Tag Archives: rubio

Energy-related carbon emissions were way down in the first half of 2016 — but there’s a catch.

by Denice82F47414 Posted on October 12, 2016

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton appeared side-by-side in a Miami campaign stop that framed the climate-change challenge in an unusually optimistic light.

“Climate change is real. It’s urgent. And America can take the lead in the world in addressing it,” Clinton said. She focused on the U.S.’s capacity to lead the world in a climate deal and as a clean energy superpower in a speech that mostly rehashed familiar policy territory.

Clinton ran down her existing proposals on infrastructure, rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and more, though she omitted the more controversial subjects, like what to do about pipeline permits, that have dogged her campaign.

Though Clinton and Gore largely framed climate change as a challenge Americans must rise to, they didn’t miss an opportunity to jab at climate deniers.

“Our next president will either step up our efforts … or we will be dragged backwards and our whole future will be put at risk,” Clinton said.

Besides Donald Trump, Florida’s resident climate deniers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott got special shoutouts.

“The world is on the cusp of either building on the progress of solving the climate crisis or stepping back … and letting the big polluters call the shots,” Gore said.

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Energy-related carbon emissions were way down in the first half of 2016 — but there’s a catch.

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The Podesta email leak sheds more light on his UFO fixation and cooking skills than anything else.

by ToshaPool875 Posted on October 12, 2016

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton appeared side-by-side in a Miami campaign stop that framed the climate-change challenge in an unusually optimistic light.

“Climate change is real. It’s urgent. And America can take the lead in the world in addressing it,” Clinton said. She focused on the U.S.’s capacity to lead the world in a climate deal and as a clean energy superpower in a speech that mostly rehashed familiar policy territory.

Clinton ran down her existing proposals on infrastructure, rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and more, though she omitted the more controversial subjects, like what to do about pipeline permits, that have dogged her campaign.

Though Clinton and Gore largely framed climate change as a challenge Americans must rise to, they didn’t miss an opportunity to jab at climate deniers.

“Our next president will either step up our efforts … or we will be dragged backwards and our whole future will be put at risk,” Clinton said.

Besides Donald Trump, Florida’s resident climate deniers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott got special shoutouts.

“The world is on the cusp of either building on the progress of solving the climate crisis or stepping back … and letting the big polluters call the shots,” Gore said.

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The Podesta email leak sheds more light on his UFO fixation and cooking skills than anything else.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Jason, LG, ONA, Radius, Ringer, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Podesta email leak sheds more light on his UFO fixation and cooking skills than anything else.

Hurricane Matthew may be over, but the waters haven’t receded yet in parts of North Carolina.

by RosemarJ34 Posted on October 11, 2016

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton appeared side-by-side in a Miami campaign stop that framed the climate-change challenge in an unusually optimistic light.

“Climate change is real. It’s urgent. And America can take the lead in the world in addressing it,” Clinton said. She focused on the U.S.’s capacity to lead the world in a climate deal and as a clean energy superpower in a speech that mostly rehashed familiar policy territory.

Clinton ran down her existing proposals on infrastructure, rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and more, though she omitted the more controversial subjects, like what to do about pipeline permits, that have dogged her campaign.

Though Clinton and Gore largely framed climate change as a challenge Americans must rise to, they didn’t miss an opportunity to jab at climate deniers.

“Our next president will either step up our efforts … or we will be dragged backwards and our whole future will be put at risk,” Clinton said.

Besides Donald Trump, Florida’s resident climate deniers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott got special shoutouts.

“The world is on the cusp of either building on the progress of solving the climate crisis or stepping back … and letting the big polluters call the shots,” Gore said.

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Hurricane Matthew may be over, but the waters haven’t receded yet in parts of North Carolina.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Jason, LG, ONA, Radius, Ringer, solar, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hurricane Matthew may be over, but the waters haven’t receded yet in parts of North Carolina.

