Hillary wins 7 states, Trump 6 on Super Tuesday

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton moved closer to winning their parties’ nominations with a series of victories in the Super Tuesday elections, the biggest day of the primary campaign.

Ms Clinton won seven of 11 state races and Trump won at least six as they distanced themselves from party rivals and looked ahead to a November presidential election showdown.

Ms Clinton’s opponent, Bernie Sanders, won the Oklahoma primary and caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado, as well as the primary in his home state of Vermont.

In the Republican race, Ted Cruz, a firebrand conservative senator, won his home state of Texas and Oklahoma and Marco Rubio, a favorite of the Republican establishment, won in Minnesota for his first victory. Both are seeking to break out as Mr. Trump’s main rival.

Mr. Cruz desperately needed the Texas win in order to stay in the race. Still, Trump’s wins in the South were a blow to Cruz, who once saw the region as his opportunity to put himself on a path to the nomination. Instead, he’s watched Trump, a brash New York real estate mogul, display surprising strength with the region’s evangelical Christians and social conservatives.

Mr. Rubio’s win in Minnesota gave him a boost on an otherwise disappointing night. His long-shot hopes now rest with his home state, Florida, which votes on March 15, but polls show him trailing Mr. Trump there.

Mr. Trump won in Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Georgia. Two races, Vermont and Alaska, had not been called.

Mr. Trump has stunned the Republican political establishment by emerging as the clear front-runner, winning three of the four contests preceding Super Tuesday. He has seized on the anxieties of voters angry at Washington and worried about terrorism, immigration and an uncertain economy. Using simple terms, and often coarse language, he has soared to the top of polls with his pledge to “make America great again.”

Ms Clinton, once seen as the all—but—inevitable Democratic nominee, has contended with an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sanders, a senator and self—described democratic socialist. But Clinton, like Trump, had also won three of the first four races.

Ms Clinton, the former secretary of state and senator, won in Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. The wins reflected her strength in the South, where black voters are an important part of the Democratic base and overwhelmingly support her.

Signaling her confidence, Ms. Clinton set her sights on Mr. Trump as she addressed supporters during a victory rally in Miami.

“It’s clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower,” said Clinton, who is seeking to become America’s first female president.

Mr. Trump, too, had his eye on a general election match—up with Ms Clinton, casting her as part of a political establishment that has failed Americans.

“She’s been there for so long,” Trump told a news conference at his swanky Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “If she hasn’t straightened it out by now, she’s not going to straighten it out in the next four years.”

Candidates are trying to win delegates who will vote for them at the parties’ national conventions in July. For Republicans, 595 delegates were at stake, nearly half of the 1,237 needed for the nomination. Democrats were allocating 865 delegates, more than one—third of the 2,383 needed to become the nominee.

Ms. Clinton is now assured of winning at least 334 delegates Tuesday and Sanders, 145. Including superdelegates — party leaders who get to vote for candidates at the convention — Ms. Clinton now has at least 882 delegates. Mr. Sanders has at least 232.

Mr. Trump has won at least 139 of the delegates at stake on Super Tuesday, while Cruz has won at least 52 and Rubio 25. Overall, Trump leads with 221 delegates. Cruz has 69, Rubio has 41, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 19 and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has seven.

Both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio have launched furious verbal attacks on Trump in recent days, but some in the party establishment fear the anti—Trump campaign has come too late.

Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Instead, he’s appeared to only grow stronger, winning states and drawing support for some of his most controversial proposals.

In six of the states voting Tuesday, large majorities of Republican voters said they supported a proposal to temporarily ban all non—citizen Muslims from entering the United States, an idea championed by Trump. The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Republicans fear Trump will damage their prospects of recapturing the White House after Barack Obama’s two terms. The worries appeared to grow after Trump briefly refused to disavow the apparent support of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, during a television interview. Trump later said he had not understood the TV interviewer and he did repudiate Duke.

In addition to her state victories, Clinton won in American Samoa, picking up four of six delegates in the South Pacific island chain.

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Clinton cruises to big win over Sanders in South Carolina

A decisive victory over her challenger Senator Bernie Sanders in South Carolina brought back momentum into former First Lady Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Two narrow victories and one massive loss to Mr. Sanders over the last month had eroded the aura of invincibility that surrounded her and Saturday’s landslide victory in South Carolina, where she won three fourth of the votes, restores that in good measure.

Awaiting 'Super Tuesday'

On March 1 – 'Super Tuesday' as it is called – 11 states will have primaries or caucuses, and could cumulatively reward her with an irreversible lead. Mr Sanders will have to keep the contests on Super Tuesday as close as possible to carry the race forward even as his efforts to make inroads into the black base of the party have had only limited success so far. Five out of six black people voted for Ms. Clinton in South Carolina, according to exit polls.

“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,” Ms Clinton declared after the results. “We are not taking anything, and we are not taking anyone, for granted.” “This campaign is just beginning…. Our grass-roots political revolution is growing state by state, and we won’t stop now,” Mr Sanders said, after congratulating Ms Clinton.

Big boost for Clinton?

