“I really don’t want Jeb’s endorsement because he is a low energy person and he does not represent strength, power and stamina, which are qualities our country desperately needs. If he does not endorse and support me as the nominee, legally he cannot be on the ballot in many states so that would be the end of his candidacy.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico, responding to a report that Jeb Bush had considered reneging on his pledge to support the GOP nominee if it’s Trump.
Rush Limbaugh “lavished praise” on Sen. Ted Cruz for his debate performance on his radio show, Politico reports.
Said Limbaugh: “Ted Cruz speaks like a traditional powerful, well-versed proud — unabashedly proud — conservative. He is an articulate representative of conservatism and the conservative movement, and he is a happy warrior.”
“Congressional negotiators introduced a sweeping year-end spending and tax-break package early Wednesday that busts through previously agreed budget limits with $66 billion in new spending for 2016 and that makes permanent an array of tax benefits at a cost of adding more than a half-trillion dollars to the deficit,” the New York Times reports.
“While Republican leaders in Congress characterized the year-end package as representing a hard-fought compromise that would keep the government open and provide large-scale investment and tax breaks, it poses a challenge for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, who had promised a more open and inclusive legislative process.”
Together, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio “represent a watershed moment in American politics: Two Hispanics running as top-tier candidates for president, and increasingly gunning for each other, in what one Latino conservative has dubbed ‘the yuca primary,’ referring to the popular Cuban staple and an acronym for young urban Cuban-American,” the New York Times reports.
“Their collisions on defense, immigration and other issues formed one of the main story lines at Tuesday’s Republican debate. The two have emerged as perhaps the leading alternatives to Donald J. Trump.”
Politico: “Cruz, playing the role of foreign policy realist, said that President Obama had left America less secure by pushing for the ouster of Arab dictators, including Assad, whom Obama insists must leave power… Rubio’s full-throated support for human rights and democracy echoes, to many Republican ears, Bush’s grandiose, transform-the-Middle-East philosophy.”
Politico: “Those who’ve been with Bush over the last week say he’s been raring to go. At a Republican Party of Florida event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tampa last week, Bush went on such an anti-Trump tear that Bush advisers were shocked it didn’t leak. From then on, tackling Trump head on was the debate game plan – and became a central part of the former Florida governor’s preparations.”
First Read: “Bush might very well see this line of attack as a public service to his party. Then again, Bush being the attack dog against Trump could make Trump’s insurgent pitch to Republicans/conservatives even stronger.”
Amy Walter: “Bush looked more confident than ever. But, it is unlikely to do him much good. He took some shots at Trump but, unlike Fiorina did in the second debate of the season, Bush wasn’t able to shut Trump down.”
First Read: “And if the two frontrunners hugged it out, it’s hard to see how the debate changed the trajectory of the race as we head into a two-week hiatus for Christmas and New Year’s. If anything, the uncertainty in the race on the establishment side of the aisle is what’s new. Between a strong Christie, the immigration pile on of Rubio and Jeb’s new found life trolling Trump, it’s actually not as clear as it was 48 hours ago that Rubio is definitely going to be the establishment’s candidate. He’s still the favorite for that lane, but Christie and Bush have life.”
“My belief is that we’ll have a presumptive nominee by the end of March or middle of April.”
— RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, in an interview with the Today Show.
Birmingham mayor William Bell got into a fight with city councilman Marcus Lundy during a meeting Tuesday, sending both men to the hospital, the AP reports.
“A police report identifies Bell as the victim and says Lundy is accused of assault… Bell and Lundy were in a room behind council chambers discussing a city matter and Lundy charged at Bell and started cursing at him while discussing a personal issue… Bell told police he turned and tried leaving the room three times, but that Lundy closed the door each time before grabbing him by the neck from behind and putting him in a chokehold.”
Donald Trump committed to not running for president as an independent — an idea he has floated in the past — during last night’s Republican debate, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “I’m going to be a Republican, I’m not going to be doing a third party. No matter what.”
He later reiterated his thoughts to Yahoo News: “No chance.”
