We’re going close our rolling coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, with a few hours and 10 days before election day.
You can read a summary of the day’s events here, about Hillary Clinton’s subsequent remarks on the new FBI review here, and about a falsehood strewn speech by Donald Trump in Iowa here.
Updated
“We’re a divided nation but we are fighting to bring us all together, like here tonight. There’s love here. There’s love,” Trump says.
“We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. God bless you.”
With that Trump closes out his rally.
“We have the highest murder in this country in 45 years,” Trump says, very falsely.
Trump is distorting an FBI statistic into a false claim: in September the agency reported that murders and non-negligent manslaughter rose in the US by 10.8% in 2015, the largest single-year increase since 1971. That is not the same as saying there are more murders in the US than at any point since 1971: 15,696 murders were reported in 2015, down from 1991 and 1993 highs of 24,703 and 24,526. There were more murders in 1971 (17,780) than in 2015.
The murder rate declined 42% from 1993 to 2014, even though the population increased by a quarter.
During this week’s debate Trump almost cited the statistic accurately, saying: “We have an increase in murder within our cities, the biggest in 45 years.” The FBI figure is a national one, not restricted to cities.
“You don’t hear that from these people,” he adds, gesturing toward the press. “They don’t want to talk about it.”
You can read our report on it, from the day of the release and before Trump remarked on it, through the link below.
“When I am elected president I am going to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of this country,” Trump says, without details.
“And yes, we will build the wall. And yes, Mexico will pay for the wall. 100%. 100%.”
“The cost of the wall is peanuts compared to what we’re talking about,” Trump says. Nonpartisan analysts estimate the wall would cost at least $25bn. The US goods trade deficit with Mexico is about $58bn, which is offset by the US surplus in services of $9.2bn.
“If not for the open border policies of this administration,” Trump says, “countless Americans would be alive today.”
The US does not have “open borders”, and Barack Obama has deported more than 2.5 million people, a record – as Trump himself noted at hte final presidential debate.
“Hillary has pledged open borders,” Trump says, “and supports sanctuary cities.”
Clinton does not support open borders but does support sanctuary cities and reform to let people pass background checks and pay back taxes in order to stay in the US, and she supports Obama’s executive actions to shield some migrants, such as people who were brought to the US as children. Like Obama, she supports deportation for people with criminal records.
“We are going to have the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan.”
This is only true if you’re in the wealthiest bracket of American earners. Half of Trump’s tax cuts would go to the top 1% of earners, according to the Tax Policy Center, and most families below the top 20% of earners would have income gains of less than 1%.
Trump doesn’t linger long on the Affordable Care Act though. He leads the crowd in a chant of “drain the swamp”, his new catchphrase for taking on corruption in Washington.
“Forty-five percent of African American children under the age of six” are in poverty, Trump says inaccurately, citing outdated data.
Per Politifact:
The poverty rates in question were as high as Trump says they were at the depths of the Great Recession, but they have since eased, to somewhere between 20 percent and 37 percent, depending on which income threshold you use. Still, the rates for African-American children are disproportionately high, so Trump has a point even if his statistics are too old and exaggerate the scale of poverty in that age group. On balance, we rate the statement Half True.
“Another two million Hispanic Americans have fallen into poverty under the Obama administration,” he says, also falsely.
Per the Guardian’s own fact check:
Trump’s use of “two million” is misleading on two points: he starts counting from 2008, when George W Bush was still in office – and from right before the financial crisis’ peak – and he ignores that the Hispanic population has grown dramatically in the eight years since then. Almost 1.4 million Hispanic people fell below the poverty line between 2008 and 2009, Census poverty numbers show, but the number of Hispanic people in poverty has decreased during the recovery. In 2015 it fell to 21.4%, down from 25.2% in 2009.
“It will be very hard to leave your farm to your children and your heirs,” he says, alluding to the so-called “death tax” on inheritance, though the estate tax actually only affects wealthy families and not the majority of Americans.
Trump then moves on to saying that he’s “really moving” in the polls, and that he’s leading in many of them. This is not true, as election models and poll averages show.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” Trump continues. “So much is at stake in this election.”
When we win in November we are going to have honest government once again. Hillary Clinton destroyed 33,000 emails. Destroyed 13 iPhones.”
He then says, without evidence, that Clinton “put her office up for sale” to corporations and foreign donors. Hacked emails show concerns within the campaign that Clinton’s husband, Bill, was too close with various donors, but no one has found evidence of a favor returned in exchange for donations to the Clintons’ charitable foundation.
Trump moves on to reminiscing about how, last June, he came down an elevator with his wife to announce his presidential campaign. He abruptly segues into saying how “we’re going to be the smart country once again,” and saying “we never win anymore” abroad.
He correctly says that the White House has admitted healthcare premiums will increase by as much as 25% next year, but then misleadingly says that the true number is twice that. Premiums will increase by varying amounts according to each state: some will be quite high, as Trump warns, others will be far lower.
Trump then correctly notes that Obama misled Americans about whether they could keep their doctor under the Affordable Care Act.
“Repealing and replacing Obamacare is one of the single most important reasons we must win on November 8,” Trump says.
Trump addresses FBI inquiry
Donald Trump appears on stage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He thanks everybody.
“As you’ve heard, earlier today, the FBI after discovering new emails” – the crowd cheers – “is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton.”
This is not technically correct. Comey said the emails are part of a new review “pertaining to” the prior investigation.
“Lock her up,” the crowd chants.
“The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it’s everybody’s hope that justice at last can be delivered. In the very brief remarks tonight Hillary Clinton tonight tried to politicize this investigation,” Trump continues, “by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director of only sending the letter to Republicans.
“Another Clinton lie. As it turns out it was sent to both Republican and Democratic leaders.”
Trump says that the FBI “would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense”.
“I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail.”
Trump has suggested for months that the FBI has acted politically to hide alleged corruption.
Updated
Someone is back at the podium after more than 45 minutes of waiting. It’s not Donald Trump, but he praises the candidate, who is reportedly en route.
