The Note: Trump Takes Heat from All Sides
— -- NOTABLES
--KASICH -- TRUMP 'NOT PREPARED' TO BE PRESIDENT: GOP presidential candidate John Kasich unleashed his harshest criticism yet of Donald Trump this morning on "Good Morning America," hitting the Republican front-runner for his controversial comments on abortion, nuclear weapons, the Supreme Court and the Geneva Conventions, ABC’s BEN GITTLESON reports. The remarks came after Kasich released a statement earlier this morning saying, "The past 24 hours revealed in the clearest way yet that Donald Trump is not prepared to be President." “It’s like a panoply of mistakes and outrageous statements," Kasich said, explaining the statement on "GMA." "You know what it is with Donald? It’s just a stream of consciousness.” Kasich told "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts of Trump, "You can't operate like this." http://abcn.ws/1q564ZJ
--TRUMP'S REMARKS SPARK BIPARTISAN FIRESTORM: Trump’s comment that women who have an abortion should be punished if the procedure is banned immediately made waves across the internet and on both sides of the aisle. Trump walked back his remarks just a short time later, saying in a statement that only the doctor performing the abortion would be held legally responsible, not the women undergoing the procedure. Earlier, when asked to clarify the remarks made on MSNBC, Trump's campaign said in a statement: "This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions, which I have outlined numerous times." But his original comments sparked a firestorm, ABC’s ALANA ABRAMSON rounds it up: http://abcn.ws/1MU8EX8
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Once might be able to explain a first-time candidate struggling with the details of, say, the nuclear triad. But abortion? This deep in a Republican primary? Donald Trump’s latest stunner, suggesting and then quickly retracting a position that women should get “some form of punishment” if they get abortions, exposes him in just about every direction a candidate can be attacked. It’s a too-easy attack line in a general election, with memories of Todd Akin, just this time via words uttered by the man at the top of the ticket. In the primary, it strongly suggests that Trump – a recent convert to a self-described “pro-life” point of view – doesn’t speak or know the language of the movement. In the words of one prominent anti-abortion group, Trump “became the caricature that the left tries to paint us to be.” Most broadly, the episode reveals a candidate who simply doesn’t seem to have thought about and processed a position on major issues. Just in the last few days, Trump advocated a major retrenchment from NATO and the Geneva Conventions; suggested that Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia get nuclear weapons; said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would investigate Hillary Clinton’s email arrangements; and placed healthcare and education as two of the top three functions of the federal government. Some of these positions would give conservatives major pause. You don’t have to be a self-described conservative, though, to be concerned about whether this is a candidate who is familiar with pressing issues of the day.
IN THE NOTE’S INBOX -- FWD.US LAUNCHES ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ DIGITAL AD CAMPAIGN. Just-in from the immigration reform group: “Today, FWD.us is launching a new digital ad campaign illustrating the severe and likely irreversible political damage that Trump and Cruz are doing to the GOP in terms of its ability to attract support from Latino voters. The GOP should be extremely concerned that the two frontrunners for their party’s nomination are touting mass deportation as the main plank of their immigration plans. … FWD.us President Todd Schulte said, ‘If the harmful ‘self-deportation’ plan of 2012 was the clearest indicator at the time of Republicans' failure to connect with Latino voters, then the language of 2016 will prove even more disastrous and toxic to Republicans in a general election.’” WATCH: https://youtu.be/wKJIb1zdeP0
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ
SANDERS BLASTS REPUBLICAN FIELD: 'THEY'RE A NATIONAL DISGRACE'. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the Republican Party "a joke" during an interview Wednesday evening and he didn’t stop there, ABC’s MARYALICE PARKS reports. Sanders said the GOP race is a "national disgrace" and an "international embarrassment." "What Republican candidates have now stooped to is to starting attacking each other's wives," the Vermont senator and presidential hopeful told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. "I mean this is an international embarrassment. I think people around the rest of the world think we are pretty crazy." The underdog candidate vying for the Democratic Party nomination said that comparatively he and his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have been playing nice and focused on the issues. Citing several issues ranging from income inequality to climate change, he argued that he believes the GOP is out of touch with voters and has become a "fringe party." http://abcn.ws/1SoNbaD
CRUZ LEADS GOP FIELD IN WISCONSIN POLL, DEMOCRATS IN TIGHT RACE. A new poll shows Texas Sen. Ted Cruz leading the Republican field by double digits in Wisconsin, a crucial state that could begin to erode Donald Trump’s path to clinching the nomination. Cruz got 40 percent support in the poll released by the Marquette University Law School Wednesday. Trump earned 30 percent and John Kasich earned 21 support. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are within the margin of error, with 49 percent support for Sanders and 45 percent for Clinton. The Wisconsin primary, slated for April 5, marks the next major presidential contest in the election season. ABC’s RYAN STRUYK has more. http://abcn.ws/22Ppgf9
NOTED: CRUZ JOKES ABOUT RUNNING TRUMP OVER WITH A CAR. Ted Cruz made his debut on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Wednesday night, and needless to say, fellow GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump received a not-so-honorable mention: Cruz joked about running Trump over with a car, ABC’s JESSICA HOPPER notes. Before Cruz sat down with Kimmel, a segment with April Fool's Day prank ideas was aired. One of the ideas involved putting a picture of Trump in front of the backup camera of someone's car so a person would mistakenly think they were about to hit Trump when they reversed. Cruz later brought up the prank when Kimmel asked the Texas senator who he liked least: Trump or President Barack Obama. "Look, I dislike Obama’s policies more, but Donald is a unique individual," Cruz said. "I will say, I was watching the early part of the show, and if I were in my car getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the backup camera, I’m not confident which pedal I’d push," Cruz said, jokingly. http://abcn.ws/1TjZU3g
