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Huckabee Compares 2016 To The French Revolution With GOP Elites As Marie Antoinette

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“The Republican establishment doesn’t get it, they’re being viewed as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and we know how that ended up for them.”

Scott Olson / Getty Images

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Mike Huckabee says we are seeing an overthrow of our government similar to the French Revolution, with the Republican establishment playing the role of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were beheaded.

"We are seeing nothing less than the overthrow of our government by people in this country who are sick and tired of being gut punched by the elites, by the donor class, who always land on their feet," Huckabee told Kilmeade and Friends earlier this week. "When the economy collapsed, the big guys got bailouts. The guys out there on factory floors got pink slips."

"What we are seeing is really something akin to the French Revolution," said Huckabee. "The Republican establishment doesn't get it, they're being viewed as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and we know how that ended up for them."

Huckabee, blasting Wall Street's role in the financial crisis of 2008, said Washington, D.C. had a tone deafness to how "very angry" people were at them.


GOP Senator Unable To Answer If He Can Trust Trump With The Nuclear Codes

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Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images

Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican from Indiana, isn’t sure whether Donald Trump is better equipped to handle the nuclear codes and deal with foreign policy than President Barack Obama.

In an interview with radio host John Howell on Thursday, Coats said he didn't know how to answer when he was asked whether he had more trust in Trump’s ability to handle America’s national security and nuclear codes than Obama’s.

“Well, that’s a tough question,” Coats said with a chuckle.

“This, it’s nutzo time in politics, and I understand people’s frustration,” Coats said. “I’m having a hard time understanding Donald Trump because he says one thing one day then corrects it the next day. Obviously he’s tapped into something here and he may be on his way to the presidency. I’m waiting for the responsible, calm, serious presidential Donald Trump to appear. He says that’s gonna happen. We will see.”

Coats concluded though, that he still wasn’t sure whether Trump was better capable than Obama.

“But, man, I don’t know how to answer that question.”


Networks Have Conducted 69 Phone Interviews With Trump In The Past 69 Days

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NBCUniversal/Morning Joe / Via MSNBC

CBS News’s decision to not let Donald Trump phone into its morning show has put new pressure on the other major television news operations already under fire for giving massive promotion to the candidate’s demagogic and often false claims — and which have allowed Trump to phone it in an unprecedented 69 times in the last 69 days.

Phone interviews are typically a last resort for television and used mainly for special circumstances — a reporter covering a massive breaking news story — but Trump has used the phone to help control the coverage of his candidacy. Earlier this week, Trump at the last minute abandoned plans to appear on camera on several network morning shows, citing technical glitches. Several news executives told CNN the real reason Trump opted to phone it in was because he didn’t like the look of his live shot.

Most of the shows still took Trump on the phone, but one top CBS News producer’s decision to not accommodate Trump’s request suggested the wind might be shifting.

“Unfortunately @realDonaldTrump suddenly unable to join @CBSThisMorning via camera- we won't take on the phone- so we'll wait for next time!” tweeted Chris Licht, the executive producer of CBS This Morning.

In an email exchange with BuzzFeed News, Licht explained his reasoning, writing, “It’s pretty simple — outside of breaking news situations — we always want a guest to appear on camera.”

CBS has only conducted one Trump interview by phone this year, on the Jan. 24 edition of Face the Nation, after a blizzard prevented a scheduled on-camera interview.

The other networks and their shows have been far more generous to Trump. On the network morning shows, where the competition for high-profile bookings is most intense, Fox & Friends alone has already dialed Trump in 17 times this year. He’s done 11 of those interviews on ABC’s Good Morning America and 10 on NBC’s TODAY.

Elsewhere on cable news, Trump has appeared by phone on various CNN programs 9 different times, and 12 times on MSNBC, 8 of which were on Morning Joe, which has been criticized for what some observers perceive to be a cozy relationship with the candidate.

The networks have conducted phone interviews with other candidates, but Trump’s stand out for their frequency and their placement at the top of show line ups. Spokespeople for CNN, NBC News, MSNBC, Fox News, and ABC News all either declined to defend their practice on the record or did not respond to a request for comment. None suggested they’d stop turning their platforms over to Trump any time soon.

Media observers and practitioners have criticized the practice as giving Trump an advantage in tough interviews, where he can potentially consult notes or dodge questions easier than he could on-set.

One network executive did defend the practice, on the condition of anonymity.

“He makes himself available and most of the time that we interview Trump, he makes news,” the executive said. “We’re a news organization. He’s a huge newsmaker at the moment, we’re going to put him on our air.”

Ben Carson: I'm "Certainly Leaning" Toward Supporting "Thinking Individual" Trump

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“There’s two Donald Trumps. There’s the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there’s the Donald Trump behind the scenes.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Dr. Ben Carson said on Thursday he's "certainly leaning" toward endorsing Donald Trump for president.

