GOP New Year’s Resolutions
Donald Trump: I resolve to show some humility every once in a while.
Donald Trump: “I’m a smart person.” “Trump disagreed with his critics. ‘I’m the worst thing that ever happened to ISIS,’ he declared Tuesday night during an interview with Barbara Walters. ‘I’m a smart person,’ said Trump. ‘I know how to run things. I know how to make America great again.’” [New York Daily News, 12/9/15]
Donald Trump on pundits: “I’m much smarter than them. I think I have a much higher IQ.” “Donald Trump claims he has a higher IQ than conservative pundits George Will and Karl Rove, both of whom he slammed Monday during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio. ‘I watch these pundits on television and, you know, they call them intellectuals. They’re not intellectuals,’ Trump told thousands of supporters in the swing state. ‘I’m much smarter than them. I think I have a much higher IQ. I think I went to a better college — better everything,’ proclaimed the University of Pennsylvania graduate, adding that it’s ‘amazing’ the way pundits treat their viewers.” [Washington Examiner, 11/23/15]
Donald Trump on Ted Cruz: “We both have the highest of IQs.” “Trump says he doesn’t question Cruz’s motivations. ‘We could say the same thing on the opposite, you know, maybe that’s why I’m reaching out to him. But it’s not. I just respect him, we have a mutual respect, we get along well. We both have the highest of IQs,’ he said.” [Politico, 9/4/15]
Donald Trump: “If I were a liberal Democrat people would say I’m a super genius of all time — the super genius of all time.” TRUMP: “Look if I were a liberal Democrat people would say I’m a super genius of all time — the super genius of all time. If you`re a conservative Republican, you have to fight for your life. It`s really an amazing thing.” [NBC’s Meet the Press, 8/16/15]
Donald Trump: “I went to the hardest school to get into, the best school in the world, I guess you could say, the Wharton School of Finance, it’s like super genius stuff.” “Hey, look, I went to the hardest school to get into, the best school in the world, I guess you could say, the Wharton School of Finance, it’s like super genius stuff. I came, out I built a tremendous company, I had tremendous success. ‘The Art of the Deal,’ The Apprentice, everything.” [CNN, 8/11/15]
Donald Trump: “I’m, like, a really smart person.” “The hour-long speech was vintage Trump. An unscripted, rambling mix of jokes, boasts, provocations, policy prescriptions to ‘make America great again’ and tirades against illegal immigrants, Mexico’s government, Democrats, the media, terrorists and especially fellow Republicans. […] ‘I went to the Wharton School of Business,’ he noted several times. ‘I’m, like, a really smart person.’” [Guardian, 7/12/15]
Donald Trump on the difference between him and George W. Bush: “Bush didn’t have the IQ.” TRUMP: “Based on – no, no, no. Based on — a feel. Okay? You know, deals are people. I make a lot of – ” O’REILLY: “You sound like George W. Bush. He, he looked into his soul and said he was a good guy. Come on.” TRUMP: “Bush, Bush didn’t have the IQ.” [Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, 6/16/15]
Donald Trump: “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest – and you all know it!” “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault” [@realDonaldTrump, 5/8/13, 9:37 p.m. ET]
Ted Cruz: I resolve to stop kissing up to Donald.
