
Donald Trump, on what Palestinians could do for “neutrality”
“Well, let me tell you - well, the one thing they have to do is they have to end terror, okay? They have to stop with the terror because what they’re doing with the missiles and with the stabbings and with all of the other things that they do, it’s horrible and they’ve got to - it’s got to end.”
“Now, I have many, many friends from Israel and Jewish friends. Everybody wants to see peace. It seems to me the all-time Olympics in peace in a deal. Can you make that deal between Israel and the Palestinians? I think the answer is, maybe. I never say that.”
“Trom the time they’re born, they’re educated a certain way,” Trump said, of Palestinians. “It’s got to change. There’s a bad mindset going on, Wolf.”
After playing a clip from Hillary Clinton’s speech in front of Aipac this morning, in which she said “who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything’s negotiable,” Trump said Clinton “doesn’t know me.”
“I have the steadiest hands - look at these hands,” Trump said. “I have the steadiest hands - and far steadier than hers. Look where she got us. I mean, look at Libya, look at the migration, look at Benghazi! I mean here’s a woman that’s talk. She’s just - you know, she’s just reading it off a teleprompter. All she does - believe me, they write that for her. Look at the job, probably in history - although I think John Kerry may even be worse, I’m not sure after the Iran deal. But look at what she’s done.”
On whether he would, as promised, be neutral on issues relating to Israel, Trump said “I would love to be neutral if it’s possible.”
“It’s probably not possible, because there’s so much hatred,” Trump continued. “There’s so much going on. I am very pro-Israel. I’ve always been pro-Israel. I have many awards from Israel, many awards. I’ve contributed a lot of money to Israel. There’s nobody more pro-Israel than I am. We have to protect Israel. Israel is so important to us.”
Donald Trump joins Wolf Blitzer on CNN town hall
On the heels of his first scripted speech since launching his presidential campaign, billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was pressed by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer about international relations and the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).
“This is your first day in Washington in quite a while,” Blitzer said. “Do you think the United States needs to rethink US involvement in Nato?”
“Yes, because it’s costing us too much money, and frankly, they have to put up more money,” Trump said. “They’re going to have to put some up also. We’re paying disproportionately, it’s too much, and frankly, it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea and everybody got together.
“But we’re taking care of, as an example, the Ukraine,” Trump continued. “I mean, the countries over there don’t seem to be so interested. We’re the ones taking the brunt of it. So I think we have to reconsider - keep Nato but maybe we have to pay a lot less toward the Nato itself.”
When asked whether this position would alienate American allies, Trump was unconcerned. “Well, they might not be happy, but you know, they have to help us also. It has to be - we are paying disproportionately, and very importantly, if you use Ukraine as an example, and that’s a great example, the countries surrounding Ukraine, I mean, they don’t seem to care as much about it as we do.”
In a pre-taped interview with Blitzer for the CNN town hall, billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump flip-flopped yet again on whether to deploy ground troops to fight Isis in the Middle East, reports the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs. In the last Republican debate in Miami, Trump said “I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000. We have to knock them out fast.”
In the interview with Blitzer, though, Trump insisted he wouldn’t not send ground troops. “However I wouldn’t deploy 20,000. I’d get people from that part of the world to put up the troops, and I’d certainly give them air power and air support and some military support,” said the frontrunner. Trump insisted “I would never ever put up 20,000 or 30,000.”
Donald Trump doubled down on his calls for the US to be less involved in Nato. He told the Washington Post “I think Nato as a concept is good, but it is not as good as it was when it first evolved” and insisted the United States should play a less significant role in the organization. “We’re paying disproportionately, it’s too much, and frankly, it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea and everybody got together,” said Trump. He alleged of the Ukraine, where Russia has invaded and drawn major concern from western and central European allies, “the countries surrounding Ukraine, I mean, they don’t seem to care as much about it as we do.”
The real estate mogul also touched various other foreign policy issues, insisting when it comes to international crises, “I have the steadiest hands” and bragging about once serving as grand marshal of an Israel Day parade when asked about the Middle East.
The Republican frontrunner, facing the possibility of the first contested convention in decades, insisted it did not matter if he didn’t get the 1237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination on the first ballot.
“When you talk about the majority plus one, it’s a very unfair situation because we had so many people running for office,” said Trump. He added, “if I was at 1,190, so I’m a little bit off, and I have millions of votes more than anybody else, because right now I have 2 million votes more than anybody else running for office, by a lot. It’s not even close.” He echoed past comments that “there could very well be riots” if he was denied the nomination but insisted “that happened I’ll have no part in it.”
Trump also defended his Twitter attacks on Fox News personality Megyn Kelly. “Every night, the show, it’s like an infomercial, always negative stuff, always negative stuff, always,” insisted Trump. “Not fair. So I will fight back with Twitter. I will let people know she’s a third rate talent. I will say what I have to say, it’s very simple.”
