***Horse Race LiveWire*** One Day to Ohio, Florida Primaries

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Welcome to Breitbart News’s daily live updates of the 2016 horse race.

All times eastern.

9:06: Matt Dowd refreshingly honest of late:

9:03: Arpaio gives Sanders’s wife tour of tents jail:

8:05: No protesters at Trump’s Monday evening Ohio rally:

7:55: Questioner asks Clinton what she would do to increase dialogue between African-American communities and police. Clinton says she wants to encourage police officers to listen to communities in order to “build respect.” She says there needs to be retraining, body cameras, etc. in order to build “confidence and trust.” She wants to implement Obama’s recommendations and “go further” but she wants the effort to be led by police officers. Clinton also talks about wanting to take on the “gun lobby.”

7:51: Sheriff decides not to charge Trump for inciting a riot:

7:49: Matthews cites Clinton’s support of Goldwater and says Clinton has been very “protean.” What an understatement. Clinton says her father was a rock-ribbed conservative Republican though he believed in “community”–good public schools, etc. She says her mother was democratically oriented.

7:43: Clinton is asked about immigration and how to keep screen refugees to keep America safe. She says when we talk about people coming to the United States, they have to be vetted and screened and there is an organization that sponsors people that Americans can trust. Rambling answer.

7:30: When Matthews asks Clinton why Sanders had the foresight to vote against the Iraq War and what allowed him to see what Clinton couldn’t see, Clinton responds, “I don’t know.” Matthews says there’s 100,000 people dead because of the Iraq War and then we went into Libya. Matthews asks why Clinton keeps supporting regime change in the Middle East.

Clinton keeps explaining that her vote for Iraq was a mistake. You can tell she’s tiptoeing around the issue, knowing her vote cost her the 2008 election to Obama. Matthews asks Clinton what she feels about U.S.’s history of “knocking off leaders.” She says “in the vast majority of cases, the answer is no.” She says there are historical games you can play like wondering if Germany would have been better if someone had assassinated Hitler. She says it is a mistake to say you can’t ever prevent war, save people by knocking off leaders. She says these are “tough, hard choices” and “I wrote a whole book about hard choices!” Matthews fawns–even after blasting her judgment on Iraq/Libya–and declares Clinton is ready to be Commander-in-Chief.

7:27: Matthews blasts Clinton for her Iraq vote and asks if Trump is right when he said they lied. Clinton just scrambles when Matthews asks if she had evidence that Iraq had nuclear weapons. Clinton says that was because the inspections weren’t completed. She says she believed George W. Bush when he said the vote would allow inspectors to finish the job. Clinton says Bush “didn’t let the inspectors finish” and “that’s where I made a mistake.”

7:24: Clinton says there’s no “free market” in countries that put a “thumb on the scale” for their industries. But she says she is not the same as Sanders on trade because we have to trade with the other 95% of the world. Clinton says Sanders is “reflexively against” anything that has “any international implications.” When asked if she is a hawk, Clinton says she is a “smart power advocate” in an answer that may make Joseph Nye happy but may not lead to more book sales.

7:20: Trump says Kasich is “weak on the borders” and voted for NAFTA, which “destroyed Ohio.” He blasts Kasich for supporting TPP, which will be worse than NAFTA. He says Kasich can’t make American great and won’t be a “great president.”

7:15: In Ohio, Trump says he will do well with Hispanics because “I’m bringing jobs back.”

7:13: Clinton says she would have been out of a “lot of money” with “nothing to show for it” had she gone to Trump University.

7:11: Clinton: Trump ‘Inciting Mob Violence.’ She says people remember mob violence that led to lynchings, shootings, etc. “It’s something that has a deep, psychological resonance,” she says.

7:10: Matthews wonders if African-Americans have turned on Trump because Trump led the birther movement. Clinton says it’s “that plus other feelings.” She says Trump incited people to be hostile toward the president, who happened to be the first African-American president.

7:05: Matthews lobs a softball at Clinton by playing clips of Robert Kennedy speaking after Martin Luther King’s death in Indianapolis and Donald Trump. Clinton says “you couldn’t have a starker contrast” between a leader, statesmen, visionary and “someone like Trump, a demagogue, a showman, an inciter,” who is “fanning the flames.”

