Oct.2
Political News, Now.
Jeb Bush Is Criticized for Saying ‘Stuff Happens’ in Reaction to Shootings
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jeb Bush invited a firestorm on Friday by saying that “stuff happens” in reference to renewed calls for legislative action after tragedies like the mass shooting in Oregon.
“I had this challenge as governor because we had — look, stuff happens,” he said at a forum in South Carolina. “There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
The inelegant phrase immediately set off a wave of criticism from observers suggesting he was playing down the scourge of gun violence and the tragedy on Thursday, in which a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Roseburg, Ore.
Mr Bush, taking questions from the state’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, was speaking about a pattern of proposing legislative responses that he said did not halt the tragedies they were meant to stop.
Asked afterward about the “stuff happens” comment, Mr. Bush said, “it wasn’t a mistake,” and requested that a reporter point out “what I said wrong.”
“Things happen all the time,” Mr. Bush said. “Things. Is that better?”
Asked what he meant, Mr. Bush said he was talking more generally about the tendency to pass laws in response to tragic events.
“Tragedies,” he said. “A child drowned in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools. Well it may not change it. Or you have a car accident and the impulse is to pass a law that deals with that unique event. And the cumulative effect of this is, in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty.”
Mr. Bush said he was not referring specifically to Oregon when he said “stuff happens.”
At the forum at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., Mr. Bush boasted of his pro-gun record as Florida governor, recalling awards he received from the National Rifle Association and noting that he once received a gun from the group’s former president, Charlton Heston.
At a news conference in Washington, President Obama was asked to respond to Mr. Bush’s comments after being read a small portion of them.
“I don’t even think I have to react to that one,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “The American people should hear that.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bush, Allie Brandenburger, said in an email that Mr. Bush’s critics were “taking shameless advantage of a horrific tragedy.”
“It is sad and beyond craven that liberal Democrats, aided and abetted by some in the national media, would dishonestly take Governor Bush’s comments out of context in a cheap attempt to advance their political agenda in the wake of a tragedy,” she said.
Obama Reacts to ‘Stuff Happens’ Comment
President Obama responded on Friday to the “stuff happens” comment from the Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush about the mass shooting in Oregon.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on October 2, 2015.
Jonathan Martin reported from Greenville, S.C., and Matt Flegenheimer from New York.
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Hillary Clinton Says Coal Company’s Bankruptcy Plan Hurts Miners
Less than two weeks after coming out against the Keystone XL pipeline project, which environmental groups have denounced but many labor unions support, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday criticized a coal company’s bankruptcy plan as detrimental to the families of the miners who work for the company.
The comment, made in a statement to the Reuters news service, came as Mrs. Clinton is facing opposition within some major labor unions. It also came as Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, makes gains in polls, and as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a favorite of some labor groups, considers joining the 2016 presidential race.
A plan that Patriot Coal Corporation has proposed as a bankruptcy settlement is “outrageous and must be stopped,” Mrs. Clinton said in the statement.
“Patriot Coal is trying to take $18 million of the $22 million put aside for retired coal miners, wives and widows and use it to pay its lawyers instead,” she said. “Ensuring health care and retirement security should be the first priority in a bankruptcy proceeding, not the last.”
At issue is a settlement involving an Indiana mine.
Mrs. Clinton’s statement could appeal to working-class voters. It was released on the same evening that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the keynote speaker at a Democratic dinner in West Virginia, a state that has little chance of being in play in a general election but which is heavy with working-class white voters.
Earlier this week, Mrs. Clinton said she opposed the Affordable Care Act’s so-called Cadillac tax, reviled by labor groups, which will apply to most coverage under health care packages whose premiums exceed certain amounts. Officials with the American Federation of Teachers, the largest union to endorse Mrs. Clinton so far, had pressed her to take such a position.
On Friday, officials with the International Association of Fire Fighters said the union was backing away from its plan to endorse Mrs. Clinton, in part because of hopes that Mr. Biden will run. The union supported Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, and it did little to help him move ahead in the contest. But amid Mrs. Clinton’s recent slide in the polls, the union’s decision adds to her difficulties.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
Hillary Clinton on N.R.A.’s Hold Over Republicans: ‘It Is Sickening’
DAVIE, Fla. — A day after the deadly shootings in Oregon, Hillary Rodham Clinton used a campaign appearance here on Friday to begin an impassioned attack on the National Rifle Association and Republican members of Congress who she said did the group’s bidding.
“It is sickening to me,” she told a crowd of supporters packed into a gymnasium on the campus of Broward College here. “People should not have to be afraid to go to college like this one, or to a movie theater, or to Bible study. What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the N.R.A.?”
