Today in Campaign 2016
- Barack Obama suffered a unique political blow today, when the US Congress overturned his veto of a bill that would allow families of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. The overwhelming bipartisan vote in both the Senate and House inflicted the first veto override of Obama’s presidency, less than four months before he leaves office. The White House issued an unusually scathing response. “I would venture to say that this is the single most embarrassing thing that the United States Senate has done, possibly, since 1983,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “Ultimately these senators are going to have to answer their own conscience and their constituents as they account for their actions today.”
- Hillary Clinton turned to the magnetic power of Bernie Sanders today as her battle continued to persuade younger voters to rally to her cause. For months, Sanders and Clinton were often irascible rivals, as she edged towards the Democratic nomination and he continued to inspire a movement of millennials. And on campus in the battleground state of New Hampshire, Sanders’ star power was still there for all to see as hundreds of young voters formed a line snaking across campus, which left many to make do with a spot in an overflow room as he spoke.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, asked during a televised town hall meeting to name a foreign leader he admires, struggled to come up with a single one, saying that he was having an “Aleppo moment”.
Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld were being interviewed by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who posed the question: “Who’s your favorite foreign leader?”
“Anybody,” he added.
Johnson exhaled hard.
“Mine was Shimon Peres,” Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, interjected.
But Matthews pressed Johnson. “You gotta do this. Anywhere. Any continent. Canada, Mexico, Europe over there, Asia, South America, Africa – name a foreign leader that you respect.”
“I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment,” Johnson said, then quickly said “the former president of Mexico”.
Gary Johnson had an "Aleppo moment" after @hardballchris asks who his favorite foreign leader is #JohnsonTownhall https://t.co/nRazpPL0q0
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 28, 2016
President Obama answers questions in CNN town hall
President Barack Obama was on the receiving end of a series of pointed questions from military veterans and personal during a CNN town hall at a military base in Richmond, Virginia, today, where the president was challenged on combat roles for women, controversies regarding the national anthem at football games and his refusal to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism.”
The town hall, hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, featured questions from armed forces community members who have, polling shows, not warmed to the president historically.
An active-duty Marine asked Obama why the “tangible, negative consequences” of allowing women to serve in combat roles was “disregarded” in his administration’s decision to open up the roles to women.
“I want to make sure our starting assumption is that if you can do the job, you should be able to get the job,” Obama responded, saying that the decision had not been made just to be “politically correct.”
Asked about the growing trend among some athletes to kneel during the national anthem in protest of the treatment of African Americans by police, Obama said that while the national anthem is of special importance to those in the military, “part of what makes this country special is that we respect people’s rights to have a different opinion.”
The mother of a 19-year-old son killed in Iraq asked Obama: “Why do you still refuse to use the term ‘Islamic terrorism’?”
Obama responded, has he has before, that he doesn’t want to conflate the roughly 1.2 billion Muslims around the world “who are peaceful, who are responsible, who in this country are our fellow troops” with those who commit acts of terrorism.
Donald Trump’s campaign’s talking points regarding Alicia Machado have been obtained by CNN reporter Jim Acosta. Most of the lines, aimed at helping Trump surrogates address the controversy caused by Trump calling attention to the former Miss Universe winner’s weight, involve Hillary Clinton’s husband and his personal life in the 1990s.
The talking points, verbatim:
- These are totally baseless and unsubstantiated claims by Ms. Machado, who has lobbed a vicious and contradictory smear campaign in order to gain notoriety at the expense of Mr. Trump’s name and reputation.
- Hillary Clinton will continue to use these false distractions like Ms. Machado and Mark Cuban to easily deceive the biased media, but will have no impact on Mr. Trump or the voters who are concerned with real issues.
- Mr. Trump has spent his career promoting women his campaign manager is a strong and impressive woman. This is a desperate smear campaign by the Clintons.
- Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton’s accusers.
- If we’re going to dredge up what people have said about candidates in decades past, why isn’t the media letting people hear from these women?
- Hillary Clinton bullied and smeared women like Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky.
- Why are we not hearing from Monica Lewinsky, who started an anti-bullying foundation because of how she was treated by the Clinton machine?
- The Clintons are now trying to bully Mr. Trump and his supporters, whom the Clintons have publicly demeaned as “deplorable.”
- Hillary Clinton trying to present herself as some sort of feminist champion is a joke.
An animal-rights protestor briefly made an appearance at Donald Trump’s rally in Waukesha County.
Protester who climbed platform and yelled "Animal liberation now" gets booed and removed from Trump rally. pic.twitter.com/nDESFbH0cq
— Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) September 29, 2016
Speaking to the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican organization, former Republican presidential candidate and Donald Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich told the audience that “You are not supposed to gain 60 pounds the year you are Miss Universe,” in reference to Alicia Machado, the Venezuelan beauty queen who Trump called “Miss Piggy” and told newscasters gained “a massive amount of weight” while she was serving as Miss Universe.
The audience, composed largely of gay men, laughed.
Donald Trump, on Hillary Clinton’s cellular phones:
A number of them were hammered to death. HAMMERED.
Donald Trump opens his speech by declaring that Google’s search engine was suppressing critical information about Hillary Clinton during the presidential debate, apparently citing a Breitbart report that quoted a Russian state news agency in making the claim, which is easily debunked.
“Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.
