DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 race for president on the final weekend of campaigning before Monday’s leadoff Iowa caucuses (all times local):
3:10 p.m.
Voters at several Hillary Clinton events say they’re not concerned about the discovery of more than 20 “top secret” emails on Clinton’s private email server.
The State Department says it’s not releasing some emails from Clinton’s correspondence as secretary of state because the information they contain is too classified.
Voter Jann Morales said ahead of a Davenport rally that she doesn’t think the issue has “any relevance” to Clinton’s ability to do the job of president.
In a Saturday morning CNN interview, Clinton said that if “Republicans want to use this for political purposes, that’s their decision, but I’m going to keep talking about what the voters in Iowa keep talking to me about.”
Clinton’s campaign has called for the emails to be released. She insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time.
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2:45 p.m.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is calling for a Democratic debate to be held in Flint, Michigan, as the city copes with a lead-contaminated water crisis.
Clinton’s campaign has agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign to hold another presidential debate next week and the campaigns are discussing three more in the spring. The party hasn’t yet signed off on additional debates.
Clinton’s campaign says in a Saturday statement that one of the later debates should be in Flint, to “use the spotlight of the presidential campaign” to highlight the struggles of that city and “too many other predominantly low-income communities of color across America.”
Clinton previously called Flint’s water contamination “a civil rights issue” and said the response would have been more rapid if the situation had been in “a rich white suburb.” More than half of Flint’s 100,000 residents are black.
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2:20 p.m.
Donald Trump made a dramatic entrance to a Dubuque, Iowa, rally, with his jet flying over a crowd gathered in an airport hangar as music from the movie “Air Force One” swelled.
The hangar was about half-filled on a cold Saturday afternoon two days before the Iowa caucuses.
Trump asked the children in the crowd to gather near the stage and said he would let them run through the plane after his remarks.
Shortly after Republican presidential front-runner started speaking, a small group of protesters interrupted his remarks.
Trump joined the crowd in chanting “USA!” to drown out the protests. He asked that security officials “get them out,” adding “don’t hurt them.”
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2:10 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is focusing on gun control during a campaign stop at Iowa State University with former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly.
Giffords was gravely wounded in a mass shooting five years ago and has become a prominent gun control advocate.
Though Clinton is not mentioning Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders by name, her support for tougher gun restrictions is designed to cut an implicit contrast with his congressional record.
The Vermont senator voted for 2005 legislation that granted gun manufacturers immunity, and against the Brady bill.
Clinton remains in a tight race with Sanders ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Senior staffers say they feel good about the first-in-the-nation voting.
Chairman John Podesta says the campaign is “just going to work for every vote.”
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1:50 p.m.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is bemoaning what he’s calling “kitchen sink” attacks in the waning hours of the Iowa campaign, saying “that’s what they throw at you.”
Campaigning in Iowa Saturday, Rubio focused heavily on Republican rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Rubio accuses Cruz of deciding “to run a deceitful campaign.”
Cruz has directed all of his final-weekend advertising in Iowa at Rubio. One of Cruz’s ads ends with the ominous quote: “Tax hikes. Amnesty. The Republican Obama.”
Rubio supports allowing immigrants in the U.S. illegally to stay with certain provisions, including no criminal background, but not until legislation to curb illegal immigration is enacted.
Rubio has been polling in third place in Iowa behind Cruz and businessman Donald Trump, but has amassed enthusiastic crowds in Iowa’s larger cities in recent days.
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1:40 p.m.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is continuing to make his presence known ahead of Monday’s caucuses.
A spokeswoman for Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign says Branstad will introduce Christie at a Sunday event in West Des Moines.
Samantha Smith says the campaign doesn’t expect an endorsement. A Branstad spokesman didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
Branstad and Christie have had a close relationship for many years. Several former Branstad staffers work for Christie’s campaign.
The six-term Iowa governor typically doesn’t endorse before the caucuses. He recently made headlines by publicly urging Iowans to support candidates other than Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Cruz opposes the federal renewable fuel standard, which requires a minimum amount of petroleum additives such as corn-based ethanol. Iowa leads the nation in ethanol production and is a leader in other renewable energy sources.
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1:30 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is steering clear of talking about his Republican rivals, even as his advertising against Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is intensifying.
Cruz did not mention Rubio or Donald Trump during his first two of six campaign stops Saturday.
Cruz did joke during a stop in Ames, Iowa, that the campaign has been “crazy” and “entertaining.” He says, “I’m told next year Lady Gaga is going to run.”
Cruz got a boost at the event from conservative commentator Glenn Beck.
Beck told the overflow crowd of hundreds that he’d never endorsed anyone for president before, but sees Cruz as a conservative who can be trusted to do what he promises.
“Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson is scheduled to appear with Cruz at his final stop of the day in Sioux City, Iowa.
