“My economy will expand so rapidly. We’re going to take jobs back from other countries. And we will be able to pay for it.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by The Hill.
Clinton Accounts for Previously Undisclosed Emails
BuzzFeed: “Late last year, Hillary Clinton gave the State Department copies of her work email from her four-year tenure as secretary of state. The records begin on March 18, 2009 — a day aides had long identified as the point at which Clinton started using the personal email account she maintained on a home server in Chappaqua, N.Y.”
“Clinton actually began using the account, hdr22@clintonemail.com, about two months earlier than previously stated, in January 2009, an official with her campaign confirmed on Sunday. The clintonemail.com domain, the aide said, was not housed on the Clintons’ Chappaqua server until March 2009 — at which point the server began storing Clinton’s emails, starting with messages on March 18, 2009.”
Fiorina Insists She Had Other Job Offers
Carly Fiorina said that “she had plenty of job offers after being fired as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, including posts in the George W. Bush administration, but she decided against them,” Politico reports.
Said Fiorina: “I didn’t want to go back to work as a CEO… I wanted a break, and then I wanted to give back.”
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Top Donors Put Bush on Notice
Jeb Bush “is entering a critical phase of his Republican presidential campaign, with top donors warning that the former Florida governor needs to demonstrate growth in the polls over the next month or face serious defections among supporters,” the Washington Post reports.
“The warnings, expressed by numerous senior GOP fundraisers in recent days, come as Bush and an allied super PAC are in the early stages of an aggressive television ad campaign that they believe will help erase doubts about his viability. But Bush continues to battle against a steady decline in the polls, sinking to fifth place at just 7 percent in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday and similarly languishing in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire.”
Trump Will Promise Tax Cuts to Nearly Everyone
Donald Trump will release his tax policy proposals on Monday, The Hill reports.
Said the Trump campaign in a statement: “Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes. Likewise, a major beneficiary will be corporations and job producers, with an emphasis on businesses in the United States and bringing money back into the United States, which is locked in other countries (Corporate Inversion).”
The statement went on to claim that Trump “understands business incentives and taxes better than perhaps anyone that has ever run for office.”
Pelosi Not Sure She’ll Miss Boehner
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told CNN that Speaker John Boehner is a “fine person” but she’s note sure she’ll miss him when he retires at the end of October.
Said Pelosi: “I respect the people who send them here. I respect the fact that their caucus elected them to a leadership position.”
But, she added: “I don’t know if I’ll miss him.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Absolutely, they’re unrealistic! But, you know, the Bible says beware of false prophets, and there are people out there spreading noise about how much can get done.”
— Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Washington Post, on the hardliners in the House GOP caucus.
Bush Looks Past the Early States
Jeb Bush, “anticipating a competitive primary season, is forming an aggressive presence in states beyond the four that will vote in February,” CNN reports.
“He stepped into Rand Paul country on Thursday afternoon, for example, to headline a fundraiser for the Kentucky state GOP and became the first Republican presidential candidate to pay the filing fee for the state’s March 5 caucus.”
“Bush’s campaign views the stop as an example of their ‘robust’ operation, not only in Kentucky but across the southern region that will host a slew of states in the so-called SEC primary on March 1, followed by other states like Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois later in the month. Along with being first on the ballot in Kentucky, Bush’s team boasts that it was also the first in Vermont, obtaining 2,000 signatures on its petition, twice the number required.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It’s totally ridiculous. That never crossed my mind.”
— Hillary Clinton, quoted by Politico, on accusations that she was trying to make her emails harder to get through congressional subpoenas and Freedom of Information requests.
Graham Warns of GOP Meltdown
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “is warning Republicans to act wisely following the impending departure of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), which he fears could lead to a party ‘meltdown’ in 2016,” The Hill reports.
Lawmaker Stole Pope’s Glass of Water
After Pope Francis finished his speech to Congress, Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA) “walked up to the rostrum and swiped the half-empty glass from which the Holy See had just sipped,” CNN reports.
“Glass in hand… Brady carefully walked back to his office where he, his wife, a friend and a staffer took turns sipping the water from the glass.”
Philadelphia Daily News: “It may be significant to note here that Brady had pulled the same stunt at President Obama’s first inauguration.”
Quote of the Day
“These polls really don’t matter. They don’t filter out the people that aren’t going to vote. It’s just…an obsession, because it kind of frames the debate for people for that week.”
— Jeb Bush, quoted by Politico, dismissing his consistently low ratings in GOP presidential race polling.
Trump’s Lead Vanishes in National Poll
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds Donald Trump barely leading the GOP presidential field with 21%, followed by Ben Carson at 20%, Carly Fiorina at 11%, Marco Rubio at 11%, Jeb Bush at 7%, John Kasich at 6% and Ted Cruz at 5%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads with 42%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 35% and Joe Biden at 17%.
Next GOP Debate May Be Final Chance for Some
“The uncertain terms of the next Republican debate are setting off a wave of anxiety among middle and bottom tier campaigns, with several lashing out at the Republican National Committee for failing to provide clarity on how many candidates will appear on stage,” Politico reports.
“The campaigns fear the entry criteria for the Oct. 28 debate is being designed to reduce the number of candidates on stage for the third primetime debate — a life-or-death matter for White House hopefuls on the bubble.”
GOP Continues Its March to Self Destruction
Frank Bruni: “I’m not saying that the Republican Party alone has wing nuts, disrupters, brats. Too often that’s the impression left by journalists ruing the G.O.P.’s unruly ways. But Democrats over recent years haven’t been bedeviled by internal dissent and rendered dysfunctional to the extent that Republicans have. They’ve kept something of a lid on things and maintained a semblance of order.”
“Not so with Republicans, who have become the party of brinkmanship, the party of imminent credit defaults, the party of threatened shutdowns, the party that won’t pass a proper transportation bill, the party that is suddenly demonizing the Export-Import Bank, the party of ‘no,’ the party of ire, the party that casts even someone as unquestionably conservative as John Boehner in the role of apostate, simply because he knows the difference between fights that can be won and those that can’t, between standing on principle and shooting yourself in the foot.”
Bloomberg Considering Presidential Bid?
“Speculation increased Saturday that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is gearing up for an independent run for president,” Newsmax reports.
Clinton Blames GOP for Wife’s Email Problems
Bill Clinton “blamed Republicans who hope to undercut his wife’s presidential chances and a voracious political news media uninterested in substance for the furor surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account and server while she was secretary of state,” the New York Times reports.
Said Clinton: “I have never seen so much expended on so little.”
“Mr. Clinton likened the current inquiries into Mrs. Clinton’s emails to scandals as far back as the Whitewater land deal that plagued his 1992 campaign and his administration.”
Trump Quote of the Day
“You know, it’s hard, this running stuff. You’re dealing with the press, and the distortion that they write is so unbelievable… I mean, they really do distort, and they are terrible people. Not all of them but many of them.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post.
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