Today in Campaign 2016
- Hillary Clinton today derided Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin as “unpatriotic” and “scary” and suggested the Republican nominee’s coziness with the Russian president could represent a threat to national security. In a press conference at an airport in Westchester, New York, her first such formal event in 278 days, Clinton discussed Trump’s remarks at a “commander-in-chief forum” hosted by NBC and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in New York last night, in which the nominees drew sharp contrasts on foreign policy and national security in back-to-back appearances that previewed their first debate later this month.
- Many Republicans who returned to Washington this week after the summer recess expressed confidence that Trump was improving as a candidate in both tone and message. But today, they found themselves in the familiar routine of distancing themselves from Trump’s comments – the latest being his praise for Putin in an NBC News national security forum held on Wednesday. “If you’re running for leader of the free world and you’re expressing admiration for Putin, well then you’re losing me,” Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina and former Republican presidential candidate, told reporters. “I think Vladimir Putin is a thug, a dictator, an autocratic ruler who has his opposition killed in the streets of Russia. He has dismembered his neighbor.”
- Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson appeared clueless about the Syrian crisis this morning, asking “What is Aleppo?” during a television interview. Mike Barnicle, during an interview on NBC’s Morning Joe, asked Johnson: “What would you do if you were elected, about Aleppo?” Aleppo, formerly Syria’s largest city, has been the worst hit area during the country’s war. But Johnson didn’t know what Aleppo was.
- The Donald Trump campaign has confirmed reports yesterday that it raised $90m in August, versus $143m raised by Clinton. But the campaign did not say how much of the $90m is earmarked for the Republican national committee or state parties, as campaigns customarily do. Without knowing the breakdown, we don’t know how much money the campaign has.
In response to Rudy Giuliani’s claims about Donald Trump, circa 2012:
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012
Rudy Giuliani falsely claims Donald Trump disavowed birtherism 'years ago'
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made his first serious foray into American presidential politics in 2011, when he made himself the most public face of the so-called “birther” movement, conspiracists who believe the long-discredited theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore constitutionally ineligible to serve as president.
Since deciding to become Obama’s successor, he has avoided answering questions as to whether he still believes that Obama was not born an American citizen, but that hasn’t kept members of the press from asking both the candidate and his surrogates whether Trump still subscribes to a conspiracy theory that many Americans see as racist.
The latest surrogate: Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews tonight that Trump had long ago dismissed the theory publicly.
This has never happened.
“I confirm that and Donald Trump now confirms that,” Giuliani said when Matthews asked him to confirm that Obama was born in the US. “He did that two years ago... two years ago. Three years ago.”
Giuliani continued, blaming the fomenting of birtherism on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, due to some volunteers, later fired, who spread emails stirring the conspiracy.
“The point is that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is the first one to do it because all she does is engage in negative campaigning against Barack Obama and against Donald Trump.”
“He is the one who got him to finally produce the birth certificate,” Giuliani said of Trump. “Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue.”
Matthews attempted to get Giuliani, as Trump’s surrogate, to commit Trump to declaring in public that Obama is a legitimate citizen of the United States within the next 24 hours, but Giuliani averred.
“You are speaking for Donald Trump,” Matthews said, nearly shouting. “And we are ending this now because we are spending a lot of time on it but I think it is important. You say this president was legitimately elected president of the United States and you say your candidate agrees with you.”
“I believe he was legitimately elected president,” Giuliani said. “And instead of talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton violated probably about 40 different federal laws, we are talking about this, which is ridiculous.”
Updated
Speaking with Larry King on Kremlin-backed RT America, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared that he doesn’t want Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson to participate in upcoming presidential debates and criticized the candidate for revealing to MSNBC this morning that he did not know what Aleppo is.
“I don’t know that it’ll hurt him that much, frankly,” Trump said of Johnson’s comments this morning, in which he was asked how he would handle the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, Syria.
“But, you know, he didn’t know that. I saw that. And, you know, it maybe it’ll hurt him a little bit but I think he’ll scoot by. Look, he’s not too much of a factor. They seem to be going down. The other two, they seem to be going down a little bit - we’ll see what happens.”
Asked whether he would welcome Johnson to join himself and Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential debate at Hofstra University, Trump said no.
“I’d rather be Hillary and myself because we’re the only two with a chance of winning.”
On “strength”:
USA stocks crushing Russian stocks last 5 years.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) September 8, 2016
5-year chart of S&P 500 v $RTSI
USA = Bluehttps://t.co/ZkwsiiqO1G pic.twitter.com/3oa8cnogs3
Pool duty is hard work.
@HillaryClinton traveling press stills on the Tarmac in Kansas City. They tell me they are making "art." pic.twitter.com/8Uj514WIvq
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) September 8, 2016
Hillary Clinton opens up about sexism in new Humans of New York post
As a young woman applying to law school, Hillary Clinton learned a hard, everlasting lesson in gender dynamics that would help shape her public persona years later as a politician.
In a rare and deeply personal interview on the popular blog Humans of New York, the Democratic nominee said the public’s view of her as “cold” and “walled off” is the result of having learned to “control” her emotions.
In the post, Clinton recalled sitting down to take a law school admissions test at Harvard. She realized looking around that room that she was one of just a handful of women taking the exam. As she waited for the exam to be administered, a group of men began to taunt the women, shouting insults like: “You don’t need to be here” and “There’s plenty else you can do.”