[Matthews doesn’t point out that many of RFK’s supporters became Reagan Democrats. And Reagan Democrats are flocking to Trump’s campaign and not to Clinton’s.]

7:02: Clinton says we could use Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech she says what happened in Chicago is a natural “outgrowth” of Trump’s incitement. Clinton says one protester at her rally said cell phone towers are causing cancer of the salivary glands. Clinton says maybe one day he will be proven right. She doesn’t hold liberal protesters responsible for their actions. Clinton says it probably makes more sense to protest outside of the event than inside.

7:01: Hillary’s town hall with Chris Matthews up next on MSNBC.

6:59: Sanders blasts Clinton for apologizing for the Iraq War and supporting “homophobic” DOMA. He says voters should wonder if Clinton will apologize 20 years later for positions she takes today.

6:50: Liberal cluelessness. After a minority questioner asks Sanders how he will combat Trump’s divisive rhetoric, Sanders ASSUMES HE IS MOOSE-LIM. Questioner tells Sanders that he is a Hindu. Good job, Bernie. Sanders says he will stand up to “bigotry” and “xenophobia” and it is sad that the questioner is fearful of Trump’s supporters.

6:43: White questioner tells Sanders that “race trumps class” in America and was disappointed that he didn’t seem to understand that last summer when Black Lives Matter activists stormed the stage. He says white people must recognize “our privilege.” Sanders says it’s not “race versus class” but “both.” He talks about black youth unemployment and a disproportionate number of African-Americans in jail. Sanders talks about unarmed African-Americans being shot “unjustly” by police. Rethinking the war on drugs that have a disproportionate impact on African-Americans.

6:42: KKK Grand Dragon switches support from Trump to Hillary.

6:41: Sanders wants NBC to talk more about campaign finance reform even though it offends some of its standards. Sanders says his campaign is proof that a progressive candidate can get donations from average Americans.

6:40: Sanders says he looks at climate change almost in “military terms.” He says you have to look at it like “war” since “we are being attacked” and the “attack is coming from climate change.” Sanders says that means more extreme weather disturbances and “more international conflict” as people fight over “limited natural resources.”

6:30: Sanders says he wants to get rid of coal “as soon as possible.”

6:25: When asked how he would incentivize Mexico to renegotiate NAFTA, Sanders rambles. He says we have to look at the conditions in the countries we make trade deals with. He says Obama is wrong on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

6:18: Sanders says supporters need to pressure super delegates to vote for him in states where he won big. He says if would reduce the influence of super delegates if he becomes the nominee.

6:10: Sanders is really not good on his feet as a politician. He says the media will not discuss why the middle class is disappearing. He says he would tell Trump supporters that Trump is telling you that you are angry because of Muslims, Mexicans. That is NOT what Trump has been saying at all. Trump has said people should be angry at “incompetent politicians.” Sanders says his supporters shouldn’t vote for him because he doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage and doesn’t believe in climate change and wants tax cuts for billionaires.

6:07: Todd says a lot of voters in Ohio are finding Trump’s and Sanders’s message appealing, especially on trade. Sanders says one of the differences between his record and Clinton’s is trade.

6:05: Sanders again says Trump is a “pathological liar.” Sanders denies that he is a “communist.” Sanders refuses to tell his supporters to stand down and not disrupt his rallies.

6:00: At a town hall event with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Sanders says what Trump is doing is “more than a permission slip” re: offering to pay the legal fees for supporters who punch protesters.

Sanders also seems clueless about NCAA brackets. He says he has been preoccupied with his campaign.

[Tony Lee: Gut feeling: Kansas defeats Xavier for the title. Best Value Bet to win it all: Oregon.]

5:45: Anti-Trump ‘Tiny Hands’ PAC changes its name:

5:41: Protester tells Cruz to “go back to Canada.”

5:30: NAACP President says Trump represents “a kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit”:

 

4:55: Amalgamated Transit Union for Sanders.

4:50: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews co-workers near Cleveland at a store that sells Hungarian food. They are best friends. One is pro-Trump and the other is pro-Sanders. Says it all about this year’s election environment.

4:33: ProPublica’s MacGillis discovers lots of Trump voters in Ohio (this is called expanding the tent in a way Romney/GOP’s “Young Guns” could never even dream of doing):

4:30: Clinton blasts GOP candidates as “George W. Bush on steroids.”

