Today in Campaign 2016
- Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has had its best month ever, bringing in more than $143m in August for the campaign, as well as for the Democratic party. The campaign and allied action funds begin September with a more than $152 million war chest, built from donations from more than 2.3m people.
- Lawyers for Melania Trump have filed suit against the Daily Mail in Maryland state court for publishing what Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, called “lies ... that Mrs. Trump supposedly was an ‘escort’ in the 1990s before she met her husband.” Harder said in a statement to reporters that these “actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at $150 million dollars”.
- “I think you’re going to see there’s really quite a bit of softening,” Trump tells conservative radio host Laura Ingraham this morning, vis-à-vis his immigration policy platform.
- To chants of “USA, USA, USA”, Trump took his nationalist message back to rustbelt later on Thursday at a lunchtime rally in Wilmington, Ohio. The state has been hit hard by a decline in manufacturing jobs and the campaign seeks to weave together economic uncertainty with the uncompromising message on immigration. “We will treat everyone with compassion but our greatest compassion will be for the American citizen,” Trump told the almost entirely white audience.
- The Tampa Bay Times reports that the Donald Trump campaign still has only one office open in the essential battleground state of Florida, despite a vow on 8 August by the campaign that it would open two dozen additional offices within two weeks.
- A leaked script of a question-and-answer session with the pastor of a predominantly African American church this weekend, obtained by the New York Times, shows that Donald Trump’s campaign is taking little chance on letting the famously unscripted candidate put his foot in his mouth, writing suggested answers to questions on race in America provided to the campaign in advance.
Trump: 'We're going to sit back' and 'assess' future of undocumented immigrants
In an interview on Fox News, Donald Trump has given more conditions for the legalization of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States, an issue around which he has not-so-delicately tiptoed in his alternate hardening and softening and hardening of his immigration platform.
“We are going to strengthen the border, make it really, really strong,” Trump told Fox News anchor Eric Bolling. “We are going to build the wall. We are going to get rid of all of the bad players that are here, the gang members, the gang leaders, the drug dealers, all of the cartel people. We are going to get them out of our country because they are causing tremendous damage and crime. And other things. And getting the drugs spread all over the place. They will be gone.”
“After that takes place - which will be a process, and it won’t go that quickly but it’s going to go as quickly as any human being can do it - after that takes place, we’re going to sit back, we’re going to assess the situation,” Trump continued.
“We’re going to see where we are because we’ll have people in the country that, you know, that have come in illegally. We’re going to sit back. We’re going to assess the situation. We’re going to make a decision at that time. I want to see, before we do anything further, I want to see how it shapes up when we have strong, and you know, I use the word ‘impenetrable’ borders but how it shapes up and I think we are getting really tremendous reviews on the plan.”
Donald Trump told Fox News host Eric Bolling that a Latino journalist who has been critical of his stance on immigration only voices his criticisms because Trump has never appeared on his show.
“I think Jorge is actually a nice guy but I just don’t do his show,” Trump said of Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. “So, you know, if I did his show, I’m sure he would be very happy.”
In a conversation with Fox News host Eric Bolling, Donald Trump told the host that his trip to Mexico was more highly covered than any presidential trip, and critiqued Hillary Clinton as being unable to merit nearly as much media attention through her tenure as secretary of state.
“I think we had a great meeting,” Trump said. “It was well-covered by, I guess, as much as anybody has ever been covered in one of those meetings. And, you know, I’m not even a president. I guess it was pretty unusual, because as a president you get this kind of coverage. Although they didn’t get as much.”
Of Clinton’s tweeted remark that “diplomacy isn’t as easy as it seems,” as Bolling put it, (actually “as easy as it looks”), Trump was dismissive.
“As far as Hillary is concerned, learning, how has she done in Libya? How has she done in Iraq? How has she done with the Iran deal and all of the other things like she started - that horrible Iran deal that’s now blowing up all over the place, one of the worst deals ever negotiated?” Trump asked rhetorically.
“I mean, for her to be saying that and that’s just a sound bite given to her by her handlers. You know, she has got handlers. And that’s just a sound bite. No, we had an amazing day and I have been given great credit by almost everybody that’s fair. You know, I mean, the fair people give credit. The ones that aren’t and I know what’s good and bad. In other words, Eric, I will tell you if something wasn’t good. you know that. You know me.”
The Obama administration has denied claims by a Washington thinktank that Iran has secretly been granted exemptions to a multilateral nuclear agreement signed last July in Vienna.
A report by the Institute for Science and International Security alleged that a joint commission set up to implement the Vienna deal had allowed Iran to keep more than the agreed maximum of 300 kg of low enriched uranium (LEU) by excluding waste material in Iran’s nuclear facilities. If enriched further, LEU could be used in a nuclear warhead.
The institute’s director and co-author of the report, David Albright, said that this and other exemptions were granted by the commission in secret.