Carson, who ended his presidential campaign last week, said he's deciding between Trump and Ted Cruz to endorse.

"Let's put it this way, I'm certainly leaning," the former neurosurgeon said when radio host John Gibson said Carson sounded like he was supporting Trump.

Earlier in the interview Carson said Trump was a "thinking individual" despite his public persona.

"There's two Donald Trumps. There's the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there's the Donald Trump behind the scenes," he said. "They're not the same person. One's very much and entertainer, and one is actually a thinking individual."

Carson also said an attempt to deny the person who received the majority of the votes in the primary the nomination at convention would fracture the party in November and cause Clinton to win the election.

"I can guarantee you he'll be a lot better than Hillary."

Lindsey Graham Warns Blocking Obama Court Pick Could Haunt Republicans

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C-SPAN / Via c-span.org

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina laid out a blunt assessment on Thursday morning of the state of judicial nomination politics — attacking the road the Senate has gone down, as he described it, while still backing the current move against any consideration of President Obama’s coming Supreme Court nominee.

The business meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee served as the first opportunity for the committee members to share their views, in committee, on the issue of the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

While most of the speeches fell along partisan lines, Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, decried the politicization and acknowledged that the Republicans' action is unprecedented.

"We’re setting a precedent here today, the Republicans are, that in the last year — at least of a lame-duck, eight-year term, I would say it’s going to be a four-year term — that you’re not going to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, based on what we’re doing here today," Graham said. "That’s going to be the new rule."

Graham noted that, while he supported the move, the rule could come back to haunt a later Republican president, saying, "[Y]ou could use my words against me, and you’d be absolutely right."

At the same time, Graham placed significant blame for the current situation on the Democrats' move to end the 60-vote requirement to avoid a filibuster for lower-court judicial nominees.

"[T]he judiciary is going to be more ideologically driven because the process in the Senate now does not require you to get outside your own party," he said. "So, I’ll be fighting talk radio when somebody on my side puts up a nutjob — and they will. And, I’ll fight if I think they’re truly a nutjob. And it’s going to happen on your side, too."

Graham concluded with a warning that the same rule change is coming for Supreme Court nominees — "it’s just a matter of time" — and said he "hate[s]" that prospect.

Here is Graham's full speech:

The moral high ground is a shaky place to be in the Senate when it comes to judges, so I won’t go there.

I will say, if you live long enough, it’s fascinating, a long life allows you to be lectured to about judges by people who have been exceedingly unfair, and I like you all very much, and I want to work with you where I can, but the Senate’s evolving in a very bad way. We don’t need to go back to the Civil War to find out where we’re headed. We’re headed to changing the rules, probably in a permanent fashion.

When President Bush’s nominees were filibustered en masse, there was a temptation on our side to do the nuclear option. I was one of the Gang of 14 that said, “Let’s not go down that road.” Seven Democrats, seven Republicans — only three of us are left, and we found a way to confirm most of President Bush’s nominations. He lost a handful.

I got the crap beat out of me at home, and when I told people I just thought that consequences come with elections, "We don’t want to change the 60-vote rule because you may need it one day yourself." Nobody wanted to hear that until we lost, and the very same people are beating the crap out of me now because I would sometimes work with the other side.

Here’s what’s going to happen: In the unlikely event that we lose the White House, which I know is hard to believe given the dynamic of the Republican Party now. But, just in case we lose, and I know that seems almost impossible to imagine, Hillary Clinton is going to be president — unless Bernie [Sanders] keeps doing well, and something happens I don’t know about.

Let’s just assume for a moment she is president. I’m telling everybody on my side, she’s going to pick somebody probably more liberal than President Obama’s going to send over in a few days — and I’m going to vote for that person if I think they’re qualified. I voted for [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan, not because I would have picked ’em, but because I thought the president of the United States deserves the right to pick judges of their philosophy and that goes with winning the White House.

Why do I feel comfortable doing this? The history of the Senate is pretty clear here. The current vice president, in 1992, argued for what we’re doing. The sitting president of the United States filibustered two Republican Supreme Court justices. So, when he called me, I said, “Is this the same guy that filibustered [Samuel] Alito and [John] Roberts? So, you’re asking me to do something you couldn’t do yourself, which is, in your view, to be fair. I never thought you were fair to our judges, but it’s not about me paying you back. It’s trying to have some process I think will stand the test of time.”

This will stand the test of time. This is the last year of a lame-duck president.

If Ted Cruz or Donald Trump get to be president — they’ve all asked us not to confirm or take up a selection by President Obama — if a vacancy occurs in their last year of their first term, guess what? You will use their words against them.

I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say, “Lindsey Graham said, ‘Let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,’” and you could use my words against me, and you’d be absolutely right.

We’re setting a precedent here today, the Republicans are, that in the last year — at least of a lame-duck, eight-year term, I would say it’s going to be a four-year term — that you’re not going to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, based on what we’re doing here today.

