2020 Democrats gather in California for state convention

By

Emily Aubert

May 31, 2019: Fourteen Democratic presidential candidates will speak at the California Democratic Party State Convention. Donald Trump announced a 5 percent tariff rate on goods from Mexico.

Here’s the latest from the campaign trail.

Brad Parscale served as a digital media advisor to President Trump (R) during the 2016 campaign and was responsible for the campaign’s Facebook outreach that year.

Previous campaign work:

  • 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, digital and media advisor

Other experience:

  • 2005-2018: Parscale Media, owner
  • 2011-2017: Giles-Parscale, Inc., president

What he says about Trump:

“When the President and this campaign gets ready to go full speed again, the President will turn on every ignition switch that’s necessary to get the enthusiasm back. Anyone who doesn’t think that this president will go 5 million miles an hour, day and night, to bring enthusiasm back and talk about what he can do next — they don’t know him.”

Notable Quote of the Day

“Some Democratic presidential campaigns have dispatched staffers to comb through tape of the Republicans’ 2016 debates, studying ways to break through the noise, like a zinger-ready Carly Fiorina did, or to avoid getting embarrassed, like a robotic Marco Rubio.

Others have started blocking off time in their schedules to stand their candidate in a semi-circle with nine other people mock-jockeying for attention as practice. 

Others still have aides drilling candidates on the policy questions they’re most likely to face whenever they get a free second on the road. Some have simply thrown up their collective hands and decided it’s not worth doing any of this for a few more weeks.

But each of the 20-something campaign teams … has come to at least one joint conclusion. No one has any idea how on earth a candidate is supposed to be fully prepared for the first debates.”

– Gabriel Debenedetti, New York Magazine political reporter

Democrats

  • Fourteen 2020 presidential candidates will speak at the California Democratic Party State Convention over the weekend: Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, and Elizabeth Warren.
  • Michael Bennet will make his first presidential campaign visit to South Carolina Friday with stops in Columbia and Fort Mill.
  • In a CNN town hall Thursday night, Bennet said he opposed eliminating private insurers under Medicare for All and that Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.
  • Joe Biden attended a Memorial Day service for Gold Star families in Delaware Thursday and spoke of his son Navy veteran Beau Biden, who died four years ago from brain cancer.
  • In an interview with ABC News, Bill de Blasio continued to criticize Biden for his defense of the 1994 crime bill.
  • The Senate Leadership Fund released a negative ad targeting Steve Bullock. “Steve Bullock’s running for president while Montana is still paying for his salary and for Montana Highway Patrol to travel on his out-of-state political trips,” the ad’s narrator says. “Would your boss pay for your next job search?”
  • Castro will participate in a Fox News town hall moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum and filmed live in Phoenix, Arizona, June 13.
  • Mike Gravel, along with Booker, Gabbard, and Harris, said that sex work should be decriminalized.
  • Greenpeace USA released its scores for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ records on climate change and fossil fuels. Inslee received an A- grade, while Biden, Hickenlooper, and Tim Ryan received the lowest with grades of D-.
  • Klobuchar and Sanders added staff in South Carolina. Klobuchar hired Angela Kouters as her state director. Sanders brought on Charleston City Council member Kwadjo Campbell as his state director, along with five other hires in the state.
  • Seth Moulton tweeted his support for New Hampshire becoming the 21st state to abolish the death penalty.
  • During an appearance on The View, Warren discussed Mueller’s statement and childcare costs.

Republicans

  • Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. would begin imposing a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico beginning June 10. The tariff will increase up to a rate of 25 percent “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted.
  • In an interview on MSNBC, Bill Weld discussed the state of the Justice Department and the Mueller report.

What We’re Reading

Flashback: May 31, 2015

Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of 3,000 supporters in Minneapolis. For comparison, 13,000 people attended Sanders’ 2020 kickoff event in Brooklyn in March 2019.