This adds the suppression of negative Google results to a litany of supposed conspiracies to keep Trump from being seen as the winner of Monday night’s debate, including a defective microphone, a hand-signaling system between Clinton and moderator Lester Holt, and crooked scientific polling that showed Clinton beating Trump by double digits when unscientific internet polls showed him crushing her.
Updated
Speaking in Wisconsin, Donald Trump accuses Hillary Clinton of calling every one of America’s citizens - “including our police” - racist and bigoted because she said that all people struggle with “implicit biases.”
“I said to myself, ‘Did she really say that?’ She said it,” Trump said, of the moment Clinton said in Monday night’s presidential debate that all people have implicit biases that they must fight. “It’s a bad thing, she said. Maybe Hillary Clinton should confine her comments to herself. After all, she’s the one who described young African-American men as super predators. And they have not been happy with her for a long time.
“How can she lead this country, when she thinks that America is full of racists, deplorables and irredeemables?”
Donald Trump campaigns in Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Watch it live here:
Creator of racist 'Pepe the Frog' meme voting for Hillary Clinton
In an exclusive interview with Esquire, the creator of a cartoon frog that has been coopted by the alt-right movement declared that he plans on voting for Hillary Clinton, despite the image’s popularity among a segment of Donald Trump’s supporters.
I'm a racist, islamophobic. deplorable for voting Trump. Oh, well, Pepe! We must be doing something right! pic.twitter.com/DnJfxkG90E
— Deplorable AMERICAN! (@TheTrumpLady) September 18, 2016
“I’m voting for Hillary for sure. I was a big fan of Bernie, but that fizzled out, so I’m all Hillary 2016,” said Matt Furie, who spoke with Esquire on the day that the Pepe the Frog meme was declared a hate-symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.
While Furie hasn’t made a cartoon for Clinton, he is open to the idea.
“Someone sent me a clip of Hillary addressing Pepe and the affiliation with white nationalists, and someone in the crowd yelled ‘Pepe!’” Furie said. “So that for me is just very strange that on either side - Trump or Clinton - had to sit down at a meeting and decide what are we going to do with this Pepe thing? It’s funny that it’s become part of the national debate. It’s really weird.”
Asked how he would grade the debate moderation skills of NBC anchor Lester Holt, who moderated the first presidential debate on Monday, Donald Trump told Bill O’Reilly that although he initially thought Holt was fair, he would give his performance a “C.”
“I thought he was fine, I wasn’t thinking about it, but when I reviewed it and I saw the commentary,” Trump said, “I realized he was much much tougher on me than he was on Hillary.”
“After reviewing it and after seeing the way he badgered - and even the questions I got,” Trump continued, “he hits me with the birther question, of course, and he likes to correct things on which I was actually right.”
O’Reilly, culture-warrior that he is, asked Trump about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and what he would do if he owned the football team. (Trump once owned the New Jersey Generals, a franchise of the United States Football League, which played for three seasons before folding.)
“I don’t know what he said about me, but I think what he’s doing is disgraceful,” Trump said. “He’s making a tremendous amount of money, he’s leading the American dream, he’s trying to make a point but I don’t think he’s making it the correct way.”
Trump avoided telling O’Reilly that he would fire Kaepernick, despite being goaded to do so by the host.
“Let’s keep the headlines down to a minimum.”
Donald Trump: 'They wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight'
Speaking on Fox News tonight, Donald Trump told host Bill O’Reilly that the possibility that he doesn’t pay federal taxes is “the kind of thinking” that Americans need, before telling O’Reilly that former Miss Universe Alicia Machado was almost fired for “putting on so much weight,” but that he saved her job.
“I hardly know this person,” Trump said of Machado, the Venezuelan beauty queen who Trump called things like “Miss Piggy” and “an eating machine.”
“This is a person 20 years ago, she wasn’t a successful - you know, I sold the Miss Universe for a tremendous price about six months go, it worked out great,” Trump continued. “She was the first one under my ownership, she did not do well, she had a lot of difficulties. The company itself wanted to fire her - I wanted to save her job.”
Trump said that although he had almost no interaction with Machado, he moved to prevent her from the Miss Universe company - then owned by him - from “firing” her as Miss Universe.
“I had nothing to do with this person, but they wanted to fire her, I saved her job,” Trump said. “And you know what happened? I got nothing out of it.”
“They wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight,” Trump continued. “I said ‘don’t do that, let her try and lose the weight.’”
The notion that Machado’s weight shouldn’t impact her job performance as Miss Universe did not occur to Trump, who continued: “I mean, it’s a beauty contest - these girls know what they’re getting into.”
“This is what you get for helping somebody.”
Updated
Gary Johnson, when asked to name his favorite foreign leader:
I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment.
Gary Johnson had an "Aleppo moment" after @hardballchris asks who his favorite foreign leader is #JohnsonTownhall https://t.co/nRazpPL0q0
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 28, 2016
If you use Hillary Clinton’s website to register to vote, you are automatically entered for the chance to win a backstage meet-and-greet with hip-hop artist Pusha T!
That’s one way to get the millennials.
The pool report from Donald Trump’s press plane reveals two things.
One: Trump is almost at the venue in crucial Waukesha County, Wisconsin, to deliver remarks to a crowd of supporters.
Two: The press plane has been dubbed “First Amendment One.”
First Amendment One touched down just as the door to the Trump plane opened at 6:18 CDT. His plane was wheels up at 5:07 and First Amendment One was wheels up at 5:09. His Motorcade was rolling to event at 6:22 while pool is still being swept on the tarmac. No word on if he will delay his remarks for his traveling press to cover them. This is suboptimal.