“He’s put his finger on a deeply underappreciated body of people,” the man at the podium says. “He is going to be the next president of the United States of America.”
Then the man leaves the stage. “Let’s get the next president up here.”
As of 6.45pm PT, Trump has an 18.5% chance of winning the election and Hillary Clinton has a 81.5% chance, according to FiveThirtyEight’s election model.
Updated
Far from the podium in Cedar Rapids, vice-president Joe Biden was asked by CNN about the new FBI review and the role that disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner plays in it.
BIDEN to @CNN on new emails: "BIDEN: “Oh God. Anthony Weiner. I should not comment on Anthony Weiner. I’m not a big fan."
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) October 29, 2016
Meanwhile, the Republican candidate has at last landed in the correct state.
Just landed in Iowa - speaking soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2016
Updated
Trump is now an hour and 15 minutes late to his own rally, but reporting continues to trickle out from Washington on FBI director James Comey’s decision to announce a review into emails of unknown significance.
Officials speaking on condition of anonymity have told the Washington Post that he sent a cryptic letter today because of politics within the agency and with Congress.
FBI Director James B. Comey decided to inform Congress that he would look again into Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails during her time as secretary of state for two main reasons — a sense of obligation to lawmakers and a concern that word of the new email discovery would leak to the media and raise questions of a coverup.
The rationale, described by officials close to Comey’s decision-making on the condition of anonymity, prompted the FBI director to release his brief letter to Congress on Friday and upset a presidential race less than two weeks before Election Day. It placed Comey again at the center of a highly partisan argument over whether the nation’s top law enforcement agency was unfairly influencing the campaign.
In a memo explaining his decision to FBI employees soon after he sent his letter to Congress, Comey said he felt “an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed.”
“Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record,” Comey wrote to his employees.
Important new reporting from @SariHorwitz suggests Comey sent letter because he felt pressure from inside:https://t.co/wWjRQGCQjH pic.twitter.com/0tWUXnqapq
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 29, 2016
Updated
Blum talks about John Boehner, the former speaker of the House. Blum brags that he voted against Boehner, a veteran Republican leader, for that position.
“I reminded Mr Boehner, in his palatial office, that I do not report to you,” Blum says. “I report to the good people of the first district of Iowa!”
The office of the speaker belongs to whomever wins the title. Republican Paul Ryan, a close ally of Boehner’s before the former speaker’s retirement, currently works there. Blum enthusiastically endorsed Ryan, a nine-term representative from Wisconsin.
“My friends, deplorables, the time is now. The time is now or never. The time is November 8 or never,” Blum says, before moving on to abysmal monsters. “We are staring into the abyss. I’ve been in the belly of the beast for two years. We are staring into the abyss.
“I need your help. Will you help me?”
He says he needs the audience to “tell them about Blum”. He begins talking about how his father fought in the second world war with a 10th-grade education. Trump is nearly an hour late.
Updated
A mustachioed man named Jeff addresses the crowd before Trump, who is approximately 40 minutes late to the Cedar Rapids rally.
The man is shouting, and praising various Republican candidates. He says that voters are going to terrify Democrats. “Make them shiver and shake, cause there’s a change a-coming, and I can feel it in the air!”
“What Hillary Clinton did with those emails, I know it’s politically advantageous, but you know what folks, we had a secretary of state put our national security, that’s your children, that’s your grandchildren at stake. Folks, I’m a history professor, I’m going to tell you right now the history of our country, the history of our country, we don’t have a precedent for what’s going on.”
Jeff doesn’t actually say anything about FBI agents’ July conclusions that Clinton was “extremely careless”, or that they found no evidence that her server had been hacked, though they thought it at risk.
Goetz returns. “I’m glad Jeff got that out of his system.”
A congressman, Rod Blum, appears on stage. “Hello-o-o-o, deplorables!” He says he represents Iowans in Washington DC, which he then says is “infested” and “a swamp”.
“We are fed up with the lying, we are fed up with the corruption, we are fed up with people who go there to serve themselves,” he says.
Still waiting for Donald Trump, Tana Goetz, a former Apprentice contestant, comes out onto the stage to pep up the crowd by dismissing Hillary Clinton “just across the river”.
Then someone holds a moment of prayer for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Then Goetz introduces a man to lead the crowd in the pledge of allegiance.
A Cedar Rapids music teacher takes the lead for the national anthem. Goetz says that Trump “took a chance on me, a woman, an Iowan, and an entrepreneur”.
“What he showed me was enough to put my successful careers on hold,” she says, to campaign for Trump. He’s got a huge heart, she says. “I know this man’s heart and it is good. And he genuinely loves people. You can’t live in New York City and not love people.”
This last statement is not true.
But Goetz goes on to say that she knows “how much this man loves this country”. “He doesn’t need this job.”
“Donald Trump’s gonna win this thing in a landslide. And it’s gonna happen. I predicted it and it’s gonna happen.”
She then says the FBI “is re-opening the case”, alluding to the new review into a new batch of emails related to Hillary Clinton, and the crowd chants “lock her up”.
Updated
As we wait for Trump to speak in Iowa, the state has reported its third suspected case of attempted voter fraud in a Donald Trump supporter, according to the Des Moines Register.
Terri Lynn Rote, 55, was booked into the Polk County Jail about 3.40pm Thursday on a first-degree election misconduct charge, which is a Class D felony.
Rote, a registered Republican, reportedly cast an early voting ballot at the Polk County Election Office, 120 Second Ave, and another ballot at a county satellite voting location in Des Moines, according to a Des Moines police report.
It’s the first time in 12 years that Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald can remember ever having to report potential voter fraud, he said Thursday morning.
The other two suspects are accused of casting mail-in ballots and also voting in person, according to police reports. As of Friday morning, neither of those suspects had been arrested.
The case is under investigation by Des Moines police.
“I think it shows that our voting system works in Iowa, that we’re able to catch it,” Fitzgerald said.
“Tensions are running high on both sides” as election day approaches, the county auditor said, but the cases of double voting could also have been simple mistakes. “That’s not for me to decide,” he said.
