The Trail 2016: Trump versus the Vatican

Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races. 

Just when you thought this presidential campaign couldn’t get any stranger, the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump, is now training his fire on the highest authority in global Catholicism. 

In a move that must be unprecedented in a Republican primary, Trump used a rally on Thursday in South Carolina to attack Pope Francis for daring to critique the billionaire’s plan to build a border wall to keep out illegal immigrants. 

“If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened,” Trump said. 

Trump’s response came minutes after reports that Pope Francis criticized Trump in a conversation with reporters on his plane, saying, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.” 

Going after the Pope is — to put it mildly — an unconventional tactic leading into Saturday’s primary in deeply religious South Carolina; but if anyone can get away with attacking the Holy Father, it is probably Donald J. Trump. 

Meantime, stay on TheHill.com tonight for the latest presidential candidate town halls, and come back tomorrow for coverage of the latest campaign goings on. Check us out on Saturday for results and reaction to the results of the South Carolina Republican primary and the Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

 

RACE TO 1600 PENN

OPERATION GIDEON: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Ted Cruz’s campaign is betting that an old-time religious revival will deliver him victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. When Cruz announced Thursday that 300 Christian leaders across the state had endorsed him for president, it was the culmination of what the campaign has dubbed “Operation Gideon.”

BATTLE FOR THE SUPER-DELEGATES: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: It’s the underground fight for support that could prove decisive. Hillary Clinton has increased her lead over Bernie Sanders by wooing 87 new party superdelegates to support her campaign over the past week.

WOOING HISPANICS: The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are aggressively courting Hispanic voters in Nevada, as polls show the two deadlocked just days before the state’s Democratic presidential caucuses. The Sanders campaign on Wednesday touted the Vermont senator’s momentum, while Clinton surrogates questioned his record on immigration. 

OUCH: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Bernie Sanders accused rival Hillary Clinton of closely embracing President Obama to win support from the black community. “You know, Hillary Clinton now is trying to embrace the president as closely as she possibly can. Everything the president does is wonderful. She loves the president, he loves her and all that stuff,” Sanders said in an interview with BET News. “And we know what’s about. That’s trying to win support from the African-American community where the president is enormously popular. 

CRUZ GETS TRUMPY: The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports: In a very Trumpian move, Ted Cruz declared himself the new Republican front-runner during a Thursday afternoon appearance at a BBQ restaurant in the small South Carolina town of Easley. “For the first time in many, many months there’s a new front-runner,” said Cruz, referring to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that came out on Wednesday. 

AN ATTENDANCE-MISSER FROM WAY BACK: The Washington Post reports: Seems Marco Rubio’s spotty attendance record goes way back to his days in the Florida state legislature. Continuing the drip drip of negative news stories about Rubio skipping important votes and meetings, the Post digs into Rubio’s allegedly lax attendance at meetings of a 9/11 committee.

 

ODDS AND ENDS:

NO SURRENDER: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Hillary Clinton’s controversial super-PAC ally David Brock shows no inclination to retreat from his campaign to attack Bernie Sanders. On the same morning that The Hill published a report showing that many in Clintonland are nervous about Brock’s mud-slinging, the operative went on Morning Joe to say that Sanders “needs to be brought back down to Earth.” 

I’M WITH TRUMP: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Marco Rubio rejected Pope Francis’s criticism of U.S. border security Thursday, arguing America has long welcomed legal immigrants on its soil. “There’s no nation on Earth that’s more compassionate on immigration than we are,” he said after a rally in Anderson, S.C. 

I’M WITH POPE: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: White House hopeful Ben Carson said Thursday that GOP rival Donald Trump’s war of words with Pope Francis marks a new low this campaign season. “This is how bad it’s gotten [that] even the pope weighs in,” he told host Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto Coast to Coast.” 

NOT QUITE A TRAITOR: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Marco Rubio showed some restraint at a South Carolina event Thursday, rebuffing a supporter who yelled out that Hillary Clinton was a “traitor.” “Well I wouldn’t go that far, sir,” Rubio responded before adding, “But I would say that she is someone who thinks that she is above the law.” 

EMOTIONAL EMBRACE: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Republican presidential candidate John Kasich showed his heart on Wednesday, hugging a supporter who told him about personal tragedies.

 

POLL POSITION

SANDERS SLASHES CLINTON LEAD: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Bernie Sanders is cutting into Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s lead nationwide. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey finds Clinton with a 53 to 42 percent lead over the Vermont senator. But Sanders has cut her lead in half since the start of the year. 

CAROLINA STILL SWEET FOR CLINTON: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Hillary Clinton maintains a double-digit lead over Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders in South Carolina. A new Bloomberg Politics survey found that Clinton received 53 percent, 22 points above the Vermont senator’s 31 percent. 

TRUMP STILL ON TOP: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Donald Trump holds a commanding lead heading into the South Carolina GOP presidential primary on Saturday, according to a new Fox News poll.

