Beto O’Rourke will endorse Joe Biden tonight at a rally in Dallas, NBC News reports.
As reported earlier today, he’ll be joined at the rally by Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who are also endorsing Biden.
Chris Matthews Suddenly Resigns
Chris Matthews, the longrunning host of “Hardball” on MSNBC, announced that he is resigning from the program, an abrupt exit prompted by a series of recent gaffes and controversies, the Washington Post reports.
Matthews made the announcement at the start of his weeknight program. His resignation is effectively immediately.
The announcement was a surprise to MSNBC.
Howard Kurtz: “Chris Matthews went to break after 2 minutes, Steve Kornacki came back looking stunned, called Matthews a giant, and went to break again. This hardly looks like MSNBC had planned for his abrupt announcement.“
Trump Says Democrats Rigged Primary Against Bernie
President Trump asserted that the Democratic presidential primary is “rigged” against Sen. Bernie Sanders and speculated that candidates who had dropped out of the race had done so in exchange for positions in a Democratic presidential administration, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I think it’s rigged against Bernie.”
He later tweeted: “They are staging a coup against Bernie!”
Nomination Pulled of Official Who Questioned Aid Freeze
“The White House is withdrawing the nominee for a top Pentagon post, following reports that she questioned the legality of the administration’s efforts to freeze military aid to Ukraine,” Politico reports.
CDC Postpones Coronavirus Briefing
“The CDC today abruptly postponed a press briefing on the coronavirus response,” Politico reports. No explanation was given.
“The CDC today also removed information on its website that detailed how many people in the country had been tested for the virus. It now only displays the number of confirmed cases.”
Ivanka Trump Registers as a Republican
New York Times: “Ivanka Trump’s transformation from a liberal New York socialite who donated to Democratic politicians and vocally supported gay rights to a card-carrying member of her father’s ‘Make America Great Again’ coalition is now complete.”
“Ms. Trump said on Monday that she had made the decision to officially change her voter registration from Democrat to Republican because she wanted to vote for her father in the New York primary, something she did not do in 2016 when she missed the deadline to register as a Republican.”
Said Trump: “I am a proud Trump Republican. I believe he’s broadened the reach of the Republican Party, which is really important to me.”
Record Turnout In South Carolina Primary
“Officials say turnout in Saturday’s Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina was the largest in state history,” the AP reports.
“Democratic Party officials said Monday that more than 539,000 votes were cast in the contest. That’s nearly 7,000 more than in 2008, the previous record.”
Exit Polls Show Netanyahu Victory
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc beat Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party-led Center-Left bloc in Israel’s third election on Monday winning 59 seats needed for a majority in the Knesset, according to exit polls on the major television networks,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
“While Netanyahu fell short of the 61 majority needed to form a ruling coalition, he is expected to begin immediately trying to recruit two defectors from the Center-Left camp who he would need to form a government.”
Axios: “The exit polls are not official results, but they project a strong performance from Netanyahu in Israel’s third elections in 10 months despite a looming corruption trial.”
Trump Campaign Will Send a Billion Text Messages
New Yorker: “Parscale relied on Facebook to help him accomplish several campaign objectives, including persuasion, fund-raising, and G.O.T.V., or ‘get out the vote.’ Finding and motivating likely voters through traditional means, such as TV ads or door-to-door canvassing, is expensive and time-consuming compared with social media.”
Said Parscale: “We have almost two hundred and fifteen million hard-I.D. voter records in our database now.”
“Even if Trump were banned from every social network, his campaign would be able to reach supporters by text. According to Parscale, the campaign is on track to send ‘almost a billion texts, the most in history’—and texts are far more likely to be opened than e-mails, social-media posts, or news articles. ‘We’ve been working on this around the clock for three years,’ a senior official who works on the 2020 digital campaign told me.”
Buttigieg to Join Klobuchar at Biden Rally
Pete Buttigieg will be joining Amy Klobuchar to publicly endorse Joe Biden at a rally in Texas later tonight.
Washington Post: “There’s a charter plane scheduled to go from South Bend to Dallas this evening, arriving not long after Biden’s rally begins.”
“The Buttigieg team has been silent about this for hours but it’s possible Biden does what few have been able to: Bring Klobuchar and Buttigieg together.”
Azar In the Crosshairs for Delays in Virus Tests
“Even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes blame for testing delays that may have led to hundreds of Americans being quietly infected with the coronavirus, officials inside the health department and the White House are increasingly pointing the finger at one leader: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who they say failed to coordinate the response, as agency chiefs waited for instructions that came too late and other deputies were largely cut out of the process,” Politico reports.
Irresistible
New from Jon Stewart: Irresistible.
The comedy is out in May and portrays Steve Carell as a Democratic political consultant who helps a retired Marine colonel, played by Chris Cooper, run for mayor in a small Wisconsin town.
Harry Reid Endorses Joe Biden
Former Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential bid on Monday, saying the former vice president’s resume and stability make him the best candidate to beat President Trump, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Reid: “President Donald Trump has done unspeakable damage to our country, our institutions and the rule of law. Democrats need a candidate who can assemble the largest, most diverse coalition possible to defeat Trump and lead our country following the trauma of Trump’s presidency. That candidate is Joe Biden.”
Amy Klobuchar Drops Out
Sen. Amy Klobuchar will suspend her presidential campaign and endorse Joe Biden at a rally in Texas later tonight, the Washington Post reports.
Klobuchar is dropping out just before her home state, Minnesota, votes on Super Tuesday.
Sanders Says Running Mate Must Support ‘Medicare for All’
Sen. Bernie Sanders told the San Francisco Chronicle he would only pick a running mate who backs Medicare-for-all.
Said Sanders: “We will pick somebody who knows the experience of working families in this country, who has a history of fighting for those families, and somebody whose politics are similar to mine.”
He also sounded a warning against the party trying to deny him the nomination if he comes to Milwaukee with a plurality of pledged delegates: “I think that would look terrible, and I think that would lay the groundwork for a Trump victory. It would reflect on the Democratic Party in a very, very terrible way.”
Earlier for members: Bernie’s Most Likely Running Mate
Biden Surges After South Carolina Win
A new Morning Consult poll shows Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic field nationally with 26%, followed by Joe Biden at 23%, Mike Bloomberg at 17%, Elizabeth Warren at 11%, Pete Buttigieg at 10% and Amy Kobuchar at 3%.
Biden jumped seven points since winning the South Carolina primary, while Sanders dropped three points.
Biden Will Be Outspent by Everyone on Super Tuesday
Every single Democrat still running for president is spending more money on Super Tuesday television ads than Joe Biden, the big winner in South Carolina over the weekend, CBS News reports.
Even Tom Steyer beat out Biden’s spending despite the fact that Steyer dropped out of the race Saturday night.
Steyer Spent More Than $1,600 Per Vote
Tom Steyer spent more than $1,600 for each vote he received in Democrats’ first four presidential nominating contests, the Daily Beast reports.