That’s going to be the new rule.

When y’all changed the rules about appellate judges and district court judges to get your way, I thought it was really an abuse of power. And what you have done here is you’ve made the caucuses — the Republican and Democratic caucuses — are now not going to have to reach across the aisle when it comes to appellate judges and district court judges to get input from us or we get input from you.

So, what does that mean? We’re going to pick the most hard-ass people that we can find. And dare somebody in the conference to vote against that person. You’re going to have the most liberal members of your caucus pushing you to pick the most liberal judges cause you don’t need to have to reach across the aisle to get any of our input — and we’ll do the same.

So, over time, the judiciary is going to be more ideologically driven because the process in the Senate now does not require you to get outside your own party.

So, I’ll be fighting talk radio when somebody on my side puts up a nutjob — and they will. And, I’ll fight if I think they’re truly a nutjob. And it’s going to happen on your side, too.

So, this is where we find ourselves. I’m saddened by the fact that the Senate has gone down the road we’ve gone. I’m very much supportive of what you’re doing Mr. Chairman. I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, but I just want the members on this side to know that if we lose this election, my view of what the president to come will be able to do is the same.

If it is Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, and they send over a qualified nominee, I am going to vote for them in this committee and on the floor, because I think that’s what the Constitution envisioned by advise and consent. There is no roadmap in the Constitution of what to do, when to do it.

The Senate has always done what it thought was best at the time it was in. At the time we’re in, what’s best seems to be to play politics with judges — pretty much on both sides.

But, y’all started a new game when you changed the rules. There’ll come a day when you have a Republican or Democratic president with a Republican or Democratic Senate, and they’re going to change the rules on the Supreme Court. And it’ll get frustrating.

So, it’s just a matter of time before the Senate becomes the House, when it comes to judges, and I really hate that.

Thank you very much.


GOP Debate: Personal Attacks Dropped As Candidates Make Miami Nice

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Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was expected to be the top target again, but the super-heated attack never came.

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

  • The debate is the last before Tuesday's five high-stakes state primary contests, including winner-takes-all Florida and Ohio. The Northern Mariana Islands will also hold its caucus.
  • The four Republican candidates stuck mostly to pitching their own policies rather than flinging the sort of personal attacks that have become the norm in recent weeks.
  • The expectation that frontrunner Donald Trump would be ganged up on did not materialize, for the most part, with differences largely staying within policy, not personal, lines.
  • Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio did spar with Trump on who, as the two leading candidates, would be best suited to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

The change from the name-calling and body part references came just days ahead the high-stakes primary contests on Tuesday. Five states — North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida — will be up for grabs, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands caucus.

For Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has yet to win single state, a loss in his home state would be widely seen as the death knell to his campaign. He sought to frame his candidacy as the right one for the next generation, but as the night wore on, it became clear that frontrunner Donald Trump and No. 2 rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz see the primary as a two-way race.


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No Debate Questions About Trump Campaign Manager's Alleged Manhandling Of Reporter

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Trump at the Tuesday press conference in Jupiter

Joe Skipper / Reuters

MIAMI — CNN asked Donald Trump tough questions on Thursday night about violence at his rallies and whether he has a responsibility to tone it down. But the network did not press or even bring up Trump's own campaign manager allegedly acting violently towards a journalist this week.

At a Trump press conference in Jupiter, Florida on Tuesday night, Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields tried to ask Trump a question after the press conference and said she was roughly grabbed by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, something another journalist said he witnessed as well. On Thursday, Fields tweeted a picture of her bruises that resulted from the encounter.

There weren't any questions about the specific incident, however, during the debate on Tuesday night.

The Trump campaign has denied that the incident happened and impugned Fields. Trump's spokesperson put out a statement earlier on Thursday saying "We leave to others whether this is part of a larger pattern of exaggerating incidents, but on multiple occasions [Fields] has become part of the news story as opposed to reporting it," and Lewandowski himself called Fields an "attention seeker" on Twitter and tweeted an article by banned-from-Twitter provocateur Charles C. Johnson attacking her.

Politico obtained an audio recording of the incident which aligns with Fields' version of events.

Following the debate, Trump told CNN's Dylan Byers that he did not believe the incident happened:

When reporters asked Trump about the incident after the debate, Trump said that "the Secret Service said nothing happened."

Tapper and a CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment about why the incident did not come up as a question in the debate.

Fields tweeted after the debate:

Later, following the debate, Lewandowski tweeted at Fields that she was "delusional":

CNN anchor Jake Tapper did press Trump on statements he has made that appear to incite violence towards protesters at his rallies. Tapper mentioned a Trump supporter who sucker-punched a protester at a Trump rally, in a video that made the rounds this week.