Both Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders criticised Republican front-runner Donald Trump in their responses, keeping their eyes firmly on the November general elections. "Together we can break down all the barriers holding our families and our country back,” Ms Clinton said, in a reference to Mr Trump’s promise to a build a wall along the U.S border with Mexico. “When we come together, and don’t let people like Donald Trump try to divide us, we can create an economy that works for all of us and not just the top 1 percent,” Mr Sanders said.

“We won a decisive victory in New Hampshire. She won a decisive victory in South Carolina. Now it’s on to Super Tuesday. In just three days, Democrats in 11 states will pick 10 times more pledged delegates on one day than were selected in the four early states so far in this campaign,” Mr Sanders said in a statement.

Ms Clinton has the support of a host of black leaders and has also placed herself close to President Barack Obama’s policies. Mr Sanders has been critical of Mr Obama on many occasions. The former secretary of state has also mounted a campaign against Mr Sanders, charging him with ignoring gender and race in his single-minded focus economic inequality. Mr Sanders has been trying to explain his positions in the context of his critique of the prevailing economic order. He is indeed getting a lot of traction too, but the question remains whether he can manage to pull in enough numbers to defeat Ms Clinton whose organisational network and financial strength are formidable.

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Hillary, Trump forge ahead

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush dropped out of the race for Republican presidential nomination after finishing fifth in the South Carolina primary that was won by Donald Trump. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucus, beating Senator Bernie Sanders by five percentage points, a margin much lower than predicted even weeks ago.

Mr Bush’s exit from the scene has narrowed the Republican race to three people — Mr Trump and Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, all of who made triumphant speeches after the results. Mr Bush’s emotive exit speech marked, more than the unpredictability of politics in general, the unprecedented course that the current presidential election cycle has set on. Bush was the obvious choice when the race began and raised a war chest of $ 100 million with hardly any effort. But it all ended rather ingloriously on Saturday evening. “The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision, so tonight I am suspending my campaign,” he said. Mr Bush had the most formidable endorsements from the Republican establishment and donors. Mr Trump had won New Hampshire also, while Mr Cruz won Iowa.

No Republican of worth has endorsed Mr Trump, the winner, and on top of it, he ended up last week with a public disapproval from the Pope for his consistent advocacy for a wall along the U.S southern border with Mexico. The Pope reportedly said those who seek to build walls were not good Christians. “The wall just got 10 feet higher,” Mr Trump declared after the victory in S.C with 32.5 percent votes. “Who will pay for the wall?” he asked rhetorically. “Mexico….”the crowd replied.

Mr Rubio who finished second with 22.5 per cent and Mr Cruz, who finished a close third with 22.3 per cent votes, both claimed to represent the voice of evangelical and conservative constituencies. "If it is God's will that we should win this election, then history will say that on this night in South Carolina, we took the first step forward in the beginning of a new American century,” Mr Rubio said, while Mr Cruz said his strong performance showed that a “Bible-believing Christian can in fact win.”

With Mr Bush’s exit from the scene, the Republican establishment and donors will now flock behind Mr Rubio, who was once his protegee. In fact, the last minute endorsement by S.C Governor Nikki Haley appears to have boosted Mr Rubio’s chances that were dimmed after his disastrous performance in New Hampshire.

Both Mr Rubio and Mr Cruz said nice words about Mr Bush to win over his supporters, but Mr Trump said nothing. Mr Trump has been savage in his attacks on Mr Bush throughout the campaign. In his victory speech, the winner rubbished the punditry that as more candidates dropped out, those votes will aggregate behind the most formidable anti-Trump candidate. “I will also get a share of those votes,” he said.

Not a single-issue country: Hillary

After winning Nevada, Ms Clinton took pot shots at rival Mr Sanders whose campaign has been singularly focused on economic inequality. “The truth is, we aren't a single-issue country," she said in her victory speech.

Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders are leaving no stone upturned to win the black and Hispanic votes that will make or mar their prospects in the days ahead. Their ads and political speeches now focus on these voters.

"We have come a very long way in nine months," Mr Sanders said after the results. "We have the momentum," he said adding that his campaign was well on the way to creating “one of the great political upsets in American history."

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Hillary Clinton barks at Republicans, literally

In an unusual move, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton barked like a dog to attack Republicans for allegedly twisting the truth.

The 68-year-old former Secretary of State was in the middle of a speech about how, in her view, Republicans say things that are not true, when she recalled a radio advertisement featuring a barking dog that she said ran in rural Arkansas while her husband, Bill Clinton, was running for office.

“(Republicans) actually, with a straight face, say that the great recession was caused by too much regulation on Wall Street. They actually say that,” she told supporters on Monday at the rally in Reno, Nevada ahead of Saturday’s caucuses.

Then she launched into her story.

“One of my favourite political ads of all time was a radio ad in rural Arkansas where the announcer said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if somebody running for office said something, we could have an immediate reaction to whether it was true or not.