Donald Trump in 2013: Kim Kardashian 'has gotten a little bit large'
In an undated video interview obtained by Vanity Fair, Republican nominee Donald Trump is seen telling an interviewer that reality star Kim Kardashian West “has gotten a little bit large,” the latest in a series of gaffes in which the presidential candidate has made comments regarding the size and weight of women.
Only one day after Trump targeted a former Miss Universe pageant winner for gaining “a massive amount of weight,” the video - apparently from 2013, when Kardashian West was pregnant with her first child - surfaced on YouTube, showing Trump speaking to HLN’s Showbiz Tonight about Kardashian West creating a baby registry.
“She’s a nice person,” Trump said. “I’ve known her over the years. She’s really a nice person. She’s gotten a little bit large. I would say this, I don’t think you should dress like you weigh 120 pounds.”
In what has been billed as the most-watched debate in presidential history, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton made Trump’s remarks to Machado a centerpiece of their first televised clash, citing the name-calling – in particular, Trump calling her “Miss Housekeeping” in reference to her Latina origins – as a prime example of her opponent’s demeaning views about women.
Video: Vermont senator Bernie Sanders joined former rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in New Hampshire as he urged younger voters to cast ballots for Clinton in November, while she spoke of her experience in “one of the strangest elections.”
Saturday Night Live casts its Donald Trump
The search is over.
Saturday Night Live, the late-night sketch comedy institution that has been lampooning politicians since 1975, has cast actor Alec Baldwin as its Donald Trump for the upcoming season.
Trump, who had previously been played by former cast member Darrell Hammond and by now-cut Taran Killam, will make “his” first appearance in the season premiere on 8 October, playing opposite Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate sketch that the show previewed on Twitter:
The night we’ve all been waiting for. #SNLPremiere pic.twitter.com/WiY1jLpop5
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) September 28, 2016
Baldwin joins a long list of famous political impersonations on SNL, from Larry David’s Bernie Sanders last season to Tina Fey’s Emmy-winning turn playing Sarah Palin on the show that launched Fey’s comedic career.
Your freedom to post a photo of your vote to Facebook has been reinstated.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals struck down New Hampshire’s 2014 law banning “ballot selfies” (photos taken of a vote, even if not technically as a selfie as it doesn’t include the photographer) today.
The idea of the law - breaking it came with a $1,000 fine - was supposedly to stop voter coercion and vote-buying, and protect people’s privacy.
But the court agreed that the law is a restriction on free speech and therefore could be seen to violate the First Amendment.
“The statute at issue here is facially unconstitutional even applying only intermediate scrutiny,” said the court, according to documents.
Instead the court points out that ballot selfies reflect both support for a candidate and that the photographer has actually voted, making it a political statement with a “special communicative value.”
“New Hampshire may not impose such a broad restriction on speech by banning ballot selfies in order to combat an unsubstantiated and hypothetical danger. We repeat the old adage: ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ ruled the court.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire led the challenge to the law, with three plaintiffs. Two were members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who posted picture of their vote for themselves and the other was a man who posted a photo on Facebook of his vote where he’d written in his dog’s name as he didn’t think any candidate was worth his vote.
Hillary Clinton publishes op-ed in New England Journal of Medicine
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has published an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, the premiere medical journal in the United States, outlining her “vision for universal, quality, affordable healthcare.”
The piece is in answer to a question posed by the journal’s editors to both major-party presidential nominees: “What specific changes in policy do you support to improve access to care, improve quality of care, and control health care costs for our nation?”
After outlining her longtime attempts to reform the American healthcare system, including the passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program that covers uninsured children in families with low incomes that are still too high to qualify for Medicaid, as well as Clinton’s failed push for universal healthcare during her tenure as first lady, Clinton outlines four major goals of her would-be administration on healthcare.
In addition to preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Clinton calls for improving the landmark legislation. “We must work to expand Medicaid coverage in the 19 states that have left 3 million Americans without health insurance,” Clinton says, “improve and strengthen the ACA through enhanced tax credits to make coverage affordable, implementation of strong measures to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, increased competition between insurers, and an aggressive campaign to increase outreach and enrollment. And finally, we need to ensure the availability of a public option choice in every state, and let Americans over 55 buy in to Medicare.”
On the issue of healthcare cost, Clinton calls for a refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 per family for out-of-pocket health costs, as well as a requirement for insurers to limit out-of-pocket prescription drug costs to $250 a month on covered medications and the creation of a team meant to monitor drug prices to investigate spikes.
Clinton also vows to increase funding into medical research, ensuring “that our scientific community and regulatory system are promoting innovation and will increase funding for biomedical research across all diseases, including specific investments for research into diseases like Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS.”
Trump did not respond to the New England Journal of Medicine’s question.
After calling for a show of hands of Christian conservatives in the audience in Council Bluffs, Iowa - “Raise your hand if you’re now a Christian conservative. I want to see that. There’s a few of them. Should we keep them?” - Donald Trump drops the mic and exits.
Donald Trump, on Hillary Clinton’s stamina:
All those day-offs, and she can’t even make it to her car. All those day-offs.
Continuing his speech in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Donald Trump aligns his presidential campaign with the American descamisados against the “special-interest monopoly” of the Washington and New York political, economic and media elite.
