Bernie Sanders’ bid reaches turning point after Northeast losses
Defeated in the Northeast, Bernie Sanders‘ movement for a political revolution is reaching a crossroads even as he vows to campaign against Hillary Clinton through the June primaries and into the Philadelphia convention. The Vermont senator said after losses to Clinton in Tuesday’s primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut that he would now seek as many delegates as possible to “fight for a progressive party platform,” acknowledging that he had only a “very narrow path” to the nomination. “Every person in this country should have the right to vote for whom they want to see as president of the United States and what they want to see the agenda, Democratic agenda, look like,” Sanders said in a phone interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday. “We are going to fight for every delegate and if I do not win, we are going to bring in a whole lot of delegates who are going to be prepared to fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage, for a Medicare for all single-payer program, guaranteed paid family medical leave … almost every delegate that we get gives us more strength in the fight for a progressive agenda.” Sanders won the Rhode Island primary, adding to his trove of more than 1,300 delegates, but his loss in New York and Tuesday’s defeats in the delegate-rich states of Pennsylvania and Maryland is likely to change the focus of his campaign from winning the nomination to one devoted to shaping the Democratic platform, Clinton’s policy agenda and his movement to address income inequality and the campaign finance system. Sanders was campaigning Wednesday in Indiana, which holds its primary next week, and looking ahead to upcoming contests in Oregon and California. He vowed to compete until the final District of Columbia primary in June. Clinton’s campaign and Democratic leaders are watching closely to see if Sanders will continue to raise issues that could damage Clinton’s chances in November or whether he will encourage his youthful following to support Clinton. “I would hope that there is a beginning of a pivot for him to make it really clear to his supporters what’s at stake against the Republicans,” said former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who supports Clinton. Clinton’s allies note that Republican Donald Trump has been co-opting Sanders’ pitch against Clinton, which the businessman acknowledged on Wednesday. “Bernie Sanders has a message that’s interesting. I’m going to be taking a lot of things Bernie said and using it,” Trump said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” ”When he said ‘Bad judgment’ I said, ‘Soundbyte!’” Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Sanders had every right to compete until the end of the primaries as Clinton did in 2008. But he expressed hope Sanders would point out their differences but “not assail her judgment or character anymore.” Rendell, a Clinton supporter, said that could undermine Sanders’ effort to address wealth inequality and campaign finance reform. “If he believes what he’s talking about, he’s got to understand that he’s got to help her by toning it down,” Rendell said. At rallies, Sanders has sent mixed signals during the past week over whether he will ease up on Clinton. He has demanded that Clinton release the transcripts of her lucrative private speeches to Wall Street and critiqued Clinton on issues like trade, the minimum wage and the war in Iraq. But in other events Sanders has largely steered clear of Clinton, focusing instead on Trump. In the AP interview, Sanders bristled when asked if he would continue to contrast his record with Clinton’s. “Of course. I’m getting attacked by Hillary Clinton and her surrogates every damn day. Every day we’re getting attacked and our record is being distorted,” he said. “We are trying to run an issue-oriented campaign and a campaign means that you talk about your record, what you believe in, as opposed to your opponent’s. That’s what Clinton does. Of course we’re going to do that,” he said. There’s also the issue of whether Sanders will urge his supporters to back Clinton. In a town hall on MSNBC on Monday night, Clinton questioned the idea that she needs to adopt parts of Sanders’ platform to win over his supporters, saying that she did not make demands when she lost the primary to President Barack Obama eight years ago. Progressive groups are pressuring Clinton and her Democratic allies to come to their side. Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal group backing Sanders, said Tuesday night the question isn’t whether the senator would win delegates. “It’s whether the Democratic establishment is going to bring our party together by embracing our fight,” he said. Sanders’ supporters want him to fight on. “There’s no reason he should drop out, or anyone should drop how they feel about him right now. If anything, the fact that he’s persevering at this point is inspiring,” said Maddie Harris, 17, of Parkersburg, W.Va., who attended Sanders’ West Virginia rally on Tuesday. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump pulls off clean sweep of 5 Northeast primaries
Donald Trump swept all five Republican primaries Tuesday, a commanding showing across the Northeast that keeps the Republican front-runner on his narrow path to the GOP nomination. Hillary Clinton carried Democratic contests in Maryland and Delaware, the start of what her campaign hoped would be a strong night for the former secretary of state. Trump’s victories came in Maryland, as well as Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. His strong showing was a blow to rivals who are running out of ways to stop the brash billionaire. Clinton aimed to emerge from Tuesday’s contests on the brink of becoming the first woman nominated by a major party. She’s already increasingly looking past rival Bernie Sanders, even as the Vermont senator vows to stay in the race until primary voting ends in June. Sanders spent Tuesday campaigning in West Virginia, where he drew several thousand people to a lively evening rally. He urged his supporters to recognize that they are “powerful people if you choose to exercise that power.” Still, there were some signs that Sanders’ campaign was coming to grips with his difficult position. Top aide Tad Devine said that after Tuesday’s results were known, “we’ll decide what we’re going to do going forward.” Trump’s victories padded his delegate totals, yet the Republican contest remains chaotic. The businessman is the only candidate left in the three-person race who could possibly clinch the nomination through the regular voting process, yet he could still fall short of the 1,237 delegates he needs. GOP rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich are desperately trying to keep him from that magic number and push the race