Today in Campaign 2016
- A 2005 video revealed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump bragging about groping women without consent, as part of a conversation with a television host that was caught on a live microphone. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says in the recording, obtained by the Washington Post. “I did try and fuck her, she was married.”
You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
- In a statement on Friday, Trump described the conversation as “locker room banter” and said former president Bill Clinton “has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
- Republican leaders decried Trump’s remarks but refused to withdraw their endorsements of the nominee. House speaker Paul Ryan disinvited Trump from their first joint campaign event in Wisconsin, saying, “I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified.”
- Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John McCain also denounced the comments but did not unendorse Trump. Republican chairman Reince Priebus released a short statement: “No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever.”
- One Republican senator called for Trump to drop out of the race with only a month before election day, and a second came close. “@realDonaldTrump should drop out. @GOP should engage rules for emergency replacement,” Mark Kirk tweeted
- One Republican leader abandoned Trump, saying his remarks were “beyond offensive & despicable”. Utah governor Gary Herbert announced, “while I cannot vote for Hillary Clinton, I will not vote for Trump.”
- In defiance of the DNA exoneration of five African American men who had been convicted and then acquitted of rape, Trump suggested to CNN Thursday that he still believes so-called Central Park Five are guilty.
- US intelligence officials are “confident” that the Russian government has orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on American political organizations and parties “to interfere with the US election process,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
- “These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,” said homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson and director of national intelligence James Clapper in a statement. “Such activity is not new to Moscow-the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president. https://t.co/RwhW7yeFI2
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 7, 2016
Updated
Republican governor abandons Trump
Utah governor Gary Herbert has become the first Republican to abandon Trump in the wake of a 2005 video revealing the businessman bragging about groping women.
Donald Trump's statements are beyond offensive & despicable. While I cannot vote for Hillary Clinton, I will not vote for Trump. #utpol
— Gary R. Herbert (@HerbertForUtah) October 8, 2016
Texas senator Ted Cruz has condemned Trump’s remarks but not withdrawn his endorsement, which he made two weeks ago.
“Every wife, mother, daughter – every person – deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” Cruz tweeted.
These comments are disturbing and inappropriate, there is simply no excuse for them.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 8, 2016
Cruz spent months hemming and hawing about whether to endorse Trump, who had mocked the senator’s wife and spread a conspiracy theory about Cruz’s father and the assassination of John F Kennedy. In the heated final days of the primary, Cruz called Trump a “serial philanderer”, an “amoral pathological liar” and a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon”.
The senator drew heckling and boos at the Republican national convention for his refusal to endorse Trump. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” Cruz said in July, adding that he would not be “like a servile puppy dog and say, ‘Thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.’”
He buckled a few months later.
On 23 September, Cruz wrote: “After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
“Second, even though I have had areas of significant disagreement with our nominee, by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable – that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary.”
Florida senator Marco Rubio, who lost to Trump in the Republican primary, has denounced the nominee’s remarks.
Like Paul Ryan, John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman, he has not withdrawn his endorsement of Trump.
Donald's comments were vulgar, egregious & impossible to justify.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 8, 2016
No one should ever talk about any woman in those terms, even in private.
Updated
Trump replies to Ryan's disinvitation
Trump has released a statement regarding his disinvitation from Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin event. He does not mention Ryan.
Governor Mike Pence will be representing me tomorrow in Wisconsin. I will be spending the day in New York in debate prep with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Gov. Christie and Sen. Jeff Sessions, and then flying to St. Louis on Sunday for the 2nd presidential debate.”
Updated
The New York Times has published an interview with Jill Harth, who in 1997 accused Donald Trump of “attempted rape” in Ivanka Trump’s bedroom in 1992.
Harth and her longtime boyfriend were in meetings with Trump to forge a business partnership. “He was relentless,” Harth recalled in an interview, describing how on Dec. 12, 1992, he took the couple to dinner and a club — and then situated himself beside Harth and ran his hands up her skirt, to her crotch. “I didn’t know how to handle it. I would go away from him and say I have to go to the restroom. It was the escape route.” …
The first sign of trouble came the day before the evening groping, in an initial business meeting in which, Harth and Houraney say, Trump spent the time asking about the breasts of the beauty contestants — real or enhanced? — and staring at Harth, then 30. At one point he asked Houraney, “Are you sleeping with her?” Houraney explained awkwardly that they were a couple, but Trump was unfazed.
“You know, there’s going to be a problem,” Trump told Houraney, according to a 1997 sexual harassment lawsuit Harth filed against him. “I’m very attracted to your girlfriend.”
You can read the full column here, and read more our own interview with Harth from July, or watch her recount the episode herself in the video below.
Senator John McCain, the Republican party’s 2008 nominee, has similarly condemned the remarks but stopped short of withdrawing his support of Donald Trump.
He does, however, draw close to abandoning the nominee in a statement:
There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments. No woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences.”
Paul Ryan disinvites Trump from event
Paul Ryan, speaker of the House and the most powerful Republican in Congress, has condemned Donald Trump’s boasts of groping women but refused to withdraw his endorsement of the party’s nominee.
His statement:
“I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.
“In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow’s event in Wisconsin.”
Ryan had been scheduled to attend his first joint campaign event with Trump in Wisconsin on Saturday.
