Sanders' narrow win ups pressure on moderates to coalesce

February 12, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — For Bernie Sanders, not all victories are created equal. In 2016, Sanders carried New Hampshire by 22 points, pummeling Hillary Clinton and setting the stage for a protracted fight over the Democratic presidential nomination. On Tuesday, he won the state’s primary by less than 2 points, raising questions about his ability to broaden his coalition beyond his most loyal supporters.

But the Vermont senator is benefiting from a crowded and fractured primary field, with several moderate candidates dividing up the rest of the vote. Taken together, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden drew support from more than 50 percent of New Hampshire voters — twice as much as Sanders.

“It’s clear that a majority of Democrats do not want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee,” said Ben LaBolt, who advised President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “But if the more pragmatic candidates do not consolidate in the weeks ahead — especially those hanging by a thread in the single digits — Sanders has a very real chance of winning the nomination.”

Sanders has energized young voters and liberals with his calls for a Medicare for All health care system and free college tuition. Yet his pricey policy proposals and his standing as a self-described democratic socialist have some in the party on edge, fearful he would struggle to defeat President Donald Trump and damage Democrats' prospects of holding or picking up congressional seats in more moderate parts of the country.

Yet the top tier of the Democratic field shows no signs of shrinking as the primary shifts to more diverse states. And it will only get more crowded as Mike Bloomberg, who is blanketing the delegate-rich states that vote March 3 with hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements, starts showing up on ballots.

If anything, questions about Sanders’ strength, and uncertainty about which moderate is best to take him on, seem to be giving candidates incentive to stay in as long as they have money to fund their campaigns. That fundraising challenge becomes more urgent for Biden, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive candidate who finished a disappointing fourth in New Hampshire.

Though the Democratic race is in its early stages — just two states have voted and the vast majority of delegates are still in play — the primary has echoes of the 2016 Republican primary. Trump consistently won contests with about one-third of the vote, while his competitors split up the rest of the electorate.

In the 2016 New Hampshire primary, for example, Trump carried 35% of the vote, while more centrist competitors John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie divided up more than 40% of the electorate.

Those moderate Republican moderates faced the same dilemma now in front of their Democratic counterparts: How long do they stay in the race and allow Sanders to eke out victories and potentially deepen his support?

In 2016, some of the moderate candidates hung on for weeks, laboring under the expectation that Trump’s controversial candidacy would crater and some of his support might swing their way. Instead, Trump only grew stronger.

“Winning begets momentum, which begets people wanting to be on your team,” said Matt Gorman, who worked for Bush’s campaign. “The more Trump won, the more people went over to him.” Gorman’s advice to Sanders’ rivals? Move on quickly if you want to stop Sanders.

“For a coalescing to happen, it would need to happen immediately,” he said. There are structural differences between the way Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees that could make Sanders’ path to the nomination more difficult than Trump’s was in 2016, even if the field remains crowded.

GOP primaries are winner-take-all contests, which allowed Trump to quickly amass an insurmountable lead over his rivals. Democratic contests are proportional, meaning that even if Sanders keeps winning, other candidates can stay within range and push the primary contest deep into the spring or early summer in hopes of a comeback.

There are also indications in voter surveys that Democrats are looking for a moderate candidate to step in. According to AP VoteCast, a majority of voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire self-identified as moderate or conservative ideologically. Roughly 2 in 10 said they were “somewhat liberal” and about a quarter said they were “very liberal.”

Sanders, a favorite of liberals, has struggled to meet expectations in the first two contests, even with his victory in New Hampshire and his effective tie with Buttigieg in Iowa. He is more rigid ideologically than some of his rivals and has not yet indicated he can draw new voters into his coalition.

His moderate rivals still see a path to blunt his momentum, though their realistic prospects vary. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who was virtually unknown nationally a year ago, is in the strongest position after the first two states. He’s proven to be a fundraising powerhouse and has energized voters with his calls for generational change.

Klobuchar surged to a surprise third-place finish in New Hampshire after a standout pre-primary debate. But she’s less well-known than some other candidates and has a scant operation in the states that come next on the primary calendar.