“Our campaign is about breaking up the special-interest monopoly in Washington, DC,” Trump tells the audience. “They’re all part of the same political establishment. They go to the same restaurants, they have the same friends, they attend the same conferences.”
These elites, Trump says, look down on the average American, and reiterate Hillary Clinton’s “slanders” that some of Trump’s supporters are “deplorable.”
“People don’t know how good you are, people don’t know how smart you are,” Trump says. “We have the smartest people. We have the smartest people. And we know it. Some of them know it. But we say it.”
Donald Trump calls Hillary Clinton 'incompetent'
“Honestly, I truly believe this: Hillary Clinton is incompetent. She’s incompetent. I really believe this,” Donald Trump told an audience in Iowa. “She’s incompetent, and she’s certainly incompetent for you.”
“She’s there for one reason, and that’s to protect her donors and her special interests. She’s been there... for 30 years almost and she’s never done anything for you or your family. Now she wants to do this, she wants to fight Isis - Isis wouldn’t be there if her and Barack Obama ended the war the way it was supposed to be ended, and didn’t create the big vacuum.”
“She’s failed at everything!” Trump shouts. “She’s failed in Iraq, she’s failed in Libya, she’s failed in Syria, she’s failed in Iran - how about the Iran deal? How about that deal?”
Donald Trump: 'Every single online poll had me winning'
Speaking in Iowa, Donald Trump tells the audience of supporters that his support in unscientific online polls is proof that he won the first presidential debate on Monday against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, despite all major scientific polls showing Clinton being seen as the winner.
“Every single online poll had me winning - sometimes by a landslide,” Trump says. “And I’m winning by massive margins, in many cases. I’m winning all of these polls, how many were there, seven or eight or nine polls, and I have to sit back and hear that those polls don’t mean anything.”
“So we won every single online poll, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of voters, and then we sit back and hear about how well she did in the debate. I don’t think she did well at all!”
“I hear we’re doing very well - we’re leading in Ohio, we’re leading in Florida, we’re leading in North Carolina. And they are not happy back there, those people with the cameras!” Trump continues, referring to the journalists corralled in the back of the rally. “They are not happy. They are not happy. No, they are very dishonest. This will be the year the American people say ‘enough is enough.’”
Speaking in Iowa, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump warms up the crowd with a standard rhetorical mixture of wall-building and refugee-banning, before telling the cheering audience that they can’t take “another four years of Crooked Hillary Clinton.”
“The American people have had it with corrupt Clinton ways - they’ve had it,” Trump says. “How many more Clinton scandals can this country take? One after another after another. You know the story, folks, you’ve seen it for years and years and years.”
“We’re gonna make America greater than ever before - we’re gonna do it.”
Donald Trump campaigns in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Watch it live here:
Donald Trump’s campaign has issued a statement in response to rumors that the Trump children are upset with current campaign leadership and the affect the campaign has had on the family business, dismissing the reports as a “fabricated lie.”
They are happier than ever before, as they should be, given the success in the polls and in Monday’s debate. There is no truth to this fabricated lie. The business continues to be tremendously successful. Forbes knows nothing about Mr. Trump, his company or his asserts, which are among the best in the world.
Forbes reported this afternoon that its latest estimates put Donald Trump’s fortune at $3.7b, down $800m from a year ago, chalking the losses up to a softening in the New York real estate market and new information revealing smaller holdings in certain properties and corporations than previously known.
Trump himself responded to the reports critically as well:
Your sources, if they even exist, are probably sources that have been fired long ago and have no knowledge of what is happening in the campaign. Hard to be unhappy when we are doing so well.
Actor Wesley Snipes, who served three years in federal prison for tax evasion and tax fraud, has lashed out at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Twitter for failing to disclose his tax information. (Yet another sentence we never thought we’d have to type, and yet here we are.)
Many are voting 4 a business man who states he’s paid NO taxes & at the same time hate on the Daywalker every April? pic.twitter.com/xJVqDTjl0v
— Wesley Snipes (@wesleysnipes) September 28, 2016
Snipes, referring to himself as “Daywalker” in reference to his role in the Blade trilogy in which he starred as a half-human-half-vampire vampire hunter, criticized Trump for declaring during Monday night’s presidential debate against Hillary Clinton that not paying taxes “makes me smart.”
Updated
Speaking to millennial voters, first lady Michelle Obama tells young people who might be turned off by the state of the presidential race not to give up hope on the future of democracy, and to not stay home on election day.
“This is the country you will inherit. So the choice you make on November 8 will determine whether you an afford your college tuition, whether you can keep your healthcare when you graduate,” Obama says. “Whether we will have a president who will honor our history as a proud nation of immigrants, or not.”
“That is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s at stake, so we can’t afford to be tired or turned off - not now. While this might seem like a time of uncertainty or division, I have never felt more hopeful about the future of this great nation.”
“I have seen proof of what Barack and I have always believed in our hearts: that we, as Americans, are fundamentally decent, and we all want the same thing.”
First lady Michelle Obama, campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, lauded her husband’s former rival for the Democratic nomination as a tough lifelong public servant and “one of the most qualified people” to ever pursue the office of the president.
“Are you kidding me?” Obama said in response to rival Donald Trump’s critique of her “stamina” in the campaign. “Hillary is tough, and when she gets knocked down, she doesn’t complain, she doesn’t cry foul, she gets back up.”
“Hillary is one of the few people on this entire planet and clearly the only person in this race who has any idea what this job actually entails - who has seen this job from every angle,” Obama continued. “And yet she is still willing to do this for us! Because she believes that she has an obligation to use her talents to help as many people as possible. Isn’t that what we try to teach our young people?”