Updated
Republican senator calls for Trump to quit
Republican Senator Mark Kirk, though he has never shied from criticizing Donald Trump, is now openly calling for the Republican nominee’s resignation.
Kirk has already rejected the possibility of endorsing Trump, but never gone so far as to call for the replacement of the man who won the Republican primary contest.
.@realDonaldTrump should drop out. @GOP should engage rules for emergency replacement.
— Mark Kirk (@SenatorKirk) October 8, 2016
Top allies of other anti-Trump Republicans have made similar calls. Stuart Stevens served as a strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012, and John Weaver for John Kasich this last year.
Trump would be fired from any major company in America. Yet he's asking to be hired for biggest job in the world.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) October 8, 2016
The ticket should resign & be replaced with people with clean hands. Time to heal this country & get about enacting real reform for USA.
— John Weaver (@JWGOP) October 8, 2016
Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey, a Republican in a close race, has curtly denounced the remarks as “outrageous and unacceptable”.
North Carolina senator Richard Bur said they were “inappropriate and completely unacceptable”.
As recently as mid-August, Toomey had still refused to say whether he would endorse Trump for president. The senator faces deep anti-Trump sentiment in the suburbs around Philadelphia, where a large number of white college-educated voters live. Toomey has tried to argue that whether Trump or Hillary Clinton win, he’ll act as a congressional check on their powers.
He joins senators Mark Kirk, Kelly Ayotte and Jeff Flake as vocally angry about the video. Senator Rob Portman said he was glad Trump had apologized, if his statement can be read as such. Ayotte and Portman have said they will vote for Trump.
Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Paul Ryan, the leaders of the party in Congress, have remained silent.
"Donald Trump's comments were outrageous and unacceptable." -PT
— Pat Toomey (@PatToomey) October 8, 2016
Updated
Mitt Romney, Republican party’s 2012 nominee who has refused to endorse Trump and pilloried him for months, has also attacked the businessman for the video.
Hitting on married women? Condoning assault? Such vile degradations demean our wives and daughters and corrupt America's face to the world.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 8, 2016
Party leaders such as Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, and chairman Reince Priebus have tried to bring reluctant conservatives into Trump’s camp for months. Earlier this year, Priebus called out Romney by name in a plea to stop creating divisions in the party.
Respect Mitt and differences but couldn't disagree more. SCOTUS too important to lose for generations. Let's stop this and unify.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) June 11, 2016
In 2012, Romney was widely mocked after a presidential debate for saying that he had “binders full of women” who were qualified to work for him.
The video released today reveals Trump saying “I did try and fuck her, she was married,” about an unknown woman, and boasting about how he feels entitled to “grab them by the pussy”.
Ohio Senator Rob Portman has become one of the few Republicans to venture a simulacrum of defense for Trump – though with a small condemnation.
Portman said Trump was “right to apologize” and “the comments were offensive and wrong”.
“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended,” Trump said.
Portman is looking increasingly lonely among his peers. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest ranking Republican woman in Congress, has released a less equivocal statement.
“I have said before that I would not hesitate to voice my disagreement with Mr Trump when he says something that I believe should not be part of our political dialogue,” she said.
“It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women. Mr Trump must realize that it has no place or private conversations today or in the past.”
Updated
Illinois senator Mark Kirk and Arizona senator Jeff Flake, two Republican senators who have refused to endorse Trump, have added their scorn to the wave of anger against the businessman.
On Thursday night Trump said Kirk “is not doing so well” in his campaign. “That’s his problem.”
DJT is a malignant clown - unprepared and unfit to be president of the United States.
— Mark Kirk (@SenatorKirk) October 7, 2016
America deserves far better than @realDonaldTrump
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) October 7, 2016
Trump’s remarks have united a conservatives, liberals, libertarians and tabloids in disgust.
Ohio governor John Kasich, one of Trump’s final primary rivals and one of the most prominent Republicans to refuse to endorse him, has called the video “indefensible”.
Make no mistake the comments were wrong and offensive. They are indefensible.
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) October 7, 2016
Joe Hunter, the spokesman for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, told my colleague Ben Jacobs: “If this were any candidate for President other than Donald Trump, it would be shocking. But it is Donald Trump, and it’s not shocking. America deserves better, and women, especially, deserve better.”
Emily’s List, an organization that works to elect pro-choice women to public office, called the video: “difficult to watch, and also exactly what you would expect from Donald Trump.”
The group’s communications director, Marcy Stech, added:
“The tape cuts to the core of who Donald Trump is: someone who judges women based on their appearance and views them as little more than sex objects,.”
“Over the course of this campaign, Trump has tried to excuse his sexist, offensive comments as being ‘for the purposes of entertainment.’ Now, he has tried to write this off as ‘locker room banter.’ There is no excuse for this reprehensible behavior. Women will not vote for this man in November.”
And the New York Daily News quotes Trump directly.
Oh my. Tomorrow's @NYDailyNews. pic.twitter.com/8gyHaRxxFe
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 7, 2016
Billy Bush apologizes for part in video
NBC host Billy Bush, who laughed at Trump’s remarks and appeared to encourage him in the 2005 video, has apologized in a statement to Variety.