"Some of your critics point to quotes you've made at these debates -- at these rallies including Feb. 23, 'I'd like to punch him in the face,' referring to a protesters. Feb. 27, 'in the good ol' days, they'd have ripped him out of that seat so fast.' Feb. 1, 'knock the crap out of him, would, you? Seriously, OK, just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees, I promise, I promise.'"

In response, Trump claimed that his rallies attract "protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people. And we had a couple big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people, not only the loudness, the loudness I don't mind. But doing serious damage. And if they've got to be taken out, to be honest, I mean, we have to run something."

Ben Carson Officially Endorses Donald Trump

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“There are two different Donald Trumps: the one you see on the stage, and the one who’s very cerebral,” Carson said Friday.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination last week, formally endorsed Donald Trump on Friday.

During a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, the retired neurosurgeon said Trump is "actually a very intelligent man."

"There are two different Donald Trumps," Carson said. "The one you see on the stage, and the one who's very cerebral."

Carson hinted Thursday night that he would back Trump, but also mentioned he had been considering supporting Ted Cruz.

Carson told reporters that after speaking more with Trump in private, he realized that they were "more aligned, philosophically and spiritually," than he'd previously thought.

Trump, who currently leads candidates in the bid for the Republican nomination, called Carson a "special, special man."

He also appeared to disagree with Carson's statement about his two different personality types.

"I don't think there are two Donald Trumps. You have all of this," he said, gesturing to the crowd, "and you have somebody else that sits, and reads, and thinks. I'm the thinker."

Both men dismissed their history of exchanging negative rhetoric.

"We've buried the hatchet," Carson said.

He also tweeted that Trump is the best candidate to face off against Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, and said he is "willing to do what needs to be done to break the stranglehold of interest groups and the political class."


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Florida Police Investigating Alleged Battery Of Reporter At Trump Campaign Event

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Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields has said Trump aide Corey Lewandowki violently grabbed her at a campaign event.

Florida police said Friday they are now investigating an alleged assault at a Donald Trump campaign event, after reporter Michelle Fields said she was violently grabbed by Trump's campaign manager.

Instagram: @michellefields

The Breitbart News reporter has said she was left bruised by Trump aide Corey Lewandowski at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday.

The Breitbart News reporter has said she was left bruised by Trump aide Corey Lewandowski at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

"Even if Trump was done taking questions, Lewandowski would be out of line," Feilds wrote. "Campaign managers aren't supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, no matter the circumstance."

Trump's campaign has called the accusations false.

The police report, later provided to BuzzFeed News, names Fields as the victim and lists the alleged crime as "battery-simply (touch or strike)". It also lists potential weapons or tools used as "hands, feet, fist, [and] teeth."

The public report does not name Lewandowski.

"As with any investigation, specific details concerning criminal investigative information is not releasable while the investigation is considered active," Officer Adam Brown said. "Any additional details regarding this incident will be released once the investigation has concluded."


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Don't Say Trump Has "Fat, Grandmotherly Arms"

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He gets very upset.

David Moir / Reuters

Donald Trump, who has been relentlessly mocked by some of his opponents for his abnormally small hands, is also sensitive to unflattering comments about another part of his body: his arms.

In 1992, radio host Don Imus said on his program that Trump had "fat, grandmotherly arms." Trump got so upset, he pulled radio ads for his casinos from WFAN, which carried Imus's signature Imus in the Morning show.

The two Don's then traded insults through the press.

"You were funnier when you were on drugs and alcohol," Trump said to Imus in a letter the host read on the air about pulling the ads.

Trump was in the midst of financial woes, heavily in debt after his empire crashed in the early 1990s. Imus took a parting shot at Trump on his finances.

"We only want advertisers who can pay their bills," Imus told the New York Daily News.

Trump, getting the last word in, said he was in better shape than Imus.

"I'm in great shape," Trump told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I'm not heavy. Ever look at him? I look a hell of a lot better."

The two seemed to make up after the spat. Trump started routinely going on Imus' radio show again and Imus' daughter is a huge Trump booster.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Pulls His Old Radio Interviews From YouTube

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The once prolific YouTube uploader has made his old radio interviews inaccessible.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who used to upload all his radio interviews to his YouTube page, has now made them inaccessible as he gears up for a tough re-election battle in Wisconsin.

The YouTube videos were a source of news for journalists and opposition researchers, with the senator often making news during his uploaded appearances.

It was in these appearances uploaded on YouTube that Johnson said President Obama thinks U.S. actions are to blame for Islamic terrorist attacks in the country, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is an immigrant (she's not), and President Obama "doesn't think America is force for good in the world."

Visits to the page show all the interviews now marked private and Johnson (who still regularly does interviews on the radio) no longer uploads them to his YouTube.

Visits to the page show all the interviews now marked private and Johnson (who still regularly does interviews on the radio) no longer uploads them to his YouTube.

White House: Trump Aide's Alleged Manhandling Of Reporter "Totally Inappropriate"

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest Friday harshly criticized an alleged attack on a reporter by a Trump campaign aide and warned Trump’s often racist, nativist language reflects poorly on the United States.