Ted Cruz: “I like Donald Trump.” “Senator Ted Cruz said Tuesday he disagrees with Donald Trump on temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S., but he refused to repudiate his Republican presidential rival. ‘I disagree with that proposal,’ Cruz said. ‘I like Donald Trump.’ […] Cruz said he’d still support Trump or any other nominee. ‘I will absolutely support the Republican nominee and I hope and intend for that nominee to be me,’ he said.” [Bloomberg,12/8/15]
Ted Cruz: “I like Donald. He’s a friend of mine.” “While Trump stole some of the spotlight from Cruz, the Texas senator admitted the businessman’s star power was part of the appeal. ‘The reason’s not complicated,’ Cruz told reporters Thursday outside a tea party rally. ‘No. 1: I like Donald. He’s a friend of mine. But when Donald arrives at an event, he brings an army of TV reporters. And Donald’s being there … means the mainstream media will cover the event.’” [CNN, 9/9/15]
Ted Cruz: “When it comes to Donald Trump, I like Donald Trump.” “‘I’m not interested in Republican on Republican violence,’ he told host Chuck Todd, adding that ‘bold … brash’ Trump ‘has a colorful way of speaking.’ The Texas senator’s comments were similar to his defense of Trump during ‘Fox & Friends’ on Tuesday. ‘When it comes to Donald Trump, I like Donald Trump,’ Cruz said on the show. ‘I think he’s terrific.’” [Politico, 7/3/15]
Ted Cruz: “I’m a big fan of Donald Trump’s.” “Ted Cruz on Friday disavowed Donald Trump’s support for requiring American Muslims register as such, a rare public break with the current GOP frontrunner. ‘I’m a big fan of Donald Trump’s but I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens,’ he told reporters of a plan Trump said he backed a day earlier. ‘The First Amendment protects religious liberty, I’ve spent the past several decades defending religious liberty.’” [Politico, 11/20/15]
Ted Cruz said that Donald Trump is “terrific” and that “he speaks the truth.” “Trump said he does, however, respect one contender for his stance on immigration. ‘I respect Ted Cruz for the view he’s got. He was really out there and strong on it. I shouldn’t say this because, I assume, he’s an opponent, but the fact is he was very brave in coming out,’ Trump said. Earlier in the week, the Texas Republican senator had defended Trump in his feud with NBC over the immigration remarks, calling him ‘terrific’ and saying ‘he speaks the truth.’” [CNN, 7/8/15]
Marco Rubio: I resolve to start showing up for work.
Marco Rubio had an absentee rate that was “four times the Senate average” over his first four years in office. “Of the lawmakers currently serving in the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is the least likely to show up for work. He’s been in office for four years, and of 1,198 opportunities to vote, he has declined to do so 99 times. That’s an absentee rate of 8.2 percent—four times the Senate average of 2.01 percent.” [Vocativ, 2/17/15]
Marco Rubio missed fully half of the committee hearings and meetings of the Senate Foreign Relations committee in 2014. “He began missing committee work, even on the subject he most identified with. In 2014, Rubio missed 34 of 68 committee hearings and meetings in the Foreign Relations committee, according to his office’s tally.” [Washington Post, 10/25/15]
Marco Rubio skipped a closed-door Senate Foreign Relations committee briefing on the ISIS attacks in Paris so that he could attend a fundraiser. “At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee went behind closed doors for a briefing titled, ‘The Aftermath of Paris: America’s Role.’ But Sen. Marco Rubio was not there. The Florida Republican is on his way to California for fundraising. The absence illustrates how Rubio is not just missing floor votes but also key hearings on national security and foreign policy — issues he has presented as chief credentials of his presidential campaign. He’s also skipping a Paris briefing this afternoon for all senators.” [Tampa Bay Times, 11/18/15]
Marco Rubio skipped a $310 million dollar vote in the Florida House of Representatives to attend a World Series game. “Hoping for a statewide economic revolution and a spate of high-wage jobs, the Florida Legislature lateThursday approved the offer of a whopping $310 million in incentives to bring a branch of a world-renowned biotech institute to Palm Beach County. […] Several South Florida legislators were absent for the vote, having flown out of Tallahassee on Thursday afternoon to catch Game 5 of the World Series matchup between the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees. Among them: House Majority Leader Marco Rubio, a Miami Republican, who was invited to join the Marlins at their batting practice.” [Sun-Sentinel, 10/24/03]
Marco Rubio left his city commission job “less than halfway through his term.” “Rubio, now a 44-year-old U.S. senator, declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed about his city commission experience. In his 307-page memoir, he devotes only one paragraph to his West Miami work and calls it ‘mostly uncontroversial.’ He left the job less than halfway through his term.” [Washington Post, 7/30/15]
Ben Carson: I resolve to stop telling tall tales.