“One of them even said: ‘If you take my spot, I’ll get drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I’ll die,’” Clinton said.
Clinton’s appearance on Humans of New York comes a day after the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman, Reince Priebus, was roundly criticized for his musings on Clinton’s performance during the forum.
@HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time - no smile and uncomfortable - upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 8, 2016
Clinton’s campaign fired back: “Actually, that’s just what taking the office of President seriously looks like.”
One day after Donald Trump reiterated his admiration for Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president was a better leader than Barack Obama, Republicans on Capitol Hill struggled to explain why their party’s presidential nominee was enamored with a man they have long cast as one of America’s primary foes.
Many Republicans who returned to Washington this week after the summer recess expressed confidence that Trump was improving as a candidate in both tone and message. But on Thursday, they found themselves in the familiar routine of distancing themselves from Trump’s comments – the latest being his praise for Putin in an NBC News national security forum held Wednesday.
“If you’re running for leader of the free world and you’re expressing admiration for Putin, well then you’re losing me,” Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina and former Republican presidential candidate, told reporters.
“I think Vladimir Putin is a thug, a dictator, an autocratic ruler who has his opposition killed in the streets of Russia. He has dismembered his neighbor.”
While Graham said he found Obama to be “weak”, “indecisive” and someone Putin had “walked all over”, the visibly frustrated senator added: “But no, I’m not going to say that Putin’s a better leader than a Democratic elected president of the United States even though I have differences with him.”
It was just earlier this week that Graham, who has thus far declined to endorse Trump and has been among the candidate’s biggest critics, spoke positively for the first time of the direction his campaign had taken. After telling reporters on Monday that Trump would give Hillary Clinton “a hell of a race”, the senator hardly minced his words when reacting to Trump’s overtures toward Putin.
“This whole idea of admiring Putin is the biggest misunderstanding of a relationship in a person since Munich,” Graham said.
Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida who made his opposition to Putin a central tenet of his own presidential campaign, similarly disagreed with Trump’s assertion that the Russian president was a better leader than Obama.
“Look, I have tremendous policy disagreements with President Obama, but Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian thug who is accountable to no one,” Rubio told the Guardian.
“I don’t think what Vladimir Putin exhibits is leadership. I think what he exhibits is thuggery … and we should be clear-eyed about that,” he added, noting that Putin controlled the media, the military and often his political opponents were either imprisoned or found dead.
Asked by the Guardian if he was concerned that Trump had a penchant for commending Putin, despite those facts, Rubio said he was hopeful the candidate’s posture might evolve.
“My sense is those views will probably change once he understands better who Vladimir Putin truly is – that’s my hope,” responded the senator, who is backing Trump.
Who could it be?
Kagan on social media: "I'm pretty confident none of us have Twitter accounts—or maybe one or two of us do and they're under a false name."
— SCOTUS Map (@SCOTUSMap) September 8, 2016
The Associated Press has deleted a two-week-old tweet in which it falsely characterized half of Hillary Clinton’s meetings during her tenure as secretary of state as having been held with donors to the Clinton Foundation:
AP deleted an 8/23 tweet on Clinton's meetings at State that omitted key context. Details: https://t.co/V2wfiijZqd pic.twitter.com/KweL8QrWef
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 8, 2016
Trump: Hillary Clinton believes in 'globalism, not Americanism'
Donald Trump today attacked Hillary Clinton for espousing “trigger-happy” interventionist policies which he said has made the US less safe than ever before. The Republican presidential nominee also targeted the Democrat for what he said was her belief in “globalism” instead of “Americanism”.
Trump repeated his claim to have been opposed to the Iraq war for which Clinton voted “from the beginning”, a claim which has repeatedly been shown to be untrue.
The Republican nominee was speaking in Cleveland, a day after taking part with Clinton in a “commander-in-chief forum”, hosted by NBC and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in New York City. That event offered a preview of the forthcoming presidential debates and led to criticism of the host, Matt Lauer, over his questioning of the two candidates.
“She believes in globalism, not Americanism,” Trump said. “On top of it all, Hillary Clinton is trigger happy.”
The Cleveland speech was ostensibly dedicated to education policy and school choice. But Trump devoted significant time to well-worn campaign themes, including a lengthy prelude about what he called Clinton’s “criminal cover-up” over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, her views on foreign policy and her record in office, and what he said were her frequent factual misrepresentations.
Earlier, at a press conference on an airport tarmac in White Plains, New York, Clinton criticised Trump’s comments at the NBC forum about Russian president Vladimir Putin, of whom the Republican has often spoken favorably and who, he said on Wednesday, has “been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader”.
Clinton said: “Now that is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country as well as to our commander-in-chief. It is scary.”
Trump said: “She tried to make up for her horrible performance last night. So she went on the tarmac and told more lies.”
Trump chose again to highlight his own historic statements in opposition to the Iraq war and call out Clinton’s 2003 vote in support of it, when she was the junior senator from New York.
“Iraq is one of the biggest differences in this race,” he said. “I was opposed to the war from the beginning.”
Trump read aloud statements he made to Esquire magazine in August 2004, more than a year after the start of the Iraq war, in which he was critical of US policies in the country.
“The media is so terribly dishonest, so I had to do this,” he said.
