Democrats hit the 2020 campaign trails

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Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said Sunday he is close to announcing his decision on running for president in 2020, but there’s just one more thing to work out first.

“We’re just sorting out child care. Two kids under two, most families, I think, can appreciate that and understand and once we get that piece together, we’ll make our decision,” Swalwell told CNN’s Ana Cabrera on “Newsroom.”

The California Democrat spoke with Cabrera while he was in Iowa meeting with voters. He set out an argument for why he believes he can win despite a large, experienced field of candidates. 

“To solve the issues of education and health care and gun violence, we need an agenda of going big, being bold, and doing good. And I’ve seen that helped me as the son of a cop who was the first in the family to go to college, I saw them chase their dreams all over the country. But in too many places, like here in Waterloo, that’s not reaching every American. I think I’m a connected candidate to the everyday experience that could help make sure that’s true.”

Last week, Swalwell told the San Francisco Chronicle he would not seek reelection to the House of Representatives if he runs for president.

In her speech today at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton urged the audience to “redouble our efforts for the 21st century civil rights movement” and fight for equal voting rights, as well as registering more people to vote.

Clinton warned that there’s “another side in America” that is “motivated every single day to try to pull back rights” and “to try to suppress rights.”

“We’re looking toward a new presidential election, thank goodness. But it’s not going to make a difference if we don’t bring the lawsuits and win them, right?” Clinton said to the worshippers gathered. “If we don’t register everybody the way (former Georgia gubernatorial candidate) Stacey Abrams has been doing since 2014.”

Cory Booker delivered an impassioned keynote speech in Brown Chapel AME Church’s service this afternoon.

In his speech, Booker made a pointed reference to President Donald Trump and his failure to condemn white supremacists in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He called out people who focus solely on the racist statements of some politicians, while ignoring other politicians who stay silent on issues of injustice.

Booker pointedly criticized a sole reliance on “rugged individualism,” noting that Americans had to work together to achieve success and demand change.

He continued:

Hundreds led by Democrats including 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 54th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

Several marched holding signs that read: “Lift our votes” …”Voting rights under fire.”

As they marched, the crowd broke out into songs like “This Little Light of Mine.”

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker delivered the keynote remarks at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, today to commemorate the 54th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

Despite severe storms, people gathered outside the church to watch Booker’s speech on a large screen.

While the tornado sirens were sounding at the time, Selma itself was never under the warning. CNN’s weather team says the tornado-warned cell was east of the Selma city limits.

From CNN’s Eric Fiegel

A Republican congressman from Michigan said Sunday that he has not ruled out running for president as a libertarian in 2020.

Rep. Justin Amash told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union that, although a presidential run is not currently on his radar, he has not ruled it out. He said he believes politics need to return to the “basic American principles.”

“I think that it is important that we have someone in there who is presenting a vision for America that is different from what these two parties are presenting,” Amash said.

The congressman was one of 13 House Republicans to vote in opposition to President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration last week.

“The fact that there’s a debate going on here, and there is not consensus, indicates it’s not an emergency in the sense that the President is describing, and he can’t just go around Congress,” Amash said.  

Hillary Clinton did not hold back in her speech at this year’s Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, saying that “we are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy.”

Clinton was speaking at an event commemorating the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when state troopers brutally attacked civil rights demonstrators who were marching for voting rights on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965.

Here’s some of what she said:

Clinton also called out the media and the Trump administration.

She called on the crowd to renew the fight for voting rights, noting recent setbacks such as the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. She also praised the efforts of Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and other activists.

The former senator and secretary of state is being honored with the International Unity Award and will be inducted into the National Voting Rights Museum’s Women’s Hall of Fame.

Speaking at an event in Selma to mark the 54th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders honored civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, who ran in the 1984 and 1988 elections. 

Following his remarks, Sanders shook hands with Hillary Clinton, his former opponent in the 2016 presidential election. Clinton was honored and presented with an award at the event.

From CNN’s Devan Cole and Aaron Pellish

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters Sunday morning that he has yet to decide if he’s running for President while attending the Selma Unity breakfast in Selma, Alabama.

“We are not just doing it for the heck of it,” he said when asked if he was closer to a decision during an impromptu gaggle. “But I promised in January we would (tour four states) and we completed that last night at midnight. Then we’ll make the decision. At the end of March, we’ll make that decision.”

Brown talked about flying to Alabama on the same flight as two Democratic contenders for the nomination: Sens. Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders.

“Oh, it’s fine. My wife was talking to Bernie while we were waiting to get our luggage. This is different … the Republican primary was a lot of people who took shots at each other, who clearly didn’t like each other. The Republicans like to do nasty politics. The only way you win elections is if you’re in a small minority like they are, you either suppress the vote, or just you just engage in name-calling and nasty politics.

“We have respect for each other and like each other … we like each other, we respect each other, we have some disagreements, but our goal is to make sure this president doesn’t inflict four more years of damage to this country.”

From CNN’s Daniella Diaz

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she disagrees with former Vice President Joe Biden that Vice President Mike Pence is a “decent man.”

Biden was criticized for referring to Pence as a “decent man” during a foreign policy speech Thursday. Some took issue with Biden’s comment given Pence’s position on LGBTQ rights.

“I’ve followed Pence’s history on LGBTQ Americans and I don’t think that is a decent position,” Warren told reporters Saturday in Waterloo, Iowa. “I disagree.”

Asked if she thinks Pence is a decent man, Warren flatly said, “No.”

Then asked if she views anyone in the Trump administration as decent, Warren said, “It’s a tough question.”

“The Mueller investigation has already produced 34 indictments or guilty pleas out of people within the President’s inner circle,” she said. “Ten Cabinet officials have left, four with huge scandals, and others with the threat of scandal at the door. This is the most corrupt administration in living memory.”

