2020 Daily Trail Markers: Trump campaign confident as reelection bid kicks into gear
President Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale is predicting Mr. Trump will win even more electoral votes than in 2016 — "an electoral landslide" — dismissing independent polling that shows the president trailing top Democrats.
Parscale made the comments in an interview with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, hours ahead of Mr. Trump's reelection launch rally in Orlando.
"I think we win Florida, yeah," Parscale told Garrett. "I think we win in an electoral landslide as of today."
Asked to define an electoral landslide, Parscale responded, "I think even more electoral points than he did last time." Mr. Trump won 306 electoral votes in 2016 (though two faithless electors declined to cast their votes for him, leaving him with 304 officially). A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidential election.
Read more from CBS News politics reporter Kathryn Watson here. Look for more of Garrett's interview with Parscale on "CBS This Morning," airing 7 a.m. Wednesday.
FROM THE CANDIDATES
WARREN WEIGHS IN ON SHANAHAN: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren spokesperson Ashley Woolheater says Warren, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, was unaware of domestic violence incidents in Patrick Shanahan's family when she voted against his nomination for deputy defense secretary in 2017, reports CBS News campaign reporter Zak Hudak. This supports Sen. Richard Blumenthal's claim that the committee was not informed of the incidents, which led Shanahan to withdraw from consideration to become defense secretary. "This raises serious questions about how this administration is conducting its vetting processes and needs to be investigated," Warren said in a statement.
BOOKER TO TESTIFY ON REPARATIONS: CBS News campaign reporter Jack Turman reports New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties to discuss a bill proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson lee that would establish a commission to study and recommend proposals for paying reparations to the descendants of slaves. Booker introduced the Senate version of Jackson Lee's bill in April. In prepared remarks provided to CBS News, Booker is poised to say: "It's time we seriously examine our collective history, and begin to develop proposals to right these historical wrongs and balance the scales of economic justice."
COUNTER-PROGRAMMING IN FLORIDA: A Democratic rally on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, Puerto Rico, gun violence and abortion access is planned for this evening a few blocks away from Mr. Trump's reelection rally in Orlando. Pulse nightclub survivor Brandon Wolf is one of the community organizers of the rally and told CBS News Political Unit associate producer Ellee Watson that even though the Florida Democratic Party promoted the event on their press call Tuesday morning, the event is not officially organized by the committee. Wolf said the rally organizers are even busing in folks from across Florida to attend, with the farthest bus coming from Miami-Dade County. The formal rally will run from 6 to 7 p.m. and feature several women speaking about their choice to have an abortion.
BERNIE HOLDS REDDIT AMA: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held a Reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything") this afternoon on the subreddit r/SandersForPresident, a community of more than 252,000 members. The Sanders campaign announced the AMA an hour before the senator began answering questions. In that time, there were about 3,900 comments and 50,000 people tuned into a live stream, according to the Sanders campaign. CBS News campaign reporter Cara Korte reports that the campaign was overwhelmed by the response. At the time of this writing, Sanders answered 10 questions, ranging in topic from climate change, to democratic socialism, to healthcare. A word cloud of the responses can be seen below. Some words that stood out most frequently: president, energy, prescription, drugs, entitled.
KLOBUCHAR'S FIRST 100 DAYS? In an effort to help Democrats picture what Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar may do from the Oval Office, the Minnesota senator released a 17-page plan of bullet points this morning on what the first 100 days of a potential Klobuchar administration would involve, per CBS News campaign reporter Bo Erickson. Highlights include:
- Rejoin the Paris climate accord on Day 1
- "Immediately suspend" all Trump administration efforts that "deny [healthcare] coverage to people with pre-existing conditions"
- Fill judicial vacancies, push for more voting rights protections and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour
- Introduce "gun violence legislation" including universal background checks and bans on bump stocks, assault weapons and capacity magazines
BIDEN VISITS STONEWALL: While in New York City on a fundraising swing, former Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Stonewall Inn in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Erickson reports. When Biden appeared behind the bar, one afternoon attendee shouted, "Hey Joe, can I have a beer?" according to the candidate's Instagram Story.
At the end of the video, Biden gave a serious pitch for continued progress for LGBT rights: "The American people are way ahead — way ahead — of the where the political forces are. The idea you can walk — you can get married one day, now that it's a constitutional right, which we knew it was all along, and the next day walk into your home state and get fired because you are LGBT — wrong. It's gotta change."
SECOND TIME'S A CHARM? Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced he has qualified for the second DNC debate in Detroit next month. But during the first debate next week, which he did not qualify for, Bullock plans to hold two televised town halls, as CBS News campaign reporter Tim Perry reported this morning. On Wednesday, June 26, the first night of the debate, Bullock will instead appear at a town hall in Iowa broadcast by WHO-DT, an NBC affiliate in Des Moines. On June 27, night two, he will make his case at a New Hampshire town hall airing on WMUR, an ABC affiliate in Manchester.
NEW CASTRO HOUSING PLAN: Today former HUD Secretary Julián Castro unveiled part two of his "People First Housing Plan," per Perry. Part two focuses on housing discrimination and Castro says he will reinstitute the Fair Housing Rule, prevent displacement of residents from the impacts of gentrification, and establish a $200 billion Green Infrastructure Fund to "bridge the $2 trillion infrastructure gap in the United States. Additionally, Castro went on MSNBC to respond to news of Shanahan withdrawing his nomination to be defense secretary. Castro said of the number of vacancies within the administration: "We're not able to be as well represented or as strong as we could be as a country in our diplomatic efforts," and added, "it has been total chaos."
STATELY COVERAGE
IN THE MIDDLE: The chairs of the Iowa and New Hampshire Democratic Parties held a call today to discuss Mr. Trump's reelection announcement, per CBS News campaign reporter Adam Brewster. On the call, Iowa Chair Troy Price said the party needs to focus on economic issues and health care to win back some of the Obama/Trump voters in the Hawkeye State. Further, he said Democrats need to have a good rural message, such as promoting health care coverage in rural areas and improving infrastructure. Price also said the party will combat Mr. Trump's message by talking to voters on the ground, adding that was something Democrats didn't do well in the lead up to 2016. He said the party needs to rebuild relationships and trust with voters they lost. Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire party chair, pointed to a significant increase in turnout and said the party honed a lot of skills during the 2018 cycle that they'll be using going into 2020.
ISSUES MATTER
At a round table hosted by nonpartisan think tank New America on how work-family issues will shape the 2020 election, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren were lauded for having the most comprehensive plans relating to issues like paid family leave and childcare policy, CBS News Political Unit intern Julia Cherner reports. Emily Martin of the National Women's Law Center noted that Harris' Equal Pay Plan includes pay transparency, which allows for greater potential to close the gender and race pay gap. Katie Hamm of the Center for American Progress said that Warren has been "front and center" on the issue of early childhood education on the campaign trail. The discussion featured experts from over a dozen different organizations, including the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the American Enterprise Institute.
