Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has told associates that he may endorse Joe Biden on Sunday if the former vice president turns in a strong first-place finish in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, the Washington Post reports.
Trump Wants to Cut Corporate Taxes Again
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said that President Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate again, to 20% from the current 21%, Politico reports.
Mulvaney also said a proposal to index capital gains taxes for inflation is also on the table as the administration crafts its long-promised plan for a second round of tax cuts.
Iranian Deaths from Coronavirus Much Higher
Iranian sources tell the BBC that at least 210 people have died of coronavirus in the country.
That suggests Iran’s government has been hiding nearly seven times the true scale of the virus. The current official death toll in Iran stands at 34.
Sanders Group Used Racial Discrimination NDA
“A political advocacy group founded by Bernie Sanders entered into a nondisclosure agreement with an African American political consultant that bars her from discussing a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination at the organization and the Vermont senator’s 2016 presidential campaign,” the AP reports.
Court Halts Trump’s ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy
A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president’s restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government’s approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border, the Washington Post reports.
Democratic Race at a Tipping Point
Jonathan Chait: “The more it looks like no one will win a majority, the more the also-rans have an incentive to stay in and win enough delegates to hope to have some clout at the convention. Take, for example, Amy Klobuchar. After disappointing in Nevada, Klobuchar no longer appears to have any realistic chance at winning the nomination. She’s polling in single digits nationally and in South Carolina; her plausible path involved Biden’s collapse, which was certainly possible but hasn’t happened. Still, Silver’s model projects her to win about 65 delegates if she sticks around. That’s not much, but if her delegates would vote for the candidate of her choice in a contested convention, it might be worth the costs of staying in.”
“The same is probably true at this point for Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, although at least they are close enough to second place in the South Carolina polls that they might hope to surprise there and get a bounce in the Super Tuesday contests. As for Michael Bloomberg, who isn’t on the ballot on Saturday but will finally compete on Tuesday, it’s been true from the start and continues to be true that the most likely effect of his campaign is to split the mainstream liberal vote and make Sanders the nominee.”
Sanders Holds Big Leads In Texas and California
A new CNN poll in Texas finds Bernie Sanders leads the Democratic field with 29%, followed by Joe Biden at 20%, Michael Bloomberg at 18% and Elizabeth Warren is at 15%. No other candidate reaches double-digits.
In California, Sanders leads with 35%, followed by Warren at 14%, Biden at 13% and Bloomberg at 12%.
A Berkeley IGS poll in California finds Sanders at 34%, Warren at 17%, Bloomberg at 12% and Buttigieg at 11%.
A new Univision/University of Houston poll in Texas finds Sanders leading with 265, followed by Biden and Bloomberg tied at 20%.
One In Four Think Obama Has Endorsed Bloomberg
A new Morning Consult survey found that 26% of Democratic primary voters believe former President Barack Obama has endorsed Michael Bloomberg for president and 25% think he’s endorse Joe Biden.
However, Obama has not yet endorsed any candidate.
‘Here’s What I Do Like About Bernie Sanders’
Jonathan Chait: “I have devoted a lot of space to criticizing Bernie Sanders (and, especially, bad arguments made on his behalf). I will probably continue to do so, in part because I have disagreements with his worldview, and mainly because I think the available evidence says his nomination would increase President Trump’s odds of reelection. But we should be cognizant of the distorting effect a primary can have on our perspective. The flaws of candidates we oppose feel more irritating over time, even if they haven’t actually grown, while their virtues seem to recede. As an exercise in maintaining perspective, I’m devoting a column to the virtues of Bernie Sanders.”
“Sanders is motivated by an ideological vision that is fundamentally humane. For all his attacks on the ‘millionaires and billionaires,’ the only true visceral rage he shows is at poverty in the midst of one of the world’s wealthiest societies. His anger at the inaccessibility of health care, housing, and basic needs for all Americans is the through line of his career, through all of its idiosyncratic turns.”
“Sanders is generally pragmatic about how he advances this goal, and has spent decades working with people who do not share his values in order to make incremental advances. He is not motivated by wealth. (While Sanders has a lot of money, he accumulated it by saving what he earned; like his Larry David caricature, he does not enjoy creature comforts.) His passion to lift the unfortunate is pure and admirable.”