4:20: On CNN, Rubio Communications Director Alex Conant says the Kasich will be “mathematically eliminated” tomorrow.

4:00: Protesters bashing anti-Trump pinatas outside of Trump’s Florida rally:

3:50: Trump says if he wins Florida and Ohio, we can attack Hillary and “no more attacking each other.”

3:47: He says he gets more thanks for the Vietnam Memorial than anything else:

3:45: Trump says if an armed Sarah Palin had been in a room where terrorists attacked, it would have been a different story and bullets would have been “going in the opposite direction.”

3:43: In response to a questioner, Trump says Americans want to the jobs the elites claim they don’t want to do. Trump says legal immigrants love Trump. Trump says “that wall will go up like magic.” He now talks about who he purchased the Post Office Building in D.C.

3:42: Rubio vows to go to Utah after Florida:

3:40: Trump’s Tampa Office a Melting Pot

 

TAMPA — Mireya Linsky, born to a Jewish family in Cuba, came to the United States as a refugee at age 5. Her family lived in public housing here for several years and sometimes relied on assistance from Catholic Charities. She has spent the past 33 years working for the Hillsborough County School District.

So Mrs. Linsky, 55, understands that some may see certain contradictions in the fact that she is now spending several nights a week volunteering here at Donald J. Trump’s campaign office. “Like I’m just pulling the drawbridge up behind me,” she says.

Yet Mrs. Linsky is also quick to acknowledge a long list of racial fears and resentments that she says help explain why she is drawn to Mr. Trump: She is furious at undocumented workers who “come basically to see what they can get.” She is wary of Muslim Americans imposing their religion on communities in the United States. She is fearful of more American jobs being outsourced to China, India or Mexico. She even suspects President Obama “has a dislike for white folks.”

“We’re not taking care of our own,” she said.

3:33: Florida AG Pam Bondi listening to her mom, supporting Trump:

3:30: Cruz keeping Palin family in his prayers:

3:23: Trump says he’s “angry at our leaders for  not knowing what the hell they are doing.”

3:22: Enthusiasm that is lacking in other campaigns:

3:21: Trump blast bad trade deals and “angry” Vicente Fox.

3:14: “We’re going to take back our country,” Trump says. “We’re going to bring it back.”

3:07: Trump says nobody “is going to mess with our military” and “we’re going to take care of our vets.” He says we’re going to have “strong, powerful borders” because we don’t have a country without borders.

3:04: “Don’t hurt her,” Trump says of a “disrupter.”

3:03: Trump says right before South Carolina’s primary, the Pope made a statement about him and he won a “lopsided victory.”

3:01: Trump says Palin’s husband is a “tough cookie” but “when you’re too tough, you break ribs once in a while.” Trump says the biggest story today is what’s happening with the Republican Party–millions and millions of people are voting for Republicans. He says it’s a “phenomenon” and “I’m so proud to be a part of it.”

2:55: Christie says Trump will appoint someone exactly like him as attorney general if he’s elected president.

2:54: Christie says Florida tomorrow is going to be “Trump country.” Christie says America so desperately needs a “strong and decisive” leader after eight years of Obama. Christie says we’ve had eight years of Clinton in the White House and Hillary wants “four more years of public housing.”

2:53: Palin says Trump is a “unifier” and she says the fact that Chris Christie is on stage with her is proof that Trump is a “unifier.”

2:52: Palin accuses the media of being on the thugs’s side. Palin calls Trump a “revolutionary.” 

2:50: Palin says what we don’t have time for is the petty, “punk-ass thuggery” stuff going on the left trying to disrupt Trump’s rallies.

2:49: Palin shows up to Trump’s rally and thanks everyone for their prayers for her husband Todd.

2:42: NYC Mayor de Blasio on Trump:

2:38: Nobody in history!

2:36: Sign at Sanders rally: #Aloe4Hillary

2:34: Perhaps because Cruz has trouble speaking like a normal person and sounds like a boring Senator who is making a grand pronouncement when speaking about the most trivial of issues?

2:32: In Florida, Rubio tells reporters again that “it’s getting harder every day” to support Trump if he is the nominee. He says Trump will lose and splinter the Republican Party. He says Trump’s rhetoric is “irresponsible.”

