Mitt Romney hosts holiday sleepover with Chris Christie, Marco Rubio
2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney will be hosting two rival Republican presidential contenders at a holiday sleepover Friday evening. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will both be staying over at Romney’s property in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, an aide to Romney confirmed. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of what the aide called the private nature of the event, said the former governor and his wife opened their home to the Christie and Rubio families after hearing they would be in town for the holiday weekend. Both candidates are scheduled to march in Wolfeboro’s Fourth of July parade. Christie, who formally jumped into the race this week, told reporters in New Hampshire Friday that he was grateful for the invitation. “I suspect there might be a little politics discussed tonight with Mitt and Ann, but me and Mary Pat, and Andrew and Sarah are really happy that Mitt and Ann invited us to stay with them tonight,” he said, according to video posted by NJ.com. A Rubio spokesman declined to comment. Romney had considered another run for president in 2016, but announced in January that he’d decided against it. His endorsement is now coveted. The Washington Post reported Friday night that Romney would meet next week with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another GOP contender, at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Christie was a top surrogate for Romney’s 2012 campaign and was considered a potential vice presidential contender. But he continues to receive heat in some Republican circles for leaving the trail and embracing President Barack Obama after New Jersey was hit by Superstorm Sandy just before the election. Christie’s campaign also announced some of its top staffers Friday. The campaign will be managed by Ken McKay, who formerly worked for the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Jeb Bush likely earned less, paid higher tax rate than Clintons
In the first presidential race since Democrats cast the GOP nominee as an out-of-touch millionaire, Republican Jeb Bush is aggressively trying to flip the script. Bush released three decades of federal tax returns on Tuesday that show he’s generated a vast fortune since leaving the Florida governor’s mansion. But they also show that Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton made more in speaking fees and book royalties alone in the past year and a half than Bush and his wife earned overall in the first seven years after he left public office. In an online posting that accompanied Tuesday’s disclosure, Bush added, “One fun fact I learned in this process: I have paid a higher tax rate than the Clintons even though I earned less income.” As part of an effort to show a commitment to personal transparency, Bush posted his personal income tax returns on a website that outlines his work history since 1981. They show he paid an effective federal income tax rate of roughly 36 percent in the past three decades and made roughly $27.7 million in total income between 2007 and 2013. By comparison, the Clintons’ earnings exceeded $30 million combined in speaking fees and book royalties between January 2014 and May 2015, according to a personal financial disclosure Clinton filed earlier this year. In that time, the Clintons paid a tax rate of more than 30 percent. Ron Weiser, a former finance chairman at the Republican National Committee, said Bush’s actions are aimed not at his competition for the GOP nomination but at Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. “I think it’s more positioning for the general election than the primary,” Weiser said. “What Bush reports having made is likely much less than what Hillary Clinton has made, and she’s portraying herself as for the little guy.” Republicans have for months sought to make an issue out of Clinton’s hefty speaking fees and her comments that she and Bill Clinton were “dead broke” after leaving the White House, as well as her use of a private email account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Bush is the first of the nearly two-dozen major candidates for president in 2016 to release tax returns, and in doing so, he made public more of his financial history than any past White House candidate. The next best was Republican Bob Dole, who released 29 years of his income tax returns while running in 1996. But Bush also released his returns on the same day the State Department made public the first major batch of emails from Clinton’s private account. He made a point Tuesday of reminding people that more than 275,000 emails sent to and from his private email account during his time as governor have been online for months. “Some of them were funny, some serious, some a little embarrassing,” Bush wrote. “But I put them all out because I wanted people to have a window into my leadership style and be able to see for themselves how I handled the issues facing our state.” To be sure, Bush’s income puts him squarely among the top 1 percent of Americans. He earned nearly $7.4 million in total income in 2013, the year covered by the most recent tax return released, and made an average of nearly $4 million a year between 2007 and 2013. Like Clinton, he has profited mightily from giving paid speeches, earning nearly $10 million by delivering 276 speeches from 2007 to 2015 to groups that included universities, companies, research institutes and economic forums. Bush’s federal tax rate also puts him in the top 1 percent of taxpayers, who paid an average of 30.2 percent between 1981 and 2011, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office. The average for middle-income households in that time was 16.6 percent. That rate stands in sharp contrast to the GOP’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney. He was hammered by critics throughout his campaign for refusing to release more than two years of his tax returns. When he finally did, his filings showed he paid an average tax rate of just 14 percent. The filings Bush posted Tuesday show that he has not aggressively used shelters, deductions or deferred instruments to lower his tax rate as many high earners, Romney among them, often do. That includes donations to charity. Filings from 2007 through 2013 show Bush and his wife gave away $432,000, or a little less than 2 percent of their income on average. “Since I left the governor’s office I have tried to give back – and even though all of us strive to do more – I’m proud of what Columba and I have contributed,” Bush wrote on his site. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Jeb Bush shuffles campaign staff again
For the second time in less than two weeks, Jeb Bush is shuffling the top tier of his 2016 campaign staff, The Wall Street Journal reports. The job of political director, expected to go to Kentucky-based consultant Scott Jennings, will instead be filled by David James, senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and helped lead the Pennsylvania Republican Party. “After a successful announcement where Jeb really laid out how he is uniquely prepared to fix the problems in Washington, we are happy to be building out a political operation with David, Scott and the rest of the team that will spread that message in the primary and caucus states,” said Tim Miller, a spokesman for Bush.
