During a speech this morning at the Vatican, Senator Bernie Sanders advocated for an end to income inequality in America, condemned Wall Street for contributing to that inequality, and called for “a truly moral economy.”
It was, in other words, the same stump speech from a different stump. That is, if you can call the walled palatial grounds of Vatican City a stump.
Sanders was the only presidential candidate invited to a conference at the Vatican today, which was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. According to The New York Times, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, the academy’s chancellor, said Sanders was invited because he is “the candidate who cites the pope the most in his campaign.”
The conference marks the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus encyclical, which called for social and economic justice at the end of the Cold War. In that encyclical, the Pope spoke out against the “illicit exploitation, speculation, or the breaking of solidarity among working people” in pursuit of profit. That made the conference fertile ground for Sanders to discuss his core campaign issues, including income inequality and corporate greed.
But while Sanders is often challenged to explain the mechanics of his plans to decrease income inequality in the United States, the speech at the Vatican was a rare chance to lay out a purely moral argument for doing so.
“The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great economic issue of our time, the great political issue of our time, and the great moral issue of our time,” he said. “It is an issue that we must confront in my nation and across the world.”
Though Pope Francis wasn’t in attendance at the conference, Sanders invoked the Pope’s speeches and writings, showcasing the similarities between himself and Pope Francis.
“As Pope Francis has stated: ‘Man is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules,’” Sanders said. “And the Pope has also stated: ‘We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.’”
Over the last few weeks, as he’s campaigned in New York City, Sanders has made much the same argument about companies like Verizon and GE, which he says are putting profits before people by offshoring jobs at the expense of American workers.
Though Sanders is often quick to mention Hillary Clinton’s ties to Wall Street whenever the subject of the financial system comes up, at the Vatican, he curtailed such blatantly political rhetoric. Still, Clinton’s criticisms about what she perceives to be the impracticality of some of Sanders’ proposals were there in the Vatican speech, however subtly.
“I am told time and time again by the rich and powerful, and the mainstream media that represent them, that we should be ‘practical,’ that we should accept the status quo,” Sanders said. “Yet Pope Francis himself is surely the world’s greatest demonstration against such a surrender to despair and cynicism. He has opened the eyes of the world once again to the claims of mercy, justice and the possibilities of a better world.”
You can find Sanders’ full remarks here.
During the 2000 race between Al Gore and George W. Bush, the question of the day was: who would you rather have a beer with? In 2016 primary season, it’s: who would you rather rent your home to on Airbnb?
And the answer, according to a new survey of 2,000 people by Airbnb and Harris Poll is Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Twenty-four percent of respondents would prefer to have Clinton in their home. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders tied for second place with 20 percent of the votes. The least popular choices were Ted Cruz and John Kasich, who each got 8 percent of the vote. Ouch.
According to Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy, the home-sharing company conducted this survey because it believes it’s a kind of short-hand for assessing a candidate’s likability.
“That type of response sort of goes to some of those deeper issues about who people want to have in their living rooms in the next four to eight years,” he said on a press call this morning. “The vote for the president is a very personal vote.”
Plus, it’s just a fun thought experiment.
While more people expect Clinton to be a better guest (c’mon, you know she’d leave your place spotless), if the tables were turned and they were looking to be guests in a candidate’s home, more would want to rent out Trump’s digs. On that question, Trump got 30 percent of the vote. And can you blame them? He’s a real-estate mogul known for his lavish dwellings. The guy is worth—well, we don’t know how much exactly, but it’s a lot.
Interestingly enough, liberals were more likely to say Trump would be a better host. But conservatives were more interested in raiding Clinton’s fridge. The one thing both ideologies agreed on, though, was that Clinton would probably have the best food. (Let’s hear it for the long grasp of gender stereotypes!)
The poll asked more serious questions, too, like whether people thought having a candidate in their homes would help candidates better relate to the middle class; 72 percent said it would.
It may sound like a crazy idea, but Lehane says it’s not actually unheard of. When Lehane was Vice President Al Gore’s press secretary, he said, Gore used to travel the country, staying in people’s homes and, sometimes, even accompanying them to work.
“What this poll shows is there would be tremendous value for the voter and for the candidate to spend some time with each other,” Lehane said.
It’s hard to account for the fact that Trump scores so highly in this poll, despite having an unfavorable rating of nearly 65 percent.
It’s just as hard to understand how Clinton, who has a persistent likability problem, ended up on top. All we can say is these results are far from scientific. Plus, there’s the fact that Lehane used to work in the Clinton White House, so take it all with a grain of salt.
Cruz and Kasich’s weak showing, on the other hand, isn’t all that surprising. Their scores roughly mirror their campaigns.