“Obviously I’m embarrassed and ashamed. It’s no excuse, but this happened eleven years ago – I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry,” Bush said in the statement.
Republican chair denounces Trump remarks
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican party, has condemned Donald Trump’s remarks, though he does not mention the candidate or the video explicitly.
“No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever,” Priebus said.
Priebus spent months trying to unite Republicans around Trump.
.@realDonaldTrump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) May 4, 2016
Updated
Even Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and one of the staunchest supporters of the businessman, has refused to defend the comments.
“Look, I think what this comes down to, and this is not a surprise, is clearly this is not how women should be spoken about,. But we’re not choosing a Sunday school teacher.
“And I want to be very clear about this, what we know about Donald Trump this was 12 years ago, this audio tape, and does not reflect or bring to mind the Donald Trump that I’ve spent 18 months with traveling. I’ve never heard anything like this out of him.
“And so, let me say, We’re appointing a leader, we’re electing a leader. We’re not electing a Sunday school teacher.”
Lewandowski on Trump bragging about sexual assault: "We're electing a leader to the free world, we're not electing a Sunday school teacher" pic.twitter.com/6wvzkGllyo
— Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) October 7, 2016
Lewandowski: "He speaks from he heart...he speaks the way many people speak around the dining room table."
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) October 7, 2016
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, once Donald Trump’s earliest enemy in the Republican primary – and and cousin of Billy Bush, who encourages Trump’s behavior in the video – has denounced Trump yet again.
In May Bush said he would not vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton, and his father, former president George HW Bush, has reportedly said he will vote for Clinton.
As the grandfather of two precious girls, I find that no apology can excuse away Donald Trump's reprehensible comments degrading women.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 7, 2016
Updated
A top Ted Cruz strategist:
Just another Friday in #2016. Can't even watch the news with my kids. pic.twitter.com/UlDIjMl21D
— Jason Johnson (@jasonsjohnson) October 7, 2016
Arizona senate candidate Ann Kirkpatrick has released a statement in response to the release of a recording of Donald Trump’s comments on his treatment of women:
Absolutely inexcusable and disgusting. Any responsible leader would see that Donald Trump should not be president.
Ashley Judd has tweeted that she has heard Donald Trump make similar comments about the spouses of his own family members:
I never heard him "apologize" for talking to me & others about his family member's spouse, and especially her breasts. THIS IS WHO HE IS. https://t.co/W9RH1otj0t
— ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) October 7, 2016
The New York Daily News woodcut is out...
😺😸🙀😽😺😸🙀😽😺😸🙀😽😺 pic.twitter.com/EbdniMqfTP
— erica orden (@eorden) October 7, 2016
Wikileaks appears to release transcripts from Hillary Clinton's paid speeches
After long threatening to blow open the presidential race - and on the heaviest of Friday-night-news-dump evenings that we can recall - Wikileaks claims to have released portions of transcripts of speeches Hillary Clinton gave as a private citizen to major Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs.
The transcripts appear to include Clinton’s vision for a hemispheric open market and the acknowledgment that she is “removed” from the middle class by her wealth:
From comments to Goldman Sachs/BlackRock:
And I am not taking a position on any policy, but I do think there is a growing sense of anxiety and even anger in the country over the feeling that the game is rigged. And I never had that feeling when I was growing up. Never. I mean, were there really rich people, of course there were. My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn’t believe in mortgages. So I lived that. And now, obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy, but I haven’t forgotten it.
From comments to the National Multi-Housing Council:
Politics is like sausage being made. It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.
From comments at the Goldman Sachs Aims Alternative Investments Symposium:
I think that there’s a lot that could have been avoided in terms of both misunderstanding and really politicizing what happened with greater transparency, with greater openness on all sides, you know, what happened, how did it happen, how do we prevent it from happening? You guys help us figure it out and let’s make sure that we do it right this time. And I think that everybody was desperately trying to fend off the worst effects institutionally, governmentally, and there just wasn’t that opportunity to try to sort this out, and that came later.
Politico reports that Republican running mate Mike Pence fled the journalists assigned to follow him through the course of his day once news of Donald Trump’s comments about women broke:
Suddenly, and without explanation, the pool was told Pence would be leaving directly after he finished dining, without looking at the signatures or shaking any more hands. The pool was instructed to return to the press bus and was not permitted to film Pence leaving the restaurant - thus stripping them of an opportunity to ask Pence for his reaction to the news.
'No, This Is Not Trump's Misogyny As Usual. It's An Attempt To Justify Sexual Assault.'
Donald Trump’s misogyny has become so widely recognized that when new sexually profane comments surfaced, many expressed mock shock that he would say such things.
But don’t write off Donald Trump’s latest comments as the same old misogyny. We should be shocked: this is not the same old stuff from him.
In a conversation with Billy Bush captured as part of a taped interview for Access Hollywood, Trump said something suggesting he’s entitled to women’s bodies. “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women - I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet,” he said in the audio published by NBC. “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the pussy.”
It’s been noted that Trump appears to be a lifelong misogynist. His poor treatment of women seems to be the one constant value of his over time. He’s called women “slobs,” “dogs” and “fat pigs,” and dismissed Megyn Kelly as a “bimbo” with “blood coming out of her … wherever”. Last week he practically had a meltdown when his bad behavior following a former Miss Universe’s weight gain was pointed out.