“It is sickening to me,” she told a crowd of supporters packed into a gymnasium on the campus of Broward College here. “People should not have to be afraid to go to college like this one, or to a movie theater, or to Bible study. What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the N.R.A.?”
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks followed a similarly forceful address Thursday by President Obama, who lamented that mass shootings like the one earlier that day at a community college in Roseburg, Ore. — and the responses to them — have become routine.
“We don’t just need to pray for these people,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We need to act. It’s infuriating: Every time there’s another massacre, the Republicans and the N.R.A. say, ‘It’s not the time to talk about guns.’ Yes, it is. It is time to act, but Republicans continue to refuse to do anything to protect our communities. They put the N.R.A. ahead of American families.
“We need to make every politician who sides with them to look into the eyes of parents whose children have been murdered and explain why they listen to the gun lobbyists instead.”
“We need to make every politician who sides with them to look into the eyes of parents whose children have been murdered and explain why they listen to the gun lobbyists instead.”
Mrs. Clinton was in South Florida in part to begin a national effort to woo Latino voters, a potentially crucial component of her presidential prospects, particularly in this state. Mrs. Clinton’s appearance here was delayed by more than an hour while she greeted supporters at a fund-raising event in North Palm Beach, one of three such events she was scheduled to attend during her brief visit to the state.
She said that she did not expect it to be easy to take on the entrenched interests of the gun lobby.
“I’m well aware that this is a political mountain to climb, but you don’t get anywhere in this country if you don’t start by calling it out.”
“I’m well aware that this is a political mountain to climb, but you don’t get anywhere in this country if you don’t start by calling it out.”
She said the National Rifle Association counted on ”having an intense, dedicated group that really scares politicians by saying, ‘We will vote against you.'”
In a slightly hoarse voice, Mrs. Clinton said that with so many weapons in the hands of “too many people who should never have gotten guns in the first place,” it was almost inevitable that some people were acting out their fury “or whatever their problems are” by killing other people.
“I will, as president, never relent on this,” she said to applause, “because we need a national movement.”
Nancy Pelosi Calls for a New House Committee to Address Gun Violence
Citing the shootings at a community college in Oregon, the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, called on Friday for the creation of a select committee to address the issue of gun violence in the United States.
In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, Ms. Pelosi said the goal of such a committee would be to propose legislation to reduce the number of gun deaths.
In recent years, Congress has been generally unwilling to take up legislation that might be construed in any way as limiting gun rights because of the large number of lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats alike — who oppose such measures.
“The epidemic of gun violence in our country challenges the conscience of our nation,” Ms. Pelosi wrote. “Mass shootings and gun violence are inflicting daily tragedy on communities across America. As of today, nearly 10,000 Americans have been killed by guns in 2015 – more than 30 gun violence deaths a day. Yesterday’s terrible attack at Umpqua Community College in Oregon marked the 45th school shooting this year alone.”
Ms. Pelosi urged Congress to adopt a bipartisan measure to require tougher background checks, but said a select committee was also needed “to confront this crisis and report back common-sense legislation to help end it.” She recommended setting a 60-day deadline for the committee to make a report.
Such select committees are a politically sensitive topic these days because of Democrats’ complaints that a select committee on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, is being used by Republicans to inflict political damage on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president.
And Republicans recently announced that they would form a select committee to investigate allegations that Planned Parenthood had profited from the use of aborted fetuses in medical research. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, and Ms. Pelosi has denounced the new committee as “the committee to attack women’s health.”
Hillary Clinton Accuses Alabama of Curbing Access to Voting
Alabama is closing dozens of offices where people can obtain driver’s licenses, including in places where some of the state’s poorest residents and many African-Americans live.
The decision has gained national attention, in no small part because of the state’s approval of a law in 2011 requiring voters to present photo identification cards, becoming one of several states to make voting laws more restrictive.
Several such laws have been implemented in Republican-led states like Alabama. And while the decision to shutter driver licensing offices stems from budget cuts, observers have taken note of how many of the counties affected are where poor and black voters live, who will now have to travel farther to take care of their driver’s licenses.
“Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either 12 or 15 Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license,” wrote Kyle Whitmire, a columnist based in Alabama.
“Counties where some of the state’s poorest live,” he wrote. “Counties that are majority African-American.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has made protecting voting rights a focus of her campaign, said in a statement that the decision by the state’s law enforcement department to close offices in 29 counties was the latest example of disenfranchising voters.
“Just a few years ago, Alabama passed a law requiring citizens to have a photo ID to vote,” she said. “Now they’re shutting down places where people get those photo IDs. This is only going to make it harder for people to vote. It’s a blast from the Jim Crow past.”
