Bernie Sanders’ campaign says it raised $2 million in two days for Meals on Wheels, Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation’s relied fund and other charities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bernie Sanders releases a statement on Hillary Clinton’s comments: “My focus today is on a monumental moment in American history: the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Together, we are going to go forward and defeat the most dangerous president in American history.”
The Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Union announced today it is breaking with the International Association of Fire Fighters, one of Joe Biden's biggest allies, and endorsing President Trump. Local 22 said IAFF leaders "lost touch with the will of the membership."
A little color: A Bernie Sanders aide said he is currently in a gym next to where his election night rally is being held, watching his grandkids play basketball.
Bernie Sanders criticizes Pete Buttigieg, something he rarely does, saying he has many billionaire donors. “I like Pete Buttigieg, nice guy. But we are in a moment where” billionaires control the economy & political system. He says his campaign is about, “Which side are you on?”
Bernie Sanders calls for moratorium on evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs, as well as lending for small and medium-sized businesses, during the coronavirus outbreak.
Anderson Cooper asks Sanders to respond to Biden saying they’ve had enough debates. “One of the things that I think that people want is, especially in this unprecedented crisis in modern American history, is to hear the ideas of candidates as to how we got into this disaster.”
Scoop: More than 360 Democratic delegates, most of whom back Bernie Sanders, have signed on to a pledge to vote against the Democratic Party’s platform if it does not include support for "Medicare for All," say the petition’s organizers.
NEW: Bernie Sanders is releasing a plan today to overhaul the criminal justice system. It would legalize weed and “safe injection sites,” and ban cash bail, solitary confinement, civil asset forfeiture and the death penalty.
Scoop: A dozen lawmakers have signed onto the hotly debated letter spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that calls for placing conditions on aid to Israel if it moves forward with plans to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank. AIPAC condemned it.
NEW: Bernie Sanders was written off by Democratic insiders for months. But in the past few weeks, something has changed: The party establishment is reconsidering his chances.
“I believe people should take him very seriously.” w/
@davidsiders
At Bernie Sanders' coronavirus roundtable from his Burlington campaign office, he says, "This is a moment that history will look back on and say, 'How did the people of the United States respond? Did they stand together? .... Did they panic? Did they turn on each other?'"
Bernie Sanders takes the stage at the get-out-the-vote rally with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Strokes. “Woa!” he says. “In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lotta people here tonight.”
“Some of these guys on TV, they’re literally crying,” Bernie Sanders says of billionaires at a breakfast in St. George, S.C. “‘I’m down to my last $6 billion and Bernie wants to tax me! Oh my god, how much can a human being take?’” He says they’re not evil; just clueless.
Rep. Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign co-chair, says he is voting against the Democratic Party's platform "because when we say that health care is a human right, we must truly mean it — and fight for it."
Bernie Sanders is asked if he and Elizabeth Warren have spoken. "We did speak on the phone a few hours ago," he says, and she is assessing her campaign and has not made any call at this point. It's important to "respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hits back at Pete Buttigieg without naming him at the Los Angeles rally. She says about claims of “purity tests”: “It’s called having values. It’s called giving a damn. It’s called having standards for your conduct to not be funded by billionaires.”
BREAKING: Bernie Sanders is soaring and Joe Biden has crashed in national preference for the Democratic primary, new
@ABC
News/WaPo poll finds—while Iowa and New Hampshire helped clear room for a candidate not yet on the ballot: Mike Bloomberg.
Bernie Sanders is blanketing the Sunday shows days before Michigan, Washington and other states’ primaries: His campaign announces he’ll be on ABC’s This Week, CNN’s State of the Union, Fox News Sunday and NBC’s Meet the Press tomorrow.
Whoopi Goldberg asks Bernie Sanders why he’s still running. “Last I heard, people in a democracy have a right to vote ... for an agenda that they think can work for America, especially in this very, very difficult moment.” When asked to confirm he’s in, he says he’s assessing.
