Presumptuous Politics

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Belgian bloodbath shakes up campaign as Trump is first to call morning shows

When the awful news broke about the terrorist attacks in Belgium, the “Today” show asked Donald Trump to call in, which he promptly did.
Matt Lauer said the NBC show also asked for a phoner with Hillary Clinton, and she declined. Later, though, she apparently had a change of heart and phoned in as well.
A small thing, to be sure, and I hesitate to inject presidential politics into a tragic event that left more than 30 people dead at the Brussels airport and a subway station.
But terrorism is a central issue in this campaign, and the news came on a day when Utah, Arizona and Idaho were voting in primaries and caucuses.
The fact that “Today” and “Fox & Friends” had Trump call in underscores how he’s now thought of as a potential commander-in-chief. When he told Lauer that “I would be very, very tough on the borders,” it was a reminder that Trump’s terror talk—bomb the S out of ISIS, temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S.—has boosted his popularity among Republican voters.
Trump’s aggressive stance—he called Brussels “a total mess” and also talked about the need to waterboard terror suspects—set up a stark contrast with the former secretary of State. She said that torture is not effective and would put our own citizens and soldiers at risk. And, Clinton said, “It's unrealistic to say we're going to completely shut down our borders to everyone. That would stop commerce, for example, and that's not in anybody's interest.” She also phoned in to “Good Morning America.”
The death toll in Belgium is going to change the tenor of the campaign for some time to come, even though it is difficult to hold the Obama administration accountable for every attack around the world. The president was out of position, going through the planned activities on his historic visit to Cuba. He asked his Cuban hosts to “please indulge me” as he devoted a total of six sentences to condemning “these outrageous attacks against innocent people.”
That is reminiscent of Obama’s tepid reaction to the Paris attacks, which caused him to try several more times to appear more empathetic. The Paris massacre, followed by the mass killing in San Bernardino, also transformed the campaign and, in my view, helped Trump. But given the media’s notoriously short attention span, coverage of those two calamities eventually faded as the campaign turned into a festival of insults.
Ted Cruz and John Kasich also responded aggressively to the Belgian bloodbath yesterday, but the twin “Today” invitations to the front-runners tells you something about how the media view the race.
While Clinton can draw on her diplomatic experience in talking about terror, she is to some degree hamstrung by the need not to break openly with the president she served.
The violence in Brussels took place hours after Trump, Clinton, Cruz and Kasich—but not Bernie Sanders—addressed AIPAC and spoke of the U.S. role in protecting Israel. The attack on a NATO ally also happened the day after Trump told the Washington Post that the U.S. should diminish its role in NATO and is bearing too much of the financial burden—something we’re likely to hear more about in the coming days.
Indeed, Clinton later told MSNBC that some candidates don't understand the importance of NATO.
The media have been obsessed lately with delegate math and the skirmishes that have broken out at Trump rallies. Unfortunately, it took far more damaging violence to remind everyone of the stakes in this campaign.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Veterans Benefits Administration chief suspended in relocation scam

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain.
Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months.
Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday.
Pummill is one of VA's five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA's employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.
Under VA rules, Pummill can appeal his suspension to an independent arbiter.
Pummill was the VBA's deputy chief when Rubens and Graves implemented the job relocations, which put both of them closer to their families. Pummill replaced former VBA chief Allison Hickey, who retired as allegations against Rubens and Graves were made public.
Rubens earns $181,497 as director of the VBA's Philadelphia regional office, while Graves receives $173,949 as head of the St. Paul, Minnesota, benefits office.
Graves and Rubens were reprimanded Tuesday and had their pay cut by 10 percent. The two women were reinstated to their positions last month after administrative judges overturned their demotions.
The judges based their rulings, in part, on the fact that more senior officials such as Pummill had not been disciplined in the case. In a related action, the VA said it has reprimanded Beth McCoy, director of field operations for the VBA. Gibson said McCoy did not exercise proper judgment in taking over for Rubens as heads of field operations.
Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. "Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America's veterans," he said.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the actions "a weak slap on the wrist."
Accountability at the VA "is almost non-existent," Miller said. "One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving."