She added: “African-Americans fought for the right to vote in the face of unthinkable hatred. They stood up and were beaten down, marched and were turned back. Some were even killed. But in the end, the forces of justice overcame. Alabama should do the right thing. It should reverse this decision. And it should start protecting the franchise for every single voter, no matter the color of their skin.”
Mrs. Clinton has proposed, among other measures, automatic voter registration nationally.
The Alabama law went into effect in 2014. Acceptable forms of ID are driver’s licenses, passports and photo ID cards issued by any state, the federal government, the military or any college in Alabama.
First Draft Focus: The Week in Political Pictures
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke to audience members after a town-hall-style meeting Thursday in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressJohn Kasich Says ‘Oppo’ Attempt Shows Jeb Bush Is ‘Getting Nervous’
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio has largely avoided confronting his Republican rivals for the presidential nomination so far, saying that he prefers to introduce himself to the American public.
That changed on Friday when he took offense to the fact that researchers from Jeb Bush’s “super PAC,” Right to Rise, were found scouring for documents about him in a public library in Westerville, Ohio.
After tweeting about it on Thursday night, Mr. Kasich said Friday that the “oppo” search for damaging information about him was a sign that Mr. Bush’s campaign was wobbly and that voters were looking for other options.
“I would think that they’re in there because they’re getting nervous,” Mr. Kasich said during a news conference where he noted that Mr. Bush was struggling in polls in New Hampshire and elsewhere. “Of course they’re going to look around at who might be the mature adult who knows how to reform and fix things and be a leader, rather than an administrator.”
The more aggressive tone comes as Mr. Bush’s poll numbers continue to be soft, leaving an opening for Mr. Kasich to emerge as a moderate, establishment Republican alternative.
A tracker for Mr. Bush’s PAC was also found recording an event for Senator Marco Rubio this week.
Obama Planning to See ‘Hamilton’ Again to Raise Money for Democrats
Hit Broadway shows have their share of repeat visitors, but it’s rare that those visitors are residents of the White House.
President Obama, who saw a Broadway preview of “Hamilton” on July 18, is planning to see it again, on Nov. 2, for a Democratic Party fund-raiser. Michelle Obama attended a matinee last weekend — her second time at the show, after seeing it Off Broadway at the Public Theater this year.
The Democratic National Committee is paying the costs of the special Monday night performance — a night when Broadway is ordinarily dark — and is raising money by selling seats to the show for up to $5,000 apiece. The event will benefit the Democratic Hope Fund, which raises money to help retire Mr. Obama’s campaign debt, as well as the national committee.
The event is being organized by Margo Lion, a longtime Obama supporter who is a Broadway producer and an investor in “Hamilton.” Ms. Lion organized Broadway fund-raisers in 2007 and 2012 for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns.
“The founding of America seems to be an appropriate subject, and we’re just thrilled that we could do this,” Ms. Lion said.
The Obamas played a small but memorable role in the development of the play, which is a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator and star, performed an early version of what became the show’s opening number at a White House poetry jam in 2009; the audience included the Obamas.
Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of “Hamilton,” said, “We’re both honored and enthusiastic that the president wishes to come back to our shows.” Mr. Seller is an Obama supporter, and said he gave the maximum allowable contribution to both of the president’s campaigns.
Mr. Seller said the special performance was not a donation but rather a group purchase of a block of tickets — in fact, he said, the national committee paid a premium for the tickets because the show needs to pay actors more for the additional performance. He said other organizations had bought large amounts of tickets to the show for fund-raising purposes; for example, he said, Wesleyan University, which is the alma mater of Mr. Miranda and of Thomas Kail, the show’s director, had bought all the seats to Friday night’s performance.
The D.N.C. said it had no comment on the event; a White House spokesman confirmed that Mr. Obama would travel to New York for a political event on Nov. 2.
Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting.
Donald Trump Pulls Out of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Event
Oct.2
Political News, Now.
Jeb Bush Is Criticized for Saying ‘Stuff Happens’ in Reaction to Shootings
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jeb Bush invited a firestorm on Friday by saying that “stuff happens” in reference to renewed calls for legislative action after tragedies like the mass shooting in Oregon.
“I had this challenge as governor because we had — look, stuff happens,” he said at a forum in South Carolina. “There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
The inelegant phrase immediately set off a wave of criticism from observers suggesting he was playing down the scourge of gun violence and the tragedy on Thursday, in which a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Roseburg, Ore.
Mr Bush, taking questions from the state’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, was speaking about a pattern of proposing legislative responses that he said did not halt the tragedies they were meant to stop.
Asked afterward about the “stuff happens” comment, Mr. Bush said, “it wasn’t a mistake,” and requested that a reporter point out “what I said wrong.”