Asked about an alleged incident earlier this week in which Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was physically assaulted Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Earnest told reporters, “There is no excuse or justification for acts of violence against reporters who are covering a political event.”

“The White House, like many other people including other Republicans, has been concerned by the invective and taunting that’s been directed at journalists covering a political event. It’s totally inappropriate, it's not consistent with the standards of political discourse that should be observed by anybody seeking the highest elected office in the greatest country in the world,” Earnest added.

Earnest also argued that while few Americans pay significant attention to other country’s political affairs, people from around the world continue to look to the United States and our system as a model. “People around the world are watching, and the tone and tenor of that debate does have an impact on the way people around the world see the United States. What is said by leading candidates for president on the campaign trail matters. It’s not just idle chatter, it has an impact,” Earnest said.

Meanwhile, Earnest told reporters not to expect an announcement on President Obama’s pick to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia until next week. The process of reviewing information about potential nominees continues "through this weekend," Earnest said. In fact the press secretary said Obama could wait until after his trip to Cuba later this month to make his decision.

How Marco Rubio's Made-For-TV Campaign Fell Flat

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

MIAMI — The reviews from the latest Republican presidential debate are in, and Marco Rubio was a hit.

"Poised, confident, and knowledgeable!" raves the Washington Post.

"A home run in his home state!" proclaims HotAir.

"Smart! ... Snappy!" gushes RedState.

It was the sort of night that the telegenic candidate and his advisers once believed could propel him to the Republican nomination. With millions of primetime viewers watching, he delivered a polished performance marked by memorable one-liners and sharp policy arguments — and by the time it was over, pundits were declaring (for the 10th time this primary season) that it had been a "good night" for Rubio. But when the cameras blinked off in the CNN debate hall late Thursday, he was left to face a grim reality: In just five days, his political career could be over.

Rubio, who opted not to run for Senate re-election so as to focus on his presidential bid, is now scrambling across his home state in a last-ditch effort to salvage his candidacy. But barring a miraculous upset, he appears headed for defeat Tuesday at the hands of frontrunner Donald Trump — a humiliating loss that may impede his future in Florida politics.

In the slate of recently published campaign postmortems, many journalists and commentators have blamed Rubio's death spiral on his brief flirtation with Trumpian name-calling and anatomical innuendos. They argue that Rubio — desperate to position himself as the clear alternative to The Donald — resorted to off-putting, off-brand taunts that served only to tarnish his wholesome image and undermine his upbeat message. After two weeks, the candidate abandoned the personal attacks against Trump and expressed regret for letting himself to get sucked into the mud.

"At the end of the day it's not something I'm entirely proud of," Rubio told MSNBC this week, adding, "My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't."

But Rubio's failed Trump-bashing experiment was symptomatic of a much deeper — and more damaging — strategic miscalculation that runs to the core of the campaign.

While preparing to launch his presidential bid last year, Rubio and his advisers developed a unique media-first strategy they believed would take advantage of the candidate's vaunted talents as a communicator. Instead of slumming it in early-state diners and Pizza Ranches for months, trying to woo voters one handshake at a time, he would appear on highly rated cable news shows and conservative talk radio, where he could make his pitch to big national audiences. The theory was that Rubio would use these high-profile interviews, as well as the debates, to convert viewers into voters, and ride a wave of on-camera charisma all the way to Cleveland.

When Rubio officially declared his candidacy last spring at the Miami Freedom Tower, campaign manager Terry Sullivan coordinated closely with Fox News producers to ensure that the event would get maximum live coverage on the channel's popular evening newscast Special Report With Bret Baier. As I report in my book The Wilderness, the length of Rubio's speech was carefully tailored to fit between commercial breaks, and the candidate didn't go onstage until a Fox producer gave Sullivan the go-ahead over the phone. The rally was a perfect made-for-TV event.

While his primary opponents pounded the pavement, some in Iowa and New Hampshire eventually began to take note of Rubio's relative absence from the campaign trail. Still, his advisers stood firm by their televised campaign strategy.

"Any venue we can create for Marco to communicate his message is a winner for us. More people in Iowa see Marco on Fox and Friends than see Marco when he is in Iowa," Sullivan told the New York Times in December. "Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t go to Iowa.”

While the Rubio camp publicly pushed back against any comparisons to Barack Obama, they privately drew inspiration from elements of his 2008 campaign. As a young, dynamic freshman senator, Obama was helped immensely in his presidential bid by his status as a media darling and magazine cover boy. Rubio had already shown a similar ability to captivate the press — from TMZ to Politico — with his inspiring biographical story and musings about hip-hop.

But any chance Rubio had of captivating the country with free media coverage evaporated the moment Trump entered the race. The most skilled showman in modern political history, Trump instantly eclipsed the rest of the Republican field and sent some of the candidates scurrying in search of stunts that would make them relevant. Rand Paul, for example, posted a video of himself taking a blowtorch to the federal tax code.