Mike Pence: It is 'inarguable' that Vladimir Putin is superior to Barack Obama
Indiana governor Mike Pence has defended running mate Donald Trump’s declaration that Russian president Vladimir Putin is a superior leader compared to US president Barack Obama, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that it is “inarguable” that the Russian strongman is better than Obama.
“I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president,” Pence said.
In NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief” forum last night, in which Trump and rival Hillary Clinton were separately questioned about matters relating to the military and national security, Trump told host Matt Lauer than Putin, who he has previously praised, has “been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.”
Trump has been publicly enamored with the Russian strongman since the primaries, and is given to inaccurately repeating the anecdote that Putin once called him “brilliant.”
“I think when he calls me ‘brilliant,’ I’ll take the compliment,” Trump said last night about Putin. “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.”
The story refers to remarks Putin made in December 2015, in which the Russian president - who has been criticized internationally for the invasion and annexation of Crimea, the murder by poisoning of a Russian citizen and has been implicated in the death of an investigative journalist, although Trump has dismissed such claims as baseless - when Putin used the word “yarkii” (or яркий) to describe Trump.
The word means “brilliant” or “bright,” but in the sense of spectacle or shininess - akin to “flashy” or “flamboyant.”
Updated
Indiana governor Mike Pence doesn’t speak Hebrew - not that that’s a prerequisite for the office of the vice president - but according to The Forward, it makes reaching out to Hebrew-speaking voters a little, well, tricky:
The Republican vice presidential candidate was photographed holding a sign written in Hebrew that was supposed to read ‘Make America Great Again’ - but translates roughly as ‘To Reverse America to Great Once More.’ The first word on the bottom of the sign is a verb in its infinitive form, making it confusing to Hebrew speakers from the get go.
This sign translates as “To Reverse America to Great Once More.”
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) September 8, 2016
Close enough, right? https://t.co/vjhulbhlNL pic.twitter.com/lv1PPbAGj7
Updated
As the election nears, the Obama swan song continues with ever growing poignancy. Today, first lady Michelle Obama hosted her fifth and final class of national student poets at the White House.
“Well, I have to say that this event - I’ve said this too many times, because we’re celebrating a lot of ‘last’ here this year - but this is the last time that we’re going to have the pleasure of welcoming a class of national student poets to the White House, at least under this administration,” Obama said. “So I’m feeling a little melancholy here, because this has truly been an honour and a privilege and a joy.”
The first lady condemned the “pretty devastating” cuts to art and music classes in schools across the country that preceded her husband’s administration. A recent Washington Post article suggested that arts communities feel let down by the president for not showing a greater interest.
But Obama said: “Barack and I also happen to be pretty huge poetry fans ourselves. My husband considers himself kind of a poet, but we’ll see. We’ll see. Maybe when he’s done he’ll write one for me. You hear that, honey? So that’s kind of where the idea of the national student poet programme came from.”
Obama also recalled the first White House poetry jam in 2009 where Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped about Alexander Hamilton, soon to be expanded into the hit musical Hamilton, “one of the most extraordinary pieces of art that I - and probably so many others - have ever seen”.
But it was a poetry medley by students past and present, beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln in the state dining room, that moved Obama to the brink of tears on Thursday. “If we ever wonder...” she began, sighing with emotion, “if what we do makes a difference, it does.”
Her voice still low and unsteady, Obama added: “Thank you everyone for all of this. Thank you, guys. I’m so proud of you. That was beautiful. You guys are awesome. Have a great year.”
While speaking in Cleveland earlier today, Donald Trump said that there are only bad jobs in the US.
“We only have bad jobs. We don’t have good jobs anymore,” said Trump. He added that if elected, he would be “the greatest jobs producing president that God ever created”.
Trump’s remarks come less than a week after the US Department of labor released its August jobs report. In August, US created 151,000 jobs - about 30,000 below expectations. However, on average the US economy added about 230,000 a month over the last three months. August was the 71st consecutive month of overall job creation- longest streak on record. It was also the 77th consecutive month of private sector job growth.
The Obama administration insists that the jobs added over the past few months tend to be good, middle class jobs rather than “bad jobs” as Trump described them. According to US labor secretary Tom Perez, education and health sectors have added the most job in the last year, followed by professional and business services.
“I use these two examples to highlight what we are seeing in this recovery, which is over the last two to three years, not only do we see a growth in the quantity of jobs but we are seeing a distinct growth in the quality of jobs. More and more middle class and above jobs are being created in the last two to three years,” he told the Guardian on Friday.
“Another sector that is really rebounding - especially in the last few months is government, which during the early stages of the recovery it usually recovers really fast but it didn’t. And now we are seeing some real rebound in government jobs, which tend to be solid middle class jobs. I am heartened not just by the number of jobs we are creating but by the quality of jobs that are being created.”
One of the main reasons for the delay in recovery in government sector is the sequester - the automatic budget cuts that were included in the 2011 Budget Control Act. Had it been not for the budget cuts championed by Congress Republicans after the 2008 economic crisis, unemployment rate might have been higher, said Perez.
“If we had the investment rates that we saw during the Reagan administration now, we would have an unemployment rate that would be probably two to three tenths of a percent lower than it currently is,” he said. The US unemployment rate is 4.9%. “But the lingering effect of sequester has a dramatically negative impact on government hiring and it also had on a federal level and on state and local level.”