Ben Carson’s “narrative of spiritual redemption” after committing “acts of violence as an angry young man” were “unrecognizable” to “friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with Carson.” “At the core of his narrative of spiritual redemption are his acts of violence as an angry young man — stabbing, rock throwing, brick hurling and baseball bat beating — that preceded Carson’s sudden transformation into the composed figure who stands before voters today. […] But nine friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with Carson told CNN they have no memory of the anger or violence the candidate has described. That person is unrecognizable to those whom CNN interviewed, who knew him during those formative years. All of the people interviewed expressed surprise about the incidents Carson has described. No one challenged the stories directly. Some of those interviewed expressed skepticism, but noted that they could not know what had happened behind closed doors.” [CNN, 11/7/15]
Ben Carson “attempted to recast his previous claims of a full scholarship” to the military academy at West Point “despite numerous public and written statements to the contrary over the last few decades.” “Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Friday conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point and attempted to recast his previous claims of a full scholarship to the military academy — despite numerous public and written statements to the contrary over the last few decades.” [Politico, 11/6/15]
- West Point had “no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.” “West Point has occupied a central place in Carson’s personal story for years. According to a tale told in his book, ‘Gifted Hands,’ the then-17 year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the two dined together. That meeting, according to Carson’s telling, was followed by the offer of a ‘full scholarship’ to the military academy. West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.” [Politico, 11/6/15]
Ben Carson’s claim that he was held up by a gunman in a Popeye’s restaurant was not corroborated by police reports. “Last month, Mr. Carson said in a radio interview that, as a young doctor, he had a gun stuck in his ribs at a Popeye’s restaurant in Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. ‘A guy comes in and puts a gun in my ribs. And I just said, ‘I believe that you want the guy behind the counter,’’ Mr. Carson said. ‘He said, “Oh, okay.”‘ The Baltimore Police Department later said it couldn’t find a report matching the incident Mr. Carson described.” [Wall Street Journal, 11/6/15]
Ben Carson’s claim that he protected a few white students during rioting over the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was not corroborated by his former classmates. “The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, Ben Carson’s black classmates unleashed their anger and grief on white students who were a minority at Detroit’s Southwestern High. Mr. Carson, then a junior with a key to a biology lab where he worked part time, told The Wall Street Journal last month that he protected a few white students from the attacks by hiding them there. It is a dramatic account of courage and kindness, and it couldn’t be confirmed in interviews with a half-dozen of Mr. Carson’s classmates and his high school physics teacher. The students all remembered the riot. None recalled hearing about white students hiding in the biology lab, and Mr. Carson couldn’t remember any names of those he sheltered.” [Wall Street Journal, 11/6/15]
Jeb Bush: I resolve to quit putting my foot in my mouth.
Jeb Bush: “People need to work longer hours.” “Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Wednesday that in order to grow the economy ‘people should work longer hours’ — a comment that the Bush campaign argues was a reference to underemployed part-time workers but which Democrats are already using to attack him. During an interview that was live-streamed on the app Periscope, Bush told New Hampshire’s The Union Leader that to grow the economy, ‘people should work longer hours.’ He was answering a question about his plans for tax reform and responded: ‘My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours’ and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this rut that we’re in.’” [ABC News, 7/8/15]
Jeb Bush on Medicare: “We need to figure out a way to phase out this program.” “Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Wednesday that we ought to phase out Medicare, the federal program that provides health insurance to Americans once they’re 65. ‘We need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits,’ Bush said. ‘But we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something, because they’re not going to have anything.’” [Huffington Post, 7/23/15]
Jeb Bush: “I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.” “Bush said the argument against that effort would be that it’s a ‘war on women.’ ‘You could take dollar for dollar–although I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues–but if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine community health organizations that exist to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues,’ he said.” [The Hill, 8/4/15]
Jeb Bush on the Iraq invasion: “Taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.” “Jeb Bush on Thursday said ‘taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal’ but then said he didn’t want to get into hypotheticals about what would’ve happened had the U.S. (under his brother) not invaded in 2003. ‘Then that’s back to the future and you could make a movie,’ Bush said at a national security forum hosted by Politico. The Republican presidential candidate said the 2007 ‘surge’ left Iraq in a ‘fragile but secure’ state, but that President Obama’s withdrawal of U.S. forces paved the way for the rise of ISIS.” [Daily Beast, 8/13/15]