Besides, a bed made out of hundreds of cans of Chunky soup doesn’t sound very comfortable.
1Correction 3:38 PM EST 4/14/16: This story has been updated to reflect that the poll was conducted with 2,000 Americans, not just Airbnb members.
Back in 2011, Bernie Sanders told the Senate that Panama was “a world leader when it comes to allowing large corporations and wealthy Americans to evade US taxes.”
This week, those words are sounding eerily prophetic, and the Sanders campaign, for one, would like to remind you of that fact.
As the world reels from the so-called Panama Papers leak, which exposed the offshore tax havens of world leaders from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Icelandic Prime Minister Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Sanders is calling attention to his opposition to the 2011 Panama Trade Agreement.
“I was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one,” Sanders said in a statement today. “I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared.”
As president, Sanders says he would terminate the agreement within his first six months in office and “conduct an immediate investigation into US banks, corporations, and wealthy individuals who have been stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.”
So far, news on Americans implicated in the Panama Papers scandal has been scarce, though early reports show that 211 names included in the leak correspond to US addresses. Still, given just how much data was leaked—a whopping 2.6 terabytes—it will likely be a while until the journalists involved in the investigation can sort through it all.
Bad Deals
The Panama Papers scandal fits nicely into the story Sanders has already been telling on trade. In an interview with the New York Daily News‘ editorial board this week, the Vermont senator promised to renegotiate “all of the trade agreements that we have.”
But when pressed for specifics, Sanders repeatedly struggled, prompting the News to press him on answers and even compare him to Donald Trump, who’s fond of saying he’ll get rid of the “bad deals” the US has struck and replace them with good ones.
The Panama scandal gives Sanders a specific trade talking point all wrapped up in a giant, international-headline-grabbing bow. It also gives Sanders a chance to take a shot at his opponent, Hillary Clinton, for opposing the agreement during the 2008 election, then pushing it forward as Secretary of State. At the time, Clinton said the agreement would “create jobs here at home” by making it easier for businesses to sell abroad.
Now, the Sanders campaign is capitalizing on that transition. “When it really mattered she quickly reversed course and helped push the Panama Free Trade Agreement through Congress as Secretary of State,” Sanders writes. “The results have been a disaster.”
This election cycle is chock full of confusion. Why, for instance, were there a bunch of steaks on display during a Donald Trump press conference? How, exactly, did that whole Ted Cruz is the zodiac killer meme get started? Where did Jim Gilmore suddenly come from, and also, where the hell did Jim Gilmore go?
Perhaps the most mind-boggling part of the 2016 election is the possibility of a so-called contested convention in the Republican party, which would prevent Trump from clinching the nomination, even though he has, so far, amassed the most delegates of any candidate. But what is a contested convention and how does it work, you might ask?
The GOP has got you covered. Today, the party launched a new explainer website called Convention Facts in an effort to demystify the arcane process. It includes definitions of everything from what a delegate is and how delegates are chosen to who writes the rules of the convention to how a contested convention works.
Lesson 1: Don’t call it a contested convention. The GOP apparently prefers the term “open convention.” It’s less, well, contentious that way. As the site makes clear, an open convention occurs when no single candidate can secure 1,237 delegate votes by the convention. At that point, the delegates, who were initially bound to the candidate their district supported in the primaries, become unbound and can vote for whoever they want. Whoever gets to 1,237 delegates by the end of the week-long convention wins the nomination.
The website makes it all seem simple enough. And, technically, it is. But the very need for this type of site reflects what a total mess the Republican party has found itself in at a late stage in the nominating process. Typically, the nomination is sewn up well before the convention, making the actual event a prolonged celebration of the party’s newly anointed one. There hasn’t been a contested GOP convention since 1976. This year, all the byzantine rules (which, by the way, are subject to change every four years) might actually matter.
The simplicity of the website also belies all the backroom dealmaking and negotiating that the Cruz and John Kasich campaigns will have to do before the convention if they want to convince unbound Trump delegates to join their teams. For Trump’s campaign, of course, it’s just the opposite.
Still, the site is a handy way to wrap your head around a system that will only get more complicated in the coming months.
Screenshot from the security footage released by the Jupiter Police Department. Trump (lower right-hand corner), Fields (directly behind and to the left of Trump), Lewandowski (facing Fields). Jupiter Police Department
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged today with misdemeanor battery after allegedly grabbing former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields following a Trump event in Jupiter, Florida, in early March.1
Since the incident, the Trump campaign and Lewandowski himself have been involved in a he-said-she-said battle with Fields, as well as Washington Post reporter Ben Teriss, who says he witnessed Lewandowski grabbing Fields. But according to the Jupiter Police Department’s arrest report, what clinched the charges against Lewandowski was this surveillance video:
According to the police report, the video “parallels” Fields’ story and clearly shows Lewandowski grabbing “Fields’ left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back.” For the police, it was enough to bring charges against Lewandowski.