Despite better jobs being created, there are still more than six million Americans who want full time jobs, but are only working part-time at the moment. Additionally, there are 7.5 million Americans who are working more than one jobs to make ends meet.
Esquire Magazine has added an editor’s note to a profile of Donald Trump that the Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly cited as proof that he never supported the invasion of Iraq, calling the characterization inaccurate:
The following story was published in the August 2004 issue of Esquire. During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and he has cited this story as proof. The Iraq War began in March 2003, more than a year before this story ran, thus nullifying Trump’s timeline.
Trump has falsely insisted that he was opposed to the Iraq war since before its inception, despite a 2002 interview with Howard Stern in which he said “yeah, I guess so” when asked if he supported the invasion.
The Esquire interview was mentioned as recently as last night, when he told NBC host Matt Lauer during a forum on national security that “you can look at Esquire Magazine from ’04” as proof of his opposition to the war.
Clinton campaign raises money off of Matt Lauer criticism
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign is officially fundraising off of frustration with Matt Lauer’s moderation of NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief Forum” last night, emailing supporters under the subject line “Matt Lauer” that the Today Show co-host failed to fact-check the proven falsehood that Donald Trump opposed the invasion of Iraq.
“Donald Trump kicked off his evening by lying to the American people about his position on the Iraq War - and no one stopped to call him on it,” the email, penned by Clinton campaign deputy communications director Christina Reynolds, begins.
“Not only did the moderator, Matt Lauer, fail to fact-check Trump - he then kept the conversation moving,” Reynolds continues. “The worst part is, there’s nothing new about this happening. We all know that Trump lies a lot. And we all know that many outlets in the press apparently lack the wherewithal to call him out - and help voters understand that what they’re hearing from Trump isn’t just normal political talk, but an unprecedented descent into unqualified nonsense from a major-party presidential nominee.”
Lauer has been castigated by journalists and viewers for being “lost at sea” during the one-hour event aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid, focusing nearly a third of his time with the former secretary of state on questions about her use of private email servers while letting Trump’s assertion that he was opposed to the Iraq war go unchallenged.
Trump has long maintained that he was opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the beginning as evidence that he has better judgment on national security matters than his opponents, despite the discovery of a radio interview with shock jock Howard Stern on Sept. 11, 2002 by Buzzfeed News wherein Trump declared “Yeah, I guess so” when asked if he supported the war.
That was six months before the invasion.
For the Clinton campaign, Lauer’s fumble - the hashtag #LaueringTheBar, a play on “lowering the bar,” has been trending on social media all day - is their gain.
“We have to work even harder to get the facts out there on TV, online, and in conversations with voters across the country,” Reynolds concludes. “We have to speak so loudly that every voter in America hears us. And we have to recommit ourselves to delivering Trump a definitive rebuke on November 8th.”
Updated
No TV person has done more to boost Donald Trump than Fox host Sean Hannity. Today Hannity plans to shine that spotlight on Wikileaks’s Julian Assange, who has promised to release information that reflects poorly on the Clinton campaign.
Julian Assange will be on @seanhannity's radio show for an hour today, Hannity tells me
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) September 8, 2016
Trump continues to talk in Cleveland. He’s stopped quoting his old interviews on Iraq. He is now touting his ability to create jobs:
I will be the greatest jobs producing president that god ever created.
Trump now jumps into a litigation of whether he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning.
“I was opposed to the war from the beginning, long after my interview with Howard Stern,” Trump says, referring to a 2002 interview with Stern in which he said “yeah... I guess” the Iraq invasion was a good idea.
Trump goes on to quote extensively from an interview he gave Esquire in August 2004, which he keeps saying, incorrectly, was “right at the beginning” of the war, “right after the war started.” The invasion was in March 2003.
The Fallujah bridge ambush was in March 2004. Trump rn is claiming clairvoyance for second-guessing war in Aug 2004 https://t.co/u31yk7LTgX
— Tom McCarthy (@TeeMcSee) September 8, 2016
Update:
Here (once again) is our timeline of Trump statements which disproves his false claim he opposed the war in Iraq. https://t.co/NfqLTbVhUp
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 8, 2016
Updated
Trump: 'whole country saw how unfit [Clinton] was'
Here’s Trump now in Cleveland. He’s talking about Clinton’s emails. He says she was hacked. And that she was emailing about the drone program.
“The whole country saw how unfit she was at the town hall middle night, where she refused to take accountability for her failed policies in the Middle East,” Trump continues.
Then he makes a series of wild claims, headily conspiratorial and heedless of evidence, about criminal conduct, he says, by Clinton and her associates: “giving up uranium to Russia, doing favors for UBS bank and giving contracts to family and friends in Haiti.”
Donald Trump, somewhat confusingly, even more than usual, is tweeting his condolences for Mexico’s finance minister, Luis Videgaray, having lost his job, which happened because Videgaray helped set up Trump’s visit last week, which the entire country of Mexico seems to concur was a disaster.
Trump goes out of his way to assert that Videgaray is a favorite of Nieto, who accepted his resignation. Is Trump asking us to think someone else was behind the resignation? Why is Trump bothering? Is he deaf to the resounding “No” with which the country of Mexico is greeting his wall proposal, his candidacy and lo his very existence?