“Things happen all the time,” Mr. Bush said. “Things. Is that better?”
Asked what he meant, Mr. Bush said he was talking more generally about the tendency to pass laws in response to tragic events.
“Tragedies,” he said. “A child drowned in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools. Well it may not change it. Or you have a car accident and the impulse is to pass a law that deals with that unique event. And the cumulative effect of this is, in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty.”
Mr. Bush said he was not referring specifically to Oregon when he said “stuff happens.”
At the forum at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., Mr. Bush boasted of his pro-gun record as Florida governor, recalling awards he received from the National Rifle Association and noting that he once received a gun from the group’s former president, Charlton Heston.
At a news conference in Washington, President Obama was asked to respond to Mr. Bush’s comments after being read a small portion of them.
“I don’t even think I have to react to that one,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “The American people should hear that.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bush, Allie Brandenburger, said in an email that Mr. Bush’s critics were “taking shameless advantage of a horrific tragedy.”
“It is sad and beyond craven that liberal Democrats, aided and abetted by some in the national media, would dishonestly take Governor Bush’s comments out of context in a cheap attempt to advance their political agenda in the wake of a tragedy,” she said.
Obama Reacts to ‘Stuff Happens’ Comment
President Obama responded on Friday to the “stuff happens” comment from the Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush about the mass shooting in Oregon.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on October 2, 2015.
Jonathan Martin reported from Greenville, S.C., and Matt Flegenheimer from New York.
More Posts
Hillary Clinton Says Coal Company’s Bankruptcy Plan Hurts Miners
Less than two weeks after coming out against the Keystone XL pipeline project, which environmental groups have denounced but many labor unions support, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday criticized a coal company’s bankruptcy plan as detrimental to the families of the miners who work for the company.
The comment, made in a statement to the Reuters news service, came as Mrs. Clinton is facing opposition within some major labor unions. It also came as Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, makes gains in polls, and as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a favorite of some labor groups, considers joining the 2016 presidential race.
A plan that Patriot Coal Corporation has proposed as a bankruptcy settlement is “outrageous and must be stopped,” Mrs. Clinton said in the statement.
“Patriot Coal is trying to take $18 million of the $22 million put aside for retired coal miners, wives and widows and use it to pay its lawyers instead,” she said. “Ensuring health care and retirement security should be the first priority in a bankruptcy proceeding, not the last.”
At issue is a settlement involving an Indiana mine.
Mrs. Clinton’s statement could appeal to working-class voters. It was released on the same evening that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the keynote speaker at a Democratic dinner in West Virginia, a state that has little chance of being in play in a general election but which is heavy with working-class white voters.
Earlier this week, Mrs. Clinton said she opposed the Affordable Care Act’s so-called Cadillac tax, reviled by labor groups, which will apply to most coverage under health care packages whose premiums exceed certain amounts. Officials with the American Federation of Teachers, the largest union to endorse Mrs. Clinton so far, had pressed her to take such a position.
On Friday, officials with the International Association of Fire Fighters said the union was backing away from its plan to endorse Mrs. Clinton, in part because of hopes that Mr. Biden will run. The union supported Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, and it did little to help him move ahead in the contest. But amid Mrs. Clinton’s recent slide in the polls, the union’s decision adds to her difficulties.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
Hillary Clinton on N.R.A.’s Hold Over Republicans: ‘It Is Sickening’
DAVIE, Fla. — A day after the deadly shootings in Oregon, Hillary Rodham Clinton used a campaign appearance here on Friday to begin an impassioned attack on the National Rifle Association and Republican members of Congress who she said did the group’s bidding.
“It is sickening to me,” she told a crowd of supporters packed into a gymnasium on the campus of Broward College here. “People should not have to be afraid to go to college like this one, or to a movie theater, or to Bible study. What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the N.R.A.?”
“It is sickening to me,” she told a crowd of supporters packed into a gymnasium on the campus of Broward College here. “People should not have to be afraid to go to college like this one, or to a movie theater, or to Bible study. What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the N.R.A.?”
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks followed a similarly forceful address Thursday by President Obama, who lamented that mass shootings like the one earlier that day at a community college in Roseburg, Ore. — and the responses to them — have become routine.
“We don’t just need to pray for these people,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We need to act. It’s infuriating: Every time there’s another massacre, the Republicans and the N.R.A. say, ‘It’s not the time to talk about guns.’ Yes, it is. It is time to act, but Republicans continue to refuse to do anything to protect our communities. They put the N.R.A. ahead of American families.
“We need to make every politician who sides with them to look into the eyes of parents whose children have been murdered and explain why they listen to the gun lobbyists instead.”