Biden is the moderate candidate who comes out of New Hampshire facing the most urgent questions about his future. After leading national polls for months, he finished a dismal fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire, undermining his case that he’s the most electable candidate in November.

Biden’s advisers insist he can turn his campaign around in South Carolina, the first state with a large population of black voters. But Wednesday is likely to bring questions from his financial backers and pressure from some Democrats to end his third bid for the White House.

That puts moderate Democrats on uncertain footing. “Ultimately we’re going to have to coalesce around somebody,” said Matt Bennett of Third Way, a center-left think tank, one of the moderates warning against a Sanders nomination. “But we’re not quite ready to do that.”

Key takeaways from Democratic debate in New Hampshire

February 08, 2020

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Three days before the critical New Hampshire Primary, seven Democratic presidential candidates debated, with many of them fighting to survive in the race to challenge President Donald Trump.

Here are some key takeaways.

MAYOR PETE MAKES HIS CASE

Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend., Ind., was the candidate of the moment Friday. All eyes were on him Friday night to see if he could make his case.

And he did — with one significant stumble. Attacked for his thin resume, Buttigieg shot back, “If you’re looking for the person with the most years of Washington, D.C., experience under their belt, that candidate is not me.” He promoted his youth compared with the lawmakers onstage talking their achievements from decades ago.

“We cannot solve the problems before us by looking back,” Buttigieg said. “We have to be ready to turn the page.” A former military intelligence officer, Buttigieg seemed comfortable discussing foreign affairs, such as the Trump administration’s killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. “There is no evidence that that made our country safer,” he said, adding later, “This is not an episode of ‘24.’”

But Buttigieg's trouble spot has long been race. Asked about a spike in arrests of black people for marijuana possession in his city after he became mayor, Buttigieg began to decry systemic racism but seemed to acknowledge he couldn't escape it in the city that he ran.

SANDERS UNDER ATTACK

It didn’t take long for the candidates to make clear whom they saw as the front-runner. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was piled on by competitors fighting to become the moderate alternative to the self-declared democratic socialist.

There were two lines of attack -- Sanders’ uncompromising liberal positions and, specifically, his proposal to immediately have the federal government take over the entire health care system. The most notable punch was thrown by Buttigieg, who said Democrats will have a problem working to “unite this country at a moment when we need unification when our nominee is dividing people.” Asked if he meant Sanders, he said yes.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar scoffed at Sanders’ health care proposal. Former Vice President Joe Biden noted that Sanders says he has no idea how much his proposal could cost, though experts have put it at at least $30 trillion.

But he showed a characteristic durability. In the deeply divided field, Sanders is now leading in many polls by virtue of that following.

BIDEN BOUNCE BACK?

After his disappointing showing in Iowa, Biden was fighting to survive. Sometimes it didn’t seem like it, but Biden also displayed flashes of the fire and emotion that have traditionally endeared him to Democratic voters.

Offered a chance early to swing at his two main rivals — Sanders and Buttigieg — Biden opened by basically admitting he was going to lose New Hampshire. “Bernie won by 20 points last time,” Biden said softly. His criticisms of Sanders and Buttigieg weren’t nearly as sharp as those offered by other candidates. Biden's had difficulty talking about the GOP investigation into his own son that triggered Trump's impeachment and that has coincided with the former vice president's slide in the polls.

The former vice president was left asking the crowd to give a standing ovation to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was led out of the White House hours earlier. Vindman had testified in December before Democrats investigating Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Biden, 77, was more energized in the later hours of the debate. He was visibly enraged at Trump’s dismissive comments on U.S. casualties during the Iranian retaliation for the U.S. killing of an Iranian general. He sharply attacked Sanders over the Vermont senator's prior support for gun rights, defended his long record on the Supreme Court and promoted his historic support from African-Americans.

But it’s not clear whether his performance will quell worries.

WARREN DIDN'T HAVE A PLAN FOR BREAKING THROUGH

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren invested deeply in neighboring New Hampshire as a key part of her 2020 run, but she struggled to find a standout moment as she begins to make her final case to the state’s voters.