Mexico has lost a brilliant finance minister and wonderful man who I know is highly respected by President Peña Nieto.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2016
With Luis, Mexico and the United States would have made wonderful deals together - where both Mexico and the US would have benefitted.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2016
The Republican running mate is tweeting a master’s thesis equating Donald Trump with Ronald Reagan and what does the Democrat come up with?
A dogpile with his kids? Oh well that’s pretty cute.
Back-to-school time always makes me nostalgic. #TBT pic.twitter.com/Ak6oadtxK0
— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) September 8, 2016
The Washington Post is reporting that Donald Trump’s Washington, DC-based policy shop has collapsed because nobody has been getting paid or listened to.
At which the nearly universal reaction has been: Donald Trump had a policy shop?
Here’s the top of the Post’s Josh Rogin’s report:
The Trump campaign built a large policy shop in Washington that has now largely melted away because of neglect, mismanagement and promises of pay that were never honored. Many of the team’s former members say the campaign leadership never took the Washington office seriously and let it wither away after squeezing it dry.
“Like Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump....
Like Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump has the honesty/bluntness to confront the challenges facing the American people from his 1st day in office
— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) September 8, 2016
That’s actually part of a tweetstorm by Pence, Trump’s running mate. Click through for the rest.
Pence is not the only member of a national ticket laying claim to Reagan today. Hillary Clinton said at her news conference this morning that she had just been thinking, “What would Ronald Reagan say about a Republican nominee who attacks America’s generals and heaps praise on Russia’s president?”
Trump fundraising numbers omit key information
The Donald Trump campaign has confirmed reports yesterday that it raised $90m in August, versus $143m raised by Clinton.
But the campaign did not say how much of the $90m is earmarked for the Republican national committee or state parties, as campaigns customarily do. Without knowing the breakdown, we don’t know how much money the campaign has.
But nothing on the campaign-vs.-party split. And those numbers are impt.
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) September 8, 2016
Will have to wait until 9/20 to get them https://t.co/VELyM13GoL
Trump is releasing much less early information about their August FEC report as they did about July's.
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) September 8, 2016
Still need to wait till the 20th.
Updated
Clinton: 'I had to learn to control my emotions'
Hillary Clinton tells Humans of New York about being pressured not to take the Harvard Law admissions test on account of her being a woman:
Updated
Clinton finishes her speech, to cheers. Her voice was slightly raspy at the end there. Alex Jones / Donald Trump Jr call your office.
Rubio disagrees with Trump on Putin
Rubio says he disagrees with Trump's comments that Putin is better leader than Obama: "Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian and a thug."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
Rubio says he has deep disagreements with Obama but "we have to be clear-eyed" about who Putin is https://t.co/dpzDxjRTp4
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
Clinton calls watching the bin Laden raid “the most stressful 30 minutes of my life, probably.” She’s telling a story she’s been telling a lot lately about Navy Seals rescuing some of bin Laden’s wife and family before destroying their disabled helicopter and leaving.
Clinton says Trump candidacy is historic threat
“You have to realize, as so many Republicans are,” Clinton says, that this is a moment to put country ahead of party.
“We have never been threatened as much by a single candidate running for president as we have in this election,” she says.
Clinton repeats some lines she tried out this morning, criticizing Trump’s performance last night:
“He trash-talked about America’s generals, saying that quote ‘they’ve been reduced to rubble.’”
Clinton notes that Trump suggested he would remake the military leadership with generals of his own choosing, “since you know he knows so much about what it takes to be a general.”
He praised Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting he prefers the Russian president to our American president. That’s not just un-patriotic, it’s not just insulting to the office and the man who holds the office, it is scary, it is dangerous.
Clinton: 'it’s like he’s living in his own celebrity reality TV program'
Clinton takes a swipe at Trump:
It’s like a game to him. Everything is a game. It’s like he’s living in his own celebrity reality TV program. You know what Donald? This is real reality. This is real people. This is real decisions that have to be made.
He’s had a lot of advisers... They’re all trying to make him look more presidential, sound more serious. It’s not working too well.
Then she rolls out her habitual quote from Maya Angelou about “when somebody shows you who they are believe them the first time.”
Hillary Clinton spoke with Israel’s Channel 2 News about the war in Syria, tensions in the Middle East and Russia’s role in the region, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
The interview with Israel’s Channel 2 News was filmed on Wednesday night before Clinton appeared on stage at a presidential forum in New York. It will air on Thursday night.
The network released a clip of the interview on Twitter:
כש @HillaryClinton ראיינה את @LeviYonit...
— חדשות 2 (@Channel2News) September 8, 2016
יונית לוי את קלינטון - הערב במהדורה pic.twitter.com/TaFaUxFhCz
Clinton is hailing the failure of voter restriction laws in North Carolina. In late July, a federal court struck down state laws the court said were enacted with “discriminatory intent”, targeting African Americans “with almost surgical precision”. (Read further.)
Clinton:
“What’s the best way to refudiate” – did she say refudiate? the Palin malapropism? or was that repudiate? – these attacks on voting rights, Clinton asks, rhetorically. It’s to vote.
Since Clinton’s in North Carolina, let’s check in on the polling. Suffolk University has a new poll of NC voters with Trump ahead of Clinton 44-41 in a three-way race with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who garners four points.
In the US senate race, incumbent Republican Richard Burr leads challenger Deborah Ross by a similar margin, 41-37.