Cruz, not Kasich, snags mainstream GOP endorsements

Top GOP "establishment" figures keep lining up behind self-described “outsider” Ted Cruz in what appears to be a concerted bid to keep front-runner Donald Trump from running away with the nomination -- yet raising the question of whether they've ruled out John Kasich entirely.
Jeb Bush’s Wednesday endorsement of the Texas senator is the latest backing that would have been almost unthinkable even six months ago.
Bush’s thumbs-up for the firebrand conservative follows similar support from 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and, perhaps even more surprising, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham -- who once remarked that if someone shot Cruz in the Senate, no senator would convict the shooter.
The endorsements have all been carefully tailored to show they are uniting behind Cruz as the best bet to thwart Trump.
“For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama’s failed policies,” Bush said in a statement Wednesday.
“The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention,” said Romney in backing Cruz last week. “At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.”
While it seems apparent that the endorsements are more anti-Trump than pro-Cruz, it is notable that the so-called establishment appears to be ignoring the more moderate Ohio Gov. Kasich.
The most obvious reason for this is the sheer delegate count. Behind Trump’s 739 delegates, Cruz has 465 and Kasich has 143. While Cruz’s path is slim to an outright majority, Kasich has no path to clinching the nomination without a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

Delegates Awarded to Current Republican Candidates | InsideGov

Cruz's performance to date, as Romney suggests, also could make him the best vehicle for drawing delegates away from Trump in the remaining contests and holding him under the 1,237 delegate threshold to clinch the nomination.
GOP strategist Ron Bonjean says the logic makes sense.
“Establishment Republicans are now gravitating towards Cruz because of the simple delegate math that shows there is absolutely no way Kasich can win unless there is a brokered convention,” he told FoxNews.com.
Yet, Bonjean notes that should a contested convention arise, things could change, and these same Republicans might move to back Kasich.
“Of course, this support for Cruz could change the very minute there is a brokered convention to Kasich or someone else," Bonjean said.
Team Kasich has a powerful argument in its pocket.
While Kasich is significantly behind Cruz in terms of delegates, his head-to-head polling numbers against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton blow Cruz’s out of the water. A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday gives Kasich an eight-point lead against Clinton in a general election matchup, while finding Trump loses to Clinton by six and Cruz by three.
The Kasich camp is hammering this point, perhaps hoping those siding with Cruz now might indeed reconsider at a contested convention.
In a campaign memo released Wednesday, chief strategist John Weaver cited a number of polls showing Kasich to be the best bet against Clinton, and called him the key to stopping Trump.
“Moving forward, Gov. Kasich is the key to our party’s hope of stopping Donald Trump and the potential disastrous consequences of his nomination,” Weaver wrote. “Assertions to the contrary are misleading. They are disingenuous attempts to mislead Republicans and hand the nomination to Donald Trump.”
Weaver went on to write that Kasich is the best candidate to have for candidates down the ballot, and to unite the party.
That argument appears to have been ineffective with many senior Republicans. Romney, in his statement endorsing Cruz, recognized how he has campaigned with Kasich, but suggested backing Kasich is a non-starter.
“I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail,” Romney said.
Kasich’s campaign memo seems to indicate something similar. Perhaps recognizing that Kasich’s best path to the nomination lies in a contested convention, Weaver calls Kasich “the best choice at the Convention.”
Trump, meanwhile, is keeping busy taunting those Republicans suddenly endorsing Cruz. He tweeted Wednesday:

Fox News Poll: Cruz, Kasich ahead of Clinton in 2016 hypothetical matchups

Republicans are eager to win back the White House in 2016. A new Fox News national poll finds both John Kasich and Ted Cruz ahead of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in hypothetical matchups, while Donald Trump trails her.
Kasich does best against Clinton. He has a double-digit advantage and also comes in above the 50 percent mark: 51 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent.
Cruz is preferred over Clinton by three percentage points (47-44 percent).
Clinton tops GOP front-runner Donald Trump by 11 points (49-38 percent).
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
The Ohio governor’s advantage comes mostly from independents; they support him over Clinton by 36 points. Plus, Kasich steals the largest number of Democrats (17 percent).
Kasich and Cruz also outperform Trump against Bernie Sanders. The Democrat leads Trump by 14 points -- and tops Cruz by a narrower four-point margin. Kasich has a one-point edge over Sanders (44-43 percent).
Slightly more voters would be satisfied if the presidential race is ultimately a Clinton-Cruz matchup (72 percent satisfied with their candidate choices) than if it ends up being Clinton and Trump (67 percent satisfied).
If it is Clinton-Trump in November, more than four in 10 Cruz supporters say they would seriously consider voting for a third party candidate (34 percent) or just stay home (10 percent). (There are too few Kasich supporters to facilitate a comparable breakout.)
Overall, only 16 percent of voters would feel “enthusiastic” if Clinton were to become the next president. Even so, that’s enough for a “win” on this measure. Fourteen percent would feel “enthusiastic” about a Sanders win, and 13 percent each about a Cruz or Trump win.
Almost half of all voters would feel “scared” if Trump (49 percent) were to win the White House, while 33 percent say the same about Clinton. Trump has the largest number of Republicans saying they would feel scared if he wins (25 percent), while Kasich has the smallest (7 percent).
More Republicans would feel “enthusiastic” or “pleased” with a Cruz win (57 percent), than with a Kasich (48 percent) or Trump (51 percent) victory.
By comparison, 72 percent of Democrats would feel “enthusiastic” or “pleased” if Clinton won. And Sanders is close behind at 61 percent.
Kasich is the only candidate who receives more positive reactions (enthusiastic/pleased) to him winning than negative ones (displeased/scared). In addition, more voters -- some 37 percent -- would feel “neutral” about him becoming president than say the same of any other candidate.
When it comes to picking justices for the U.S. Supreme Court, majorities of Americans feel confident with Kasich (62 percent), Cruz (55 percent), and Sanders (54 percent). Half feel confident about Clinton (50 percent) making those decisions, and fewer than 4 in 10 say the same about Trump (38 percent).

Honest & Trustworthy
The two current front-runners are also battling for the worst honesty ratings: 64 percent of voters say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, while 65 percent feel that way about Trump.
Some 34 percent say Clinton is honest (a new low) and 64 percent say she’s not (a new high) -- for a net negative honesty rating of 30 points. Trump’s net rating is about the same (-32 points).
Cruz (+2 points), Kasich (+38 points), and Sanders (+39 points) each get positive honesty scores.
Sanders (+71 points) dwarfs Clinton (+39 points) on net honesty among self-identified Democrats.
Among self-identified Republicans, each of the GOP candidates has a net positive honesty score, yet there is significant range in the scores: Kasich (+58 points), Cruz (+40 points), and Trump (+14 points).

Pollpourri
When the two leading major party candidates are distrusted by a majority of voters, it’s no wonder 82 percent of voters say they are nervous about American politics, while 11 percent are feeling confident.
Nearly three times as many are confident about the economy today (30 percent).
To be sure, people still have economic jitters: 61 percent are nervous about the economy, up a bit from 55 percent a year ago (March 2015). Nervousness hit a high of 70 percent in 2010.
Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to feel nervous about the economy, however roughly 8 in 10 Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike are worried about American politics.
Some 49 percent of Democrats are confident about the economy, down from 61 percent last year.
Most Republicans continue to feel uneasy: 81 percent now compared to 75 percent in 2015.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,016 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from March 20-22, 2016. The full sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Second suspect reportedly sought in Brussels subway bombing