Warren skipped a chance to differentiate herself more from Sanders, a fellow progressive whom she calls a longtime friend. Given the chance to create some distance, Warren said, "We have a lot of things in common, we have a lot of things that we differ on."

She quickly shifted to making a party unity plea and echoing her stump speech lines about big money in politics and corruption. "We bring our party together, it's an issue we can all agree on and fight to end the corruption," Warren said. "We're the Democrats. We should be the party on the side of hardworking people and we can bring in independents and Republicans on that. They hate the corruption as well."

Warren also did little to explicitly come to Sanders defense as her Vermont rival was attacked by the more moderate candidates over his prized Medicare for All policy goal, an idea Warren supports.

KLOBUCHAR MADE A MARK

Klobuchar was quick with the quips as she tried gain an edge in the primary’s moderate lane. She repeatedly made a virtue of her ability to compromise and work with Republicans. There was an urgency to her presentation, with good reason: She needs an upset in New Hampshire.

She hit familiar notes of criticizing Medicare for All as she touted her Midwestern appeal and legislative success in the Senate. Klobuchar’s plea boiled down to making a case for Democratic sensibility as a break from the smash-mouth nature of Trump’s presidency.

"I didn't come from money," Klobuchar said, insisting voters "want to have someone that they can understand" in the White House.

STEYER'S FIERY PLAY ... FOR SOUTH CAROLINA

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer does not have much of a chance in New Hampshire. So he used the debate to make a strong appeal to African American voters in South Carolina, where his campaign has invested heavily and black voters make up two-thirds of the primary electorate.

The billionaire noted that well into the debate, "we have not said one word tonight about race." "Are you kidding me?" he asked as a discussion of race ensued. He added later, "I am for reparations to African Americans in this country and anyone who thinks that racism is a thing of the past and not an ongoing problem is not dealing with reality."

YANG NOT BURDENED

Businessman Andrew Yang was not burdened by low expectations. He was at ease and having fun on the debate stage Friday night, even though his chances to win New Hampshire, let alone the Democratic nomination, are minuscule.

He bounced onto the stage without a tie, in stark contrast to his more buttoned-up male rivals. But Yang was largely left out of the heated exchanges that simmered through the debate, focusing instead on stepping back and looking at the larger picture.

“Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems," Yang said. “And we are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades.”

THE ELEPHANT NOT IN THE ROOM

Two words were spoken Friday night that have rarely come up on the trail or in prior debates: Mike Bloomberg. The former New York mayor and multibillionaire is skipping the early nominating states and instead spending hundreds of millions on Super Tuesday states with far more delegates at stake.

A viewer-submitted question asked why the candidates were better than Bloomberg. “I don’t think anyone ought to be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States,” Warren said.

“I just simply don’t think people look at the guy in the White House and say, ‘Can we get someone richer?’” Klobuchar said. “There are millions of people who can desire to run for office but I guess if you’re worth $60 billion and you can spend several hundred millions of dollars on advertising you have a slight advantage,” Sanders said.

The responses were clear signals that they take Bloomberg seriously.

Who can topple Trump? Dems' electability fight rages in Iowa

January 27, 2020

Former Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated the breadth of his appeal by appearing at separate events with Catholics, union members and African Americans. He told black voters with a smile that “I’ve gone to more black churches than you have, probably, because I’m older.”

At the same time, the fight for the heart of the progressive movement pitted Elizabeth Warren against Bernie Sanders with dueling rallies hundreds of miles apart as they raced to reach voters before being forced back to Washington when Trump's impeachment trial resumed Monday. With Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses just eight days away, it was unclear when the senators would be able to return to the state.

“We gotta win,” Warren told several hundred people in Davenport, on the eastern edge of the state. "And also, can we just address it right here? Women win. The world changed when Donald Trump got elected.”

At a subsequent rally in Cedar Rapids, a voter asked why people should caucus for Warren instead of Sanders. She replied: “I know how to fight and I know how to win.” Sanders made an equally aggressive case almost 300 miles to the west in Sioux City, having spent much of the weekend highlighting his ability to energize what he has often called “a multi-generational, multi-racial, working-class coalition.”