Up until now, however, he’s never said anything that so closely resembles an outright endorsement of sexual assault – that’s what it’s called when you grab a woman’s crotch uninvited.
Trump’s insistence that his physical advances on women are desired and justified no matter what the circumstance might sound familiar.
In July Jill Harth, Trump’s former business partner who accused him of sexual assault explained in an interview with the Guardian that she believed Trump felt entitled to assault her. It’s an allegation she first formally made in a 1997 lawsuit, and though she eventually dropped the suit, she’s stood by her story for the last 20 years, recounting it this summer in a taped interview in Guardian’s New York offices.
That’s where she alleged that one time Trump did, essentially, grab her crotch. “He had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth told me in the video, adding: “He was aggressive and he has a sense of entitlement and he thinks everyone is in love with him.”
That last bit sounds similar to the newly surfaced 2005 comment that “when you’re a star ... you can do anything” you want to women.
Trump has denied Harth’s allegations, alleging in July that “she was in love with me” and has “real problems”.
Late on Friday, Trump came what may be the closest he has all election to issuing an apology. But don’t mistake it for one. “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended,” he said in a statement published shortly after the disturbing 2005 comments surfaced.
But trying to explain the incident away by saying it took place “many years ago,” is a nonstarter – so did the alleged incident with Harth but that wouldn’t make it okay. And as Slate’s Frank Foer has ably pointed out, if there’s one way of being that sticks out through Trump’s life, it’s his poor treatment of women. That’s the one thing that hasn’t changed.
Launching into an attack against Bill Clinton while saying you “apologize if anyone was offended” doesn’t cut it: it’s not an apology but a criticism of anyone thin-skinned enough to be offended by his entitlement to any woman’s pussy.
Updated
The US government has formally accused Russia of hacking the Democratic party’s computer networks and said that Moscow was attempting to “interfere” with the US presidential election, the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman and Sam Thielman report.
Hillary Clinton and US officials have blamed Russian hackers for stealing more than 19,000 emails from Democratic party officials, but Friday’s announcement marked the first time that the Obama administration has pointed the finger at Moscow.
“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” said the office of the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a joint statement.
The accusation marked a new escalation of tensions with Russia and came shortly after the US secretary of state, John Kerry, called for Russia to be investigated for war crimes in Syria. The White House declined to say whether the formal attribution would trigger sanctions against Russia.
The agencies said that some US states had detected attempts to breach their election systems, and that most of those attempts originated from servers operated by a Russian company. “However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government,” the statement said.
The agencies said that the “decentralized nature” of the US voting systems, as well the lack of connectivity between voting machines themselves, would protect against Russian-sponsored electoral tampering.
But they urged states across the country to seek additional cybersecurity aid from the DHS. On Wednesday, the homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, said that 21 of the 50 states in the US had sought to improve cybersecurity at the voting booth thus far.
Earlier today, CNN reported that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump still believes that five men convicted and later exonerated for the rape and attempted murder of a woman in Central Park in 1989 were guilty of the crime, despite being exonerated by DNA evidence and the confession of another man. Hillary Clinton’s senior policy advisor Maya Harris released a statement regarding Trump’s allegations:
“The facts here are clear: These men were exonerated. Another man has admitted to committing the crime, as proven by DNA evidence. Trump rushed to judgment on the case, has refused to admit he is wrong and continues to peddle yet another racist lie, a pattern for him and a clear reason why he is unfit to be president.”
At the time, Trump paid for an advertisement in New York daily newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in response to the crime.
Flashback: Former Trump business associate Jill Harth told the Guardian’s Lucia Graves that Trump did, in fact, grab her crotch.
A woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump has spoken for the first time in detail about her personal experience with the billionaire tycoon who this week became the Republican nominee for president.
Jill Harth, a makeup artist, has stayed quiet for almost 20 years about the way Trump pursued her, and – according to a lawsuit she instigated – cornered her and groped her in his daughter’s bedroom.
After Trump mounted his campaign for the White House, details emerged of the 1997 complaint, in which Harth accused him of “attempted ‘rape’”.
She said she was quickly inundated with interview requests from major US television networks, but resolved not to speak about the events – until Trump publicly said in May that her claims were “meritless” and his daughter Ivanka gave an interview in which she said her father was “not a groper”.
Harth, who feels she has been publicly branded a liar and believes her business has suffered because of her association with the allegations, decided to speak out about her experience with Trump because she wants an apology.
Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump's comments are 'horrific'
This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president. https://t.co/RwhW7yeFI2
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 7, 2016
TBT:
Sexual pervert Anthony Weiner has zero business holding public office.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2013
Tim Kaine on Trump's comments on women: 'I should be surprised and shocked. I’m sad to say that I’m not'
CNN’s Betsy Klein asked Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine about Donald Trump’s comments about women, with Kaine responding that the remarks made “me sick to my stomach.”
“It’s just, I mean, it makes me sick to my stomach,” Kaine said. “I don’t like to even say the words that he’s used in the past when he calls women pigs, dogs and slobs. I didn’t like saying it onstage the other night when my mom and my wife sitting in the front row. But this is behavior that is just outrageous, and so that there would be a new story that would have more statements like this, of this kind, I mean, I’m sad to say I’m not surprised. I should be surprised and shocked. I’m sad to say that I’m not.”