 

THE DAILY TRUMP

DON’T BLAME US: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: The tourism office in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, says it’s not responsible for a website that went viral urging Americans to make the Canadian island their home if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected. 

BUSH HEDGES: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) is not picking sides in the open feud between Donald Trump and Pope Francis over true Christian behavior. “His Christianity is between he and his creator,” Bush said of Trump after a town hall in Columbia, S.C., according to The Blaze.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Wish I could’ve been there to see Don get slack jawed and red necked when he heard about the Pope. . .”give me my Twitter phone Corey.”

— Jeb Bush’s spokesman Tim Miller, imagining the moment when Donald Trump heard the news that Pope Francis had criticized his plan to build a wall.

 

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

MURPHY’S SCORE: The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and International Association of Ironworkers endorsed Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) over Democratic primary challenger Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) as the two compete for the open Florida Senate seat, according to a release from Murphy’s campaign.

CROWDSOURCER GRAYSON: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Grayson, a superdelegate, is asking voters to help him decide which presidential candidate to back. The liberal firebrand, who’s running for Florida’s open Senate seat, is holding an online poll where supporters can decide whether he should support Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders at the party convention in July. Grayson’s campaign sent a release today that more than 51,000 Democrats have already voted. 

NEW GUNS: Roll Call reports: The National Republican Congressional Committee named 11 additional Republican candidates to the first tier of its “Young Guns” program Thursday. Candidates in the program receive “the tools they need to run successful, winning campaigns,” the NRCC said.

 

MONEY WATCH

STILL IN THE MONEY: The Hill’s Jonathan Swan reports: Jeb Bush campaign officials and a top fundraiser are pushing back aggressively — dropping copious F bombs — against a story by conservative talk show host Erick Erickson in which he claims that the Bush campaign will stop paying staff on Saturday due to lack of funds. 

SPENDING SPREE: The Hill’s Megan Wilson reports: Right to Rise, the super-PAC supporting Jeb Bush’s presidential bid, dumped nearly $1.1 million into South Carolina over the last 48 hours, according to new election reports. The super-PAC has spent more than $5 million the Palmetto State over the past week and has even started spending a small amount in Nevada, the next state in line to vote, records show.

 

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern) 

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will participate in an MSNBC/Telemundo town hall  moderated by José Díaz-Balart and Chuck Todd from 9-11 p.m. today in Las Vegas. Sanders and former President Bill Clinton will speak at the The Clark County Democratic Party will hold its “Kick Off to Caucus Dinner” in Las Vegas tonight as well. 

Donald Trump, John Kasich and Jeb Bush participate in a CNN town hall in Columbia, S.C., at 8 tonight. 

Donald Trump will be a guest on “Hannity” on Fox News at 10 tonigh. He has three campaign events on Friday, in Myrtle Beach at noon, Pawleys Island at 3 p.m. and North Charleston at 7 p.m. His South Carolina primary watch party will be held in Spartanburg starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday, he’s scheduled to hold a 4 p.m. rally in Atlanta. 

Hillary Clinton holds a get out the caucus event at 11:30 p.m. today in Las Vegas. She’ll hold a another get out the caucus event on Friday in Las Vegas with daughter Chelsea Clinton at  10:30 p.m., and on caucus day, she’ll hold an event at 5:30 p.m. in Las Vegas. After the caucus, she’ll head to Texas for a get out the vote event in Houston. Bill Clinton will campaign for his wife in Pueblo, Colo. on Saturday night. President Clinton will be in Colorado Springs at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday. 

Bernie Sanders holds a 1 p.m. town meeting in Elko, Nevada, on Friday. Starting at 9 p.m. Friday, he’ll hold “A Future to Believe In Concert & Rally” in Henderson, Nevada. 

Ben Carson speaks at the Conservative Convention hosted by Conservative Review in Greenville, S.C., at 7 p.m. today. He will be a guest on Fox News’s “The Kelly File” at 9 p.m. today. 

John Kasich will be a guest on “Hannity” on Fox News at 10 tonight and holds town halls on Friday in Columbia at 10 a.m. and Conway at 1:30 p.m., as well as an event in Mount Pleasant at 6 p.m.

Jeb Bush will be a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday and holds meet and greets that day with his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush in Spartanburg, S.C. 9:30 a.m., in Greenville at noon and in Central at 6:45 p.m. 

Marco Rubio will be a guest on Fox News’s “The Kelly File” at 9 p.m. today. On Friday, he has five events with S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and others, in Columbia at 9 a.m., Pawleys Island at 11:45 a.m., Hilton Head at 2:15 p.m., Charleston at 4:30 p.m. and Clemson at 7:30 p.m. He will have a primary watch party in Columbia, S.C. on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m.

 

TWEET OF THE DAY 

Somewhere in SC, @marcorubio furiously trying to memorize: “Let’s dispel with this fiction the Pope doesn’t know what he’s doing…”

— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) February 18, 2016

 

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: Jonathan Easley, Ben Kamisar, Jonathan Swan, Lisa Hagen. 

Sign up to receive The Trail | 2016 overnight newsletter here.