Rote was held in jail on a $5,000 bond, but she had been released as of Friday afternoon. Her next court appearance was scheduled for Nov. 7, court records show.
Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that voter fraud is rampant throughout the electorate, and especially in largely black precincts of Philadelphia and Chicago. It is not.
The businessman has also suggested that he would not mind voter fraud perpetrated in his favor, saying at a rally last week, “Well, if they’re gonna vote for me, we’ll think about it, right?”
Updated
Donald Trump is due to speak at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 5pm local time, just under a two hour drive from Des Moines, where Hillary Clinton just held her press conference.
Clinton is on her way back to her New York headquarters, though, while Trump will carry on to Golden, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona, for campaign stops on Saturday. The former secretary of state will make her own stop in the latter state, which was not long ago thought to be securely Republican, on Wednesday.
Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House intelligence committee and a Democrat from California, has released a mild rebuke of the FBI.
Throughout the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails, which resulted in a finding that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges, Director Comey and the FBI have provided unprecedented transparency. While I have at times disagreed with the extent of the Director’s departure from DOJ’s sound policy of declining comment on pending or closed investigations, I recognize that this investigation presents unique challenges for the FBI.
Nevertheless, the deliberately ambiguous nature of the Director’s most recent disclosure -- the emails could be significant or insignificant, relevant or irrelevant -- contributes nothing to the public’s understanding. When coupled with the acknowledgment that more information will take an indeterminate period of time, it is difficult to see how this latest departure from Department policy has served the public interest.
Schiff has tried to strike out a middle ground between outrage, which his Senate colleague Dianne Feinstein has expressed, and a slightly baffled willingness to hear the FBI out, as some Republicans in Congress have done. Texas senator John Cornyn, for instance, tweeted out some of his questions earlier Friday afternoon.
Why is FBI doing this just 11 days before the election?
— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 28, 2016
Blomberg’s Jennifer Epstein catches Clinton in a falsehood during her extremely short press conference, which lasted less than four minutes: the letter went to Republicans and Democrats on intelligence committees.
Clinton mischaracterizes recipients of Comey's letter, says it only went to House Republicans, but it also went to Sen. Feinstein
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 28, 2016
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who is usually a staunch ally of the security agencies, rebuked Comey in a statement this afternoon, saying she was “shocked” to read his letter.
This is particularly troubling since so many questions are unanswered. It’s unclear whether these emails have already been reviewed or if Secretary Clinton sent or received them. In fact, we don’t even know if the FBI has these emails in its possession.
Without knowing how many emails are involved, who wrote them, when they were written or their subject matter, it’s impossible to make any informed judgment on this development. However, one thing is clear: Director Comey’s announcement played right into the political campaign of Donald Trump, who is already using the letter for political purposes. And all of this just 11 days before the election.
Director Comey admits ‘the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.’ He cannot predict how long the investigation will take. And we don’t know if the FBI has these emails in hand. It’s too bad Director Comey didn’t take those gaping holes into consideration when he decided to send this letter. The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results. Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.
Clinton said she was “confident” that the new inquiry would not affect any of the FBI’s findings from its long investigation into her private email server.
Compared to his brief letter Friday, Director James Comey explained in far greater length the methods and conclusions of that investigation, which cleared Clinton and her aides of intentional wrongdoing but called them “extremely careless”. In that explanation, Comey also contradicted several of Clinton’s past claims about her email practices.
Updated
Clinton says that she first learned of the new emails and review when James Comey sent a letter to members of Congress. “The first we knew about it is I assume when you knew about it.”
A reporter asks about what could be on these emails, and Clinton says she doesn’t know.
“We don’t know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that we have.”
Another asks about how this might influence the decisions of undecided voters. “I think people made up a long time ago their minds about the emails,” Clinton replies. “Now they’re choosing a president.”
She urges people to vote early, and concludes the press conference without taking another question.
Updated
Clinton addresses FBI review
“I have now seen Director Comey’s letter,” Clinton tells reporters. “We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes.”
“Voting is already underway,” he adds. “So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately. The director himself has said he doesn’t know whether the emails referenced in his letter are significant or not.”
“I’m confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in Juliy,” she continues, alluding to the FBI’s conclusion that they found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing in Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
“Therefore it’s imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question without delay.”
Updated
Hillary Clinton is due to deliver remarks to reporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on the FBI’s announcement that it will investigate new emails recovered from their inquiry into Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of a Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.
Today in Campaign 2016
- The FBI is investigating newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton’s personal server, its director has announced. The FBI had announced in July that its investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate’s private email server had concluded with a recommendation of no criminal charges in the matter, although James Comey, the FBI’s director, criticised Clinton as “careless.” But in a letter sent to members of Congress today, Comey said new emails had been discovered in an “unrelated” case.
- “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
- That unrelated case? Anthony Weiner v. The World. The FBI seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner in an unrelated investigation into explicit text messages Weiner sent to a 15-year-old girl. Weiner was being investigated after he allegedly spent several months this year in highly explicit exchanges with the 15-year-old girl.
- Speaking in Lisbon, Maine, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a room full of supporters that Clinton’s use of private email servers when she served as secretary of state is “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.”
- “The FBI, after discovering new emails, is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton,” Trump said, inaccurately. “I have great respect for the FBI for righting this wrong. The American people fully understand her corruption and we hope all - all - justice will finally be served. This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and I’m sure that it will be properly handled from this point forward.”
Anthony Weiner is the character in a zombie movie who doesn't admit that he's been bitten & then gets everyone killed
— Brian Gaar (@briangaar) October 28, 2016
- Here’s a statement on the FBI move by House speaker Paul Ryan:
Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.
- Mike Pence, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, emerged unscathed after his plane skidded off the runway while landing at LaGuardia airport in New York in heavy rain last night. The Boeing 737 carrying Donald Trump’s running mate coming in for a landing and went off the runway at about 7:40pm local time (23.40 GMT). The plane was stopped by a crushable type of concrete runway that halted the aircraft’s movement, the Federal Aviation Administration said. It finally came a standstill on an area of grass.