High stakes for Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio in Florida presidential primary
Leading Republican presidential prospects faced off at an event Tuesday in battleground Florida, a state that could prove pivotal to the Florida heavyweights seeking the nomination, not to mention any rival who manages to win here instead. Jeb Bush, a former two-term Florida governor, and Florida’s junior Sen. Marco Rubio, were the home-state stars at a GOP economic gathering that drew a half dozen White House hopefuls to a Disney World convention center – Rubio, tied up by Senate business, appeared by video. They are so heavily favored in the March 15 primary next year that some rivals are considering bypassing Florida’s race. But they showed up Tuesday. Rubio offered the audience an indirect but unmistakable barb at Bush, who spoke later. “While our economy is transforming, our policies and our leaders are not,” Rubio said. “Our outdated leaders continue to cling to outdated ideas.” The 44-year-old Republican did not name Bush or Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. But the implication was clear in a 2016 campaign that contrasts a group of younger political leaders and the two older figures whose families have dominated national politics for decades. “It’s kind of hard to imagine that my good friend, Marco, would be critical of his good friend, Jeb,” a sarcastic Bush said with a smile after acknowledging to reporters there would be “elbows and knees” thrown in the race. “This isn’t Tiddlywinks we’re playing.” He continued: “If I’m a candidate, I want to be the guy to beat.” Tuesday’s speaking program also featured former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Despite their appearance, many campaigns are weighing whether to spend time and money in the state Bush and Rubio call home. Other than the Florida pair, none who showed up Tuesday has begun to establish teams of operatives and activists on the ground in Florida. Many are already working to temper expectations, while realizing they cannot ignore Florida altogether – both for its abundance of wealthy donors and its status as a must-win swing state in the general election. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tried to walk back recent comments he might avoid the Florida primary should he run for president. Bush and Rubio “certainly would have a competitive advantage,” he said. “But if I didn’t think I could compete, I wouldn’t be here today.” He ticked off a list of personal and political connections to Florida. Florida could be decisive in the Republican race. The Florida Legislature recently moved the state’s primary to March 15, the earliest date the Republican National Committee allows for states that award all of their delegates to the primary winner. States voting before then must award their delegates proportionately. The shift was seen as a move to help Bush or Rubio, one of whom would claim the state’s trove of delegates by winning Florida. Even so, with other states voting first, nearly half of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination will have already been awarded by the time Florida voters weigh in. That makes Florida particularly important for Bush or Rubio. Other contenders, Perry and Huckabee among them, are shaping a strategy focused on early-voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina, hoping to build momentum that could translate down the line in Florida. Bush and Rubio are by no means guaranteed a Florida victory. They face strong competition in the earlier states. And Brian Ballard, who led Florida fundraising for John McCain and Mitt Romney, said “a lot of guys are in striking distance” of Rubio and Bush even in Florida. The demands of competing in Florida will require tough choices by the larger field. It costs about $1.5 million a week to run statewide television ads, far more than in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. “Florida’s an expensive state, it’s a winner-take-all state, and how much of your resources you dedicate to it is a nightmare decision for the operatives and those who advise the candidates,” said former Florida GOP chairman Al Cardenas, now a Bush supporter. Yet, as Tuesday’s event showed, top-tier candidates will not ignore Florida altogether in the coming months. Huckabee reminded Florida voters that Bush and Rubio aren’t the only Florida residents in the race. The former Arkansas governor now lives in the Panhandle, and referred to himself as “someone who is like a lot of other people in America – now a Floridian.” He also heaped praised on Gov. Rick Scott‘s economic leadership, acknowledging an ulterior motive: “Anything I could do to suck up to him and his donors by God I’m going to do,” Huckabee said with a smile. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Jeb Bush’s tough week exposes challenges for his likely 2016 bid
Jeb Bush worked his way through the dim hallway of an Arizona resort for hours, shuttling from room to room and meeting with dozens of Republican officials, many for the first time. He was in need of a political reset. For days, he had offered confusing answers to questions about the war in Iraq. He had disappointed Republicans in Iowa, the leadoff state in the nomination chase. And, for a moment, he had forgotten he wasn’t yet a 2016 presidential candidate. Only weeks earlier, donors willing to give millions to put him in the White House were coming to see him at an opulent Miami Beach hotel. Now it was Bush seeking the private gatherings, on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee meeting. The former Florida governor was trying to recover from what was undeniably his worst week in politics since announcing he was considering a run for the White House. “It’s the one thing you have to learn in a campaign,” said Matt Borges, the Ohio Republican Party chairman, as he emerged from a private session. “How to fall down and get up.” Interviews with dozens