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Wake Up To Politics - March 16, 2016

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Wednesday, March 16, 2016
237 Days Until Election Day 2016 I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP and subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or like me on Twitter and Facebook. More ways to engage with WUTP at the bottom.    2016 Central

  • Results: Trump, Clinton Continue Marching to Nomination with Tuesday Wins After primaries in five states were heled Tuesday, almost all of the victories went to the two frontrunners: Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, allowing them to continue marching to their respective nominations, with Clinton’s eventual victory all but assured and Trump only able to be stopped at a brokered convention.
  • On the Republican side, Donald Trump won in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina, all by respectable margins, allowing him to continue amassing delegates much faster than his rivals. John Kasich, however, also took him a win: his home state of Ohio, where Kasich now blocks Trump from taking any delegates, a stride towards blocking him from clinching a majority. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, was shut out from victory Tuesday, although his second-place finishes in Illinois and North Carolina, and his statistical tie with Trump in Missouri (where a victor has not yet been called), guarantee him a share of the delegates.
  • Perhaps Trump’s biggest victory of the night was bringing the end of Marco Rubio’s presidential run: Rubio suspended his campaign Tuesday, after taking just 27% of the vote in Florida, his home state, to Trump’s 45.8%. Ending his presidential bid, Rubio delivered a broadside against Trump (without mentioning his rival by name), warning of the “politics of resentment” that he said will create a “fractured nation”. Despite once being seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, the 44-year-old is now on the verge of exiting the Senate, his future in politics unknown after an embarrassing run that scored just three primary victories (Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia).
  • “After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side,” Rubio said. He continued: “It is not God's plan that I be president in 2016, or maybe ever,” a nod to his uncertain future.
  • On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the winner in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio (and expected to win in Missouri as well), causing the momentum in her race against Bernie Sanders to swing back to the frontrunner. After an upset in Michigan last week, Sanders blanketed Tuesday’s primary states, campaigning heavily in Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio, and boosting ad spending in those states as well. Even with his post-Michigan momentum, and his arguments against free trade, the industrial Midwest still rebuked Sanders on Tuesday, making his path to the Democratic nomination increasingly bleak.
  • Clinton’s sweep, especially her big margins in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, allowed her to pick up a large amount of delegates Tuesday night. According to the delegates allocated so far by the Associated Press, Clinton gained 326 delegates Tuesday to Sanders’ 220, bringing the total to 1,094 delegates for Clinton (1,561 with superdelegates) to 774 for Sanders (800 with superdelegates).
  • Trump also expanded his delegate advantage, gaining 152 delegates on Tuesday night, bringing his total to 621 – more than halfway to the 1,237 needed. With winner-take-all Ohio under his belt, Kasich took home 75 new delegates (total of 138), while Cruz gained 26 delegates (total of 395).
  • In his victory speech, Trump celebrated his “amazing evening,” as he called it, urging unity in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz looked to pick up Rubio’s support by painting himself as the anti-Trump alternative. “Starting tomorrow morning, every Republican has a clear choice,” Cruz declared. “Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination: ours and Donald Trump’s. Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever.”
  • Kasich took it even further, signaling plans to stay in the race until the July convention. “We’re going to go all the way to Cleveland and secure the Republican nomination,” he said. “We’ve got one more trip around Ohio this coming fall and we will beat Hillary Clinton and I will become President of the United States.”
  • Like her Republican counterpart, the Democratic frontrunner also called for supporter of her rival to join the leading campaign. “If you’ve been waiting for the right moment, now’s the time to come join us,” Clinton said. Most of Clinton’s victory speech pivoted to the general election, opting to go after Donald Trump and not Bernie Sanders, saying: “Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it.” Clinton continued: “If we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together.”
  • Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, went straight after Clinton in his Tuesday address, referring to her as his opponent, but continuing to remind supporters why he opposes her. “She has a super PAC, which among other special interests, has received $15 million from Wall Street. She has received money from the drug companies and the fossil-fuel industry,” Sanders said. “She has given speeches on Wall Street for $225,000 a pop.
  • After Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have the only clear paths to each presidential nomination, as momentum and delegate math favors them both. This may well be a turning point in the primary race, when both frontrunners passed the point of no return: they may not be the favorite of their parties, but it now seems inevitable that support will begin flowing to them.
  • Results: Trump, Clinton Continue Marching to Nomination with Tuesday Wins After primaries in five states were heled Tuesday, almost all of the victories went to the two frontrunners: Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, allowing them to continue marching to their respective nominations, with Clinton’s eventual victory all but assured and Trump only able to be stopped at a brokered convention.
  • On the Republican side, Donald Trump won in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina, all by respectable margins, allowing him to continue amassing delegates much faster than his rivals. John Kasich, however, also took him a win: his home state of Ohio, where Kasich now blocks Trump from taking any delegates, a stride towards blocking him from clinching a majority. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, was shut out from victory Tuesday, although his second-place finishes in Illinois and North Carolina, and his statistical tie with Trump in Missouri (where a victor has not yet been called), guarantee him a share of the delegates.
  • Perhaps Trump’s biggest victory of the night was bringing the end of Marco Rubio’s presidential run: Rubio suspended his campaign Tuesday, after taking just 27% of the vote in Florida, his home state, to Trump’s 45.8%. Ending his presidential bid, Rubio delivered a broadside against Trump (without mentioning his rival by name), warning of the “politics of resentment” that he said will create a “fractured nation”. Despite once being seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, the 44-year-old is now on the verge of exiting the Senate, his future in politics unknown after an embarrassing run that scored just three primary victories (Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia).
  • “After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side,” Rubio said. He continued: “It is not God's plan that I be president in 2016, or maybe ever,” a nod to his uncertain future.
  • On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the winner in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio (and expected to win in Missouri as well), causing the momentum in her race against Bernie Sanders to swing back to the frontrunner. After an upset in Michigan last week, Sanders blanketed Tuesday’s primary states, campaigning heavily in Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio, and boosting ad spending in those states as well. Even with his post-Michigan momentum, and his arguments against free trade, the industrial Midwest still rebuked Sanders on Tuesday, making his path to the Democratic nomination increasingly bleak.
  • Clinton’s sweep, especially her big margins in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, allowed her to pick up a large amount of delegates Tuesday night. According to the delegates allocated so far by the Associated Press, Clinton gained 326 delegates Tuesday to Sanders’ 220, bringing the total to 1,094 delegates for Clinton (1,561 with superdelegates) to 774 for Sanders (800 with superdelegates).
  • Trump also expanded his delegate advantage, gaining 152 delegates on Tuesday night, bringing his total to 621 – more than halfway to the 1,237 needed. With winner-take-all Ohio under his belt, Kasich took home 75 new delegates (total of 138), while Cruz gained 26 delegates (total of 395).
  • In his victory speech, Trump celebrated his “amazing evening,” as he called it, urging unity in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz looked to pick up Rubio’s support by painting himself as the anti-Trump alternative. “Starting tomorrow morning, every Republican has a clear choice,” Cruz declared. “Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination: ours and Donald Trump’s. Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever.”
  • Kasich took it even further, signaling plans to stay in the race until the July convention. “We’re going to go all the way to Cleveland and secure the Republican nomination,” he said. “We’ve got one more trip around Ohio this coming fall and we will beat Hillary Clinton and I will become President of the United States.”
  • Like her Republican counterpart, the Democratic frontrunner also called for supporter of her rival to join the leading campaign. “If you’ve been waiting for the right moment, now’s the time to come join us,” Clinton said. Most of Clinton’s victory speech pivoted to the general election, opting to go after Donald Trump and not Bernie Sanders, saying: “Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it.” Clinton continued: “If we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together.”
  • Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, went straight after Clinton in his Tuesday address, referring to her as his opponent, but continuing to remind supporters why he opposes her. “She has a super PAC, which among other special interests, has received $15 million from Wall Street. She has received money from the drug companies and the fossil-fuel industry,” Sanders said. “She has given speeches on Wall Street for $225,000 a pop.
  • After Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have the only clear paths to each presidential nomination, as momentum and delegate math favors them both. This may well be a turning point in the primary race, when both frontrunners passed the point of no return: they may not be the favorite of their parties, but it now seems inevitable that support will begin flowing to them.

