Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns went on a hiring spree over the last few months of the year, but the amount of minority hires for both campaigns remained steady, according to data provided to Inclusv, a group that monitors and facilitates diversity hiring in Democratic electoral politics.

In a round of data provided to Inclusv Tuesday and provided to BuzzFeed News, the Clinton campaign self-reported that minorities currently make up 30% of its staff, down slightly from 32.2% in October of last year. The Sanders campaign reported minority staff made up 30.9% at the end of 2015, down from 33% in October.

Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign grew to 418 at the end of 2015, up from 193 in October. Black and Hispanic/Latino operatives make up 13.4% and 11.7% of Sanders' operation, respectively.

The Clinton camp had 511 staffers as of last October, but a Clinton aide said the campaign was in the process of compiling the latest accurate number on the size of the staff. In its reporting to Inclusv, Clinton’s campaign did not break its data down by racial composition.

In a statement on the latest findings, Clinton's chief diversity and human resources officer said a diverse workforce remains a top priority.

"The Hillary for America campaign is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity,” Bernard Coleman said. “This commitment is espoused and demonstrated at every level of the campaign. We are deliberative in our actions and diversity is at the forefront of our hiring practices. We know that diversity spurs innovation and best helps us convey our HFA values to all Americans.”

The campaigns chose to self-report the data on diversity hiring at the urging of Inclusv. The Sanders, Clinton, and Martin O'Malley campaigns all reported minority hiring data to Inclusv last October.

Inclusv, which was started by Democratic campaign veterans last year, says that while it’s glad both campaigns’ are sticking to the commitment to self-reporting, it had hoped for better numbers leading up to the nominating contests in Nevada and South Carolina.

Alida Garcia, Inclusv co-founder and executive director, said in an email statement to BuzzFeed News that diversity and inclusion is a daily practice that should show evidence of progress "not a talking point or a few tweets."

“While we applaud the transparency of both campaigns, it's very disappointing to see no forward progress from each on hiring, especially as their surrogates go on TV each day reiterating their priority to engage voters of color as we pivot to South Carolina, Nevada and Super Tuesday,” she said.

Inclusv said it is still encouraging minority candidates seeking to work for one of the campaigns in this election cycle to upload their resumes to its website.

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire voters were supposed to anoint a prophet.

After nine nightmarish months of Donald Trump dominating the GOP race, party stalwarts had hoped Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary would end with the emergence of a consensus establishment standard-bearer ready to take the fight to The Donald. But when the polls closed in the Granite State, the billionaire was celebrating a blowout — while a distant cluster of also-rans jockeyed pathetically between second-, third-, and fourth-place finishes.

In a cast of presidential candidates once hyped as the most dynamic and diverse in the party's history, not one could get within 19 points of Trump. And yet almost all of them declared Tuesday they were determined to soldier on.

(The one exception: Chris Christie, who is heading home to New Jersey where he is expected to drop out.)

Now, as the unruly Republican presidential field decamps for South Carolina, many in the party are predicting a drawn-out and damaging primary fight.

"This race is going to go on a long time, with no obvious winner until April or May," said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "There still is time for the so-called establishment candidate to emerge and make a stand ... but the results of New Hampshire mean it will happen later, rather than sooner."

This wasn't necessarily inevitable. Until last weekend, polls showed voters here flocking to Marco Rubio, as many became convinced he was best equipped to deliver the party from The Donald and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall. But Rubio's jarring onstage performance at Saturday's Republican debate scrambled the race in its final three days — and by the time the votes were counted, the GOP golden boy had plummeted to fifth place.

At Rubio's rally Tuesday night inside the Radisson-Manchester ballroom, a few supporters tried to gin up enthusiasm as the returns that were trickling in showed a neck-and-neck race between Rubio and Jeb Bush. The Marcomaniacs cheered when Fox News showed their guy taking the lead, and they booed when a talking head talked up Jeb. But their excitement never quite caught on with the rest of the crowd. After all, it isn't easy to stay invested in a contest where the trophy is losing to Donald Trump by only 23 points.

When Rubio eventually came onstage to deliver his concession speech, he said he remained "confident" in his campaign, and tried to steel his supporters for the long, tough fight ahead.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

"Not all the days are going to be great days," he told the crowd. "We're not always going to get things the way we want."

