Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

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Over and over, Donald Trump has stated falsely that he opposed the Iraq war from the start, and he did it again Tuesday in Indiana.

“It should have never happened,” the Republican presidential hopeful told a crowd at a rally outside Indianapolis with a potential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

“I didn’t want to go from the beginning, and I have proof – from the beginning. I didn’t want Iraq. I said you’re going to destabilize the Middle East, and that’s exactly what happened.”

But in an audio recording unearthed by Buzzfeed News, radio host Howard Stern asked Trump whether he supported invading Iraq in an interview on Sept. 11, 2002, six months before President George W. Bush ordered the start of the war.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”

Asked for proof that Trump had opposed the war, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said he was “referring to a clip from Neil Cavuto” of Fox News from January 2003.

Trump told Cavuto that perhaps Bush “shouldn’t be doing it yet, and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations,” according to Politifact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization. But it was false, Politifact found, for Trump to state that he “was totally against the war in Iraq” and had warned it would destabilize the Middle East.

Trump’s statements Tuesday came in freewheeling remarks to supporters in Westfield, Ind., after days of sticking to carefully scripted comments in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas.

He accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of singlehandedly giving rise to the Islamic State terrorist group when she was secretary of State. “She’s the one who created it with stupidity,” he said. “With stupid, stupid policy.”

Trump, whose rallies have repeatedly deteriorated into violent clashes between protesters and his supporters, warned of “four more years of civil unrest” if Clinton wins the election.

He also said Iran had made “fools” of the United States with its deal to restrain its nuclear program. “Folks, those days are over,” Trump said.

And he returned to his hard-line rhetoric on illegal immigration, leading a call-and-response on his proposed border wall.

“Who is going to pay for the wall?” he asked.

“Mexico!” the crowd hollered back.

“I don’t hear you,” Trump told the crowd.

After a loud reprise, Trump continued: “They will – 100%. And you know what? They‘ll be happy to pay for the wall.”

Trump’s rally came amid growing speculation over who he will name as his running mate. Pence is the latest of several to audition by introducing Trump at rallies around the country.

“I don’t know whether he’s going to be your governor or your vice president – who knows,” Trump joked. “Good man.”

When the NAACP holds its convention next week in Ohio, Donald Trump will be a no-show, the group’s president said Tuesday night.

“Mr. Trump has declined our invitation,” Cornell Brooks, head of the NAACP, said on CNN. “You can’t run for president and not talk about the nation’s civil rights agenda. This is an important moment.”

The decision by Trump deviates from that of the Republican Party’s recent presidential nominees and comes at a time when the nation is roiled by the shooting deaths by police of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana and the massacre of five white Dallas police officers.

The group will hold its convention next week in Cincinnati, and Brooks said Trump declined to speak because it will be held at the same time as the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is set to speak at the NAACP convention on Monday. The Democrats’ gathering is a week later in Philadelphia.

Both Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the GOP’s 2008 choice, addressed the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in those years.

With his formal endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders parted ways with what’s been a part of his entourage for much of the last year: Secret Service agents.

Sanders lost his protection on Tuesday after arriving back in Washington following his campaign event alongside Clinton earlier in the day in Portsmouth, N.H., his campaign confirmed.

Sanders, who had remained in the presidential race despite Clinton becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee in early June, had come under fire for retaining Secret Service protection since then.

The Washington Post reported last month that around-the-clock protection can cost taxpayers more than $38,000 a day.

For several weeks, Sanders had insisted that he would remain in the race through the party’s convention later this month in Philadelphia.

Both Clinton, a former first lady who has had Secret Service protection since she left the White House in 2001, and Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, have a detail of agents who protect them around the clock.

As Hillary Clinton formally netted the endorsement of Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, questions remain as to whether the legions of young people who flocked around the Vermont senator’s candidacy will now show the same enthusiasm for her campaign.

While polls overall have shown that most Sanders supporters have made peace and are content with voting for Clinton in a general election against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, some young people do not have favorable views of the former secretary of State and struggle to trust her.

A survey released on Tuesday by GenForward, a collaboration between the University of Chicago and the Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, showed that 26% of young whites ages 18-30 and 49% of Latinos in the same age bracket have a favorable opinion of Clinton. Her strongest support came among blacks, with two-thirds offering a favorable opinion of her candidacy and 55% of Asian Americans who view her favorably.