For a while, Rubio was content to play the long game — doing smiley, low-key hits on Fox News, giving wonky interviews to Hugh Hewitt, and generally staying above the fray during crowded primary debates.

But once the field began to narrow last month, putting greater pressure on Rubio to start actually winning contests, his team decided it was time to make a move. The question was how to get the country's TV cameras pointed at their guy now that cable news networks were routinely broadcasting entire Trump campaign rallies live.

Their solution, for better or worse, was for Rubio to do his own best impression of Trump's insult comic routine. For two weeks, the senator mocked the billionaire's spray tan ("He should sue whoever did that to his face") and made barely veiled jokes about his manhood ("You know what they say about men with small hands?").

The stunt worked, as Rubio acknowledged with some dismay in an interview this week with Fox News.

"Every media outlet in America was cutting in live for my events because they were hoping I would say something [about Trump]," Rubio told Megyn Kelly. "This is how sad things have gotten."

But despite all the punditry that pegs Rubio's cratering support to his anti-Trump trash talk, it's unclear whether the approach actually hurt him at the polls. It may have scandalized his donors and embarrassed his kids, but as FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver notes, there's not much evidence to suggest it actually drove voters away.

The more costly long-term consequence of the Rubio campaign's strategic reliance on national media may end up being how it de-prioritized building an effective ground game outside the early states. While Rubio prevailed over Ted Cruz in South Carolina and Nevada, the Texan's campaign has since consistently out-hustled his rival in getting voters to the polls — especially in caucuses, where grassroots organization is crucial.

Rubio spokesman Alex Conant rejected the premise that their campaign has emphasized courting media over field organizing. But even here in Florida, there are signs to the contrary.

On the eve of Thursday’s debate, Rubio held a sunset rally in Hialeah, a heavily Cuban Miami-Dade city lined with brightly colored casitas, concrete driveways, and small businesses with bilingual signs in the windows.

"We have to win here in Florida," Rubio told the crowd of hometown supporters. "I'm asking you to come out and vote in massive numbers."

He repeated the message in Spanish as well, and urged attendees to take advantage of the early voting location “just a block away,” adding that the campaign had selected an earlier-than-usual 5 p.m. start time for the event so that everyone would have time to vote afterward.

Then, after finishing his speech, Rubio welcomed Megyn Kelly onto the stage, informed the crowd that he would be taping an interview with Fox News, and invited them all to stay. A few people peeled off from the audience, but most dutifully stuck around. They listened to instructions from a Fox News producer (“Obviously cheer at some points that the senator makes that you like”) and provided a boisterous backdrop for their candidate’s entire interview.

By the time it was over, the nearby polling location had closed for the night.

Clinton Apologizes For Praising The Reagans' Record On HIV/AIDS

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

On Friday, Hillary Clinton praised Nancy Reagan and her husband, former President Reagan, for starting a conversation about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. However, it is widely accepted that the Reagans were very late in acknowledging HIV/AIDS.

In the interview with MSNBC, Clinton began by talking about "how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s."

She then said, though, "Because of both President and Mrs. Reagan — in particularly Mrs. Reagan — we started a national conversation, when, before nobody would talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it.'

Clinton continued: "That is, too, something I really appreciate with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the national consciousness, and people began to say, 'Hey, we have to do something about this, too.'"

President Reagan did not give a major public speech about HIV/AIDS until May 1987, nearly six years after the Centers for Disease Control first began noting the emergence of the disease.

By the time Reagan spoke, Randy Shilts reported in his book, And the Band Played On, it was known that more than 36,000 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS — more than 20,000 of whom had died. Later data would show the numbers were significantly higher, with more than 41,000 dead by the end of 1987.

In 2015, BuzzFeed News published documentation showing, for the first time, that Nancy Reagan had, in 1985, declined to provide assistance requested by Rock Hudson to help fight the disease in France, with officials directing him instead to the U.S. Embassy there. Hudson died nine weeks later.

Throughout the Reagan administration, moreover, AIDS activists — led by groups like ACT UP — protested the federal government's inaction and, later, slow action at addressing the disease.

Their most famed slogan: "SILENCE = DEATH."

And while Clinton credited the Reagans with "start[ing] a national conversation" on HIV/AIDS, the White House press briefings from the early years of the disease show that — in news conferences in 1982, 1983 and 1984 — there was little conversation, and more laughter, about the disease between the White House press secretary and the press corps.

Asked about Clinton's comments, the head of the nation's largest LGBT rights organization — which has endorsed Clinton — avoided criticizing Clinton directly.

"While I respect her advocacy in other areas including stem cell and Parkinson's research, Nancy Reagan was, sadly, no hero in the fight against HIV/AIDS," Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin told BuzzFeed News.

