Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both won convincing victories in the Arizona presidential primaries on Tuesday, cementing their status as the frontrunners in Republican and Democratic races that are a long way from being settled.
In a sign both contests are shaping up to be long and drawn-out bids for delegates, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, the main Republican and Democratic challengers, also notched significant victories in western states.
Cruz swept to victory in Utah, winning more than 50% of the votes, a pivotal threshold under Utah’s Republican caucus rules, which ensured the Texas senator secured all of the state’s 40 delegates.
Sanders also registered a resounding victory in Utah and added a second triumph in Idaho, a state where only Democrats were holding a contest on Tuesday.
However, Arizona was the largest delegate prize on Tuesday and was also the most fiercely contested, with Trump, Cruz, Clinton and Sanders all criss-crossing the state in recent days in a last-ditch effort to shore up support.
The strength of the victories by the Republican and Democratic frontrunners in the large, diverse state will add to the growing sense they are nominees-in-waiting, even if they have months of protracted contests ahead of them.
The Grand Canyon State is the largest purely winner-takes-all state left in the Republican calendar, and Trump’s victory in the state ensured he won all 58 delegates. At 11pm local time, with close to half of Arizona votes counted, Trump was on 47%, compared to Cruz’s 23%. Ohio Governor John Kasich was third, with around 10%.
On the Democratic side, Clinton had a similarly large margin of victory, with 60% to Sanders’ 38%.
At her victory speech at a rally in Seattle the former secretary of state immediately positioned herself as the Democratic commander-in-chief in waiting, dwelling only briefly on the election results in order to focus instead on a critique of how her Republican rivals responded to the terrorist attacks in Brussels earlier in the day.
Clinton contrasted what she claimed would be her “strong, smart and above all steady” leadership in the White House with the reaction of Republicans to the tragedy in Europe.
Trump, who recently said the US should reconsider its involvement in the Nato defense alliance, a cornerstone of Washington’s foreign policy, responded to the terrorist atrocity by repeating his call to waterboard terrorism suspects. Cruz, meanwhile, was widely criticized for reacting to the attacks with a call for law enforcement patrols of Muslim neighborhoods.
“In the face of terror, America doesn’t panic, we don’t build walls or turn our backs on our allies,” Clinton said. “We can’t throw out everything that we know about what works and what doesn’t and start torturing people.”
She added: “What Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and others are suggesting is not only wrong, it is dangerous.”
Appearing at a rally in San Diego before the Utah and Idaho results were in, Sanders did not mention his loss in Arizona, instead focusing on his expected wins. “We have now won 10 primaries and caucuses,” a hoarse-sounding Sanders told supporters. “And unless I’m mistaken, we’re going to win a couple more tonight.”
His forecast was correct, and the strength of Sanders’ victories in Utah and Idaho, where early voting returns indicated he could win as much as 70% of the votes, will likely energize his supporters. The senator from Vermont is also projected to perform well in the last three Democratic states to hold contests in March: Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
However, those wins are unlikely to put a decisive dent in the Democratic frontrunner’s lead delegates. Clinton’s lead in delegates selected through primaries and caucuses is bolstered from the pledged support of party officials that also get a say in the nomination process.
With superdelegates included, Clinton went into Tuesday with 1,630 delegates compared to Sanders’ 870. Sanders contends that superdelegates could still change their minds before the convention and insist the second half of the primary calendar includes states that are better suited to him.
Still, Clinton operatives are privately confident that on the current trajectory the senator from Vermont will face intense pressure to pull out of the race by early summer.
The Republican race appears more complicated still.
While Trump looks on course to end the campaign with the most delegates of any candidate, he may not have the 1,237 required to win the GOP nomination outright. That would force the billionaire to make the case for his presidency in a contested convention where party elites, many of whom who are hostile to his candidacy, could hold sway.
With Trump’s projected delegate count expected to come down to the wire, results such as his loss to Cruz in Utah could, later down the line, prove pivotal.
Utah’s large Mormon population always made it steep challenge for Trump, but the race showed signs that Cruz, a conservative stalwart once loathed by the Republican establishment, is starting to mop-up its support.
The self-styled Tea Party senator is desperate to absorb supporters of candidates who have dropped out such as Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush. In Utah, he received the unlikely backing of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney.
Cruz’s bid for the mantle of Trump’s challenger-in-chief is complicated by Kasich, the third Republican still in the race and, he argues, the only moderate voice. His continued presence in the race could sap at the Texan senator’s pool of potential anti-Trump voters.
Cruz is also hampered by a view among some in the party that that would be no more electable than Trump in a general election – and possibly less so.
Trump and Cruz were both on the east coast, where most results did not start filtering until late Tuesday night. Neither had scheduled news conferences or rallies to react to the results.
Instead, on a night when world leaders were grappling with the repercussions of the terrorist bombings in Brussels, which killed at least 31 people and injuring up to 230, Trump and Cruz ended up in an unseemly Twitter squabble over their wives.
Trump wrongly accusing Cruz of being behind an ad in Utah that used a nude photograph of his wife Melania from a GQ shoot 15 years ago and added: “Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”
Cruz responded: “Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought.” Thanks for reading.