Updated
Leaked recording: Donald Trump speaking graphically about women, sex and 'pussy'
In a 2005 conversation with a television host caught on a hot microphone, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump bragged about attempting to “fuck” married women and kissing women without waiting for their consent, “like a magnet.”
“When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says in the recording, first obtained by the Washington Post. “You can do anything.”
The audio, accompanied by a videotape, was apparently recorded during an interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush in September 2005, eight months after he married model Melania Knauss. Trump and Bush - a cousin of former Trump rival Jeb Bush and now co-host of the Today Show - were on a bus headed to the set of the soap opera Days of Our Lives, on which Trump was set to make a cameo appearance.
The media obtained by the Washington Post includes both audio from inside the bus as well as video shot after the bus arrived on the set.
At the beginning of the audio, Trump relays to Bush a past attempt to seduce a married woman.
“I moved on her and I failed - I’ll admit it,” Trump says.
“I did try and fuck her; she was married,” Trump continues. “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married.”
“Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything,” Trump continues. “She’s totally changed her look.”
Trump and Bush then apparently see actress Arianne Zucker outside the bus.
“Your girl’s hot as shit, in the purple,” Bush tells Trump.
“Whoa!” Trump responds. “Whoa! I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump continues. “You can do anything.”
“Whatever you want,” Bush replies.
“Grab them by the pussy,” Trump replies. “You can do anything.”
Bush and Trump, after commenting on the legs of a woman walking near the bus, then emerge in view of the Access Hollywood cameras to greet Zucker.
In a statement upon the recording’s release, Trump described the conversation as “locker room banter” and declared that former president Bill Clinton “has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close.”
“I apologize if anyone was offended.”
Updated
Donald Trump announces national security advisory council
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has announced new additions to his national security advisory council, including senators Tom Cotton, Richard Burr, Bob Corker and Jim Inhofe, congressmen Darrell Issa and Mike McCaul, and former US attorney general/singer-songwriter John Ashcroft.
“This distinguished group stands behind Mr. Trump because it is imperative that the US has a strong leader to combat terrorism, strengthen its borders and make sure that America is safe,” the campaign stated in a release.
Some of the additions - Cotton and Ashcroft in particular - represent breaks in orthodoxy from the isolationist platform that Trump has crafted, with Cotton especially being the modern face of American neoconservatism.
The new members join the likes of senator Jeff Sessions, General Mike Flynn and Rudy Guiliani on the council.
White House 'confident' that Russian government hacked DNC
The US government is “confident” that the Russian government has orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on American political organizations and parties, including the Democratic National Committee, as a way “to interfere with the US election process,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,” said homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson and director of national intelligence James Clapper in a statement.
“Such activity is not new to Moscow-the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
Earlier this summer, Russian hackers released emails procured by breaking into the Democratic National Committee, leading to the resignation of the DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the eve of the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.
Nuclear launch officer in Clinton ad: Donald Trump 'scares me to death'
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign appears to be taking a page out of the political playbook of Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic president whose infamous Daisy advertisement implied that the election of bellicose Republican rival Barry Goldwater would lead to nuclear war.
In Clinton’s newest ad, titled Silo, a nuclear launch officer addresses the camera at the site of one of America’s nuclear missile silos, telling viewers that the temperament of the president may be the only thing that prevented the launch of the missiles with which he was charged.
“If the president gave the order, we had to launch the missiles - that would be it,” says Bruce Blair in the ad. “Self-control may be all that keeps these missiles from firing.”
As the camera pans up a missile’s side and an air-raid siren blares, the ad then cuts to Donald Trump telling an audience that he would “bomb the shit” out of America’s military foes and telling an interview that he wants to be “unpredictable.”
“The thought of Donald Trump with nuclear weapons scares me to death,” Blair says at the ad’s conclusion. “It should scare everyone.”
The ad is an obvious callback to Daisy, one of the most iconic - and controversial - campaign ads ever aired. In that advertisement, a little girl counting flower petals is vaporized in a nuclear blast, followed by a voiceover from Johnson urging voters to “vote for President Johnson on November 3rd - the stakes are too high for you to stay home.”
Actor and Hillary Clinton supporter Eva Longoria has some harsh criticism for Republican running mate Mike Pence following his dismissal of Donald Trump’s assertion that Mexican immigrants are drug-peddling rapists as “that Mexican thing.”
“Governor Pence, we are not a ‘thing,’” Longoria says in a new video released by the Democratic National Committee today.
“Could you be a little more specific?” Longoria, a tenth-generation Mexican-American, asks the governor.
“‘That Mexican thing’ contributes to a purchasing power of over a trillion dollars. ‘That Mexican thing’ opens countless small businesses each year. ‘That Mexican thing’ is woven into the tapestry of this nation’s art and music. It’s part of our politics, our culture, our commerce.”
“We are proud American citizens,” Langoria continues. “And most importantly, Governor Pence, will be voting this November.”
Donald Trump will be making an appearance at a Republican Hindu Coalition rally in New Jersey on October 15, an interesting use of the candidate’s time less than a month before the general election considering that rival Hillary Clinton currently leads him by double digits in the state.
