About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 2020)
WASHINGTON/POLITICS The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, March 5, 2020 7A ANDREW HARNIKI Associated Press President Donald Trump speaks at the Latino Coalition Legislative Summit at the JW Marriott, Wednesday, March 4, in Washington. Trump gets desired Dem. foes; Biden worries linger BY JONATHAN LEMIRE AND ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON - While Super Tuesday left the Dem ocrats with a pair of front runners whom President Donald Trump believes he can define and defeat, there are still some private worries in the White House. There is concern that the Democrats’ messy nomi nation contest may end up producing an emboldened version of the very man who once worried Trump so much as a foe that it led to the presi dent’s impeachment. That would be Joe Biden. Still, there was plenty for Trump to like in Tuesday’s 14-state round of voting that transformed the Democratic race into a delegate shootout between an avowed propo nent of democratic socialism (Bernie Sanders) and a long time Washington insider (Biden). It banished from the race former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whose endless millions had gotten under the president’s skin, and it pushed aside Mas sachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who could have proved to be a formidable rhetorical challenger against Trump. That sets up Trump to run for reelection on familiar territory and allows him to revive some of the same lines of attack that proved success ful in 2016. The public reaction from Trump and his campaign on Wednesday was gleeful as Biden’s remarkable cam paign comeback reset the Democratic nomination fight into a two-candidate contest with Sanders. Those around the presi dent have long asserted that Sanders, with his unapolo- getic support for “Medicare for All,” free college and other wish list items, is too liberal for most of the nation. They also believe Biden has lost a step and is saddled with a decadeslong Washington record and questions sur rounding the conduct of his son Hunter. “Truly is a ‘heads we win, tails they lose’ situation,” said Trump campaign com munications director Tim Murtaugh. But there are some caveats in the campaign’s confidence. Trump and his team have spent the last year trying to lump the Democratic con tenders together as left-wing radicals. Biden’s working- class appeal and more prag matic policy approach aren’t a ready fit with that GOP framing. Trump allies have pointed to Biden’s embrace of liberal positions on gun control, but he steered clear of the more extreme posi tions of his rivals on health care. Watching the results Tues day night from the White House residence, Trump cheered the collapse of Bloomberg, who sank more than $500 million of his own money into his campaign yet performed woefully the first day his name appeared on the ballot. The president unleashed a series of tweets the next morning that belittled the Democratic field — includ ing Warren, who was assess ing whether to move forward — and he was so eager to talk about the race that he invited reporters to ask him about it during a White House meet ing with airline executives. “No questions about the election?” Trump asked before registering several hot takes that would not be out of place on the morning cable news shows he fre quently watches. Before Bloomberg dropped out Wednesday morning, Trump goaded the billionaire, who has prom ised to continue his free- spending anti-Trump effort on behalf of the eventual Democratic nominee. “You can’t buy an elec tion,” Trump said. “It’s a beautiful thing.” Trump took particular delight in Bloomberg’s implo sion, having long resented the former mayor’s significantly greater wealth and ease in moving around Manhattan’s elite social circles. He told confidants that Bloomberg’s political downfall, beginning with a widely panned debate performance last month, should forever silence those in the media who claimed that he was jealous of Bloom berg or that the “wrong” New York billionaire was sitting in the Oval Office, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity. The president has long publicly pined for Sanders as a general election foe, his campaign making the case that the Vermont senator’s liberal views would turn off voters in potential Demo cratic pickup states like Arizona and Georgia even though that may be offset with some strength in the Rust Belt. Eager to put his thumb on the scale in the oppos ing party’s primary process, Trump tried to stoke divi sions among Democrats by continuing to claim that the party was trying to steal the election from Sanders. The president has attempted to sow doubt about the fairness of the contest with hopes of persuading some of the Ver mont senator’s aggrieved, hardcore followers to stay home in November. abersham iv^treat ^Assisted Care Community Now Offers a New Assisted Living Home Located 258 Park Ave Baldwin GA The uite Life Come by for a visit. Prebook one of our new rooms that you can make your very own. www.habershamretreat.com Call us @ 706-499-6842 VOTE YES for OUR CHILDREN! SUPPORTING GAINESVILLE & HALL COUNTY SCHOOLS E-SPLOST VI and GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND A continuation of the school sales tax program for another 5 years TUESDAY MARCH 24 REFERENDUM LET’S GET RIGHT TO THE POINT E-SPLOST BENEFITS • Keeps our schools out of debt • Alternative to higher property taxes • Investment in local education • NO. 1 REASON: Our children GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND • Jump starts critical school projects • To be paid back with E-SPLOST revenues ^VOTING Paid for by Citizens for Better Education 2020 Doubts persist for Dem. voters about female nominee in 2020 BY NICHOLAS RICCARDI, HANNAH FINGERHUT AND MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press PLYMOUTH, N.H. - In a perfect world, Susan Stepp, a 73-year-old retiree, would be voting vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in New Hamp shire’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, she says. But that won’t be happening. “I am not sure a woman is the best can didate to go up against Trump,” Stepp said recently as she stood in the back of a con ference room listening to tech entrepre neur Andrew Yang as part of her hunt for the best candidate to challenge the Repub lican incumbent. Stepp’s concern has coursed through the Democratic primary for months, register ing in polling, interviews and, now, the first votes cast. In Iowa’s caucuses last Monday, many Democrats did not prioritize break ing the gender barrier to the Oval Office and they viewed being a woman as a hin drance rather than an advantage in the race. Only about one-third of Iowa caucusgo- ers backed a female candidate. Topping the caucus field were two men, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete But- tigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,. Women were only slightly more likely than men to back one of the three women in the race, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,000 Iowa voters. Most Iowa Democrats said it was impor tant for a woman to be president in their lifetimes. But many voters, including about half of all women, said a female nominee would have a harder time beat ing Donald Trump in November. “He will just use that against her, like he did Hillary,” Stepp said, looking back to Trump’s 2016 race against Hillary Clinton in 2016. “He doesn’t debate. He just insults. I don’t think he would have that same effect if he went up against a strong man. ” Stepp said she plans to vote for Sanders. Those perceptions present an undeni able headwind for the women in the race, who have spent months making the case that a woman can win. As they seek suc cess in New Hampshire, both Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar must work to energize voters about the chance to make history and persuade them it is possible this year, in this race against this president. “In 2020, we can and should have a woman for president,” Warren said at a CNN town hall this past week, days after taking third in Iowa. Klobuchar came in fifth. The Associated Press has not called a winner in the Iowa caucus because the race is too close to call. Iowans appeared open to that message. Most Democratic voters in the state, 72%, said they thought it is important for the U.S. to elect a woman president in their lifetimes, and that included roughly two- thirds of men. But most were resolved to put it off for another election. That was true of men and women. The survey found 34% of women voted for Warren, Klobuchar or the long- shot candidacy of Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gab bard, compared with 28% of men. Overall, many Democratic voters thought it would be harder for a woman to beat Trump. About half of women said they thought a female nominee would have a harder time, compared with about 4 in 10 men. Men who harbored that con cern were significantly less likely to vote for a woman than a man. Experts say the findings are in line with traditional patterns in voting by gender — women usually don’t coalesce around one of their own. “Nobody’s going to win an election by unifying women because women are not a unified bloc,” said Kathy Dolan, a political scientist at the Univer sity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “There’s no evidence that suggests for us that women candidates vote much more for women candidates than men.” Analysts say it’s no surprise that women express more anxiety about a woman defeating Trump, given that through per sonal experience, they’re familiar with the barriers of sexism. “Women are more likely to have expe rienced or observed gender discrimina tion or sexism,” said Jennifer Lawless, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. Notably, experts said, there’s no data showing that women underperform or outperform men in general elections. But Lawless noted that having to fight that perception that a woman cannot win may actually work against the female candi dates in this race. “Anytime they’re trying to convince voters that a woman can beat Donald Trump, they’re not talking about health care or foreign affairs,” she said. Warren spent months trying to avoid the gender issue, seeing questions about pervasive sexism in politics as a lose-lose proposition. Either she acknowledged that being a woman created all kinds of challenges because of inherent bias, and appeared to be whining about it, or she said it wasn’t a problem and would there fore seem out of touch, she told aides. But, since the New Year, Warren has shifted her strategy dramatically, taking the issue head on. She raised it directly in asserting that Sanders had suggested a woman couldn’t win the White House, and, after they clashed about it during a debate in Iowa, refused to shake his hand on national television. NOMINATE NOW UNTIL 03.10.20 NOMINATIONS FOR MARCH TEACHER OF THE MONTH CONTEST ARE NOW OPEN. Be sure to give a shout-out to your favorite teacher. You can nominate once per day. The winning teacher will receive a plaque and $200 in school supplies. Winner will be recognized in The Times. NOMINATE TODAY AT WWW.GAINESVILLETIMES.COM/TEACHER