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris shared sweet moments with their young supporters on the campaign trail this weekend.

CNN’s Annie Grayer was in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday where Warren was helping to campaign for Democrat Eric Giddens. Giddens is running for a state senate seat in District 30.

Warren told two young girls that she’s running for President because “that’s what girls do.”

She also made each of them pinky promise to make sure they don’t forget that they too can run for president.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Maeve Reston and Caroline Tounget were at a campaign event for Harris in Las Vegas last night, where a young girl had a question for the California senator.

“How does it feel to run for president? And are you nervous?,” the girl asked.

And on whether Harris gets nervous:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, campaigning in Iowa, was asked today why she didn’t support Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election if they were alike on policy issues.

Warren had decided not to run in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary and chose to endorse Hillary Clinton, the eventual nominee, over Sanders.

A woman in the audience at the event in Waterloo today asked Warren:

“Four years ago, I was in Des Moines, there were three national groups trying to get you to run then … and then Bernie ran. We thought, “Is there a difference between what you’re saying and what Bernie says. And if not, or if it’s not a big one, why didn’t you support him four years ago?”

Warren replied.

“I appreciate the question, and I appreciate that you wanted me to run four years ago. I get it. But I’m just going to be blunt with all of you, we can’t go back and re-litigate 2016. We just can’t. We just can’t.”

The Massachusetts senator was later asked by a reporter after the event to further distinguish herself from Sen. Sanders, now that both are in the 2020 race.

“Look, I’m going to get out and talk about the issues that pulled me into this race. It’s not up to me to describe anybody else’s position in the Democratic Party. The way I see it, I got plenty to talk about as it is about the structural change we need in this country and laying out how we can do this,” Warren said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders did not hold back from attacking President Donald Trump during his 2020 campaign launch in Brooklyn, New York, today.

Here are some of the swipes Sanders took against the President:

– “I want to thank all of you for being part of a campaign, which is not only going to win the Democratic nomination, which is not only going to defeat Donald Trump who is the most dangerous president in modern history…”

–“Donald Trump wants to divide us up based on the color of our skin, based on where we were born, based on our gender, our religion and our sexual orientation. What we are about is doing exactly the opposite. We are going to bring our people together.”

–“Unlike Donald Trump, who shut down the government and left 800,000 federal employees without income to pay their bills, I know what it is like to be in a family that lives paycheck to paycheck.”

–“I did not come from a family that taught me to build a corporate empire through housing discrimination. I protested housing discrimination.”

During his 2020 campaign launch, Bernie Sanders delivered his most deeply personal remarks, talking about his family’s working class struggles during his childhood.

Sanders shared that he grew up in Brooklyn in a rent-controlled apartment and that his family struggled to make ends meet.

“I am not going to tell you that I grew up in a home of desperate poverty. That would not be true. But what I will tell you is that coming from a lower middle class family I will never forget how money – or really lack of money – was always a point of stress in our home,” Sanders said, adding that his family lived paycheck to paycheck.

Sanders’ father was a Polish immigrant who came to America at 17 years old and later worked as a paint salesman, and Sanders’ mother raised Bernie and his brother.

Sanders used his story as a juxtaposition against President Donald Trump’s childhood as the son of a wealthy real estate developer.

“I did not have a mom and dad who gave me millions of dollars to build luxury skyscrapers and casinos and country clubs,” Sanders said. “I did not come from a family that gave me a $200,000 allowance every year beginning at the age of three. My allowance was 25 cents a week.”

“But I had something more valuable: I had the role model of a father who had unbelievable courage in journeying across an ocean, with no money in his pocket and not knowing a word of English,” he said.

CNN’s Greg Krieg contributed to this post.

Kicking off his 2020 bid for president in Brooklyn today, Sen. Bernie Sanders declared his campaign would be “a political revolution which is going to transform America.”

“Thank you for being part of a campaign which is not only going to win the Democratic nomination, which is not only going to defeat Donald Trump, who is the most dangerous president in modern American history, but with your help we are going to transform this country,” he said to cheers from his supporters.

The Vermont independent senator is expected to share personal remarks about his childhood and family’s working class struggle, which he had avoided speaking about in the past.

Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders are all running for president

So far, 11 Democrats have officially announced they’re running for president in 2020. Here’s a rundown:

Others have announced exploratory committees and expressed interest in running. Read more about all the possible contenders here.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke — who for months has weighed a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — says he has made a decision about his political future. 

A source familiar with O’Rourke’s plans told CNN he has ruled out running for the US Senate in Texas in 2020, leaving open the possibility that he will launch a presidential bid. 

“Amy and I have made a decision about how we can best serve our country. We are excited to share it with everyone soon,” he said in a statement sent by an aide to CNN. His statement was first reported by The Dallas Morning News.

The 46-year-old former Texas congressman has considered running for president and launching a second Senate campaign in recent weeks — though friends and former aides have long cautioned that a Senate run was unlikely.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday that he is running for President, launching a bid in which he intends to make combating climate change the central rationale for his campaign.

Inslee announced the bid in a video made public on Friday. He is slated to hold a news conference in Seattle at a solar panel installer to expand upon his presidential announcement. He will be surrounded by friends, family and business owners who the campaign says have benefited from his climate policies in the state.

Watch his video:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is hitting the campaign trail this weekend after his CNN town hall on Monday.

His itinerary will take him to Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday.

On Sunday he’ll head to Selma, Alabama, to mark the anniversary of 1965’s “Bloody Sunday” march. He’ll also go to Chicago, where he graduated from college and was active in the Civil Rights movement. Sanders will play up his biography in a way that the 77-year-old rarely did the first time around.