Ben Carson quits presidential campaign – as it happened
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Follow us for the latest news from the trail, as Mitt Romney denies contesing the eventual GOP nominee a night after the Republican field went hard after Trump
As we recovered from last night’s Republican presidential primary debate - either the nadir or the apex of American political discourse, depending on your perspective - and prepared for tomorrow night’s caucuses in Kansas and primaries in Louisiana, among other states - Friday gave political reporters little room for rest.
From the suspension of a once-powerful presidential campaign to drama at the Conservative Political Action Conference, here’s a summary of some of today’s more dramatic political news:
Jim Webb, a former senator from Virginia and briefly a Democratic presidential candidate, declared on TV this morning that he would not vote for Hillary Clinton, who’s making a very strong run for the Democratic nomination. (But he might vote for Trump.)
Donald Trump’s campaign announced that the billionaire frontrunner for the Republican nomination would not attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in Fort Washington, Maryland, and would instead stick around Wichita, Kansas, for a rally prior to the caucuses there on Saturday. Protests were being openly planned for Trump’s speech in front of the group, which he has courted assiduously for the past five years. In the statement released by the campaign, Trump’s communications team misspelled both “Wichita” and “Kansas.”
Two days after prominent Republican national security and military figures published an open letter stating “we are united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency,” in large part due to his stance on torture and war crimes, Trump reversed that position in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, saying that he would not order members of the military to break the law.
Speaking of CPAC, retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination in a speech at the conference, calling his candidacy “an experience that I will never forget.” Carson did not endorse any remaining candidates for his party’s nomination, but promised that “I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation.”
That’s it from the Guardian’s liveblog desk in New York - tune in tomorrow for our coverage of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in Kansas and primaries in Louisiana, Democratic caucuses in Nebraska and the Republican caucuses in Maine and Kentucky - and on Sunday for our coverage of the Democratic caucus in Maine and Republican primary in Puerto Rico. Plus the Democratic presidential primary debate on Sunday night in Flint, Michigan.
Until then...
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As conservatives gathered in Maryland for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Guardian asked attendees to rate the Republican frontrunner on a scale of Bernie Sanders to Rick Santorum in terms of conservatism – with mixed results.
When Mitt Romney delivered a scathing speech against Donald Trump’s candidacy on Thursday, many were quick to point out that the former Republican presidential nominee courted the business mogul’s endorsement in 2012 - even as Trump pushed the conspiracy that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
Defending himself on Friday, Romney insisted Trump’s birtherism against Obama was “very different” than what the Republican frontrunner is saying today.
Mitt Romney is interviewed by Neil Cavuto during his “Cavuto Coast to Coast” program on the Fox Business Network. Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
“I think that’s very different than calling Mexicans rapists, than saying Muslims are not going to be allowed into the country as immigrants, than mocking a disabled reporter, than going after women and saying, ‘Oh, she asks tough questions because she was in her menstrual cycle,’” Romney told CNN in an interview.
“This is highly offensive,” he added.
Pressed on the fact that it was similarly offensive to raise doubts over Obama’s birthplace, Romney continued to downplay Trump’s fixation with the president’s birth certificate.
“He had a belief President Obama wasn’t born in this country. I disagreed with him,” Romney said.
“There are political views where we’re going to disagree. But what he has said during this campaign - that George W. Bush is a liar, that John McCain isn’t a hero - he said some things that are completely, totally outrageous.”
CNN’s Gloria Borger continued to prod Romney further, pointing out that Obama would find it offensive that Trump insisted he wasn’t born in the US. Romney again dismissed it as a futile exercise.
“The funny thing about Donald Trump’s whole birther thing is, it would have made no difference - Barack Obama’s mother was American,” Romney said. “It was a whole ridiculous thing that Donald Trump was pursuing, and it’s, I think, characteristic of what you see now.”
Romney secured Trump’s endorsement in February of 2012, even as Trump had aggressively pushed the idea that Obama was a Muslim and born in Kenya. The controversy even saw the reality TV star dispatch a private investigator to Hawaii, where Obama was born, and release an infamous YouTube video calling on the president to release both his birth certificate and college transcripts.
Romney’s campaign sought to distance itself from Trump’s comments at the time, although it did not do so forcefully. Four years later, Romney placed himself at the forefront of the so-called #NeverTrump movement by vowing to stop at nothing to prevent his one-time ally from being the Republican nominee.