The poll, conducted June 14 to 27, surveyed nearly 2,000 adults ages 18-30 who identified as African American, Latino, Asian American and white. Its results came before last week’s announcement by the Department of Justice that it would not seek any charges against Clinton for her use of a personal email server while overseeing the State Department.

The poll showed that 64% of young Latinos, who according to a Pew Research report from earlier this year will account for nearly half of the record 27.3 million eligible Latino voters projected this November, do not believe Clinton is honest and trustworthy. Eighty-two percent of whites and 57% of Asian Americans also do not trust her, according to the poll. However, half of young African Americans polled believed she is trustworthy. (Among all ethnicities polled, Trump was widely viewed as untrustworthy. Ninety-one percent of blacks and 87% of young Asian Americans viewed him as not honest and trustworthy, along with 86% of Latinos and 74% of whites.)

Throughout the Democratic primaries, general divides existed with younger blacks, Latinos and whites supporting Sanders over Clinton.

Overall, among those who preferred Sanders in the primaries, half say they are now prepared to back Clinton in the general election, according to the GenForward poll.

Clinton has made efforts to boost support among younger voters.

Last week, she expanded the scope of her higher education plan to offer free college tuition to millions of families. Her proposal would grant free tuition at public schools to students in families earning $85,000 a year or less, with that threshold increasing to $125,000 by 2021. The proposal, an olive branch of sorts to Sanders’ younger supporters, came after a primary in which the Vermont senator’s key education platform included tuition-free college at all public colleges and universities.

Sanders noted the issue while the two campaigned together on Tuesday in New Hampshire.

“Hillary Clinton believes that we must substantially lower student debt and that we must make public colleges and universities tuition-free for the middle class and working families of this country,” said Sanders as Clinton stood at his side.

She nodded in agreement.

Bernie Sanders’ delegates displayed a range of emotions after their choice for the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday endorsed his rival of more than a year, Hillary Clinton.

Alex White, 29, a Berkeley designer, grew emotional as he tried to put his thoughts together on Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton.

“It’s hard to put into words,” he said. “It’s something that was expected, but not until the convention floor in Philadelphia. I feel there’s so much we still have to fight for. Also it was a promise made, to California voters especially, that this fight would be taken all the way to the convention, so to have this happen two weeks before the convention is a disappointment to say the least.”

White plans to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in November. “My heart breaks for anybody who lives in a swing state because what a terrible set of choices to have.”

Natalie Higley of Lakeport, asked whether she would vote for Clinton in the fall, said, “I still can’t speak to that.”

The 23-year-old blasted the party establishment for nominating Clinton, who Higley believes should have been prosecuted over the email scandal.

“This is going to greatly reduce the participation in the Democratic Party to elect a candidate who has some of the lowest favorable ratings in history, who is squeaking by, barely beating Trump in November. I think they are committing suicide, honestly,” she said.

Jon Luvaas, 73, said the nomination of Clinton was a foregone conclusion but he had hoped Sanders would hold out on endorsing her until after his supporters had the opportunity to vote for him on the floor of the convention.

“It’s very important to us to be able to vote, crucial really,” said the retired attorney from Chico. “We made that commitment that we would be going to the convention to vote for Bernie Sanders and his agenda.”

Luvaas said he was pleased to see Sanders pushing Clinton and the party platform to the left on issues such as healthcare and college tuition.

“The platform has shifted on nearly all issues in the direction that I’ve been hoping for, and Secretary Clinton’s positions have shifted as well,” he said. “We’re hoping that she will strongly carry through on those.”

Robert Nelson, a retired scientist from Pasadena, added that he was taking his cues from Sanders, who has said he would vote for Clinton and that presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump must be stopped.

“This election is not about Hillary Clinton anymore. This election is about Donald Trump,” he said. “Donald Trump represents the true threat of fascism, and fascism is a very, very dangerous thing.”

Donald Trump is no fan of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nor is she is a supporter of the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

But their mutual skepticism erupted into a rare public view this week after the 83-year-old liberal justice spoke openly about her despair at the prospect that Trump could win the White House.

“I can’t imagine what this place would be — and I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “For the country, it would be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.” She joked that her late husband, Marty, would have said it was time to move to New Zealand.