White House Watch

  • Obama to Announce Supreme Court Nominee President Barack Obama will announce his nominee to succeed the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at 11am Eastern Time today, setting up a fierce confirmation battle with Senate Republicans.
  • “Today, I will announce the person whom I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court,” Obama wrote in an email to the White House mailing list, which did not name the nominee, but revealed his plans to make the announcement today in the White House Rose Garden. “As President, it is both my constitutional duty to nominate a justice and one of the most important decisions that I -- or any president -- will make,” he continued.
  • In the email, Obama also said that he had “devoted a considerable amount of time and deliberation,” consulting with legal experts and senators from both parties.
  • And while he did not give any clues as to the identity of his nominee, Obama did explain his guidelines: the nominee “should possess an independent mind, unimpeachable credentials, and an unquestionable mastery of law… should recognize the limits of the judiciary’s role…[and have] a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook,” he wrote.
  • According to Reuters, Obama is likely to nominate either Sri Srinivasan or Merrick Garland, both judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Srinivasan, 49 years old and confirmed 97-0 to the D.C. Circuit, would bring more diversity to the court, as the first Asian-American and first Hindu justice. Garland, 63 years old and confirmed 76-23, is more moderate and may be easier confirmed due to his appeal across party lines.
  • Another potential pick is Paul Watford, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who would be the third African-American justice in Supreme Court history.
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For more on Wake Up To Politics, listen to Gabe on NPR's "Talk of the Nation, the Political Junkie podcast, and St. Louis Public Radio; watch Gabe on MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki, and read about Gabe in Politico, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Globe, and the St. Louis Jewish Light