Romney told CNN on Friday he would not vote for Trump even if he is the nominee, and was moved to take action when thinking of what he would tell his grandchildren one day about what he did to try and stop the brash billionaire.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on Ben Carson’s suspension of his presidential campaign:
Ben Carson announces that he is suspending his presidential bid. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
The decision marked a fall from grace for Carson, the only Republican candidate besides Donald Trump to have led in multiple national polls since the current frontrunner’s emergence over the summer. Carson has also raised more money than any other Republican candidate for the White House.
The mild-mannered neurosurgeon, famed for being the first person to separate twins conjoined at the head, became a prominent political figure in 2013. Then, as the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast, he launched a furious diatribe against Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act as the president sat just feet away. The speech turned the 64-year-old African American doctor into a beloved figure among conservatives and fueled his insurgent presidential bid, which began last year.
However, Carson, a first time candidate for elected office, was plagued by a disorganized campaign that never built up the political apparatus necessary to win. There was never the political and press operation necessary to mount a winning effort in a campaign plagued by infighting and in which Carson confidant Armstrong Williams played an outsized role and often undermined paid staffers. But many of the issues came from a campaign where even the candidate admitted that his staffers “didn’t really seem to understand finances”.
Marco Rubio on Friday dubbed Donald Trump as the most vulgar person to ever run for president of the United States, writes the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui:
Marco Rubio speaks at a campaign rally in Wichita, Kansas. Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP
Speaking on the morning after yet another nasty presidential debate, Rubio lambasted the Republican frontrunner. “Donald Trump has been perhaps the most vulgar - no, I don’t think perhaps - the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency in terms of how he’s carried out his candidacy,” the Florida senator told CNN.
“It’s cut into a lot of these debates and some of the things we are asked about,” Rubio added. “I would love to have a policy debate and I think that is important. We’re talking about the presidency of the United States here.”
Rubio and Trump were at the center of several contentious exchanges in the debate, the eleventh of the Republican primary. Rubio insisted it was Trump who was responsible for injecting “a level of vulgarity into the political discourse that we’ve never seen.”
“It has come to a point, where voters deserve better what they are getting out of these debates and this campaign.”
After struggling to secure more than one victory in the nominating contests thus far, Rubio is going all in on his home state of Florida - which will hold its primary on March 15. There, too, he is trailing Trump by double digits but has earned the backing of more than 80 former and current elected Florida officials.
On Friday, Rubio was also endorsed by the Orlando Sentinel, the largest newspaper in the central Florida region.
“Unlike Trump, Rubio has the knowledge and judgment to be president,” the paper’s editorial board wrote in an op-ed that was nothing short of scathing in its assessment of Trump.
“Where to begin on Trump’s judgment? His idea of political discourse is hurling or tweeting insults at anyone who dares question him,” the board wrote. “He has maligned Mexican immigrants and Muslims. He has mocked people with disabilities and prisoners of war. He has disparaged and degraded women.”
The Orlando Sentinel also lent its support to Rubio in his long-shot 2010 Senate bid. While acknowledging in its 2016 endorsement that it did not agree with Rubio on many issues - namely his hardline stance against abortion - the paper contended that the fresh-faced senator remained “the best hope” of the remaining Republican candidates.
The Miami Herald, the most widely circulated newspaper in Rubio’s hometown of south Florida, gave the senator its stamp of approval earlier this week.
Florida is now shaping up to be a do-or-die moment for Rubio’s presidential ambitions. But while Governor John Kasich has pledged to bow out of the race if he loses his home state of Ohio, also holding its primary on March 15, Rubio declined to do the same.
“We’re going to win Florida,” he told reporters while campaigning in Kansas on Friday. “We’re very confident about that. We’re prepared for a campaign that goes beyond Florida, as well.”
Despite his projection of confidence, Rubio acknowledged the contest would be close, “especially with something like Donald Trump going on and the amount of national attention he’s gotten.”
After officially suspending his campaign for the Republican nomination, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson urged voters to coalesce around a presidential candidate who will “preserve the greatness of America.”
“We are the ones who will be making the decisions, but in order to do that, we have to become active,” Carson said. “We must become informed. We cannot allow ourselves to be influenced... by the political class and by the media.”
He also gave a warning to members of the political media to be “more fair” to conservative candidates.
“Do not to allow yourselves to be captured by those who are attempting to impose an agenda upon America,” Carson said. “Remember, that you, too, are a part of us. And if the whole country goes over the cliff, you go over with it.”
“This is not about any individual person - this is about us collectively as a nation,” Carson said.