One of those early ACT UP activists and the co-founder of Treatment Action Group, Peter Staley — featured prominently in the How to Survive a Plague documentary about the early years of the fight against HIV/AIDS — had words for Clinton, posting on Facebook: "Thank god I'm not a single issue voter, or she would have lost my vote with this insulting and farcical view of early AIDS history. Hillary just said that the Reagans helped start a "national conversation" about AIDS. WTF!!!!!"


Breitbart Spokesman Quits As Trump Campaign Controversy Blows Up

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CNN

Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella is no longer working with the company in the wake of controversy over Donald Trump's campaign manager allegedly roughly handling one of the site's reporters.

Bardella told BuzzFeed News on Friday that he had informed Breitbart of his decision to drop them as a client earlier this afternoon.

"When you can’t give an organization 100% of your ability, the best thing to do is move on just for yourself and for them," Bardella, a former spokesman for Darrell Issa, said.

Asked if it would be fair to say he was parting ways with Breitbart because he disagrees with its handling of the situation with Michelle Fields, Bardella said "It would be fair for you to say that" but that he wasn't going to.

"What I personally feel is one thing, but as someone who's supposed to represent them at the public-facing side of this, I was at the point where I couldn’t give 100% of myself and best thing to do was to let them know that," Bardella said.

Breitbart posted a story on Friday that called into question whether Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski did yank Fields at a press conference in Florida on Tuesday, appearing to side with the Trump campaign over their own reporter.

Fields filed a police report against Lewandowski, Independent Journal reported. The Trump campaign has denied that Lewandowski manhandled Fields at the press conference and has publicly impugned Fields, despite eyewitness accounts, audio, and video that back up her version of events.

After the publication of this story, Bardella tweeted that "Life is too short to invest your time in what you don’t believe or aren’t passionate about" and sent tweets critical of Trump:

And in a CNN interview on Friday night, Bardella said he objects to Trump and believes Breitbart is lying about their skepticism of Fields' account.

"I think that they've been looking for a reason to disprove something when all the evidence from the Washington Post reporter's first-hand account, to the bruises on Michelle's arm, all the photos and video clips that we've seen strongly suggest that Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager, was the one who did this," he told Don Lemon. "And there's no reason to never support your own reporter."

"Are you saying they're lying?" Lemon asked.

"Yes," Bardella replied. "I am."

Lemon asked Bardella if he believed Breitbart staffers had lied "all along." Bardella said he believed that in the immediate aftermath of the incident there was confusion, but "I think that as it progressed, and as the evidence became more clear, there seemed to be resistance from Breitbart in supporting Michelle, and it's something I just couldn't understand."

Bardella then explained when asked why he thinks Breitbart would cast doubt on Fields' account that the site is "very supportive of the Trump campaign" and that "there's a desire to want to believe the Trump campaign."

"When you've gone all in so much for a candidate, when you have that kind of skin in the game, you don't want to see that derailed," he told Lemon. "It's human nature."


Republican Congressman: Trump Is "An Embarrassment As A Person"

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“If your 8-year-old child behaved that way, you’d wonder if there was something wrong with them. You’d chastise them,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman.

Michael B. Thomas / AFP / Getty Images

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Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin, called Donald Trump "an embarrassment as a person" in a radio interview on Friday in which he harshly criticized his party's frontrunner.

Grothman, appearing on WTMJ radio's Charlie Sykes Show, said, "It's scary in this regard: I've publicly said I would vote for him if he's our nominee, but I remember when Bill Clinton ran as the Democratic nominee and he was such an embarrassment as a person. You know, I thought the Republicans would never stand for putting somebody up there who's an embarrassment as a person. You look at Trump University, my goodness."

Grothman continued, saying, "You look at the way he behaves. If your 8-year-old child behaved that way, you'd wonder if there was something wrong with them. You'd chastise them. This is the president of the United States."

On Friday, Grothman endorsed Ted Cruz for president.

Donald Trump Calls Off Chicago Rally As Protesters Clash With Supporters

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Trump was scheduled to speak Friday evening in Chicago, but pulled out of the event at the last minute as the scene descended into chaos.

Kamil Krzaczynski / Reuters

Donald Trump called off a rally in Chicago Friday evening as massive protests led to flaring tensions and fights in the crowds.

The rally was scheduled to take place at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. However, in the hours leading up to Trump's arrival, massive crowds gathered both inside and outside the arena. Journalists estimated that thousands of people were at the scene, and several fights could be seen unfolding on live television footage.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

As tensions escalated, Trump announced in a statement that after meeting with law enforcement, he had decided to postpone the event "for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena."

Chicago police said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that Trump notified them shortly before 6:30 p.m. that he was canceling the event. Chicago Police Interim Superintendent John Escalante said during a news conference that five people were arrested at the event and demonstrations.

Two officers were also injured, Escalante added, including one who was hit in the head with a bottle and who will need several stitches.