“When I look at the size of this crowd I am absolutely convinced that, a week from Monday, we make history. We win the Iowa caucus,” Sanders declared in what was his fifth campaign appearance of the day.

The candidates were running out of time to change the direction of the high-stakes nomination fight ahead of Iowa's Feb. 3 caucuses, the first of four primary contests in February in which momentum is critical. Establishment-minded Democrats were increasingly concerned about Sanders' strength, fearing that the 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist might be too radical to beat Trump this fall should he win the nomination.

Stoking those fears, Trump's campaign teased a general election attack against Sanders. The Vermont senator had spent much of the day before campaigning alongside New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the president's team sent out an email with the title "Socialist invasion.”

“Why is radical socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spending so much time campaigning for Bernie? Because he’s the godfather of her extreme agenda and socialist vision for America,” the email said. Seizing on concerns about Sanders, Democratic rival Sen. Amy Klobuchar told reporters after a campaign appearance in Ames that she was more electable and would be a better candidate at the top of the ticket than the Vermont senator.

“My argument is that I will make our tent bigger, our coalition wider, and my coattails (are) longer,” Klobuchar said. “I actually have the receipts. I do not come from a state that’s as blue as Vermont.”

The youngest candidate in the race, 38-year-old Pete Buttigieg, also played up warnings about Sanders — at least in his fundraising emails. For a second consecutive day, Buttigieg's campaign sent a message to supporters warning that the Vermont senator might become the nominee.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, insisted that "it is time for something new” as he courted more than 1,000 people at an elementary school in West Des Moines. “We cannot run the risk of trying to defeat this president with the same Washington political warfare mentality that brought us to this point,” he said, declining to single out any of his rivals. “It is time for something different. It is time to turn the page.”

As a deep sense of uncertainty loomed over the Iowa contest, Trump's impeachment trial remained a major complication. Four candidates will be compelled by the Constitution to sit as jurors in Trump's Senate impeachment trial. The proceedings make it virtually impossible for the senators — Sanders, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michael Bennet of Colorado — to appear in Iowa during the week, although there is some sense that the trial could be over by week's end.

As Iowa drew the most focus, billionaire candidate Tom Steyer reminded union workers in Nevada, which hosts the third contest on the primary calendar, that he hasn't forgotten about them. “I’m know that I’m the only person who showed up here,” Steyer told reporters at a union conference in Las Vegas. “I try to show up and show that I care.”

Back in Iowa, Warren tried to maintain some momentum after picking up a coveted endorsement from The Des Moines Register. The newspaper called her “the best leader for these times" and said she “is not the radical some perceive her to be" even if “some of her ideas for ‘big, structural change’ go too far.”

Warren leaned into her gender as she courted several hundred voters at an elementary school gymnasium in Davenport. “We took back the House and we took back statehouses around the nation because of women candidates and the women who get out there and do the hard work,” she said.

Biden scored the endorsement of the Sioux City Journal, which called him “the candidate best positioned to give Americans a competitive head-to-head matchup with President Trump” and said he would be best at attracting support from “independents and disgruntled Republicans.”

The former vice president's itinerary reflected his ability to assemble just that kind of coalition. A devout Catholic, Biden attended Mass in Des Moines in the morning, spoke at a union hall and then faced a gathering of the NAACP and other minority advocacy groups.

“I was raised in the black church politically. Not a joke,” Biden told a man who asked about his engagement with the faith-based minority community. "That’s where my political identity comes from,” he said of the black community.

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont and Bill Barrow in Des Moines, Iowa, Sara Burnett in Davenport, Iowa, Will Weissert in Perry, Iowa and Michelle Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Democratic race in Iowa heats up as caucus approaches

January 26, 2020

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates have roared back into Iowa touting fresh endorsements, critiquing their rivals and predicting victories in the caucuses that will soon launch the process of deciding who will challenge President Donald Trump.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Saturday she was “delighted" to pick up a coveted endorsement from The Des Moines Register. The state's largest newspaper called the Massachusetts Democrat “the best leader for these times" and said she “is not the radical some perceive her to be." But Warren's progressive rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, predicted victory in Iowa and campaigned alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of the most prominent leaders on the left.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, appeared for the first time alongside Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, who is the latest in a growing list of local politicians backing the former vice president's candidacy. And Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, sought to position himself a Washington outsider above the partisan fray.