Republicans Just Made a Very Awkward Pitch to Conservative Latinos

by SamualDRDlzfqmb Posted on July 20, 2016

Mother Jones

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Selling Donald Trump’s candidacy to Latinos—even conservative, Republican Latinos—is a tricky political dance.

A few of Trump’s top surrogates in Cleveland paid a visit on Wednesday to an event hosted by the Latino Coalition—a conservative, nonpartisan group. Their pitch for the real estate mogul wasn’t exactly inspiring.

“I want you all to understand,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said, “that I made a choice to support Donald Trump not only because he’s been my friend for 14 years, but because I am completely confident he is going to be the Republican nominee for president, and last night he became the Republican nominee for president.” Christie then asked the event’s attendees to make a similar calculation when it comes to picking between Hillary Clinton and Trump. The message was clear: Suck it up, and vote for Trump.

The next speaker, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), delivered a brief speech in which he slammed Clinton for being too liberal, praised the work of the Republican Congress, and bashed bureaucratic red tape. He never even mentioned Trump. Originally a supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), Duffy seemed more inclined to raise his own profile among the group than to tout the virtues of his party’s standard-bearer.

Sharon Day, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, stopped by to pitch party loyalty—not by invoking the GOP presidential nominee, but by quoting Rubio. “We open our arms,” she said, “and I can’t say this as eloquently as Marco Rubio may have said it, but you know what: We welcome legal immigration with wide gates and wide open arms. But again there is a rule of law in the country. There is an opportunity for everyone to come in this country legally; and we welcome all to do that.” Like Duffy, she didn’t mention Trump.

These party emissaries seemed to know their audience—most of the attendees were less than enthusiastic about Trump. Tony Quinones, a venture capitalist and registered Republican from California, is hopeful that Trump will evolve into a typical Republican nominee. “But if he starts diverting off of that”—for example, his pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border—”that I know makes people nervous. It makes me nervous. It makes people in my family nervous. It makes people I do business with nervous.”

“I’ve talked to at least 20 family members about politics and about how we as a family want to approach it,” Quinones said when asked how he would vote in November. “So I’m here to find out what the real policies are going to be.”

Mario Lopez, the president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a conservative group, wasn’t optimistic that conservative Latinos would rally behind Trump this year. “A lot of the data from 2012 shows that the Latinos who did not vote, who stayed home, were more likely to self-identify as politically conservative,” he said. He sees little evidence that those voters will turn out for Trump in November. “I think it’s highly unlikely,” he said, beginning to laugh. “The signs don’t point in that direction, let me put it that way.”

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Republicans Just Made a Very Awkward Pitch to Conservative Latinos

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GOP Insider Trent Lott Tried to Broker a Kasich-Rubio Ticket to Thwart Donald Trump

by JuliusBackhaus4 Posted on April 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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The other day, I bumped into Trent Lott, the former Republican Senate majority leader who’s now at the law and lobbying firm of Squire Patton Boggs (its clients include Airbus, Goldman Sachs, and Royal Dutch Shell). He’s always polite and chatty—these days he’s promoting a book he wrote with former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle called Crisis Point that decries the partisan polarization of Washington and offers proposals for de-gridlocking the city—and he asked me what I was up to. I noted that I had just finished listening to a Donald Trump speech. Lott rolled his eyes. So who are you for? I asked, though I had a good guess. Almost all the former Capitol Hill GOPers who are now lobbyists in DC are pulling for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and, sure enough, Lott declared he’s on Team Kasich. And, Lott added, he had been trying to thwart Trump.

How so? I asked.

Lott said he had actively tried to broker a deal between Kasich and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), another Washington Republican favorite whose presidential campaign did not last too long once the voting started. This was Lott’s plan: Kasich and Rubio would agree to run as a ticket, with Rubio in the veep slot, and the pair would keep this quiet and not announce the deal until days before the Republican convention. This dramatic, headline-grabbing move, in Lott’s thinking, would dominate the news, as GOPers gathered in Cleveland, and potentially rewrite the narrative of the Republican race. That is, the Kasich-Rubio ticket would be the story, not Trump. This would “shake up the landscape,” Lott said.