Jeb Bush: “Pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement… so that you don’t have these, you know, ‘anchor babies’.” “Jeb Bush doesn’t want birthright citizenship to go away, but he is calling for stronger enforcement for people who abuse it. ‘If there’s abuse, if people are bringing — pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement,’ Bush said on Bill Bennett’s conservative radio show, ‘Morning in America’ Wednesday. ‘That’s [the] legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don’t have these, you know, ‘anchor babies’, as they’re described, coming into the country.’ ‘Anchor babies’ is a derogatory term used to describe children who are born in the United States to undocumented parents.” [Politico, 8/19/15]
- Jeb Bush on the term “anchor babies”: “Frankly it’s more related to Asian people.” “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush attempted to clarify his remarks about ‘anchor babies’ during a stop near the U.S. border with Mexico on Monday, saying Asian immigrants are really more of the problem. When asked if he thought his repeated use of the term ‘anchor babies’ – a derogatory term for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrant parents – Bush said: ‘What I was talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed where there’s organized efforts, and frankly, it’s more related to Asian people coming into our country and having children in that organized effort.’” [Talking Points Memo, 8/24/15]
Jeb Bush, after the gun massacre at an Oregon community college: “Stuff happens.” “A day after a massacre on a U.S. college campus, Jeb Bush said ‘stuff happens’ but that it should not lead to tighter gun restrictions.” [Politico,10/2/15]
Carly Fiorina: I resolve to stop lying about my business record.
Carly Fiorina said she was “a chief executive who’s had to make tough calls to save jobs and to grow jobs.” “FIORINA: Can I just — could I just say, as a chief executive who’s had to make tough calls to save jobs and to grow jobs, I think what’s interesting about Dodd-Frank is it’s a great example of how socialism starts.” [Fox Business Republican presidential debate, 11/10/15]
- Carly Fiorina fired more than 30,000 workers as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. “The Los Angeles Times, evaluating Fiorina’s record when she ran for the Senate in 2010, noted that during her tenure HP also acquired more than a dozen other companies with at least 8,000 employees. Indeed, Fiorina has acknowledged firing more than 30,000 workers in the wake of the Compaq merger.” [Washington Post, 5/8/15]
- Carly Fiorina: “Massive layoffs” at HP were done “on my watch.” “When you’re talking about massive layoffs, which we did on my watch, you’re talking about a recognition that perhaps the work that’s getting done no longer needs to be done at all, or perhaps the work needs to be done somewhere else.” [Texas Monthly interview, 2/20/08]
- HP has announced more than 100,000 job cuts since Carly Fiorina’s firing. “Fiorina made a huge gamble in acquiring Compaq — and it didn’t work, sending HP into a tailspin it is still trying to climb out of. HP has announced more than 100,000 job cuts since Fiorina left.” [CNN Money, 9/21/15]
Carly Fiorina said that under her tenure at HP, “we doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its topline growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation.” FIORINA: “I led Hewlett Packard through a very difficult time, the worst technology recession in 25 years. The NASDAQ stock index fell 80 percent. It took 15 years for the stock index to recover. We had very strong competitors who literally went out of business and lost all of their jobs in the process. Despite those difficult times, we doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its topline growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation.” [CNN Republican presidential debate, 9/16/15]
- USA Today: “The growth didn’t come anywhere close to quadrupling.” “Fiorina has repeatedly touted a quadrupling of the ‘growth rate,’ specifically saying in the past that it went from 2% to 9%. She’s talking about revenue, but instead of using fiscal 1999 and 2005, as she does for the size of the company, her super PAC told us it compared the second quarter of 1999 to all of 2005. Using the same comparison as Fiorina’s ‘doubled’ claim, we see the growth didn’t come anywhere close to quadrupling. Instead, it went from 7.5% in 1999 to 8.5% in 2005. Plus, the revenue growth in 2005 was only 6% on a constant currency basis, which is an adjustment due to foreign currency fluctuations. Over her six years, revenue growth year-to-year fluctuated significantly.” [USA Today, 9/17/15]
- Carly Fiorina was fired by Hewlett-Packard “after the company’s stock dropped by half in 2005.” “Mrs. Fiorina, the only former female chief executive among the candidates, continues to promote her business experience on the trail, yet she was fired by Hewlett-Packard after the company’s stock dropped by half in 2005. She has long blamed her failings at running the technology giant on the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the deepening recession in Silicon Valley after the Sept. 11 attacks.” [New York Times, 8/17/15]
Rand Paul: I resolve to stop embarrassing myself with campaign gimmicks.