- Illinois senator Mark Kirk seemed to suggest the Asian American heritage of congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, somehow diminished her family’s long service to the US. “I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” Kirk said of Duckworth. The third-term congresswoman, who was born in Thailand, is the daughter of a Thai woman of Chinese descent and an American father who traced his roots to the Revolutionary War. Members of the Duckworth family have served in the American armed forces since the revolution.
And one more thing:
Honestly impressed that there are still dick jokes left to make. pic.twitter.com/H7QczVrfn3
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) October 28, 2016
The FBI is not, for the record, “re-opening” the case against Hillary Clinton:
With FBI re-opening criminal investigation, Democrats on the ballot must now be asked whether or not they still support @HillaryClinton
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) October 28, 2016
Whatever doubts gnaw at Donald Trump at dead of night, his hardcore supporters will not allow him to give up the dream of the White House.
All 18 people interviewed by the Guardian at a Trump campaign rally in the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday night challenged the basic premise that he is losing. If anything, they seemed even more convinced than he is that opinion polls and mainstream media cannot be trusted so he should not throw in the towel.
Trump, channelling the mix of vexation and continued hope, said: “I’ve been saying if we win ‘cos I want to be nice, right, but the people are getting angry at me so we’ll just say when we win on November 8.”
But the omens are not good. As Hillary Clinton dominates opinion polls and gets positive signs from early voting, Trump has stopped formal, major donor fundraising events for the Republican party. He has reportedly cut back on transition plans and taken time off the campaign trail to open his new hotel in Washington. Recently Trump dolefully asked supporters whether they were glad he ran, adding: “I’ll let you know on the evening of November 8 whether I’m glad.”
The candidate’s rally at a sports complex in Geneva – his third in Ohio on Thursday – drew an estimated 7,000 people but was far from full, in contrast to his swashbuckling early campaign. It was overwhelmingly white, including many retirees. But those who did attend waved “Trump/ Pence” and “Make America great again” signs and chanted “Lock her up!” and “Build the wall!” with the usual gusto.
They nodded approvingly when Trump described his opponent as “unstable” and jeered when Trump reeled off a list of State Department expenditures during Clinton’s tenure as secretary, including $79,000 on Barack Obama’s books, $630,000 to try to make State Department Facebook pages more popular and $88,000 to send three comedians to India.
They whooped with delight when the showman made reference to Vice-President Joe Biden’s recent comment that he would like to take him behind the gym. “You know what you do with Biden? You go like this.” Trump turned to one side and blew a puff of air from his mouth. “And he’d fall over.” He added: “I dream about Biden. Boy, would that be easy. That would be an easy function.”
Tomorrow morning’s New York Post cover:
Tomorrow's cover: Weiner sext probe found dirt on Hillary https://t.co/6z0BJkr23s pic.twitter.com/hAk6D02j8y
— New York Post (@nypost) October 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Des Moines, Iowa
Watch it live here:
An Iowa woman has been arrested on suspicion of committing voter fraud by voting twice in the general election, according to the Des Moines Register:
Terri Lynn Rote, 55, was booked into the Polk County Jail about 3:40 p.m. Thursday on a first-degree election misconduct charge, which is a Class D felony.
Rote, a registered Republican, reportedly cast an early voting ballot at the Polk County Election Office, 120 Second Ave., and another ballot at a county satellite voting location in Des Moines, according to a Des Moines police report.
This is Rote:
An Iowa woman has been arrested on suspicion of voter fraud. https://t.co/6qHiBdne60
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) October 28, 2016
This is her: pic.twitter.com/slmn7Nhlf6
Joe Biden reacts to secretary of state rumor: 'I don't want to remain in the administration'
Vice president Joe Biden has responded to the rumor that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is considering him as a possible secretary of state in a hypothetical Clinton administration, saying that he’s flattered by the consideration but doesn’t want to remain in the administration.
“I’ll do anything I can if Hillary’s elected to help her, but I don’t want to remain in the administration,” Biden told CNN affiliate KBJR. “I have no intention of staying involved. I have a lot of things to do, but I’ll help her if I can in any way I can.”
Politico reported yesterday that sources within the campaign had tipped their hats toward Biden as a secretary of state, a nod to his widely acknowledged foreign-policy acumen.
Eleven. More. Days.
Hearing @jasoninthehouse & House Oversight Cmte are discussing holding a last-min hearing bringing in FBI DIr. Comey next Fri pre-election.
— (((Cameron Joseph))) (@cam_joseph) October 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton's email woes refuse to go away – what does this latest twist mean?
Eighteen months and 30 miles away from where Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign began, the issue that has dogged the Democratic candidate from the start caught up with her on Friday, when director James Comey announced the FBI was reviewing newly discovered emails relating to her personal server.
We know from leaked emails that even Clinton’s closest friends thought it was “insane” to secretly communicate via a private computer server while working as secretary of state.
“Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email?” wrote close aide and transition team member Neera Tanden in a July 2015 note recently revealed by WikiLeaks. “And has that person been drawn and quartered? Like [this] whole thing is fucking insane.”
Fortunately for Clinton, in July the FBI eventually decided to let this potentially illegal evasion of security protocol pass with a sharp wrap on the knuckles.
There was an audible intake of breath among campaign followers in the summer, when Comey criticised her for being “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information, but his decision not to recommend criminal chargesbrought to an end the one threat deemed capable of preventing her from becoming president.
That was, at least, until Comey dropped a fresh bombshell. The three-paragraph letter he released to Congress on Friday revealing the existence of potentially significant new evidence may or not have any legal bearing on whether charges are again possible. It certainly had a political impact.
Clinton was in the air when the letter leaked. An onboard Wi-Fi outage meant she may not have discovered its existence at all until her plane landed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a campaign stop just down the road from her very first event as a candidate on 14 April 2015.
There was a long delay in her leaving the plane as aides urgently gathered onboard to discuss the issue. A planned photoshoot with Annie Leibowitz had to be cut short. Her opponent wasted no time pointing out that it is never a good look for a presidential candidate to be under criminal investigation by the FBI.