“Why is Pennsylvania taking so long to count the votes?” you ask.
By law, the state couldn’t count mail ballots till Election Day. Compare that to Florida, where they could start canvassing weeks prior.
Reporters have warned for months we likely wouldn’t know results for days.
Watershed moment?: Chris Matthews apologizes to Bernie Sanders for comparing his NV win to Nazi invasion. “I’m sorry for comparing anything from that tragic era in which so many suffered, esp the Jewish people, to an electoral result in which you were the well-deserved winner.”
SCOOP: Bernie Sanders has won the endorsement of People’s Action, a coalition of 40 progressive groups that said it represents more than 1 million members in key early-voting states and others across the country.
On Face the Nation’s pre-tape, moderator Margaret Brennan asks Bernie Sanders repeatedly if he’d support the eventual Democratic nominee, including if it were Pete Buttigieg & Mike Bloomberg. He says yes. Interesting given that he says he will do so in nearly every stump speech.
After the Iowa debacle, the Bernie Sanders campaign is raising alarms about the fact that the same app is reportedly set to be used in Nevada’s caucuses this month. “Given tonight, there is no doubt that Nevada should disregard this app,” said Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver.
New: Bernie Sanders fears President Donald Trump will refuse to leave office if he loses reelection and is calling on Congress and the media to take action to prepare for that scenario now, he told me in an interview. “This is not just idle speculation."
This is pretty wild: After Mike Bloomberg bombed at the debate last night, his campaign cut a deceptive video to make it look like he did well.
The video already has nearly 200K views on Twitter and 31K on Instagram.
Rashida Tlaib says in her SOTU response that “no one — no one — fought harder for President Biden’s agenda than progressives.”
She says two forces stood in the way: a GOP that serves the rich and powerful “and just enough corporate-backed Democratic obstructionists.”
No questions from voters about Joe Rogan at the Bernie Sanders campaign’s Iowa town hall. Talked to one Sanders-Steyer-Klobuchar swing voter who didn’t know what I was talking about when I asked about it. Another said he didn’t like Rogan but didn’t mind that he was backing him.
“Some of [Obama’s] aides now concede that behind the scenes Obama played a role in nudging things in Biden’s direction at the crucial moment when the Biden team was organizing former candidates to coalesce around Biden.”
Bernie Sanders isn’t ceding the Sunday TV shows to Pete Buttigieg this time around: He’ll be on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, State of the Union and FOX News Sunday, his campaign says.
Nina Turner, Bernie Sanders' former 2020 co-chair, raised more than $275,000 from nearly 10,000 donors within the first 24 hours of the launch of her congressional bid, per a campaign source. The person said "with those signing up to be recurring donors, the total is" $400,000+.
Inbox: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is campaigning for Bernie Sanders in Iowa Friday and Saturday, including at a nighttime rally with the Vermont senator.
Clinton on “Bernie Bros”: “It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women”
Clinton on Harvey Weinstein: “How could we have known?”
Clinton on Bill & Monica: “You still have to look at every situation on its own facts”
In a memo today to Bernie Sanders’ surrogates and allies in Iowa, his state director there said, “As of today, we have collected more commitments to caucus for Bernie Sanders than we had on January 1, 2016.”
Scoop: In a private call, unions told the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee not to expect them to back lawmakers in upcoming races unless they get behind the PRO Act, the major labor reform bill.
"No money, no support of PRO."
w/
@eleanor_mueller
John Fetterman got a heads up today from the White House that Biden was going to pardon marijuana offenses and review how it’s scheduled, a person familiar tells me. Fetterman talked with Biden for 20 minutes last month in Pittsburgh, where Fetterman urged him to deschedule pot.
New: Alexandra Rojas, executive director of left-wing Justice Democrats, says she hopes Elizabeth Warren “stops attacking Sen. Sanders & publicly commits to give her delegates to him if he has more votes to ensure a progressive wins the nomination. I’d say the same to Bernie.”