Why Trump Isn’t Trying to Bring Down Bernie
Peter Nicholas: “Team Trump views Sanders as the weakest candidate left on the Democratic side, and isn’t eager to do anything to impede his rise, several of the president’s past and present political advisers told me. They seem to see Sanders as a no-lose proposition: The president wins whether the senator from Vermont captures the nomination or not.”
“Should Sanders prevail, Trump’s strategy will be to spotlight his democratic-socialist identity in an attempt to make voters fear he’ll take away their freedom. (Trump will try to brand any Democratic nominee a socialist—Team Trump just thinks it’ll be easier with the guy whose self-description includes the word.)”
“If Sanders falters, Trump will argue that he was unfairly robbed of a nomination he earned. Trump has long stoked suspicions of an anti-Sanders conspiracy within the Democratic Party, for what seems to be two purposes: leaving Sanders’s following so disillusioned that they stay home on Election Day, or perhaps persuading them to switch sides and vote Republican. Sanders may not need Trump, but for the time being, Trump needs Sanders.”
Tim Kaine Endorses Biden
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) endorsed Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Washington Post reports.
Said Kaine: “It is sad to have a President who no one holds up as a role model for America’s kids. By contrast, Joe Biden has exemplary heart, character, and experience.”
The Economic Risks of Coronavirus
Matt Stoller: “The coronavirus is going to introduce economic conditions with which few people in modern America are familiar: the prospect of shortages. After 25 years of offshoring and consolidation, we now rely on overseas production for just about everything. Now in the wake of the coronavirus, China has shut down much of its production; South Korea and Italy will shut down as well.”
“Once the final imports from these countries have worked their way through the supply chains and hit our shores, it could be a while before we get more. This coronavirus will reveal, in other words, a crisis of production—and one that’s coming just in time for a presidential election.”
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: “Central banks have met their match. They cannot counter the economic havoc caused to global supply chains from the coronavirus.”
“Nor can tax cuts or a blast of government spending plug the gap when crumbling confidence and emergency anti-virus measures are blocking the transmission channels.”
Exchange of the Day
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was questioned by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) before the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
LIEU: Are you going to speak at CPAC today?
POMPEO: Yes.
LIEU: So you could only give two hours to Congress, and instead of answering questions on life and death issues you’re going to go talk to a special interest group?
POMPEO: Yes.
Huckabee Makes Bizarre Defense of Trump
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee told Fox & Friends that President Trump didn’t get enough credit for what he’s done to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Said Huckabee: “He could personally suck the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean.”
The comments sent the hashtag #SuckItTrump soaring on Twitter.
House Democrats Launch Justice Department Probe
“House Democrats are seeking interviews with the four career prosecutors who quit the case of Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, after Trump and Justice Department leaders intervened to demand a lighter jail sentence,” Politico reports.
The interviews are part of “broader demands for documents and testimony about allegations of political interference by Trump in the work of the Justice Department.”
Mulvaney Blasts Media for Not Covering Barron Trump
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney criticized the news media for refusing to cover what he described as President Trump’s loving relationship with his 13-year-old son, Barron, the New York Times reports.
“He said Mr. Trump is in frequent contact with his youngest son, calling to check in on him and let him know of his whereabouts. But, Mr. Mulvaney said, ‘the press would never show you that because it doesn’t fit that image of him, the press wants him to be this terrible monster.'”
“Mr. Mulvaney’s decision to discuss Barron Trump was curious, especially when Melania Trump, the first lady, and senior White House officials have gone to great lengths to make sure he enjoys the privacy afforded to other children of presidents growing up in the uncomfortable spotlight of the White House. The White House press corps has generally agreed to grant Barron Trump the same privacy.”
Biden Leads Democrats In Virginia
A new Wason Center poll in Virginia finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic field with 22%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17%, Mike Bloomberg at 13%, Pete Buttigieg at 8%, Elizabeth Warren at 8% and Amy Klobuchar at 5%.
Asked if they will support the party’s eventual nominee, 82% of Democratic primary voters say yes, and 67% say “definitely.”
Of the 18% who are uncertain or who say they definitely won’t, two-thirds fear the nominee will be “too liberal” and about one-fifth fear the nominee will be “too moderate.”
Biden Finally Admits He Wasn’t Arrested
Joe Biden admitted he wasn’t arrested years ago trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa, telling CNN: “I said arrested. I meant I was not able to move… I guess I wasn’t arrested. I was stopped. I wasn’t able to go where I wanted to go.”