Polling averages have Clinton up in North Carolina by about three points.
Clinton appears in Charlotte, North Carolina. She’s sorry for being late:
We had a disabled plane on the runway that had to be moved. It took a lot longer than expected.
Young? Disaffected? Email Adam Gabbatt
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt is starting conversations with young erstwhile voters who expect to sit this one out:
Are you a young person? Are you so turned off by Clinton/Trump you're not going to vote? Email adam.gabbatt@theguardian.com
— Adam Gabbatt (@adamgabbatt) September 8, 2016
The Clinton campaign has a little fun with Donald Trump Jr’s credulousness for Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories:
.@DonaldJTrumpJr, @RealAlexJones: Guys, wanted to call your attention to the Boeing 737 in HRC's ear. #MSM ignoring. pic.twitter.com/tAEtpCXgis
— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) September 8, 2016
Will anyone attend all three?
A week in the life of an event center in Asheville, NC. pic.twitter.com/9lTqhr8nJh
— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) September 8, 2016
Here’s our news coverage of Clinton’s news conference this morning, by Lauren Gambino and Sabrina Siddiqui:
Hillary Clinton on Thursday derided Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin as “unpatriotic” and “scary” and suggested the Republican nominee’s coziness with the Russian president could represent a threat to national security.
In a press conference at an airport in Westchester, New York, her first such formal event in 278 days, Clinton discussed Trump’s remarks at a “commander-in-chief forum” hosted by NBC and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in New York on Wednesday night, in which the nominees drew sharp contrasts on foreign policy and national security in back-to-back appearances that previewed their first debate later this month.
“Bizarrely, once again he praised Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin – even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian president to our American president,” Clinton said on the airport tarmac, in front of her campaign plane. “Now, that is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country as well as to our commander-in-chief – it is scary.”
We’re about to see Hillary Clinton at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here’s a live video stream:
Johnson, faced with choice of Trump or Clinton, prefers death
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is having quite a media day. He has told a host of the talk show The View that if he had to pick between Clinton and Trump with a gun to his head, death please:
Well, that went to a dark place real fast. pic.twitter.com/syjlKfHz4z
— Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) September 8, 2016
Updated
Powell on emails: 'I stand by my decisions'
Former secretary of state Colin Powell has issued a statement on his correspondence with Clinton released by the House last night in which he described using a personal laptop to circumnavigate state department servers (read the correspondence here).
“I was not trying to influence her but just to explain what I had done eight years earlier,” Powell’s statement says. He concludes, “I stand by my decisions and I am fully accountable.”
Colin Powell issues statement on his email w/ Hillary Clinton. pic.twitter.com/ImTotGuFR8
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 8, 2016
Clinton 'working session' on terrorism to include Petraeus
Hillary Clinton announced that she will convene a working session to talk strategy on the threat of terrorism after Donald Trump refused to elaborate on his “secret plan” for defeating Isis, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
Clinton will meet with a bipartisan group of foreign policy and national security experts at the New York Historical Society on Friday, including John Allen, who commanded US and NATO forces in Afghanistan; former secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano; and former CIA director David Petraeus.
The group will discuss “strategies and solutions to dealing with the threat of terrorism - from combatting threats abroad to stopping lone wolves and keeping us safe here at home, to nuclear proliferation and cyber threats,” according to a Clinton campaign official.
Ginsburg: 'cooler heads will prevail' on Garland nomination
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has taken a question about Senate Republicans’ refusal to hold a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the vacant supreme court seat.
“What can be done about it?” she says. “Even if you could conceive of a testing lawsuit, what would the response be? ‘Well, you want us to vote, well we’ll vote no.
I do think that cooler heads will prevail, I hope sooner rather than later.”
#SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on #Garland nomination: "I do think that cooler heads will prevail." pic.twitter.com/lR1xHEmVpa
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 8, 2016
Two hours ago, Hillary Clinton urged reporters to ask elected Republicans whether they agree with their presidential nominee’s high estimation of Vladimir Putin.
Paul Ryan does not want to sit for the exercise:
Paul Ryan gets frustrated with more Trump questions: "I'm not going to stand up here and do a tit for tat on what Donald said last night."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
How outrageous, that the top elected Republican official should be asked about the views of the party colleague with whom he would co-govern, should Trump win the White House. What practical difference could Ryan’s opinion of Trump’s views possibly make.
The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui is watching House speaker Paul Ryan’s ongoing news conference:
Asked about Trump's praise of Putin, @SpeakerRyan says: "Vladimir Putin is an aggressor who does not share our interests."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
Asked about moving TPP in lame duck, Paul Ryan says: "We don't have the votes right now."
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
"You bring it up, it's going to go down," Paul Ryan says of vote on Trans-Pacific Partnership.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 8, 2016
Updated
Did you see last night’s forum? Do you agree with David Axelrod, the former top political adviser to Barack Obama who knows a thing or two about electing a president?
.@HillaryClinton had valid reason 2 be irritated last night, but she allowed herself 2 SEEM irritated throughout. Cautionary note 4 debates.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 8, 2016
Or is that too close to Republican national committee chairman Reince Priebus’s hot take last night, that Clinton needed to smile more?
@HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time - no smile and uncomfortable - upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 8, 2016
We are learning still more about Trump’s supposedly classified intelligence briefings.