Trump campaign communications advisor Jason Miller says that the $1.5m in cut ad buys will be allayed by purchases in “battlegrounds within battlegrounds.”
1/2 A few media buying updates on our increased media spend, which is growing by an extra $1M. State-by-state levels remain roughly same… https://t.co/eFIzjF3MET
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 7, 2016
2/2 Our data-driven campaign is shifting resources from over-performing markets to new battlegrounds w/in the battlegrounds. Buy is growing.
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 7, 2016
Here’s more detail on Trump’s canceled ads, via Politico:
Where Trump has cancelled buys next week, per ad tracker: pic.twitter.com/KzLBhI3o3Q
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 7, 2016
Updated
Here’s a colorful tidbit from a Washington Post report just published from inside the Trump campaign.
Trump apparently has it in him to object to accommodations on the grounds that they’re too fancy:
Trump furious that his team booked him at the Ritz instead of Holiday Inn Express, per @costareports & @PhilipRucker https://t.co/uj4Kyq9uPn pic.twitter.com/bSz6LXBvX7
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) October 7, 2016
Another good snippet (how we read now: paragraph by tweeted paragraph):
@PhilipRucker @costareports you guys were given explicit typographical instructions here pic.twitter.com/oeGXPylfRA
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 7, 2016
Updated
Trump campaign mysteriously cancels ads in key markets
We’re working to find out more about this. NBC News and the New York Times report that the Donald Trump campaign is canceling hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising in what appear to be key markets in states including Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Colorado.
With early voting already happening in Iowa, North Carolina and elsewhere, and Trump needing to make up ground quickly in many – all? – of these states, with only a month to go until the election, this decision to reverse ad reservations is perplexing.
Cancelations represent next week's buy, per the sources. Possible they are shifting elsewhere for final three weeks https://t.co/PrQ5U1vtAu
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 7, 2016
Trump camp cutting ~$1.5M ads in battlegrnd states nxt wk, Per @mmurraypolitics, cuts are in smaller mkts pic.twitter.com/mTryhelWsq
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) October 7, 2016
Trump cuts in Florida all in markets where he needs to exceed Romney to win https://t.co/BSoJnvzNqK
— Steve Schale (@steveschale) October 7, 2016
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) October 7, 2016
— Julie Pace (@jpaceDC) October 7, 2016
@maggieNYT that's....weird
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 7, 2016
Maybe he won so much he got tired of winning? https://t.co/REJTLQzgoR
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) October 7, 2016
It's a con. https://t.co/Xo3LoieuFK
— jon gabriel (@exjon) October 7, 2016
Updated
Independents flock to Clinton – poll
A 21-point swing by independent voters after the first presidential debate has bopped Hillary Clinton into a comfortable national lead in the presidential race, new numbers from Quinnipiac University say.
A Q-pac poll just released has Clinton up 45-40 on Trump among likely voters in a four-way race. She leads him 50-44 in a two-way race in the poll. On 26 September the same poll depicted a much tighter race, 47-46 for Clinton.
Women break for Clinton 53-33 in the poll’s four-way race, while nonwhite voters back Clinton 63-18.
But the most significant shift was among independent voters, “who go from 42 - 35 percent for Trump, with 15 percent for Johnson on September 26, to 46 - 32 percent for Clinton, with 10 percent for Johnson today,” the pollster says.
Women, Non-Whites Give Clinton 5-Point Lead Over Trump; Independent Voters In Big Shift To Clinton #Election2016https://t.co/Cf8wpkM4p2
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) October 7, 2016
HuffPost Pollster’s average of national polls of a two-way race now has a 6.5-point lead for Clinton:
new Quinnipiac national poll, by age; 18-34, Clinton +21; 35-49, Clinton ,+8; 50-64, Trump +5; 65 or older, even
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 7, 2016
So maybe stop panicking over millennials and go talk some sense into the fifty-somethings in your life. https://t.co/pPUtv5B3KP
— Teddy Goff (@teddygoff) October 7, 2016
Phone? Cigarettes? Nuclear codes?
Walking to Marine One, Pres Obama suddenly checks his pockets, does a 180 - and scoots back to the Oval Office. pic.twitter.com/7qflAsPsLP
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 7, 2016
Russia lodges formal complaint at UN over Trump-bashing
Diplomats tell The Associated Press that Russia’s government lodged a formal complaint last month with the United Nations over a top UN official’s condemnations of Donald Trump and some European politicians:
The intervention underscores the unusual links between the Kremlin and the Republican presidential nominee.
There is no evidence Trump sought Russia’s assistance, or was even aware of the criticism by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
But three diplomats say the criticism prompted Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, to issue a verbal “demarche” to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a private meeting on Sept. 13.
The diplomats weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter and demanded anonymity, fearing possible diplomatic repercussions from Russia, a powerful, permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Trump recasts Central Park Five as guilty
In stunning defiance of a landmark exoneration of five African America rape suspects originally convicted through racial scapegoating, Donald Trump suggested to CNN Thursday that the so-called Central Park Five are after all guilty.
Five African American youths were convicted and imprisoned in the 1989 rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park. They were exonerated in 2002 after the perpetrator came forward and his identity was confirmed by DNA evidence.
Trump at the time of the crime took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the re-institution of the death penalty in New York.
