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32%
Donald Trump’s lead in the GOP presidential race, followed by Ben Carson at 12%, Jeb Bush at 11%, Carly Fiorina at 6%, Ted Cruz at 5% and Marco Rubio at 5%, according to a new Morning Consult poll. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton for the first time has fallen below the 50% mark. She maintains a strong lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders — 49% to 28% — though her 21-point lead is at its lowest point since Morning Consult began surveying the Democratic field.
Know this, I meant exactly what I said. I could never support a candidate for President of the United States that was Muslim and had not renounced the central tenant of Islam: Sharia Law.
— Ben Carson, writing on Facebook.
I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner.
— Gov. Scott Walker, quoted by the New York Times, suggesting other GOP candidates drop their White House bids as he did.
In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share. He is, as many say, making a mockery of the entire political process with his bull-in-a-china-shop antics. But the mockery in this case may be overdue, highly warranted, and ultimately a spur to reform rather than the crime against civic order that has scandalized those who see him, in the words of the former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, as ‘dangerous to democracy.’
Barack Obama is a talented man — and by the way he’s an American, he’s a Christian — his problem isn’t the fact that he was born here or what his faith is. His problem is that he’s a progressive liberal who tears down anybody that disagrees with him.
— Jeb Bush, quoted by the Washington Post, in response to Donald Trump’s decision not to correct a questioner who said President Obama is a Muslim who is “not even an American.”
$100 million
Amount Donald Trump says he’s willing to spend to win the presidential campaign, according to the New York Times.
I look at our friends in the Latino community as people that ought to be voting Republican. I mean, they’re very strong family. We could all learn a little from them about the importance of family, couldn’t we? Because they are great, they are God-fearing, hard-working folks. And a lot of them do jobs that they’re willing to do. That’s why, in a hotel, you leave a little tip, you know?
— Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the Columbus Dispatch.
$1.2 million
Amount of online donations the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders raised in 48 hours “after research surfaced from a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton that linked the Vermont senator to the ‘extreme’ views of Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party,” the Washington Post reported. “The burst of money Sanders received online was unprecedented, according to a statement Thursday by Erin Hill, executive director of ActBlue, an online fundraising service used by Sanders and scores of Democrats.”
$18 trillion
“Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose liberal call to action has propelled his long-shot presidential campaign, is proposing an array of new programs that would amount to the largest peacetime expansion of government in modern American history. … In all, he backs at least $18 trillion in new spending over a decade, according to a tally by the Wall Street Journal, a sum that alarms conservatives and gives even many Democrats pause. Mr. Sanders sees the money as going to essential government services at a time of increasing strain on the middle class.”
70%
Of Latinos “hold negative views of Donald Trump — including 60% who said they have a ‘very negative’ impression of the front-runner in the GOP’s 2016 presidential race. That’s compared to 55% of U.S. residents and just 28% of Republicans who view Trump negatively,” according to a new MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll. “Almost two-thirds of Latinos surveyed — 65% — say Trump is hurting the image of the Republican Party, while just 13% say he is helping the party.”