Meanwhile, Bush, who successfully vanquished Rubio in the hard-fought battle for fourth place, declared the race "reset."

"This campaign is not dead," he declared triumphantly. "We're going on to South Carolina!"

After an eleventh-hour surge, Ohio Gov. John Kasich ended up eking out a second-place finish here — a surprise development that only added more chaos to the fight for the establishment mantle. A moderate who staked his entire candidacy on New Hampshire, Kasich has little money, scant campaign organization, and limited appeal within the primary electorate. Unlike Rubio or Bush, he stands little chance of clearing the Republican field or compelling prominent party figures to fall in line.

"He's not a viable long-term option for the GOP nomination," said Nick Everhart, an Ohio-based Republican strategist and vocal critic of the governor, arguing that by dragging out his long-shot bid, Kasich will only make it harder for someone else to consolidate establishment support.

"But why be a rational actor after ... the euphoria of a 19-point loss?" Everhart added sarcastically. "It's more fun to dream!"

Further complicating Kasich's path is the fact that there's already another candidate in the race successfully courting moderates: Donald Trump. Much to the chagrin of center-right D.C. Republicans who are dismayed by his vulgar style and appeals to xenophobia, exit polls here showed Trump winning among self-described moderate voters.

Even so, the establishment candidates — Rubio, Bush, and Kasich — continue to show little interest in competing directly with Trump. The prevailing wisdom is that only after these three candidates run out of bullets in their circular firing squad will the survivor be able to turn his attention to The Donald.

As a result, many Republicans are bracing for a bloodbath in South Carolina, where they fear the last remaining electable candidates in the race will end up killing each other in the state's infamously toxic political swamp.

"I guarantee there are campaign operatives plumbing the depths of their oppo file right now. If there is anything juicy that would make for a good whisper campaign or anonymous mailing, South Carolina is where we'll see it," said Joel Sawyer, a GOP strategist based in Columbia, S.C.

With the establishment still in disarray, Washington Republicans fear that Trump will be able to stand aside and watch while his rivals go nuclear on each other.

"It will be bombs away. And who will coast? Trump," said Curt Anderson, a longtime GOP strategist who worked on Bobby Jindal's campaign.

And unless Bush or Rubio dramatically shift their campaign strategies in the coming days, it could well be that the only person left to block Trump's march to the nomination is Ted Cruz — the only politician more loathed in certain quarters of the Republican Party than The Donald.

As Anderson sees it, after the establishment's New Hampshire meltdown the best party leaders can realistically hope for might be, "Marco and Bush savaging each other in South Carolina, while Cruz and Trump savage each other in a parallel universe."

Cruz said he’s the only candidate who can top Trump.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Ted Cruz says the Republican presidential race is now down to a choice between him and Donald Trump going into the South Carolina primary.

"South Carolina historically has played a critical role picking presidents. And I think Iowa and New Hampshire perform an incredibly important function in narrowing the field and in many ways this field is becoming a two-person race between me and Donald Trump," the Texas senator said on the Mike Gallagher Show Wednesday. "What Iowa and New Hampshire demonstrate is that the only person in this field who can beat Donald Trump is me. The other candidates are not able to beat Donald Trump."

After a first place finish in the Iowa caucuses last week, Cruz finished third in New Hampshire on Tuesday, behind Trump and John Kasich. Cruz said he is the only candidate positioned to challenge Trump from the right.

"You can't beat Donald coming from the left. It doesn't work," he said. "If you campaign against Donald saying, 'hey, I'm more liberal than you I'm more into amnesty than you, I'll be softer on radical Islamic terrorists than you, it doesn't work, as we've seen twice in Iowa and New Hampshire."

Cruz reiterated that he was "the only candidate who has proven he is able to beat Donald Trump at the polls."

Kayana Szymczak / Getty Images

Chris Christie knifed Marco Rubio during last Saturday's debate — and got nothing for it. John Kasich and Jeb Bush appear to have benefited most from Christie's attacks on Rubio.

The New Jersey governor came in sixth in New Hampshire, and now he's expected to drop out on Wednesday. And he could have seen it coming.

On basically every season of The Bachelor (or The Bachelorette!), the following scenario takes place, usually when there are about eight to 10 contestants left: One woman tells The Bachelor that another woman is a fraud.