Lott told me that he had put some time into this idea but, alas, it was now probably dead. Why? First, he said, Kasich’s alliance with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), which lasted several nanoseconds, had gotten in the way. That ill-fated deal—under which Kasich would not campaign in Indiana and give Cruz a one-on-one shot at Trump—bolstered Trump’s claim that Republican insiders were plotting against him and conniving to undermine the will of GOP voters. Another brokered arrangement, Lott said, would look awful. In essence, the party deal-makers could only get one shot to concoct a stop-Trump deal, and they had blown their chance.

And there was another reason to pull the plug on the Kasich-Rubio plan, Lott said: it now seemed as if Trump would snag the 1,237 delegates needed to obtain the nomination—or get damn close. Lott is one of the growing number of GOP bigwigs saying that if the real estate mogul is close to the magic number, it will be all but impossible to not hand him the presidential nomination. Not even a Kasich-Rubio dream ticket—well, it’s a dream for K Street Republicans, at least—could stop Trump, if he’s within spitting distance of 1,237.

“But I tried,” Lott said.

I later asked a Kasich adviser about Lott’s plan, and he said, “The Kasich-Rubio or Rubio-Kasich team has been hanging around for months as a concept that could potentially be very popular with the delegates. I know of no active pursuit of that concept presently perhaps because what I have heard is that Rubio has been making overtures to Trump.” (Rubio and Trump! How’s that for wonderful political gossip?)

Lott went on to note that he believes Trump could win a general election against Hillary Clinton. “There’s something happening in this country, and Trump has tapped into it,” he explained. Lott pointed out that when he goes back home to Mississippi he comes across plenty of blue-collar workers who are pissed off about trade deals and immigration. They’re for Trump, and some are Democrats. He noted that when he was in Congress he supported every trade deal that came through but now would not. And, he added, did you know this: one out of five households in this country don’t have anyone working in a job. His analysis: it’s a mess out there, and Trump could well ride populist anger into the White House.

But would Lott vote for Trump over Clinton? “Yes, I would,” Lott answered, without any hesitancy. Really? I replied. He said he would have no qualms doing so. But, he added, if Vice President Joe Biden were the Democratic candidate, he would vote for Biden.

“That’s not going to happen,” I said.

“Yeah,” Lott replied. “That’s too bad.”

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GOP Insider Trent Lott Tried to Broker a Kasich-Rubio Ticket to Thwart Donald Trump

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on GOP Insider Trent Lott Tried to Broker a Kasich-Rubio Ticket to Thwart Donald Trump

A eulogy for Marco Rubio’s political career

by KyleKeegan0 Posted on March 16, 2016

A eulogy for Marco Rubio’s political career

By on 15 Mar 2016commentsShare

Little Marco! O, the waterfalls we shed for your departure!

Senator Rubio! How we weep for your consistency.

When the climate changed, Marco, you refused to do the same. We don’t remember you voting much at all in the Senate, but when you did, we remember you voting against an amendment that said human activity significantly contributes to our climate woes. “The climate is changing and one of the reasons why the climate is changing is the climate has always been changing,” you trumpeted. You were steadfast: a Florida coastline refusing to be swallowed by the rising seas of scientific consensus.

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“America is not a planet,” you once sighed. There was nothing we could do to change the climate, you explained. And there was nothing we could do to change you.

You pointed to China’s coal, to the fallacy of economic and environmental tradeoffs, to governmental overreach of the sordid left. You supported Keystone XL and lifting the crude export ban. You were the climate bad boy: the Daniel Desario we knew we shouldn’t hang out with — but you were just so dangerous. Like February 2016, you were just so hot.

Mere days before your dear departure from the race, you doubled down. The 21 Floridian mayors’ letter begging for reason on climate was met only by your trademark dismissal thereof. You always sounded so convincing! You teased and toyed with Jake Tapper: “I think the fundamental question for a policymaker is, is the climate changing because of something we are doing, and if so, is there a law you can pass to fix it?” There were plenty of laws that would do exactly that, but you preferred the rhetorical question. Denialism had such a palatable face with you on the stage. We wanted to believe.

