Hillary Clinton greets New Hampshire: 'Republicans seem to be talking only about me' – as it happened

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/apr/20/hillary-clinton-campaign-new-hampshire-live

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4.51pm ET21:51

Summary

We’re going to wrap our liveblog for the day. Here’s what we learned:

4.42pm ET21:42

It seems Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has already won a crucial early primary, the Koch Primary.

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times reports that David Koch told attendees at a private GOP fundraising event in New York Monday, “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.”

It’s unclear if the Kochs or their network will invest any money or resources in Walker’s candidacy this early in the primary process. The Koch network has plans to spend nearly $900 million in the course of the 2016 election cycle.

4.38pm ET21:38

Rand Paul is also continuing his tour of liberal Iowa college towns by holding an event in Grinnell, Iowa this week.

Grinnell, the home of elite liberal arts institution Grinnell College, is the second liberal college town Paul has visited in the Hawkeye State since launching his presidential campaign earlier this month. He previously kicked off his campaign in the state by holding an event on the University of Iowa’s campus in Iowa City.

It shows Paul’s commitment to appealing to non-traditional Republican caucusgoers as well as the hope that, if there is no competitive Democratic caucus, a lot of left-leaning college kids would rather nudge the GOP in a more libertarian direction instead of casting a protest vote for Bernie Sanders.

4.33pm ET21:33

While most of the coverage of the Clinton era State Department today has been focused on whether the former secretary of state traded influence for donations to the Clinton Foundation, there are other important stories about U.S. diplomacy from 2009-2013.

In particular, Buzzfeed explores how Russia attempted to use former action movie star Steven Seagal as an diplomatic intermediary with the United States.

The article is a great read but, not spoil it too much, the guy who played the lead role in 1992 action classic Under Siege isn’t exactly the reincarnation of Metternich.

4.16pm ET21:16

Hillary Clinton went over familiar ground again today and took a question from reporters about the controversy surrounding her use of a “homebrew private email server” while secretary of state.

Clinton said that questions about her email are “distractions from what this campaign should be about, and what I’m gonna make this campaign about.”

While Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email account for official business was first reported in March, it came to light recently that the State Department ignored congressional inquiries on the subject nearly two years ago.

4.10pm ET21:10

While Clinton is under scrutiny today for donations to the Clinton Foundation, it’s worth noting yet another alternate skeptical take on the former first lady.

Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news website, has complied a series of GIFs to illustrate how “Hillary Clinton Is Lucille Bluth, Explained.”

The article notes a number of similarities that Stiles sees between the former secretary of state and the character from Arrested Development, including “the Bluth family, like the Clinton family, was under investigation for shady dealings with foreign governments” and “Lucille, like Hillary, was the true mastermind behind all of the schemes.”

3.53pm ET20:53

In lighter news today, the New York Post floated the idea that Bill DeBlasio is contemplating a run for president.

According to an unnamed operative, DeBlasio is planning to run against Clinton with the backing of labor unions and the Working Families Party, a powerful New York based third party.

The idea of the New York mayor and longtime Clinton ally is running for president is relatively laughable. No New York mayor has ever come close to being elected president in modern history. (Although DeWitt Clinton did snag the nomination of the Federalist Party in 1812, the more recent campaigns of John Lindsey and Rudy Giuliani have ended in failure).

However, at least one person in American politics thinks a DeBlasio run is a good idea, discredited political pundit Dick Morris.

!! Dick Morris says Bill de Blasio "would make a very potent candidate" in 2016 !! https://t.co/arKK9e38Ux

3.34pm ET20:34

Also, if readers have any dirt on Hillary Clinton which they would like to share, Rand Paul has a drop box for them.

As my former colleague Olivia Nuzzi at The Daily Beast reports, the Paul campaign is trying to “crowdsource” information on Clinton and her alleged shady dealings.

Needless to say, after giving this information in a form on Paul’s website (which also asks for a name and email address), users are asked to make a contribution to the Kentucky senator’s presidential campaign.

3.11pm ET20:11

Hillary Clinton is now taking a question about the allegations in the forthcoming book Clinton Cash about whether she traded favors in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation while secretary of state. She seems to be dismissing the allegations as partisan according to reporters on the scene.

"It is worth noting the Republicans seem to be talking only about me." - Clinton pic.twitter.com/KVHynuxMZl

.@HillaryClinton responds to book on @ClintonFdn money, says campaigning invites "distractions and attacks, and I'm ready for that."

Updated at 3.14pm ET

3.07pm ET20:07

My colleague in Keene, Dan Roberts, suggests that Clinton will talk to the press shortly.