OAP Freeze Slams TB Joshua Over Brussels Bombings
Central European country of Belgium was on Tuesday morning rocked by twin explosions at the Brussels Airport and Metro Station, leaving at least 30 people dead, and tens of others wounded. And not long after the sad news claimed headlines across the globe, popular Nigerian cleric at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, T.B. Joshua, claimed he had predicted the tragedy.
The message was shared on the church’s Emmanuel TV on January 31, where he said that it ‘is not yet over’ for a ‘French Country’. “These evil people are in town,” the prophet said, adding, “The people they chased out, there are some that are still there. They want to strike back.”
“They have to sit tight,” TB Joshua continued in the message, saying that the alleged attackers were “looking for every opportunity for assembly – assembly of people, to launch. They will blow a lot of people die.(sic)”
But popular OAP Daddy Freeze is not buying into these endless prophesies.
“Baba, leave story, you didn’t predict jack!” Daddy Freeze said, adding, “Northern French country ko, southern Portuguese country ni! Shior!!!”
“Your so-called prediction killed about 30 while in your own backyard 116 were killed???? Baba, leave this one and go and predict #SureBet make boys hammer!” Daddy Freeze said.
This is not the first time the OAP would be tackling the popular prophet.
Just some days back, Freeze called out Nigeria’s justice system for treating TB Joshua like royalty after a building in his church’s premises collapsed, leading to the death of over 100 people, while Lekki Gardens MD, Richard Nyong was cuffed and remanded in prison following the collapse of one of his structures. Thanks for reading.
You Must Release Collated Results, Wike Tells INEC
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release already collated results of Saturday’s legislative re-run in the State.
Speaking with in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Wike said it was shocking that the electoral body was still holding back several results already collated and announced at the various collation centres.
He said: “Does INEC have powers to cancel results that have been collated, announced at local government areas. You have no power. You know that a particular party has lost. They came with mights.
“Tell INEC to release results declared. You have announced that PDP won. What are you doing with them. Nigeria of today is not Nigeria of yesterday. People have becomed more aware” he said.
Thanks for reading.
Hulk Hogan: Gawker Media founder Nick Denton 'scared the hell out of me'
Six-foot-five-inch former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan said he was “scared” of Gawker Media founder Nick Denton and had to use a technique of affirming his own greatness in order to get through the controversial privacy trial that landed him with a $140m payout.
Hogan – whose real name is Terry Bollea – told The New York Post that during the trial of Gawker Media’s distribution of his sex tape: “All I did was write for 11 days affirmations: ‘I am victorious. I am grateful. I am highly favored by God and His universe.’”
Hogan said he was shaken by the events of his court battle with Gawker, which ended with a guilty verdict from a Florida jury. The organization is sentenced to pay Hogan $140m. In particular, he confessed he was afraid of Denton: “He scared the hell out of me,’’ said Hogan.
“Denton and I had a stare-down. He scared me staring at me, man. He just sat there staring. It was right after his cross-examination. He stood up and stared. It was like he was going to call me out at Wrestlemania. Yikes!”
Of the sum ordered to him in the verdict, Hogan received $65m for emotional distress. He said the spiritual toll inflicted by the publication of the sex tape was considerable: “I would run into kids who would say, ‘I’d downloaded the Hulk Hogan Wrestlemania video, and Hulk Hogan sex tape came up.’”
On Gawker Tuesday afternoon, Denton characterized the trial as unfair and says Gawker is bound to win on appeal, citing several legal opinions, among them a reversal of the injunction Hogan sought to bar Gawker from posting the tape in the first place.
Denton also said Hogan’s claim that he’d been distressed emotionally by seeing the tape on Gawker was disingenuous, pointing out that Hogan had discussed his sexual exploits in public at length, notably on the Howard Stern show, and that his attempt to separate his alter ego from his own person was a sham. Denton said the former wrestler’s testimony that Hulk Hogan has a larger penis than Terry Bollea rang particularly false.
“Hogan did not sue us, as he has claimed, to recover damages from the emotional distress he purportedly experienced upon our revelation in 2012 of a sexual encounter with his best friend’s wife, Heather Cole (then Heather Clem),” Denton said. “It turns out this case was never about the sex on the tape Gawker received, but about racist language on another, unpublished tape that threatened Hogan’s reputation and career.”
Indeed, when the slur-laced recording of Hogan voicing his disapproval of his daughter’s relationship with a black man became public, the WWE fired Hogan – arguably the highest-profile member of his profession in history – and scrubbed all mention of him from its website. He has since called his use of racial slurs “a huge mistake”. Thanks for reading.
FG Begins Economy Recovery With N350bn For Jobs And Diversification
The Federal Government yesterday announced that it will pump N350 billion to revamp the economy and ensure new jobs are created in the for the masses.
The government’s plan was announced at the end a two-day National Economic Council (NEC) retreat held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said efforts had been put in place to ensure that the spending on the capital projects trickles down to all Nigerians.
Mrs Adeosun, in her paper at the retreat, said: “We are going to spend money and this will be done in a disciplined manner and in right places.
“The Federal Government has a platform and system of control in place to ensure transparency. Spending will not be reckless.
