Said Nielsen: “Now, I’m of the understanding that in many cases of rape it does not involve any pregnancy because of the trauma of the incident. That may be true with incest a little bit.”
He added: “I read a lot of information. I have read it several times… Being a father of five girls, I’ve explored this a lot.”
Nate Silver: “If a realignment is underway, then it poses a big empirical challenge. Presidential elections already suffer from the problem of small sample sizes — one reason a lot of people, certainly including us, shouldn’t have been so dismissive of Trump’s chances early on. Elections held in the midst of political realignments are even rarer, however. The rules of the old regime — the American political party system circa 1980 through 2012 — might not apply in the new one. And yet, it’s those elections that inform both the conventional wisdom and statistical models of American political behavior.”
Democratic strategist David Plouffe told Politico that Republican efforts to coalesce around one alternative to Donald Trump are too little too late.
Said Plouffe: “It needed to happen two, three weeks ago.”
He added that the GOP nomination is completely in Trump’s control: “If he can land the plane, he wins.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders said that his campaign had already raised $36 million this month and was aiming to top the $40 million mark by the end of the day, the Washington Post reports.
“If successful, the Vermont senator would nearly double his take from January, a sum that was viewed as astonishing at the time for a candidate who relies almost entirely on online contributions to fuel his race against Hillary Clinton.”
Joshua Green: “Dropping out would violate the logic of Cruz’s whole political career. And anyone acquainted with his character and ambition should probably assume, as I do, that he won’t. Although his odds of winning the nomination are long, Cruz is bound to do what’s best for Cruz… That will entail staying in the race all the way through to the Republican convention in Cleveland—no matter what happens.”
John Oliver does to Donald Trump what 16 Republicans presidential candidates have failed to do so far.
Donald Trump blamed CNN for providing a “lousy earpiece” in explaining his non-answer when asked to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “I’m sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. But what I heard was various groups, and I don’t mind disavowing anybody, and I disavowed David Duke and I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference, which is surprising because he was at the major news conference, CNN was at the major news conference, and they heard me very easily disavow David Duke.”
“It is the kind of campaign he said he would never run. But Senator Marco Rubio, seeing his path to the Republican nomination grow narrower with each contest, has determined that the only way to beat Donald Trump is to fight like him: rough, dirty and mean,” the New York Times reports.
“The acidity coming from Mr. Rubio these days, and the gleefully savage way Mr. Trump has responded, have sent an already surreal presidential campaign lurching into the gutter with taunts over perspiration, urination and self-tanner.”
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said in a Facebook post that he will not vote for Donald Trump if he is the Republican presidential nominee.
A new CNN/ORC poll finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race nationally with 49%, followed by Marco Rubio at 16%, Ted Cruz at 15%, Ben Carson at 10% and John Kasich at 6%.
New York Times: “In Europe, the birthplace of the Enlightenment, Donald Trump has been treated variously as a disturbing curiosity or an entertaining political show barker. His nearly every move and pronouncement has been reported from Paris to Berlin to Helsinki, even as commentators on both left and right have dismissed the notion of President Donald J. Trump as the stuff of fantasy, or, at worst, a momentary lapse of reason.”
“That is changing. With a series of wins in key Republican primary states, and with the billionaire’s expected strong showing when 12 states hold primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, the European media, like its American counterpart, is adjusting to the prospect of a seemingly unstoppable Trump juggernaut. The reaction is a mix of befuddlement, outrage and panic, along with admiration in some unlikely quarters.”
Joe Scarborough said that Donald Trump’s failure to explicitly disavow the Ku Klux Klan and former Grand Wizard David Duke is “disqualifying,” Politico reports.
Said Scarborough: “It’s breathtaking. That is disqualifying right there. To say you don’t know about the Ku Klux Klan? You don’t know about David Duke?”
“The implosion over Donald Trump’s candidacy that Republicans had hoped to avoid arrived so virulently this weekend that many party leaders vowed never to back the billionaire and openly questioned whether the GOP could come together this election year,” the Washington Post reports.
“At a moment when Republicans had hoped to begin taking on Hillary Clinton — who is seemingly on her way to wrapping up the Democratic nomination — the GOP has instead become consumed by a crisis over its identity and core values that is almost certain to last through the July party convention, if not the rest of the year.”
Chris Cillizza: Trump is remarkably dangerous to the Republican party.
First Read: “This is more than a mess for the Republican Party; it is the GOP potentially coming apart before our very eyes — no matter who ultimately becomes the party’s nominee or how long it takes.”
A new Fort Hayes Statue University poll in Kansas finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 26%, followed by Ted Cruz at 14%, Marco Rubio at 13%, John Kasich at 3% and Ben Carson at 3%.
The Kansas Republican caucuses are on March 5.
Donald Trump said that Republicans “are never going to win another presidential election listening to Karl Rove,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “He is a total moron. He is the worst.”
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds that Donald Trump “is the only remaining Republican candidate that a majority of the public believes could win the general election. 63% of all Americans believe he could win in November, including 84% of Republican voters.”
As the GOP field shrinks, Trump’s support rises: He now leads nationally among Republicans with 44%, followed by Ted Cruz at 21%, Marco Rubio at 17%, John Kasich at 8% and Ben Carson at 7%.
In a three-way match up: Trump 49%, Rubio 27%, Cruz 25%.
In a two-way match up with Rubio, Trump leads 57% to 43%. With Cruz, Trump leads 58% to 42%.
Donald Trump “won another major endorsement Sunday, surprising the political world when he walked onto the stage for a rally in Madison, Ala., with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL),” Politico reports.
“His endorsement is a major blow to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose success may hinge on winning those Tea Party and evangelical voters and who has so often cited Sessions as an ally in his fight against the 2013 immigration reform effort.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
