In San Diego, Bernie Sanders rails against inequality
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders railed against corporate powers in America before thousands of followers in National City on Saturday night, just hours after making a more intimate visit to Friendship Park on the Mexican border near Tijuana.
The Vermont senator gave a sweeping speech that touched on a number of issues but maintained the central theme of addressing inequality.
“I’m running for president because we are going to create an economy that works for all ...”
-- Joshua Stewart
Bill Clinton: Hillary has ‘best economic ideas’
Former President Bill Clinton on Saturday told an adoring crowd that Hillary Clinton “has the best economic ideas” that can “help us all rise together.”
He said his wife and her Democratic presidential opponent, Bernie Sanders, have debated the important issues facing the country, and made no mention of Sanders’ increasing criticism of Hillary Clinton as the campaign heads toward the California primary June 7.
Donald Trump sees political gain in Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs
For weeks, Donald Trump has dredged up stories from the 1990s about Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs. Then Trump went a step further, reviving an unsubstantiated rape accusation against the former president.
Even for Trump, the anything-goes showman whose insults left rivals reeling in the GOP primaries, the attacks have a searing personal dimension, pushing boundaries and forcing his presumed Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, to relive the humiliation of her husband’s adultery.
Given Trump’s own extramarital dalliances along his tabloid-chronicled path from his first wife to his second and third, the tactic could backfire. But it serves strategic goals for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
In backing rival candidate, Bernie Sanders makes it clear he’s no fan of DNC chairwoman
Bernie Sanders announced his support Saturday for a candidate vying to unseat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the latest tiff between the Vermont senator and leaders of the Democratic Party.
In an interview with CNN, Sanders endorsed Tim Canova, who is challenging Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, in an Aug. 30 primary for the South Florida congressional seat she’s held since 2013. Canova, a law professor, has advised Sanders about the Federal Reserve.
“Well, clearly, I favor her opponent,” said Sanders, who also said he would not favor reappointing Wasserman Schultz as chair of the DNC, in an interview that will air on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz’s.”
The endorsement from Sanders comes as the party is looking to unite ahead of what will likely be a November slugfest with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. But tensions between Sanders and the DNC have persisted for several months, and his move will likely serve to further divide their camps.
From the outset of his campaign, Sanders, who spent most of his political career as an independent, has assailed the DNC for tipping the scales in favor of Clinton by, among other things, limiting debates.
Tensions increased late in 2015 when Sanders filed a lawsuit against the DNC after the national party cut off his campaign’s access to crucial voter data, saying his campaign had breached access to it. Sanders later dropped the lawsuit.
And just this week, Sanders clashed with Wasserman Schultz over violence that erupted recently at the Nevada Democratic Convention, which party officials blamed on a disgruntled group of Sanders supporters.
In response to Sanders’ endorsement of her challenger, Wasserman Schultz said Saturday that she remains neutral in the Democratic presidential primary.
For weeks, Clinton supporters have called on Sanders to exit the race. Yet Sanders remains undeterred, vowing to remain in the Democratic contest and fight for a more liberal platform at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia.
Snapshot from the trail: Bill Clinton in Chula Vista
Yes, Bill Clinton can still draw a crowd in California
In the latest iteration of the Clinton family’s 2-for-1 campaign style, former President Bill Clinton planned two events in California on Saturday to try to boost support for his wife Hillary’s presidential effort.
The first was in Chula Vista, where hundreds of people lined up hours before Clinton’s scheduled appearance. Inside the Bonita Vista High School gym, a marching band entertained Hillary Clinton supporters awaiting the arrival of the person whom buttons for sale outside called the “First Gentleman.”
On Saturday afternoon, Clinton was scheduled to attend an event in Pomona with Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.
San Diego is friendly territory for Clinton; he won what was then a traditionally Republican county in his 1992 election. That was the first general election victory in California for a Democrat in 28 years.
The candidate herself is scheduled to return to California next week. On Saturday, she was in Florida attending a dinner for the Circle of Mothers. The organization was founded by Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the young man shot to death in 2012 in what became a prominent case regarding racial profiling.
Bernie Sanders, with a sense of urgency, barnstorms California
Bernie Sanders, lagging behind in fundraising and delegates to Hillary Clinton, is showing a sense of urgency in California with about two weeks until primary day.
The Vermont senator traversed California this week and returns Saturday for a rally in the San Diego area, followed by events throughout the state over the next few days, including stops in Irvine and Santa Monica.
While polling has been sparse as of late, Sanders trailed Clinton in each of the past four polls of California Democrats. The latest poll, conducted by KABC/SurveyUSA at the end of April, showed Clinton with a 19-point lead over Sanders. An average of the polls shows Clinton up by about 10 percentage points.
In California, 475 pledged delegates will be allocated by congressional district in the June 7 primary, and for weeks, pressure has grown on Sanders to exit the race. Clinton has a dominating lead in pledged delegates, and when superdelegates — unbound delegates who are free to switch their support — are taken into account, the former secretary of State needs only about 90 delegates to clinch the nomination.
Yet Sanders, whose populist message centered on income inequality has resonated with progressives, vows to remain in the race and fight for a more liberal platform at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia.
And as Sanders makes the rounds in the state, Clinton is not taking California for granted.
Former President Bill Clinton is set to make two stops in Southern California on Saturday to rally supporters of his wife. He’ll then head to Northern California, while Hillary Clinton will travel to Riverside, Orange County and San Jose early next week.
Despite his uphill climb for the nomination, Sanders still appears optimistic.
“We just won Oregon. And we’re going to win California,” Sanders said at a rally in Carson last week, noting that he also won Washington state’s caucuses. “I am getting to like the West Coast.”
Ted Cruz’s campaign is over, but his delegates fight on
Ater Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential race, his campaign staffers boxed up their mementos and souvenirs as they prepared to shutter the Houston headquarters, and the Texan announced that he would seek reelection to the U.S. Senate.
Yet Cruz’s team didn’t abandon the race for the White House entirely. It still filed a slate of potential presidential delegates for California’s June 7 primary, and continues to monitor delegate selection in states that already voted in the GOP nominating process.
The end result is that Cruz will have more than 550 loyalists attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July — a ground force that helps him establish himself as the national leader of the conservative movement, protect the party’s conservative platform from what the senator has called Trump’s “New York values,” and lay the foundation for a potential 2020 presidential bid.
Want to have dinner with Donald Trump? It’ll cost $25,000 (or more)
Donald Trump will raise money Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, marking his first foray into official GOP fundraisers with an event where tickets start at $25,000.
The dinner will be held at the home of Rachelle and Tom Barrack, according to an invitation obtained by The Times.
Guests paying $25,000 per person receive a photo and can attend the reception and dinner. Anyone paying $100,000 per couple becomes a member of the host committee and also gets a Republican National Committee Regent membership.