Clinton Has One Eye On Trump

Hillary Clinton (Reuters)

(Reuters) -- Fresh off a runaway win in the South Carolina primary, Democrat Hillary Clinton turned her sights to a possible match-up with Republican front-runner Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Without mentioning Trump's name, the former secretary of state made it clear on Saturday she was already thinking about taking on the real estate mogul whose recent string of victories made him the favorite to be the Republican nominee for the White House race.

Clinton shot down Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again" and his plans to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

"Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great," she told supporters in her victory speech in South Carolina, pausing for applause then adding, "but we do need to make America whole again."

"Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers," said Clinton, who would be America's first woman president.

Tulsi Gabbard

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her post on Sunday to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, following months of rising tensions within the group.

"I think it’s most important for us, as we look at our choices as to who our next commander in chief will be, is to recognize the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, who exercises good judgment," Gabbard, a U.S. representative for Hawaii, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Gabbard, one of five vice chairs, and her committee colleagues have butted heads over a thin debate schedule in the months leading to Democratic voting contests for the party's nomination, with Gabbard calling for the group to add more debates to the calendar.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is competing with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination to run for president on Nov. 8. Critics have said the scheduling of the debates has favored Clinton, who is better known than Sanders and is favored to win the nominating contest.

Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement accepting Gabbard's resignation, calling her a friend and praising the active-duty veteran for her service in the armed forces.

Meg Whitman

A former finance co-chair of Chris Christie's presidential campaign on Sunday slammed Christie's recent endorsement of Donald Trump, according to NBC, calling for the New Jersey governor's supporters to reject the Republican front-runner.

"Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump is an astonishing display of political opportunism. Donald Trump is unfit to be president," Meg Whitman, chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, said in a statement reported by NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Christie, appearing on ABC's "This Week" program, responded by describing Whitman "a great friend" with a different political opinion. "And that's OK. That's what makes this country great is that people can have differences of political opinion," he said.

Just days before the Super Tuesday nominating contests, Christie on Friday became the most prominent mainstream Republican to get behind the billionaire Republican front-runner and former reality TV star, declaring Trump to have the best chance of defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

But Whitman's statement said the New Jersey governor made his statement despite his own public misgivings about a Trump presidency.

"Trump would take America on a dangerous journey. Christie knows all that and indicated as much many times publicly," Whitman said.

Rubio, Trump, Cruz

Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz released tax returns for several years on Saturday in an effort to pressure billionaire front-runner Donald Trump to follow suit.

Rubio, whose financial decisions earlier in his life have come under scrutiny, paid $78,917 in taxes on $335,561 in gross income in 2014, along with his wife, Jeanette.

Cruz paid $389,124 in taxes on $1.2 million income in 2014 along with his wife, Heidi, who is employed by Goldman Sachs and currently on leave from the bank.

Rubio and Cruz, both first-term U.S. senators, trail Trump in national polls and are fighting to stop the political novice from locking up the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election after big wins in South Carolina and Nevada.

The real estate developer has said he will not release his returns until a routine audit has been completed.