Jeb Bush locked horns with Donald Trump in a national security debate “but most rivals avoided tangling with the billionaire who has emerged as an enduring force in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign,” Reuters reports. “Their reticence was a nod to Trump’s unique ability to withstand attacks and return fire.”
Said Bush: “Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency — that’s not going to happen.”
The Atlantic: “Despite predictions to the contrary, Cruz didn’t tangle much with Trump. That was left to Jeb Bush. He was, once again, stumbling and unsteady at times, and it’s hard to remember many memorable points he made. Trump repeatedly steamrolled Bush, but he went after Trump again and again, eventually seeming to get under Trump’s skin—the first time that has happened in any of these debates.”
New York Times: “But their tense confrontation on Tuesday night was about more than just a clash of worldviews. It was calculated political strategy masked by the language of defense appropriations and classified intelligence programs. The two senators have come to the same realization about the race for the Republican presidential nomination: The surest way to win is with the other gone.”
Congressional leaders reached a tentative deal Tuesday night on a $1.1 trillion spending bill that would end the threat of a year-end government shutdown and fund federal agencies through most of 2016, USA Today reports.
The news was announced during the middle of the Republican debate last night.
Said Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI): “We didn’t win everything we wanted. Democrats got some things they wanted. So that’s the nature of compromises in divided government. But all told, we’ll make sure that we keep government funded and that we advance some of our priorities and, namely, that’s to create jobs.”
Overall, this was a very good and generally substantive debate. The three main frontrunners — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — had solid exchanges on topics such as immigration and defeating the Islamic State.
It would be great to see a debate with just those three on stage. The debate solidified them as the three most likely to win the GOP nomination.
Cruz and Rubio are easily the best debaters and their exchanges were genuinely interesting. It’s fascinating to watch them as they try to appeal to different bases with their party. But both men argue like U.S. Senators and that’s not very attractive to GOP voters in an anti-establishment year. Chris Christie did a good job pointing this out.
Trump was Trump once again. Jeb Bush and Rand Paul both went after him hard but neither won a single exchange. It’s highly unlikely that Trump will ever win a majority of GOP voters, but he did a masterful job being the only candidate to speak to his base. With the exception of an angry outburst at Bush, it might have been Trump’s best debate yet.
Once again, Trump was the winner. Cruz took some hits on how he would combat the Islamic State, but he was very strong. Rubio fell short in defending himself on immigration in exchanges with Cruz. Trump has shown he can afford to be less precise on his own positions and that didn’t hurt him tonight.
Of the other candidates, Bush, Christie and Paul had their best debate yet. Christie, in particular, may have bought himself more time and could be a real threat to Rubio as the establishment choice.
John Kasich and Carly Fiorina were forgettable and Ben Carson was often incomprehensible.
CNN did a much better job at moderating this debate than their previous one. The questions were fair, pointed and substantive.
New York Times: “CNN is hosting the festivities, starting with the so-called undercard debate for candidates with the lowest poll numbers. Television coverage begins at 6 p.m. Eastern, and the face-off is expected to end by 8:10 p.m. The main debate will begin around 9 p.m. and finish at 11 p.m. The debates will air on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español.”
The debate will air on CNN and stream for free online.
Wall Street Journal: ‘When the undercard debate airs at 6 p.m. ET with Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki and Rick Santorum, viewers everywhere will ask themselves: Why are these people on my television?”
“None of the four have generated more than a couple percentage points of popular support. None have paid staff in Nevada, the fourth nominating state on the presidential calendar. None have had a memorable debate moment to propel their candidacies. Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer said on CNN Monday that the party will keep holding second-tier debates as long as there are qualified candidates in the race to compete in them. The question for the networks holding January debates is, Are the lower-tier candidates worth the effort of holding a second debate?”
Donald Trump “was scheduled to meet with the casino magnate and megadonor Sheldon Adelson at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, the site of Tuesday night’s Republican debate,” the New York Times reports.
“Sheldon knows that I’m in town because of the debate, and he’s been a friend of mine for a long time. He called to see whether or not we could meet, and we are going to meet.”
Trump told the Washington Post: “I don’t want his money.”
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.