“Trust me - experience matters,” Obama said. “Preparation matters. Temperament matters. And Hillary Clinton has it all - she’s the real deal.”
Michelle Obama campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Pittsburgh
Clinton says she’ll simplify financial aid applications. “We do have technology in America,” she quips.
“None of this will happen if you all don’t turn out to vote. None of it. I see all the signs saying I will vote? There’s also a web site. Please go to iwillvote.com to see if you’re registered.”
Clinton notes that New Hampshire has same-day registration.
“So both Bernie and I are excited about what we can do together. I am really looking forward to working with him... bringing people together is what I’m going to spend a lot of time doing as your president.”
Clinton says she’ll close her campaign by fighting for kids and families which will be the mission of her presidency. An oft-heard line from Clinton. “And when you go to vote in November... it’s not just my name on the ballot. Every issue you care about...”
She lists climate change, marriage equality, women’s health, the Supreme court...
“I never thought that when I gave my acceptance speech at the Democratic National convention, that I would have to put in the following sentence: ‘I believe in science...
“There’s a lot at stake,” she says.
Clinton: 'isn't this one of strangest elections ever?'
Clinton:
Bernie’s campaign energized so many young people. Some of you in this crowd. And no group has more at stake in this election.
I’m proud of the primary campaign that Bernie and I ran. We ran a campaign about issues, not insults. And when it was over we began to work together... to come up with specific policies in education, in health..
Thank you Bernie. Thank you for your leadership, and your support in this campaign.
We’re going to need some help in Washington, and I hope New Hampshire will send your governor, Maggie Hassan, to Washington!
Isn’t this one of the strangest elections you’ve ever seen? I really sometimes don’t know what to make of it.
Standing on that debate stage the other night, I was especially thinking about that.
Sanders: 'It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton'
Sanders:
At a time when we have massive income inequality, it is absurd, it is disgraceful for Donald Trump and his friends to be talking about tax breaks for top 1%.
It is far more to invest in the country and its future than to give Trump and his family a $4bn tax break...
When you have Republicans telling us that it is OK to give tens and tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the richest people in this country, do not tell me that it is too expensive
All of you know that New Hampshire is a battleground state. All of you know that this is a very close election, and New Hampshire might decide it.
I am asking you here today not only to vote for secretary Clinton, but to work hard to get your uncles and your aunts and friends to vote. If anybody tells you this election is not important, you ask them why the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson are spending billions to elect their candidate.
It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.
Missouri senator Claire McCaskill concern-trolls Trump over his weight:
The D women Senators have talked & we're concerned about Donald's weight. Campaign stress? We think a public daily weigh-in is called for.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) September 28, 2016
Sanders calls for tuition-free public colleges for the working class and middle class. Clinton applauds. Sanders says that he reached an agreement with Clinton that every family earning $125,000 or less should get free college – that’s 83% of families.
Here’s the live stream again:
Sanders, Clinton take the stage
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton finally come out in Durham, New Hampshire, to big cheers. He thanks Clinton for inviting him. He says if people will stand up to “greedy interests” there is nothing we can’t accomplish, including changing “the way we fund higher education in our country.”
Amerrrrrrrrica!
The Word ‘America’ is Spelled Wrong on Trump’s D.C. Hotel Menu —@thedailybeast https://t.co/vProlmvJiZ pic.twitter.com/y2LcL1PEwp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 28, 2016
Here’s a walk down memory lane...
No hurrying today. #TBT:
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton sure are taking their sweeeet time to appear in New Hampshire.
Is it too early to cue up the live video stream of the Hillary Clinton- Bernie Sanders event in New Hampshire? “The event will start at 2.15pm ET”:
ADL labels Pepe the Frog a hate symbol
Pepe the Frog, a green frog with red lips created by cartoonist Matt Furie in 2005, has been labelled an “online hate symbol” by the Anti-Defamation League after his adoption as an icon of the white supremacist movement.
“Images of the frog, variously portrayed with a Hitler-like moustache, wearing a yarmulke or a Klan hood, have proliferated in recent weeks in hateful messages aimed at Jewish and other users on Twitter,” the ADL said, explaining its decision to add the meme to its online Hate on Display database.
The ADL’s decision comes two weeks after Hillary Clinton’s campaign posted an article pointing to Pepe as the common factor linking Donald Trump and the white supremacist movement. The campaign wrote that “in recent months, Pepe’s been almost entirely co-opted by the white supremacists who call themselves the ‘alt-right.’ They’ve decided to take back Pepe by adding swastikas and other symbols of anti-semitism and white supremacy.
Read further:
Matt Furie is Earth's nicest man & I'm sorry this has spiraled so far out of control. His silly comics are wonderful https://t.co/96Hc6tLXGY
— Sam Thielman* (@samthielman) September 28, 2016
Piano dealer: 'Trump stiffed me'
In a first-person piece for the Washington Post, J Michael Diehl, the retired owner of a New Jersey piano dealership, says that in 1989 he filled an order for $100,000 worth of pianos and services for Donald Trump’s then-new, now-closed Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
Guess what happened next?
But when I requested payment, the Trump corporation hemmed and hawed. Its executives avoided my calls and crafted excuses. After a couple of months, I got a letter telling me that the casino was short on funds. They would pay 70 percent of what they owed me. There was no negotiating. I didn’t know what to do — I couldn’t afford to sue the Trump corporation, and I needed money to pay my piano suppliers.