“Well, we have trained this dog. Well, the dog, if it is not true, he is going to bark,’” Ms. Clinton said. “And the dog was barking on the radio and so people were barking at each other for days after that,” she was quoted as saying by CNN.

“I want to figure out how we can do that with Republicans. We need to get that dog and follow them around and every time they say these things like, ‘Oh, the Great Recession was caused by too much regulation,’ arh, arh, arh, arh,” Ms. Clinton said, letting out a barking noise that caused the audience to laugh and some people to mimic her.

“I think,” Ms. Clinton concluded, “We could cut right through a lot of their claims.”

The rally in Neveda was part of Ms. Clinton’s final push for votes before she goes head-to-head against Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in Saturday’s caucuses in the State.

It is a crucial contest for Ms. Clinton following her crushing defeat to Mr. Sanders in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary on February 9, 2016.

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Hillary, Bernie debate who is more progressive

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pulled no punches attacking each other, trying to prove more progressive than the other on Thursday night, at the final debate before the primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Mr. Sanders’ line of attack focused on the big vulnerability Ms. Clinton is trying to overcome — her connections with big banks and companies that have paid her millions in campaign donations and speaking fees.

The Senator from Vermont, a State that borders New Hampshire, said Ms. Clinton represented the ‘establishment’ and he represented the “ordinary Americans,” a foggy categorisation that has defined the fault lines in both parties in the current election season.

New Hampshire is 95 per cent white, with blacks, Asians and Latinos combined making up the rest.

The state has progressive and libertarian strands influencing its political history – it is the second least religious of all U.S. states, was one of the first states to legalise gay marriage.

The State also has near absolute concepts of private property and follows an ‘open carry’ gun policy.

The gender card
The cornerstone of Ms. Clinton’s strategy to fend off the allegation that she is part of the establishment is to play up the fact that she could be the first woman President of the U.S. “I am amused that the first woman running for President is being called establishment,” she shot back at Mr. Sanders. A large number of people in New Hampshire, men and women, accept that point.

But the alleged Wall Street connections have eroded her ‘progressive credentials’, as Mr. Sanders raises it in every speech, but never naming her. Ms. Clinton confronted him on the issue.

“If you’ve got something to say, say it directly, but you will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received,” she said. Ms. Clinton did not disagree with Mr. Sanders on most issues, but offered herself as a better candidate for achieving those goals. “A progressive is someone who makes progress,” she said.

“I’m fighting for people that cannot make those changes and I’m not making promises that I cannot keep,” she said, reiterating the point that Mr. Sanders was making unrealistic promises and would never be able to build the political support for their implementation.

Voting records
The ‘who is more progressive contest’ also extended to their voting records as senators. Mr. Sanders said he has always been opposed to Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, while Ms. Clinton had to explain her change of mind.

“I believe in trade, but in trade that works for the middle classes of this country, and not only for the multinational companies.

The trade deals we have are written by corporate America for corporate America, it has started a race to the bottom for wages,” Mr. Sanders said. His position echoes Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s on this issue.

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Among the believers: On the American campaign trail

“Muslims? Is she talking about grandma?” her four-year-old daughter asked Kelda York. “Yes,” Ms. York replied, “Grandma and other Muslims.”

What aroused the child’s curiosity was Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton’s call to “hold our Muslim friends close to the rest of the society”. Ms. York’s mother had converted to Islam two decades ago. “My mother started reading about Islam when my father went to Iraq as a solider in 1992 and converted,” Ms. York said. She brought both her daughters to Ms. Clinton’s rally. “I want them to grow up proud and confident,” she said.

In defense of diversity
Ms. Clinton is facing an uphill task in New Hampshire that will choose between her and Bernie Sanders, Senator from the neighborliness State of Vermont who commands significant influence in the State. Ms. Clinton was advised by many to skip the contest in New Hampshire altogether and focus on States where her presence is more formidable. “I could not have done that. So I am here,” she told a crowd of around 500 on Wednesday night. Carefully seated in the camera frame, right behind Ms. Clinton, were girls with Islamic scarves, blacks, whites, browns and Latinos; transgender people and women’s activists milled around. “Fighting for us,” their placards said, as they swayed to Rachel Platten’s Fight Song, a 2015 song released as a single that sold two million copies in the U.S. “Can you hear my voice this time?, This is my fight song, Take back my life song, Prove I’m alright song,” the song goes.

But waiting for Ms. Clinton’s arrival earlier in the evening, 20-year-old Miranda Monaghan was holding her placard down. “I have not decided yet,” she said. “I am not so sure she believes in all this,” the undergraduate student said, as Ms. Clinton explained how she and Mr. Sanders were in agreement on reining in the Wall Street and ensuring health care for all. Ms. Monaghan found Mr. Sanders more suitable for the job.

At Ms. Clinton’s rally, hours after Barack Obama made his first visit as President to a U.S. mosque, American diversity was being celebrated. On Tuesday evening, at Republican front runner Donald Trump’s rally some miles away, it was a different atmosphere. Mr. Trump, battered in the Iowa caucuses the previous night, was playing defensive and explaining his second place as a big victory. Ann Coulter, an immensely influential conservative commentator and author, outlined the agenda, speaking before Mr. Trump’s arrival on the stage. If anyone speaks clearer than Mr. Trump this season, it must be Ms. Coulter. Not that Mr. Trump’s philosophy needs explanation.