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before,” was Donald Trump’s predictable hyperbole at a rally minutes later in New Hampshire. “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”
Democrats rushed to downplay its significance on Friday, as campaign chairman John Podesta suggested Comey may have been “browbeaten” by aggressive Republicans into announcing a relatively minor wrinkle for the sake of transparency.
The investigation had still not officially been closed, so it is also oversimplifying to say, as many initially did, that it has been “reopened”. The fact that the evidence in question reportedly comes from separate investigation into a sex scandal engulfing Anthony Weiner, the estranged of husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s key aides, should make it less relevant to her security case, not more.
Speaking in Lisbon, Maine, nearly an hour after he was scheduled to appear - there was an issue with the stairs on his plane - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a room full of supporters that Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers when she served as secretary of state is “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.”
“The FBI, after discovering new emails, is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton,” Trump said, inaccurately. “I have great respect for the FBI for righting this wrong. The American people fully understand her corruption and we hope all - all - justice will finally be served.”
“This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and I’m sure that it will be properly handled from this point forward.”
“Now, getting back to things that don’t sound quite as exciting, but they’re so important, right?”
Donald Trump campaigns in Lisbon, Maine
Watch it live here:
And former governor Mike Huckabee goes there.
Who would have thought a Weiner would be HRC’s undoing?😱
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 28, 2016
Ted Cruz has released a statement in response to the latest Clinton email mishegas:
Americans already know Hillary Clinton’s lifelong pattern of corruption. It is abundantly clear that her handling of classified information on a private email server was grossly negligent, as the FBI admitted this summer. The question is whether our top law enforcement agencies will ever act to hold her accountable.
For decades, the FBI has earned a reputation for fair and impartial enforcement of the law, free of partisan influence. Director Comey’s previous half-hearted investigation of Hillary Clinton did serious damage to that reputation, and this latest revelation affords the FBI the opportunity to begin to repair that damage.
The FBI has yet to provide access to the information that was used in its previous decision, as requested by me and other Senate Judiciary members, including Chairman Grassley, and it should do so.
Whatever new evidence has been found should be thoroughly investigated, and I hope that - unlike with the prior investigation - Director Comey will demonstrate the courage to uphold the law and restore the integrity of the FBI.
Elected officials, no matter how high their position, should be held accountable for criminal conduct. The rule of law matters, and it should apply equally and fairly to us all.
Hillary for America has a new video pairing Donald Trump’s own words with the experiences of contestants in his numerous beauty pageants:
“This is a man who relishes making women feel terrible about themselves, in every possible way,” Clinton said in Iowa today, before the video’s launch. “Someone who thinks belittling and objectifying women makes him a bigger man. He goes after dignity and self-worth of women, and I don’t think there’s a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”
Realtalk:
Billy Bush and Anthony Weiner are why you don't tell mediocre children that they can be anything when they grow up.
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) October 28, 2016
Gary Johnson has released a statement:
With just days remaining before the election, the Democratic and Republican parties are offering a choice between a candidate under FBI investigation, and Donald Trump. Voters deserve a lot better than that. America deserves better than that.
Integrity, honesty and treating all Americans with dignity are actually important. Is it too much to ask that our President should possess those minimum qualifications?
Every ballot in every state and the District of Columbia has a third option, and that option is a ticket with two former Governors, each a Republican elected and reelected in a Democratic state. If ever there is a time when voters should have such a third choice, it is now. And they have one.
John Podesta: 'It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election'
Hillary for America Chair John Podesta has released a statement in response to news that the FBI is reviewing new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers during her tenure as secretary of state:
Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is ‘reopening’ an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.
It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.
The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.
Updated
This is uncomfortable.
Huma Abedin, the top aide to Hillary Clinton and the wife of perv sleazebag Anthony Wiener, was a major security risk as a collector of info
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2015
According to a New York Times report based on anonymous sources within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the “new emails” being reviewed by the FBI related to the closed investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email servers were discovered after the FBI seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.
The FBI seized the devices in an unrelated investigation into explicit text messages Weiner sent to a 15-year-old girl. Weiner was being investigated after he allegedly spent several months this year in highly explicit exchanges with the 15-year-old girl.
The FBI had announced in July that its investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate’s private email server had concluded with a recommendation of no criminal charges in the matter, although James Comey, the FBI’s director, criticised Clinton as “careless.”
But in a letter sent to members of Congress this morning, Comey said new emails had been discovered in an “unrelated” case.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
Trump gleefully responds to new FBI investigation into Clinton emails
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ignored the news that the FBI is investigating newly-discovered emails related to her use of personal email servers during her tenure at the State Department at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this afternoon, instead focusing on down-ballot candidates and recent local flooding.
Republican rival Donald Trump’s negative turn in recent weeks, Clinton told the audience, is a craven attempt to turn off voters and minimize turnout.
“His strategy is to get women to stay home, get young people to stay home, get people of color to stay home,” Clinton said. “It’s all part of his scorched-earth campaign - the last refuge of a bankrupt candidate. And it goes against everything we stand for in America.”
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Watch it live here:
Trump has released a statement on the FBI inquiry which turns out to be just what he said at the top of his New Hampshire speech.
The statement is inaccurate in a couple ways. Clinton has not been found to have engaged in any “criminal” or “illegal conduct.” And the FBI has not announced any “reopening” of a “case.” Comey announced they are looking at newly discovered emails:
“I need to open with a very critical breaking news announcement. The FBI has just sent a letter to Congress informing them that they have discovered new emails pertaining to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s investigation, and they are reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.
“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the DOJ are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand. It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.” –Donald J. Trump
RNC on 'serious' 'stunning' development
The Republican national committee has released a statement saying the timing of the FBI decision to look at additional Clinton emails – just 11 days before the election – indicates it’s serious. “This stunning development raises serious questions about what records may not have been turned over and why, and whether they show intent to violate the law,” the statement says, continuing:
What’s indisputable is that Hillary Clinton jeopardized classified information on thousands of occasions in her reckless attempt to hide pay-to-play corruption at her State Department. This alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency, a job that is supposed to begin each morning with a top secret intelligence briefing.