Read the full piece here.
Candidates' statements on passing of Shimon Peres
Hillary and Bill Clinton issued a statement this morning on the death of Nobel peace laureate and former Israeli president Shimon Peres. Bill Clinton has postponed a planned bus tour across North Florida so that he may attend Peres’ funeral Friday:
Here’s the statement:
"Hillary and I have lost a true and treasured friend." —@BillClinton and Hillary on the passing of Shimon Peres pic.twitter.com/nyCE88Kvxb
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 28, 2016
Donald Trump has just issued a statement:
Melania and I extend our deepest condolences to the family of Shimon Peres on the passing of their beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather. On the world stage, Shimon Peres was a visible and highly effective patriarch to another, much larger family - the people of Israel, whom he led as prime minister and president. Shimon Peres’ life always pointed toward peace. Bearing witness to more than his share of war and its human toll, Shimon Peres devoted his leadership skills to cultivating peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors. He was a consummate statesman, a distinguished patriot and a friend of peace-loving people everywhere. With his hand outstretched in peace and friendship, Shimon Peres personified dignity and grace in a region of the world where both run far too short. May he rest in peace.
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Bern-storming: Sanders to hit the road for Clinton
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to appear together in New Hampshire in about an hour.
Afterward, Sanders will travel and speak for a week on behalf of Clinton, Politico reports:
As HRC + Bernie reunite in NH, source tells me Bernie will hit road hard for HRC starting Oct. 3: "goin to be out for 5 or 6 days straight."
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) September 28, 2016
Liberal, educated, white Madison, Wisconsin, is eager to vote, it appears. Here’s Nation writer Ari Berman:
1,200 people voted in Madison on Monday on first day of early voting in Wisconsin. "Near record turnout" @MadisonWIClerk tells me
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) September 28, 2016
University of Florida professor Michael McDonald tracks early voting. Tens of thousands of people have already voted, he says:
With FL, GA and NC updates, at least 22,485 people have voted in the 2016 election https://t.co/biXWYJXviS
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) September 28, 2016
Finally seeing Rep absentee ballot requests > Dem (as expected), although Reps still running behind 2012 level
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) September 28, 2016
Scroll McDonald’s timeline for a state-by-state breakdown of ballot requests.
(thx @bencjacobs)
Michelle Obama slams Trump for 'birther' bushwa
In an appearance at La Salle university in Philadelphia, first lady Michelle Obama has criticized Trump, not by name, for spending years mega-phoning the wacky racist theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
“And then of course there are those who questioned and continue to question for the past eight years whether my husband was even born in this country,” Obama says:
And let me say, hurtful, deceitful questions deliberately designed to undermine his presidency. Questions that cannot be blamed on others or swept under the rug by an insincere sentence uttered at a press conference.
.@FLOTUS: Trump's birther claims can't be "swept under the rug by an insincere sentence" at a press conference. https://t.co/aoWwbbT43x
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 28, 2016
Obama warned the students that not voting or voting for a third-party candidate would effectively help to elect “Clinton’s opponent.”
“We also need someone who is steady and measured... a president just can’t pop off, or lash out irrationally,” Obama told the students.
No, we need an adult in the White House.”
Michelle Obama keeps sharpening knife on Trump (while still avoiding his name). pic.twitter.com/mU31H1kvZo
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 28, 2016
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Our $.02: It’s not funny at all that there’s a non-fantastical connection to be made between a new Hitler biography and the current presidential campaign.
Does this book review qualify as a subtweet? https://t.co/ypEByujnGU
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) September 28, 2016
Is the old Trump back?
Is the old Trump back? After his lackluster debate outing Monday, Trump has been tweeting about #winning online surveys, bragging about “owning a lot of great property in Europe” and seeking credit for his heroic restraint in not reminding Hillary Clinton of her husband’s extramarital transgressions.
“I’m really happy I was able to hold back on the indiscretions in respect to Bill Clinton. Because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton,” Trump told CNN after the debate. “Maybe I’ll tell you at the next debate. We’ll see.”
For second Trump son Eric Trump, the moment of Trump’s not bringing up Monica Lewinsky was more than a moment of restraint. It was a moment of pride that will forever live in Eric Trump’s heart, he told an Iowa radio host in an interview snagged by BuzzFeed:
“He could have just crushed her on that last question, you know, you would have probably hurt a family if he did and um, I don’t know, I uh, I think that took a lot of courage in so many regards,” Eric Trump said.
“And that was a big moment for me and probably will actually become — my life and this campaign — and probably will be something I’ll always remember.”
Here’s Jay Cost of the conservative Weekly Standard:
I don't for the life of me understand how they parlay this into a hit on Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/1rXzkILr5v
— Jay Cost (@JayCostTWS) September 28, 2016
The public saw her as *the primary victim* of Bill's infidelity. So why remind them of their old sympathies?
— Jay Cost (@JayCostTWS) September 28, 2016
The control that helped Trump recover after August has escaped him since the debate. He's swinging wildly, blindly.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 28, 2016
Trump: 'we want Nato to be strong'... and to pay
Donald Trump called for “a strong Nato” in a speech to a Polish National Alliance group in Chicago on Wednesday morning – but he seemed to predicate US support for Nato-member countries on those countries paying more toward mutual defense.
In March, Trump said Nato was “obsolete” and too expensive.