New: Sen. Bernie Sanders is hoping to be a part of Joe Biden’s potential administration and has expressed a particular interest in becoming Labor secretary, two people familiar with the conversations tell POLITICO.
w/
@AliceOllstein
and
@mmcassella
New: Inside Bernie Sanders’ volunteer army in Nevada: Free child care for volunteers. LA Chargers’ Justin Jackson canvassing. Muslim volunteers organizing “souls to the polls.” Volunteers getting taxi drivers to the all-important Vegas Strip caucus sites.
Among registered Latino voters in California who plan to vote in the Democratic primary:
Bernie Sanders: 31%
Joe Biden: 22%
Elizabeth Warren: 11%
Julian Castro: 9%
Kamala Harris: 8%
A group referenced in Mike Bloomberg’s “Bernie Bros” video, New York Communities for Change, says it hasn’t endorsed a 2020 candidate. The group was featured positively in a Bloomberg ad in Nov., until it complained that he wasn’t part of its movement & the campaign took it down.
Bernie Sanders one-upped Elizabeth Warren.
In his first rally since he suffered a heart attack, Sanders delivered a speech Saturday to a crowd his campaign estimated at 26,000 people, the largest number any presidential candidate has drawn this year.
As expected, Trump hits Biden on trade at the FOX town hall in Scranton, PA: “Joe Biden made a deal, NAFTA. He approved it, he was pushing it. It’s the worst trade deal ever made.”
If there’s a Sanders comeback, it involves persuading voters trade will sink Biden in PA/WI/MI.
Bernie Sanders’ team is planning a four-day “festival of music and canvassing” in Elizabeth Warren’s home state. “The Democratic primary may well pivot on MA,” says an aide. “A surprise victory in MA would fundamentally alter the dynamics of the campaign.”
Mike Bloomberg will pay for the nearly 500 staffers on his presidential campaign to continue working through November to support whoever wins the 2020 Democratic nomination, even if it's not him.
Bernie Sanders, speaking about the coronavirus and the response to it: “If this isn’t a red flag for the current dysfunctional and wasteful health care system, frankly I don’t know what is.”
“He is not someone who used to be a Republican,” says Susan Sarandon while introducing Bernie Sanders at an ice cream social in Iowa, talking about how he’s fought for the same issues for years.
She doesn’t name names, but Elizabeth Warren was formerly a registered Republican.
Bernie Sanders, asked about Tom Perez’s call for the Iowa Democratic Party to start a recanvass: “All I can say is what I just said,” that “we won an eight-person election by some 6,000 votes.” (He means the popular vote.) “That is not going to change.”
Interesting that Bernie’s wins in 2016 in MI/WI portended Clinton’s weaknesses there, and then in 2020 his strength among Latino voters portended Biden’s underperformance among the voting bloc.
The Sanders campaign has begun raising money for Meals on Wheels, Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation’s relief fund and other aid groups amid the coronavirus pandemic.
While campaigning for Bernie Sanders in Iowa City, filmmaker Michael Moore seems to breaks some news: He says that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are stumping for the Vermont senator in the state in the coming days.
New: Nina Turner’s congressional campaign raised more than $630,000 from 22,500-plus donations as of the end of 2020, according to a person close to the campaign.
NEW: Bernie Sanders met privately with about a dozen Latino congressional members tonight. “It was not what I expected. It was pretty impressive,” said one member. “He was very comfortable with us. He impressed the caucus, to be honest.”
w/
@lbarronlopez
Bernie Sanders’ Iowa state director sent a memo to aides tonight that says they “have a viable path forward to achieve a clean sweep and retake the lead in state delegate equivalents and national pledged delegates.” She also says staff have been working to confirm results.
New: Bernie Sanders wants to stand at the next debate — and his team is accusing Joe Biden of wanting to sit.
“Why does Joe Biden not want to stand toe-to-toe w/ Sen. Sanders?” asks aide. Biden camp denies it pressed for sit-down debate. w/
@MarcACaputo
Biden simultaneously showcases a working-class American, gives the finger to the NYT editorial board, and provides the scoop about it to the NYT’s rival.
