DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 race for president on the final weekend of campaigning before Monday’s leadoff Iowa caucuses (all times local):
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12:30
Even at church, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz can’t escape politics.
The Texas senator attended services Sunday morning at Lutheran Church of Hope outside Des Moines. The sermon by pastor Mike Housholder called on politicians to treat their opponents with love, not attack ads.
Housholder preached that speaking the truth with love is a better way to treat others. He says if you can’t do that, don’t speak.
Cruz attended the service with his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley was also there but did not sit by Cruz.
Housholder said after the service he wrote the sermon before he found out the Texas senator would attend and did not tailor it to him.
Cruz greeted parishioners, shook hands and took pictures before departing for his first campaign stop of the day in Iowa City.
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12:20 p.m.
Even the candidate who says he’s the best, the smartest and the highest-energy in the Republican field is leaving nothing to chance a day out from the Iowa caucuses.
Attendees at Donald Trump’s event in Dubuque Saturday night awakened to an email from his Iowa political director, Chuck Laudner, personally thanking them for coming.
And urging them to caucus.
“It is extremely important that you get out there and VOTE for Mr. Trump,” Laudner wrote. Not sure where? Laudner includes a special tool “to make this process as easy, and fun, as possible” — the “Republican Iowa Caucus Finder.”
Click the link and enter a home address and the finder will “tell you the correct place to show up on caucus night so that you can help elect Donald Trump!”
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9:59 a.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says the hubbub over whether she had secret emails on her server is “very much like Benghazi,” a politically motivated scandal that’s likely not as serious as Republicans suggest.
Clinton told ABC’s “This Week” that “it’s pretty clear” that Republicans are “grasping at straws” in their response to the latest release of emails from Clinton’s private home server. The State Department announced it’s withholding some of those emails because the information they contain is too highly classified. The former secretary of state says she’s been told some of that email correspondence included a public newspaper article. Clinton insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. She repeated her call for the emails’ release.
As secretary of state, Clinton presided over a key piece of the government’s response to the deadly 2012 assaults on a diplomatic compound and CIA quarters in Benghazi, Libya. The attacks killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and quickly became a political rallying cry for Republicans.
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9:40 a.m.
Republican presidential contender Donald Trump says “many” senators will endorse his candidacy, “very soon.”
Trump tells on ABC’s “This Week” that members of the Senate will choose him over their own colleague, Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also Trump’s top rival in Iowa. Trump did not offer any senators’ names.
Trump says Cruz is “a nasty guy” and a “liar,” particularly about whether Trump essentially supports President Barack Obama’s signature national health care program. Trump says he would replace that law and make other deals that would accomplish his public policy goals.
Cruz says the nation doesn’t need a deal-maker, it needs a “fighter” for conservative causes.
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9:30 a.m.
Bernie Sanders says he’s ready to turn the political world upside down in Iowa.
The Democratic presidential candidate says that if his supporters turn out in large numbers for Monday night’s caucuses, “I think you’re going to look at one of the biggest political upsets in the modern history of our country.”
The Vermont senator is in a tight race with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Sanders tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that his campaign has gotten lots of people involved in politics who hadn’t been before. He mentions the working class as well as young people who no longer “want to sit back” but want to help direct their country’s future.
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8:45 a.m.
Donald Trump isn’t shy about boasting, but the Republican presidential front-runner says he also has a humble side.
Here’s what he tells CBS’ ” Face the Nation” in an interview: “We’re all the same. I mean, we’re all going to the same place, probably one of two places, you know? But we’re all the same. And I do have, actually, much more humility than a lot of people would think.”
Asked about hiding that side, the billionaire businessman says, “I’d rather not play my cards. I want to be unpredictable.”
One thing he’s not lacking is confidence. In the interview, he said “none of the other guys will win.”
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