Updated
Trump describes 'stampede of love'
Trump tells a story about a rally with so many people that safety and fire officials grew concerned about a dangerous stampede.
“It’s a stampede of love,” Trump said. Yesterday he said: “Love can kill, too.”
“They said, we have very strong people, but Mr Trump, they’re not nearly as strong as 45,000 people.”
That’s a made up number – Trump has not had a rally that big.
Updated
“It might not be as rigged as I thought.”
!!!! TRUMP: "It might not be as rigged as I thought."
— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) October 28, 2016
Trump campaign manager: 'a great day... just got better'
A great day in our campaign just got even better. FBI reviewing new emails in Clinton probe @CNNPolitics https://t.co/WBltG2lAK6
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016
“Today I wrote a $10m check,” Trump says. He says he’ll have spent $100m “or close to.”
We’ll know in two days whether he’s telling the truth about the $10m.
Updated
What if all Donald Trump’s claims of a rigged everything turn out to be gaseous fantasies?
"I think the biggest rigging of all is what has happened with the FBI." - Donald Trump last night to Bill O'Reilly... pic.twitter.com/w50maiINJs
— Jack Bohrer (@JRBoh) October 28, 2016
Trump claims credit for new FBI inquiry
Trump keeps interrupting his stump speech, which is all about corruption in Washington including in the justice department and at the FBI, to mention the new FBI inquiry, which he then takes credit for.
“I’m very proud that the FBI was willing to do this, actually,” Trump says at one point.
Earlier, he said:
But real change means getting rid of the corruption in Washington. And wow, maybe that’s happening. I won my first primary in New Hampshire. And now [this news]. This is bigger than Watergate.
At another point: “Right now that takes care of itself. I think.”
Ryan: 'Clinton has nobody but herself to blame'
Here’s a statement on the FBI move by House speaker Paul Ryan:
Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.”
Trump: “That being said, the rest of my speech is going to be so boring. Should I even give the speech?”
The crowd applauds.
Trump slams Clinton over new FBI inquiry
Trump takes the stage in New Hampshire and says that the FBI is “reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.”
The crowd chants, “Lock her up!”
“We must not let her take her criminal” schemes to the White House.
I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the department of justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood. And it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.
So that is a big announcement that I heard 10 minutes ago.”
The crowd is cheering, excited.
Updated
Trump to visit Michigan on Monday – spokesman
Donald Trump will campaign in Michigan on Monday, where internal polls show a “dead heat,” according to Trump communications adviser Jason Miller in an interview. Trump’s internal polling operation is not known for its strength. Recent FEC reports showed the campaign spent just $1.8m on polling through September of this year, versus $3.2m on hats.
The Michigan city where Trump will campaign was not named, and no Michigan date yet appears on Trump’s schedule.
Miller spoke with WABC Radio Host Rita Cosby.
“For all of the talk of Hillary Clinton supposedly going on offense with Red States, she’s campaigning in Blue States, and we’re making a play for Blue States,” Miller said, inaccurately. In fact Clinton is campaigning in traditionally red-leaning and battleground states such as Arizona. “Both in New Mexico and in Michigan we’re showing dead heats in those states,” Miller said.
Retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, who has been speaking at events just before Trump, is onstage now in Manchester, New Hampshire. We’re waiting for the candidate:
Reactions: FBI investigates new Clinton emails
I knew an October Surprise was Comey.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) October 28, 2016
Stock market has dropped a fair bit from where it was a couple minutes ago...
— John McCormick (@McCormickJohn) October 28, 2016
Note: It is not yet 5 pm, (though it is in fact Friday)
— Nick Riccardi (@NickRiccardi) October 28, 2016
Raises a lot of questions, like... What's the unrelated case? https://t.co/ffvDiwvtgP
— Dolan's Knicks (@ndhapple) October 28, 2016
FBI is totally rigged, corrupt, lock them up.
— Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu) October 28, 2016
Wait, what?
FBI is doing a tremendous job. Big league.
FBI inquiry involves new emails; significance, time frame uncertain
Here are some transcripted excerpts (for legibility) from Comey’s letter to Congress:
“Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony,” FBI director Comey writes.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation... the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps...
“Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”
FBI Dir Comey letter to congressional committee chairs re discovery of "new emails...pertinent to the investigation" pic.twitter.com/y4gvHiILLn
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 28, 2016
FBI investigating new Clinton emails
After concluding an investigation earlier this year of Hillary Clinton’s email practices with a recommendation of no criminal charges in the matter, the FBI has reopened the investigation discovered new emails it will investigate.
NBC News has an FBI letter to Congress describing the development:
BIG: The FBI is reopening its investigation into @HillaryClinton's email server. Here's the letter from the FBI to Congress: pic.twitter.com/OKjipTeiJp
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) October 28, 2016
Developing....
Update: the headline for this block has been changed. It’s unclear whether the investigation of the new emails represents a reopening of the previous emails investigation.
Clarifying: Comey doesn’t say the FBI is reopening the Clinton investigation per se, rather that it’s assessing newly found emails.
— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) October 28, 2016
Updated
Clinton's upcoming travel excludes likeliest path to victory
Clinton looks a lot like a candidate on offense:
@AlexNBCNews @mmurraypolitics The most interesting thing: None of those are must-win states for her to get to 270.
— Alon Laudon (@alonlaudon) October 28, 2016
Excellent point on HRC's upcoming travel https://t.co/S2JLwMkARn
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 28, 2016
Here’s a map of bad outcomes for Clinton that seem plausible in which she still wins the race. Give Trump New Hampshire and that last clause disappears.
Trump is late to his New Hampshire event. A man has just advised the crowd that Trump’s plane has just landed in New Hampshire. He’s supposed to hit Maine then Iowa after this. He better throttle up.
Clinton to make play for Arizona
After campaigning in the swing state of Iowa today, Clinton and Trump will both set their sights on the battleground state of ... Arizona?