“Trump announced his candidacy talking about Mexican rapists. We are not supposed to say this, we can talk about American rape culture, but not about Mexicans raping. There is a whole list of politically incorrect things that one is not supposed to say... Donald Trump seems to be going through each one of them… one by one, he is going to use each one of them by the end of this campaign,” Ms. Coulter explained the virtues of her candidate. And she can’t wait to see Mr. Trump in the White House. “Can you imagine that?” she asks, and helps them imagine.

“The director of immigration will come and tell President Trump, ‘we have admitted 1.5 million Muslims since 9/11. Ninety per cent of them go on welfare immediately and some percentage of them kill Americans. Should we keep admitting a million Muslims every ten years?”’

“No… No,” the crowd replies.

“Yes, that is exactly what President Trump will say.”

Director of Immigration comes back again, “Should we keep replacing Americans with Mexicans, Somalis and Pakistanis?’’

“No… No… No.”

By this time, Trump supporters must have been looking for some Mexicans or Muslims inside the venue. “Please don’t react if anyone protests. Those who want to protest may protest outside,” a particularly law-abiding organizer announces before Mr. Trump takes the stage. At a previous rally in New Hampshire, Trump supporters beat up protesters.

“We have a movement. It is a people’s movement,” Mr. Trump declared. He then goes on to talk about the dangers that lurk around — “three people were killed by illegal immigrants” in unspecified places and climate change is a hoax Mr. Obama is playing. In a moment of gender sensitivity, Mr. Trump also points out to a woman who, he says, could be carrying a gun to places such as this gathering to prevent terror attacks. “This man, that man, and yes, we must have a woman too… you here.”

Judie Brown, a 65-year-old lady at the Trump meeting, is worried primarily about the economy and fears that her social security pension may be affected. In a measured tone, she explains the economic stress that the middle class is feeling. Does she agree with what she just heard about Muslims? “I was trying to avoid that topic. You know, I think they are unable to integrate into the society.” Does she support a ban on Muslims entering the country? “I support a ban on immigration altogether. Not only for Muslims,” she said, continuing to measure her words. And she had not finalised her choice in the primary — the other option she is considering is Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida.

As Mr. Trump signs autographs and poses for photographs, Adele can be heard in the background: “You’re gonna wish you never had met me… And I’m gonna make your head burn, Think of me in the depths of your despair….” Playing this Adele song in recent rallies is the latest controversy that Mr. Trump has courted. A spokesperson of the singer has said the candidate is using it without permission.

The rise of Rubio
Ms. Coulter ridiculed Mr. Rubio as the “Cuban kid who likes his high heels” but he is making it tough for Republican front runners Mr. Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. After finishing a close third behind Mr. Trump in Iowa, Mr. Rubio is moving gradually to the center, projecting the image of a ‘compassionate conservative’, and is attracting more and more Republicans towards him. A compassionate conservative is what many others in the fray also want to be seen as — Jeb Bush, John Kasich and to a lesser extent Chris Christie have sought to build the same image. But Mr. Rubio’s advantage is that he is more charismatic and has managed the expectations better than others. He seems increasingly the choice of people such as Ms. Brown, and that indeed that is his pitch at a morning gathering on Thursday.

Mr. Rubio says he favors a compassionate criminal justice system that considers drug addicts as victims rather than criminals; a social security mechanism that will keep the elderly secure. He goes on to explain how, as a teenager, he got involved in a drunken brawl and almost landed in jail. “That would have ended my life. We have people who get caught for minor offences and get sucked into the justice system without any possibility of escape. Poor people, mostly black, are forced to plead guilty because they don’t have money to pay lawyers,” Mr. Rubio’s compassionate agenda in response to convenient questions goes on and on. But Mr. Rubio considers Mr. Obama’s mosque visit a ploy to “divide Americans”. “It gives an impression that Muslims are discriminated against in America. We have to address all these issues without dividing Americans based on gender, race, or class,” he says. He does not mention religious divisions, though his speech had numerous references to his own Christian faith. “Obama wants to change America. I want to restore America,” he says.

A few miles away and two hours later on Thursday, Mr. Cruz’s political speech sounds more like a bad Sunday sermon. Forty-year-old James Mosher, who was at the previous Trump rally too, has a question for Mr. Cruz — why doesn’t he get the support of “good people” such as Ms. Coulter? But still, he declares his support for Mr. Cruz. “Trump wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, it should be called The Art of the Con,” he explains later. “He has married thrice.” “Because of my faith in Jesus,” he cites his reason for supporting Mr. Cruz. Mr. Cruz says he is leading America to a “revolution”. “We are bringing power back to ‘we, the people’.” Revolution for him is a recognition of Judeo-Christian values that he thinks Mr. Obama has undermined.