to a convention fight, where complicated rules would govern the nominating process. The Texas senator and Ohio governor even took the rare step of announcing plans to coordinate in upcoming contests to try to minimize Trump’s delegate totals. But that effort did little to stop Trump from a big showing in the Northeast. Cruz spent Tuesday in Indiana, which votes next week. Indiana is one of Cruz’s last best chances to slow Trump, and Kasich’s campaign is pulling out of the state to give him a better opportunity to do so. “Tonight this campaign moves back to more favorable terrain,” Cruz said during an evening rally in Knightstown, Indiana. His event was held at the “Hoosier gym,” where some scenes were filmed for the 1986 movie, “Hoosiers,” starring Gene Hackman as the coach of a small-town Indiana basketball team that wins the state championship. Trump has railed against his rivals’ coordination, panning it as “pathetic,” and has also cast efforts to push the nomination fight to the convention as evidence of a rigged process that favors political insiders. Yet there’s no doubt Trump is trying to lead a party deeply divided by his candidacy. In Pennsylvania, exit polls showed nearly 4 in 10 GOP voters said they would be excited by Trump becoming president, but the prospect of the real estate mogul in the White House scares a quarter of those who cast ballots in the state’s Republican primary. In another potential general election warning sign for Republicans, 6 in 10 GOP voters in Pennsylvania said the Republican campaign has divided the party — a sharp contrast to the 7 in 10 Democratic voters in the state who said the race between Clinton and Sanders has energized their party. The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks. With his three victories Tuesday, Trump will win at least half of the 118 delegates up for grabs in Tuesday’s contests. And he has a chance to win a lot more. In Pennsylvania, Trump collected 17 delegates for winning the state. An additional 54 delegates are elected directly by voters — three in each congressional district. However, their names are listed on the ballot with no information about which presidential candidate they support. Those delegates will attend the GOP convention as free agents, able to vote for the candidate of their choice. Democrats award delegates proportionally, which allowed Clinton to maintain her lead over Sanders even as he rattled off a string of wins in previous contests. According to the AP count, Clinton has 1,946 delegates while Sanders has 1,192. That count includes delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates — party insiders who can back the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their state votes. Clinton’s campaign is eager for Sanders to tone down his attacks on the former secretary of state if he’s going to continue in the race. She’s been reminding voters of the 2008 Democratic primary, when she endorsed Barack Obama after a tough campaign and urged her supporters to rally around her former rival. Ahead of Tuesday’s results, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said that while Sanders has run a “unique and powerful” campaign, he does not believe the Vermont senator will be the party’s nominee. According to exit polls, less than a fifth of Democratic voters said they would not support Clinton if she gets the nomination. The exit polls were conducted in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump bristles at Ted Cruz-John Kasich collaboration
Donald Trump says an extraordinary collaboration between Ted Cruz and John Kasich aimed at unifying the anti-Trump vote in some remaining primaries is a desperate move by “mathematically dead” rivals. Such collusion would be illegal in many industries, the Republican presidential front-runner said, but it’s illustrative of “everything that is wrong in Washington and our political system.” Under the arrangement outlined Sunday, Kasich, the Ohio governor, will step back in the May 3 Indiana contest to let Cruz bid for voters who don’t like Trump. Cruz, a Texas senator, will do the same for Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico. The arrangement does not address the five Northeastern states set to vote Tuesday, where Trump is expected to add to his already overwhelming delegate lead. Yet the shift offers increasingly desperate Trump foes a glimmer of hope in their long and frustrating fight to halt the billionaire’s rise. Trump said in a statement the Cruz-Kasich compact joins two “puppets of donors and special interests” who have no path to the nomination. Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said in a statement explaining the new plans that Trump would be soundly defeated by the Democratic nominee, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. “Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans,” he said. Added Kasich’s chief strategist, John Weaver, “Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee.” The announcement marks a sharp reversal for Cruz’s team, which aggressively opposed coordinating anti-Trump efforts with Kasich as recently as late last week. And the agreement applies only to Indiana, Oregon and New Mexico — three of the 15 states remaining on the Republican primary calendar. As Kasich backs out of Indiana, Cruz promised he would not compete in Oregon on May 17 and New Mexico on June 7. Trump campaigned Sunday in Maryland, which will vote on Tuesday along with Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Speaking to several thousand people in an airplane hangar in Hagerstown, Maryland, Sunday evening, Trump stressed repeatedly that he expects to win the 1,237 delegates needed in the first round of voting in Cleveland to stave off a contested convention. “I only care about the first,” he said. “We’re not going for the second and third and fourth and fifth.” As recently as three days ago Kasich’s campaign announced investments in Indiana, including the opening of two offices and the creation of a campaign leadership team. His campaign on Sunday night canceled a town-hall meeting and gathering in Indianapolis scheduled to watch the results of Tuesday’s primaries. Both campaigns encouraged allied super PACs and other outside groups to “honor the commitments.” On the Democratic side Sunday, underdog Sanders rallied thousands of voters in two New England states and offered mixed signals on how hard he would push his differences with the commanding front-runner, Clinton. The Vermont senator largely steered clear of Clinton at a Rhode Island park, but hours later delivered a sharp critique before more than 14,000 supporters in New Haven, Connecticut. Sanders reiterated his call for Clinton to release transcripts of lucrative Wall Street speeches she delivered after leaving the State Department in early 2013. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