Here's how this goes for our two contestants, whom we'll call Kaitlyn and Mildred.

Kaitlyn is usually like 25, hot, and for some reason has taken on a zero-sum "lone wolf" posture on a reality dating show.

Mildred tends to be gainfully employed, nice, and slightly removed from the drama. Everyone plainly recognizes that the Bachelor will never select Mildred, but there's also no real reason to cut Mildred either. She's nice! But Mildred's there, and she's been there a while, and the other contestants' complaints about Kaitlyn have begun to pile up. Kaitlyn said this to X, and that to X, and after the Bachelor told her Y, she did Z, and so forth. Everybody knows it's coming. You can feel it building. Mildred often says things like "he needs to know," to nods from the other remaining contestants, before some final insult takes place that makes it non-negotiable: Mildred will tell the Bachelor that Kaitlyn is not there for the right reasons. And so Mildred pulls the Bachelor aside and unloads all this on him. She usually succeeds in damaging the other contestant...

BUT IT NEVER WORKS OUT FOR HER.

She almost always gets cut, too, and sometimes first. The Bachelor almost always tells her something to the effect of: I wish you would focus on us, instead of the other girls and The Drama In The House. It's unbecoming, the Bachelor basically tells Mildred. And it happens basically every time! The same thing, once or twice a year! It's reality television's annual kamikaze attack, or perhaps something out of a revenge tragedy like "The Duchess of Malfi." Destroy another, destroy yourself.

And this is the danger in what Chris Christie did on the Republican debate stage.

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

MILWAUKEE — The "money bomb" is a short, online-driven fundraising drive tied to a specific event or date. It's a mainstay of modern, internet-driven politics.

Bernie Sanders has unleashed a new kind of fundraising weapon the world has never seen.

In the hours since polls closed in New Hampshire Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, the Sanders campaign raised $5.2 million, aides told reporters Wednesday. The average contribution was just $34.

The Sanders homepage was converted to a New Hampshire–oriented fundraising page Tuesday evening in advance of what aides hoped would be a good showing for the Vermont senator. In his victory speech after results came in that exceeded staff's wildest expectations, Sanders used the nationally televised moment to drop the moneybomb.

"I am going to New York City tonight and tomorrow, but I’m not going to New York City to hold a fundraiser on Wall Street. Instead, I’m going to hold a fundraiser right here, right now, across America," he said. "My request is please go to berniesanders.com and contribute. Please help us raise the funds we need, whether it’s 10 bucks, 20 bucks, or 50 bucks."

"So, there it is, that’s our fundraiser," Sanders said with a grin. "Pretty quick."

The Sanders faithful, who have filled his campaign coffers with millions of dollars in small-dollar donations throughout the campaign, started clicking immediately.

During his speech, the website had a peak of 51,000 concurrent visitors at one point, a senior aide told BuzzFeed News. That beat the previous record of 18,000 set after Sanders celebrated the "virtual tie" in Iowa.

The site slowed under the weight of all the traffic. But aides were proud that it never crashed completely and that the flow of funds was never interrupted.

On Thursday, Sanders and Clinton will debate here — just their second two-candidate debate, and the first after Sanders' mega win in the Granite State. The campaign has stressed it won momentum after Iowa and no doubt will use the success of the money bomb to help make its case.

Rogelio Solis / ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ended an injunction stopping Mississippi from proceeding with executions since August 2015.

In a lawsuit brought by death row inmates, they argue that Mississippi's execution protocol, which includes the possible use of pentobarbital, violates the state requirement that an "ultra short-acting barbiturate or other similar drug" be used. In their lawsuit, they claim that the drug doesn't meet that definition and that the protocol therefore violated the inmates' constitutional due process rights.

A federal judge in Mississippi agreed in August 2015, entering an injunction against the state that barred it from proceeding with executions.

On Wednesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ending the injunction and holding that there was no violation of either procedural or substantive due process rights.

"If Plaintiffs wish to protest that Mississippi’s revised lethal injection protocol is an unlawful deviation from Mississippi’s laws, Mississippi’s courts are the appropriate venue for their suit," Judge Jennifer Elrod wrote for the three-judge panel.

Read the 5th Circuit's opinion:

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — As the Democratic primary moves into more diverse states, three black Clinton supporters laid into Bernie Sanders' record on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday — casting the Vermont senator as a newcomer to black issues, interested now because he is running for president.

