Trump rolls unrivaled, Sanders takes West Virginia

WASHINGTON - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cruised to victory in two more states Tuesday, while Bernie Sanders beat rival Democrat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia to bolster his argument for remaining in the race.

The substantial wins in West Virginia and Nebraska according to early results put Trump ever closer to clinching the 1,237 delegates he needs to be declared the party's nominee at its convention in July.

"Thank you West Virginia!" and "Thank you Nebraska!" Trump said in a pair of tweets.

Now the sole Republican candidate in the contest after his remaining rivals dropped out last week, Trump is transitioning from the fierce primary battles with the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to a general election showdown with Clinton, even amid deep Republican discord about the celebrity billionaire.

He has narrowed his picks for running mate, telling Fox News he is considering five vice president options.

"I think they are excellent," he added. "I'll announce whoever it will be at the convention" in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump said.

With Republican concern about their nominee sizzling, a Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday showed Trump closing in on Clinton's lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania -- and overtaking her in swing state Ohio.

No candidate has won the presidential election without taking at least two of those three states.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seized on the polls as a sign that Trump will mount a strong challenge against Clinton.

"It's a long time 'til November, but the early indications are that our nominee is likely to be very competitive," McConnell told reporters.

UNYIELDING SANDERS

Despite Clinton's overwhelming delegate lead, Sanders ensured the race would go on with his win in West Virginia, where he was ahead of Clinton by 11 percentage points with about a third of precincts reporting.

With eight contests remaining, "we think we have a good chance to win many of those states," Sanders told supporters Tuesday in San Francisco, according to CBS News.

"We hope we can win some of them with big majorities."

Quinnipiac's poll also found that Sanders, a democratic socialist who commands an enthusiastic following on the left, would do better against Trump than Clinton in all three states if he were the Democratic nominee.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator, who defeated Clinton in Indiana, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of state's campaign.

Although almost certain to win the Democratic nomination -- she is only about 160 delegates short of that goal -- Clinton's ability to excite young and white working-class Democrats going into the general election has been put in doubt by Sanders's primary successes.

But she has used her campaign stops in Appalachia -- including an event in Kentucky, which holds its Democratic primary on May 17 -- as opportunities to win over blue-collar white voters.

"If I am so fortunate enough to be the nominee, I'm looking forward to debating Donald Trump come the fall," she said in Louisville.

"We can't be scapegoating and finger-pointing and blaming and demeaning and degrading and insulting our Americans."

In coal-mining West Virginia, Clinton shot herself in the foot in March by telling voters in neighboring Ohio she would slash mining jobs and put coal companies "out of business."

She later apologized and suggested her remarks were misunderstood, but in a state where livelihoods have hinged on coal for generations, many are unconvinced.

TRUMP CHALLENGES

While Clinton still has Sanders to worry about, Trump faces a rebellion within the Republican leadership over the insulting tone and shifting substance of his candidacy.

House Speaker Paul Ryan last week announced he was "not ready" to support Trump, a rare rebuke that put the power struggles within the Republican Party on very public display.

Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders were due to huddle with Trump Thursday in Washington, in highly anticipated meetings that could help gauge GOP support for the real estate tycoon.

McConnell said he expected "a cordial meeting to discuss the way forward."

It may be thorny. A defeated Cruz ruled out a third-party bid, but when pressed by reporters as he returned to the US Senate he declined to say whether he would endorse Trump.

Rubio said he would "support the Republican nominee" but would not offer an outright endorsement.

The Republican establishment is still reeling from Trump's hostile takeover of the party, aghast at positions he's taken on trade, foreign policy and taxes that fly in the face of conservative dictums.

But Trump has shown no sign of backing down, and some Republicans are looking to heal, embrace the nominee and turn to defeating Clinton in November.

"I think the party needs to come together," said Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama says journalists partly to blame for tone of US presidential race

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday laid some of the blame for the tone of the presidential campaign on political journalism that has been pinched by shrinking newsroom budgets and cheapened by a focus on retweets and likes on social media.

In a speech to a journalism awards dinner, Obama urged journalists to ask tougher questions of the candidates vying to be president. He voiced dismay over the vulgar rhetoric, violence at rallies and unrealistic campaign pledges that have continually grabbed headlines, in a thinly veiled reference to Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

"The number one question I'm getting as I travel around the world or talk to world leaders right now is, 'What is happening in America?' about our politics," Obama said, describing international alarm over whether the United States will continue to function effectively.

"It's not because around the world people have not seen crazy politics. It is that they understand America is the place where you can't afford completely crazy politics," he said.

"When our elected officials and our political campaigns become entirely untethered to reason and facts and analysis, when it doesn't matter what's true and what's not, that makes it all but impossible for us to make good decisions on behalf of future generations," Obama said.

