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Sanders appears on MSNBC town hall amid chants of 'Bernie!' – campaign live
Hillary Clinton takes the stage at MSNBC town hall – campaign live
(35 minutes later)
2.34am BST
02:34
Rachel Maddow asks Hillary Clinton about “the greatest frustration of [Obama’s] administration” - gun violence.
“If we take back the Senate - which I believe we can, and you in Pennsylvania have a really good chance to help us do that - the Democrats have decided that they will be led by Chuck Schumer,” who Clinton says has proven himself an effective opponent of gun lobbyists.
“I am determined - we are going to save lives, and we are going to do it by taking on the gun lobby and implementing common-sense gun safety reform,” Clinton said, saying that part of the battle is fighting against gun culture, “and that’s going to take all of us. We’ve got to break the grip of gun culture in our young people.
2.30am BST
02:30
Hillary Clinton, addressing a question about how her policy priorities would differ from those of Barack Obama, her former boss, pointed out issues relating to equal pay and early childhood education as examples.
“I agree with a lot of what President Obama has done, and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves in the work he has done as president,” Clinton said. “I want to really make a big, big push on equal pay for women.
“I believe that if we start early and we are determined there, we can make a difference there. I want to make a push on early childhood education,” she continued. “I would make a big push for affordable college, debt-free tuition.”
2.24am BST
02:24
Another question from the audience, from a Harlem native whose parents struggled with drug addiction. “What as president you would do to address the systemic racism that still exists and creates a glass ceiling?”
“We have to talk about it more - and as a white person, I have to talk about it more. And say that we are not a ‘post-racial’ society, and that we still struggle with racism,” Clinton said.
“It is not only wrong - it is holding us back,” Clinton continued. “We want as productive a society as possible, so we have to enforce the civil rights laws, we have to use the bully pulpit.”
2.15am BST
02:15
First question from a volunteer councilman: “Will you say what role you would trust Senator Sanders in in a Clinton administration?”
After demuring that she can’t begin to speak to administration positions before she’s even won the nomination, Clinton affirmed that she supports down-balloy Democrats.
“I’m already raising money for Democrats up and down the ballot - I’m dedicated to that,” Clinton said. “You can count on me doing that because I feel very strongly that we need to have a vital, dynamic Democratic party.”
“I wanna be a very strong ally of elected Democrats against the county,” she concluded.
2.13am BST
02:13
Rachel Maddow asks about Charles Koch’s flirtation with endorsing Clinton: “If Mr. Trump or Senator Cruz is nominated, I think a lot of Republicans will find them to be unacceptable as Republican nominees.”
Will you lobby for Republican votes?
“I really am not looking for endorsements from people who deny climate change and have the views that the Koch brothers have had, so I’m going to stay focused on what I’m doing right now,” Clinton said.
Lambasting what she characterized as Bernie Sanders’ “Trump-like demagoguery,” Clinton criticized his plans on college debt for “the numbers not adding up.”
“It demonstrated that there weren’t a lot of answers to a lot of the hard questions that were asked on both foreign and domestic issues,” Clinton said, reminding voters of Sanders’ performance in an interview with the New York Daily News in which Sanders could not describe how he would break up large banks.
2.08am BST
02:08
Rachel Maddow asks the former secretary of state whether there are “significant enough differences between you” and Bernie Sanders that she would not be able to echo his positions and rhetoric on Wall Street during a general election.
“I have a bigger lead in pledged delegates than Senator Obama, when I ran against him in 2008, ever had over me,” Clinton said. “I am winning, and I am winning because of what I stand for and what I have done and what my ideas are,” Clinton continued. “My Wall Street plan is much more specific than his - we saw that when he couldn’t even answer that in the Daily News interview.”
“There are so many more areas where I am more specific,” Clinton concluded, “and I think that’s why I have more than 2.7 million votes more than he has.”
2.05am BST
02:05
Hillary Clinton makes appearance on MSNBC town hall
After an introduction that called her “the GOP’s number-one target,” former secretary of state Hillary Clinton walked onstage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to join Rachel Maddow for her half of the Democratic presidential town hall.
First question: How has Sanders influenced the Democratic party?
“I think that what weve had is a very spirited contest, certainly we share a lot of the same goals,” Clinton said. “But as I have said repeatedly, it’s not enough to diagnose the problem - you have to have solutions.”
“I think it’s because people want, not just to understand better what we think the problem is, but what are we gonna do about it?”
2.00am BST
02:00
That’s it for Bernie Sanders’ segment on the MSNBC Democratic town hall - stay tuned for Hillary Clinton’s appearance on the special, which we’ll be liveblogging up to the minute!