“One of the biggest problems is we are being denied information in these cases,” Albright said. “If the joint commission has so many powers to change this deal, shouldn’t we know what they’re doing?”
The state department denied that the 300 kg LEU limit set down in the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA), had been breached.
“There’s been no loosening of the commitments and Iran has not and will not under the JCPOA be allowed to exceed the limits that are spelled out in the JCPOA,” spokesman John Kirby said. He added the only violation of the terms of the deal had been a temporary surplus in Iran’s export of heavy water (which can be used in nuclear reactors to produce plutonium), but that had been corrected. Kirby also said the secrecy of the work of the joint commission, which represents all parties to the deal, was stipulated in last year’s deal, signed by six world powers (the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China), the EU and Iran.
“This is in compliance with the JCPOA which says the commission’s work should be confidential unless all parties agree otherwise,” Kirby said.
From Joe Biden’s remarks during Hillary Clinton’s rally in Cleveland:
“My friend died,” an Iraq war heckler interrupts Joe Biden at a Clinton rally in Cleveland. “So did my son" shoots back Joe. Instant silence
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) September 1, 2016
Donald Trump’s campaign manager is laying on the age- and health-oriented attacks on Hillary Clinton quite thick:
In the last 24 hours @realDonaldTrump has been to Mexico, AZ, OH and NY. Hillary's taking the day off, again. #tiredhillary
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 1, 2016
Donald Trump has hired an old nemesis of the Clinton family as his deputy campaign manager, the Washington Post reports.
David Bossie, who investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton’s finances in the 1990s as a congressional staffer, was described by Trump to the Washington Post as “a friend of mine for many years. Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win.”
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the Washington Post that Bossie, who until this week served as president of anti-Obama advocacy group Citizens United, is “a battle-tested warrior and a brilliant strategist”.
“He’s a nuts-and-bolts tactician as well, who’s going to help us fully integrate our ground game and data operations, and help with overall strategy as my deputy.”
Bossie investigated the Clintons as part of his work for a special senate committee on the Whitewater controversy, which investigated real estate investments by the Clintons and their associates in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed vacation-home development corporation.
The Daily Mail has printed a retraction of its story detailing “troubling questions” about Melania Trump’s past.
“To the extent that anything in the Daily Mail’s article was interpreted as stating or suggesting that Mrs. Trump worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business,’ that she had a ‘composite or presentation card for the sex business,’ or that either of the modeling agencies referenced in the article were engaged in these businesses, it is hereby retracted, and the Daily Mail newspaper regrets any such misinterpretation,” the retraction states.
Earlier today, lawyers for Trump filed suit against the Daily Mail in Maryland state court for publishing what Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, called “lies ... that Mrs. Trump supposedly was an ‘escort’ in the 1990s before she met her husband.” Harder said in a statement to reporters that these “actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at $150 million dollars”.
The suit, filed in Montgomery County in suburban Washington DC, was filed in response to articles published in August by the Daily Mail which reported rumors that Melania Trump worked as an escort in the 1990s. In first announcing that she was considering a suit, Trump’s lawyer called those rumors “100% false”.
Leaked script: Donald Trump advised to tell African Americans US should 'reduce' issue of race
A leaked script of a question-and-answer session with the pastor of a predominantly African American church this weekend, obtained by the New York Times, shows that Donald Trump’s campaign is taking little chance on letting the famously unscripted candidate put his foot in his mouth, writing suggested answers to questions on race in America provided to the campaign in advance.
When asked about his vision for black Americans, the script suggests that Mr. Trump stay positive, advising that he use lines such as ‘If we are to make America great again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country’ and ‘I want to make race disappear as a factor in government and governance.’
To a question submitted by Bishop Jackson about whether his campaign is racist, the script suggests that Mr. Trump avoid repeating the word, and instead speak about improving education and getting people off welfare and back to work. ‘The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding,’ Mr. Trump is advised to say. ‘Coming into a community is meaningless unless we offer an alternative to the horrible progressive agenda that has perpetuated a permanent underclass in America.’
Trump is also directed in the script to tell skeptical African American voters that his support is “up to 8% and climbing.”
Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, has officially un-endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential bid after what he characterized as Trump’s “very scary speech” on immigration in Phoenix last night.
“I was critical of Mr Trump throughout the primary,” Aguilar told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview, but moved to support Trump because he felt that, “along with other Latino conservative leaders, that we could help Mr. Trump move towards the center.”
But after last night’s draconian address on immigration, in which Trump not only called for a “deportation task force” to hunt down undocumented immigrants but called for restrictions on legal immigration not seen in more than half a century, Aguilar feels “misled”.
“There’s nothing compassionate or human in his speech,” Aguilar said. “Not only did he double down on his proposals, I think they’re even worse.”
Positing that the speech was drafted by “the main anti-immigration groups,” Aguilar called the address “a nationalist, nativist speech, the kind of speech we would hear 100 years ago ... it was a very scary speech and, again, we thought that he was gonna move to the center. In a way, we fell that we were a little bit misled.”