"There's simply no comparison," between the two candidates on the issues important to black voters, said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the whip of the Congressional Black Caucus, who called Clinton a "true friend" to the black community, focusing especially on her time in the Senate and her stance on gun control.

Jeffries said that Sanders has chosen to focus on black issues now that he's running for president in the "twilight" of his political career. Sanders, Jeffries said, "has been largely missing in action."

Rep. Hazel Dukes called Sanders "absent" from the issues that matter to black voters, and when a reporter asked whether Sanders participation in the March on Washington didn't mean something, she said that thousands had walked in the march.

The Clinton campaign is in a battle for the nomination that it did not expect. The Feb. 27 Democratic primary, in which Clinton has a comfortable lead over Sanders, will be a barometer for what her national support is with black voters, who polls show currently see her as the most likely choice for the nomination.

But the operatives in Sanders camp courting the black vote are quietly confident they can close the margin in South Carolina — and elsewhere. On Wednesday, Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, a seminal text on the problem mass incarceration said in a post on Facebook she was endorsing the revolution behind Sanders. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the left's most widely-read intellectual and essayist said he was voting for Sanders, as did civil rights activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte.

Speaking on the hope for a turnaround, a Sanders aide on Tuesday night said, "Just wait and see."

Huckabee also called Cruz’s tactics “below the belt.”

Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Mike Huckabee is no longer running for president, but he is still criticizing Ted Cruz — this time attacking Cruz's campaign for spreading a report on the night of the Iowa caucuses suggesting Ben Carson would be dropping out of the presidential race.

"Ted Cruz apologized for his campaign spreading a false story that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race but he deflected blame to CNN," Huckabee said on his pay-per-view podcast this week. "Dr. Carson, being a good Christian, accepted the apology on a personal level, but he didn't buy Cruz's claims of innocent intentions. As usual, Donald Trump was more blunt, he accused Cruz of stealing the caucuses and said there should be new vote."

Huckabee continued, "I can attest to the fact that even in our campaign there were many efforts to try and say that people shouldn't vote for me or Rick Santorum or Ben Carson. The Cruz people said it would be a wasted vote and they should vote for Cruz. It wouldn't have made a difference for any of use but it is the kind of low-life, sleazy politics people truly get sick of."

In the final weeks of his campaign, Huckabee took to attacking Cruz, running ads in Iowa accusing the Texas senator of being a "phony" Christian and raising questions about his tithing history.

In another podcast this week, commenting on Saturday's GOP debate, Huckabee again called Cruz's tactics cheap.

"Ted Cruz also took flack for his campaign tactics in Iowa and his unpopularity in Washington and most of them quite deservedly, especially for the last-minute and late hit, below the belt hit, on Ben Carson in Iowa," Huckabee said.

The New Jersey governor finished sixth in New Hampshire.

Gretchen Ertl / Reuters

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is suspending his presidential campaign after a single-digit finish in New Hampshire on Tuesday, a staffer told BuzzFeed News.

Christie made the announcement at an all-staff meeting in Morristown, New Jersey.

After placing near-last in the Iowa caucuses, Christie had staked his campaign on a strong showing in New Hampshire, a state friendlier to more establishment-leaning Republicans. His campaign touted his debate performance over the weekend — in which he aggressively attacked Marco Rubio for repeating the same line about President Obama — as a turning point for the governor. While Christie may have damaged Rubio, who finished in a disappointing fifth place, the performance ultimately did not give his candidacy the boost it needed to deliver a victory in the granite state.

Christie had positioned himself as a more moderate Republican, with the executive experience needed to be president, drawing a contrast to Sens. Rubio and Cruz. Ultimately, Christie finished sixth in New Hampshire.

He told his supporters Tuesday night: "We came here to say that speaking your mind matters, that experience matters, that competence matters. That message was heard by a lot of folks, and it was stood for by a lot of folks here in New Hampshire, just not enough, not enough tonight."

Christie, echoing those comments, posted on Facebook Wednesday on his decision to drop out of the race:

View Video ›

Facebook: govchristie

John Locher / AP

LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Democratic Party quietly sent out an alert earlier this week — party officials are having trouble finding volunteers for the state's all important caucuses, according to two sources with knowledge of the communications.