At Wednesday night’s forum, Trump said he could tell by his briefers’ body language – “I have pretty good with the body language” – that they disagreed with Obama administration policy. He said:
“What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts and our truly — when they call it intelligence, it’s there for a reason — what our experts said to do. And I was very, very surprised. In almost every instance, and I could tell, I have pretty good with the body language, I could tell, they were not happy. Our leaders did not follow what they were recommending,” he said.
In her news conference this morning, Clinton said it was undisciplined of Trump to talk about his classified intelligence briefings and she would never comment on an intelligence briefing.
Thanks to “three people familiar with the matter,” NBC News has this narration of what went on inside at least one of Trump’s two briefings so far:
During Trump's intel briefing, Flynn interrupted repeatedly—Christie asked him to calm down https://t.co/O3A5CwLPR0 pic.twitter.com/LNmdFVqeOl
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) September 8, 2016
Donald Trump Jr is shoveling shi
Let’s try that again. A son of the Republican nominee for president, who does not always speak for his father, though he often does, is using his currently influential voice in the national civic discourse, of which his Twitter following of 637,000 is merely an indicator, to disseminate a new theory from a person who thinks Bush did 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting was staged with actors.
Donald Trump, Jr., whose father would be president, is recklessly befouling American civic life with filthy lies and pernicious slander.
Donald Trump Jr. pushing out Alex Jones conspiracy theory ------> pic.twitter.com/GpIx0oK9j7
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 8, 2016
(The Clinton campaign says there was no earpiece.)
HRC spokesman Josh Schwerin: "There was no earpiece" https://t.co/36tFXPcytq
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 8, 2016
Updated
Johnson defends ignorance of existence of Aleppo
Libertarian presidential candidate, former New Mexico governor and generally thoughtful person Gary Johnson was asked on TV this morning: “What would you do if you were elected, about Aleppo?”
It’s a tough question, but the poor quality of Johnson’s answer was astounding.
“About?” he asked.
“Aleppo,” replied Barnicle.
“And what is Aleppo?” asked Johnson.
“You’re kidding,” responded Barnicle.
Johnson has issued a statement admitting, “I blanked”:
“This morning, I began my day by setting aside any doubt that I’m human. Yes, I understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict -- I talk about them every day. But hit with ‘What about Aleppo?’, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict. I blanked. It happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign.
Can I name every city in Syria? No. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. Do I understand its significance? Yes.
.@HillaryClinton: "You can look on the map and find Aleppo." https://t.co/cNLBj5loXr
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 8, 2016
Here’s our coverage of recent events in Aleppo...
And here’s our most recent leader on the crisis:
Updated
Further reactions to Clinton’s appearance, insidery media edition:
After four days, Clinton has become more accessible to the media than the omnipresent Trump. Amazing how "narratives" can change so fast.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) September 8, 2016
Almost like taking regular questions for a week leads to new topics https://t.co/yKDRcWuSk5
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) September 8, 2016
And almost like she makes her own best case as opposed to surrogates doing it https://t.co/mneNjkg8KF
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 8, 2016
If Clinton campaign was happy with last night's forum, they wouldn't be looking to do a presser this morning to provide new Clinton sound
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) September 8, 2016
True that. But Trump have her a lot to work with: smart to drive the story toward Putin, generals wtc. https://t.co/Ay6O4fsCFt
— adam nagourney (@adamnagourney) September 8, 2016
Snap reactions to the Clinton presser:
BREAKING: Clinton: Every Republican in office should be asked if they agree with Trump’s comments about US generals, praise for Putin.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 8, 2016
CLINTON: Trump's praise for Putin is "unpatriotic" and "scary". https://t.co/NnyK3ZPfpL
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 8, 2016
Hillary Clinton hasn’t held a press conference in 3 minutes. What is she scared of?
— Philip Bump (@pbump) September 8, 2016
Clinton is joking a bit with reporters.
The Republicans are just in a terrible dilemma, trying to support a totally unqualified nominee. “I have no sympathy for them... I am not going to tolerate them” putting out misinformation.
She takes a question about former counter-terrorism director Matt Olsen writing an article about Isis leaders stating publicly they support Trump.
“They have, as Matt Olsen pointed out, said that they hope Allah delivers America to Trump... That is a gift for Isis.”
Clinton is speaking with authority and at the length she prefers. She seems to be getting her point across that there is serious business at hand and her opponent... isn’t.
Clinton concludes:
I’m not asking for any special treatment. I know the road that I’m on. I’ve been on it for 25 years.. I love this country, I will serve it with my heart mind and soul.. I will do everything I can.
Updated
Clinton continues to take questions. She’s standing outside her airplane, whose engines are running, audibly.
We’re on the brink of making a very critical decision for our country... I’d be out here doing everything I could to sound the alarm about anyone like Donald Trump getting anywhere near the White HOuse.
On Gary Johnson not knowing, apparently, “What is Aleppo”:
“You can look at the map and find Aleppo.”
Question on Trump commenting on his intelligence briefing, that his briefers disagreed with the president.
Clinton says Trump was undisciplined and she would never comment on an intelligence briefing.
Clinton asked a variation on the question on whether she’s treated unfairly by the press:
“I find it frustrating and it’s part of the landscape that we live in and we just keep forging ahead.”
