Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos…Facebook announced Thursday it is testing new features that will allow you to limit the content you see from a former significant other without unfriending them. Unfortunately for failed 2016 candidates the feature will not allow you to block photos of your former rivals campaigning for president or taking selfies on the main stage of the next debate.
’16 AT 30 THOUSAND
“Donald Trump Defies the Pundits” isn’t exactly a breaking news headline anymore, but he’s done it again this week. After Friday’s attacks in Paris, plenty of observers suggested that the terror threat would shake GOP primary voters into wanting a candidate who offered specific experience in handling foreign policy. Looks like that’s not happening. A Bloomberg poll conducted entirely after the attacks shows Trump running strong at 24 percent, with Carson still lodged in a firm second place. It seems like a couple of things are going on here: 1) Trump is getting points for his bellicose “bomb the hell out of ISIS” rhetoric and still isn’t being punished by GOP voters for failing to give more specifics about his strategy and his advisors, and 2) despite exhaustive coverage of the Paris attacks here in the U.S., they’re still distant enough that worries about national security are getting shoehorned into the existing GOP field’s debate about immigration (ie the Syrian refugees) more than they’re opening a brand new discussion about the brass tacks of military policy. So while Paris may mean the commander-in-chief test will take on more urgency for GENERAL election voters, we just aren’t seeing a huge impact on the primary electorate yet.
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
- NBC’s Monica Alba reports on Clinton’s speech today in New York about her plan to fight ISIS.
- Ben Carson compared worries about Syrian refugees to a fear of “mad dogs.”
- CC: Donald Trump: A new report shows that more Mexicans are leaving the United States than coming.
- NBC’s Hallie Jackson reports on Mia Love’s endorsement of Marco Rubio.
- NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard has a great look at the on-the-ground efforts in Iowa by Donald Trump’s campaign.
- Two Republican presidential candidates in Congress tried, and failed, to pass legislation to block or curtail benefits for Syrian refugees seeking to enter the U.S.
- John Kasich is backing off his idea to create a new federal agency to spread Judeo-Christian values, Leigh Ann Caldwell writes.
CAMPAIGN QUICK READS
National Review’s Eliana Johnson offers a good look at the influence Jeff Sessions has had on Ted Cruz.
Tech moguls just aren’t coughing up cash for Clinton, writes POLITICO.
Martin O’Malley will take public financing, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter looks at the Paris effect on the 2016 contest.
FOR THE RECORD…
“We have to have in place screening mechanisms that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are.”
Ben Carson on Thursday likening worry over Syrian refugees to fear of dogs with rabies.
TOMORROW’S SKED
Hillary Clinton is in Memphis and then Nashville, Tennessee.
Donald Trump delivers a speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Ben Carson files for the New Hampshire primary and holds two rallies in the state. John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Lindsey Graham are also in the state.
Carson, Cruz, Fiorina, Rubio, Paul, Huckabee, Jindal and Santorum attend the Family Leader Presidential forum in Des Moines.