Authorities are searching for a second possible suspect in Tuesday morning's suicide bombing of a subway in central Brussels, Belgian and French media reported Thursday.
The French newspaper Le Monde and the Belgian public broadcaster RBTF reported that a man carrying a large bag was seen on CCTV walking with Khalid El Bakraoui, whom authorities believe blew himself up on a train at the Maelbeek station, killing at least 20 people.
It was not immediately clear whether the unidentified man survived the blast. Neither media outlet published the CCTV images in their initial reports and Belgian prosecutors had no immediate comment.
The report came as Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was due to appear in court to face magistrates after his arrest last week in the same Brussels neighborhood where he grew up. France is seeking his extradition to face potential terrorism charges for his involvement in the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. A judge is to decide whether Abdeslam should be held in custody another month.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation.
Belgian police were already searching for a man seen at Brussels Zaventem airport with two other suicide bombers, identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, Khalid's older brother, and Najim Laachraoui, who was already suspected of constructing the bombs used in the Paris attacks.
RTBF also reported Thursday that a message found on Ibrahim El Bakraoui's computer Tuesday night does not name Abdeslam, as had previously been suspected.
According to the broadcaster, El Bakraoui referenced Mohammed Bakkali, who was arrested last November following the Paris attacks and is suspected of renting out two hideouts to the ISIS cell in Belgium. He is also accused of spying on a top Belgian nuclear official.
"I don't know what to do, I'm in a hurry, people are looking for me everywhere," chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw quoted the message as saying. "If I give myself up I'll end up in a cell next to him."
The message points to a rising sense of panic among the three suicide bombers.
Police were drawn to the brothers' apartment Tuesday night thanks to a tip from a taxi driver who had unwittingly delivered them to the airport, Van Leeuw said. Inside the northeast Brussels residence they found an apparent bomb-making factory, including 33 pounds of homemade explosives and nails for use as shrapnel.
Neighbors told The Associated Press they had no idea of the brothers' activities and barely saw them until the taxi collected them and their visibly heavy bags Tuesday morning.
One neighbor, who was willing to give only his first name of Erdine, said he was about to drive his son to school when he saw the two men carrying their bags out of the building.
"The taxi driver tried to get the luggage. And the other guy reached for it like he was saying: No, I'll take it," the neighbor said.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Terrorist Cartoon

Cruz campaign clarifies call to 'patrol and secure' Muslim neighborhoods

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s campaign on Tuesday clarified controversial comments suggesting surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods should be intensified following the deadly bombings on Brussels' airport and subway.
Earlier in the day, the Texas senator said in a statement: "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."
After facing criticism for the comments, the campaign said Tuesday afternoon that the candidate is trying to say that police should have “every tool available” to provide security.
"We know what is happening with these isolated Muslim neighborhoods in Europe. If we want to prevent it from happening here, it is going to require an empowered, visible law enforcement presence that will both identify problem spots and partner with non-radical Americans who want to protect their homes,” campaign Press Secretary Catherine Frazier said in a statement.
She went on to cite the example of New York City pulling back on law enforcement efforts with Muslim communities, and said: “Ted Cruz will never allow political correctness to drive decisions about our security. ... The police should have every tool available to follow leads and take action against those who would do us harm.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, earlier had condemned Cruz's suggestion of surveillance, saying it sends "an alarming message to American-Muslims who increasingly fear for their future in this nation and to all Americans who value the Constitution and religious liberties."
The Islamic State has taken credit for the Brussels attacks that killed dozens Tuesday and wounded many more. The attacks quickly dominated the discussion on the U.S. presidential campaign trail.
Donald Trump, who spoke to Fox News as developments in Brussels were unfolding, said he had warned about such attacks. "Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime, and now it's a disaster city. A total disaster," he said.
Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, campaigning in Arizona on Tuesday, said boosting national security and protecting civil rights must go hand-in-hand. He said he strongly disagrees with calls by some Republicans for heightened domestic surveillance of Muslims.
"That would be unconstitutional -- it would be wrong," Sanders said.
Asked about Cruz's earlier comment, none of a half-dozen conservative House Republicans meeting with reporters Tuesday criticized him and most spoke of the need to keep the country safe.
"Nearly every neighborhood is patrolled. That's what local law enforcement does," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who has endorsed Cruz. He said he didn't know specifically what Cruz was referring to.