Next question is about RNC chair Reince Priebus suggesting Clinton smile more. Are you treated differently because you are a woman?
I’m going to let all of you poinder that last question. I think there will be a lot of PhD theses ... on that subject.
I don’t take my advice, and I don’t take anything that comes from the RNC.
She says there is more required to solve the problems “than just making political happy talk... Trump chose to talk about his deep admiration .. for Vladimir Putin. Maybe he did it with a smile and I suppose the RNC appreciated that.”
Updated
Clinton is asked about saying last night that she would not deploy ground troops to Iraq and Syria “Ever again.” Isn’t that boxing the US in?
“I’ve said that before, I’ve said it on numerous occasions” Clinton says. “A big contingent of ground troops” would “not be in the best interests” of the United States.
Not really answering the question.
“I think the approach I’ve outlined intensifies what we are doing ... but there is no in my opinion path forward to ground troops that would serve our interests.”
Updated
First question for Clinton: Why aren’t you winning by more?
“I’ve always thought this was going to be a close election. That’s why we’ve put an organization in place...
“And I feel that we’re in a strong position.. but we’re not taking any place, anyone for granted.”
Clinton says she has “a very different vision for how we keep our country safe and strong.”
“Even with all of the attention being paid to the campaign, we cannot forget how important this decision is. This weekend is the 15th anniversary of 9/11. I will never forget the horror of that day. But neither will I forget” first responders and families and victims.
She says she was thinking of 9/11 in the situation room during the raid on Osama Bin Laden.
That’s the kind of commander in chief I will be, she says. Who will keep common purpose.
Updated
Clinton: Trump's affection for Putin 'scary'
Clinton, all quotes:
“Last night was yet another test, and Donald Trump failed yet again... he trashed talked American generals, saying they would quote be “reduced to rubble”. He suggested he’d fire them...
That’s how he talks about distinguished men and women who have spent their lives serving our country...
Meanwhile, bizarrely once again... even taking the astonishing step of suggesting he prefers the Russian president to our American president.
It is scary. Because it suggests he would let Putin do whatever he wants to do... I was just thinking
What would Ronald Reagan say about a Republican nominee who attacks America’s generals and heaps praise on Russia’s president?
Take the oil? .. The United States does not invade other countries to plunder and pillage... and that doesn’t get into the absurdity of what it would involve.”
Updated
Clinton holds news conference
Here’s live video:
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appeared back-to-back on TV Wednesday night to take questions about foreign policy, veterans’ affairs and, in Clinton’s case, her emails.
Clinton was criticized for not getting to her points quickly enough for the tight format. Trump was criticized for not having any points to make, instead ordering “off his familiar campaign menu of word salads”, as Guardian national security editor Spencer Ackerman writes:
He lied about opposing the Iraq war, criticized Obama’s 2011 withdrawal and repeated his now-boilerplate advocacy of stealing Iraq’s oil – a measure that he evidently believes would require a minimal force presence, despite the certainty that the well-armed locals might have a problem with their principal source of wealth being plundered by a foreign power.
Speaking before an audience of veterans, Trump unexpectedly attacked the current generation of generals and flag officers. The current senior officer corps has been “reduced to rubble”, Trump said, and were “embarrassing for our country”. While previously Trump had said he knew better than the generals about fighting Isis, this time he intimated that he’d get “different generals” – a habit more typical of caudillos than American presidents.
He followed up by saying his ultimate plan to defeat Isis would be some parts of his still-unspecified plan, and some parts of his unspecified generals’ unspecified plan. He waved away his lack of specifics for a war in which 5,000 US troops are currently serving as not wishing to “broadcast” his plans to the enemy.
Read the full piece here:
Clinton campaign manager Mook on forum: Trump didn't come prepared to answer the questions https://t.co/KxWnxoqbGz
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) September 8, 2016
after Robby Mook appeared on @Morning_Joe, @JoeNBC said they invited top Trump people on the show, and they didnt offer anyone.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 8, 2016
Powell counseled Clinton on how to avoid ‘state department servers’
The House of Representatives on Wednesday released never-before-seen correspondence between former secretary of state Colin Powell and Clinton in which Powell tells Clinton how he used personal computer with a dedicated land line “so I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without going through the State Department servers” and advises her to “be very careful” about using a personal advice because her correspondence could become a matter of public record.
The emails seemed to contradict past Powell statements in which he downplayed his role in advising Clinton about using private email.
Here’s the exchange:
The full back and forth between Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell is here. And wow. pic.twitter.com/jHKpEbTS8W
— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 7, 2016
Obama predicts Trump loss
Closing out his final presidential trip to Asia on Thursday, Barack Obama said that Trump proves he isn’t qualified to be president “every time he speaks” and predicted Trump will lose, AP reports:
He urged Americans not to allow the “outrageous behavior” seen amid the campaign-season din to become the new normal.
“The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions to what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright whacky ideas,” Obama said.
A new Morning Consult poll of tens of thousands of voters nationally supports a 50-state Washington Post poll from earlier this week, depicting a strong position for Clinton:
NEW Morning Consult 50-State Poll Has Clinton Beating Trump 321-195 in electoral votes https://t.co/rNCg9qyrd6 pic.twitter.com/0beo10juZD
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) September 8, 2016
Trump is scheduled to visit Cleveland today, while Clinton will campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