“We are pumping 350 billion Naira into the economy in the next one quarter to help the economy to bounce back. That has never happened in the history of this country”.
According to her, part of the money would be used to offset contractual debts.
With this huge spending, the minister believed that “companies that had laid off staff and those that had abandoned projects are going back to sites and the economy will bounce back”.
“Our priority is that the wages of workers will be paid. We have engaged the contractors to let them know that the payment of management fees has to wait, this is how to make the money to trickle down to Nigerians,” she told the gathering.
The Minister further urged state governments to take their destinies in their own hands by proactively driving revenue generation, saying “now is the time to put in place a robust revenue drive by the states”.
“There is need to have a business and commercial approach to revenue generation,” she emphasised.
Mrs Adeosun also stressed the need for the Nigerian government to look at data management, saying “nobody can succeed in revenue generation without the numbers. It is important to report accurately and understand the billings versus the revenue coming in”.
She told the gathering that the Finance Ministry had already strengthened the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee of the Federation Account.
“The big differences between the NNPC and the Federation accounts are now things of the past.
“We now run a transparent structure. We have appointed three professionals to help clean the system. They write formal reports and get formal responses to all the questions,” she said.
Speaking on the plans for the Customs service, the minister said the Federal Government had agreed to review the remunerations of the Customs Service.
“We look at the Customs and found out that it has one of the lowest salaries at least from their peer group. That is a problem. Here you have a custom officer being paid 50, 000 Naira monthly and you task him to collect duty of nearly two million Naira.
“This means we are looking for trouble. So we are working on better remuneration for the Customs.
“The other issue is the equipment being used by the agency. Their ability to scan containers is very important. Classifications of containers are faulty now because of the kind of equipment they use.
Ability to scan a container and know what is in it is limited,” the Minister stated.
Some other resolutions reached at the retreat which she read out to reporters were focused on increasing Internally Generated Revenue and fostering collaboration between Federal and State Inland Revenues to ensure there was an alignment.
The retreat was said to have been muted by the Nigerian Governors Forum to find a solution to the economic problems they had faced over time.
To solve the problems, the Chairman of the National Economic Council convened the two-day retreat.
Other resolutions reached at the retreat were read out by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma.
The Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano said a resolution was reached on the integration of trading in infrastructure projects and investing in the Nigerian people through the school feeding programme.
The National Economic Council also established two committees, one of them headed by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to monitor the full implementation of the resolutions from the retreat, as well as provide a progress report on the implementation. Thanks for reading.
Ambode/Buhari Campaign Billboards Debts Leave Outdoor Ad Coys On The Brink Of Collapse
More than 70 outdoor advertising companies contracted to handle the Ambode/Buhari campaign billboards in Lagos are still waiting to get paid their dues from the APC, with practitioners revealing that they are enduring a choking debt burden.
“The companies that ensured that Buhari and Ambode billboards took over 95% of the available billboards in Lagos have not been paid up to 5% of their payments for the job,” some frustrated practitioners lamented to journalists in Lagos.
The outdoor advertisers said they were invited by the former LASAA MD, George Noah during the election campaigns to do the jobs but only one or two who insisted on being paid were paid partially, with more than 70 companies remaining in limbo.
“The new MD, Mr. Mobolaji Sanusi has refused to honour the agreement between us and his predecessor, yet his men have started clamping down on our members since around October last year, shutting down our billboards for non-payment of their own dues.
“He has also sent new bills for the year while the billboards are not working since he shut them down but we have explained that the APC billboard monies have not been paid to us by the former MD, George Noah who he claimed has been paid by the All Progressives Congress, Lagos.”
When pressed on why they have not met with Mr. George Noah over the matter, a member of the Out Of Homes companies said, “Our association has met with him but he is insisting that the APC is yet to pay him, all he keeps saying is that he is still talking to his principal but all we are asking for is payment for jobs we did.”
On why they have kept quiet about it till now, another interviewed member representing one of the affected companies said, “We hesitated from coming out till now because we don’t want to embarrass the government or the APC but we were advised by the current LASAA MD, to go after George Noah and the company he used to issue the media order, ‘Media Worth’. Thanks for reading.
Police Extends Deadline For Automated ‘Tinted Car Glass’, Other Licences
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has ordered the extension of the deadline for the on-going re-validation of Tinted car glass Permit, Police Character Clearance and Firearm Licence from March 18 to May 31.
The directive is contained in a statement issued by the Police Spokesperson, acting Assistant Commission of Police, ACP Olabisi Kolawole, in Abuja on Wednesday.
It said that the extension became imperative to enable members of the public to seamlessly key into the electronic platform initiative of the Nigeria Police Force Central Information System (NCIS).
The statement stated that Arase directed all State Commands Commissioners of Police to ensure that nobody was exploited and extorted in carrying out the exercise.
It said that revalidation was free of charge and that those yet to complete the process should not be subjected to unnecessary harassment by policemen.
IGP reassured the public of the commitment of the Force to provide security to the citizens of the country, always.
It further enjoined them to continue to support and assist the Police in its constitutional task of safeguarding the nation. Thanks for reading.