And now you leave us bitter. Climate denial in the remaining Republican pool sports a different mask; a mask wearing a zanier expression than yours ever did.

¡Marcito! Your interventionism terrified us all, but your Spanish was so smooth. You disagreed with abortion, even in cases of rape — but you did have that one polished October jab against Jeb. “Donald is not going to make America great,” you said. “He is going to make America orange!” And now, sweet Marco, sad clown: You only make America blue.

Readers! Mourners! A man’s presidential hopes have faltered! He has traveled far and wide; he has sweat torrentially. But let us dispel with the notion that the wanderer is lost. Let us dispel once and for all with this fiction that Marco Rubio doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is pulling himself up by his chic boot-zips and dusting the cobwebs from his Senate seat. Until, of course, he breaks our heart again, in 2017.

Marco Rubio is survived by the Zodiac Killer, the Frontrunner Who Shall Not Be Named, and his extraordinary, unforgettable glitch.

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A eulogy for Marco Rubio’s political career

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Live Tuesday Primary Updates: Trump Takes Hawaii

by MerleBlackburn9 Posted on March 9, 2016

Mother Jones

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Citizens in four states will cast votes in Tuesday’s nominating contests, with presidential candidates on both sides eyeing the night’s biggest prize: Michigan, where 59 Republican delegates and 130 Democratic delegates are up for grabs. Next up for both sides is Mississippi, where 40 GOP delegates and 36 Democratic delegates are at stake, followed by Republican contests in Idaho and Hawaii (51 combined delegates).

Click here for our 2016 presidential primary delegate tracker.

Early polling gives the advantage to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who appears poised to maintain his lead over Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, even as his hold of the GOP electorate has appeared to wane. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is favored to extend her Democratic delegate lead in both Michigan and Mississippi; nationally, she holds a 7 point lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Mississippi’s polls are the first to close tonight, at 8 p.m. Eastern, with Michigan wrapping up at 9 p.m. Eastern. The Republican showdowns in Idaho and Hawaii are expected to close at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Eastern, respectively. Tuesday’s outcomes will set the stage for next week’s critical primaries in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. (You can track who has won delegates in each primary here.)

We’ll be here with the latest results as they come in.

UPDATE 16, Tuesday, March 8, 2:34 a.m. ET: With roughly 51 percent of precincts reporting, the networks are calling Hawaii for Donald Trump, who leads the field with 45 percent of the vote. Cruz is well behind at 31 percent. Rubio has 12 percent and Kasich 10 percent.

UPDATE 15, Tuesday, March 9, 1:41 a.m. ET: It’s early yet, but Trump is leading in Hawaii. With just 13 percent of precincts in, he’s at just over 42 percent. Cruz has around 28 percent, and Kasich and Rubio are neck and neck at around 14 percent.

UPDATE 14, Tuesday, March 9, 1:19 a.m. ET: Marco Rubio is having a bad night indeed. The Florida senator has gained zero delegates from tonight’s Michigan and Mississippi primaries. If he fails to reach the 20 percent threshold needed to win delegates in Idaho, he could miss yet another chance at getting a little traction in the GOP field. He’s currently just over 17 percent in Idaho, with 75 percent of precincts reporting. At a rally Tuesday night, even as Rubio and his spokesman dismissed reports that his own campaign staffers had told him to drop out, Rubio looked ahead to next week’s Florida primary, with 99 delegates are up for grabs. “It always comes down to Florida,” he said. With 151 delegates in his pocket, he’s a far cry from where he needs to be. Results will be coming in soon from Hawaii, where, with a little luck, Rubio could at least get himself on tonight’s delegate scoreboard.