Since the former secretary of state announced she was running for president last week, Clinton has taken only two questions from reporters in a brief availability held following a similar event in Monticello, Iowa last Tuesday.

3.03pm ET20:03

The event now seems to be wrapping up with Clinton taking a picture with participants. She says then that “she’ll go say hello to some of her friends in the crowd.” In the meantime, the former secretary of state is exchanging pleasantries with those who sat at the table with her.

3.01pm ET20:01

Hillary Clinton doesn’t offer specifics in answer to small business owner Doug Stabler about proposals to reduce the tax writeoffs for capital improvements. However, Clinton does emphasize she will not do anything to make things more difficult for Stabler and other small businesses like his.

She also goes off on a mild tangent attacking the carried interest loophole in the tax code.

2.56pm ET19:56

In non Hillary news, Washington political journalism has long been a competitive cutthroat business but the field is set to grow even more crowded this weekend. For red carpet coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner, (the annual gathering of reporters, politicians and B-list celebrities called “nerd prom”) Bloomberg has hired New York Knicks great, Walt “Clyde” Frazier.

Frazier who is well known for his immaculate tailoring and extensive vocabulary – he is perhaps the only play by play announcer to use the word “splendiferous – is likely to add a new dimension to Washington reporting.

2.53pm ET19:53

Hillary Clinton is now discussing the importance of vocational education to train people to be “electricians and welders” and embracing the Obama administration’s proposal to make community college free.

So far, while she’s emphasizing the importance of workers learning skills without going to college, she hasn’t quite gone as far as Rick Santorum did in 2012. The former Pennsylvania senator said then “Not all folks are gifted in the same way. Some people have incredible gifts with their hands. . . . President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob.”

2.42pm ET19:42

Clinton now seems to be going after those Republicans who are pushing entitlement reform and raising the retirement age like Chris Christie.

“There’s a lot of loose talk about Social Security,” she says.

She’s criticizing “privatizing” the program. However, she also isn’t addressing the arguments from Democrats who want to expand the program as well.

Updated at 2.42pm ET

2.36pm ET19:36

Hillary Clinton is now suggesting there needs to be more anti-drug messaging for young people and noting the newfound popularity of “pills.”

This is an anti-drug commercial from the 1980s.

2.33pm ET19:33

Clinton is now talking about a “quiet epidemic” of drug abuse and cites “pills, meth and heroin” as drugs which especially plague rural areas.

The former secretary of state is using this to pivot about the need for increased funding for mental health issues (something that she categorizes substance abuse as) and says it will something she will emphasize throughout her campaign.

She cites as an example of this problem the drug epidemic in rural Indiana which has led to over 100 cases of HIV in one country alone due to addicts sharing needles.

2.28pm ET19:28

And now there is something vaguely resembling news.

One of Clinton’s talking points has been the importance of defending United States from “threats seen and unseen.” She noted today that threats unseen includes “pandemic diseases and cyber warfare.”

It’s worth noting that if you want to learn more about cyber warfare, perhaps the best guide to the subject is my former colleague Shane Harris’s book @war.

2.24pm ET19:24

So far, if you’re looking for news from the event, Clinton is for small businesses and American industry while against student debt.

Needless to say, this jibes with reporting from Buzzfeed’s Ruby Cramer about Clinton’s strategy, which is to avoid the nitty gritty of policy. As she reported Sunday “Voters shouldn’t expect a detailed policy agenda until summer or fall, aides have said.”

2.20pm ET19:20

In case you’re wondering, Clinton did not stop at a Chipotle on the way to Keene today.

Per the pool report from Amy Chozick of the New York Times, the former secretary of state stopped at “Kristin’s Bakery and Cafe in Keene, NH, a quaint spot with loaves of homemade bread and pasties. Specials of the day written on a chalkboard included herbed haddock chowder and vegetable pot pie.”

The former secretary of state didn’t avail herself of the chowder. Instead, she simply ordered a black tea and milk. Chozick was escorted out shortly afterwards and was unable to report any details about Clinton’s conversations with patrons.

Updated at 2.21pm ET

2.17pm ET19:17

Everyone participating in the roundtable today with Hillary Clinton is an employee of Whitney Brothers, Inc, which is the children’s furniture company where the event is held.

Further, lest you think some of the attendees are not actually from New Hampshire, we’ve already one participant pronounce the word “ideas” as if it had the letter R in it.

2.13pm ET19:13

So C-Span doesn’t have live footage of Hillary’s roundtable yet but the Guardian’s own Dan Roberts is on the scene and Periscoping. Check it out:

LIVE on #Periscope: LIVE: watch Hillary Clinton make her 2016 campaign debut in New Hampshire and.. er, some furnit… https://t.co/IuwFmEdegG

2.09pm ET19:09

There are 19 potential Republican candidates for the White House in 2016 and the Washington Post’s Ben Terris spent time with some of those less likely to win the nomination this weekend.