Oldest man, biggest dreams
But the prospect of a more this-worldly revolution is inspiring the Bernie Sanders’s camp that a merchandise vendor described as a “bunch of broke college kids”. But that is not exactly true. John Baronowski, a 70-year-old man sitting behind Mr. Sanders, is on his feet numerous times through Mr. Sanders’s one-hour speech, just before his debate with Ms. Clinton on Thursday night. “The planet craves for him. Mankind needs him,” Mr. Baronowski says. There are people of all ages — some 500 of them — in the room.

The oldest man in the fray, 74-year-old Sanders is inspiring the biggest dreams. “How many of you have student loans?” Mr. Sanders asks. Numerous hands go up, many of those people in their fifties. “Your only crime is that you wanted education. We need to have free college education in this country,” he says. “We will pay for this by taxing Wall Street speculation.” A long list of welfare measures, all to be funded by more taxes on corporate America and by breaking the unfair practices of insurance and drug companies, cheer up the audience. “We need to dream big.” A dose of humour helps too. “Republicans like families. Particularly the wealthy families,” he says.

Can he deliver on all these promises? His supporters are divided. “All progress depends on the unreasonable man,” a state Senator quoted George Bernard Shaw while introducing Mr. Sanders. “If minimum wage is raised to 15 dollars an hour, my employer will shut shop,” Ms. Monaghan, who has a part-time job that pays 10 dollars an hour, says. Renee Bolduc, 17-year-old high school student, says: “Unless we try, how will we know?”

Playing in the background is John Lennon’s 1971 song, Power to the People. “You say we want a revolution, We better get on right away; Well, you get on your feet, And enter the street.”

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Trump leads; Clinton, Sanders neck-and-neck in Iowa

The final poll ahead of the first nominating contests in the U.S. presidential race on Monday gave Donald Trump a five-point lead over Ted Cruz while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were neck-and-neck.

Mr. Trump, the Republican real estate mogul, had the support of 28 per cent of likely caucus-goers in Iowa, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz at 23 per cent and Florida Senator Marco Rubio at 15 per cent, according to The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics poll.

On the Democratic side, the poll which is said to have a history of accuracy, found former Secretary of State Ms. Clinton with 45 per cent support to Vermont Senator Mr. Sanders’ 42 per cent within the poll’s margin of error.

The poll took place between January 26 and 29, three days before Mr. Trump skipped the Republican Iowa debate and held his own rival event to raise funds for veterans.

The candidates crisscrossed Iowa on Saturday in a frenzied weekend prelude to the first presidential contest of the 2016 race.

Mr. Trump, according to CBS News, made a dramatic entrance to a Dubuque rally as his jet flew low over a hangar half-filled by the waiting crowd and music played from the movie “Air Force One”.

There was more drama inside, as a small group of protesters interrupted him and Mr. Trump joined the crowd in chanting “USA” to drown out the discord. He asked security to “get them out” but “don’t hurt them”.

In the Democratic race, Mr. Sanders called the contest against Ms. Clinton a likely tossup depending on the turnout.

“It’s virtually tied,” Mr. Sanders said at a Manchester rally. “We will win the caucus on Monday night if there is a large voter turnout. We will lose the caucus on Monday night if there is a low voter turnout.”

“The eyes of America, in fact much of the world” would be on Iowa, and the State could be a model for the future of American democracy, he said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Clinton’s campaign received a boost with the New York Times endorsing her in the Democratic presidential primary describing her as “one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history”.

The Times said “some of the campaign attacks (against Ms. Clinton) are outrageous, like Donald Trump’s efforts to bring up Bill Clinton’s marital infidelity”.

But it acknowledged “Some, like those about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server, are legitimate and deserve forthright answers”.

Describing “the battle to be the Republican choice for president” as “nasty, brutish and anything but short” the Times came out against two current front runners — Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz.

Both “are equally objectionable for different reasons”, it said. “Trump has neither experience in nor interest in learning about national security, defence or global trade.”

And “Cruz’s campaign isn’t about constitutional principles; it’s about ambition”, the Times said.

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Hillary Clinton cannot be US President: Fiorina

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has said the Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton cannot be the president of the U.S. as she continues to lie to the American people.

“Hillary Clinton will do anything to gain and hang on to power, anything. Listen, if my husband did what Bill Clinton did, I would have left him long ago,” Corporate leader-turned politician Fiorina said participating in the GOP undercard presidential debate in Iowa.

Ms. Clinton is eyeing to become the first woman president of the U.S. and is most likely to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. As the former First Lady, she has served as the Secretary of State in the first term of the Obama Administration.

Ms. Fiorina said that Ms. Clinton continues to lie to the American people.

“It’s called the Clinton way. Both Bill and Hillary practice it, the Clinton way. Say whatever you have to say, do whatever you have to say. Lie as long as you can get away with it. Hillary Clinton cannot be the president of these United States,” she said.

During the debate, Ms. Fiorina lashed out at Ms. Clinton on the events surrounding Benghazi.