of RNC members, Bush donors, early state supporters and strategists show: —concerns with his skills as a campaigner. —unease that his designation as a front-runner has yet to materialize in polls. —worries that while they know the Bush name, they don’t yet know this Bush outside of Florida. “In this cycle, there’s less and less off-Broadway. And for Jeb Bush, there’s no off-Broadway,” said Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. But none of the Republicans interviewed by The Associated Press said Bush had been irreparably damaged. His name recognition and fundraising operation make him a force in the GOP contest. “But I don’t know anybody who ever said in this cycle there’s an untouchable front-runner,” said Ron Kaufman, a Bush supporter who helped arrange some of the meetings in Arizona. Bush’s tough week began with a Fox News interview that included a question about the Iraq war begun by his brother. When President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, he cited intelligence that showed the country had weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence later was found to be faulty, and no such weapons were uncovered. Over the course of 72 hours, Jeb Bush said he would have ordered the invasion, based on the intelligence presented at the time; claimed he misunderstood the interviewer’s question; then said he would have done something different but refused to say what that might be. On Thursday, he finally answered the original question. “If we’re all supposed to answer hypothetical questions, knowing what we know now, what would you have done? I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq,” he said. The episode demonstrates Bush’s determination to chart his own path in a family of presidents and avoid publicly judging the policies his father and brother pursued. “I’m not going to go out of my way to say that my brother did this wrong or my dad did this wrong,” Bush said this past week. “It’s just not going to happen.” Bush’s answers about Iraq prompted a wave of commentary from his likely Republican rivals, each eager to show how they’re different with a not-yet-a-candidate still perceived by many as an early front-runner. “If we don’t learn the lesson in Iraq, you don’t understand the lessons that we should learn also from Libya and Syria,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said in an interview with the AP. Bush’s response also fueled Democrats’ preferred narrative of the former Florida governor: that he’s an apologist for a brother who is viewed favorably by less than a third of Americans six years after leaving office. Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who fought in Iraq and criticizes the war, said reports that Bush considers his older brother an adviser on Middle East issues “makes me question even more if he has the judgment to be president.” Amid all the talk about Iraq, Bush also slipped up for a moment about his candidacy. He’s not yet formally declared his intention to run for president, and saying he’s still thinking about it keeps Bush on the right side of campaign finance rules. Yet after a town hall-style meeting in Nevada on Wednesday, Bush said, “I’m running for president in 2016,” before quickly catching himself, noting, “if I run.” Kaufman and other Bush supporters concede Bush had a challenging week, comparing his tight knit but still growing political operation to a baseball team in spring training. While Bush has a small number of experienced advisers, his decision to put off his formal entry into the campaign until at least June has left them unable to mobilize quickly and respond to problems. But perhaps more than anything, Bush’s week underscored a quiet concern among some Republicans about a candidate who last ran for office 13 years ago: He’s rusty. “He hasn’t been a candidate for anything for years,” said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire-based Republican who advised former President George W. Bush. By Saturday, Bush was able to joke about the issue, which was missing earlier in the week, a sign of a candidate recovering from a blunder. Told by a voter at a town hall in Iowa he hadn’t slipped up at all in the Fox News interview, Bush fessed up with a line that drew laughs. “I misstepped, for sure. I answered a question that wasn’t asked. That’s just what happened,” Bush said, shrugging. “It was a great answer, by the way. But it wasn’t to the question that was asked.” While Bush’s family name and cadre of wealthy donors fuel the perception he is a front-runner for the nomination, early polling suggests voters in key states aren’t buying into the narrative. But polls this early in a presidential campaign are poor predictors of eventual outcomes, and Bush hopes to regain his stride during a weekend trip to Iowa and stops next week
Rick Perry to say June 4 if he’ll run again for President
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will say whether he is running for president at an announcement next month in Dallas. The longest-serving governor in Texas history has spent months traveling in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as he gears up for a second White House bid. Perry’s wife, Anita, tweeted the first word of Perry’s plan for an announcement and then emailed supporters about it. “America is facing a time of testing, and it’s clear that we need principled leadership and an optimistic vision to see us through after eight years of the Obama Administration,” she wrote. A spokesman said Friday Perry is not ready to declare his candidacy. “He’s announcing his intentions on June 4,” Perry spokesman Travis Considine said in Washington, where he was traveling with Perry. “He has not said what he’ll be announcing. You’ll have to stay tuned.” Asked if he knew whether Perry had made up his mind, senior adviser Jeff Miller said, “I do know that,” but refused to give any details. When Perry got into the 2012 presidential race, he announced his campaign in South Carolina. He entered as a potential front-runner but flamed out after a series of blunders, including an infamous “oops” moment when Perry couldn’t remember, during a GOP debate, the name of the third Cabinet agency he wanted to eliminate. Perry left office in January and is facing a criminal abuse-of-power indictment in Austin for threatening in 2012 to veto state funding for public corruption prosecutors and then doing so. Besides maintaining his travel schedule, Perry has been studying with policy experts in an effort to make a stronger impression than he did in his first presidential run. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