Terris describes perhaps the least likely candidate of those 19, a man named Dennis Michael Lynch, suffering the ultimate insult; getting burned by Lindsey Graham.

In the case of Dennis Michael Lynch, a documentary filmmaker and Fox News personality, it took a $10,000 donation to the New Hampshire Republican Party.

“A lot of you are probably sitting here and thinking, ‘Wait a minute — did he just say president 2016? Who is this guy?’ ” said Lynch, a tough-guy New Yorker with a powerful quiff of black hair who got his speaking gig after shelling out to be a platinum sponsor for the First in the Nation Leadership Summit. “I get it. I’m not even a dark horse. I’m like a dark pony.”

Lynch may lack money, name recognition or any campaign infrastructure — but he said he has thousands of letters urging him to run from fans of his various films about immigration (he brought DVDs to hand out), and he promised to “wipe ISIS off the face of the earth.”

“Don’t ignore him,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, who had come to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the small state’s second largest town because he is thinking about launching his own long-shot, but still infinitely more plausible, bid for the White House. “I will, though, because I don’t know who he is.”

The joke was too good for him to stop. “We aren’t going to take him for granted,” Graham deadpanned. “We’re going to kill him early. Go negative on him.”

Updated at 2.11pm ET

1.57pm ET18:57

Clinton’s roundtable is due to start any minute in Keene. So far she’s only running 10 minutes behind which would be a relatively early start by Clinton standards.

So far at the scene, people are peering in the windows in hopes of catching a glimpse of the former secretary of state

A few people have gathered outside Clinton's event in Keene and are now peering through windows to catch a look. pic.twitter.com/C8k6ymdjG9

And there is a small group of supporters standing outside in the rain who are hoping to see Clinton as well.

About 25 supporters standing in cold rain for Hillary, hoping she comes out to chat with them. pic.twitter.com/AnZpSSksb8

1.45pm ET18:45

Hillary Clinton’s roundtable in Keene, New Hampshire is due to start any minute. If you’re anxious to see what the room will look like, Buzzfeed’s Ruby Cramer has a picture of the rather spare furniture warehouse here.

.@HillaryClinton about to host her first roundtable in NH here at this small furniture biz Whitney Brothers, est 1904 pic.twitter.com/cK7uwiIoOA

1.43pm ET18:43

Jeb Bush will take his potential presidential campaign to Europe this spring, according to Reuters.

The former Florida governor will travel to Germany, Poland and Estonia in early June and become the latest GOP presidential candidate to try to burnish his foreign policy credentials overseas.

However, foreign trips have proven disastrous for Republicans in the recent past. So far this year, Scott Walker has awkwardly ducked questions about foreign policy and even evolution while in Europe and Chris Christie gave an awkward response to a question about vaccination.

Perhaps the worst trip abroad by a Republican was in 2012 when Mitt Romney visited England and Poland. In England, Romney was mocked by London Mayor Boris Johnson over his skepticism about the British capital’s readiness to host the Olympics. In Poland, a Romney press aide started cursing at reporters.

The Bush camp is obviously hoping its trip abroad can be more successful than these.

1.32pm ET18:32

If you didn’t think there were enough potential Republican presidential candidates, Ohio governor John Kasich spoke in New Hampshire this weekend and said he’s still contemplating entering the race.

Kasich took one step towards running today by setting up a superPAC which will be advised by former New Hampshire senator John Sununu.

Kasich's 527, New Day for America, is now live with the IRS. John E. Sununu, the former NH senator, is on the board. http://t.co/1gCH3HphhY

However, he is still waiting for a signal from God before formally deciding whether to run.

1.27pm ET18:27

Just like her trip to Iowa, Clinton is driving to New Hampshire from her home in Chappaqua, New York.

This time though, the drive is far less impressive.

Clinton and a small number of aides left this morning in the "Scooby" van, the aide said. The drive is 181 miles or roughly 3 hours.

1.26pm ET18:26

Clinton may be in New Hampshire today but roughly 19 different Republican hopefuls were in the state this weekend for a cattle call held by the New Hampshire GOP. The Guardian’s Nicky Woolf was there and had a mildly overwhelming experience. In his sketch of the event, he describes the great pride New Hampshirites take in their “First In The Nation” primary.

However, his most remarkable reporting of the weekend came on Twitter where he livetweeted a convention of the New Hampshire Young Republicans. Check out this Storify to not only get a sense of the ridiculousness but to discover Nicky’s favorite sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings.