Here’s some of our reporting on the case:
The miscarriage of justice is widely remembered as a definitive moment in New York’s fractured race relations. But Trump’s intervention – he signed full-page newspaper advertisements implicitly calling for the boys to die – has been gradually overlooked as the businessman’s chances of winning the Republican nomination have rapidly increased. Now those involved in the case of the so-called Central Park Five and its aftermath say Trump’s rhetoric served as an unlikely precursor to a unique brand of divisive populism that has powered his rise to political prominence in 2016.
Here, meanwhile, is Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, a charter member of the Trump fan club, saying that Trump’s ad calling for the blood of innocent youth just demonstrates that the candidate has always liked “law and order”:
Sen. Sessions: Central Park Five Ad Shows Trump Has Always Believed In Law And Order https://t.co/iHIM46y33a via @buzzfeednews
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) October 7, 2016
Updated
61% of likely voters in Ohio would like to see Trump's taxes please – poll
“Keep the tax returns coming,” tweets the New York Times reporter whose receipt in the mail of Trump’s 1995 taxes revealed that he declared personal losses of $916m that year potentially allowing him to duck federal taxes for years and years afterwards:
Loving all the mail. Keep the tax returns coming. Also accepting transcripts of Clinton's speeches & info on Jimmy Hoffa's whereabouts #USPS pic.twitter.com/uOSp7Gg2zH
— Susanne Craig (@susannecraig) October 6, 2016
Likely voters in Ohio agree 61%-25%, according to a Public Policy Survey of likely Ohio voters released on Thursday:
Only 35% of voters in the state think Trump pays his fair share in federal income taxes, to 47% who think he doesn’t. Among those who don’t think Trump pays his fair share, he’s trailing Clinton 77-9. A plurality of voters in Ohio- 45%- think they personally pay more in taxes than Trump does to only 34% of voters who think Trump pays more. There continues to be a strong consensus among voters that Trump should release his returns- 61% say he ought to do that, to only 25% who don’t think it’s necessary. Of course one reason for his reluctance may be that releasing his returns could confirm a suspicion that voters have about Trump’s finances- only 35% believe that he’s as rich as he says he is.
PPP’s poll had Clinton leading by a single point, 48-47, in a two-way race in Ohio, with a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.
That eensy-weensy margin comports with the polling averages – although we note that three of the four most recent major polls of Ohio voters have Clinton in the lead.
Here’s some further reading via 538: Maybe it’s time for Ohio and Pennsylvania to part ways
Vice president Joe Biden is scheduled to appear soon in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia suburbs, to talk about Hillary Clinton.
Here’s a live stream:
Latino polling group sees unprecedented move toward Clinton
Latino voters are preparing to break for Hillary Clinton in the most lopsided way since the advent of reliable records in 1980, according to new surveys by the politics and polling group Latino Decisions.
The group predicts a national split of the Latino vote, which comprises many subgroups of voters, of 82% for Clinton and 15% for Donald Trump.
“We are highly confident that—barring any major unforeseen change—Trump’s Latino vote will fall between 9.5% and 20.5%,” the group says. “Today, our model estimates 82% vote for Clinton and we are highly confident that it will be somewhere between 76.5% and 87.5%.”
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said Thursday that among Hispanics in Florida, vote-by-mail requests were up 77% compared with the same point in 2012.
Separately, the Clinton campaign released a new video spot featuring Salma Hayek urging Latinos to vote – for Clinton:
"Podemos demostrar que somos una comunidad poderosa. We can prove that we are a mighty community." —@SalmaHayek → https://t.co/tTgeqxNqYm pic.twitter.com/6eBe5fXQ3n
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 7, 2016
(h/t @mikeelliotbarry)
Clinton on hurricane: 'stay safe'
The Clinton campaign has released a new statement on hurricane Matthew, issued in the name of the candidate:
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew, and my heart is broken for the victims and their families in Haiti, Cuba, the Caribbean, and Florida.
This is a serious storm, and it has already caused serious damage. If you get an evacuation order, please follow it immediately. Bring any important documents, medicines, and your pets with you. Listen carefully to instructions from local and national officials. And if you’re not sure what to do, please visit ready.gov for tips on staying safe.
To all our local campaign staff, volunteers, and supporters: Please take care of yourselves and your neighbors – nothing is more important than that. To our extraordinary first responders and everyone working to prepare for and respond to the storm: We’re so grateful for your courage and sacrifice, especially in times like these.
And to the people of Florida and the Southeast, and everyone in the eye of the storm: Stay safe, and know that America is with you. In times of disaster, we pull together. We’ll have your back every step of the way – today, and in the weeks and months to come.
Trump: 'they’re letting people pour into the country so they can go and vote'
To this point, Donald Trump has painted immigration mainly as a security threat, and as a threat to American jobs, in both cases counterfactually.
On Friday morning, however, in a meeting with a union representing border patrol agents, Trump floated a new conspiracy theory, saying that immigration officials are trying to expand the pool of American voters.
“They are letting people pour into this country so they can go and vote,” Trump said.
Trump directly challenged the media to report his remarks, which followed comments by union vice president Art Del Cueto in a meeting in Trump Tower. The meeting was reported on by a pool of journalists assigned to Trump.