But as the candidates set out to make their best case to voters, the volatility of the race was evident. Several candidates began their day in Washington, sitting as jurors in Trump's impeachment trial. They will have to return to Capitol Hill early next week as the trial continues, sidelining them from campaigning during a critical period.

More fundamentally, there's no clear front-runner despite the fact that many candidates have now spent more than a year courting Iowans. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Saturday showed Sanders with a slight — but not commanding — edge in Iowa. But several polls show Biden, Buttigieg and Warren remain among the front-runners.

“There’s still plenty of time for movement,” said Kurt Meyer, chairman of the Tri-County Democrats in northern Iowa. “Every part of the ground game counts.” Still, Sanders returned to Iowa exuding a sense of confidence. Hundreds of supporters filled the municipal auditorium in Ames and additional voters crowded an overflow room. Earlier in the night, he told voters in Marshalltown that he had an “excellent chance to win here in Iowa" and argued that his is the only campaign that can weave broad support from voters.

“I believe that our campaign, our energy, our grassroots movement, our agenda is the approach that will speak to working people who, in many cases, have given up on politics,” he said. "I think we will resonate with them. I think we have in the past, I think we will in the future.”

Polls suggest Biden also has a substantial appeal among Democratic voters, especially African Americans. While he has been critical of Sanders in the past, he kept his focus instead on the threat of four more years of Trump in the White House.

“I don't believe we are the dark, angry nation that Donald Trump tweets about at night," he told a large crowd in Ankeny. “We are so much better than Donald Trump.” Biden scored the endorsement of the Sioux City Journal, which called him “the candidate best positioned to give Americans a competitive head-to-head matchup with President Trump” and said he would be best at attracting support from “independents and disgruntled Republicans.”

Compared to Biden, Buttigieg was more dire in his reaction to the prospect of Sanders gaining strength in the Democratic contest. Hours after The New York Times/Siena College poll was released, his campaign sent an email to supporters with the subject line: “Bernie Sanders could be the nominee."

“We need a nominee who can galvanize our country," the email said. “The Trump presidency will end one way or another, and when it does we need a president who can rally this country around a vision for the next generation. We know that candidate is Pete.""

Speaking to reporters later in the day, Buttigieg stopped short of directly hitting Sanders, but noted that “we are getting into the heart of the competition." “I believe that we should be very mindful that the very worst risk we can take at a time like this is to recycle the same Washington-style of political warfare that that brought us to this point,” he said. “If we believe it’s important to win, and I sure do, then the best thing we could do is put forward a candidate who offers something new."

Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Washington, Thomas Beaumont in Storm Lake, Iowa, Sara Burnett in Muscatine, Iowa, and Will Weissert in Marshalltown, Iowa contributed to this report.

Biden answers Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez with Cárdenas, others

December 23, 2019

Joe Biden’s presidential bid got a boost Monday from one of the leading Latinos in Congress, with the chairman of the Hispanic Caucus' political arm endorsing the former vice president as Democrats’ best hope to defeat President Donald Trump. c

“People realize it’s a matter of life and death for certain communities,” Bold PAC Chairman Tony Cárdenas told The Associated Press in an interview, explaining the necessity of halting Trump’s populist nationalism, hard-line immigration policies and xenophobic rhetoric that the California congressman called cruel.

Cárdenas’ announcement follows presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ weekend of mass rallies with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman congresswoman from New York who has become a face of the progressive movement and a key supporter for the Vermont senator’s second White House bid. Bold PAC is the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The dueling surrogates highlight a fierce battle for between Sanders and Biden, the leading Democratic candidates among Hispanics according to most polling, while also demonstrating the two candidates' starkly different approaches to the larger campaign.

Biden is capitalizing on his 36-year Senate career and two terms as Barack Obama's vice president to corral Democratic power players across the party’s various demographic slices. Cárdenas joins four other caucus members who’ve already backed Biden, a show of establishment support in contrast to some Latino activists who’ve battered Biden over the Obama administration’s deportation record.