He said the media landscape has changed since his first presidential campaign in 2008, when "there was a price if you said one thing and then did something completely different.

"The question is, in the current media environment, is that still true? Does that still hold?" he said.

He said news organizations have a responsibility to dig deeper despite the faster pace of "this smartphone age" and steep financial pressures in the news business.

Voters "would be better served if billions of dollars in free media came with serious accountability, especially when politicians issue unworkable plans or make promises they can't keep," Obama said.

The New York Times earlier this month reported that Trump has so far earned almost $1.9 billion worth of media coverage, compared with $313 million for the next closest Republican challenger, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and $746 million for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Cruz victorious in first of five Saturday election contests

Washington (AFP) - US Senator Ted Cruz struck first in the series of five presidential nomination contests held Saturday, besting Donald Trump in Kansas and boosting his claim as the most viable alternative to the billionaire frontrunner.

With nearly half of the votes counted, networks called the midwestern state for Cruz, who earned some 49 percent of the vote, doubling up on Trump who was second with 25 percent. Senator Marco Rubio was in third, followed by Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Kansas and the other contests will provide the first test of whether the Republican establishment's desperate effort to halt Trump, led this week by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, is having any effect among voters.

The brash real estate mogul Trump is ahead in the all-important delegate count for the Republicans, having won 10 of the 15 states that have voted to date in the process that determines the nominees for both parties.

But Cruz's win is a reminder that while Trump still appears to be the likely nominee, it is by no means inevitable.

"God bless Kansas!" Cruz told a campaign rally in Idaho, upon learning that he was projected the winner.

"What we're seeing is conservatives coming together... and standing as one behind this campaign."

The GOP race has been winnowed down to four men: political outsiders Trump and Cruz, and the more mainstream candidates Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Many in the Republican establishment are in virtual panic over whether anyone can stop Trump's march.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is well ahead of rival Senator Bernie Sanders, hoping to expand her lead as she inches closer to securing the nomination.

Clinton and Sanders do battle Saturday in Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska, while the Republicans are contesting Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine.

The former secretary of state is expected to dominate in Louisiana, the weekend's biggest prize, because of its large African-American vote.

But Sanders could bounce back in the other two states -- plus Maine, which holds its Democratic caucus Sunday -- because they have largely white populations, a demographic with which Sanders has done well.

Saturday's races are wedged between far more consequential contests: the dozen states that voted on "Super Tuesday" March 1 and the big battles on March 15, when many Republican races, including in Rubio's Florida and Kasich's Ohio, become winner-take-all affairs.

Cruz received an added boost Saturday when he won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a prominent gathering of grass roots far-right activists.

Cruz finished first with 40 percent, followed by Rubio with 30, Trump with 15 and Kasich at eight percent.

Trump made waves when he cancelled a scheduled Saturday morning appearance at CPAC near Washington, opting instead to hold a rally in Wichita, Kansas.

A woman holds a sign as she waits for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at a rally on …
The move angered members of the American Conservative Union which hosts CPAC.

"I think it was a big mistake for Donald Trump not to be here," ACU chairman Matt Schlapp told CNN.

- 'Establishment is against us' -
Trump told the Wichita crowd that Romney, who on Thursday called Trump "a fraud," was a "loser" who should have defeated President Barack Obama.

"It's the establishment. The establishment is against us," Trump said.

Rubio, seen by many political observers as the best hope to defeat Trump, issued a forceful repudiation of the frontrunner, challenging him, like many Republicans have, on his conservative credentials.

Rubio brought the house down at CPAC when he warned about a dire future for Republicans "if the conservative movement is hijacked by someone that's not a conservative."

With Trump's challengers insisting they are in it for the long haul, there is a chance no candidate will rack up the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination before the convention in July.

That would mean a contested or "brokered" convention, a scenario that could turn chaotic, especially if establishment figures seek to somehow actively prevent delegates from coalescing around Trump.

There are 155 delegates at stake in Saturday's Republican races.

Heading into Saturday, Trump led the field with 329 delegates, followed by Cruz with 231 and Rubio with 110. Kasich trailed with 25.

Trump has won 10 state contests, while Cruz has claimed five including Kansas. Rubio has won one.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Jenner's offer to be 'trans ambassador' for Cruz draws some fire

LOS ANGELES - Reality star Caitlyn Jenner's offer to be a "trans ambassador" to U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz drew criticism on Friday from some members of the LGBT community, but major transgender rights organizations stayed out of the fray.

Jenner told gay and lesbian publication The Advocate in an interview posted this week that she admired Cruz despite the social conservative's stance on transgender issues.

The 66-year-old Olympic gold medalist turned television personality called Cruz a "great constitutionalist" and said she would like to advise him on questions relating to her community.