UPDATE 13, Tuesday, March 9, 12:18 a.m. ET: Fox and NBC and CNN have projected a Cruz win in Idaho, where he now holds more than 42 percent of the vote with 53 percent reporting. But Clinton’s loss to Sanders in Michigan is the story of the night. The Democratic candidates debate again tomorrow evening. The GOP candidates will be debating on Thursday night.

UPDATE 12, Tuesday, March 8, 11:51 p.m. ET: Poll are completely worthless, at least for Michigan, where Hillary Clinton was projected by most to have a comfortable lead. In the Idaho GOP race, with 35 percent of precincts reporting, Cruz has increased his lead to 40.8 percent. Trump hangs back with 30.1 percent, Rubio with 18.2, and John Kasich a distant 6.9 percent.

UPDATE 11, Tuesday, March 8, 11:37 p.m. ET: Several networks have officially called Michigan for Bernie Sanders.

UPDATE 10, Tuesday, March 8, 11:28 p.m. ET: Results are coming in the Idaho GOP primary. With 17 percent reporting, Ted Cruz leads with just under 39 percent. Trump has around 30, and Rubio trails with 20. Bernie Sanders’ lead keeps inching up in the Michigan Dem primary—with 92 percent reporting, he’s carrying 50.4 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 47.7 percent. (CNN)

UPDATE 9, Tuesday, March 8, 11:01 p.m. ET: Leading by nearly 4 percentage points with 85 percent of precincts counted in the Michigan Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders thanked supporters for turning out in Michigan and elsewhere. “What tonight means is that the Bernie Sanders campaign, the people’s revolution that we are talking about, is strong in every part of the country,” he said, speaking to reporters in Miami. “We believe our strongest areas are yet to happen.” CNN reports that the Clinton campaign is preparing for a narrow loss.

UPDATE 8, Tuesday, March 8, 10:46 p.m. ET: Speaking in front of supporters tonight in Cleveland, Hillary Clinton slammed the divisive rhetoric among Republican contenders. “Running for president shouldn’t be about delivering insults,” she said, “it should be about delivering results for the American people.” Bernie Sanders is expected to speak with reporters shortly.

UPDATE 7, Tuesday, March 8, 10:29 p.m. ET: The Democratic race in Michigan is still too close to call. Bernie Sanders currently holds a narrow lead over Hillary Clinton, with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting. Sanders is strongly outperforming polling; as The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza points out, he has done well with Michigan’s black voters.

UPDATE 6, Tuesday, March 8, 10:08 p.m. ET: Donald Trump took a shot at Hillary Clinton at his press conference in Florida on Tuesday night, raising questions as to whether the Democratic front-runner would be allowed to run in the general election in light of a federal investigation into her use of a private email server during her stint as Secretary of State.

UPDATE 5, Tuesday, March 8, 9:37 p.m. ET: At a rambling press conference at his country club in Jupiter, Florida, Donald Trump thanked his supporters, including New York Yankees legend Paul O’Neill, for his string of victories in Michigan and Mississippi. Backed by a table bearing what he claimed to be his signature Trump steaks, water, and wine, the Republican front-runner echoed his confidence in running away with the Republican nomination and his ability to beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. “We started off with 17. We’re down to 4. They’re pretty much all gone,” Trump said. “There’s only one person who did well tonight, and that’s Donald Trump.”

UPDATE 4, Tuesday, March 8, 9:15 p.m. ET: Here’s a livestream of Trump’s speech from Florida:

UPDATE 3, Tuesday, March 8, 9:04 p.m. ET: With polls closing in Michigan, NBC News and Fox News have called the Republican primary there for Donald Trump, with John Kasich and Ted Cruz battling for second. Marco Rubio, on the other hand, has had a poor showing in both Michigan and Mississippi. Trump will be speaking in Rubio’s backyard in Jupiter, Florida, later tonight.

UPDATE 2, Tuesday, March 8, 8:31 p.m. ET: The networks are reporting that Donald Trump will win the Mississippi primary in what was a two-man race with Sen. Ted Cruz.