Immigrants from terror hubs claiming 'credible fear' to seek US asylum


How Syrian refugee crisis could impact sanctions on Russia

Hundreds of illegal immigrants from terror hotspots are using what critics describe as loopholes in U.S. immigration policy to try to remain in the country indefinitely, according to data obtained by Congress.
Taking a page from the playbook used by Central American women and children to gain U.S. entry, hundreds of immigrants from Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran and Syria caught entering the U.S. last year made asylum claims to avoid deportation – and, in doing so, asserted they had a “credible fear of persecution.”
This phrase is important because it allows them to be released and work in the U.S. Prior to 2009, the U.S. held in custody many asylum seekers entering the U.S. illegally until their cases were resolved in court -- but an Obama administration policy change allowed those fearing persecution to be released.
The finding that asylum seekers from turbulent Middle Eastern and African countries are now using this phrase to gain entry and remain on U.S. soil has raised security concerns on Capitol Hill.
"These numbers illustrate vulnerabilities throughout our immigration system," Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said Tuesday. "Dangerous criminals and potential terrorists are gaming the system without consequence. The Obama administration is compromising our national security and safety for its political agenda."
DeSantis, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on the potential threat posed by these individuals in light of the Paris and Brussels attacks. His subcommittee obtained the findings on the methods being using to remain in the U.S. Witnesses set to appear at the hearing Wednesday are Ronald Vitiello, acting chief of the U.S. Border Patrol; and Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Stats obtained by the subcommittee from October 2014 to September 2015 show that the bulk of the “credible fear” claims still are coming from Central American and Mexican immigrants. But 80 were from Syrian nationals, 191 were from Pakistani nationals, and 776 were from Somalian nationals.
"They are coming through the backdoor," Judd said. "Do I believe they have a credible fear? In a small percentage, maybe. But the vast majority we arrest are telling our agents that they are coming because they know they will be released. That's why they are coming."
Judd said illegal immigrants have found a second loophole as well. By claiming they arrived in the U.S. before 2014, immigrants are able to avoid detention and deportation.
Here's why:
In January 2014, President Obama announced his “priorities” program, which ordered agents to worry chiefly about criminals, national security risks and illegal immigrants who came into the U.S. after that date. Judd claims supervisors at the Mexican and Canadian borders have told agents not to bother turning other immigrants over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since "they won't be deported anyway."
"President Obama said we need to take these people out of the shadows. The fact is we took them out, and now we are releasing them right back into the shadows. What was the point?” he said. “The court system is so backlogged, we're told they are never going to see a judge anyway. So just let them go."
In the past, illegal immigrants from outside Mexico were subject to expedited removal. The process allowed agents to deport non-citizens without going through a formal and lengthy removal proceeding before an immigration judge.
Now, however, Judd said anyone who claims they've been living in the U.S. continuously from prior to 2014 is not even being turned over to ICE and given a “Notice to Appear” in court. Fox News confirmed the practice with sources in two border sectors.
"At least a NTA required them to show up in court. What we have now is amnesty through policy," Judd said. "We are flat-out letting them go."
Requests for comment from the Department of Homeland Security were not returned.

Trump lashes out over hostile ad featuring his wife, vows to 'spill the beans' on Cruz spouse

The rivalry between Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and challenger Ted Cruz turned personal Tuesday after the real estate mogul lashed out at a hostile ad featuring his wife Melania.
The ad, paid for by the anti-Trump Make America Awesome PAC, shows a nude photo of Trump's wife from a GQ magazine shoot. Overlying text reads, "Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could vote for Ted Cruz on Tuesday."
Liz Mair, a Republican strategist in charge of the PAC, told Buzzfeed News that the Melania ad was one of three targeting Mormons of voting age ahead of Tuesday's Utah caucuses.
Trump deleted an initial response to the tweet, before ultimately posting this message.
Cruz shot back with a tweet of his own.
Mair tried to clear up the confusion with her own response to Trump. Check out Twitter / @realDonaldTrump