"Yes, trans ambassador to the president of the United States, so we can say, 'Ted, love what you're doing but here's what's going on,'" Jenner, who last year became the most high-profile American to transition to a different gender, told The Advocate.

The muted reaction to Jenner's support for Cruz appeared to show the high level of esteem she enjoys in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. But that did not stop some of its members speaking out.

"Doing my best to not send tweets to a woman I respect for her courage, but dang it, @Caitlyn_Jenner you're killing me with Cruz support!" Chely Wright, the first country music star to come out as gay, wrote in a post on Twitter.

Some in the LGBT community took a more pointed stand, citing Cruz's opposition to same-sex marriage and his criticism of government efforts to allow students to use a bathroom that conforms to their gender identity.

In January, at a campaign stop in Iowa, Cruz said "inflicting" transgender students on teachers by allowing them to use a faculty restroom in line with their gender identity was better than having them share a bathroom with other students, according to video from NBC News.

Zack Ford, the LGBT editor at ThinkProgress, a website affiliated with the left-leaning Center for American Progress, wrote in a post that Jenner's support for Republicans like Cruz taints her "credibility."

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said Jenner's comments highlight the fact a significant share of transgender people are Republicans.

"One would hope that transgender people would support philosophies that are helpful and not harmful to trans people," she said, adding that Jenner might have taken that into consideration before offering her support to Cruz.

A representative for the gay rights group GLAAD declined to comment and a spokeswoman for Cruz could not be reached. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Andrew Hay)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

White House hopefuls Trump, Clinton face first test in Iowa

* Candidates make final push for caucus votes

* First state contests could generate momentum


DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowans kicked off the first of the 2016 U.S. presidential nominating contests on Monday in caucus votes that could bolster or complicate the presidential hopes of the front-runners, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Opinion polls showed Trump, a blunt-speaking billionaire businessman who has never held public office, with a small lead over his closest rival Ted Cruz, a conservative U.S. senator from Texas.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, had a slight edge over insurgent Bernie Sanders, a self-styled democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont.

A large bloc of undecided voters in both parties in Iowa may hold the key to victory, and turnout efforts will be critical. Many supporters of Trump and Sanders are new to the process and disenchanted with traditional politics.

A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Iowa poll on Saturday showed three in 10 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 45 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers were still uncertain.

Iowans begin choosing candidates at 7 p.m. CST (0100 GMT on Tuesday), with results expected within a few hours. The contest is the first of the state-by-state party battles to pick nominees for the Nov. 8 election to succeed President Barack Obama.

A win for Trump could validate an aggressive campaign that has alarmed the Republican establishment, dwarfed the efforts of many seasoned politicians and been marked by controversies such as his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and for a wall along the Mexican border.

Candidates took to social media to encourage their supporters to turn out or contribute funds.

"We can and we will get back to the founding principles that made America great," tweeted Cruz (@tedcruz) with the hashtag #CaucusForCruz.

Clinton's Twitter account (@HillaryClinton) tweeted a code for cell phone owners to receive text message alerts once results arrived.

Trump began the day with a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, saying his lead in opinion polls would not matter if people stayed home. At a later rally in Cedar Rapids, he said his security had warned him there might be protesters with tomatoes, and he responded in typically pugnacious fashion.

"If you see someone in the crowd getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them," he told the crowd.

The Iowa caucuses are the first of the state-by-state contests that lead to the parties' formal presidential nominating conventions in July. The Iowa voter gatherings are a long and sometimes arcane ritual, taking place in 1,100 schools, churches and other public locations across the Midwestern state.

For the winners in Iowa, the prize will be valuable momentum that could stretch for months, while many of the losers on the Republican side could quickly begin dropping by the wayside.

LAST-MINUTE PUSH

The 2016 election is shaping up to be the year of angry voters as disgruntled Americans worry about issues such as immigration, terrorism, income inequality and healthcare, fueling the campaigns of Trump, Sanders and Cruz.

On the Republican side, opinion polls show foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, might win third place in Iowa and stake a claim as the best hope for the party's mainstream.

For the Democrats, Clinton needs a win in Iowa to prevent a potential two-state opening losing streak that would raise fresh questions about a candidate who was considered the clear front-runner just two months ago. Sanders is leading in polls in New Hampshire, the next state to hold a nominating contest.

Clinton began her day at her campaign's south Des Moines field office, where she served roughly 60 volunteers donuts and coffee. An extensive ground operation, much like Obama's as a candidate, has been cited as one of her advantages.

A former U.S. senator and first lady, Clinton often touts her years of experience in politics, and says she will defend much of Obama's legacy. Sanders has attacked from the left and promised to do more than Clinton to help American workers.

Clinton, who lost Iowa in 2008 and went on to lose a protracted primary battle to Obama, told ABC's "Good Morning America" program that it would be different this time, adding, "I think I'm a better candidate."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com