UPDATE 1, Tuesday, March 8, 8 p.m. ET: Just as polls closed in Mississippi, the networks are predicting that Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic primary there.

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Live Tuesday Primary Updates: Trump Takes Hawaii

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The 7 Best Moments of the GOP Debate in Houston

by BlondelBrownlow Posted on February 26, 2016

Mother Jones

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When the five remaining GOP candidates met Thursday night for the final debate before Super Tuesday, the stakes had never been higher. The first four contests are now over, and on Tuesday, voters in 11 states will head to the polls. Time is running out to slow Donald Trump’s momentum—and the urgency was palpable.

Going into this debate, the media had focused on the fact that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were more interested in attacking each other than stopping Trump. But on Thursday night, that began to change. Rubio, in particular, took aim at Trump and did not let up. Cruz was less dogged, but he did piggy-back on several of Rubio’s attacks against the real estate billionaire. Rubio didn’t simply hammer the front-runner on policy issues—he also worked hard to convince voters that Trump is mired in lawsuits and scandal. The exchanges repeatedly devolved into yelling matches between the candidates.

The debate—the 10th for the GOP this primary season—was hosted by CNN and Telemundo in Houston and also featured John Kasich and Ben Carson, but it was the first without Jeb Bush.

Here are the top highlights from the debate:

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The 7 Best Moments of the GOP Debate in Houston

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The Deck Was Stacked for Trump in Nevada

by RosalindGriffith Posted on February 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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If any state was going to cement Donald Trump’s front-runner status in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, it’s fitting that Nevada should be the one to do the job.

Las Vegas dominates the state’s politics—more than 70 percent of the state population lives in the city or surrounding Clark County—and Trump is perfectly suited to the city’s glitz and bombast. His giant Trump Tower gleams right off the Vegas strip, standing apart from the clustered pack of casino resorts, where everyone can see his name from far and wide. This is a place that forgives sin in the name of fun, gravitates toward the newest shiny object, and is willing to look the other way at uncouth behavior. It’s a place where winning is everything.

And win he did. Trump was declared the victor of the Nevada Republican caucuses by TV networks shortly after caucus precincts began reporting results, with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz tussling over second place, just as they did three days ago in Trump’s win in the South Carolina primary. Rubio didn’t bother to stick around in the state to watch results, instead departing earlier Tuesday for the Super Tuesday states that will vote next week. John Kasich, who didn’t even campaign in Nevada this week, and Ben Carson were an afterthought, even if their decisions to stay in the race are taking a toll on Rubio and Cruz.

Nevada was the first contest without Jeb Bush, the candidate the media had once anointed as the front-runner, and who suspended his campaign after finishing fourth in South Carolina. Now there can be little doubt that Trump is the favorite to gain the nomination. He’s finished in a dominant first place in three of the four states that have voted so far, with three consecutive wins following a second-place showing in Iowa.

Nevada was supposed to be Rubio’s firewall, a state where he spent part of his childhood and one that has a sizable Latino population. Rubio did pick up a swath of endorsements from establishment Republicans once Bush dropped out, but actual Republican voters appear unswayed.

And really, Nevada was natural territory for Trump all along. Even apart from Las Vegas, the state’s Republican Party has more of a libertarian tinge than the national GOP, with voters who are more likely to forgive Trump’s past dalliances with socially liberal policies. Trump’s populist message and anti-trade refrains resonated well in the state hit hardest by the Great Recession and foreclosure crisis.

On Monday night, Trump held a rally at a casino arena just south of the Vegas strip, drawing a crowd that he said numbered 8,000. (By comparison, only 33,000 Republicans showed up to vote in the state’s caucuses in 2012.) Early in his stump speech, he brought up the leaked video of an executive at a Carrier air-conditioning plant announcing that the company would be moving manufacturing to Mexico, costing Indianapolis 1,400 jobs in the process. “It’s very sad,” Trump said. “And there’s nothing we’re going to do about it, unless we get very smart and tough.” Trump pledged that he’d impose a 35 percent tax on each air-conditioning unit the company tries to sell in the United States, drawing loud applause from his fans. “We’ve got to put our country back together,” he said. “It’s a mess.”

