Donald Trump is a car nut. And people who've worked for him say he's always been particular about which cars he likes to drive, who he likes to drive him around, and which right-wing talk radio hosts he likes to listen to in the car.
Behind the scenes: On some Fridays during the 2016 campaign, Trump would hop in his Rolls-Royce and drive from Trump Tower in Manhattan to one of his nearby golf clubs. Trump would wear his MAGA hat and listen to Rush Limbaugh,according to a source familiar with his driving routine.
Fresh off the official launch of his presidential campaign, Beto O'Rourke hit several stumbling blocks this weekend as he sought to deflect early gaffes, criticisms of his candidacy and dirt from his teenage years.
Driving the news: A number of 2020 candidates were asked about O'Rourke's "I'm just born to be in it" Vanity Fair spread, and while none scorned him in the way President Trump might have, some chose to draw sharp distinctions. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told NBC's Chuck Todd: "No, I wasn't born to run for office, just because growing up in the '70s, in the middle of the country, I don't think many people thought a girl could be president." South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, said: "I think I was born to make myself useful."
Speaking to NBC's Chuck Todd in Waterloo, Iowa, presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke addressed concerns about the Democratic Party not necessarily wanting to choose a white male as its 2020 nominee, and he acknowledged that the amount of popular media coverage he has received has been driven in part by his privilege.
Recent pollingin a slew of states that carried President Trump to his thin win in 2016 show him starting 2020 in a deep hole.
What's new: Based on demographic changes, Republicans for the first time have authentic worries about Arizona, Georgia, Texas and other states they once took for granted.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) officially announced her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination on Sunday with a campaign video titled "Brave Wins."
The big picture: Gillibrand, who announced an exploratory committee in January and has visited a number of key early voter states, is the 14th Democrat and the 6th woman to enter the race. Her announcement video singled out President Trump for using fear to pit people against one another, and argued that American bravery can help the country achieve progressive proposals like universal health care, paid family leave for all and a Green New Deal.
Virginia Republican Corey A. Stewart, who lost his senate bid to Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in 2018, will head a conservative super PAC that aims to raise money for President Trump's reelection campaign, the Washington Post reports.
Details: The Keeping America Great PAC will also raise money for state and federal candidates who support Trump as the 2020 election looms closer. The PAC raised $130,000 last year, which was used to fund attack ads against Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.). Stewart briefly led Trump's 2016 presidential campaign in Virginia and faced controversy over his 2018 senate campaign's ties to right-wing extremists, per the Post.
An Australian senator who blames Muslim immigration for the fatal attack on 2 New Zealand mosques — an attack decried as Islamaphobia by Muslim world leaders — struck a teenager after being egged in the head on Saturday, the NYT reports.
Details: Sen. Fraser Anning hit the teenager twice after an egg was smashed on his head, as seen in Facebook video footage of the event. The shooter in the Christchurch attack identified himself via his manifesto as a 28-year-old white supremacist and Australian, per the Associated Press, and said he aimed "to avenge attacks in Europe perpetrated by Muslims."
Amid backlash for fiction he wrote as a teenager about murdering children, Beto O'Rourke has also acknowledged criticism of campaign trail comments about his wife, the AP reports.
Details: In his first days on the campaign trail, O'Rourke frequently joked that his wife Amy raised their 3 children "sometimes with my help." Despite laughs, this drew criticism for coming across as insensitive to challenges faced by single parents. At a podcast taping in Iowa O'Rourke said he plans to be "more thoughtful" in how he talks about his marriage and that he doesn't plan on making the same joke again, per the AP.
On Friday — Beto O'Rourke's second day along the presidential trail — the 2020 hopeful said that "Stuff I was part of as a teenager ... not anything that I'm proud of today," referring to fiction he wrote about murdering children, Politico reports.
