Trump Highlights Support for Black Colleges: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is seeking to appeal to African American voters by highlighting funding for historically black colleges and criminal justice reform, even as polls show he faces an uphill battle.As part of the effort, White House advisers on Thursday said Trump pushed Congress to provide $75 million for his First Step program, which gives inmates a personalized assessment and recidivism reduction program. “The president’s leadership on this issue is fundamentally changing the future of our criminal justice system,” Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and the president’s son-in-law, said in a statement.Separately, the Trump administration has sought to highlight legislation permanently restoring annual funding to historically black colleges and universities, though that effort hit a snag. The White House planned an event Tuesday for black university leaders to celebrate the president signing the bill -- only to have the ceremony scuttled by last-minute legislative maneuvering that left Trump without anything to sign. He ended up inviting guests to the Oval Office for a private meet and greet instead. On Thursday, he signed the legislation and issued a statement celebrating the bill.Trump alluded to the aborted event during his rally in Michigan on Wednesday night, saying the “only bad thing” about the bill is that the university leaders wouldn’t come lobby him each year any more.Trump won about 8% of the black vote in 2016, and Democrats have sought to capitalize on the president’s polarizing rhetoric on race. Last month, his campaign created a group, “Black Voices for Trump,” to advocate for the president’s re-election -- after a September poll by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago showed that 92% of African Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of race relations.Warren Staff Say Backers List Had Errors (5:05 p.m.)Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said it made a mistake by including Democratic donor and political activist Ed Buck, who’s facing criminal charges over the death of two men, in a list of endorsements she received from alumni of Barack Obama’s administration and campaign.On Wednesday, Warren released a list of about 200 former Obama staffers who signed on to support her 2020 bid. Buck was on the list, even though he is being held without bail on charges involving the death of two men who fatally overdosed at his Los Angeles home in 2017.The Warren campaign said someone added fake names to the list that was being compiled by volunteers who used to work for Obama. The volunteers caught most of them, but missed Buck, the campaign said.“This was a mistake considering Ed Buck was not staff or an alum,” campaign representative Chris Hayden said in a statement. “This was put together via Google Doc by some Obama alums and they caught some non-staff that populated the list but obviously they missed one. They are removing it.” -- Misyrlena EgkolfopoulouBloomberg Offers Public Health-Insurance Option (2:27 p.m.)Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg would create a “Medicare-like” public health-insurance option, rejecting the progressive notion of government-run health insurance that replaces private coverage.Bloomberg’s campaign said it’s still figuring out how much his plan would cost, but estimated about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, offset partly by cost savings from capping out-of-network charges and negotiating prescription drug prices. Some revenue would come from a forthcoming tax plan, and he intends to raise enough money to pay for the policy proposals, the campaign said.The former New York mayor’s plan is similar to those proposed by Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and other 2020 candidates who oppose the government-run system championed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Elizabeth Warren is proposing a public option for the first three years of a Warren presidency until she can enact Medicare-for-all.Bloomberg’s plan would create a public option run by the government but funded by consumer premiums to cover people, including those in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. It would also build on the Affordable Care Act in part by expanding subsidies, and Bloomberg would increase enrollment efforts rather than reinstate the law’s individual mandate.Bloomberg has said a Medicare-for-all system would cost trillions of dollars and “bankrupt us for a very long time.” He’s advocating a “practical, achievable plan” to move toward universal coverage and lower costs.“We don’t need Medicare-for-All proposals that are more likely to re-elect Donald Trump than to expand coverage,” Bloomberg said while discussing his plan in Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. -- Mark NiquetteBiden Tops All Other Democrats in National Poll (7:18 a.m.)Former Vice President Joe Biden remains the top pick nationally for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.Biden was backed by 28% of voters surveyed. His closest rivals were Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders -- the top choice of 21% of respondents -- and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was favored by 18%. Biden, Warren and Sanders were the only three candidates to win double-digit support.Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg garnered 4% support, behind South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who drew 9%, and Senator Amy Klobuchar, who registered 5%.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.The poll of 410 registered voters who said they would participate in a Democratic caucus or primary was conducted Dec. 14-17 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.84 percentage points. -- Kathleen MillerBooker to Air His First TV Ad During Debate (7 a.m.)Cory Booker didn’t make the cut for the Democratic debate Thursday, but he still wants voters to hear his message thanks to a television ad that will be broadcast during the event.The campaign commercial, entitled “Together,” centers on Booker’s intention to stay in the race even though he won’t be on the debate stage at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. It will appear in the four early voting states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- and in New York City, Washington and Los Angeles.“You’re only going to see this ad once because I’m not a billionaire,” Booker says. “I won’t be on tonight’s debate stage, but that’s OK because I’m going to win this election anyway.”To be eligible to take part in the sixth Democratic debate, candidates had to receive donations from 200,000 individuals and reach 4% in four polls approved by the Democratic National Committee or 6% in two-DNC approved polls of early states. Booker obtained the donor minimum but did not reach 4% in any DNC-approved polls by the deadline. -- Emma KineryCOMING UPBiden, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer will participate in the final Democratic presidential debate of 2019 in Los Angeles on Thursday.(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Emma Kinery, Kathleen Miller, Mark Niquette and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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