But the Internet—at least, the pro-Trump corner of the Internet—isn’t buying it. Of course, for anyone who’s been following Trump’s campaign, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. As we’ve written in the past, when it comes to the Republican frontrunner, no amount of fact-checking or evidence-finding ever seems to convince his followers to get off the Trump train.
Instead, the Internet gives people an outlet to become super sleuths, crafting their own theories and banding together with other believers who will validate those ideas and troll the common enemy. It’s become an all too predictable roadmap for how people respond to controversy online. Often, trying to disprove those ideas with fact—or in this case, video—becomes nothing more than an exercise in futility.
Already, the YouTube comments section on the surveillance video is filling up with comments like “Oh its nothing. Moving on. Trump 2016,” “That’s it?” and “HE DID NOTHING, FREE COREY.”
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Trump supporters are similarly unconvinced.
THE ESTABLISHMENT’S CONSPIRACY TO TAKE DOWN #TRUMP JUST WENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL. THEY’LL DO ANYTHING TO STOP TRUMP!! #CoreyLewandowski
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) March 29, 2016
@MichelleFields was TOO aggressive and deserved the #SecretSlap, should have backed the ____ off!! @CLewandowski_ was doing his job! #Trump
— JLC (@cyvault) March 29, 2016
Just me or is Michelle Fields physically contacting Mr Trump here or standing so close as to threaten him? pic.twitter.com/wPziIVFRP9
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 29, 2016
The hashtag #IStandWithCorey even started to surface:
This does nothing but prove their desperation!
#IStandWithCorey
— Dirty Harry (@DOW_12000) March 29, 2016
We’re with you, @CLewandowski_ ! #IStandWithCorey #FauxFields https://t.co/lAGnq6LEWS
— Shannon Crane (@TheKrankyGirl) March 29, 2016
The Trump campaign, for its part, has released a statement: “Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge. He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court.”
We have little doubt as to who Trump supporters are more likely to believe.
1. Correction: 4:45 PM ET 3/29/2016 An earlier version of this story said Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor assault. He was charged with misdemeanor battery.
With the exception of Apple and its encryption battle with the FBI, the tech industry has gotten very little airtime this election cycle. As candidates emphasize issues like national security, immigration, and finance reform, it can be tough to suss out where they stand on the issues that impact tech companies, their workers, and ultimately the rest of us.
Which is why Tusk Ventures, a political strategy firm, and Engine, a tech policy organization, developed a report card for the candidates based on their support for several key issues the tech industry cares about: strong encryption, patent reform, STEM education, high-skilled immigration reform, the gig economy, net neutrality, and broadband access.
Unfortunately for techies heading to the polls, nobody received straight A’s. But Hillary Clinton, the candidate with the most VIP support in Silicon Valley, did score the highest. With her B+ average, she just edged out her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, who received a B. While both Democratic candidates got A’s for their ambitious plans to expand broadband access in the US, Sanders got a D+ in the immigration reform category, because he’s been critical of H-1B visas for high-skilled workers in the past.
On the Republican side, John Kasich and Marco Rubio tied with a C+ each, despite the fact that Rubio, who has advocated for H-1B visas in the past, received an A for his work on immigration reform. But his opposition to net neutrality and his support for government surveillance brought his grade down substantially.
Ted Cruz’s strict stance on limiting immigration, his votes against patent reform, and his reference to net neutrality as “Obamacare for the Internet” earned him a D.
As for Donald Trump’s grade? We’ll give you one guess. “When he has talked about tech issues,” the report says, “he has done so in the only way he knows how: brashly and inaccurately.”
Check out the complete report card here.
More than 60 tech leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, have told the US Supreme Court they support President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration.
The group, which also includes PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and venture capitalist Ron Conway, co-signed a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, roughly a month before the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in United States v. Texas. The case will decide the fate of two so-called “deferred action” programs the President proposed in late November 2014, which would prevent undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from being deported, as well as adults whose children are lawful residents of the United States.
“Instead of inviting the economic contributions of immigrants, our immigration enforcement policies have often inhibited the productivity of US companies and made it harder for them to compete in the global marketplace,” the brief reads. “America’s immigration enforcement policies should ensure that immigrants’ ingenuity, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit are contributing to the US economy—and deferred action policies are a helpful start.”
The two programs at issue—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, or DAPA—have been opposed by several states. Last February, one federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction against the President’s orders. The Supreme Court case is the US Justice Department’s attempt to appeal this injunction and allow the programs proceed.