Trump also riffed Wednesday on “owning a lot of great property in Europe” and called the Brexit vote “amazing.”
Trump spoke to a crowd of about 100 before a coat of arms for the group and US and Polish flags, according to a poll report. He was introduced by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who assured the audience that Trump would “defend the NATO treaty”.
In Trump’s telling, however, there are strings attached.
Trump praised Poland’s contributions to Nato, which includes hosting US forces. “As president I will honor Poland’s sacrifices for freedom,” Trump said:
We’re committed to a strong Poland and a strong Eastern Europe as the bulwark for security and liberty.
“We want NATO to be strong which means we want more countries to follow the example of Poland” on paying into NATO.
Contrast that with what Trump told the New York Times in July:
I would prefer that we be able to continue, but if we are not going to be reasonably reimbursed for the tremendous cost of protecting these massive nations with tremendous wealth... Then yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, ‘Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.’
Then Trump “put his notes away and started talking about Brexit,” the media pool reports:
It was amazing what happened. When the U.K. brilliantly decided to get out they totally forgot what I said.
I have a lot of property in Europe. I own a lot of great property in Europe.
On Nigel Farage: “He came out and made a speech for me a month ago and it was incredible”
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Stephen Bannon, the person who ran / runs / will continue to run this web site, which is known for hosting anti-Semitic content, is the chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign:
Breitbart goes full anti-Semite on Washington Post columnist @anneapplebaum: pic.twitter.com/Gd6ESDCJTJ
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 28, 2016
Clinton and her allies are producing ads so quickly it’s difficult to keep up. We’ll post ads by Trump and his allies too... if they produce any.
In this one, Priorities USA Action depicts Trump as failing to support the military, veterans, schools and public health by not paying taxes:
(h/t @alexburnsnyt)
The pro-Clinton super Pac Priorities USA Action has produced a Spanish-language ad to warn Latino voters in Nevada and Colorado that Donald Trump does not consider Spanish-speakers fully American and wants to deport undocumented migrants:
(h/t: @ralstonreports)
Warner warns Trump: 'loose lips sink ships'
Retired five-term Virginia senator John Warner, a popular Republican with a distinguished military career, endorsed Hillary Clinton on Wednesday with a sharp warning for her opponent: “Loose lips sink ships, you got that Donald?”
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reports:
Warner, a World War II veteran, former US Navy Secretary and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, was joined by vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, a senator from Virginia, onstage at a recreational center in Arlington. Warner announced that he would cross party lines to support the Democratic ticket, calling Clinton “prepared”, “firm” and “respectful”, while admonishing Donald Trump.
“No one should have the audacity to stand up and degrade the Purple Heart or military families,” Warner said, his soft voice growing louder.
Warner said Trump’s assertions that the US military is in “shambles” and its generals have been “reduced to rubble” were false.
“What we have today the strongest military in the world,” Warner said. “Does it need to be modified and changed and added to and modernized? You bet it does. But it is not in shambles.
“It is not the admirals and the generals and the seniors in rubble in the hallways in the Pentagon. I was there two weeks ago and I saw those very halls that I used to traverse for five years, four months and three days as the Navy Secretary and there still as vibrant as the day I left.”
At the event, a small gathering of mostly veterans and members of the press, Kaine introduced Warner as friend of the family, recalling his relationship with Kaine’s father-in-law, former Virginia governor Linwood Holton.
“There’s an apocryphal story that Ive never cared to research that my father in law broke a paddle over John Warner’s hindquarters at a fraternity event,” Kaine said drawing laughs.
He praised Warner as a man who has never been afraid to put “country and commonwealth” over party, and noted that the Republican endorsed his own bid for Senate in 2012.
“John Warner is an example of how it could be done and should be done,” Kaine said.
Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi assesses an outlier poll published Wednesday that has Trump up four points nationally:
For the past two months, most national polls have put Democrat Hillary Clinton ahead of Republican Donald Trump. The size of that lead can vary significantly from poll to poll - she was seven percentage points ahead according to an NBC poll, then only one percentage point ahead, according to Quinnipiac University – but they still suggest Clinton is winning the majority of support.
Numbers from LA Times and USC published on Wednesday tell a very different story, though, because they suggest Trump is four percentage points ahead of Clinton. What’s more, LA Times and USC polling have consistently suggested a more optimistic picture for Donald Trump (no wonder the candidate has tweetedtheir poll results). So, is this poll more or less accurate than the others?
To understand, you have to take a peek at their methodology.
Read the full piece here:
HuffPost Pollster’s average of polls currently has Clinton up 3.5 points in a head-to-head matchup:
How will this develop in the four months until the new president is inaugurated?
BREAKING: Kerry threatens to cut off all contacts with Russia over Syria, unless Russian and Syrian bombardment of Aleppo ends.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2016
The American actor Wesley Snipes spent three years in federal prison for tax evasion. Chris Rock detects a double standard:
Always bet on white . pic.twitter.com/fbKQYS2aGO
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) September 28, 2016
“Always bet on black” is a famous line spoken by Snipes in the blockbuster 1992 film Passenger 57.
Ain't that a.... https://t.co/ySstmtui81
— Wesley Snipes (@wesleysnipes) September 28, 2016
(h/t @nycsouthpaw)
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American? 18+? Registered to vote?