In a separate interview with CNN, she called Trump a “faker” who is inconsistent, egotistical and should be required to release his tax returns.

Trump on Tuesday fired back.

“I think it’s a disgrace to the court, and I think she should apologize to the court,” he told the newspaper. “And I would hope that she would get off the court as soon as possible.”

He added, “I think it’s highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly.”

Many legal experts were stunned Ginsburg would voice her political views for publication.

Justices or judges almost never speak out on political candidates who are running for office. Lower court judges could be reprimanded for such action. But the Supreme Court justices do not answer to any judicial body.

Ginsburg’s comments could potentially pose a problem in the future. If the high court were called upon to decide an issue related to the presidential election — like the Bush vs. Gore case of 2000 — Trump’s lawyers surely would ask Ginsburg to step aside.

If Trump is elected president, Ginsburg might face similar calls to step aside from major cases involving his administration.

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Read the Vermont senator’s prepared remarks:

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When Bernie Sanders was trying to win the Democratic presidential nomination, he hammered Hillary Clinton for failing to push ideas that he saw as bold enough to address income inequality, climate change and other issues.

But when Sanders endorsed Clinton on Tuesday in New Hampshire, those contentious points emerged anew as areas of agreement.

Several times, Sanders tried to stress that the two Democrats were aligned, while presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump stood in opposition.

Perhaps the best example was how Sanders addressed the minimum wage. He had previously criticized Clinton for not endorsing a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage, indexed to inflation. (Clinton had proposed $12, up from the current $7.25.)

But on Tuesday, he simply said that Clinton “believes that we should raise the minimum wage to a living wage.” Instead, it was Trump who “has a very different view.”

Sanders also praised Clinton for listening to scientists on climate change, saying she understands we “must work with countries around the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels.” Trump, on the other hand, has called climate change “a hoax.”

Sanders left out his previous criticism of Clinton for refusing to endorse a tax on carbon emissions.

Another point of contention during the primary was healthcare. Sanders wanted a government-run system that would provide universal coverage; Clinton said that was too expensive and unrealistic.

He shied away from the proposal during his speech, instead choosing to focus on Clinton’s support for expanding government healthcare programs.

“We need more people with access to quality healthcare, not fewer,” Sanders said.

Cal State Northridge student Noemi Tungui is a delegate for Bernie Sanders heading to the Democratic National Convention.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday was intended to help unify the party to campaign against Donald Trump in the general election. Sanders’ campaign for president already has increased Democrats’ ranks among registered voters, a Times analysis found. About 1 in 3 of California’s Democratic delegates were recently registered.

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(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Throughout his campaign for president, Bernie Sanders touted the strength of his network of small-dollar donors. The average contribution, he repeated over and over in giving his stump speech, was $27.

Now that Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton, his former rival wants that $27.

Some people are already chipping in their money — including the staff member who led digital fundraising for Sanders.

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

During his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders celebrated the work of the Democratic platform committee, which agreed over the weekend to several policy planks that he had sought for months as a candidate.

“We produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party,” he said. “Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton White House -- and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.”

As the Times’ Chris Megerian reported from the meetings in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend, the gathering reflected the importance Sanders placed on what would end up in the document.

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(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

As Bernie Sanders threw his support to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, he acknowledged the small-dollar donors who propelled his campaign and gave birth to his famous “Twenty-seven dollars!” rallying cry, a reference to the average amount given to his campaign.

“Let me also thank ... the millions of our contributors who showed the world that we could run a successful national campaign based on small individual contributions – 2 1/2 million of them,” Sanders said, moments before endorsing Clinton.

Here’s a look back at how Sanders marshaled millions of individual donors to keep his insurgent candidacy afloat.

That includes people like Connie Kazmer of Granada Hills, who watched Democratic debates with her laptop open, ready to donate whenever something caught her attention. She ended up donating $2,200 total.

And moments later, his campaign announced his endorsement:

Democrats are lining up in New Hampshire for Bernie Sanders’ long-awaited endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Here’s what it looks like in Portsmouth right now:

Supporters and protesters mixed up outside too.

(Darren McCollester / Getty Images)

Here’s a flashback to what Clinton said in 2008 when she endorsed President Obama after that year’s contentious Democratic primary.

