Overnight Campaign: A party rebels against its front-runner

by Jonathan Swan - 12/08/15 6:12 PM ET

Welcome to OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.

With more unity than they have shown so far this overheated campaign season, Republicans of all ideological stripes are running away from their presidential front-runner, Donald Trump.

GOP pols and candidates — even Trump’s stalwart supporter Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — are trying to put distance between themselves and the billionaire following Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

GOP congressional leaders appear united in condemning Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Trump’s proposal “completely and totally inconsistent with American values.” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “This is not who we are as a party or a country.”

But Trump appears unfazed and is reminding the GOP of his ultimate power. “A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent,” the billionaire tweeted on Tuesday.

While all this is going on, come back to The Hill this evening to read Scott Wong and Cristina Marcos on the growing GOP war against Trump, and come back tomorrow morning for more breaking stories, including an investigation into a leading Senate candidate’s extravagant spending with campaign funds.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

AVOIDING THE QUESTION: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign told reporters during a Tuesday event in Baltimore not to ask questions about the terror threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “Don’t ask about ISIS today,” Sanders spokeswoman Symone Sanders said, according to CNN.

DON AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: If he gets elected president, Ted Cruz could have a message for Donald Trump: you’re hired. The Texas senator lauded his GOP presidential rival’s negotiating skills in an interview with Breitbart News published Tuesday. Cruz said he’d love to bring Trump into his administration to help make trade deals.

CARSONCARE: The Hill’s Sarah Ferris reports: Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson will roll out a long-awaited healthcare proposal on Wednesday that he says could become an alternative to ObamaCare.

FEEL THE WIND: The Hill’s Timothy Cama reports: A pair of bills from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) seeks to create millions of new jobs in clean energy fields through tax changes and worker training. Sanders is proposing a permanent extension of tax incentives for wind and solar energy and $41 billion in new programs to help workers in the fossil fuel industry get new jobs.

COAL CRUZ-ADER: The Hill’s Timothy Cama reports: Presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) used a Senate hearing Tuesday to castigate environmentalists, Democrats and other “alarmists” on climate change.

PLAYING WITH FIRE: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Of all the critiques on Trump’s anti-Muslim policy, perhaps none is more significant — or riskier for the critic — than the rebuke from RNC chair Reince Priebus. Priebus encouraged the billionaire to sign the “pledge” that he would support the eventual Republican nominee; but that deal could face testy times if Trump decides he is being treated “unfairly” by the party.

STUDYING UP: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Ben Carson’s presidential campaign is bringing on a former top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a foreign policy adviser amid concerns about his chops on the issue.

ODDS AND ENDS:

DEPTARTMENT OF OUCH: When the New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for president, the publisher Joe McQuaid reminded people that his newspaper doesn’t just endorse once. It endorses every day. So here we are — today’s stinging editorial accusing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) uses “tough talk” to cover up his “weak record.” Ouch.

GETTING EVEN: The Hill’s Mario Trujillo reports: Much of the free advertising time NBC gave to Republican presidential candidates to satisfy equal opportunity rules after Donald Trump’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance came during a rerun of “The National Dog Show” last month.

ANOTHER DEBATE: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Fox Business Network will host another GOP presidential debate on Jan. 14, the network announced in a press release. The debate will take place in Charleston, S.C., two days after President Obama gives his State of the Union address to Congress.

POLL POSITION

STRUMMING THE BASE: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has hit a new high in North Carolina in part because of his tough rhetoric on Islam, a new poll found. Trump gets 33 percent support among that state’s Republicans, doubling the nearest contender, according to a survey from the liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling, released Tuesday.

HILLARY DOMINANT: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 22 points in Iowa, according to a new poll. A Monmouth University survey released on Tuesday found Clinton with 55 percent support compared with Sanders’s 33 percent. That’s in line with the RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls, which shows Clinton with a 24.7-point lead over Sanders.

THE DAILY TRUMP

HITTING WHERE IT HURTS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: A new push from a Toronto politician aims to remove Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s name from a building in the city. City Councillor Josh Matlow is calling for the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto to change its name, according to Now Toronto.

A WARTIME CANDIDATE: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump early Tuesday rejected criticism of his call to “shut the door” on Muslims entering the U.S. during a heated round of interviews in which he said he was not worried about being compared to Hitler. “We’re at war — get it through your head,” Trump said repeatedly during an interview with host Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day.”

A NO-TRUMP POLICY: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: The mayor of Philadelphia said Tuesday that his city is no longer open to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. “Certainly if I had the power to do so, the only banning that should be done is of [Trump] not being allowed in the city of Philadelphia,” said Mayor Michael Nutter (D), according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. That’s the second mayor in two days to pull the Welcome mat out from Trump.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump”

— Boris Johnson, mayor of London

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

DOUBLE-DARE YOU: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Democratic Senate candidate P.G. Sittenfeld called on Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to reverse his pledge that he’d support Donald Trump if he won GOP presidential nomination.

A LOUISIANA TEA PARTY: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Col. Rob Maness, the Tea Party challenger in the 2014 Louisiana Senate race, will mount another Senate bid in 2016. Maness declared his intention to fill retiring Republican Sen. David Vitter’s seat in a new filing with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday.

MONEY WATCH

FUNNY MONEY: The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Sen. Mike Lee’s campaign says it will donate about $40,000 to several charities this month, giving away funds suspected to be made illegally by indicted St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson. The alleged impropriety prompted an elections complaint that was dismissed earlier this year.

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern)

Bernie Sanders will speak with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow at 9 p.m. today andwill be a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” tonight on NBC at 11:35.

Ben Carson and Marco Rubio are guests on “Hannity” at 10 p.m. today on Fox News.

Donald Trump is scheduled to be a guest on “Live with Kelly and Michael” on Wednesday morning.

Hillary Clinton holds three events in Iowa on Wednesday.

Marco Rubio holds a rally in Michigan on Wednesday.

Carly Fiorina has two events scheduled for Wednesday in New Hampshire.

Jeb Bush is scheduled to meet with young professionals in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

Ben Carson will speak at a town hall in Michigan on Wednesday.

Martin O’Malley will hold a town hall at the University of California, Berkeley on Wednesday.

TWEET OF THE DAY

Maybe Donald negotiated a deal with his buddy @HillaryClinton. Continuing this path will put her in the White House. https://t.co/AlvByiSrMn

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 8, 2015