No matter where you live, you can make sure you're registered to vote at https://t.co/tTgeqxNqYm. #NationalVoterRegistrationDay pic.twitter.com/BQU2nKpqHQ
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 28, 2016
As preview of Trump’s trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa, today, the Omaha World-Herald’s Robynn Tysver talked to people who watched the debate at a beer-vending movie theater in La Vista, across the river:
One Trump supporter who watched the debate at a movie theater in La Vista said Trump appeared to go “off the rails” in what was the most-watched political debate in the nation’s history.
“He fell for the bait. She got him riled up,” said Mark Wegener, 45, a small-business man from Omaha. “I think he went off the rails on a couple of questions, but he did bring up a couple of good issues (such as trade).”
Read the full piece here:
Trump will try to shore up slim lead in battleground Iowa with Wednesday’s visit to Council Bluffs https://t.co/us8B8u0iC0
— Omaha World-Herald (@OWHnews) September 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton is calling on Bernie Sanders today to try to boost her support among millennials. And if that doesn’t work, Katy Perry has made a Funny or Die video about voting naked.
The gag in the video is that you may wear whatever you slept in to vote. Which may not be strictly true for people who will end up standing in long lines outside in November in cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Democrats hit Trump for calling it 'smart' not to pay taxes
Hillary Clinton noted at the debate Monday that Donald Trump paid nothing in federal taxes in two years documented when Trump was applying for a casino license.
“That makes me smart,” Trump retorted.
The Clinton campaign has rolled out coordinated attacks on the line. “If not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?” Clinton said at a rally in North Carolina Tuesday.
“Tell that to your mothers and fathers who are breaking their necks to send you here,” vice president Joe Biden told students at Drexel University in Philadelphia on Tuesday. “No, I really mean it. It angers me.”
Clinton running mate Tim Kaine called Trump “unpatriotic”:
Last night, Donald Trump said not paying taxes was "smart." You know what I call it? Unpatriotic. pic.twitter.com/t0xmBfj7zF
— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) September 27, 2016
Trump may think he won the debate Monday night (please, somebody, just tell him he won) – but his advisers thought he botched it, the New York Times reports, citing unnamed sources.
The Times story describes a “delicate” dance behind the scenes on the Trump campaign to try to prepare the candidate for round 2:
A delicate approach to the candidate is now in the works. Before his advisers can shape Mr. Trump’s performance for the next debate, on Oct. 9 in St. Louis — which, contrary to speculation, he does plan to attend, a top aide said — they need to convince him that he can do better than he did in the first one and that only a disciplined, strategic attack can damage Mrs. Clinton with voters. Advisers said that Mr. Trump had been prepped to handle Mrs. Clinton’s attacks on Monday but did not effectively execute responses to them.
This is not going to make Trump happy. https://t.co/k81pCBTQMw pic.twitter.com/ODZA0AKgY5
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 28, 2016
Two days later, Trump is still tweeting about #winning the debate. Will somebody please tell him that he won so we can move on?
Trump cites online reader surveys, which are meaningless, because the pool of participants, who may vote multiple times and include robots, reflects not the American electorate but any given site’s readership at that moment, plus robots.
Every on-line poll, Time Magazine, Drudge etc., has me winning the debate. Thank you to Fox & Friends for so reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2016
If you’d like to read more about how junky the kinds of online surveys Trump cites are, we recommend this piece by the Washington Post’s Philip Bump. Bump points out that you can still vote in a Drudge Report poll:
There were also a lot of garbage polls conducted after the debate. There was the poll at the Drudge Report, a survey that you can take right now, if you wish.
It’s interesting that Trump secured only 80% victory in the Drudge survey. Usually Drudge clickers give Trump Kim Jong Un-level numbers, as opposed to mere Vladimir Putin numbers.
Update: Apparently online surveys don’t even meet Fox News’ editorial standards:
Fox News Executive: Online debate polls Trump cites "do not meet our editorial standards" —via @oliverdarcy https://t.co/cLa7jQi2As pic.twitter.com/c44ZBwRMSh
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 28, 2016
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Bernie Sanders will join Hillary Clinton for an event this afternoon to appeal to young voters in Durham, New Hampshire, while first lady Michelle Obama will campaign for Clinton in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Donald Trump has an afternoon event scheduled for Council Bluffs, Iowa, and an evening event in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Clinton has scooped up two new – and, in any other year, unusual – endorsements. One is from a popular Virginia Republican, retired senator John Warner, who was not only secretary of the navy once but also was married to Elizabeth Taylor. The second endorsement is from the Arizona Republic newspaper, which has not endorsed a Democrat since publication began in 1890. “The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified,” the paper says.
As the first lady prepares to make two major campaign stops on behalf of the Democratic nominee, the Clinton camp released a new ad featuring Michelle Obama.
“Our children watch everything we do, and the person we elect as president has the power to shape their lives for years to come,” the first lady says in the video. Clinton believes in our kids and will fight for them every day, Obama says. “That’s why I believe in her.”
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll found that about half of likely voters, 49%, thought Clinton won Monday’s debate, and 26% thought Trump won.
The Clinton camp has also made a video featuring Trump’s remarkably consistent boorish sexism as applied to Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe:
20 years after Donald bullied a beauty pageant winner for her weight, the real "problem" is...still Donald. pic.twitter.com/ZmqYWuN9px
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 28, 2016
Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton will travel to Israel to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres on Friday, their offices said.
President Clinton will travel to Israel to attend the services for President Shimon Peres.
— Angel Urena (@angelurena) September 28, 2016
Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
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