“We need to make every politician who sides with them to look into the eyes of parents whose children have been murdered and explain why they listen to the gun lobbyists instead.”
Mrs. Clinton was in South Florida in part to begin a national effort to woo Latino voters, a potentially crucial component of her presidential prospects, particularly in this state. Mrs. Clinton’s appearance here was delayed by more than an hour while she greeted supporters at a fund-raising event in North Palm Beach, one of three such events she was scheduled to attend during her brief visit to the state.
She said that she did not expect it to be easy to take on the entrenched interests of the gun lobby.
“I’m well aware that this is a political mountain to climb, but you don’t get anywhere in this country if you don’t start by calling it out.”
“I’m well aware that this is a political mountain to climb, but you don’t get anywhere in this country if you don’t start by calling it out.”
She said the National Rifle Association counted on ”having an intense, dedicated group that really scares politicians by saying, ‘We will vote against you.'”
In a slightly hoarse voice, Mrs. Clinton said that with so many weapons in the hands of “too many people who should never have gotten guns in the first place,” it was almost inevitable that some people were acting out their fury “or whatever their problems are” by killing other people.
“I will, as president, never relent on this,” she said to applause, “because we need a national movement.”
Nancy Pelosi Calls for a New House Committee to Address Gun Violence
Citing the shootings at a community college in Oregon, the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, called on Friday for the creation of a select committee to address the issue of gun violence in the United States.
In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, Ms. Pelosi said the goal of such a committee would be to propose legislation to reduce the number of gun deaths.
In recent years, Congress has been generally unwilling to take up legislation that might be construed in any way as limiting gun rights because of the large number of lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats alike — who oppose such measures.
“The epidemic of gun violence in our country challenges the conscience of our nation,” Ms. Pelosi wrote. “Mass shootings and gun violence are inflicting daily tragedy on communities across America. As of today, nearly 10,000 Americans have been killed by guns in 2015 – more than 30 gun violence deaths a day. Yesterday’s terrible attack at Umpqua Community College in Oregon marked the 45th school shooting this year alone.”
Ms. Pelosi urged Congress to adopt a bipartisan measure to require tougher background checks, but said a select committee was also needed “to confront this crisis and report back common-sense legislation to help end it.” She recommended setting a 60-day deadline for the committee to make a report.
Such select committees are a politically sensitive topic these days because of Democrats’ complaints that a select committee on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, is being used by Republicans to inflict political damage on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president.
And Republicans recently announced that they would form a select committee to investigate allegations that Planned Parenthood had profited from the use of aborted fetuses in medical research. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, and Ms. Pelosi has denounced the new committee as “the committee to attack women’s health.”
Hillary Clinton Accuses Alabama of Curbing Access to Voting
Alabama is closing dozens of offices where people can obtain driver’s licenses, including in places where some of the state’s poorest residents and many African-Americans live.
The decision has gained national attention, in no small part because of the state’s approval of a law in 2011 requiring voters to present photo identification cards, becoming one of several states to make voting laws more restrictive.
Several such laws have been implemented in Republican-led states like Alabama. And while the decision to shutter driver licensing offices stems from budget cuts, observers have taken note of how many of the counties affected are where poor and black voters live, who will now have to travel farther to take care of their driver’s licenses.
“Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either 12 or 15 Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license,” wrote Kyle Whitmire, a columnist based in Alabama.
“Counties where some of the state’s poorest live,” he wrote. “Counties that are majority African-American.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has made protecting voting rights a focus of her campaign, said in a statement that the decision by the state’s law enforcement department to close offices in 29 counties was the latest example of disenfranchising voters.
“Just a few years ago, Alabama passed a law requiring citizens to have a photo ID to vote,” she said. “Now they’re shutting down places where people get those photo IDs. This is only going to make it harder for people to vote. It’s a blast from the Jim Crow past.”
She added: “African-Americans fought for the right to vote in the face of unthinkable hatred. They stood up and were beaten down, marched and were turned back. Some were even killed. But in the end, the forces of justice overcame. Alabama should do the right thing. It should reverse this decision. And it should start protecting the franchise for every single voter, no matter the color of their skin.”
Mrs. Clinton has proposed, among other measures, automatic voter registration nationally.
The Alabama law went into effect in 2014. Acceptable forms of ID are driver’s licenses, passports and photo ID cards issued by any state, the federal government, the military or any college in Alabama.
First Draft Focus: The Week in Political Pictures
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke to audience members after a town-hall-style meeting Thursday in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressJohn Kasich Says ‘Oppo’ Attempt Shows Jeb Bush Is ‘Getting Nervous’
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio has largely avoided confronting his Republican rivals for the presidential nomination so far, saying that he prefers to introduce himself to the American public.