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Trump's Opponents Are Blaming Him For His Violent Chicago Campaign Event

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Trump is ultimately responsible for creating this environment, his Republican rivals say, and two of them signaled it would be difficult to support him as the nominee.

Donald Trump on Friday cancelled a scheduled rally in Chicago after the event devolved into violence as protesters clashed with Trump supporters.

Donald Trump on Friday cancelled a scheduled rally in Chicago after the event devolved into violence as protesters clashed with Trump supporters.

Tasos Katopodis / AFP / Getty Images

Tension at Trump's events has been increasing for some time. This week, a Trump supporter in North Carolina was charged for punching a protester in the face at a Trump rally. A Breitbart reporter also this week filed a police report alleging Trump's campaign manager violently grabbed her at a Trump event in Florida.

None of Trump's Republican rivals, when given the chance at the last debate, would directly condemn Trump for the actions at his rallies.

However, in the aftermath of the Chicago protests, all three of them — Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich — directly attributed the violence to Trump.

Cruz told reporters in Ballwin, Missouri: "My answer is the same, I committed at the outset, I will support the Republican nominee whoever it is."

Pressed on how he could still support Trump as the nominee despite saying last night that he encourages a culture of violence, Cruz said "I am encouraging every candidate and every campaign to appeal to our better angels."

"It's a choice every candidate makes," Cruz said. "I understand people are angry." Cruz said he understands that Trump "feels like a vessel for that anger" at Washington, but that "Donald Trump is Washington."

Cruz did not answer follow-ups about why he would still support Trump as the nominee despite all he's said about him.


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Trump Blames "Communist" Bernie Sanders Supporters For Violent Chicago Event

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Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

Donald Trump said "fervent" supporters of Bernie Sanders were to blame for the violence that caused his campaign event in Chicago to be canceled on Friday evening due to security concerns.

The rally was scheduled to take place at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion, but protests and scuffles both inside and outside the arena caused the event to be called off at the last minute, leaving sullen Trump supporters to file out to the cheers of protesters.

Speaking to supporters at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, the Republican frontrunner criticized what he said was the "disgraceful" behavior of anti-Trump protesters. He called the demonstrations "a planned attack" carried out by "organized, professionally staged wise guys."

"What happened yesterday was incredible," Trump said. "It was determined that if we go in it could
cause really bad, bad vibes."

"You have to understand they want me to tell my
people, ‘Please be nice.’ My people are nice!" he said to cheers. "They caused no problems. They were taunted, they were harassed by these other people."

Trump said some of the protesters represented "our communist friend" Bernie Sanders.

"Bernie, he should really get up and say to his
people, 'Stop!'" Trump said.

The real-estate developer said there were no Hillary Clinton supporters at the rally because they lack the "fervor" of Sanders supporters. "Say what you want about Bernie, at least there’s fervor," he said.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

Sanders told reporters on Saturday his supporters were “responding to a candidate who has in many ways encouraged violence.”

“The issue now is that Donald Trump has to be loud and clear and tell his supporters that violence at rallies is not what America is about and to end it,” Sanders said.

In the aftermath of the Chicago event, Trump's opponents for the Republican nomination have also said he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his supporters due to his often incendiary rhetoric.

"I think a campaign bears responsibility for creating an environment, when the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence to punch people in the face,” Ted Cruz said. “The predictable consequence of that is that it escalates."

Speaking Saturday, Trump mocked his rivals for saying such behavior would not occur at their rallies. "They don't have any people at their rallies!" he said.

UPDATE: Sanders has since released this statement:

As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar. Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests.

What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama.

What caused the violence at Trump’s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters . He recently said of a protester, ‘I want to punch him in the face.’ Another time Trump yearned for the old days when the protester would have been punched and 'carried out on a stretcher.’ Then just a few days ago a female reporter apparently was assaulted by his campaign manager.

When that is what the Trump campaign is doing, we should not be surprised that there is a response.

What Donald Trump must do now is stop provoking violence and make it clear to his supporters that people who attend his rallies or protest should not be assaulted, should not be punched, should not be kicked. In America people have a right to attend a political rally without fear of physical harm.

LINK: Donald Trump Calls Off Chicago Rally As Protesters Clash With Supporters

LINK: Trump’s Opponents Are Blaming Him For His Violent Chicago Campaign Event

The Secret Service Surrounded Trump After A Guy Rushed The Stage

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“I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it,” Trump told the crowd.

Secret Service agents rushed to protect Donald Trump on Saturday, as a man jumped the barricade at an Ohio campaign event and tried to rush the stage.

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This video filmed from the crowd in Dayton shows the man wearing a black t-shirt leap over the barricade on the left hand side of the screen.

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Secret Service agents quickly tackled the man...

Secret Service agents quickly tackled the man...

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As other agents crowded around the GOP frontrunner.

As other agents crowded around the GOP frontrunner.

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