The general election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has already started, but Republicans in Nebraska and West Virginia and Democrats in West Virginia will head to the polls today to vote in their respective primaries. Breitbart News will be providing live updates throughout the evening.
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All times eastern.
10:15: Sanders says he has an uphill climb but he is used to facing long odds. He says his message to the delegates at the Dem. convention will be that though he and Clinton have many differences, “we must defeat Donald Trump.” He says he is happy to say that “we will defeat Donald Trump.” Sanders says he defeats Trump “by big numbers” in every single national poll. He blasts Trump for insulting Muslims and women “one way or the other” every day.
10:08: Sanders: We are in it to win it: Sanders goes into his standard stump speech and says people want an economy that works for all of us instead of the 1%. He says they want the U.S. to join every other major country and guarantee health care to “all people as a right.” He also wants corporations to pay “their fair share of taxes.” He says his campaign has won primaries and caucuses in 19 states and emphasizes that “we are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.”
10:02: In Oregon, Bernie Sanders says it sounds like Salem, Oregon is “ready for the political revolution.” Basking in his West Virginia win, Sanders wants to give the crowd some “pretty good news.” He says last week he won a pretty good victory in Indiana and tonight “it appears that we won a big, big victory in West Virginia.” Sanders predicts he will win in Oregon next week. He wants to take a moment to thank the people of West Virginia for the “tremendous victory.”
9:00: Trump projected to win Nebraska and take all of the state’s 36 delegates.
8:30: West Virginia county trying to take over Staten Island’s spot as top Trump county:
8:20: Sanders campaign declaring victory in West Virginia:
8:15: Trump tells O’Reilly that he’d like Ryan to chair the GOP convention:
7:33: Sanders holds early lead in West Virginia.
7:32: West Virginia immediately called for Trump, as expected.
7:19: On MSNBC, Ann Coulter says Trump is the “heart and soul” of the party and being gracious in even having a meeting with Ryan. He says Trump doesn’t need to waste a lot of time with these meetings going forward because the people are with him instead of the “generals without armies.” Coulter gives Matthews credit for being one of the few people on television who wasn’t reflexively contemptuously dismissive of him.
7:11: Manafort says “stay tuned” and says the Trump campaign will not allow Clinton to get away with playing the gender card. When Matthews says the Clintons have weathered past attacks against them and they never seem to work against them, Manafort, with a big smile, says “the Clintons have never run against Donald Trump.”
7:07: Manafort: Trump is the head of the Republican Party as far as voters are concerned. Manafort says the media are “making it up” when they say Trump can’t defeat Clinton in a general election. He says Trump will have a “positive” convention because he “understands media.” Manafort says he is going to Cleveland later this week and talk with the RNC. Matthews wonders if Priebus is going to give Americans an “exciting convention.” Manafort says Trump will give Americans an “exciting convention” and calls the presidential election the “ultimate reality show.”
7:05: Paul Manafort of the Trump campaign tells Chris Matthews that Trump figured out that a campaign for a modern presidency is different from those in the past. And he says Trump’s campaign is the first social media candidacy. He says Trump had a vision for what the American people wanted and was effectively about to communicate with voters as a true outsider. Manafort says Trump combined a modern campaign with a vision that was not constricted with the traditional politics of Washington.
6:45: Trump tells AP that he has “a very good list of five or six people” for his running mate and doesn’t rule out Chris Christie.
6:32: Clinton says she is looking forward to debating Trump in the fall and talks about “unifying America.” She says we can’t be “degrading” our fellow Americans. She says we can’t be bashing immigrants and Muslims and “dividing ourselves.” She says she resents what Trump says about other successful women even though she says she doesn’t care what Trump says about her.
[Tony Lee: Clinton is trying to mobilize Obama’s coalition by checking everything off the list but her problem is that those core voters aren’t as excited about her candidacy as they were about Obama. They may vote for her but they are less likely to encourage their friends and neighbors to cast ballots for Clinton like they did for Obama.]
6:30: Clinton blasts Trump’s “reckless talk” on foreign policy. Trump says people say Trump may not mean what he says but Clinton says when someone is running for president, “you better mean what you say.” She blasts Trump for wanting to allow more countries to get nuclear weapons and his comments on NATO. She also says Iran/Russia can’t be allowed to go after ISIS because the last thing we need is for Iran to take over Syria/Lebanon and threatening Israel/Europe/everybody else.
6:27: Clinton says she will defend a woman’s right to “make her own healthcare decisions” and will “defend marriage equality” and “voting rights” while working to end Citizens United. She says she takes it personally that the Citizens United was a right-wing attack on her and the right-wing never gives up and predicts they will throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at her this time. But she says she is still standing after 25 years.
6:25: Clinton talks about reforming the criminal justice system and drug addiction in Kentucky.