That changed on Friday when he took offense to the fact that researchers from Jeb Bush’s “super PAC,” Right to Rise, were found scouring for documents about him in a public library in Westerville, Ohio.
After tweeting about it on Thursday night, Mr. Kasich said Friday that the “oppo” search for damaging information about him was a sign that Mr. Bush’s campaign was wobbly and that voters were looking for other options.
“I would think that they’re in there because they’re getting nervous,” Mr. Kasich said during a news conference where he noted that Mr. Bush was struggling in polls in New Hampshire and elsewhere. “Of course they’re going to look around at who might be the mature adult who knows how to reform and fix things and be a leader, rather than an administrator.”
The more aggressive tone comes as Mr. Bush’s poll numbers continue to be soft, leaving an opening for Mr. Kasich to emerge as a moderate, establishment Republican alternative.
A tracker for Mr. Bush’s PAC was also found recording an event for Senator Marco Rubio this week.
Obama Planning to See ‘Hamilton’ Again to Raise Money for Democrats
Hit Broadway shows have their share of repeat visitors, but it’s rare that those visitors are residents of the White House.
President Obama, who saw a Broadway preview of “Hamilton” on July 18, is planning to see it again, on Nov. 2, for a Democratic Party fund-raiser. Michelle Obama attended a matinee last weekend — her second time at the show, after seeing it Off Broadway at the Public Theater this year.
The Democratic National Committee is paying the costs of the special Monday night performance — a night when Broadway is ordinarily dark — and is raising money by selling seats to the show for up to $5,000 apiece. The event will benefit the Democratic Hope Fund, which raises money to help retire Mr. Obama’s campaign debt, as well as the national committee.
The event is being organized by Margo Lion, a longtime Obama supporter who is a Broadway producer and an investor in “Hamilton.” Ms. Lion organized Broadway fund-raisers in 2007 and 2012 for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns.
“The founding of America seems to be an appropriate subject, and we’re just thrilled that we could do this,” Ms. Lion said.
The Obamas played a small but memorable role in the development of the play, which is a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator and star, performed an early version of what became the show’s opening number at a White House poetry jam in 2009; the audience included the Obamas.
Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of “Hamilton,” said, “We’re both honored and enthusiastic that the president wishes to come back to our shows.” Mr. Seller is an Obama supporter, and said he gave the maximum allowable contribution to both of the president’s campaigns.
Mr. Seller said the special performance was not a donation but rather a group purchase of a block of tickets — in fact, he said, the national committee paid a premium for the tickets because the show needs to pay actors more for the additional performance. He said other organizations had bought large amounts of tickets to the show for fund-raising purposes; for example, he said, Wesleyan University, which is the alma mater of Mr. Miranda and of Thomas Kail, the show’s director, had bought all the seats to Friday night’s performance.
The D.N.C. said it had no comment on the event; a White House spokesman confirmed that Mr. Obama would travel to New York for a political event on Nov. 2.
Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting.
Donald Trump Pulls Out of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Event
Donald J. Trump has backed out of appearing at a gathering of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce next week, and the group said it was because he did not want to be confronted with questions.
“Trump’s decision to forfeit the Q.-and-A. session was motivated by the concern of being ‘put on trial,'” the chamber said in a statement. “Withdrawing from the Q.-and-A. can only suggest that Trump himself believes his views are indefensible before a Hispanic audience.”
The chamber said this week that Mr. Trump would participate in a question-and-answer session at its conference in Washington next week. The gathering was expected to be contentious because of inflammatory remarks that the Republican presidential candidate has made about illegal immigrants since starting his campaign.
Mr. Trump did have a positive meeting last month with Javier Palomarez, the president of the chamber, suggesting that Mr. Trump was trying to curry favor with Hispanics in spite of his proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border and deport anyone who is in the United States illegally.
In an interview on Fox in September, Mr. Trump indicated that he was planning to attend the forum and acknowledged that it could be unfriendly.
“That won’t be that easy of a meeting because you’ll have hundreds of people and they will have constituents of his and they may disagree with me, but ultimately we will all get along,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Mr. Palomarez.
However, Mr. Trump said on Friday that he would definitely not be attending because of negative comments Mr. Palomarez made about him. In an interview with Politico this week, Mr. Palomarez said that he did not take “great comfort” in meeting with Mr. Trump.
“He said things to the press that were wrong and not correct, so we decided not to do it,” Mr. Trump said in an interview, referring to the forum. “We will be in Las Vegas at a sold-out, great event.”
