Welcome to Breitbart News’s live updates of the 2016 horse race.
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All times eastern.
9:35: In response to Clinton’s implication that Sanders may not be qualified to be president, Sanders says Clinton’s Iraq vote makes her unqualified to be president:
8:51: Massive crowd for Sanders in Philadelphia:
8:37: Anti-Trump agitators clashing with Trump supporters as they leave the venue.
8:00: Police keeping anti-Trump protesters in check at Bethpage:
7:53: Trump says his presidency will be about putting “America First.” He adds, “it’ll happen, and it’ll happen fast.”
7:45: Trump talking about migration from the Middle East and says “we’re not going to put up with it” before again reading the lyrics to the “The Snake.” Trump says we don’t want more 9/11 terrorists attacks so “we’re not going to be politically correct” regarding terrorism.
7:40: Trump says what makes him happiest is when the people who know him well in New York have him leading the polls. Trump says the press is “so dirty” and just “terrible.”
7:32: Trump says he’s a straight shooter like New Yorkers. He slams Cruz and Kasich for wanting TPP. He says it will “suck the blood out of New York” and our country and he’s going to stop what is going to be a “catastrophic” deal.” Trump slams Ford, saying we want them to stay here. He talks about Nabisco, Carrier moving to Mexico.
7:29: Trump says Lyin’ Ted Cruz couldn’t draw even 100 people in his visit to New York. He slams Cruz for lecturing him on “New York values… like we’re no good.” He says he started talking to him about the World Trade Center and the bravery of our police, firefighters and everybody. “You better believe it,” Trump says when the crowd chants “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Trump says Cruz was talking about “New York values” with “scorn in his face” and “hatred.” Crowd chants “Lyin’ Ted!” after Trump says “I think you can forget about him.”
[Here’s the story Trump referred to during the speech. Just dozens showed up for a Cruz event and some were protesters.]
7:25: Trump says our companies are being “uprooted” and that’s going to end because we’re going to bring companies back to the United States.
7:23: Trump says “we don’t fight like people from Long Island. We don’t fight like people from New York.” He vows to rebuild our military and “knock the hell out of ISIS” and “nobody’s going to mess with us. Nobody.” He also says “we’re going to take care of our vets. Our vets are not taken care of.”
7:20: Raucous crowd chants “Trump!” and “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Trump says it’s great to be home in New York. He says he loves this city and this country and “we are going to start winning again.” Trump says he said to himself and some of the people in the car that “I’m self-funding my campaign” and all of these people who are running for office are taking money in from all of the special interests and that is why they can’t make proper transactions for you.
7:09: Ivanka Trump on stage campaigning for her father. She notes her father was born in New York and raised her and her siblings. She says her father will outwork anyone in any room. After touting her dad’s accomplishments, Ivanka says self-funding his campaign means he is not beholden to anyone “except you.” She says her dad is someone who is “deeply grounded in tradition.” She says her father is a battle-tested person with a long track record of winning. She says he is the best person to have in your corner when battling tough opponents.
7:01: Trump getting ready to make his first appearance after Wisconsin loss:
6:29: Police getting ready as well:
6:07: Anti-Trump protesters getting ready at Bethpage:
5:32: Where was this Sanders when he started his campaign? Sanders calling on Clinton to apologize to Iraq War victims and Americans who lost their jobs because of trade deals Clinton supported:
5:25: Officials expecting up to 12,000 people at Trump’s Bethpage rally tonight:
5:20: Top GOP establishment operatives (nearly every one is vehemently anti-Trump) reportedly attended an RNC meeting on a contested convention:
The operatives in attendance included Trent Duffy, former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, Matt Schlapp, Ron Bonjean, Phil Musser, Doug Heye and Ryan Williams.
RNC officials also playing dumb re: possible protests:
5:15: On MSNBC, Brad Todd, a strategist who had been aligned with Jindal’s Super PAC, tells Chuck Todd that Trump’s ego is getting preventing him from putting the race away and taking much-needed political advice. He says attacking Scott Walker in Wisconsin, where conservative primary voters have defended him in some of the fiercest political battles in recent times, was a huge mistake.
4:25: Trump supporters outside Bethpage rally:
3:25: Rubio still not endorsing Cruz. Anti-Trump Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) declines to comment when asked if he will endorse Cruz:
3:00: Team Sanders raising expectations in New York:
2:50: Cruz in the Bronx:
2:45: Cruz campaign thanks supporters for Wisconsin win:
2:30: Clinton cackles/laughs when asked about the Sanders’s campaign suggestion that her ambition can destroy their party:
2:25: Cruz booed, heckled in New York: “You know you’re not natural-born. You’re not born here,” someone shouts at him:
2:15: Cruz stands by his New York values remarks. He they are de Blasio’s values and says he is captive to union bosses who control him and that is why one of his first actions as mayor was to try to throw Hispanics/African-Americans out of charter schools and those values have been hammering New Yorkers.
2:10: In New York, Cruz says the rich got richer and those with money and power have gotten “fat and happy” under the Obama administration. He says he agrees with Sanders that the “fix is in.” He also says he will be the first president to fight for school choice for everyone regardless of age, income, zip code. He says the modern Democratic party “fights against school choice at every turn” while there are generations of children who are trapped in Hispanic/African-American communities.