5 POLITICIANS WHO WERE AGAINST CRUZ BEFORE THEY WERE FOR HIM. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich: The race for the Republican nomination is down to the final three. In recent days, however, Cruz has earned some powerful -- and unlikely -- allies. Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, once a rival of the Texas senator for the GOP nomination, threw his support behind his former foe. Cruz has been arguing the endorsements are proof that Republicans are uniting behind him. But many, if not most, of Cruz's new-found GOP fans have not always been so supportive. ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI has more. http://abcn.ws/1olYqZh
TRUMP'S EVOLVING EXPLANATION OF THE LEWANDOWSKI-FIELDS INCIDENT. As the story about the alleged March 8 encounter between Donald Trump's campaign manager and a reporter has continued to unspool, Trump's version of events has evolved as well, ABC’s KATHERINE FAULDERS notes. Here’s a look at how Trump -- and his campaign’s -- description of the incident has evolved over time: http://abcn.ws/1ZLTZVi
NOTED: A LOOK BACK AT A FEW TIMES DONALD TRUMP SAID ‘YOU’RE FIRED’. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is standing by his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was charged with simple battery against a reporter on Tuesday. “‘Corey, you're fired,’” Trump said Tuesday in Wisconsin. “I can't do that.” But those two words -- “you’re fired” -- are part of why Trump is famous: Before he became the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, the New York businessman was the star judge of the long-running NBC reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” But Trump has carried out only a few firings during his presidential campaign so far. ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ take a closer look: http://abcn.ws/1RzJY8p
SIGNS THE GOP IS HEADING FOR A SHOWDOWN IN CLEVELAND. Party conventions are viewed as a time for unity, an opportunity to coalesce around the party's presidential front-runner. But this year, at least on the GOP side, it looks increasingly likely that none of candidates will reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates to secure the presidential nomination. Donald Trump has to win 55 percent of the remaining delegates to get there. Ted Cruz needs to win 85 percent and John Kasich needs to win 120 percent. By contrast, Hillary Clinton has to win just 36 percent of the remaining delegates to be eligible for the Democratic nomination. The campaigns seemed to have accepted that Cleveland may be more of a showdown than anyone had anticipated, and are preparing accordingly. ABC’s ALANA ABRAMSON has more. http://abcn.ws/1Sn0XdU
JOE BIDEN: DONALD TRUMP ‘MAKES ME SAD.’ Vice President Joe Biden has said that he finds some of the comments made by GOP front-runner Donald Trump over the course of his campaign to be discouraging. “When I listen to some of the stuff Donald Trump says it just makes me sad,” Biden said in an interview with Billboard, ABC’s ARLETTE SAENZ notes. “It’s never, never been wise to try and appeal to the darker side of human nature," he added. "Abraham Lincoln was right -- it’s about appealing to our better angels. That’s who Americans are and that’s what they want.” Asked whether it was “disconcerting” for a candidate to promote “aggression among his supporters,” the vice president said it was “the antithesis of everything this country is about.” http://abcn.ws/1TiFyYa
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GOP LOYALTY PLEDGE. A long and winding road led to the moment this week when all three remaining Republican presidential candidates backed away from their previous pledge to support the party's eventual nominee. While Donald Trump has been flirting with throwing out the pledge for some time now, he was joined by his fellow candidates during Tuesday night's CNN town hall. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich both suggested that they would renege on the pledge if the real estate mogul ends up being the nominee. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY has more on the back and forth over the pledge this election cycle. http://abcn.ws/1MT3vyw
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
PROTESTER AT TRUMP RALLY PEPPER-SPRAYED. A teen girl was pepper-sprayed Tuesday night outside a Donald Trump rally in Janesville, Wisconsin, the latest altercation at a Trump campaign event. Alex Drake, 15, was protesting in the middle of a crowd of Trump supporters. As protesters surrounding Drake hoisted Black Lives Matter signs, Drake exchanged words with a Trump supporter. According to videos posted and obtained by ABC News, Drake appears to try and shove the supporter, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH reports. Eyewitness Michelle Velez said that Drake threw the first punch. You then see Drake immediately sprayed in the face with pepper spray. Drake was escorted out by officers who poured water in her eyes to remove the spray. Janesville Police said they have obtained video of the incident and are investigating the matter. http://abcn.ws/1TitKF7
WHO’S TWEETING?
@politicoalex: Trump off the trail today and holding private meetings in DC, including with foreign policy team http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/trump-visit-dc-foreign-policy-team-221417 …
@ZekeJMiller: Smart GOP op: "If convention leads to nominee other than Trump, moving up convention dates will have been smartest RNC move this cycle"
@Nate_Cohn: Based strictly on demographics--no home state bonus--Trump favored to break 45 in all of CT, NY, NJ
@jameshohmann: Bernie has raised $39 million in March, from contributors giving an average of $27 apiece. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/03/31/daily-202-abortion-gaffe-underscores-why-trump-would-not-put-wisconsin-in-play-during-a-general-election/56fc082d981b92a22dc402c7/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202 …
@aseitzwald: Sanders team might challenge Arizona primary results. http://www.12news.com/news/bernie-sanders-lawyer-compares-arizona-vote-to-floridas-in-2000/110611575 …