After Bernie Sanders's victory in New Hampshire and a razor-thin match in Iowa, the attention — and stakes — could not be higher for the Feb. 20 caucuses.

And volunteers are critical. Known as "temporary chairs," volunteers open the caucus site and distribute a packet of materials before the permanent chairs from each campaign takeover and run the caucus.

The role of these temporary chairs is short-lived but crucial and a massive number of them are needed across the state to make sure everything runs smoothly. There are 2,000 precincts in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, for example, and while only 600 or so are major precincts, that means 2,000 temporary chairs are needed as volunteers.

Andres Ramirez, a 20-year veteran Democratic operative, ran the Nevada caucus in 2008 and said the state party is merely doing its due diligence and urgency is needed simply because often times volunteers don't show up.

He said the party is looking for only 200-300 volunteers statewide.

"We’re further along now than we were at this point in 2008," he said.

The 2008 race was the first time Nevada held a high-profile early Democratic caucus and there were problems, with reports of precincts turning chaotic with people not knowing what to do.

There have been other issues as recently as two weeks ago, too. A source with one of the Democratic campaigns said Nevada Democrats were concerned that they didn't have enough large caucus sites — places like large community centers that hold the caucuses for four or five precincts. But the source said they believe that issue has been resolved.

Stewart Boss with the Nevada Democratic Party poured water on the idea of any alarm, saying the party is merely working hard to engage and recruit volunteers in communities across Nevada and other western states to assist with the caucus.

"This is what we did in 2008, 2012, and that's what we're doing again this year," he said in a statement. "This is why caucuses are so important for Nevada Democrats — they help us build our grassroots network of volunteers across the state early in the election cycle."

Ramirez, who was in the war room in 2008, said crazy incidents can occur where more volunteers are needed despite the best efforts of the party.

In 2008, for instance, with dozens of phones ringing around him, he received a call from someone who said the temporary chair sent by the Democratic Party at his precinct had collapsed and had a heart attack, with the caucus packet falling on the caller's foot. Because no one had done a caucus before, people at the precinct told him it must mean he was the new temporary chair.

A tweet was posted, ridiculed, and taken down.

National Nurses United, a union backing Bernie Sanders, has a super PAC. It uses that super PAC to help Sanders — though he doesn't raise money for the super PAC, doesn't coordinate with it, and has said he doesn't want its help.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Representatives of the NNU are at many of his campaign stops and Sanders welcomes them, though.

After Sanders's huge win in New Hampshire, the NNU headed to South Carolina to help stump for Sanders there.

Wednesday evening, the NNU posted this tweet from its tour of South Carolina.

View Entire List ›

Heidi Cruz argued in favor of free trade as a force for good.

Joshua Lott / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Heidi Cruz misstated her husband's vote on a key and controversial trade provision last year in a radio interview this week.

The issue of trade has become a hot one for both parties this cycle. Donald Trump's made the case that the United States is getting screwed on free trade — that U.S. policies have ruined the wages for the American worker.

In a radio interview on South Carolina's Vince Coakley Radio Program, Heidi Cruz argued free trade is a powerfully good force and that presidents should have increased powers to negotiate trade deals — a policy that has become particularly controversial over the last year as President Obama has pushed for what's called trade-promotion authority (TPA) to negotiate a U.S.-Asian Pacific trade agreement.

And then she said Ted Cruz voted for TPA. Sen. Cruz, while initially voting for TPA in May of 2015, was one of only five Republicans to vote against it when it came up for another vote in the Senate later that June. At the time, Cruz explained that his reversal was a result of his opposition to the Export-Import Bank and new immigration provisions introduced by the House.

A Cruz spokesman told BuzzFeed News: "Cruz supports free trade but voted against TPA because he did not want President Obama to have the authority to unilaterally make bad trade deals."

Here's Heidi Cruz's case for free trade:

"Well Ted is a free trader, he's always been a free trader, and that is why he voted for the Trade Promotion Authority in Congress. That being said, what is—and the reason he is for free trade is because it creates American jobs. We've done a study on the campaign as to how many jobs free trade has created for various states in the country, and the numbers are in the hundreds of thousands depending on the size of the state. And so I'd encourage your listeners to look at those types of statistics. Free trade creates jobs for Americans. Ted has integrated into his tax plan a tax break for exports so that companies that producing for export will not be taxed in the U.S. which gives them any advantage in selling abroad.