The Economic Impact
Now, the tech industry, ever-eager to hire overseas talent, is throwing its weight behind immigration legislation. Zuckerberg’s group, FWD.us, is leading this effort, and was the convening power behind the amicus brief. In a statement, FWD.us president Todd Schulte said, “Entrepreneurs and business leaders across the country support the President’s executive actions, because they know that these critical policy changes will boost our economy and create American jobs.”
For the tech industry, being a vocal player in the comprehensive immigration reform movement is critical. While the industry is most interested in expanding the number of H-1B visas for high skilled workers, leaders like Zuckerberg know there is power in numbers, and the numbers exist in the broader immigration movement.
Which is why FWD.us has committed to spend as much as $10 million on immigration reform ad campaigns during the 2016 election cycle, an investment largely driven by the vitriolic language about immigration that has defined this election season. While candidates, Donald Trump in particular, have argued that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are a drain on the US economy, Zuckerberg and his crew are arguing just the opposite.
“Indeed, the United States has long benefited from the entrepreneurship and innovation of immigrants— including undocumented immigrants,” the brief reads. “By contrast, the continuing threat of removal and other uncertainties facing undocumented individuals weaken our economy.”
Campaigning in the age of social media means that sometimes you’ll be two days away from the South Carolina presidential primary—a race you’re expected to win handily—and suddenly a hashtag will start trending on Twitter that calls into question every inconsistency of your decades-long career in politics.
That was the case for Hillary Clinton Thursday morning when the hashtag #WhichHillary started trending, eliciting more than 88,000 tweets by 1 pm ET. The hashtag, which has been used intermittently on social media to point out times that Clinton has supposedly flip-flopped on issues, gained steam after an altercation between Clinton and Black Lives Matter activist Ashley Williams at a private fundraiser in South Carolina Wednesday.
Williams stood beside Clinton, holding a sign that included the hashtag and a quote: “We have to bring them to heel.” The quote refers to a speech Clinton gave as First Lady in 1994, in which she referred to gang members as “super-predators.”
“I’m not a super-predator, Hillary Clinton,” Williams said, before being escorted out of the event. Video of the moment (posted below) soon went viral, as did the hashtag itself.
Now it’s being used to challenge everything from Clinton’s relationship with Wall Street to her record on gay marriage to her record on mass incarceration. But the hashtag isn’t just being fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s also getting a boost from Bernie Sanders’ army of Twitter supporters.
The hashtag reflects a new reality for political campaigns. Even if Sanders has vowed not to go negative, his followers online haven’t taken the same oath. Social media gives them the microphone to do it. For Clinton, the timing couldn’t be worse, as both she and Sanders have been working to court black voters in the lead up to the South Carolina primary.
Still, with some polls showing that Clinton is leading Sanders in South Carolina 60 to 32 percent, it’s unlikely even the strongest Twitter army could thwart this win.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has built a cult following among young libertarians and privacy advocates throughout the 2016 election season, but it wasn’t enough to secure a victory in Iowa—not even close.
Now, after winning just 4.5 percent of the vote in the Iowa Caucus this week, Senator Paul has announced he’s withdrawing from the race in an emotional video released on Twitter expressing thanks to his supporters.
https://t.co/MJwrdFsrDC
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 3, 2016
Paul’s departure from the race is just the latest sign that the great winnowing we’ve all been waiting for has begun. He’s the third candidate to withdraw from the crowded field of candidates this week alone, following former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the Republican side and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on the Democratic side.
Paul is not, however, the next candidate we would have expected to drop out. After being bumped to the undercard debate in mid-January, Paul hosted a Twitter Q&A instead, making him one of the most talked about candidates of the night. That surge in attention landed Paul back on the main debate stage in Iowa last week. And while Paul eked out only a small percentage of votes in Iowa, he still finished head of candidates like Jeb Bush and John Kasich, two candidates who are still being closely watched as we head into the New Hampshire primaries next week, despite also having low polls numbers. A recent CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire voters showed support for Kasich at 9 percent and Bush at 6 percent.
Back in 2012, Paul’s father Ron Paul finished second in New Hampshire, garnering nearly 23 percent of the vote. And yet, that CNN/WMUR poll pegged the younger Paul’s chances in New Hampshire at just 3 percent of the vote, which, along with serious funding issues, seems to have inspired his withdrawal.
Paul’s departure from the race also means that Internet privacy advocates have lost their most outspoken advocate in the race. Paul was undoubtedly the most vocal critic of the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program. At times, he went so far as to praise NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for exposing the program, even as his fellow candidates called Snowden a traitor.
