Super Tuesday Reads

Good Morning!!

This should be an exciting day. I’m looking forward to voting for Hillary. I’ll probably wait until after the noon hour. I don’t know what the turnout is expected to be, but I don’t really want to wait in line.

Other than going to vote and picking up some groceries, I plan to be home today following Super Tuesday events. I’m so excited! We will add new threads if we need them.

There are new Donald Trump controversies today–violence and racism at his rallies and a leak about something he told The New York Times about immigration. First, the leak:

Ben Smith at Buzzfeed: Donald Trump Secretly Told The New York Times What He Really Thinks About Immigration.

The New York Times is sitting on an audio recording that some of its staff believes could deal a serious blow to Donald Trump, who, in an off-the-record meeting with the newspaper, called into question whether he would stand by his own immigration views.

Trump visited the paper’s Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, Jan. 5, as part of a round of editorial board meetings that — as is traditional — the Democratic candidates for president and some of the Republicans attended. The meetings, conducted partly on the record and partly off the record in a 13th-floor conference room, give candidates a chance to make their pitch for the paper’s endorsement.

People who were at the meeting, including columnist Gail Collins have suggested that Trump’s sees his positions on political issues as endlessly changeable and negotiable.

So what exactly did Trump say about immigration, about deportations, about the wall? Did he abandon a core promise of his campaign in a private conversation with liberal power brokers in New York?

I wasn’t able to obtain the recording, or the transcript, and don’t know exactly what Trump said. Neither Baquet, Collins, nor various editorial board members I reached would comment on an off-the-record conversation, which the Times essentially said it cannot release without approval from Trump, given the nature of the off-the-record agreement.

Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal told me he would not comment “on what was off the record at our meeting with him.”

“If [Trump] wants to call up and ask us to release this transcript, he’s free to do that and then we can decide what we would do,” Rosenthal said.

Release the transcripts!

David Wiegel at The Washington Post reports than Sean Hannity asked Trump about the leaks last night.

Hannity prodded Trump to explain himself.

“The New York Times is claiming today that they had an off-the-record conversation with you in January,” he said on his Fox News show. “Off the record, by the way. Now they’re leaking it.”

“Yeah, of course they’re leaking it,” said Trump. “The most dishonest media group. And it’s also failing. I call it the failing New York Times. It’s doing so badly, it’s dying. But I did. We had a board meeting. It was off the record. All of a sudden, they leak it. It’s all over the place.”

“They said you said it’s negotiable on the wall,” said Hannity.

Trump did not miss a step. “It’s negotiable,” he said. “Things are negotiable. I’ll be honest with you — I’ll make the wall two feet shorter, or something. I mean, everything’s negotiable.”

“It’s not negotiable to build it?” asked Hannity.

“No!” said Trump. “Building it? Not negotiable.”

“Would it be negotiable about the 11 million?” asked Hannity, referring to the frequently cited estimate of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. “Maybe let some people stay if they register in a period of time?”

“I would say this,” said Trump. “I’ve always said, look, we have some great people over here. And they’re going to go out, but we’re going to work out a system that’s fair.”

Whatever. Trump is a disgrace. Let’s make sure he never has a chance to set foot in the White House!

On the incidents at Trump rallies:

Valdosta students after Trump order them removed from rally.

Raw Story: Black college students kicked out of Trump rally in Georgia for no reason.

A group of 30 black Valdosta State University students was removed from a rally by Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Monday before the event even began, the Des Moines Register reported.

“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said one of the students, 19-year-old Tahjila Davis. “They said, ‘This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.’ But I paid my tuition to be here.”

Davis and the other students were reportedly asked to leave the event by a Secret Service agent, hours after footage circulating online showed another agent attacking a photojournalist at a separate Trump event in Radford, Virginia.

That’s right. Chris Morris, a 63-year-old Time photojournalist, was grabbed by the throat and slammed to the floor by one of Trumps Secret Service agents. Time responds:

Chris Morris, a veteran White House photographer working on the campaign for TIME, stepped out of the press pen to photograph a Black Lives Matter protest that interrupted the speech. A video shows that Morris swore at a Secret Service agent who tried to move Morris back into the pen. A separate video of the event shows that the agent then grabbed Morris’ neck with both hands and threw him into a table and onto the ground.

Video also shows that once on the ground, Morris kicked at the agent who was trying to restrain him. Later, Morris briefly put his hand on the agent’s neck. After the exchange, Morris said that he did so in order to demonstrate the choke hold he had just experienced.

Video also shows that once on the ground, Morris kicked at the agent who was trying to restrain him. Later, Morris briefly put his hand on the agent’s neck. After the exchange, Morris said that he did so in order to demonstrate the choke hold he had just experienced.

Journalist Christopher Morris is arrested by police during a rally of Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, at Radford University in Radford, Va., Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Why is the U.S. Secret Service getting involved in removing black people from Trump rallies and enforcing ridiculous efforts to prevent the press from covering his events?

TIME has contacted the U.S. Secret Service to express concerns about the level and nature of the agent’s response. Morris has also expressed remorse for his part in escalating the confrontation. A TIME spokesperson said, “We are relieved that Chris is feeling OK, and we expect him to be back at work soon.”

Unlike other presidential campaigns, which generally allow reporters and photographers to move around at events, Trump has a strict policy requiring reporters and cameramen to stay inside a gated area, which the candidate often singles out for ridicule during his speeches. The entrance to the penned area is generally monitored by the Secret Service detail, which also screens attendees at his events and personally protects the candidate.

“I’ve worked for nine years at the White House and have never had an altercation with the Secret Service,” Morris says in a statement. “What happened today was very unfortunate and unexpected. The rules at Trump events are significantly stricter than other campaigns and make it very difficult to work as a photographer, as many others have pointed out before me. I regret my role in the confrontation, but the agent’s response was disproportionate and unnecessarily violent. I hope this incident helps call attention to the challenges of press access.”

Read more at the link. Frankly, I don’t understand why the media has been putting up with this sh%t. If this happened at one of Hillary Clinton’s events–or if she even tried to enforce such draconian rules for the media–the outcry would be endless. Apparently reporters and editors are afraid to stand up to Republicans.

As for the many primaries and caucuses today, Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight has all the information you need to follow Super Tuesday results. Here are his posts on the Democratic and Republican contests:

Super Guide to Super Tuesday (Democrats)

Super Guide to Super Tuesday (Republicans)

More news, links only:

CNN: National poll: Clinton, Sanders both top Trump.

CNN: After GOP establishment ‘froze’ on Trump, Democrats ready battle plans.

Politico: Is the Trump show ready for prime time?

Huffington Post: Obama Showed Us How To Take Down Donald Trump 5 Years Ago, And The Video Is Just As Brutal Today.

The Daily Beast: When Bernie Sanders Thought Castro and the Sandinistas Could Teach America a Lesson.

Miami Herald: Bernie Sanders traveled to communist Cuba and urges a ‘political revolution.’ Will exile Miami take him seriously?

A disturbing story from Fort Wayne, IN. The police says it’s not a hate crime, but the Darfur diaspora community believes it is:

The Washington Post: The mysterious ‘execution-style’ killings of young men in Indiana.

The New York Times: The Model Whose Lips Spurred Racist Comments Speaks Out.

I haven’t included any Hillary news; I’m going to leave it up to you guys to post anything you’re hearing and reading in your local areas. It looks to me as if she will win in Massachusetts and of course the South. Bernie will likely win Vermont and perhaps Colorado and Minnesota. We’ll find out later on today.

Have a great Super Tuesday!