"The second thing, though, and equally important, they must go part and parcel, is that we must be negotiating the right free trade agreements that are good for America and not bad for America. And this president has not proven that he's able to do so, and so Ted voted against the TPP, the deal with Asia. And the reason he voted against it is, he actually goes and reads the bills that he votes on and the agreements that are negotiated. Ted went down into the SCIF, he read through the pages of this agreement. He made the observation that this was not a good agreement for America. This president is not negotiating good deals for our country, there are immigration things in there. There are things that don't belong in there, and he voted against that agreement.

"Let me remind you listeners that the trade promotion authority for the bill that gives Congress the right to give to executive branch the ability to negotiate trade on the behalf of the country. This is a six year lasting situation, so in the Constitution the authority for trade is given to the Congress, but because of all the different interests, it was deemed a long time ago that the executive should argue on behalf of the American people, but that Congress should approve or disapprove. And this lasts for six years, and so if we deny the ability for our executive to negotiate trade agreements on our behalf, and then be reviewed by Congress —which should be a very assiduous process — we will be also denying the next president because this president only has just about eight months left in office."

Alex Wong / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said the U.S. could have "very good relations" with Vladimir Putin and predicted the end of Europe in an interview with a French conservative magazine that is hitting newsstands this week.

The article in Valeurs actuelles ("current values") is billing itself as the first interview Trump has given to a European media outlet and the story appears on the cover of the magazine with the headline "Trump dit tout" ("Trump tells all").

In the interview with writer Andre Bercoff, published in French and conducted at Trump Tower a week before the Iowa caucuses, Trump commented on the future of Europe, saying he believes the consequences of immigration in Europe could be dire and that German chancellor Angela Merkel has made a "terrible mistake with the migrants."

"If they don't handle the situation competently and firmly, yes, it's the end of Europe," Trump told Bercoff, adding that Europe could face "real revolutions."

"I'm very good at predictions," Trump told the magazine. "I think you're going to have in Europe a period of upheaval."

Asked if he knows personally any French politicians, Trump responded that he did not, but that "I hope that will change soon."

On Putin, whom he has praised in the past, Trump said, "I think we could have very good relations with him. There's no reason why America can't get along with Russia on a certain number of issues, especially in the Middle East."

Valeurs actuelles is seen in France as bridging the gap between center-right politics as exemplified by Nicolas Sarkozy's Les Républicains (formerly UMP) party and the far-right nationalist Front National party headed by Marine Le Pen. "We are reinventing the right, which is not defined by Les Républicains nor by the Front National," the magazine's political editor told L'Obs last year. That same article described the magazine as having a "resolutely conservative line, structured around its identitarian obsessions." Trump's blend of populism and hard-line anti-immigrant rhetoric has been compared to European far-right movements.

Valeurs actuelles has been fined twice under France's speech laws, for inciting discrimination once against Roma with a cover on the "Roma overdose," and once against Muslims for an issue that had a cover showing Marianne, the symbol of the French republic, veiled.

A spokesperson for Trump's campaign didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Valeurs actuelles' cover:

BuzzFeed News reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro is reporting from the debate in Milwaukee.

youtube.com / Via PBS

• Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are facing off in Milwaukee in their first debate since Sanders won the New Hampshire primary in a landslide.
• The debate is being moderated by PBS anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff.
• Sanders has gained a lot of momentum since his big win on Tuesday, raising $5.2 million from supporters in just a couple of days.
• Polls show Clinton leading Sanders by nearly 20 points in the upcoming Nevada caucus.
• Both candidates are likely to focus on issues affecting black and Latino voters before the Nevada caucus and the South Carolina primary, such as the Flint water crisis, criminal justice reform and voting rights.
• Sanders has the overwhelming support of young voters and Clinton is likely to use tonight's debate to appeal to that demographic.

John Minchillo / AP

View Entire List ›

Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Defending Hillary Clinton Thursday, Rep. John Lewis downplayed Bernie Sanders’ history as a participant in the civil rights movement, saying he never saw or met Bernie Sanders.

Lewis was among the members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who appeared at the Democratic National Committee Thursday, where the CBC's political action committee formally announced their endorsement of Clinton in the Democratic primary.

A reporter, noting Sanders' involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, asked Lewis, about Sanders' record in the civil rights movement.