A poll from Pew Research shows many Sanders supporters have already decided to support Clinton.

Eighty-five percent of Sanders backers who are Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party said they plan to vote for Clinton in November.

That’s more than the 69% of Clinton supporters who said they cast ballots for Obama at the same point in 2008.

A divisive Democratic primary. A losing candidate long determined to stay in the race. And, in the end, a unity rally in New Hampshire.

That’s how the rivalry between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is ending Tuesday, and it’s the same way Clinton teamed up with President Obama eight years ago.

After campaigning until the last primary contest in 2008, Clinton formally threw her support to Obama in the town of Unity at an event bursting with symbolism. Not only was the name of the town apt, it had split its vote during the state’s primary — 107 people cast ballots for Obama, and 107 for Clinton.

The Democrats were even color-coordinated; Obama’s blue tie matched Clinton’s pantsuit.

In recent weeks, Clinton has repeatedly referenced her endorsement of Obama while nudging Sanders to drop out of the race and throw his support to her.

Here’s a look at how the trajectories of Clinton in 2008 and Sanders in 2016 compared in the weeks after it became clear that they wouldn’t win.

Voters can’t ignore the lies from both presidential candidates, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) argued in an essay that laid out in detail his longstanding objections to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

“If we shrug at public dishonesty  —  if we normalize candidates who think that grabbing power makes it OK to say whatever they need to in the short-term  —  then we will be changed by it,” Sasse wrote in a post titled “Two Kinds of Voting, Two Kinds of Disruption, and Two Kinds of Unrighteousness.”

Sasse, a freshman senator, has lashed out for months at Trump. Now, days before the Republican National Convention, Sasse launched a fresh attack aimed at both Trump and Hillary Clinton.

He said voters don’t have to choose a liar or resign themselves to picking between the lesser of two evils.

“It seems like we’ve gone from ‘I cannot tell a lie’ to ‘I need not tell the truth,’ Sasse wrote. “What am I missing? You tell me.”

Donald Trump’s assertion that he’s a “law-and-order candidate” won him a big smile and laugh from Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

“Donald Trump was out saying he’s the law-and-order candidate; he’s going to make America great again,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Biden in an interview on “Good Morning America.”

But before Stephanopoulos could even ask a question, Biden started laughing.

“I’d rather not make this story about Donald Trump, so I’m gonna ... restrain myself,” Biden eventually responded.

He said that Republicans have failed to offer adequate funding for law enforcement.

Biden also said he believes Hillary Clinton will win over voters skeptical about whether to trust her by simply speaking out on her own “honest and real” policies and campaigning against Trump.

“Is what he’s putting forward honest and straightforward and being able to do anything constructive for dealing with the problems America faces?” he asked. “On that score, I think it’s going to be clear before the election day.”

All 39 Democrats in California’s House delegation now back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid after the endorsements of Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland and Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach.

Most of California’s House delegation and both of the state’s senators publicly backed Clinton in the months before the state’s June 7 primary. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) endorsed her shortly before voters went to the polls.

Lee said that as a member of the committee writing the party’s platform, she didn’t want to look like she was picking sides.

“After much discussion and close collaboration between the campaigns, I am confident that Hillary Clinton will unite the party around the progressive issues outlined in the platform. That, along with the fact that she is by far the most qualified candidate — male or female — to ever seek our country’s highest office, is why I am proud to endorse Hillary Clinton to be our next president,” she said in a statement.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders will bring a formal close to one of the most successful insurgent campaigns in Democratic Party history Tuesday, appearing with Hillary Clinton here in an event designed to move the party closer to unity in the race against Donald Trump.

Although long-awaited and, to some extent, anticlimactic, the rally will nonetheless be a positive moment for the Clinton campaign, which has spent considerable time over the last week grappling with the aftermath of FBI Director James B. Comey’s tough condemnation of how she handled classified email while secretary of State.

The joint appearance here, in the state whose primary did more than any other to propel Sanders into the role of a true threat to Clinton, comes after weeks of negotiations and careful choreography.

Sanders moved cautiously in Clinton’s direction – too slowly in the eyes of some Democrats – as her campaign edged toward his positions on major issues, most notably proposals to increase federal help with the cost of going to college and expanded efforts to cut the cost of healthcare.

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