Sometimes it’s not all that surprising that Bernie personally likes Biden.
Scoop: The security guard blurted “I love you” to Joe Biden in an elevator. One viral video later, she will nominate him for president, via
@annielinskey
In a letter to GOP state leg leaders, an election official warns 100K PA voters could be disenfranchised b/c of a ruling rejecting naked ballots. It "set PA up to be the subject of significant post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since FL in 2000."
At his Detroit rally, Bernie Sanders reads a 1974 quote of Joe Biden's: "I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,” Biden said in the June 1974 article."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Bernie Sanders she was endorsing him while he laid in a hospital bed in Nevada.
Ilhan Omar also told Sanders she was with him after his heart attack.
“The hospitalization raised the stakes a lot.” w/
@AlxThomp
During a livestream announcing that he is dropping out, Bernie Sanders thanks his staff, contributors, volunteers. He says they have taken "a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice."
Bernie Sanders’ campaign says it has “asked all staff to work from home and will no longer hold large events or door-to-door canvasses.” It will use digital outreach “wherever possible.”
Joe Biden says he is setting up six policy groups with Bernie Sanders to develop new ideas, on topics such as the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration and climate change.
Bernie Sanders, asked in Iowa by NBC about DMR poll showing him in first, said: “Polls go up and down, but what is important to me is the kind of grassroots support that we have. ... I think we are going to win here in Iowa because we have an extraordinary grassroots movement.”
I asked Biden's campaign about this and an aide said it is not a new plan and that the former VP was restating his proposal to ban "new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters." Biden did not make that clear at all during the debate.
Sanders really hammers this which-side-are-you-on theme today. “Which side are you on? Are you on the side of the working class of this country, which has been battered for the last 35 years? Are you willing to take on the greed and corruption of the billionaire class?”
The popular pro-Bernie Sanders subreddit r/SandersForPresident says it is “removing all content from CNN for the foreseeable future” because “they have abandoned their journalistic integrity”: CNN’s debate “has been criticized across the entire ideological spectrum of media.”
Bernie Sanders responds to President Trump: “I am a proud Jewish person and I have no concerns about voting Democratic. And, in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president.”
New: Bernie Sanders is officially endorsing Nina Turner.
"I've gotten to know Nina Turner over the last five years," he said. "She deeply cares for working families and she has the heart to be an effective, unwavering fighter for them in Congress." (More remarks below.)
Buttigieg’s statement is pretty funny given that Sanders’ rivals said they feared that he would be the one to declare victory before official results were released.
The Sanders team reports vandalism at an office and takes a different approach than Bloomberg’s team, which reported vandalism at an office today and said “we don't know who is responsible for this vandalism, but we do know it echoes language from the Sanders campaign.”
Pat Toomey to WaPo: PA state leg "has already exercised its responsibility for determining how electors are selected. They’re selected by the outcome of the vote. ... The legislature is not going to try to do an end-run around this vote & try to put forth some alternative slate.”
Scoop: In a sign that he is inching closer toward running for chair of the RNC, Lee Zeldin is sending an email to committee members today that says he is “very seriously considering” a bid.
“The senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts is not the radical some perceive her to be. She was a registered Republican until 1996. She is a capitalist.”
Asked if he'll join Biden in Pittsburgh during his Labor Day visit, a Fetterman spokesman says "John will be marching in the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh next week, and he looks forward to talking to the President there about the need to finally decriminalize marijuana."
I’m starting to get the sense that officials on both sides of the aisle don’t grasp that rent and mortgage payments are due in less than two weeks, and many people live paycheck to paycheck.
INSIDE THE SENATE R-MNUCHIN LUNCH
MNUCHIN said he wants to send out $250 billion worth of checks — means tested.
First wave would go out at the end of April. If TRUMP has not ended the natl emergency, another wave goes out four weeks later. Mnuchin notes he’s working with IRS