1.53am BST
1.53am BST
01:53
01:53
Bernie Sanders, on using air strikes:
Bernie Sanders, on using air strikes:
No president has the ability, willy-nilly, to be dropping bombs or using drones anywhere he wants.
No president has the ability, willy-nilly, to be dropping bombs or using drones anywhere he wants.
1.46am BST
1.46am BST
01:46
01:46
“How you will address the issues around the collateral consequences of conviction?” a Pennsylvania voter asked Sanders.
“How you will address the issues around the collateral consequences of conviction?” a Pennsylvania voter asked Sanders.
“For a start, what I would propose, is when we have unemployment rates of minority kids of 40 or 50%, maybe it makes sense to invest in jobs and education for those kids instead of jails and incarceration,” Sanders says, echoing a frequent stump-speech line.
“For a start, what I would propose, is when we have unemployment rates of minority kids of 40 or 50%, maybe it makes sense to invest in jobs and education for those kids instead of jails and incarceration,” Sanders says, echoing a frequent stump-speech line.
“We really need to re-think the war on drugs,” Sanders said. “I would take marijuana out of the Federal Controlled Substance Act.”
“We really need to re-think the war on drugs,” Sanders said. “I would take marijuana out of the Federal Controlled Substance Act.”
Chris Hayes, following up, asked Sanders about his vote for the 1994 crime bill that he has lambasted on the campaign trail. Sanders, protesting, points out that the bill also contained the Violence Against Women Act.
Chris Hayes, following up, asked Sanders about his vote for the 1994 crime bill that he has lambasted on the campaign trail. Sanders, protesting, points out that the bill also contained the Violence Against Women Act.
“It also had in it, as you know, the assault weapons ban,” Sanders said. “If I had voted against the bill, there’d be 30-second ad saying ‘Bernie Sanders didn’t vote against assault weapons.’”
“It also had in it, as you know, the assault weapons ban,” Sanders said. “If I had voted against the bill, there’d be 30-second ad saying ‘Bernie Sanders didn’t vote against assault weapons.’”
“I wish I had a different piece of legislation!” Sanders said. “What we need to do now is address this very serious issue.”
“I wish I had a different piece of legislation!” Sanders said. “What we need to do now is address this very serious issue.”
1.29am BST
01:29
Bernie Sanders characterized a large component of the Republican voter base as “obstructionist” and beholden to “far-right” candidates like Donald Trump, which would preclude cooperation with Republicans in Congress.
“I think the Republican Party, as I mentioned, has moved very very far to the right,” Sanders said. “People who are active in the horrific Trump effort, the birther movement, people who are very hostile to immigrants. You see Trump talking about and referring to Mexicans as immigrants and rapists.”
“If I became president, I think that we’d run into that kind of obstructionism,” he concluded.
1.22am BST
01:22
Second question, from the daughter of undocumented immigrants: How will you ensure that after implementation, immigration reform will help immigrants not remain second-class citizens?
“If Congress does not do what it should do and pass that legislation, I will pick up where President Obama left office and use the executive powers of that office to make your parents safe in this county and not afraid.”
Updated
at 1.23am BST
1.17am BST
01:17
When pressed, Bernie Sanders says that he will help elect whomever it takes to keep Donald Trump or another Republican candidate from being elected president.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that no Republican gets into the White House in this election,” Sanders said.
1.16am BST
01:16
First question from a student at the University of Pennsylvania: “Will you encourage your supporters to vote for Secretary Clinton?”
“We’re not a movement where I can snap my fingers and tell you what to do,” Sanders said. “It is incumbent upon her to tell millions of people who right now do not believe in establishment politics or establishment economics, who have serious misgivings about a candidate who has taken millions from Wall Street.”
“She has got to go out to you,” Sanders said. “It is incumbent upon Secretary Clinton to reach out, not only to my supporters, but all of the American people with an agenda that they believe will represent the middle class.”
1.10am BST
01:10
Bernie Sanders disputes that comments he made recently regarding voting rates among low-income Americans, saying that it’s not controversial to say that “candidates taking huge amounts of money from the wealthy and the powerful” prevent the poor from participating in the “charade” of the political process.
“Dispute it if you want with me: In the 2012 presidential election, 63% of the American people didn’t vote. Not a very vibrant democracy, in my mind.”
“Low-income people are not voting in large numbers - I think that’s a tragedy,” Sanders continued.
1.06am BST
01:06
Bernie Sanders makes appearance on MSNBC town hall
With fans and supporters chanting “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders declined to answer the question of whether the person with the most delegates and votes should be the Democratic presidential nominee.