Trump has announced a Phoenix event for tomorrow afternoon. Now Clinton says she’ll be in town next week. Arizona is always Republican in presidential years except when it’s before 1948 or Bill Clinton is running for reelection.
There’s not even a senate race there for Clinton to win, assuming that John McCain is as safe in reelection as he seems. Is she just trolling Trump? Or do the Clinton polls show Arizona to be as competitive as it seems it might be?
Breaking -- Hillary Clinton will campaign in Arizona next week
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) October 28, 2016
The Clinton event will be in Phoenix on 2 November.
2016 Arizona President - Clinton 48%, Trump 46% (Saguaro Strategies 10/22-10/24) https://t.co/nG6HAL8CkX
— HuffPost Pollster (@pollsterpolls) October 28, 2016
Updated
We’re about to hear from Donald Trump in Manchester, New Hampshire:
Clinton piles on after GOP senator's racially charged debate remarks
Hillary Clinton lectures Republican senator Mark Kirk of Illinois that “it’s really not that hard to grasp” the service of the family oh his opponent, Representative Tammy Duckworth.
At a debate Thursday, Kirk seemed to suggest the Asian American heritage of congresswoman Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, somehow diminished her family’s long service to the US.
“I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” Kirk said of Duckworth.
Thankful for @TammyforIL's—and her family's—service to this country. It's really not that hard to grasp, @MarkKirk. https://t.co/rKY0rberiB
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 28, 2016
Eleni Demertzis, spokesperson for the Kirk campaign, issued a statement Thursday:
Senator Kirk has consistently called Representative Duckworth a war hero and honors her family’s service to this country. But that’s not what this debate was about. Representative Duckworth lied about her legal troubles, was unable to defend her failures at the VA and then falsely attacked Senator Kirk over his record on supporting gay rights.
Update: Kirk apologizes:
Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family's service. #ilsen
— Mark Kirk (@MarkKirk) October 28, 2016
Read further:
My mom is an immigrant and my dad and his family have served this nation in uniform since the Revolution #ILSEN pic.twitter.com/ehEBHswFMs
— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) October 28, 2016
Updated
Donald Trump will hold a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, tomorrow, according to his updated schedule:
Trump heads west pic.twitter.com/BfQcRT9SD1
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 28, 2016
Nine days before the election, the GOP nominee is stumping in Arizona. https://t.co/Xc1QP69erj
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) October 28, 2016
Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s most recent forecast features the legendary tossup states of Iowa and... Utah:
#LATEST @LarrySabato's Crystal Ball Electoral Map (270 EV Needed):
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) October 27, 2016
Clinton 352
Trump 173
Toss ups 13https://t.co/2x5JcJ8w1v pic.twitter.com/RV6QJ2friQ
Maine’s second district is also a tossup in this formulation, while Nebraska’s second leans toward Clinton.
Keeping an eye on Nevada:
@ralstonreports Is the cake mostly baked in NV cause of the early vote? (at least in the prez race...)
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 28, 2016
Not quite yet, but pretty close. If Democrats get up to 60,000 or so raw vote lead in Clark, which looks likely, bye bye Trump. https://t.co/DoUglrgjsk
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) October 28, 2016
FWIW, we have Clinton winning in 95% of our simulations right now if she wins in Nevada. https://t.co/XhNVbD9xpr
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 28, 2016
This is really interesting. She is going to win NV unless a miracle occurs in last week of early voting. No Trump white flag. He's here Sun. https://t.co/D0DM0uMbzK
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) October 28, 2016
Updated
Trump walks back vow to spend $100m
It just became “we’ll see what’s needed.” But he’s going to write a $10m check to his campaign today, Trump tells Fox News. We’ll believe it when we see it.
We are within FEC's 48 hour contribution reporting period. We would know within 48 hours whether he's telling the truth or not. https://t.co/Oz2rA7DYJE
— Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu) October 28, 2016
(h/t @teddyschleifer)
Updated
Trump calls for support of House Republicans – after trashing them
The director of congressional outreach on the Trump campaign has asked House Republicans to publicly declare their support for the nominee and to CC: him on any social media posts or other outreach they do to that end, the Washington Post reports.
The call came after weeks of Trump publicly trashing Republicans in Congress, starting with the leadership. From the Trump campaign memo:
“That means we need your direct, strong support for the Trump/Pence ticket,” [outreach director Scott] Mason added. “Now is the time. No waffling, no week [sic] knees. Hillary Clinton has given us, and continues to give us — and the country — every reason on earth that she is not worthy of winning this election. We strongly urge you today to make a statement — take a stand — and step out for the Trump/Pence ticket.”
“Please cc me on any social media posts, tweets, releases, etc. We are anxious to share these with Mr. Trump. Thank you to those that have already done so,” concluded Mason. “We can win this thing. We need your help.”
Disloyal R's are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win - I will teach them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
Examining a county map of early votes returned so far in Florida, we can see that early voting participation was especially strong in – looks like everywhere:
Florida early vote (mail & in-person) stats as of 10/28 pic.twitter.com/yruOakhRXs
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) October 28, 2016
At least 17 Million people have voted in the 2016 election as of the morning of 10/28 https://t.co/biXWYJFTUi
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) October 28, 2016
John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, gave up his email password to scammers out of a diligent attempt to protect his email password from scammers, Jamie Dupree writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wikileaks reveals phishing email that was used to hack Podesta https://t.co/qJDDJA55R7 pic.twitter.com/qbaRtIUyZa
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) October 28, 2016
What’s worse - two Clinton staffers apparently were fooled by the phishing scheme as well:
“This is a legitimate email,” wrote Charles Delavan, who is identified as a worker on the HFA (Hillary For America) Help Desk.
“The gmail one is REAL,” added Sara Latham, another employee with a hillaryclinton.com email address.
Try our elections-movie quiz
Can you identify which movies these 10 fictional candidates are from? It’s multiple choice! Have a go:
Michelle Obama 'will never run for office' – Barack Obama
.@POTUS tells @RealSway on the radio that Michelle "will never run for office:" pic.twitter.com/mNpu8cLjeq
— Hannah Chanpong (@hannahfc) October 28, 2016
And let all this go to waste?
