The countdown is on until Super Tuesday when a dozen states hold primaries or caucuses. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio trying to stop the Trump freight train. Hillary Clinton looking to seal the deal with Democrats when several big states hold their primaries.
Hillary Clinton stomped Bernie Sanders this weekend in South Carolina. She performed even better than Barack Obama among African Americans winning 90% of their votes. Her so-called “Southern Strategy” seems to be paying off. Sanders admitted on the Sunday shows he got “decimated.”
New polling from NBC News/WSJ/Marist show Hillary Clint on with big leads in Texas, Georgia and Tennessee.
Those same polls show Trump leading Georgia and Tennessee while Ted Cruz is ahead by 13 in Texas.
New polling from CBS and YouGov mirror those numbers with Clinton ahead by 20 in Virginia. Clinton ahead by 24 in Texas, and 28 in Georgia. It also shows her beating Sanders in Massachusetts which was once though competitive.
On the GOP side, Trump ahead by 13 in Virginia. It shows Cruz ahead by 11 in Texas. Trump by 11 in Georgia.
There’s also new national polling from CNN/ORC. It has Trump with 49% of the vote, Rubio gets 16%, and Cruz gets 15% among national GOP voters.
Clinton beats Sanders 55% to 38% nationally.
Ted Cruz is campaigning today in Texas which is now considered a must-win for the Senator in his home state. He got into a heated exchange with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
It was really ugly this weekend.
Rubio even opening a new front against Trump calling out what he calls Trump’s small hands.
Controversy is raging over Donald Trump’s initial refusal this weekend to disavow the white supremacist David Duke. Trump has since disavowed Duke’s support. Duke was a leader of the KKK and has said his supporters should consider Trump. Trump initially refused to disavow the leader’s support, but has since backtracked. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio making it an issue with Rubio saying, “We cannot be a party who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan."
Here’s how Philip Rucker and Robert Costa report on the race in the Washington Post today,
“The implosion over Donald Trump's candidacy that Republicans had hoped to avoid arrived so virulently this weekend that many party leaders vowed never to back the billionaire and openly questioned whether the GOP could come together this election year. At a moment when Republicans had hoped to begin taking on Hillary Clinton - who is seemingly on her way to wrapping up the Democratic nomination - the GOP has instead become consumed by a crisis over its identity and core values that is almost certain to last through the July party convention, if not the rest of the year.”
Lots of GOP events today during our hours.
1100ET -- Cruz rally, Gilley's Dallas, 1135 South Lamar Street, Dallas, TX LIVE
1130ET -- Kasich Town Hall, Castleton University, Campus Center, 62 Alumni Drive, Castleton, VT TBD
1200EST -- Donald Trump holds a rally. Radford Univ, Radford, VA. LIVE
1230EST -- Sen Rubio holds a rally. Atlanta, GA. LIVE via LiveU
Stocks look to open lower after big falls in China and Europe.
Moderates performed well in Iranian parliamentary elections.. seen as a referendum on the nuke deal. Bret Stephens will report.
A partial truce in Syria was marred by airstrikes and artillery attacks according to the New York Times.
President Obama set to award Senior Chief Edward C Byers Jr the Medal of Honor today. He’s a Navy Seal who heroically saved the life of Dr Dilip Joseph who was abducted along with his driver in Afghanistan and rescued by the Seals
1115EST -- POTUS presents the Medal of Honor to Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers, US Navy, for his courageous actions while serving as part of a team that rescued an American civilian being held hostage in 2012. LIVE
Spotlight won best picture at the Oscars. Brie Larson won Best Actress for Room. Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actor for “Revenant.”
For more news, follow me on Twitter: @ClintPHenderson
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