Sanders, true to his long Capitol Hill tenure as an outsider and democratic socialist, eschews the establishment with promises of a political revolution, just as he did when he finished as runner-up for Democrats’ 2016 nomination.

Together, it’s an argument on politics and policy at the crux of Democrats’ 2020 nominating fight. Sanders and his supporters like Ocasio-Cortez argue that existing political structures cannot help working-class Americans, immigrants or anyone else. That argument, they insist, can draw enough new, irregular voters to defeat Trump in November.

“We need to be honest here,” retorted Texas Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Biden supporter whose congressional district includes part of the U.S.-Mexico border. “If Joe Biden loses the primary, Democrats will lose in 2020.”

It’s impossible for polling almost a year ahead of a general election to affirm that view, but the contention echoes Biden’s consistent arguments about Electoral College math. Texas Rep. Filemon Vela, also a border-district congressman who backs Biden, was not so absolute. But he said Biden is best positioned for a general election on immigration because of his plans to roll back Trump’s immigration restrictions and boost the asylum process, while stopping short of decriminalizing all border crossings. Sanders supports making all border crossings civil offenses, rather than criminal, a position first pushed by the lone Hispanic presidential candidate and former Obama housing secretary Julian Castro.

“In some swing states, that might not go over well,” Vela said, even as he, Gonzalez and Cárdenas said the distinction is more important to political pundits than to Hispanic voters. Said Cárdenas: “There is activist language and there are litmus tests; and there are hard-working people around the country who just want fairness.”

He added another key plank of Biden’s case: that meaningful change, from reversing Trump’s migrant family separation policy to expanding health care coverage, requires not only winning in November but then achieving some semblance of consensus in Congress.

Cárdenas pointed especially to Biden's role in the 2010 health care law, economic recovery during President Barack Obama’s two terms and a key aid package for Central American countries that Trump rolled back, exacerbating migration to the U.S.-Mexico border. “Vice President Biden has a record ... that’s going to resonate" with Hispanic voters and wider general election audiences, Cárdenas said.

Hispanic voters are a rapidly growing portion of the U.S. population and electorate, though they have consistently had lower election-participation rates than African Americans and non-Hispanic whites. At the least, Hispanics will play key roles in the Nevada caucus (third in the Democratic nominating process) and the Texas and California primaries, the two largest sources of delegates on the March 3 Super Tuesday slate.

Biden advisers acknowledge a generational gap in his Hispanic support, corresponding to Sanders’ strength with younger voters and reflected in polling and by massive crowds like those Ocasio-Cortez drew this weekend in California and Nevada.

Immigrants-rights advocates picketed outside Biden's Philadelphia campaign headquarters shortly after its opening. Castro, a former Obama Cabinet member, used Democratic debates to challenge Biden on why he didn’t stop more deportations when he was vice president.

Last month, members of the Movimiento Cosecha, which describes itself as an immigrant-led group pushing for “permanent, protection and respect” for immigrants, confronted Biden during a campaign event in South Carolina. One of them, Carlos Rojas, asked Biden to answer for deportations under Obama and to commit to an outright moratorium on all deportations — a position Sanders supports. Biden declined. After Rojas pressed him, Biden said, “You should vote for Trump.”

Gonzalez called it “ridiculous” to question Biden’s commitment to immigrants, but said the skepticism demonstrates that the Latino community vote is not monolithic, with a range of national origins and philosophical differences.

Vela agreed, adding that Sanders’ rallies and Ocasio-Cortez’s social media following shouldn’t obscure Biden’s standing among the “traditionalist Democrats" he said constitute the majority of Hispanic voters. Vela recalled an unplanned campaign stop he made recently with Biden at La Tierra, an iconic restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, after a campaign event with several hundred people.

“He went table to table,” Vela said, “people getting up, ‘Joe Biden is here’ and ‘There’s Joe Biden.’ The response was overwhelming.”

A virus rages, a flame goes out: Tokyo Games reset for 2021

March 25, 2020

(AP) Not even the Summer Olympics could withstand the force of the coronavirus. After weeks of hedging, the IOC took the unprecedented step of postponing the world's biggest sporting event, a global extravaganza that's been cemented into the calendar for more than a century.