Mr. Trump said he had only told the chamber that he would consider attending its gathering but had not committed to participating. He also said that he was put off by Mr. Palomarez’s asking him to join the group and pay a fee of $25,000 to $2 million, and that the organization was using him for publicity.
“He wanted me there because he’ll sell a lot of tickets,” Mr. Trump said.
The confusion was the latest instance of tension between Hispanics and Mr. Trump, who offended some when he said that Mexico was sending criminal and rapists into the United States.
“With an 84 percent disapproval rating among Hispanics, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the session only deepens our community’s already negative perceptions of him,” said Ammar Campa-Najjar, a spokesman for the chamber.
Mr. Trump rejected the idea that he had a bad relationship with Hispanics, noting that he employs thousands of them and vowed to win their vote in a general election.
“The Hispanics that are here legally, they love Trump,” he said. “I think I’m going to do great with Hispanics.”
Operatives for Jeb Bush ‘Super PAC’ Are Caught in the Act Twice
As its favored candidate strains to improve languishing poll numbers, the “super PAC” supporting Jeb Bush is keeping busy.
The group appears to be targeting two of Mr. Bush’s rivals who have gained a measure of traction with establishment Republicans: Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
The super PAC, Right to Rise, dispatched representatives to Ohio to scour documents related to Mr. Kasich at a public library in Westerville. “Jeb’s oppo team’s in OH now rifling thru my archives,” Mr. Kasich posted on Twitter on Thursday night.
https://twitter.com/JohnKasich/status/649754772334100480
And in Iowa on Thursday, the group sent a tracker to gather footage at an event for Mr. Rubio. The tracker was asked to leave, according to Politico, which reported the move.
A spokesman for Right to Rise, Paul Lindsay, said the group was “collecting routine, issue-based research on all the candidates in the race.”
“Iowa and central Ohio are also wonderful places to visit this time of year,” he added, calling the breakfast at a Fairfield Inn in Westerville “fantastic.”
Mr. Bush himself has begun tweaking Mr. Rubio with greater frequency in recent days, taking particular aim at his relative lack of experience. The needling comes as Mr. Rubio’s standing in polls has risen recently.
“Marco was a member of the House of Representatives when I was governor, and he followed my lead,” Mr. Bush told MSNBC on Thursday.
He was asked if Mr. Rubio had the leadership skills to be president. “It’s not known,” he said. “Barack Obama didn’t end up having them and he won an election on the belief that he could.”
Mr. Bush has also drawn attention to his plan to dock the pay of lawmakers who miss votes — which has been interpreted as a jab at Mr. Rubio, who has done so frequently.
Speaking to reporters after a town hall-style event in Bedford, N.H., on Wednesday night, Mr. Bush was asked if Mr. Rubio’s voting record was a problem.
“I think if you had a dock-in-pay strategy, you’d probably get more attendance,” he said generally, before an aide rushed him off.
Donald Trump, Trying to Show Staying Power, Hires State Aides
Donald J. Trump’s advisers have hired new aides in Virginia, Texas and Florida, three states beyond where the early votes are cast, as they try to demonstrate that the real estate mogul will remain in the race for the duration.
Karen Giorno will be the campaign’s state director in Florida, while Corbin Casteel will play that role in Texas. Mike Rubino will be the state director in Virginia.
“We are in this to win it,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “These staff additions are the continuation of our plan to have a strategic and significant presence across the country.”
Ms. Giorno previously worked for Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, according to Mr. Trump’s aides. Mr. Casteel was also described as having “vast experience” in corporation communications and political strategy, and worked with the Republican National Committee. Mr. Rubino was said to have worked with Representative David Brat, a Republican from Virginia who defeated Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, in a June 2014 primary upset.
Mr. Trump has recently bristled at suggestions that he may not stay in the race until the Iowa caucuses begin in early February.
Texas and Virginia will hold their primaries on March 1, which is also known as Super Tuesday, when many states will vote. Florida will hold its primary on March 15.
Donald J. Trump has backed out of appearing at a gathering of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce next week, and the group said it was because he did not want to be confronted with questions.
“Trump’s decision to forfeit the Q.-and-A. session was motivated by the concern of being ‘put on trial,'” the chamber said in a statement. “Withdrawing from the Q.-and-A. can only suggest that Trump himself believes his views are indefensible before a Hispanic audience.”
The chamber said this week that Mr. Trump would participate in a question-and-answer session at its conference in Washington next week. The gathering was expected to be contentious because of inflammatory remarks that the Republican presidential candidate has made about illegal immigrants since starting his campaign.
Mr. Trump did have a positive meeting last month with Javier Palomarez, the president of the chamber, suggesting that Mr. Trump was trying to curry favor with Hispanics in spite of his proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border and deport anyone who is in the United States illegally.