“When terrorists purposefully attack an American embassy and kill four Americans, including an ambassador, and the next morning you get up and you lie about a videotape that doesn’t represent our values, instead of saying the United States of America was purposefully attacked by terrorists, and we will seek retribution, then you are saying to every adversary and every adversary and every terrorist organisation on the planet, it’s open season,” she said.

“That, Mrs Clinton, is what difference it makes,” Ms. Fiorina said.

While low on her poll numbers, Ms. Fiorina said that she can successfully take on Ms. Clinton during the presidential election.

“So, here’s the deal. Hillary Clinton has been climbing the ladder to try and get power and here now she is trying for the White House. She is probably more qualified for the big house, honestly,” Ms. Fiorina said.

“She has escaped prosecution more times than El Chapo, perhaps Sean Penn should interview her,” she said.

“While Mrs Clinton has flown hundreds of thousands of world around the global, I have too…And I know flying is an activity not an accomplishment. While I know that she has held many positions and many titles she has not accomplished much of anything in her life. She has gotten every single foreign policy challenge wrong,” Ms. Fiorina said.

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Obama remains neutral in Democratic presidential race

President Barack Obama would stay “even-handed” in the Democratic nomination process according to Senator Bernie Sanders who has mounted a tough challenge to front runner Hillary Clinton. Mr. Sanders who met Mr. Obama on Wednesday said neither did he seek the President’s endorsement for his candidacy nor did the President offer it, though both discussed politics.

“I think he and the Vice-President have tried to be fair and even-handed in the process, and I expect they will continue to do that,” Mr. Sanders said after the meeting, which took place two days after some comments by Mr. Obama were widely interpreted as his preference for Ms. Clinton.

It was Mr. Obama’s comments to Politico that prompted the chatter that he supports Ms. Clinton, but a closer and complete reading of the interview shows the President keen to maintain his neutrality while appreciating the qualities of both Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders. His answer to the concluding question — “How personally gratifying for you would it be to have the first female President succeed the first African-American President?” — was instructive.

“Well, my No. 1 priority is having a Democratic President succeed me, and I think there’s no doubt that, given our history, I want more women in politics generally, and I want my daughters to feel that there’s nothing that they can’t do. I don’t think that Democrats are going to vote for Hillary just because she’s a woman any more than they’re going to vote for Bernie just because they agree with him on one particular issue. I think, you know, voters are pretty sophisticated. They’re going to take all these things into account. I am proud of the fact that the Democratic Party represents today the breaking down of all sorts of barriers and a belief that you judge people on what they bring to the table and not what they look like or who they love or their last name…” Mr. Obama had said.

Mr. Obama’s comments also became a talking point in the Democratic debate on Monday. Mr. Sanders who had policy disagreements with the President on several occasions, said after both met on Wednesday: “There’s no secret that we have, as is the case in a democratic society, we have differences of opinion… I was on the floor of the Senate disagreeing with him over taxes. We disagree over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. By and large, over the last seven years on major issue after major issue, I have stood by his side to where he has taken on unprecedented Republican obstructionism, has tried to do the right thing for the American people.”

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said Mr. Sanders and Mr. Obama discussed the campaign too, which was an occasion for the President to “reminisce a little bit about his own experience campaigning for president — both in terms of drawing big crowds, but also spending some time talking to people in more out-of-the-way places.”

Mr. Sanders he was not hoping to draw as big a support as Mr. Obama did in 2008 in Iowa, the first primary State, next week. Conceding that his popularity is not as huge as Mr. Obama’s in 2008, Mr. Sanders said, he, however, hoped to win Iowa next week.

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Hillary leans on Obama, Bill in Iowa pitch

Democratic presidential aspirants made their final pitch to party members in Iowa, the state from where the candidate selection process will begin on February 1, by projecting their respective strengths — Hillary Clinton her foreign policy experience and Bernie Sanders his fight against inequality. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a distant third in the race, made a spirited case for his candidature too.

Ms Clinton repeatedly invoked President Barack Obama, and her husband and former president Bill Clinton, to buttress her claims for a job that she said required handling several things simultaneously. And she dwelt deep into comments made by Mr. Obama in a fresh interview that were interpreted — tenuously perhaps — by some commentators as favoring her.

“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,” Mr. Obama told the Politico. “I think Hillary came in with both privilege and burden of being perceived as the front-runner. … You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before — that’s a disadvantage to her.” Mr. Obama characteristic Mr. Sanders as a principled outsider seeking to change the “terms of the debate that were set by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago.”

The Obama interview setting the backdrop, all three candidates hailed him as the model to emulate but Ms. Clinton anchored her arguments in her association with Mr. Obama. Ms. Clinton detailed her role in laying the ground for the Iran nuclear deal and bringing about a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine in 2012.

“She has experience. But can’t say she has good judgment,” Mr. Sanders said, citing Ms. Clinton’s vote in favor of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 when George W. Bush was the President. Mr. Sanders said all that he feared about the invasion has come true. “It does not give me great pleasure.”

“President Obama trusted my judgment and invited me to be the Secretary of State,” she countered.