Sanders has made his history as a participant in the March on Washington and as a student organizer in SNCC a part of his campaign.

“Well, to be very frank, I don’t want to cut you off, but I know where it’s going,” Lewis said.

As Lewis began to lean into his answer, the room tensed, and someone let out an “uh oh.”

“I never saw him. I never met him," Lewis continued. "I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for 3 years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved with the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed to voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton.”

Lewis' comments drew applause from some members of the audience.

Lewis is expected to campaign for Clinton in South Carolina this weekend.

It's not the first time Lewis has come to the defense of Clinton, whom he calls his good friend.

Lewis introduced Clinton at an October rally last year in Atlanta to kick off the Clinton's campaign's efforts more formally court black voters, dubbed "African Americans for Hillary".

AUC Shut It Down, a group closely affiliated with Black Lives Matter that stages protests in Atlanta, interrupted Clinton's speech at Clark Atlanta University, chanting "Black lives matter!"

Lewis, flanked by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, stood behind Clinton as the protesters continued. He then made his way into the crowd to try and reason with the protesters, and eventually joined Clinton onstage in a show of solidarity.

The student activists openly wondered in an exchange why Lewis, himself a protester, had not seemed to understand their position. Lewis told BuzzFeed News in an interview after the event that he did.

“Most of the things that we did back in the 1960s was good trouble, it was necessary trouble. And so what I try to say to young people is when you see something that is not right, not fair or not just, you have to speak up. You have to speak and and make some noise. So in some sense, [the protesters] were speaking up. They were speaking out."

“But we have to respect the right of everybody to be heard,” he continued. “And you do that in a non-violent, orderly fashion.”

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, abstained from a vote by the Congressional Black Caucus PAC on whether to support Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, citing his role in the Benghazi hearings.

Cummings abstained from a vote by the PAC board taken two weeks ago, Ben Branch, the executive director of the PAC told BuzzFeed News. Joining him was Angela Rye, a well-known Washington-based political strategist who reportedly cited her role as TV commentator as her reason for abstaining.

The CBC hosted a press conference Thursday announcing 90% of the board voted for Clinton, and none voted for Sanders.

CBC PAC Chair Gregory Meeks led a chorus of nearly two-dozen members of Congress who said there were sharp contrasts between Clinton and Sanders's record on issues like gun control and criminal justice.

Meeks said Clinton has been a constant presence on the issues important to the CBC's constituents.

"The partner that the CBC PAC has had over the years to elect Democrats has been Hillary Clinton," he said. "When we needed someone to come to rally Democrats and especially African Americans at the request of the CBC PAC Hillary Clinton has been there."

Sean Rayford / Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush didn't come close to winning the New Hampshire primary, but donors to Bush finally got somewhat of a return on their $150-million investment Tuesday night — potentially keeping those who were strongly considering jumping ship to stick with the former Florida governor for now.

Bush finished fourth in the New Hampshire Republican primary after Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz, but he ended slightly ahead of his once-protege Marco Rubio, who had been picking up momentum after his third-place finish in Iowa.

The pro-Bush super PAC Right to Rise was widely criticized for spending millions in ads against Rubio, whom some establishment Republicans believed voters could coalesce around as the anti-Trump candidate. The barrage of negative ads, combined with Rubio's bad debate performance Saturday night, appears to have made a difference.

"People needed a sign, and they got the sign that they needed," one donor and major Bush supporter said about other anxious donors.

Approximately 119 previous Bush donors who hadn’t given to Rubio gave to him for the first time in December, according to a previous BuzzFeed News data analysis of recent Federal Election Commission filings.

Although edging out Rubio was one of the things that definitely helped, the donor said, Bush backers now believe the primary gave their candidate the confidence he needed. "He's a ten times better candidate at the end of New Hampshire," the donor said.

Heading into South Carolina, where his team believes Bush family allies in the state could help him come out with a strong showing, the governor now says he has "reset his campaign" and is better prepared for the bloodbath that will likely ensue.

"You're certainly more nervous if you woke up [Wednesday] morning if you're Rubio than if you're Jeb," said David Beightol, a top bundler for Romney who is now backing Bush.

Bush and his allies reportedly spent $36 million just in New Hampshire, but Beightol defended the investment.