He was also, we’re not afraid to say, our favorite candidate to follow on Twitter, always good for a snarky aside. Here’s hoping dropping out of the race doesn’t mean dropping out of the social media game.
Donald Trump is boycotting the Fox News Republican debate this Thursday, but according to a new prediction from Bing, it likely won’t hurt his chances in the first upcoming February caucuses and primaries.
According to Bing’s forecast, Trump will be the winner in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, while Hillary Clinton will walk away with victorious from all of the first four races, except for New Hampshire. Bing predicts that race will go to Bernie Sanders.
Bing’s prediction, of course, is similar to what we’re seeing in other polls across the country, but it offers, perhaps, a more complete look at the race, because it synthesizes data from prediction markets, polls, and its own search data to generate a result. It used this model to accurately predict 34 out of 35 Senate races, 419 of 435 House races, and 33 of 36 gubernatorial races back in 2014. Bing Predicts has also correctly predicted the winners of everything from American Idol to last year’s Super Bowl.
These predictions are just one of many ways Microsoft is inserting itself into the political process this year. The company has also launched the so-called Bing Elections Experience, which appears at the top of Bing searches on the election. It shows you how conservative or liberal candidates are compared to each other and to the US population as a whole, allowing you to dig into where candidates stand on certain issues.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also partnered with both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee to build an app for the Iowa Caucus. On Caucus night, Iowans around the state can use the app to report the results in their precincts back to the party leaders in Des Moines.
Bing’s predictions are, of course, subject to change as the election season continues, and it’ll be interesting to see whether sitting this debate out will boost or shrink Trump’s lead going forward. For what it’s worth, when Rand Paul protested the last undercard debate, opting for a Twitter Q&A instead, social media interest in the long-shot candidate spiked (not that Trump ever needs help ginning up interest on social media).
For now, according to Bing, the real estate mogul seems to have support to spare. With the exception of Iowa, where he leads Ted Cruz by just 9.3 percent, Trump has at least a 19-percent lead over his fellow candidates in every other state holding a vote this month.
The 2016 Democratic presidential candidates at the Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 17, 2016. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Toward the end of this weekend’s Democratic debate, NBC moderator Lester Holt asked all three candidates if there was anything they wanted to say that they hadn’t had a chance to yet. Martin O’Malley used his time to talk about immigration reform and Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. Bernie Sanders decried the “corrupt campaign finance system.”
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, focused on an issue that is far more local in scope, but no less important: the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan that began in April, 2014. Now, Flint Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver, who was elected in November of last year, is repaying Clinton for shining the national spotlight on Flint with a full-throated endorsement of the former Secretary of State.
“We want a friend like Hillary in the White House,” Weaver said on a press call today organized by the Clinton campaign. “We need a fighter. We need someone fighting for the city of Flint.”
Asked whether that means she’s endorsing Clinton, Weaver said, “Yeah it does sound like it, doesn’t it?” Then, she repeated the phrase, “I want Hillary. I want Hillary.”
Weaver says she spoke personally with Clinton about how to fix the problem in Flint, where high levels of lead in the city’s public water system have left its nearly 100,000 residents at risk of serious health issues and neurological damage. During the debate, both Clinton and Sanders called for the resignation of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, who they say knew about the problem long before he acted on it. But Weaver says Clinton is the only candidate, Democratic or Republican, who has personally reached out to her to talk about Flint’s needs.
During Sunday’s debate, Clinton claimed some of the credit for Governor Snyder’s decision to ask President Obama to declare a state of emergency in Flint and $96 million in federal aid.
“I issued a statement about what we needed to do, and then I went on a TV show, and I said it was outrageous that the governor hadn’t acted, and within two hours he had,” Clinton said. “I want to be a president who takes care of the big problems, and the problems that are affecting the people of our country everyday.”
On Monday, Clinton reiterated her support for Flint, a predominantly black town where nearly 42 percent of citizens are living in poverty. “It’s a civil rights issue,” Clinton said, during a Martin Luther King Day rally in Columbia, South Carolina. “We would be outraged if this happened to white kids, and we should be outraged that it’s happening right now to black kids.”
Gov. Snyder, for his part, has criticized Clinton for politicizing the crisis. “Politicizing the issue doesn’t help matters,” he told The Detroit News. And yet, on today’s call, Mayor Weaver said that getting Flint on the national stage the way Clinton did on Sunday night has helped capture public attention. “People just started calling and texting and saying how thankful they were to her for bringing this up,” she said.
It may also give Clinton an advantage over Sanders, who has struggled to woo black voters. By framing this as a civil rights issue and securing an endorsement from Flint’s mayor, Clinton stands to solidify her support among a critically important base of Democratic voters.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is throwing major shade at the Fox Business Network for cutting him from the mainstage Republican debate tonight.
