Oregon Militiamen Harass Locals, Sanders Surges In The Polls, and Obama Knocks Trump During SOTU

January 13, 2016 11:05 a.m.

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January 13, 2016

The Gist: In a cycle where Trump and Cruz have amassed a majority of support, the conventional wisdom is that the only hope for victory is for the establishment lane to narrow. But that wisdom doesn’t actually hold up.

Locals Claim Outsiders Harassing Them Since Before Oregon Standoff Began

The Gist: Residents of Burns, Oregon claim that the militiamen occupying a nearby wildlife refuge have been stalking, intimidating and harassing them for weeks.

Obama’s Top 10 Shots At Trump In The State Of The Union Address

The Gist: Though he didn’t mention Trump by name, some of Obama’s strongest lines were geared specifically at the GOP frontrunner’s proposals—including deporting undocumented immigrants and banning Muslim immigration.

From The Reporter’s Notebook

TPM reporter Tierney Sneed was on the Hill Tuesday night for President Obama’s last State of the Union speech. She snapped this photo of journalists waiting to file into the chamber for the address.

Agree or Disagree?

According to Josh Marshall, President Obama’s final State of the Union address served as a reminder that “we do ourselves no favors by wildly exaggerating the threats we face as a country. And we demean ourselves by retreating into the sort of rancid and tribal group hate that Donald Trump now represents… Here’s the big picture, he seemed to be saying. We’re fine, we’re strong and we’re safe. We’re still Americans and we can do great things.”

Say What?!

“That is the proof right there that you are in no way conservative and in no way interested in conservative policy.”

– GOP consultant Liz Mair informed Ann Coulter that she wasn’t a real conservative for wanting a Trump/Romney ticket during a debate on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

BUZZING: Today in the Hive

From a TPM Prime member: “Yes, of course, the point is not the specific polling numbers today, the point is trends. And there is no question that: Before the summer HRC looked inevitable, had huge numbers Sanders announced and got traction Sanders had a hell of run, got to like 30% from low single-digits very fast by taking votes away from Hillary Then Sanders flat-lined in the fall, his polling stayed flat at about 30% The question is: Will Sanders start to get traction again and make another burst? You can’t, as you point out, prognosticate this 300 days out by looking at polls. Fair enough. But we do have a sense of how things are going. My sense, not based on any specific poll, is: 1) that Sanders is about to surge, and 2) that the nomination will be won in a hard fight, not a cake walk.”

Related: Clinton is going down in the latest polls while Sanders is going up.

Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.

What We’re Reading

What Sean Penn teaches us about how not to chat with a fugitive. (The Intercept)

Bill Cosby and his enablers. (The Atlantic)

“Catfishing” might have spurred the UVA gang-rape debacle. (The Washington Post)

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Allegra Kirkland (@allegrakirkland) Allegra Kirkland is a New York-based reporter for Talking Points Memo. She previously worked on The Nation’s web team and as the associate managing editor for AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter @allegrakirkland.

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