But the rally was a useful reminder of the violent tone Trump’s campaign has taken. “Get him the hell out,” Trump said when the evening’s first protester stood up in the crowd. No other presidential campaign needs a PSA before rallies begin warning audience members not to get physical with protesters, and to let security handle removing them from the venue.

Trump himself contradicted that advice, imagining a violent assault on another protester being led out by security. “We’re not allowed to punch back anymore,” he said. “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out in a stretcher, folks.” Trump himself sounded as if he wanted to hop down and help the crowd rough up the protesters, saying, “I’d like to punch him in the face.”

That outlook isn’t just how Trump approaches tussles with an unruly crowd; it’s the same tone he takes with foreign policy. “We’re gonna knock the hell out of them, folks,” Trump said of ISIS on Monday. He pledged to bring back waterboarding—and said this form of torture wasn’t sufficient. “I think it’s great,” he said, “but I don’t think we go far enough.”

Before Trump spoke, Joe Arpaio, the notoriously anti-immigrant sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, took the stage to warm applause from Trump’s crowd. He said he’d invited Hillary Clinton to swing by his infamous tent city jail, and that he’d “even give her a free pair of pink underwear,” referring to a tactic he’s used to emasculate prisoners in his care.

The coarse language Trump employs and associates with could hurt him in a general election. But for now, it’s just boosting his profile among fed-up Republican voters.

“We’re not going to be the dummies anymore, folks,” Trump said at his Monday rally, after the audience cheered his call to make Mexico pay to build a wall on the border. “We’re going to be the smart ones.”

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The Deck Was Stacked for Trump in Nevada

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Even Ted Cruz’s Best Friend in the Senate Is Campaigning for Rubio

by GailWatters Posted on February 18, 2016

Mother Jones

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Ted Cruz has many enemies in the United States Senate, and only one pretty good friend: Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who, like Cruz, is a tea party darling. So it must have been welcome news in the Cruz camp when Lee came to South Carolina this week to hit the campaign trail with Cruz. (Remember, Donald Trump has been knocking Cruz as an unlikable, nasty guy, and pointing out that not one of his Senate colleagues has endorsed him.)

There was just one catch: Lee was campaigning with Cruz, but he wasn’t endorsing him. In fact, hours before Lee gave a speech introducing and praising Cruz at a barbecue joint in Easley, South Carolina, Lee hailed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at a CrossFit gym in nearby Greenville, where he told an audience of conservatives, “I don’t know anyone in Washington who knows the Bible quite as well as Marco Rubio does.”

For now, Lee is undecided about whom to support in the Republican presidential primary and apparently playing the field. (He told reporters in Easley that he would endorse someone, sometime.) That has put him in an awkward position as a supporter of two competing candidates currently locked in a fight about who is or isn’t a scoundrel. Even more awkward was that Lee delivered essentially the same speech for both Rubio and Cruz: a historical allegory about the lessons of the Boston Tea Party and the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

As Cruz tries to maintain second place in the South’s first primary state, he has brought in a few reinforcements. Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Louie Gohmert of Texas (known for coining the term “terror babies“) joined him to talk up Cruz’s anti-immigration bona fides. But Rubio, who is fiercely challenging Cruz for second—both trail Trump in the polls—has greater local support and is traveling the state with the “cavalry.” That’s what Republican Sen. Tim Scott calls the South Carolina lawmakers in Rubio’s corner: Gov. Nikki Haley, Rep. Trey Gowdy (of Benghazi committee fame), and Scott himself. Scott and Gowdy, who each display a half-decent comedic repartee at Rubio campaign events, teamed up for a radio ad on Rubio’s behalf.

In a street fight like this, Cruz could use more prominent allies. But he couldn’t even get his buddy Lee to go all the way with an endorsement.

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Even Ted Cruz’s Best Friend in the Senate Is Campaigning for Rubio

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