Not only did the Senator refuse to participate in the earlier “kids table” debate, where he would have faced off against Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum, but he’s also urging people to turn off their TVs and instead, join him for a Twitter Q&A during the frontrunner debate at 9 pm ET tonight. Because, you know, Twitter Q&As always go so, so well.
I’ll be live at @Twitter HQ for the #GOPdebate doing a Town Hall and Q&A! Send me your questions using #RandRally pic.twitter.com/4wGiyPL1xK
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 14, 2016
It’s an unprecedented move for any of the presidential candidates so far this season. Other undercard debaters like Governor Bobby Jindal, Senator Lindsey Graham, and former Governor George Pataki either showed up on debate night or dropped out of the race altogether. Paul, on the other hand, is turning this loss into a statement on what he believes is the Republican party’s desire to exclude him for his often contrarian views. “I refuse to be banned, and I refuse to be silenced,” Paul said in a Twitter video. “Instead, I’ll take my message directly to the people.”
My message before the debate. Join me tonight for my Twitter Town Hall! #GOPDebate
https://t.co/B9PQnm8Y7k
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 15, 2016
In a way, the move may have been a smart one. Earlier this evening, Paul was trending on Facebook, which is likely more exposure than he ever would have gotten from appearing at the early debate. And because Twitter has become the modern day spin room for debates this election season, there’s a good chance Paul could still capture some of the debate audience on the much-touted “second screen.”
Update: 01/15/16 10:34 am EST
It looks like Paul’s protest worked out for him after all. According to Twitter, over the course of the debate, Paul had the second highest follower growth of any of the presidential candidates, Republican or Democrat. Donald Trump, as usual, was No. 1. What’s more, on Yik Yak, the anonymous app that’s a hit with millennials, Paul walked away from the night with an 84.9 percent approval rating—the highest of any Republican candidate.
And of course, we mustn’t forget the chants of “We want Rand” that broke out in the middle of the debate.
We pointed out the success of his strategy on Twitter last night, and the Senator had this to say (Heads up, the video gets cut off at the end. If you’re reading, Senator Paul, we’d love to hear the rest).
.@WIRED #randrally pic.twitter.com/1OGiQXAtOb
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 15, 2016
What it’s like to be the Candidate #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
If you’ve ever wondered what it must be like to see the world through Donald Trump’s eyes, here’s your chance.
Google, which is partnering with the Republican National Committee for tonight’s Republican Debate, provided WIRED with a nifty little tool that lets you to take a 360-degree sneak peek of the debate hall from the perspective of Trump’s podium (just click on the image above to look around).
While you can’t see it in the video, Google is also giving the media’s filing center and spin room at this and other future Republican debates a major upgrade, complete with virtual reality demos, 360-degree cameras, and overhead screens broadcasting Google data on the top trending searches for candidates and issues broken down by geography and demographics.
Oh, and there’s food from local restaurants and a barista serving pour-over coffee. (When Twitter hosted the debate in Des Moines in November, I subsisted on Goldfish and lukewarm tea—just sayin’.) Journalists, suffice it to say, are not disappointed:
The winner of this #GOPDebate is already the media filing center, well done Google, well done pic.twitter.com/tsUtIKkvTw
— Jordan J Frasier (@jordanjfrasier) January 14, 2016
Supporters of President Jed Bartlet’s administration deserve to feel a little frustrated today. Yes, we’re well aware that Bartlet was not a real president and is, in fact, the fictional star of The West Wing, portrayed by the inimitable Martin Sheen. Still, we’ll grant his fans a moment to vent, because today, the Obama administration co-opted one of the most clever initiatives of the Bartlet administration and turned into an object lesson in Twitter at its dullest.
You feta join in! Ask me your ?s about climate & environment at #BigBlockOfCheeseDay today 2p ET. https://t.co/UHmrPrFLjK
— Gina McCarthy (@GinaEPA) January 13, 2016
This is the third year in a row that the Obama administration has hosted its so-called Big Block of Cheese Day. The idea comes from an episode of The West Wing in which President Bartlet requires White House staffers to hold face-to-face meetings with concerned citizens. The name Big Block of Cheese Day is a nod to President Andrew Jackson, who once welcomed the public to the White House to share a two-ton block of cheese.
The theme of the episode is what can happen when elected officials actually sit down and listen to the people they represent. “I assure you that listening to the voices of passion in Americans is beneath no one, and surely not the people’s servants,” White House chief of staff Leo McGarry says in one scene.