2:30: Anti-Kasich/Romney/NAFTA banner at Kasich/Romney rally:

2:29: Kasich says other countries will use the violence at Trump’s rallies to claim that “America is broken.”

2:27: Sanders again accuses Trump of “inciting violence.”

2:26: Ambitious and uninspiring Romney praises Kasich for balancing the budget in Washington. Romney asks voters in Ohio to consider that Kasich turned an $8 billion deficit into a surplus. Romney says that “unlike the other people running,” Kasich has a real track record. Romney says if you want to see an actual balanced budget and get rid of Obamacare (Kasich accepted the Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion while Romneycare let to Obamacare), Kasich is the guy Ohioans need to vote for. “America is counting on you,” Romney says.

2:25: Joel Osteen: Trump an Incredible Communicator, Good Man

2:20: Cruz hitting Trump for donations to Illinois Dems:

2:15: Authorities in North Carolina are reportedly considering charging Trump with “inciting violence.”

2:10: Romney getting ready to campaign with Kasich:

2:07: Rubio tells Sanders supporter she won’t get beaten up at his rallies:

2:05: In Florida, Rubio says Republicans won’t win a general election if we allow ourselves to be “defined by anger.”

2:03 – New ad from “Our Principles PAC” quotes Trump on women:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkSRJSUY0vs

2:02 – Cruz touts expanded ground game in Florida:

2:00 – Monmouth poll shows Kasich up five in Ohio.

John Kasich currently has the support of 40% of likely GOP primary voters in his home state of Ohio, with Donald Trump close on his heels at 35%. Ted Cruz has a 15% vote share and Marco Rubio claims just 5% of the vote. Kasich has a solid lead among political moderates – 54% to 30% for Trump – while Trump is winning the very conservative vote with 37% support to 26% for Kasich and 26% for Cruz.

The somewhat conservative vote splits 40% for Kasich and 39% for Trump. Trump has a 44% to 34% advantage over Kasich among voters earning less than $50,000 a year. The two candidates are basically tied – 36% Kasich and 34% Trump – among voters earning between $50,000 and $100,000. However, Kasich has a 48% to 28% lead among those who make $100,000 or more.

The poll suggests that Kasich would be having an easier time in his home state if he was able to face Trump in a head-to-head contest. In a hypothetical two-person race, 52% of likely primary voters say they would back the governor compared to 40% who would vote for Trump.

1:27 – Poll updates:

Economist/YouGov national poll shows Carson’s support going to Trump, pushing him to 53% support. Rubio’s favorables have declined:

Two weeks ago, the national Economist/YouGov Poll showed Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz battling for second place behind Trump, in a field which still included retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (who has since endorsed Trump).  This week, Rubio is battling Ohio Governor John Kasich for last place, with half the support Republican voters give to Cruz.  He is behind both Cruz and Kasich when Republican voters are asked for their second choice.  And only 19% of Republican voters would be enthusiastic about a Rubio nomination (in contrast, half would be enthusiastic if Trump were the nominee).

Rubio is the least liked of all the remaining GOP candidates.  His favorable rating among Republican primary voters has dropped nine points from what it was two weeks ago; his unfavorable rating has jumped eleven points in the same period.  Every other remaining contender, including Kasich, receives better ratings.

Quinnipiac shows Trump up 24 in Florida, 46% to Rubio’s 22%. Tied with Kasich in Ohio at 38%.

USA Today/Rock the Vote poll shows bad news for a Trump-Clinton general election matchup:

WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sandershas expanded his double-digit lead among millennials in the Democratic presidential race, but a new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote poll finds a way forHillary Clinton to solve her generation gap: Donald Trump.

Opposition to Trump nearly unites the rising generation.

In a hypothetical Clinton v. Trump contest in November, voters under 35 would choose Clinton by a crushing 52%-19%, a preference that crosses demographic lines. Among whites, she’d be backed by nearly 2-1, 45%-26%. Among Hispanics, by more than 4-1, 61%-14%. Among Asian Americans, by 5-1, 60%-11%. Among African Americans, by 13-1, 67%-5%.

And the yawning gender gap she has against Sanders would vanish: Clinton would carry young men and women by almost identical margins of more than 2-1.

Nearly one in four Republicans would defect to the Democrats if the GOP nominated Trump against Clinton. Just 7% of Democrats would defect to the GOP.

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