The Republican presidential candidates meet for their ninth debate at 9 p.m. ET in South Carolina.
The debate will be broadcast and streamed live on CBS News.
A new American Research Group poll in South Carolina finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential pack with 35%, followed by John Kasich at 15%, Marco Rubio at 14%, Ted Cruz at 12%, Jeb Bush at 10% and Ben Carson at 2%.
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton is crushing Bernie Sanders, 65% to 27%.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “believes the U.S. Senate should wait 11 months for the next president to be sworn in before confirming a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia,” CBS News reports.
Said McConnell: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died at a Texas ranch at the age of 79, Politico reports.
San Antonio Express News: “Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body… A federal official who asked not to be named said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes.”
Sen. Ted Cruz called Scalia a “hero” and suggested “that the next President names his replacement.”
Rick Hasen: Justice Scalia’s Death and Implications for the 2016 Election, the Supreme Court and the Nation
“Hillary Clinton forcefully attacked Senator Bernie Sanders before a heavily black audience Friday, highlighting his criticism of President Obama, the Affordable Care Act and for what she suggested was a single-minded focus on economic fairness at the expense of racial justice,” the New York Times reports.
“One day after the two squared off at a debate that emphasized issues relating to race and gender, Mrs. Clinton made clear that she intends to run in this state’s primary by effectively seeking Mr. Obama’s third term — and claiming Mr. Sanders would be a threat to the first black president’s accomplishments.”
Bush super PAC operative Mike Murphy posts South Carolina tracking numbers another GOP campaign: Donald Trump leads with 34%, followed by Ted Cruz at 17%, Jeb Bush at 12%, Marco Rubio at 10% and John Kasich “in single digits.”
Ben Carson “has raised about $2 million since the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, a startling windfall for a campaign that finished a distant-fourth in Iowa and dead last among eight active contenders in New Hampshire,” Politico reports.
“The haul is all the more startling because the campaign has been floundering for months… But a funny thing happened on the way to the Iowa caucus: Just as the vote was beginning, operatives and surrogates for Ted Cruz rapidly spread a false rumor that Carson would be leaving the Republican contest… The backlash from Carson loyalists was fierce, and the doctor’s campaign says it’s at the core of its sudden fundraising resurgence.”
“Some of the biggest Republican donors, who collectively have contributed tens of millions of dollars to shape the presidential race, are tightening their purse strings out of frustration with their inability to boost their favored candidates, or to slow Donald Trump,” Politico reports.
“Rather than continuing to write huge checks to support the cluster of establishment candidates jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, a billionaire real estate showman roundly despised by the GOP elite, these donors have mostly retreated to the sidelines. They’re watching anxiously, hoping that the field sorts itself out.”
“My sense is this is going to be a melee.”
— GOP strategist Doug Heye, quoted by Reuters, on tonight’s Republican presidential debate.
“Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, offered this year’s hopefuls advice about a hard-learned lesson: Release your tax returns before the primaries and avoid tough scrutiny later. But the top three Republicans leading in national polls don’t appear to be listening,” the AP reports.
“Even as other candidates — most notably Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush — have already disclosed years’ worth of private tax returns to dispel questions about their personal finances, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have failed to do the same despite promises to do so, sometimes after events that have now come and gone. None of the campaigns will say why they’ve delayed or when the candidates will release their returns.”
Washington Post: “With a commanding primary win in New Hampshire proving that he can transform his enormous crowds into actual voters, Trump’s rivals now sense a closing window to stop his momentum ahead of Super Tuesday in March, when nearly a dozen states will vote.”
“The strikingly negative tone of the ads shows the extent to which the target on Trump’s back has grown since his victory last week. For the moment, Trump’s campaign is not fighting back with attack ads of its own in South Carolina, but the candidate is using two powerful tools to defend himself: speeches at rallies that attract thousands and a Twitter account with more than six million followers.”
Washington Post: “Two powerful organizations within the Democratic establishment announced steps Friday that have the potential to provide substantial financial firepower to presidential contender Hillary Clinton by drawing on the support of wealthy donors and corporate interests.”
“While providing a likely boost to Clinton, both developments also give rival Bernie Sanders fresh fodder to highlight her relationship with Wall Street and other special interests at a time when the two candidates are locked in an intense nomination fight.”
Associated Press: “His ‘Cruz Crew’ mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users’ phones — tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign.”
“That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy.”
South Carolina House Republicans apparently conducted their own poll and found Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 35%, followed by Ted Cruz at 16%, Jeb Bush at 13%, Marco Rubio at 12%, John Kasich at 9% and Ben Carson at 5%.
“I never heard the really insulting language about so many different kinds of people. I never heard the kind of demagoguery and derogatory comments. I wasn’t around him that much but I never heard that. And so I can only conclude that, you know, he thinks this is what gets him the votes.”
— Hillary Clinton, quoted by Politico, describing her relationship with Donald Trump.
Jim Gilmore is ending his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination, USA Today reports.
“Gilmore suspended his campaign following a poor performance in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, which followed an even worse showing Feb. 1 in Iowa, where he barely campaigned and was the choice of only 12 caucusgoers. Fewer than a dozen people showed up at his New Hampshire election night party.”
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.