2:09: Cruz says the Hispanic community has been hurt horribly by the failed Obama economy and blasts the media for trying to paint every Republican as mean and nasty and framing every Democrat has being a champion for Hispanics.
1:48: Trump and Kasich will have representatives speak for them at Wyoming’s GOP convention (Palin will be Trump’s rep), Cruz will attend personally.
1:45: Journalism.
1:34: Lindsey Graham on Kasich: “Personally I don’t see a pathway for John.”
WASHINGTON (AP) —South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says he expects to see more establishment GOP support shifting to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz following Cruz’s commanding win Tuesday night in Wisconsin.
Graham is supporting Cruz himself though he acknowledges it’s despite disagreement with many of his tactics. But Graham argues that Donald Trump would destroy the Republican Party for generations to come, wiping out any chance of appealing to Hispanics, young people and others.
He says that Cruz is a reliable Republican “and will not alienate two-thirds of the country.” And he says he’s making that argument to fellow GOP lawmakers and anyone else who will listen.
Graham also says Kasich is “probably our most electable Republican” but that he’s not performing well in the primary. Graham notes that he himself chose to drop out of the presidential race, and “Personally I don’t see a pathway for John,” but “I’m not going to tell John what to do.”
1:18: New York poll has Trump above 50.
12:50: No commitment from Trump to attend CA Republican convention yet:
12:25: Kasich surge in Silicon Valley?
SAN JOSE — Bay Area GOP political consultant Matt Shupe is betting that the Bay Area and Silicon Valley may be where Donald Trump is finally be stopped cold in the Republican race for the White House, and where Ohio Gov. John Kasich finally gets his due.
Weeks ago, “I walked my neighborhood in Danville to collect nomination signatures for my central committee campaign, and most of the registered Republicans I spoke to asked me who my pick for president was,’’ Shupe told POLITICO California on Tuesday. “Every single one of them told me theirs was Kasich.”
11:59: WaPo’s Philip Bump says Trump lost Wisconsin not because of his “bad week with women” but because of the GOP establishment coalescing behind Cruz.
Regardless of all the nonsense that’s transpired over the last week, Donald Trump was always going to lose Wisconsin. The last time he had consistent leads in major polls in the state was at the end of February, before the field was winnowed down to three people. The Wisconsin Republican establishment, as we noted Tuesday night, leaned its full, impressive weight against Trump, and it prevailed.
For all of the uselessness of The Narrative™ around the contest, there’s one point that’s worth picking out. After two weeks of Donald Trump haranguing Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi and taking 42,389 different positions on abortion — including broaching the idea of punishing women who undergo illegal abortions, and then walking it back — he didn’t do any worse with women than he did with men in the state, according to exit poll data reported by CNN.
That’s actually unusual. In every other state for which we have exit or entrance poll data, Trump has done slightly or substantially better with men.
11:52: Politico reporting that Corey Lewandowski is fighting to protect his influence in the Trump campaign:
Behind the scenes, Lewandowski is fighting to preserve his own power and to box out Paul Manafort, who was hired last month to lead the campaign’s delegate corralling effort. “Corey and his people know the knives are out for them,” said one source close to the campaign, referring to Manafort as a “pretty experienced in-fighter.”
On Saturday, Lewandowski went as far as to fire a young operative named James Baker, who’d been recently put in charge of its Colorado campaign—he’d arrived in the state less than 48 hours earlier—because he’d been communicating with Manafort after Lewandowski instructed him not to do so, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed.
Manafort is scheduled to meet with Trump in New York Wednesday morning and likely to threaten to quit if he doesn’t see more cooperation, according to one source. “If Manafort walks, this thing comes apart,” they said. “And some of the people close to him are ready to walk.”
11:50: Last night, Mexico swapped out its ambassador to the U.S., citing Trump:
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s government on Tuesday unexpectedly changed two of its top officials responsible for U.S. relations, citing concerns about an increasingly anti-Mexican climate across the border.
Carlos Sada, previously the consul in Los Angeles, was named ambassador to the United States while Paulo Carreno, one of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s communications chiefs, was appointed the deputy foreign minister for North America.
The new ambassador must still be approved by the Senate.
“We have been warning that our citizens have begun to feel a more hostile climate,” Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told local radio after the announcement.
“This (anti-Mexican) rhetoric has made it clear that we have to act in a different way so that this tendency being generated doesn’t damage the bilateral relationship,” she added.
Mexican government officials have expressed concern about the rise of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump due to his repeated verbal attacks on Mexico, and his insistence that Mexico should be made to pay for a border wall.
11:34: WaPo: Trump needs to win almost 2/3rds of remaining delegates. Cruz needs 96 percent.
11:28: General Michael Hayden endorses Kasich. “Hayden, who led the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2009, called Kasich the most experienced candidate,” writes The Hill.
11:15: Roundup from this morning’s Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM:
Roger Stone: Wisconsin Loss May Have A ‘Psychological Impact’ on Supporters
Miller: Trump ‘Won On The Issues … Republican Party Donor Class Has Lost’