2020 Democrats Denounce Death Penalty’s Return: Campaign Update
Ohio is a key swing state on the 2020 electoral map. Former President Barack Obama narrowly won here in 2012.
(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidates renewed their opposition to the death penalty after Attorney General William Barr announced the Trump administration would resume executions following a de facto 16-year hiatus.
Former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke was most to the point, tweeting simply: “Abolish the death penalty.”
California Senator Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, called capital punishment “immoral and deeply flawed.” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called it a “violation of human rights.” Washington Governor Jay Inslee said it was “cruel and unnecessary.” And billionaire businessman Tom Steyer attacked the attorney general, saying “Mr. Barr is a national disgrace.”
Every major candidate for the Democratic nomination opposes the death penalty except for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who has said he would leave it as an option for extreme cases like terrorism.
Joe Biden, the front-runner in the race, did not have an immediate statement Thursday, but the former vice president released a criminal justice plan this week calling for the elimination of the death penalty. That’s a reversal from his stand in 1994, when he drafted a crime bill that expanded capital punishment for 60 different crimes.
FBI Chief Says Election Hacking May Intensify
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Thursday that hacking attacks against U.S. political campaigns and election systems may only increase heading into 2020.
New hacking tools and services sold on the underground “darknet” have “become available to an even wider range of would-be hacktivists” who may intensify efforts beyond spreading falsehoods to damaging the infrastructure of state and local election systems, Wray said at a conference hosted by the FBI and Fordham University in New York.
“We’ve yet to see attacks manipulating or deleting election and voter-related data, or attacks taking election management systems offline,” Wray said. “But we know our adversaries are relentless. So are we.”
Biden Shows Strong South Carolina Lead With Black Voters in Poll
Joe Biden has a commanding lead over his 2020 Democratic rivals in South Carolina, where a majority of black voters back him, a Monmouth University Poll shows.
Biden is supported by 39% of likely voters in the February primary, a crucial early presidential contest. Senator Kamala Harris is in second place with 12%, followed by Senator Bernie Sanders at 10%, and Senator Elizabeth Warren at 9%, according to Monmouth’s first poll in the state in the current cycle.
Among black voters, a group that makes up more than half of likely primary voters in South Carolina, 51% favor Biden, a sharp contrast to just 24% of white voters. The strong showing among African Americans is especially good news for Barack Obama’s former vice president. Biden has been in damage-control mode since last month, when his comments about working alongside pro-segregation senators triggered scathing criticism from Harris, his top black competitor for the White House.
The July 18-22 survey shows Harris with the same level of support -- 12% -- among both white and black voters. Sanders also has equal backing from both groups. Only 2% of black voters favor Warren, compared to 21% of white residents. -- Kim Chipman
Biden Praises Pelosi for Going Slow on Impeachment
Joe Biden endorsed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of the debate in the House over whether to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
“I think Nancy’s going about it the right way,” the former vice president said on Urban One Radio’s Tom Joyner Morning Show, adding he’s read the “important sections” of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Pelosi has been taking a go-slow approach to impeachment, fearing that a rash approach might leave Democrats defeated.
Progressive Democrats are pushing Pelosi to move toward impeachment, and Biden’s decision to side with Pelosi puts him squarely in the moderate, establishment camp that could hurt him with younger voters. Rivals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders support taking the action.
Mueller testified twice Wednesday to House committees and reaffirmed that his investigation didn’t exonerate Trump on obstructing justice. He added that Trump could be indicted once he leaves office. Biden on Thursday added he would support impeachment if House Democrats’ investigations were stalled by the administration.
“There’s a lot in this report and I think that if they continue to stonewall the information that is available then I think we have no choice but to file papers for impeachment.” -- Emma Kinery
Biden Is Only Democrat to Top Trump in Ohio Poll
Joe Biden is the only Democrat leading President Donald Trump in Ohio, according to a Quinnipiac poll out Thursday morning. Biden tops Trump 50%-42%, while every other Democrat polled is effectively tied with the president.
Ohio is a key swing state on the 2020 electoral map. Former President Barack Obama narrowly won here in 2012, then Trump eased through in 2016, part of his near-sweep of Midwest swing states that propelled him to the White House.
In the state’s March 17 Democratic primary, former Vice President Biden leads the field again. There he’s at 31% to 14% each for Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, with Elizabeth Warren at 13%.
The poll has very bad news for native son Tim Ryan, a U.S. representative from northeast Ohio who’s stressed his blue-collar credentials and ability to play in the Midwest. He’s polling just 1% in his own state. -- Derek Wallbank
Biden, Booker Appear at Urban League Convention
The 2020 Democratic field continues its quest to lock down black voter support Thursday and Friday as candidates move from the NAACP convention to the National Urban League gathering in Indianapolis.
Joe Biden and Cory Booker are among those speaking Thursday at the Urban League convention, potentially putting them on a collision course for another round over their records on criminal justice before next week’s Democratic debate in Detroit.
The two men have been sparring this week after Biden on Tuesday released proposals that would roll back measures in the 1994 crime bill – which he authored as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee – that contributed to longer prison sentences for black convicts.
Booker complained Tuesday that “the proud architect of a failed system is not the right person to fix it.” Biden swung back Wednesday, telling reporters that while Booker was mayor of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, “his police department was stopping and frisking people, mostly African American men.”
Biden’s campaign followed that with a pre-emptive strike on Booker’s potential debate attacks, offering up some “hard questions” about Booker’s record. “Next week’s debate should focus on how we can fix the system – not on Booker’s specious charges about Biden,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. --Jennifer Epstein
Here’s What Happened on Wednesday:
- President Donald Trump’s re-election effort lost no time in seizing on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill. The Trump Make America Great Committee sent out an email even as Mueller was testifying that called on the president’s supporters to help raise $2 million in 24 hours. It asked for contributions to “send a powerful message to the entire nation that this WITCH HUNT must end.” The email, purportedly signed by the president, asked: “How many times do I have to be exonerated before they stop?”
- Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, who is mounting a long-shot effort to wrest the 2020 Republican nomination from Trump, said the GOP could soon be seen as “the party of racism.” Speaking at the NAACP convention in Detroit, Weld called on the GOP to reject “the racism of Donald Trump” or risk becoming “universally viewed as the party of racism in America.” Trump has overwhelming support among Republican voters and is likely to coast to renomination. In an average of polls by RealClearPolitics, the president beats Weld by about 72 percentage points.
Coming Up This Week:
- John Delaney, Amy Klobuchar and Tim Ryan, along with Booker and Biden, appear at a forum at the National Urban League Conference in Indianapolis on Thursday.
- Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris appear on Friday.
--With assistance from Jennifer Epstein, Derek Wallbank, Emma Kinery, Kim Chipman and Chris Strohm.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann
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