Mr. Sanders countered the charge that he lacked experience in foreign policy with the argument that it was his assessment of the situation in West Asia that turned out to be valid in subsequent years than Ms. Clinton’s. “The vote (favoring the Iraq war) was a mistake,” Ms. Clinton admitted.

Ms. Clinton countered the charge that her track record of fighting inequality was weak by offering a wider definition of the word itself. She said, beyond the “narrow definition of economic inequality,” she had been fighting against inequality based on race, gender, religion, and sexual preference all her life. “I have taken on the status quo all through my career,” she said. Specifically on the question of economic inequality, she said it was during Mr. Clinton’s time that “Americans never had it so good.”

Mr. Sanders, who laced his arguments with humor and charm to underplay his combative image, said, as Senator, he has worked with Republicans numerous times on legislative issues. Asked to define his idea of ‘democratic socialism,’ Mr. Sanders said: “In essence, we cannot have a government that is dominated by the interests of a few billionaires. We need to have a system that works for all of us.”

Mr. O’Malley, who agreed with most things that Mr. Sanders said on inequality, would call the remedy by a different name — “fair market capitalism.”

Mr. Sanders will have to work around the stigma associated with the word ‘socialism’ in American politics before he could make further progress.

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Clinton, Sanders spar over health care

Hillary Clinton targeted Bernie Sanders’ electoral appeal with some of her strongest language yet in a debate on Sunday night, seizing on Mr. Sanders’ recent policy shifts on universal healthcare and gun control to try to undercut his image as an anti-political truth teller.

Ms. Clinton also repeatedly aligned herself with a former political rival, President Barack Obama, as she sought to portray her current one, Mr. Sanders, as a fringe candidate who did not stand with Mr. Obama on major issues such as Wall Street regulation. Mr. Sanders, in turn, gave no quarter as he criticized Ms. Clinton as dishonest in her attacks.

‘Medicare for all’

With Mr. Sanders gaining on her before the February 1 Iowa caucuses, Ms. Clinton cast herself as the defender of Mr. Obama’s record and Mr. Sanders as playing into Republican hands with proposals like replacing the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer plan, which Mr. Sanders describes as “Medicare for all.”

“We’ve accomplished so much already,” she said. “I don’t want to see the Republicans repeal it.”

“That is nonsense,” said Mr. Sanders, who pushed back sharply throughout the night. “What a ‘Medicare for all’ programme does is finally provide healthcare for every man, woman and child as a right.” He added that 29 million people still lack health insurance.

Ms. Clinton was pointed in her critiques of Mr. Sanders but relatively restrained in tone and words as she sought to raise doubts about what many liberals see as Mr. Sanders’ greatest virtues: his integrity and consistency on policy issues. She chose not to accuse him of “flip-flopping” on gun control bills as she had earlier on Sunday, but rather said at the debate that she was “pleased” he had “reversed” himself. For Ms. Clinton, it was enough to note Mr. Sanders’ changes in policy: by doing so, she raised doubts about his consistency, but stopped short of eviscerating his positions and potentially alienating a restless liberal base that largely favors Mr. Sanders.

Her tactics left Mr. Sanders appearing frustrated at times, such as when he called her “very disingenuous” on his gun record, or when he sighed audibly and rolled his eyes upward as she implicitly questioned his principles on healthcare.

When Ms. Clinton pushed on his healthcare plan, which she said would “tear up” the President’s signature achievement, he shot back: “No one is tearing this up. We’re going forward.”

The competition to claim Mr. Obama’s political mantle was the dominant theme of the night, given that the Democratic race has become so close in Iowa and New Hampshire.

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‘Wall Street’s greed is destroying U.S. fabric’

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a fiery speech on Tuesday laid out his plan to break up “too big to fail” commercial banks and pointedly attacked Hillary Clinton for taking speaking fees from the financial industry and, in his view, not going far enough in her plan to regulate Wall Street. The criticism of Ms. Clinton was some of Mr. Sanders’ strongest to date, and came after he had frequently refrained from such direct attacks.

“My opponent says that as a senator, she told bankers to ‘cut it out’ and end their destructive behaviour,” Mr. Sanders said of Ms. Clinton. “But, in my view, establishment politicians are the ones who need to ‘cut it out’.

‘Patron of bankers’
“The reality is that Congress doesn’t regulate Wall Street. Wall Street and their lobbyists regulate Congress. We must change that reality, and as President, I will.”

Mr. Sanders said that Ms. Clinton was “wrong” to oppose his plan to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall Act, which would legally separate commercial banking, investment banking and insurances services. And the senator implicitly criticised Ms. Clinton for being a patron of bankers when he pointed to their huge campaign donations and noted that they “provide very generous speaking fees to those who go before them”.

Ms. Clinton has made hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking to banks and large corporations over the years.

Speaking at Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Sanders said that if elected President, he would enact much bigger and bolder plans than Ms. Clinton and transform the country’s financial system by enforcing stricter regulations on banks. He also offered some new consumer-friendly proposals such as capping automated teller machine fees at $2 a transaction and limiting credit card interest rates, which he called “usurious”.