Del Cueto told Trump that “immigration is so tied up with trying to get the people who are on the waiting list to hurry up and get them their immigration status corrected.”
“Why?” asked Trump.
“So they can go ahead and vote before the election,” replied Del Cueto.
“Big statement, fellas,” Trump said, motioning to reporters. “You’re not going to write it. That’s huge. But they’re letting people pour into the country so they can go and vote.”
Del Cueto has appeared on Fox News as a supportive commentator for segments such as this Bill O’Reilly report titled “Southern Border Chaos.”
Del Cueto has not always been a Trump supporter. He signed a letter issued by the union in July 2015 objecting to a quickie Trump trip to the border area in Laredo, Texas.
“Trump’s comments deriding the military service of our friend John McCain are disrespectful not just to the Senator but to all veterans, many of whom serve as Border Patrol agents,” the letter said.
The border patrol union endorsed Trump in March.
Updated
Evangelicals oppose Trump: 'we cannot ignore this bigotry'
A group of 94 evangelical leaders has published an open letter declaring they “will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote.”
Significant support from evangelicals help power Trump primary victories from Iowa through the southeast, and Pew research found in July “that despite the professed wariness toward Trump among many high-profile evangelical Christian leaders, evangelicals as a whole are, if anything, even more strongly supportive of Trump than they were of Mitt Romney at a similar point in the 2012 campaign.”
In a letter posted at change.org, the dissenting group of pastors says, “We believe the candidacy of Donald J. Trump has given voice to a movement that affirms racist elements in white culture—both explicit and implicit.”
The letter continues:
Mr. Trump has fueled white American nationalism with xenophobic appeals and religious intolerance at the expense of gospel values, democratic principles, and important international relationships. He mocks women and the sanctity of marriage vows, disregards facts and the accountability to truth, and worships wealth and shameful materialism, while taking our weakening culture of civility to nearly unprecedented levels with continuing personal attacks on others, including attacking a federal judge based purely on his Mexican heritage, mocking a disabled reporter, and humiliating a beauty pageant winner for her weight and Latina ethnicity—to give just a few examples. ...
For this reason, we cannot ignore this bigotry, set it aside, just focus on other issues, or forget the things Mr. Trump has consistently said and done.
Read the full letter here.
British bookmaker takes record bet on Clinton to win
The British bookmaker William Hill reports that it has accepted “the biggest bet ever staked on either the UK general or US presidential elections” – a 550,000 euro wager ($615,310) on Hillary Clinton to become president, at odds of 4/11 (73% chance of success).
The bettor stands to profit 200,000 euros. If the bettor wins.
Bookmaker William Hill reveal they've taken a record €550,000 ($615,000) bet from 46 year old woman on Hillary Clinton to win, odds of 4/11.
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) October 7, 2016
The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power paid out more than $140,000 to customers who bet that Donald Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination.
William Hill says “the biggest bet ever placed on any political event remains the £900,000 gambled on the outcome of the 2014 Scottish referendum by a client from southwest London who was successful and received a payout of £1,093,333.33.”
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. The presidential campaigns issued statements of support for residents of south-east Florida as Hurricane Matthew barreled in, knocking out power in hundreds of thousands of homes.
“Please know that we are praying for you and everyone in the path,” Donald Trump said last night at a town hall event in New Hampshire. “You’ve got to take care of yourself, you’ve got to get out of the area, you’ve got to listen.”
Hillary Clinton, who was speaking at fundraising events in New York, tweeted: “Hurricane Matthew is a major storm ... Stay safe Florida.”
Florida governor Rick Scott, a Republican, rejected an emergency request by the Clinton campaign for more time to register voters once the hurricane passes (the Florida registration deadline is 11 October). South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley, extended registration in the state, which also was under hurricane warning, from 8 October to 11 October. The Trump team pulled its negative TV ads in Florida, AP reported, and Clinton’s campaign delayed a planned series of Weather Channel ads.
Debate prep day
Neither Trump nor Clinton has any public events scheduled for today, with the second debate coming on Sunday. But Clinton’s army of surrogates will continue its march, with vice-president Joe Biden and senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren all deployed, including a double event for Sanders in New Hampshire.
Trump wins debate without opponents
Trump prepared for Sunday’s town hall-style debate with Hillary Clinton by insisting he wasn’t preparing for it, reported Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs.
At a town hall in Sandown, New Hampshire, questions were written down by an invited audience and then read by moderator Howie Carr, a pro-Trump talk show host in New England.
There was even a timer that kept Trump from talking for more than two minutes at a time.
But the Republican nominee insisting he wasn’t preparing for his next bout with Hillary Clinton. “This has nothing to do with Sunday,” Trump insisted.
He even complained about the media hype around his debate preparations. “Even tonight they said ‘Donald Trump is going to New Hampshire to practice for Sunday’ … it’s like they make you into a child.
“You really think Hillary Clinton is debate prepping for three or four days? She is resting … she wants to build up her energy for Sunday night and that’s fine.”
‘That’s not debate prep, she’s resting’
“And I want to be with the American people. I want to be with the people from New Hampshire, and she wants to rest” – Donald Trump
@TheRickWilson @dcexaminer "Studying is for nerds" - A real presidential candidate
— Andrew Kirk (@AJSKirk) October 7, 2016
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