GOP wrestling with too many ’16 prospects for a TV debate
Never have more than 10 candidates taken the stage for a televised Republican presidential debate. Wish the GOP luck in trying to keep it that way. With the party’s first debate set for August, Republicans must decide to either allow what could become a nationally televised circus act, or figure out how to fairly whittle down a field likely to include eight current or former governors, four senators, two accomplished business executives and a renowned neurosurgeon. More than a half-dozen contenders have already begun to lobby party officials for access in a debate season that could be unlike any other. The GOP has an advantage in drawing “one of the most diverse, broad” fields it’s ever had, said Saul Anuzis, a former Republican National Committee member from Michigan. “But what if by the first debate we still have 10 to 15 viable candidates? That’s going to be a zoo.” Part of the problem is basic math. In a 90-minute debate featuring so many candidates, there would be only enough time for opening and closing statements and two, maybe three questions — with no time left over for the interaction between candidates that makes for an actual debate. Thus, a process filled with opportunity as the GOP seeks to highlight its diverse crop of candidates, but also fraught with risk as some of the traditional ways of making the cut could exclude some who have won statewide office, not to mention the only woman and African-American in the field. “This is the political equivalent of breaking an atom open,” said Republican National Committee strategist Sean Spicer. Worried they might be left out, several candidates are encouraging the RNC to consider creative options, including debate “heats.” Brad Todd, an adviser to the super PAC backing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, is pushing RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to hold two 90-minute debates on consecutive nights featuring different groups of candidates. Rick Santorum, the runner-up in the 2012 Republican primary contest, floated the same idea as he visited with RNC officials in Arizona this week. “I am concerned about potentially a large field and any attempt to try to squeeze that field down to the preferred group,” Santorum said. “If you drew straws to the two different debates, I guarantee you you’d have good people in both debates that would draw audiences.” Others are privately pressing party leaders to allow for the broadest participation possible in the first debate, set for this August in Cleveland. Businessman and TV personality Donald Trump is among those whose advisers have spoken directly with Priebus in recent days. “Selfishly, the networks would put me on because I get great ratings,” said Trump, who has launched a presidential exploratory committee. “We spoke to Reince today and they want me on.” Yet Trump’s place on the debate stage is by no means assured. There is broad agreement that participants must be announced candidates and reach an undetermined threshold in national polling, with final criteria to be approved by the television networks partnering with the party to host 12 debates between August and March. There are currently eight contenders who poll consistently at or above 5 percent: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. While Trump typically polls close to 5 percent when included in surveys, there are several high-profile prospects who do not. Among them: former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former technology executive Carly Fiorina. Organizers are also considering factors such as campaign and super PAC fundraising, experience in office, polling in the early voting states and the desire to have as diverse a field on stage as possible. Spicer said Friday the RNC opposes any consideration of race or sex as criteria, but some party officials are particularly focused on elevating Fiorina, the only woman in the Republican field. The overwhelming front-runner on the Democratic side is Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Sex should not be one of the criteria that the committee uses, and I’m quite confident I’ll be on the debate stage,” Fiorina, who is drawing roughly 1 percent in national polls, told reporters this week during the RNC’s spring meeting in Phoenix. Kasich supporters, meanwhile, are incredulous that a two-term governor from a must-win swing state could be excluded. “If they don’t put him in the debate, there’s going to be some explaining to do,” said Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
George Stephanopoulos will not moderate Republican debate
