In just about every presidential election in the last 40 years, both parties were working on unifying for the general election by April. But 2016 is different.
Even the relatively gentle Democratic nominating contest grew nastier this weekend. Once reluctantly engaged in a debate both seemed to treat as unpleasant but brief required exercise, the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns now seem to fight in good part out of sheer animus.
On the GOP side, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, buddies until January, waged war this weekend in Wisconsin in what is shaping up as pivotal primary contest.
Trump complained he is “discriminated” against and accused the Republican Party of illegal acts intended to deny him convention delegates. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus countered by making the rounds on Sunday shows to deliver, despite a mild tone, a stern rebuke warning to Trump to alter his tone and stop threatening to bolt the party.
Meanwhile, a massive leak of documents from a Panama law firm that specialized in a helping foreigners set up shell companies based in Panama to secretly hold financial assets drew headlines Sunday. The leak exposed suspected corrupt activity and secret accounts held hundreds of politicians, criminals and others ranging from Russian President Vladimir Putin to international soccer officials to Iceland’s Prime Minister.
Trump’s abortion journey continues
Trump approaches Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary battered. He is emerging from a week that saw his campaign manager arrested for battery and his reputation for straight talk tarnished by his adoption and quick dismissal of a dizzying array of abortion positions.
It may be impossible for anyone who did not follow Trump’s twists heading into an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” to ever understand Trump’s stumbling course through five or more positions on the issue. Who, in the future, would parse the temporal confusion of these events?: Trump’s spokeswoman on Saturday tried to walk back Trump’s argument, before it even aired in full Sunday, that laws allowing abortion should remain in place, even as Trump himself, speaking about the previously taped but still-to-air interview, declared: “What I said was perfect.”
In a week, Trump went from calling for women who have abortions to face punishment to calling for leaving pro-choice laws in place. The upshot is a muddle with just one real takeaway: No one, least of all Donald Trump, has any idea how he would approach abortion as president.
Trump’s week also included an interview with the Washington Post in which he predicted a severe recession, urged Americans to avoid the stock market and aired an inflated estimate of the unemployment rate that has been repeatedly debunked.
Claws come out in Badger State:
Trump voiced confidence, but he appears anxious for a win in Wisconsin that would buttress his claim he can shake off his recent stumbles. Short of showing Americans what a cheesehead hat would do to his hairdo, Trump is pulling out all stops in Wisconsin. Trump held three rallies on Saturday alone in a bid to catch Cruz, who polls show holding a small lead.
The state is a virtual must-win for Cruz, because Trump is in position to sweep up most of the delegates in his home state of New York.
Faced with plummeting numbers with female voters, Trump conceded his attack on rival Cruz’s wife’s appearance was a mistake. He also pressed female backers into action. Not only Sarah Palin, whose 2008 mojo is missing, but Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and for the first time, Trump’s wife Melania, are hitting the trail on his behalf.
A Trump aide launched a exuberant, odd and fact-challenged attack on Cruz Saturday. On Sunday and Trump lashed out at Ohio Gov. John Kasich, demanding the Ohio Governor drop out. “He’s taking my votes,” Trump said.
Cruz, meanwhile, claimed “people are waking up” and argued Trump’s struggles on abortion represent “a liberal trying to say what he thinks conservatives want to hear.”
Cruz gains in national delegate fight:
Cruz crushed Trump Sunday in North Dakota, winning election of 18 backers among the state’s 25 convention delegates. Cruz’s campaign has also appeared to outdo Trump’s in Louisiana and Tennessee, gaining delegates after the front-runner won in both states. The results, though they appear in line with party rules and local laws, has left Trump and his backers crying foul.
“It could be illegal, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said Sunday of the Bayou State delegate fighting.
Trump v. GOP:
While Trump suggested the party whose presidential nomination he is close to capturing is breaking the law to stop him, Ben Carson, his former rival turned endorser, said Sunday that Republican Party leaders would prefer Clinton in the White House to Trump.
“The establishment Republicans would prefer to see someone like Hillary Clinton than they would Donald Trump,” Carson claimed Sunday in a radio appearance in New York City.