Trump, Clinton win Arizona prize; rivals notch victories in Utah, Idaho

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton padded their delegate totals with convincing wins in the valuable Arizona primary Tuesday night – but their respective rivals, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, kept the race alive with victories in the Utah and Idaho caucuses.
The Associated Press projected Vermont Sen. Sanders and Texas Sen. Cruz the winners of the Utah contest early Wednesday morning. Idaho’s Democratic-only caucuses were called for Sanders.
Though Arizona was the biggest prize on the map in Tuesday's Western contests, Sanders and Cruz won their states by huge, double-digit margins. Cruz took all of Utah's delegates by finishing with more than 50 percent of the vote.
Together, the Western contests seemed to leave the race in a familiar place: with the front-runners building their tallies and trying to shift to a general election mindset, yet unable to shake underdog rivals buoyed by their own victories and finding reason to press on.
With Sanders' two wins, he roughly split Tuesday's delegate haul with Clinton. And Cruz’s victory in Utah indeed slows Trump’s march toward the nomination on the GOP side.
Yet both candidates continue to trail significantly, and Trump still will walk away from Tuesday’s Western state races with more delegates. That’s because Arizona, as the largest remaining winner-take-all contest on the map, will allocate all 58 of its delegates to the billionaire businessman.
In Utah, 40 were at stake.
On both sides, the contests were being held in the shadow of the deadly terror attack in Brussels, a tragedy that brought national security and foreign policy hurtling back to the forefront of the campaign trail debate.
Clinton, at an event in Seattle ahead of Saturday’s Democratic contest there, touted her Arizona win -- before pivoting to take shots at the Republican candidates for their response.
Citing hardline proposals from Trump and Cruz in the aftermath of the Brussels attack, she said: “The last thing we need, my friends, are leaders who incite more fear.”
Sanders, though, showed no signs of slowing down even as Clinton seemed to look past him. He rallied a crowd of cheering supporters in San Diego just minutes earlier, railing against his usual targets: a “rigged economy” and “corrupt campaign finance system.”
“We are doing something very unusual in modern American politics. We are telling the truth,” Sanders said.
At stake on the Democratic side Tuesday were 75 delegates in Arizona; 33 delegates in Utah; and 23 in Idaho.
Meanwhile, a frenzy of activity and turnout snarled polling places earlier Tuesday across the Western contests, leading to waits of over two hours at some locations in Arizona. In Utah, the state Democratic Party's website crashed due to high traffic. And Democratic leaders kept locations open longer than planned in Idaho.
The Western state contests, for Republicans in particular, marked one of the last chances to set the tone of the race before a lull in the primary calendar. Democrats have another round of contests this weekend, but Republicans will compete in only one state over the course of the next four weeks.
Amid efforts by his rivals to force an “open” convention in July, Trump has voiced confidence in recent days that he can clinch the GOP nomination by winning 1,237 delegates before then. Both Trump and Clinton have been eager to turn to a general election battle, each expecting to face the other in November.
But Trump likely will have to wait at least until late April, when the next round of major contests is held, to have a chance at driving his remaining rivals out of the race.
On the Democratic side, Sanders is clinging to hope that as the race turns from Clinton’s Southern stronghold to Western and other states, he can start to make up his gaping delegate deficit. His road to victory remains incredibly narrow.
The underdogs’ goal on the Republican side may be more attainable: Win just enough delegates to hold Trump under the requisite 1,237 delegates and trigger a contested convention in Cleveland.
As of early Wednesday morning, Trump had 739 delegates to Cruz’s 465. Ohio Gov. John Kasich trailed with 143.
From the start, Arizona's primary seemed custom-made for a Trump victory. The state has long dealt with illegal immigration problems, and the Republican front-runner's central campaign promise is to build a wall across the entire southern U.S. border. Trump also enjoyed the backing of former Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, two of the most outspoken voices on illegal immigration.
Yet Cruz was poised to do well in Utah. Mormons are a large voting bloc there, and Trump lost to Cruz in Mormon-heavy Idaho earlier this month. Fellow Mormon and outspoken Trump critic Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, also pushed to get out the vote for Cruz in recent days.
As voters went to the polls Tuesday, national security once again was front and center, in the aftermath of the Brussels terror bombings for which the Islamic State has taken responsibility.
Earlier, Trump called for an end to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program and told Fox News, “I’ve been talking about this for a long time.”
Cruz went more directly at President Obama and his immigration policies, including his plan to allow tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States.
“The time for the president’s political correctness has passed,” Cruz said. “We absolutely have to revisit our immigration policy across the board to prevent Islamic terrorists from coming in.”
On the Democratic side, Sanders desperately was looking for a win after getting swept in five March 15 contests.
As of early Wednesday, Clinton had 1,681 delegates to Sanders’ 927. It takes 2,383 to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Sanders invested a lot of time in the Western contests. He was the only 2016 presidential candidate to skip speaking Monday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington to stay on the campaign trail.