Donald Trump has been critical of China’s geopolitics throughout his campaign, but it’s surprising that he’s pretty much the only candidate to harp on this, considering other GOP candidates’ stated views on foreign governments.
For instance, Ted Cruz appears to believe that any state with a record of human rights abuses does not deserve the privilege of doing business with America. As he put it this evening, what President Obama is doing this week in Cuba is pretty much the same thing he did with Iran: alienating our allies and emboldening our enemies.
“What this will do is this will strengthen the repressive regime,” he told Wolf Blitzer. The same sentiment might be said of China, but saying so would alienate the Republican business elites.
“I have zero interest whatsoever in this,” Ted Cruz said of serving as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential campaign mate.
“We’re seeing Republicans uniting against this campaign,” Cruz said, noting that Lindsey Graham, who once compared choosing to support Cruz to being poisoned.
After playing a clip of Donald Trump calling him “Lyin’ Ted,” and noting his disapproval among evangelical voters.
“Every time Donald gets scared, he begins lashing out,” Cruz said. “I will say this - Donald’s campaign, his entire campaign is built on a lie.”
“I understand the people who are supporting Donald - they are frustrated with Washington,” he continued. “But if you’re fed up with Washington, withb the corruption of Washington, then it doesn’t make any sense to support Donald Trump... he is the system.”
“Donald trump has made billions buying influence in Washington; Hillary Clinton has made millions selling influence in Washington.”
“What Obama’s doing in Cuba is actually very much the same as what he’s doing in Iran,” Cruz said, lambasting Barack Obama for opening up relations with Cuba.
“We should be standing up to enemies of America - we shouldn’t be giving billions of dollars to people who hate us,” Cruz said. “What this will do is this will strengthen the repressive regime of the Castros.”
“There is power in standing up and speaking the truth to evil, and what this president does is the opposite,” Cruz concludes.
Frank Gaffney, one of Ted Cruz’s new foreign policy advisors, has said that Barack Obama is a hidden Muslim, that Chris Christie committed an act of treason by hiring a Muslim to a government position, that Saddam Hussein was behind the Oklahoma City bombing and that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the state department - Blitzer asked Cruz whether that’s the kind of person who will be working in a Cruz administration.
Smiling, Cruz said that “folks in the media get really nervous when you actually call out radical Islamic terrorism.”
“He’s endured attacks from the left, from the media, because he speaks out against radical Islamic terrorism,” Cruz said. “I don’t know what he said in 2009, I don’t have the full context, I’m not interested in playing the media ‘gotcha’ game.”
“Defending America means defeating radical Islamic terrorism and defeating Isis,” Cruz said. “I’m actually interested in talking about problems in this country - this is silly.”
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Ted Cruz dismissed Donald Trump as likely “unaware” of America’s commitment to America’ Nato allies. “I’ll bet you dollars to donuts Donald has no idea about that,” Cruz said.
“That is so hopelessly naive, and what Donald Trump has said is that he would unilaterally surrender to Russia and Putin - give Russia a massive foreign policy victory - and abandon Nato,” Cruz said. “When you saw leaders of the world marching with Paris, and singularly absent was America... that reflects Obama’s leading from behind, and Trump’s foreign policy is Obama-Hillary leading from behind.”
Tonight, John Kasich and Ted Cruz are once again using a national news platform to attempt to beat back the tide of Donald Trump’s candidacy.
The only thing missing is the supporting role from Fox News showing high-definition graphics of Trump’s flip-flopping. CNN of course would never do that, but it is doing a bang-up job of enabling the co-conspirators to frame their policy views as all things anti-Trumpian.
Next thing you know, someone will admit to liking Cruz.
“Today, at Aipac, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton before him promised to move the embassy [to Jerusalem],” Cruz said, of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. “The difference is that when I promise to do something, I do something.”
“When I say it, I say it taking the consequences into account - it’s not just empty campaign rhetoric,” Cruz said. “Moving the embassy to Jerusalem makes a statement that America is back.”
“The era of appeasement under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy is over,” Cruz concluded.
Ted Cruz joins Wolf Blitzer on CNN town hall
On the heels of a speech at Aipac that criticized Donald Trump’s former stance of “neutrality” on the issue of Israeli-Palestinian relations, Ted Cruz doubled down on declaring that Trump is insufficiently pro-Israel.
“What that suggests is that he buys into the moral equivalency that many in the media pitch,” Cruz said of Trump’s previous stance. “If you think that the state of Israel is somehow morally equivalent to terrorists...”
“The Palestinian Authority is in a so-called unity government with Hamas, a terrorist organization,” Cruz said. “I’m happy to try to broker a deal from the beginning - but the difference is that you need a president who stands with Israel, who doesn’t accept this moral equivalence.”
“What Donald Trump does is the same thing that Hillary Clinton does.”
Anderson Cooper asks John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, about Donald Trump’s floating of the idea that there would be riots in Cleveland if his nomination is denied him. “This would happen under your watch - are you planning on calling the Ohio National Guard?”