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos won’t moderate a Republican presidential debate next winter, part of the fallout from reports that the network’s top political anchor contributed $75,000 over a three-year period to the Clinton Foundation. Stephanopoulos voluntarily stepped away from the Feb. 6 debate, ABC News spokeswoman Heather Riley said Thursday. It is one of nine debates sanctioned by the Republican National Committee. The co-host of Good Morning America and host of the Sunday morning public affairs program This Week earlier had apologized for not disclosing his contributions to his employer and viewers. The three donations of $25,000 each in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were made to the foundation set up by former President Bill Clinton because of the organization’s work on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, Stephanopoulos said. The network news division said in a statement that “we stand behind him.” Some Republicans have harbored long suspicions about Stephanopoulos because of his past life as a top aide to Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign and in the White House afterward. Stephanopoulos joined ABC News in 1997, and Riley said the proof of his objectivity as a reporter “is in his work” over 18 years. With Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the issues have been revived for ABC News. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican running for president, told The New York Times that because Stephanopoulos has been close to the Clintons, “that there would be a conflict of interest if he tried to be a moderator of any sort.” The donations to the Clinton foundation were first reported in Politico as $50,000. But in checking back in his records, Stephanopoulos found an additional $25,000 donation in 2012, Riley said. Stephanopoulos has reported on Peter Schweizer‘s book, Clinton Cash, which traces the public involvement of organizations that have donated to the Clinton Foundation. Stephanopoulos interviewed Schweizer on “This Week.” The news anchor said that he thought his contributions were a matter of public record. “However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on the air during the recent news stories about the foundation,” he said. “I apologize.” ABC News, in a statement, agreed that Stephanopoulos was wrong not to notify his bosses and viewers but called it an honest mistake. Besides his regular work on the two programs, Stephanopoulos is ABC News’ chief anchor during major breaking stories and on election nights. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
GOP chairman Reince Priebus: Campaign prep just as important as nominee
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus cautioned GOP faithful on Friday that they won’t recapture the White House if the party gets too obsessed with choosing its nominee while Democrats continue to outpace Republicans on campaign tactics. “We have become a candidate-crazy party to the detriment of all the mechanics,” Priebus told hundreds of GOP donors and activists at a South Carolina party dinner. Describing the 2012 nomination fight as a “total disaster” and a “traveling circus,” Priebus said the Republican National Committee has learned its lesson. The party is spending millions of dollars this year to build a database that will help identify millions of likely Republican voters — an exercise unabashedly modeled after the success of President Barack Obama‘s two national victories. “Now we’re the ones buying the data licenses so that we know who to target and how to target,” Priebus said. “Somebody has to get that done.” The national GOP also condensed the primary calendar and reduced the number of debates, with the party taking a stronger role in choosing the format and moderators. Now, Priebus said, it’s Republican voters’ responsibility to avoid a “slice-and-dice festival” that he said left the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in a weak position as he tried to unseat Obama. The chairman’s warning comes less than nine months before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary start the nominating calendar. South Carolina follows a few weeks later; the winner of the GOP primary here captured every Republican presidential nomination from 1980 to 2008. (Newt Gingrich won South Carolina in 2012.) Home-state Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been traveling in Iowa and New Hampshire, suggested Friday that he was close to launching a formal campaign as he shared the stage with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a declared candidate, and potential candidates Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. “As to what happens in the coming months, get ready,” Graham said. “Get ready for a debate that’s been long overdue within the party.” He later added: “To Iowa and New Hampshire, hello. To South Carolina, you have my heart.” Graham would be considered a long-shot, but his aides and backers believe his foreign policy experience in the Senate, his outspoken advocacy for an aggressive U.S. international presence and his blistering critiques of Obama’s international policy can propel him in a crowded field, amid widespread voter concern about security issues. He hit those themes in his brief remarks. “To our enemies, get ready, because there’s a new way of business coming,” he said. “To our friends, get ready for the America you used to know.” The would-be 2016 rivals avoided any intra-party barbs at the GOP affair. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this country that knows foreign policy better than Lindsey Graham,” said Perry, the former Texas governor. Graham praised Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, as a champion opponent of abortion. Cruz hailed the “incredible array of talent we have in 2016,” then used the praise to mock the Democratic presidential field, which officially consists of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator who has identified himself as socialist. The Democrats’ primary, Cruz said, for now “consists of a wild-eyed socialist with dangerous views on foreign policy … and Bernie Sanders.” South Carolina Republicans will reconvene Saturday, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joining the list of potential candidates taking the stage. The state’s primary was a key victory for Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, in 1988 and his brother, George W. Bush, in 2000. Republished with permission of The Associated Press. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