Pence: 'the strength of this campaign is not dollars and cents'
The running mate of a guy running for president based on his supposed business acumen has explained away atrocious fundraising numbers with this line: “the strength of this campaign is not dollars and cents”:
Mike Pence downplays Clinton's campaign cash advantage, says he senses "real momentum" for GOP ticket: https://t.co/BRcI2euk32 pic.twitter.com/EGOwdWz3MC
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) October 28, 2016
The Trump campaign has argued that the polls do not reflect an invisible upswelling of support for the Trump candidacy – and now fundraising numbers don’t matter either.
Speaking with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Thursday night, Trump accused the polls of “tremendous dishonesty”:
I think we’re winning, but Bill you look at some of these polls it’s absolutely ridiculous.
“AP treats me very badly and by the way ABC had me down at 12 which was ridiculous now I hear at ABC we’re down by very, very little because complaints were made by a lot of people. Now it’s much lower than that. How do you go from 12 down to 2 and three in a day or two? The only ones I really like are the ones that I’m winning. Bill, something is going on with the polls and what they do is called suppression.”
On whether he thinks speculation about where polls are fair can erode credibility in elections:
“I think it’s very unfair. Whether it’s polls for the debates where I won the debates or if it’s polls for something else. There’s tremendous dishonesty in the polls, I’ve never seen anything like it. Tremendous dishonesty.”
Clinton camp has four times as much cash as Trump
Hillary Clinton entered the final phase of her presidential bid with a resounding campaign cash advantage over Donald Trump, the AP reports.
New fundraising reports show her campaign and joint accounts with Democrats had $153 million in the bank as of last week. That’s more than double the $68 million Trump’s campaign and partnership committees had on hand. The Trump campaign itself has only $16 million cash on hand for the final two weeks of the campaign compared to $62 million for Clinton.
At this point in the election:
— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) October 28, 2016
Bush '00 had $22.3M left
Bush '04 had $22.4M
McCain '08 had $21.3M
Romney '12 had $52.7M
Trump has $16M
Clinton’s continued fundraising advantage helps ensure the Democratic nominee can keep her sprawling political operation at full strength in the frantic final days of the race. She maintains a staff of more than 800 — several times larger than Trump’s — and has spent more on advertising than the Republican has every single week of the race.
Over the course of the primary and general elections, Clinton’s campaign has hauled in $513 million, roughly double what Trump’s has.
She outpaced him again in the first 19 days of October, the new reports show, when her campaign reaped $53 million as his brought in about $30 million.
While Trump, a New York businessman who says he is worth $10 billion, typically makes a personal contribution of about $2 million each month, he had not done so yet in October. The latest contribution reports, up to date as of Wednesday, show he had given only about $33,000.
A particularly rich stat from last night:
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) October 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton self-funded her campaign ($50k) more in October than Donald Trump did ($30k.) https://t.co/p0SfyhCHyB
Trump said Wednesday, “I’m gonna be in for over $100m.”
Donald Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he's willing to pour millions more into his campaign before Election Day. https://t.co/3Yq8tGl7Bt pic.twitter.com/NpCjbawaPt
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 26, 2016
Anybody think he’s bullshitting sorry family newspaper anybody think he’s smokescreening?
If Trump were to honor his pledge to spend $100 million on his campaign, he would have to give $44 million in just TWENTY days.
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) October 28, 2016
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Donald Trump is blitzing through three must-win (for him) states (or parts of states, at least) today. He begins in New Hampshire, proceeds to Maine’s second district (where, owing to unusual state rules, he might pick off one of its four electoral votes) and ends in Iowa.
Barack Obama heads back to Florida for Hillary Clinton today, while the candidate herself has two Iowa stops. Tim Kaine is in the Florida capital of Tallahassee, and Bill Clinton is making three stops in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence has one event in Pennsylvania today and one in North Carolina. But it’s a great relief that Pence is going anywhere, after what happened to his plane last night.
Pence plane overshoots runway
Pence emerged unscathed after his plane skidded off the runway while landing at LaGuardia airport in New York in heavy rain.
The Boeing 737 carrying Trump’s running mate came in for a landing and went off the runway at about 7.40pm local time. The plane was stopped by a crushable type of concrete runway that halted the aircraft’s movement, the Federal Aviation Administration said, finally coming a standstill on an area of grass.
None of the estimated 30 people on board, including Pence’s wife Karen and daughter Charlotte, was injured. Flights out of LaGuardia were halted for at least an hour.
Pence pledged to hit the campaign trail again on Friday although he canceled his appearance at a fundraiser scheduled for Thursday night at Trump Tower in Manhattan, MSNBC reported.
So thankful everyone on our plane is safe. Grateful for our first responders & the concern & prayers of so many. Back on the trail tomorrow!
— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 28, 2016
Read further from passengers aboard.
Senator makes racially charged remark at debate
A Republican senator struggling in his re-election race made a racially charged remark about his Democratic opponent in a debate last night.
Illinois senator Mark Kirk seemed to suggest the Asian American heritage of congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, somehow diminished her family’s long service to the US.
“I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” Kirk said of Duckworth.
The third-term congresswoman, who was born in Thailand, is the daughter of a Thai woman of Chinese descent and an American father who traced his roots to the Revolutionary War. Members of the Duckworth family have served in the American armed forces since the revolution.
Trump’s campaign manager gloated on Twitter. Kirk, who is trying to stay in office in a Democratic-leaning state in a presidential election year (when a lot of Chicago Democrats will turn out to vote against him), was one of the earliest Republican senators to begin criticizing Trump:
The same Mark Kirk that unendorsed his party's presidential nominee and called him out in paid ads? Gotcha. Good luck. https://t.co/IV7miL317s
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016
Did Trump say ‘ghettoes’?
You be the judge:
Help me out there. Did Trump just say "we're going to work on our ghettos" before mentioning inner cities, violence and African Americans? pic.twitter.com/v9KqZSLbh6
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) October 27, 2016
Thank you for reading and please join us in the comments.