6:10: Clinton getting ready to hold campaign event in Kentucky:
6:05: Paul Ryan says Republicans can’t pretend that the party is united when it’s not. Ryan’s problem is GOP primary voters don’t want his brand of “reform”/egghead/PowerPoint agenda.
5:59: Protesters want Clinton to stop “the war on coal.”
5:55: Chuck Todd points out that Trump lowers the bar and then hurdles over it. It’s exactly what George W. Bush did.
5:38: West Virginia Dem. Exit Polls: Just 27% want to continue Obama’s policies while a whopping 42% want the next president to be “less liberal.” Just 25% want the next president to be “more liberal.”
5:35: Sanders wondering why Clinton is running ads when the Dem. race is supposedly over.
5:30: In Nebraska, 49% of GOP primary voters are “angry” at Washington while another 42% are dissatisfied.
5:27: On MSNBC, renowned historian and preeminent Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley tells Chuck Todd many who now say they will never vote for Trump are likely to come around in the fall. He also says we know from history that divided conventions lose in the fall but he adds that Trump can’t go too far like Nixon because he will look weak if voters perceive that Trump is kissing the establishment’s ring. Shirley also says that it may be better for Trump to pick a running mate who is an outsider like him instead of a more establishment/insider candidate.
5:25: In West Virginia, nearly half of Sanders’s supporters would vote for Trump instead of Clinton in the general election.
5:21: Trump again showing he will fearlessly bring up Clinton’s “War on women” hypocrisy and not let Democrats steamroll Republicans with the “War on women” card like they did in 2012.
5:17: According to ABC News, “two-thirds of voters” in West Virginia “say they’re very worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next few years, by far the highest level of economy worry in a Democratic primary this year – far above the average, 40 percent, and rivaling the customary level seen in Republican primaries.” In addition, “a majority in the state thinks trade with other countries takes away more U.S. jobs than it creates, vs. only a third who says trade creates more jobs.” Three in 10 West Virginia Dem. primary voters work in the coal industry.
5:13: Trump uniting Republican voters (note to “Never Trump Smart Set”: there are more voters than “Never Trump” operatives and professional Republicans/conservatives) in West Virginia and Nebraska:
“In a Trump-Clinton matchup, nine in 10 in West Virginia and eight in 10 in Nebraska say they’d vote for Trump.”
5:11: According to exit polls, GOP voters in West Virginia and Nebraska are excited about Trump’s agenda and confident in Trump’s chances of beating Clinton in the fall:
Eight in 10 in voters in West Virginia say they’re excited or optimistic about what Trump would do in office if he were elected president; fewer but a still-substantial six in 10 in Nebraska say the same. The latter is close to its average in the four previous contests where it was asked, three of which were big Trump wins.
Nine in 10 in West Virginia, and more than eight in 10 in Nebraska, think it’s likely Trump would beat Clinton in November. That’s far greater confidence than West Virginia Democratic primary voters express about Clinton beating Trump.
5:09: Huge crossover support for Trump in West Virginia:
4:40: Sanders in Northern California before heading up to Oregon for an event tonight. He’s confident he will sweep the remaining states.
4:35: On CNN, Rubio, sounding like a career politician, doesn’t give a clear-cut answer when asked if his advisers have been pitching the Trump campaign for him to be Trump’s running mate. When asked repeatedly whether he will vote for Trump, Rubio says he doesn’t want Clinton to be president. He says he signed a pledge to support the GOP nominee and intends to do that. He says he won’t waste his vote and won’t be voting for Clinton. He never explicitly says he will vote for Trump. Rubio also says he has not decided whether he will attend the GOP convention. CNN’s Ana Navarro says Rubio speaks two languages fluently and she had no idea what Rubio was saying and suggests maybe Rubio was “speaking in code” with his non-answers. Earlier, Rubio told reporters that he still had “reservations” about Trump and Trump should have a running mate who is “enthusiastic” about the “things he stands for.”
4:32: Cruz says “we’re not going to win Nebraska today” and there’s no mystery. But he says if “circumstance change,” then he will reassess and “reconsider” whether he will re-enter the campaign. Cruz doesn’t answer when asked if he would be interested in being Trump’s running mate.
4:30: Cruz returns to the Senate and says he looks forward to pressing in the Senate the same things he was pressing on the campaign trail. Cruz says he is not into “Monday morning quarterbacking” but he left it all on the trail when asked about the campaign. He says he’s never seen anything like the support and energy he saw from his supporters and he says it gives him great energy to fight for conservative causes.
4:29: Cruz’s wife compares Ted’s presidential journey to campaign to end slavery:
4:27: Clinton’s new ad in Kentucky before the state’s primary:
4:26: Biden confident in Clinton’s chances of being the next president.
4:25: Ben Carson will speak with Ryan on the phone before Trump and Ryan have two meetings on Thursday.
4:22: Trump Slams Clinton’s bad judgment on Benghazi. All indications are he will attack Clinton on Benghazi more fiercely than Mitt Romney and the GOP Smart Set went after Obama in 2012:
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