Huffington Post blog HEADLINE: “Rand Paul Now Just An Itinerant Prop Comic, Apparently” [Huffington Post, 9/16/15]
- Rand Paul attempted to build support for his campaign using a video of him destroying a physical copy of the tax code with fire, a woodchipper and a chainsaw. “The Kentucky senator and Republican presidential candidate released a video Tuesday of him taking on the tax code with fire, a woodchipper and a chainsaw to a rock-and-roll rendition of the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ‘Hey, I’m Rand Paul, and I’m trying to kill the tax code — all 70,000 pages of it,’ says a T-shirt clad Paul before directing viewers to his website to learn more about his proposals. His website leads to a page asking visitors, ‘How would you kill the tax code?’ Paul is in the background holding up a chainsaw in front of a pile of papers. It asks for name and contact information before users can vote for their tax destruction method of choice.” [Politico, 7/21/15]
- Rand Paul attempted to build support for his campaign by shooting copies of the U.S. tax code at a California gun range. “Nobody, it seems, is a fan of the current Internal Revenue Code. Yesterday, however, presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took to a California gun range to literally blow away our current tax system. Sen. Paul shot about 10 shots into boxes holding the approximately 80,000 page long Tax Code using a modified AR-15.” [Forbes, 9/17/15]
- Mother Jones’ Miles Johnson: “Does it matter…that this is a cry for attention from someone who is polling at a meager 3 percent?” “We’ve seen Paul take a chainsaw to the tax code before, but the day of the second GOP debate calls for an upping of the ante. Does it matter that those boxes he’s emptying clips into appear to be just unopened packs of printer paper and not the tax code? Or that this is a cry for attention from someone who is polling at a meager 3 percent, according to recent CBS polling data? Of course not.” [Mother Jones, 9/16/15]
Rand Paul attempted to fundraise off of a failed “filibuster” that only lasted about 18 minutes. “Sen. Rand Paul staged what he said was a filibuster in an attempt to delay the bipartisan budget deal -– but he only spoke on the Senate floor for about 18 minutes Thursday. […] But Paul’s camp, as it has with his past marathon speeches, urged supporters to donate money to encourage him as he ‘filibustered.’” [ABC News, 10/29/15]
- MSNBC’s Steve Benen: “Today’s stunt was clearly the Worst. Filibuster. Ever.” “Substantively, listening to Paul complain about Congress paying its debts for the things lawmakers have already bought was annoying, but even putting this aside, today’s stunt was clearly the Worst. Filibuster. Ever.” [MSNBC, 10/29/15]
Rand Paul on whether he’s running for president: “I wouldn’t be doing this dumbass live streaming if I weren’t.” “The Kentucky senator live-streamed an entire day on the campaign trail on Tuesday, but things went a little awry when Paul answered questions that people had Googled about him. Paul did not seem too amused when he answered those who used a Google search to ask whether he was still running for president. ‘I don’t know. I wouldn’t be doing this dumbass live streaming if I weren’t. So yes, I still am running for president, get over it.’ ‘This is live, we can’t edit this right?’ Paul continued.” [Huffington Post, 10/14/15]
- Rand Paul on what the point of his livestream stunt was: “I wish I knew.” “Asked by a reporter why he was live-streaming the entire day, Paul said that he wasn’t quite sure. ‘I wish I knew,’ he said.” [Huffington Post, 10/14/15]