Ben Carson officially suspends his presidential campaign
Scott Bixby
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Fort Washington, Maryland, retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination, calling his candidacy “an experience that I will never forget.”
“I am leaving the campaign trail,” he said, to boos, and then a loud wave of applause. “I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation. We have to save it.”
Ben Carson during a campaign stop in Las Vegas. Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters
As for potential presidential candidates for his own endorsement, Carson was cryptic. “You need to look at how they treat others, and how they treat their family, because that’s how they’re gonna treat the American people,” Carson said. “What we need now in America is trickle-down ethics.”
After a long riff on the role of the federal government in alleviating poverty, crime rates and “taking care of the indigent” - “they need to read the constitution; that is not their jobs” - Carson declared that he will continue to push for conservatives to register and vote for whomever wins the Republican nomination.
Carson decried the negative, petty tone of the campaign in recent weeks. “I left that stuff in high school,” Carson said, to loud cheers. Citing his experience as a brain surgeon, Carson declared that pure reaction is something that any animal can do - “lizards can do that” - but says only higher-level thinking will help the next president in the White House.
Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson has begun speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Fort Washington, Maryland, where he is expended to suspend his campaign for the Republican nomination.
In his opening remarks, Carson decried the negative, petty tone of the campaign in recent weeks. “I left that stuff in high school,” Carson said, to loud cheers. Citing his experience as a brain surgeon, Carson declared that pure reaction is something that any animal can do - “lizards can do that” - but says only higher-level thinking will help the next president in the White House.
Ted Cruz has warnedthat a brokered convention would lead to “manifest revolt” among voters, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobsreports from Fort Washington, Maryland:
Ted Cruz speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Orono. Photograph: Joel Page/Reuters
In a interview with Sean Hannity on Friday at the CPAC conference of conservative activists outside Washington DC, Cruz warned that talk of a brokered convention comes from “the Washington establishment in a fevered frenzy because all their chosen candidates, all their golden children, the voters keep rejecting.” He warned there was a “master plan” for “DC power brokers . . .[to] drop someone in who is exactly to the liking of the Washington establishment.” He added, “if that happens there will be manifest revolt on our hands across the country.”
Cruz, who has won four of the first fifteen nominating contests, argued “if you want to beat Donald Trump, this is how you do it, you beat Donald Trump with the voters.” The Texas senator’s statements came just over an hour after rival John Kasich said he expected there to be a brokered convention. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s nominee in 2012, also stoked talk of a brokered convention on Thursday, when he suggested voters back whichever rival to Trump was strongest in their states.
The Texas senator made the comments to an adoring audience, which repeatedly stood and gave him standing ovations.
Before being interviewed by Hannity, Cruz gave an abbreviated version of his stump speech where he took repeated shots at Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the event, Cruz jibed “So Donald Trump is skipping CPAC. I think someone told him Megyn Kelly I going to be here.” The Texas senator who has been vocally criticizing Trump for the past two months then elevated his rhetoric. “Or even worse, he was told there are conservatives going to be here, or even worse libertarians going to be here or even worse young people going to be here,” Cruz said as the crowd built to a crescendo of applause.
The US supreme court has temporarily blocked a Louisiana law imposing regulations on doctors who perform abortions in a move that would allow two of the state’s four clinics to reopen.
Paul Ryan speaks during an anti-abortion rally outside of the Supreme Court. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Media
In a brief order, the court granted a request by abortion providers seeking to reinstate a lower-court injunction that blocked the law, which required doctors to obtain a formal affiliation with a local hospital.
The order noted that one of the eight justices, conservative Clarence Thomas, said he would have denied the application.
The order said the court’s action was in line with its decision in June to temporarily block part of a Texas abortion law that was challenged by abortion providers in a high-profile case. The eight justices heard oral arguments in that case on Wednesday.
The Louisiana law mandates that physicians who perform abortions have “admitting privileges” at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the facility where abortions are performed. The regulation matches one in the Texas law.
Ted Cruz addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last year. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Texas senator Ted Cruz took to the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland and immediately launched into a critique of a fellow Republican presidential candidate who didn’t show up to the event: billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump.
“I think somebody told him Megyn Kelly was gonna be here,” joked Cruz, “or even worse, he was told that there were conservatives that were gonna be here; or even worse, he was told that there was gonna libertarians who were gonna be here; or even worse he was told there were gonna be young people here!” the senator said, to mixed applause and laughter.
He was immediately interrupted by a small but vocal “Trump! Trump! Trump!” chant, which itself was interrupted by a chorus of boos from the rest of the audience.
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