"Jeb has had to spend more money because of his last name," Beightol said. "You can't compare him to other people. In the beginning they weren't even considering him because of his last name. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison."

Bush's supporters say they are now actively reaching out to donors who had been supporting Gov. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina — both of whom dropped out Wednesday — to get them on board while the campaign has some momentum.

A Rubio donor, who has been talking to Bush donors for months to bring them on his side, said Tuesday night's results have made his argument much harder.

He still insisted, though, that Rubio had a much better shot at winning the nomination despite Rubio's disappointing finish in New Hampshire and will continue to make that case.

"If Jeb was a statesman, he would drop out," the Rubio donor said.

King says Jeb Bush is the only one left who can challenge the two frontrunners.

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Rep. Peter King says the race for the Republican nomination is now between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz after Marco Rubio's last debate performance.

"This shaping up as a Trump-Cruz race to the finish," said the New York congressman on AM970 The Answer's John Grambling Show.

"The reason I say that is, I think Marco Rubio really hurt himself in the debate on Saturday. That's gonna be hard to come back from. Jeb Bush spent a fortune in New Hampshire. I think he's the most qualified guy in the whole field, but he barely finished fourth. And John Kasich — who ran a really solid race — he's pretty much out of money and the issues that he raised in New Hampshire probably are not gonna sell as well in South Carolina or the big southern states coming up on Super Tuesday, March 1."

King said Jeb Bush is the only one who could possibly challenge Cruz and Trump.

"Right now, while nothing's definite in this business, anything can happen, I would say the odds are it's gonna be a Trump-Cruz race to the finish, sooner or later," King said. "I would say the guy who has a chance to change that is Jeb Bush because he does have money left and South Carolina is next and the Bush family has a good organization and is very popular in South Carolina."

Trump's win by a large margin in New Hampshire, King said, was a sign that the businessman is a real force in the race.

"Donald Trump's victory was really impressive and the reason I say that is, I know he was ahead in the polls, but I would say nine out of 10 political people doubted he would be able to take the celebrity factor and the large crowds and the rallies and actually translate that into votes," he said. "I think people thought it was more like a Beatles factor, people wanted to come out and see what Donald Trump looked like. The fact is, I don't think anyone really expected him to win two to one, no matter what the polls were saying, that's a big victory. He is factor going forward."

“And I’m gonna take it to him, but do it hopefully with enough civility so that people won’t get turned off.”

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Jeb Bush said on Tuesday that part of his strategy for Saturday's Republican presidential debate will be not to allow Donald Trump to bully him.

"It's just, show my heart," Bush said of his strategy on the Dave & Liz show on South Carolina radio. "Show the depth of knowledge that I have, show good humor, stand my ground. Don't let Trump bully me."

Trump has repeatedly derided Bush on the campaign trail and during debates, calling him "low-energy" and attempting to shush him on stage.

Bush went on to say that he was eager to confront Trump on the issue of eminent domain, which he says the businessman has use to kick an elderly woman out of her home.

"These issues need to come out," Bush said. "And I'm gonna take it to him, but do it hopefully with enough civility so that people won't get turned off."

Earlier in the interview, Bush said he hadn't had much time to think about his debate strategy yet, adding, "It's like going to get a root canal. I think maybe non-preparation might be the best strategy."

Steven Mullins

Sue Ogrocki / AP

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin's general counsel stepped down Thursday — the third resignation since a grand jury began investigating the state's execution practices. The announcement comes a week before the grand jury is expected to release its findings.

Steve Mullins testified before a state grand jury in October after it was revealed the state had used the wrong drug in an execution, and had obtained the wrong drug in a second scheduled execution.

“I appreciate Steve’s advice, loyalty and professionalism during the time he has served as my general counsel. He has served the state and my office well. I wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Fallin said.

When asked if the resignation had anything to do with the grand jury, spokesperson Michael McNutt said "Not to my knowledge."

Warden Anita Trammell announced her retirement in late October — a week after testifying before the grand jury, and one month after inmate Richard Glossip's execution was called off when corrections employees realized they had the wrong drug. Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show the last day the warden was in the office was the day Glossip was scheduled to be executed.

Corrections Director Robert Patton announced his resignation in December, weeks after a BuzzFeed News story detailed how mistakes made under his watch in Oklahoma mirrored mistakes made during his tenure in Arizona.