So the fact that the Obama administration wanted to adopt this practice is admirable. It’s the execution that’s all wrong. Instead of inviting people into the White House, the bulk of Big Block of Cheese Day is conducted online through platforms like Twitter. People can submit a question using the #BigBlockofCheeseDay hashtag, and people like First Lady Michelle Obama, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Joe Biden, and others answer via tweet, or in some cases, Periscope live-streams.
The problem with that setup is that most of the interactions during Big Block of Cheese Day end up completely flat. For instance, asked why there are such “drastically different” opinions on climate change, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy offered this answer:
There aren’t. 99% of scientists agree climate change is happening. #BigBlockOfCheeseDay https://t.co/GCQKfU7JoM
— Gina McCarthy (@GinaEPA) January 13, 2016
That may be true, but it doesn’t get the person who asked the question any closer to understanding why climate change has become such a politically loaded issue in recent years. Other times, questions elicited little more than an uninspired talking point plus a link to a website laying out the administration’s policy, like when one Twitter user asked Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz how his staff planned to help poor countries get clean energy. His answer:
With innovative technology and #CleanEnergy advice, such as through: https://t.co/Nv8lTvKmO4 #BigBlockOfCheeseDay https://t.co/2XoFnX6nBl — Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) January 13, 2016
This might appeal to a handful of policy wonks who probably already have that page bookmarked. But on Twitter, a medium that thrives on spontaneity and informality, its only value is as a sleep aid. Few if any users are going to come away more enlightened. A few other gems from Moniz, for those of you looking to take a nap:
On whether the US needs more energy innovation or a focus on existing technologies:
Both, because our climate goals must get more ambitious over time. #BigBlockOfCheeseDay https://t.co/xe7iHnA0pP
— Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) January 13, 2016
On the possibility of limiting automobiles to benefit the environment:
Widespread #EVs can help urban redesign for a cleaner environment. #BigBlockOfCheeseDay https://t.co/JfHIKvRDYg
— Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) January 13, 2016
On what stood out to him during the State of the Union address on Tuesday:
.@ChadEllwood @WhiteHouse @GinaEPA The innovation focus.
— Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) January 13, 2016
Twitter and other tech platforms can connect us in ways that were unimaginable 17 years ago when the episode first aired, and it’s important for government to try new ways to reach the public with its message. And yes, we’re aware that Jed Bartlet’s White House was a Democratic utopia born of an Aaron Sorkin fever dream.
But the fact is, the conversations that were meant to result from an experiment like Big Block of Cheese Day take more than 140 characters. If the next administration wants to do it right in 2017, it’s important to realize that revolutionary as it may be, there are limits to the technology that connects us. If they don’t realize that, then this experiment in government transparency may never be any more transparent than a standard stump speech or press release.
And it’ll certainly never help any of us understand the social equality implications of inaccurate cartography (watch and learn):
An supporter listens to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders as he speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 15, 2015. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders may be the oldest candidate running for president, but his team is well aware that it’s young people who are the most enthusiastic about the 74-year-old’s campaign. Which is why, today, the Sanders camp is launching a new website aimed at getting high schoolers in Iowa to show up on February 1 to caucus for Bernie.
The new site, called Prove Them Wrong, urges young Iowans to sign a pledge to caucus for Sanders. They can also sign up to earn points for volunteering, sharing on Facebook and Twitter, and starting groups at school—earn enough points and get a t-shirt. Anyone who will be 18 by the general election in November is eligible to Caucus in February.
It’s a simple enough strategy, old-school really, but its focus on the youth vote is smart. The site’s name, Prove Them Wrong, is a nod to the fact that young voters have a reputation for being disconnected from and uninterested in the political process. That reputation is well-earned in Iowa, where in 2012, just 4 percent of Iowans under the age of 30 showed up to caucus, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.
“All these talking heads say things like, ‘Oh, they’re not going to turn out. They don’t care,’” says Rania Batrice, Sanders’ Iowa communications director.
And yet, history shows what can happen when young voters do turn out. Back in 2008, some 30,000 people under 30 turned out to caucus for an underdog candidate named Barack Obama, helping him secure a win in Iowa against the then-presumptive frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.
Eight years later, the Sanders campaign is hoping to mobilize the same generation against the same opponent, and early signs show that strategy may be working. Sanders amassed a massive national following of young, digital-savvy supporters on platforms like Reddit—and now, in Iowa, he’s steadily advancing. A new Quinnipiac University poll of likely Caucus-goers released today shows Sanders ahead of Clinton in Iowa for the first time.