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1:10 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders may soon begin receiving Secret Service protection.
The Department of Homeland Security says it has received an official request for Secret Service protection from the Sanders campaign.
The agency did not provide any additional details on the Vermont senator’s request, but it is an initial step for a presidential candidate to get the protection.
The Sanders campaign is not commenting on the request.
Sanders’ Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has long had Secret Service protection as a former first lady.
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12:50 p.m.
The Democratic presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have reached an agreement in principle to hold another presidential debate next week in New Hampshire and three more later this spring.
Both campaigns say a final deal has not yet been reached and the Democratic National Committee has not signed off on the agreement.
But the New Hampshire debate next Thursday would give Clinton and Sanders a high-profile encounter before the nation’s first presidential primary.
The agreement was first reported by BuzzFeed.
Clinton and Sanders are in a tight race before Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Clinton trails the Vermont senator in New Hampshire.
Clinton has urged the DNC to add the televised forums while Sanders has been willing to appear at the proposed debate next week in exchange for three more debates later this spring.
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12:25 p.m.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is attacking the readiness of first-term Republican senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to be president.
Christie campaigned in a packed Cedar Rapids bar Saturday afternoon.
The second-term governor says Rubio and Cruz have “never run anything in their life.” He compared serving in the Senate to being in elementary school.
Christie says that in both places, they tell people when to show up, where to sit and when to take recess.
Says Christie: “Somehow, we’re going to say the first executive position they ever have should be president of the United States?”
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12:10 p.m.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is kicking off the final weekend before the first-in-the-nation caucuses with a pitch to his Iowa supporters to make the rest of the nation follow their lead.
Sanders says at an event in Manchester that the “eyes of America, in fact much of the world” will be on Iowa Monday.
He says an election held today would be a “toss-up” against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, calling the race “virtually tied.”
But Sanders says he’ll win Monday night if there is a large turnout. He warns “we will lose the caucus” if turnout is low.
The self-described democratic socialist says Iowa could be a model for the nation if “ordinary people — working people, middle-class people, seniors, young people — become involved.”
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11 a.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is defending his call to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
Cruz was confronted about the stance Saturday by an audience member at a campaign stop in Hubbard, Iowa. Voter Mike Valde told Cruz his brother-in-law couldn’t afford health insurance until Obama’s law, but by the time he went to a doctor he was dying and couldn’t be saved.
Cruz says health insurance is too expensive under the law and told Valde his brother-in-law could have gotten insurance earlier if he could have afforded it “but because of government regulations he couldn’t.”
Valde said after the event that promising to repeal Obama’s law is just a campaign slogan and he wanted to hear Cruz’s plan for a replacement.
Valde says he intends to caucus for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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10:15 a.m.
John Kasich says a situation involving lead-tainted water in an Ohio town is “not even comparable” to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The Ohio governor’s comments came during a Saturday presidential campaign stop in New Hampshire in response to a voter question about elevated lead levels in the water in Sebring, Ohio.
Residents in the town recently were told that high lead levels were found in drinking water last summer.
Environmental regulators say the water system operator failed to notify the public, an allegation the plant superintendent denies.
Kasich says Ohio’s environmental regulators “sprung immediately into action,” and took away the operator’s license. He said a federal EPA administrator said the state EPA had taken steps beyond what’s required.
Kasich says, “we’re on top of it and things are fine.”
Flint, Michigan, is under a public health emergency after its drinking water became tainted following a 2014 switch in the city’s water source.
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9:45 a.m.
On one of the last days before Iowans kick off the 2016 presidential contest with the state’s caucuses, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is in New Hampshire.
The Republican is focusing his efforts on the second state on the primary calendar.
He says he’s a candidate who can bring people together amid the increasingly nasty battle among his rivals.
Speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Merrimack, Kasich says he plans to govern by forming coalitions to get things done. He says that includes working with Democrats.
In a sign of that promise, Kasich told a voter concerned about climate change that he’s committed to reducing carbon emissions.
Climate change is an issue that few of his fellow Republican candidates see as a priority.
Kasich will campaign in New Hampshire through the weekend and on Monday, the day of the Iowa caucuses.
He says campaigning in New Hampshire is more manageable and he insists a strong finish in the state will bring new national interest to his candidacy.
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8:40 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is airing 30-minute television programs in every Iowa television market this weekend.
Rubio is flying from Dubuque to Sioux City and other cities on Saturday as part of a busy weekend of campaigning heading into Monday’s Iowa caucuses — the first contest in the 2016 race for president.
The TV programs will show excerpts of the town hall-style meetings Rubio has relied on in recent months, and especially in the days before the caucuses.
Rubio’s team has focused more on Iowa in the past several weeks. His campaign sees an opening to rise into the top tier of the GOP field alongside Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Florida senator has held more public events in Iowa since Thanksgiving than any other Republican.
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