The Tokyo Games, slated for 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries and at a reported cost of $28 billion, had been scheduled to start July 24. They will now be pushed into 2021 on dates to be determined.

They will still be called the 2020 Olympics — a symbolic gesture that the International Olympic Committee hopes will allow the games to “stand as a beacon of hope,” as it stated in delivering the news Tuesday.

“I don't think anybody was really prepared for this virus happening,” said American sprinter Noah Lyles, who had been primed to be one of the world's breakout stars in Tokyo. “You look over the history of the Olympics and see that it's usually war that's stopped the Olympics from happening."

Only World War I and World War II have forced the Olympics to be canceled; they were scrubbed in 1916, 1940 and 1944. Now, a microscopic virus that is wreaking havoc with daily life around the planet, to say nothing of its sports schedule, has accomplished what no other virus (Zika in 2016), act of terrorism (the killing of Israelis in Munich in 1972), boycott (1980 and 1984), threat of war (frequent) or actual world war itself has managed to do: postpone the games and push them into an odd-numbered year.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The global pandemic has sickened at least 420,000 people and killed more than 18,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Four-time Olympic hockey champion Hayley Wickenheiser, the first IOC member to criticize the body's long-held, dug-in refusal to change the dates, called the postponement the “message athletes deserved to hear.”

“To all the athletes: take a breath, regroup, take care of yourself and your families. Your time will come,” she wrote on Twitter. When will that time be? Nobody knows yet. It was a big part of the reason the IOC refused to announce a postponement that was becoming more inevitable with each passing day. Major sports organizations, including World Athletics and the gymnastics, track and swimming federations in the United States, were calling for a delay. So were major countries, including Canada, Brazil and Australia.

Even more compellingly, athletes were raising their voices. They were speaking to the unfairness of not being able to train, fearful that a trip out of the house could put them, or someone in their hometown, in jeopardy. And what of their competitors, some living halfway around the world, who might not have as many restrictions, and could be getting a leg up? There were fears about the eroding anti-doping protocols caused by virus-related restrictions and qualifying procedures that were disintegrating before their eyes.

“A bittersweet victory for athletes,” one group, Global Athlete, called the decision. “On one hand, their Olympic dreams have been put on hold. On the other hand, athletes have shown their power when they work together as a collective.”

With IOC President Thomas Bach guiding the process, the committee had said as recently as Sunday that it might take up to four weeks for an announcement to come. It took two days. But make no mistake, there are still weeks of difficult planning ahead.

Many of Tokyo's arenas, stadiums and hotels are under contract for a games held from July 24 to Aug. 9. Remaking those arrangements is doable, but will come at a cost. There are also considerations beyond the top-line price tag. Among them: The $1 billion-plus the IOC was to receive from broadcast partner NBC; the millions in smaller athlete endorsement contracts that are now in limbo; the budgets of the individual national Olympic committees; the availability of the 80,000 volunteers who signed up to help.

"People are having a problem calling off weddings, and calling off little tournaments, so imagine with all the billions of dollars that’s gone into this,” five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings told The Associated Press. “They have a grieving process to go through. They have so many moving parts to think about.”

There’s also the matter of the international sports schedule. Nearly all 33 sports on the Olympic program have key events, including world championships, on the docket for 2021. Hayward Field at the University of Oregon was rebuilt and expanded at the cost of around $200 million to hold next year’s track and field world championships. Now that event will likely be rescheduled.

“Of course there's going to be challenges,” said Paul Doyle, an agent who represents about 50 Olympic athletes. “At the same time, this is what had to happen.” It came together during a meeting Tuesday among Bach, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a handful of other executives from the IOC and Japan’s organizing committee.

Among the first casualties of the IOC's impeccably curated timeline was the torch relay. Organizers were planning to start the journey through the host country in the northeast prefecture of Fukushima on Thursday, albeit with no fans and no torchbearer. Instead, the flame will be stored and displayed, with its next move to be determined later.