In an interview on Fox in September, Mr. Trump indicated that he was planning to attend the forum and acknowledged that it could be unfriendly.
“That won’t be that easy of a meeting because you’ll have hundreds of people and they will have constituents of his and they may disagree with me, but ultimately we will all get along,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Mr. Palomarez.
However, Mr. Trump said on Friday that he would definitely not be attending because of negative comments Mr. Palomarez made about him. In an interview with Politico this week, Mr. Palomarez said that he did not take “great comfort” in meeting with Mr. Trump.
“He said things to the press that were wrong and not correct, so we decided not to do it,” Mr. Trump said in an interview, referring to the forum. “We will be in Las Vegas at a sold-out, great event.”
Mr. Trump said he had only told the chamber that he would consider attending its gathering but had not committed to participating. He also said that he was put off by Mr. Palomarez’s asking him to join the group and pay a fee of $25,000 to $2 million, and that the organization was using him for publicity.
“He wanted me there because he’ll sell a lot of tickets,” Mr. Trump said.
The confusion was the latest instance of tension between Hispanics and Mr. Trump, who offended some when he said that Mexico was sending criminal and rapists into the United States.
“With an 84 percent disapproval rating among Hispanics, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the session only deepens our community’s already negative perceptions of him,” said Ammar Campa-Najjar, a spokesman for the chamber.
Mr. Trump rejected the idea that he had a bad relationship with Hispanics, noting that he employs thousands of them and vowed to win their vote in a general election.
“The Hispanics that are here legally, they love Trump,” he said. “I think I’m going to do great with Hispanics.”
Operatives for Jeb Bush ‘Super PAC’ Are Caught in the Act Twice
As its favored candidate strains to improve languishing poll numbers, the “super PAC” supporting Jeb Bush is keeping busy.
The group appears to be targeting two of Mr. Bush’s rivals who have gained a measure of traction with establishment Republicans: Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
The super PAC, Right to Rise, dispatched representatives to Ohio to scour documents related to Mr. Kasich at a public library in Westerville. “Jeb’s oppo team’s in OH now rifling thru my archives,” Mr. Kasich posted on Twitter on Thursday night.
https://twitter.com/JohnKasich/status/649754772334100480
And in Iowa on Thursday, the group sent a tracker to gather footage at an event for Mr. Rubio. The tracker was asked to leave, according to Politico, which reported the move.
A spokesman for Right to Rise, Paul Lindsay, said the group was “collecting routine, issue-based research on all the candidates in the race.”
“Iowa and central Ohio are also wonderful places to visit this time of year,” he added, calling the breakfast at a Fairfield Inn in Westerville “fantastic.”
Mr. Bush himself has begun tweaking Mr. Rubio with greater frequency in recent days, taking particular aim at his relative lack of experience. The needling comes as Mr. Rubio’s standing in polls has risen recently.
“Marco was a member of the House of Representatives when I was governor, and he followed my lead,” Mr. Bush told MSNBC on Thursday.
He was asked if Mr. Rubio had the leadership skills to be president. “It’s not known,” he said. “Barack Obama didn’t end up having them and he won an election on the belief that he could.”
Mr. Bush has also drawn attention to his plan to dock the pay of lawmakers who miss votes — which has been interpreted as a jab at Mr. Rubio, who has done so frequently.
Speaking to reporters after a town hall-style event in Bedford, N.H., on Wednesday night, Mr. Bush was asked if Mr. Rubio’s voting record was a problem.
“I think if you had a dock-in-pay strategy, you’d probably get more attendance,” he said generally, before an aide rushed him off.
Donald Trump, Trying to Show Staying Power, Hires State Aides
Donald J. Trump’s advisers have hired new aides in Virginia, Texas and Florida, three states beyond where the early votes are cast, as they try to demonstrate that the real estate mogul will remain in the race for the duration.
Karen Giorno will be the campaign’s state director in Florida, while Corbin Casteel will play that role in Texas. Mike Rubino will be the state director in Virginia.
“We are in this to win it,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “These staff additions are the continuation of our plan to have a strategic and significant presence across the country.”
Ms. Giorno previously worked for Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, according to Mr. Trump’s aides. Mr. Casteel was also described as having “vast experience” in corporation communications and political strategy, and worked with the Republican National Committee. Mr. Rubino was said to have worked with Representative David Brat, a Republican from Virginia who defeated Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, in a June 2014 primary upset.
Mr. Trump has recently bristled at suggestions that he may not stay in the race until the Iowa caucuses begin in early February.
Texas and Virginia will hold their primaries on March 1, which is also known as Super Tuesday, when many states will vote. Florida will hold its primary on March 15.
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