“Greed is not good,” Mr. Sanders said, in a rebuttal to the famed character from the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko. “In fact, the greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the very fabric of our nation.”

Mr. Sanders, an independent and self-described democratic socialist, often focuses on the financial industry and income inequality in his stump speeches and has released a long list of progressive plans, including expanding social security and making public universities tuition-free, as part of his campaign platform.

Mr. Sanders reiterated his focus on the working class on Tuesday, saying that poorer Americans needed more affordable banking options and that banks must stop taking advantage of vulnerable people.

To make such changes, he said, he would fight to allow post offices to “engage in basic banking services.” Wall Street, Mr. Sanders said, would be held accountable under his administration. “Not only will big banks not be too big to fail, but big-time bankers will not be too big to jail.”

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Trump calls Hillary a ‘liar’ over video claim

Donald Trump on Monday accused Hillary Clinton of lying when she said the Islamic State (IS) group used videos of his comments about Muslims to recruit militants.

The Republican presidential front-runner also took to Twitter to demand an apology from his leading Democratic opponent.

She is crooked

“She’s a liar!” Mr. Trump told more than 6,000 people at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also said Clinton was “crooked” and “not a president.”

During Saturday’s Democratic debate, Ms. Clinton said Mr. Trump had become the Islamic State’s “best recruiter” and said, “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”

There was no evidence to back the claim, and a spokeswoman later said, “She didn’t have a particular video in mind.”

‘Hell no apology’

Still, Ms. Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, asked on Monday by MSNBC if Ms. Clinton would apologise to Mr. Trump, insisted, “Hell no.”

After the mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, Mr. Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., even drawing criticism from some of his Republican rivals during last week’s debate.

Resorts to crude language

During his rally on Monday at Grand Rapids’ DeltaPlex Arena, Mr. Trump used crude language to portray Ms. Clinton as someone who constantly loses, citing her race against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

“She was favored to win and she lost,” he said.

“Last person she wants to run against”

Mr. Trump argued that he was the last person Ms. Clinton wanted to run against in a general election.

“Ask Jeb Bush if he enjoys running against me,” he said of the former Florida Governor who has been struggling to gain traction despite a massive early fundraising advantage.

“Ask Lindsey Graham, did he enjoy running against Trump?” he said of the South Carolina Senator who on Monday announced his departure from the race for the Republican nomination.

On his kind words with Putin

Mr. Trump also defended the kind words he’s been exchanging with Russian President Vladimir Putin, brushing off criticism that he has been too kind to the Russian President.

“That’s like a good thing, not a bad thing,” he insisted. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get along like with people?”

But not for killing of scribes

And he made clear that he is opposed to the killing of journalists, after appearing to brush off concerns about Mr. Putin’s record on a Sunday morning news show.

“I don’t like that, I’m totally against that,” said Mr. Trump. “By the way, I hate some of these people ... and some of them are such lying, disgusting people, it’s true. But I would never kill. And anybody that does I think would be despicable.”

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Trump becoming IS’s best recruiter: Hillary

Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton on Sunday slammed Donald Trump’s recent comments about banning Muslim immigrants, saying the Republican front- runner was “becoming ISIS’s best recruiter”.

“He is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” she said.

She said that “it was not in America’s interest to react with this kind of fear and respond to this sort of bigotry.”

Mr. Trump, 69, was among the top issue being debated at the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire. Other Republican candidates hardly figured in the debate, thus reflecting that all of them consider him as their main rival.

“I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims here in the US and literally around the world that there is a ‘clash of civilizations,’ that there is some kind of Western plot or even ‘war against Islam,’ which then I believe fans the flames of radicalization,” she alleged.

Slamming Mr. Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric including his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US, 68-year-old Ms. Clinton said the first line of defense against radicalization is in Musli-—American community.

“Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people and to make think there are easy answers to very complex questions,” she said.

“We need to be united against the threats that we face.

We need to have everybody in our country focused on watching what happens and reporting it if it’s suspicious, reporting what you hear. Making sure that Muslim Americans don’t feel left out or marginalized at the very moment when we need their help,” she said.

Ms. Clinton asserted that the Muslim community needs to be befriended not demonized.

“We must work more closely with Muslim-American communities. I met with a group of Muslim-Americans this past week to hear from them about what they’re doing to try to stop radicalization. They will be our early warning signal. That’s why we need to work with them, not demonize them, as the Republicans have been doing,” Ms. Clinton said.

Martin O’Malley, another Democratic presidential candidate, alleged that Mr. Trump is incompetent.

“We need to speak to what unites us as a people; freedom of worship, freedom of religion, freedom of expression. And we should never be convinced to give up those freedoms in exchange for a promise of greater security; especially from someone as untried and as incompetent as Trump,” he said.

“I believe we stand together to address the real issues facing this country, not allow them to divide us by race or where we come from. Let’s create an America that works for all of us, not the handful on top,” said Bernie Sanders, who is seeking Democratic presidential nominee.

During the debate, Ms. Clinton even praised former president George W Bush, saying he reached out to Muslim Americans and told them that ‘you are our partner’.

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