Just one of hundreds of difficult changes the IOC leaders have to make in the upcoming weeks and months. But the most difficult decision is behind them. The unspoken irony in it all is that when Japan was awarded the games in 2013, it came on the strength of a campaign in which it positioned itself as “the safe pair of hands.” It was a time when the world was still emerging from the Great Recession, and the Olympic movement was especially sensitive to the runaway expenses the Summer Games were incurring.

Japan, like every host before it, had trouble sticking to the budget. Nevertheless, seven years later, and through no fault of its own — in fact, Japan is one of the countries that appears to be avoiding the worst of the coronavirus — Tokyo residents are watching their grand plans for 2020 implode.

So, onto 2021. As far as the Olympic world — and perhaps the world at large — is concerned, it can't get here soon enough.

Also contributing: Stephen Wade and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Pat Graham in Denver, Paul Newberry in Atlanta, Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Janie McCauley in San Francisco and Jimmy Golen in Boston.

New Zealand mosque gunman pleads guilty to murder, terrorism

March 26, 2020

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The man who committed the worst atrocity in New Zealand's modern history when he slaughtered 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges Thursday.

The attacks targeting people praying at the mosques a year ago shocked the nation and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. It also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook, where it was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.

The sudden turn in the case took survivors and relatives by surprise, and brought relief to people across New Zealand. Many had feared Australian white supremacist Brenton Harrison Tarrant would try to use his trial as a platform to promote his views. He'd outlined those views in a 74-page manifesto he published online shortly before the attacks.

Tarrant, 29, pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism at the Christchurch High Court. He had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges and his trial had been scheduled to start in June.

Tarrant is the first person to be found guilty of terrorism in New Zealand under laws passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. The change in plea came less than two weeks after New Zealanders commemorated those who died on the anniversary of the March 15, 2019, attacks.

“Honestly, I'm still trying to process what just happened,” said Aya Al-Umari, whose brother Hussein was killed in the attack on the Al Noor mosque. “I feel conflicted." She said that on the one hand, she had wanted to find out more details about what happened at the trial but on the other hand was feeling relieved about not having to face the trauma of sitting through it.

Temel Atacocugu, who survived being shot nine times during the attack at Al Noor, said he was surprised by the turn of events and hoped the judge would set an example at the sentencing by imposing the harshest punishment in the country's history and helping ensure nothing like it would happen again.

“I'm happy that he has accepted that he is guilty,” Atacocugu said. ,Judge Cameron Mander has not yet set a sentencing date. Tarrant faces life imprisonment, with the judge having some discretion in deciding the minimum number of years Tarrant must serve before becoming eligible for parole.

The change in plea came at a hastily arranged court hearing at a time that New Zealand was beginning a four-week lockdown to try and combat the new coronavirus. The lockdown meant Tarrant appeared in the court via video link from his jail cell in Auckland and only a handful of people were allowed inside the courtroom, including the imams from the two mosques that were attacked.

Mander said it was unfortunate the lockdown prevented victims and family members from being able to attend the hearing but the imams were helping to represent them. He said he wanted to quickly move ahead with the hearing, especially with the COVID-19 response threatening delays to the court schedule.

Tarrant, who was wearing a gray prison sweater, showed little emotion as he pleaded guilty. He didn't indicate why he had changed his pleas, and his lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was praised around the world for her empathetic response to the Muslim community after the attacks, said it was “deeply disappointing” the victims didn't get to attend the hearing.

But she said there was “a certain sense of relief that the whole nation, but particularly our Muslim community, are being spared from a trial that could have otherwise acted as a platform." Tarrant moved to New Zealand in 2017 and kept a low profile in the university city of Dunedin. He frequented a gym, practiced shooting at a rifle club range and built up an arsenal of weapons. He didn't appear to be employed, and said in some online posts that he'd inherited a significant amount of money when his father died.

Tarrant appeared to have a fascination with religious conflicts in Europe and the Balkans, and visited a number of sites in Eastern Europe in the years before he committed the massacre. After his attack at the second mosque, Tarrant was driving, possibly to carry out a shooting at a third mosque, when two police officers rammed his car off the road, dragged him out and arrested him.