“We always manage events where we think there could be problems the best we can,” Kasich said. “But that kind of language is not acceptable... We have to be better than that kind of language.”
“You’re the only Republican who beats Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup,” and yet the majority of Republicans want John Kasich to drop out, Cooper noted.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to have enough delegates to win the nomination before the convention,” Kasich said. “Delegates are gonna think about two things: Who can win? I’m the only one who can win in a general election. And number two: Who can be president?”
After playing a robocall of Mitt Romney encouraging Utah voters to vote for Ted Cruz and telling voters that “a vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump,” Kasich was unhappy.
“How do you come out one week and say he’s got a great record and the next week...” Kasich trailed off. “I don’t get this - are we thinking about just the Republican nomination?”
“There’s zero change I would be vice president for either of them - zero. Less than zero,” Kasich said, of serving on the ticket with either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.
Here is John Kasich, first of the five interviewees, telling the truth about Libya, signaling a willingness to poke Hillary Clinton’s soft underbelly. He said that it was a mistake to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and pinned Libya’s current malaise firmly on the former secretary of state.
“Any time you start getting in the middle of these kind of problems directly, which is what we did, you create problems,” he said.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper appears to be stunned that a Republican candidate for the presidency would suggest a dictator be left in power. It was a softball question that turned into a line drive down the middle.
John Kasich, on whether Donald Trump is ready to lead:
That’s up to the people to decide.
“Under your presidency, would companies [like Airbnb] be forced out of Cuba?”
“I don’t want to expand any more - I’d have to think about exactly what I’d do,” Kasich said.
Cooper asked Kasich whether he would intervene with troops on the ground in the Libyan civil war to defeat Isis’s presence there.
“We should have left Qaddafi stay there - he was cooperating with us, and by knocking him out we turned this into the Wild West,” Kasich said, criticizing Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
“Anytime you mess in a civil war, any time you start to get in the middle of these problems directly, which is what we did, you’re gonna create problems,” Kasich said, saying that he would not have intervened in the Libyan civil war.
“To have a huge troop presence there, for a long time, I don’t think makes sense.”
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“Is experience in making deals - does it transfer to statesmanship?” Cooper asks, referring to Donald Trump, who has no political experience.
“Frankly, when you’re a politician, people wonder if you can transfer that experience to business - and I did,” Kasich said, emphasizing his history as a successful banker after he left Congress to work for the now-defunct investment bank Lehman Bros.
“I’m the only one that has the legislative, and the executive, and the business experience in the race,” Kasich concluded.
John Kasich joins Anderson Cooper on CNN town hall
On the heels of the Ohio governor’s speech in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) conference in Washington, DC, anchor Anderson Cooper asked John Kasich whether Donald Trump is strong enough of an ally for Israel.
“Thirty-five years I’ve supported Israel - we’ve got to be clear to strengthen NATO... we’re providing them with the lethal defensive equipment that we need,” Kasich said. “We don’t want to ever put them in a position where they don’t have superiority.”
“I want to make sure that they’re strong and the strongest in the region,” Kasich said. “I’m told today that there is some progress with the Palestinians on keeping some of the violence in check. My whole point, Anderson, in regard to Israel and the Middle East is stability. It’s a matter of getting through each day with a lid on things.”
“It’s easy to make a lot of statements - but when you have a lot of experience in this matter, which I have... you learn to choose your words carefully, and I think today that I was very strong in that speech.”
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Welcome to the Guardian's 'final five' live blog
Good evening, and welcome to the Guardian’s live blog of CNN’s “Final Five” presidential forum, a first-of-its-kind town hall event where the five remaining presidential candidates from both major political parties will join CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer on the same stage – albeit, not at the same time.
Four of the candidates – former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Texas senator Ted Cruz, Ohio governor John Kasich and New York businessman Donald Trump – will be live in-studio, with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders joining the broadcast via satellite from Salt Lake City.
Coming on the heels of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) conference meeting in Washington DC, where each of the four candidates planning to appear in-studio spoke today, the town hall will likely feature a wide range of foreign-policy questioning, particularly of candidates who used the speech to poke at their unnamed rivals. Clinton, for example, implicitly compared Trump’s candidacy to the rise of Adolf Hitler, while Cruz mentioned in an aside that candidates who have pledged neutrality on the issue of Israel weren’t true allies of the Jewish state.
As for nuts and bolts of tonight’s event:
- The event will air from 8-11 pm ET on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español.
- The town hall event will be hosted by CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer.
- The event will take place just before the so-called “Western Tuesday” primary contests in Arizona, Utah and, for the Democrats, Idaho.
- Each candidate will be be individually interviewed in the CNN Election Center in Washington, DC, with the exception of Sanders, who will be interviewed from the campaign trail.
In addition to myself – Scott Bixby – tonight’s live blog will feature contributions from Ben Jacobs and John Stoehr.
To catch up with today’s political news before the town hall event, be sure to check out the Guardian’s minute-by-minute coverage of today’s campaign events in our liveblog:
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