“If we are behind in the pledge delegates, I think it’s very hard for us to win but we are going to make the case also... that we are the stronger campaign in taking on Donald Trump or any other Republican candidate,” Sanders said.
“And I think that most other Democrats out there wanna make sure that some right-wing Republican doesn’t become president of the United States.”
12.51am BST
00:51
In roughly ten minutes, MSNBC will begin its two-hour special of back-to-back town hall meetings with the Democratic presidential candidates. On the eve of the so-called “Acela primaries,” it’s a big moment for Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. We’ll be liveblogging the entire proceedings, so stay-tuned for up-to-the-second updates.
12.26am BST
00:26
Girls star-slash-creator Lena Dunham has penned an editorial for Time in which she declares why she has chosen to support Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign - and why “it has nothing to do with her anatomy or ‘girl power’.”
“I want Hillary Clinton to be president,” Dunham writes. “I think she’d do a fantastic job, better than anyone else.”
But, she cautions, she does not support the former secretary of state merely because of her gender - or, as Dunham puts it, “I have no plans to blindly follow my uterus to the nearest polling station.”
Dunham ticks off various platforms, positions and causes that have influenced her decision, including reproductive choice, gun violence and “fighting for women,” which she calls Clinton’s “life’s work”:
She fights for equal pay. She raises money for other women running for elected office. She stays current on pre-natal nutrition research (Though when the time comes for me to have my baby, just let me eat in peace, okay Hillary?) She flies to countries where women are routinely denied basic freedoms—from China to Yemen to the Democratic Republic of Congo—and puts their leaders on blast. She coined the phrase “women’s rights are human rights,” for goodness’ sake!”
After criticizing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ response to Donald Trump’s willingness to “punish” women who have abortions - Sanders characterized it as an “absurd” comment destined to become a “story of the week” - Dunham rallies would-be supporters of Clinton to gather behind the former secretary of state.
“So I’ll say it again: I’m with her,” Dunham concludes. “Not as some winsome nod to ‘girl power,’ but because I share her bone-deep belief that when women are strong, families are strong, and that makes our country strong.”
11.11pm BST
23:11
Donald Trump to sit down with Megyn Kelly in Fox News interview
Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor and the only person to come out of this campaign with better approval ratings than before, has officially landed an interview with billionaire Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
The highly anticipated sitdown caps off months of public feuding between the candidate and the newsreader, ignited last August when Kelly began the first primary debate of the cycle with an aggressive line of questioning regarding Trump’s statements about women.
“Mr Trump and I sat down together for a meeting earlier this month at my request,” Kelly said in a release sent out by the cable network. “He was gracious with his time and I asked him to consider an interview. I am happy to announce he has agreed, and I look forward to a fascinating exchange - our first sit-down interview together in nearly a year.”
The anchor will explore “how events unfolded with Trump after the August debate as one of the most prominent voices covering the 2016 presidential campaign of the frontrunner,” the release states. “She will also examine Trump’s successful campaign for the White House to date and his role in one of the most historic presidential runs in modern times.”
The primetime interview will air on May 17, with portions of the interview airing on Kelly’s show the following day.
Updated
at 12.25am BST
11.04pm BST
23:04
Jeb Lund
The most Cruz and Kasich’s plan can do is wreck the Republican party, writes the Guardian’s Jeb Lund.
The GOP reflexively blames Washington gridlock and electoral failure on co-opted candidates and the perversions of the political process thwarting the will of the people. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has spent the last two weeks successfully castigating the Republican delegate process as a rigged game. His opponents’ brightest idea was to jointly announce their plans to rig it even more.
That is a kind of plan. Then again, so is burning down your house to collect the insurance money.
Here’s the strategy: Cruz will focus on friendly territory in Indiana, while the “moderate” Kasich focuses on friendly territory in Oregon and New Mexico. How the rest of the states get divvied up is anyone’s guess, as is how much money Kasich will have on hand for the states he’s supposed to lure away from media-saturated Trumpism.
This is a political superhero team assembled out of a kill-priced remainder bin of bad ideas. There hasn’t been a sadder or less formidable duo since the Wonder Twins on the old Super Friends cartoon – two kids from another planet whose superpowers involved one turning into forms of water and the other turning into shapes of animals.
Only in this case you have John Kasich, who takes the form of a perpetually peevish dad who looks like the only thing he wants to say at a podium is, Hey, kids, quit playin’ grab-ass and take a knee, before “moderately” suggesting we start the third world war in the Middle East.
Related: Ted Cruz and John Kasich's plan to stop Trump is months too late – and hypocritical | Jeb Lund