1.25pm ET18:25

One of the hottest topics on the Republican side this week is whether GOP candidates would attend a gay wedding of a close friend or relative.

The controversy was prompted when Marco Rubio said he would attend a same-sex wedding, despite being personally opposed to gay marriage. Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt followed up asking Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz, who were both guests on his show, the same question. Santorum said he would not attend and Cruz dodged the question.

However, perhaps the most original answer came from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who said this weekend that while he hasn’t attended a gay wedding, he has attended a wedding reception for a same sex couple.

1.23pm ET18:23

Roger Ailes, the powerful head of Fox News, compared Ted Cruz with a Republican president in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It may not quite be the comparison Cruz wants though.

Ailes said of the first term senator’s chances:

“Listen, we elected Warren G. Harding. Anybody has a chance. You don’t know who you’re going to be running against. If the other guy falls on his rear end, you could win.”

While the comparison isn’t all bad---Harding was a Republican senator who succeeded a controversial two-term Democrat in the White House, but it’s pretty bad. Harding is widely considered one of the worst presidents in American history and his administration was mired in scandal.

On the bright side though, Harding did inspire this great piece by H.L. Mencken.

1.22pm ET18:22

No one would argue that Rick Perry is the smartest candidate running for President in 2016. The former Texas governor, who famously flubbed which three government agencies he would abolish during his 2012 run for the Oval Office, has said “running for President is not an IQ test.”

However, Perry has hired one of top intellectuals in conservative circles to be a policy advisor. RICKPAC announced today that it had hired Avik Roy, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, to be a senior advisor on his campaign. Roy was Mitt Romney’s health care policy wonk in 2012 and is one of the most respected health care policy thinkers on either side of the aisle.

1.16pm ET18:16

For those longing for “the good old days,” as opposed to packaged campaigns of today, it’s worth noting that the good old days weren’t particularly good. If you need a reminder, it’s worth checking out Joe McGinniss’s classic “The Selling of The President,” which described how a young public relations whiz named Roger Ailes sold Richard Nixon to voters like a brand of toothpaste.

Speaking of which, it’s worth noting that a top Clinton aide told Glenn Thrush at Politico that the highlight of her first week on the campaign trail was the Aaron Hernandez verdict. Why? Because it helped the attention off Clinton and kept the campaign’s soft launch as low profile as possible.

1.16pm ET18:16

Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and potential Democratic candidate, has long shied away from direct attacks on Hillary Clinton. But he doesn’t seem to have any hesitations about working blue.

In an interview with NPR broadcast on Monday, O’Malley attacked those Republicans arguing that government was the cause of poverty:

“It’s not true that regulation holds poor people down or regulation keeps middle class from advancing. That’s kind of patently bullshit.”

So O’Malley now has used what newspapers used to call “a barnyard expletive” in an interview about as many times as he has directly called out Hillary Clinton by name.

But, with a commanding lead in the Democratic primary right now, one pundit thinks Clinton’s greatest threat is more likely to come from Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon than Maryland’s O’Malley.

In a column for the Daily Telegraph, Matt Lewis writes:

This all sounds petty and superficial; the best ridicule usually is. The more one watches the coverage of Mrs Clinton, the more it becomes apparent that it won’t be the serious scandals – the Benghazis or the private email account – that will matter. Rather, the much greater danger is that she could become a joke.

Unlike Barack Obama’s early days, Mrs Clinton isn’t viewed as “off limits” to the entertainment and media worlds. And unlike her husband, former president Bill Clinton, Mrs Clinton must get elected in a world where conservative websites and citizen journalists with camera phones are ubiquitous.

Mrs Clinton seems temperamentally unsuited to overcome this problem. SNL skits from the 1990s showing her husband jogging to McDonald’s felt almost endearing. Mr Clinton’s affable – almost childlike – charm allowed him to be in on the joke. But Mrs Clinton is a serious adult, and this is a problem.

Saturday Night Live is currently showing reruns through the end of April, but Clinton may still bearing some scars from McKinnon’s lampoon of her, which aired on the eve of the former secretary of state’s announcement.

1.12pm ET18:12

Good afternoon and welcome to week two of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Last week featured one stop at Chipotle and few, if any, unstaged opportunities for voters and reporters to engage with the former secretary of state. This week is not expected to be much different. Clinton is holding two public events in New Hampshire:

Both events, just like two in Iowa last week, will feature Clinton sitting down with pre-screened attendees and chatting in front of a handful of reporters. Republicans are up to their own antics after a weekend in New Hampshire of their own – and a new anti-Clinton book on the way. We’ll try and make sense of things from in and around the Granite State and the world of politics. Only 568 days till election day!