This surge reflects the Sanders campaign’s apparent success in stirring up enthusiasm among Iowans who may not be steadfast caucus-goers. By shaking up the population of potential participants in this year’s caucus—which includes driving the youth vote—the Sanders campaign is also shaking up the odds.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders after a news conference on November 4, 2015 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is threatening to take the Democratic National Committee to court after the Committee suspended the campaign’s access to valuable voter data. The DNC accuses the campaign of exploiting a technical breach to obtain information collected by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The data breach was discovered Wednesday by the Democratic party’s voter data software vendor, NGP VAN. The glitch broke down the firewall between the Sanders campaign and Clinton operation. According to The Washington Post, at least four Sanders staffers took advantage, briefly viewing data the Clinton campaign had collected.
As a reprimand, the DNC has cut the Sanders campaign off from its voter list until it can prove that any data that was accessed inappropriately has been disposed of, and a thorough audit has been conducted by NGP VAN.
“We are working with our campaigns and the vendor to have full clarity on the extent of the breach, ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again, and to enable our campaigns to continue engaging voters on the issues that matter most to them and their families,” said DNC spokesperson Luis Miranda in a statement.
The Sanders campaign, however, is framing this as an “unprecedented” overreaction by the Democratic party and an effort to give Clinton’s campaign an unfair advantage. “By their action, the leadership of the Democratic National Committee is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign,” campaign manager Jeff Weaver told reporters outside the campaign’s Washington DC headquarters. “This is unacceptable. Individual leaders of the DNC can support Hillary Clinton in any way they want, but they are not going to sabotage our campaign – one of the strongest grassroots campaigns in modern history.”
Weaver said this was not the first time that such a breach has occurred. He said that two months ago, the Sanders campaign discovered another glitch that caused the firewall between campaigns to break down and notified the DNC about it. NGP VAN CEO Stu Trevelyan denies the company ever received word of that breach, however, and the DNC has not yet responded to WIRED’s request for comment on it.
The Sanders campaign has already fired its data chief Josh Uretsky, who was among those who looked at the data. In an interview with CNN, Uretsky said his team was “just trying to understand it and what was happening.”
“To the best of my knowledge,” he said, “nobody took anything that would have given the (Sanders) campaign any benefit.”
For now, however, the Sanders campaign is at a standstill, unable, Weaver says, to even generate phone numbers of potential donors and voters. Weaver stressed the fact that much of the data being withheld is data that the campaign’s own volunteers collected and that its own donors supplied. “It’s impossible to mobilize the kind of grassroots campaign we have without access to that data,” he said.
Weaver also said that “[I]f the DNC continues to hold our data hostage, and continues to try to attack the heart and soul of our campaign, we will be in federal court this afternoon seeking an immediate injunction.”
Such a move may sound drastic, but it reflects just how a huge a problem this could be for Sanders. The Iowa Caucus, the first electoral event of the campaign season, is less than two months away. The New Hampshire primary takes place shortly after that. One-to-one communication with voters in key districts is more crucial than ever, and these voter data files are the only way for campaigns and volunteers to know which voters to target.
While the breach is, no doubt, troublesome for the Sanders campaign, it’s equally scary for the party as a whole. NGP VAN is the lifeblood of Democratic campaigns. It has been building tools to manage the entire party’s data for nearly two decades, a consolidation of information that has become a major strategic advantage for Democrats. A technical glitch like this reveals the risks associated with entrusting all that sensitive data to just one vendor.
According to a blog post written by Trevelyan, shortly after the breach was fixed, the company audited its system and determined that only the Sanders campaign, and no other outside parties, could have possibly retained any of the exposed data. On Thursday, the DNC requested that NGP VAN suspend the Sanders campaign’s access to its records. “We will continue to work with and report to the DNC regarding this issue to ensure that this isolated incident does not recur,” Trevelyan wrote. “We have and will do better.”
That won’t, however, do much to help the Sanders campaign. At this point, it’s unclear how or when it will regain access to the data. The DNC is even considering contracting an independent security firm to conduct an audit, a move that could further delay the campaign’s access to the voter file. Meanwhile, Weaver says the campaign is carefully combing through staff emails, Google Docs, even emails that were deleted at the time of the glitch to find out who was implicated and ensure no records have been retained. While Weaver laid much of the blame on the party and on NGP VAN, he acknowledged that the staff was wrong to look at the information in the first place.
“In the heat of these campaigns,” he said, “sometimes young people make misjudgments.”
Anonymous has already declared cyberwar with ISIS leaders. Now, the hacktivist group is using its power to take down another radical: Donald Trump.
In a video posted online this week, Anonymous has committed to fighting back against Trump’s highly publicized proposal that all Muslim people be banned from traveling to the United States.
“This policy is going to have a huge impact. This is what ISIS wants,” the masked figure in the video says. “Donald Trump, think twice before you speak anything. You have been warned, Donald Trump.”
The group has already launched a campaign called #OpTrump, aimed at taking down the presidential candidate’s online footprint. According <a h