The former neurosurgeon himself, however, gave Trump less than a full-throated endorsement.
“Are there better people?” Carson asked. “Probably.”
“He has some major defects. There’s no question about it, Carson said before calling Trump the best candidate at a time when “no one believes in government anymore.”
Trump’s shots at the party, and threats to abandon it if he feels he is mistreated, drew a response Sunday from Priebus, who used appearances on multiple Sunday shows to warn Trump to tone down his rhetoric, dismiss Trump’s threat to bolt the party and warn Trump’s threat to do so is harming his chances of winning the nomination, which may require wining in a contested convention.
The general election “is a little bit different and the message has to be very broadly based,” Priebus said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Our party is the party of the open door and the only way we’re gonna win is by adding people.”
“We’re operating in a pretty confined space,” he warned.
Priebus dismissed reluctance by all three Republican candidates’ to stick by pledges to back the eventual nominee as “posturing.” But he also issued close to a threat to Trump, arguing the front-runner’s talk of running outside the party is hurting his bid to win the nomination.
In a separate appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Priebus said Trump’s threats to mount a third-party bid if he is denied the nomination, “have consequences,” hurting his bid to secure the Republican nomination.
“When you make those kinds of comments, and you want people to fall in line for you, it makes it more difficult,” the RNC head said.
A Republican official said it was fair to conclude Priebus’ comments aimed mostly at Trump. “You can’t bash the group of folks you want to lead,” the official said Sunday.
No apologies, tougher tone for Democrats:
Clinton’s angry reaction last week to an environmental activist who pressed her to reject fossil fuel industry contributions set the tone for a nasty weekend between the Democratic campaigns.
“I am so sick, so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about this,” Clinton said.
The former secretary of state told the activist, in a point also noted by fact-checkers, that she receives contributions from people, not oil and gas or coal companies themselves.
Sanders responded by repeating his campaign’s charges that Clinton is compromised by her support from those and other industries that offer her financial support. He said Clinton owes him an apology.
“We are not lying,” Sanders said Sunday. “We are telling the truth.”
Clinton’s camp says Sanders’ increasingly direct questioning of Clinton’s credibility belies his claim that his campaign is focused on policy comparisons. A report Sunday seemed to support Clinton’s claims.
The New York Times reported that Sanders campaign aides believe he erred by refusing last fall and winter to attack Clinton for receiving nearly $700,000 in speaking fees from investment bank Goldman Sachs, an issue he frequently faults her on now. Sanders also declined to hit Clinton on her use of a private email account while she was secretary of state. On Sunday he refused to fault a surrogate, the actress Rosario Dawson for attacking Clinton over the email issue.
The article suggests Sanders’ aides believe Clinton’s delegate lead is “all but insurmountable.” That leaves the campaign’s decision to refuse pleas to stop negative attacks on Clinton looking more spiteful than strategic.
Sanders acknowledged Sunday that he needs a win in Wisconsin, where he has a slight polling lead. Clinton is likely to defeat Sanders in New York, her adopted and his former homestate, racking up most of the state’s 291 convention delegates.
The candidates spent the weekend faulting each other over failure to agree on a debate date and venue in New York.
Panama papers:
In what looked Sunday like a leak on par with Wikileaks disclosures and the Edward Snowden’s massive leak of National Security Agency documents, a international group of newspapers released a trove of sensitive documents were leaked from a secretive Panama wealth services firm that helped hundreds of politicians, billionaires and criminals around the world use shell companies based in the Central American country to secretly stash assets.
The nonprofit Center for Public Integrity said the leak “exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.”
The report sparked speculation about corruption linking prime ministers, plutocrats and criminals. The Prime Minister of Iceland walked out of an interview when asked about ties to a tax haven exposed by the leak.
A BBC report said that the firm, Mossack Fonseca, saw 11 million internal documents made public. Many had to do with how the Panama-based company helps the wealthy, including politicians all over the world, escape heavy tax burdens in their home countries.
“The data contains secret offshore companies linked to the families and associates of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s former leader Moammar Gadhafi and Syria’s president Bashar Assad,” said the BBC. The leak reveals a $2 billion offshore money trail that leads to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates.