Melania Trump sues Daily Mail for $150m
Lawyers for Melania Trump have filed suit against the Daily Mail in Maryland state court for publishing what Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, called “lies ... that Mrs. Trump supposedly was an ‘escort’ in the 1990s before she met her husband.” Harder said in a statement to reporters that these “actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at $150 million dollars”.
The suit, filed in Montgomery County in suburban Washington DC, was filed in response to articles published in August by the Daily Mail which reported rumors that Melania Trump worked as an escort in the 1990s. In first announcing that she was considering a suit, Trump’s lawyer called those rumors “100% false”.
The Daily Mail article also contained allegations that Melania Trump came to New York a year earlier than she has claimed, raising issues about her immigration status. The lawsuit notes that while the article in question has been removed from the Daily Mail’s website, the newspaper has yet to apologize or formally retract
The Republican nominee’s wife is also suing blogger Webster Tarpley. Tarpley’s blog post, which has since been retracted, claimed, per the suit, that “it is widely known Melania was not a working model but rather a high-end escort” and that she had a “mental breakdown” after the plagiarism controversy over her speech to the RNC.
Harder is best known for representing Hulk Hogan in the lawsuit that eventually bankrupted Gawker Media and forced the website to be sold in an auction to Univision last month. That suit was notoriously funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a vocal Trump supporter.
Steve Klepper, an appellate lawyer for the highly respected Baltimore law firm Kramon & Graham, saw legal maneuvering in the inclusion of the blogger. He told the Guardian “anytime you have a filing that adds a minor in state defendant, it’s a flag that they were joined to prevent removal to federal court. And as we know, Donald Trump has not been having been the best luck in federal court recently.”
He added: “Montgomery County has possibly the highest percentage college education jury pool in the whole country and I cannot see how the jury pool would be good for her.”
The lawsuit comes 68 days before Election Day and at time when Trump is under increased scrutiny after giving a hardline immigration policy speech only hours after striking conciliatory notes on the topic in a meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. It serves yet another distraction for the Republican nominee’s floundering campaign which has consistently trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls and a reminder of Trump’s combative relationship with the media.
The Republican nominee has blacklisted a number of news outlets and prevented from attending campaign events and has pledged to pass stricter libel laws if elected
A Trump campaign spokesperson told the Guardian “we do not have anything in addition to the Harder statement”.
The Daily Mail did not immediately respond a request for comment
Weakness, and voting for dictators.
Today is the 77th anniversary of Nazi Germany invading Poland and launching World War 2 in Europe. Reminder that weakness is dangerous
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) September 1, 2016
John McCain is not betting on a Donald Trump victory:
In a video released by his recently victorious campaign for the Republican nomination for US Senate, Arizona senator John McCain tells Grand Canyon State voters that “If Clinton is elected president, Arizona needs a senator who will act as a check.”
“No matter which side of the presidential election you’re on, whether you’re satisfied or dissatisfied with your choices for president, this election is an important one,” McCain intones in the ad. “My opponent, Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, is a good person. But if Hillary Clinton is elected president, Arizona will need a senator who will act as a check - not a rubber stamp.”
The message - echoing a similar stance taken by the Republican party in 1996 in the waning days of the general election that brought Bill Clinton’s landslide victory over Republican nominee Bob Dole - does not speak to much confidence in a Donald Trump victory in the general election.
Trump’s name is not mentioned in the ad.
Pastor Mark Burns is as it again:
Isnt this the TRUTH...!This is what Liberal #MSM do for @HillaryClinton...Great drawing @afbranco.. #Trump #ccot pic.twitter.com/JG0hapWRvz
— Pastor Mark Burns (@pastormarkburns) September 1, 2016
For years, Mexican politicians have said lax US gun laws help to arm the country’s drug cartels.
At a press conference with Donald Trump on Wednesday in Mexico City, President Enrique Peña Nieto said: “Every year, thousands of weapons and millions of US dollars in cash enter illegally into Mexico from the north, strengthening the cartels and other criminal organizations that create violence in Mexico.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of Trump’s key conservative backers, has long rejected such claims, arguing that guns sold by American dealers and smuggled across the border are not a major driver of crime in Mexico.
On Wednesday, however, in a largely conciliatory speech in Mexico City that preceded a more aggressive address on immigration at home in Arizona, Trump did not question Peña Nieto’s comment about guns. Instead, the Republican presidential candidate echoed the Mexican president’s longtime talking points.
“No one wins in either country when human smugglers and drug traffickers prey on innocent people, when cartels commit acts of violence, when illegal weapons and cash flow from the United States into Mexico,” Trump said.
The NRA did not immediately comment. The organization has been one of Trump’s most consistent supporters, endorsing him for president in May and investing in major anti-Hillary Clinton television ad campaigns.
Hillary Clinton raised more than $140m in August
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has had its best month ever, bringing in more than $143m in August for the campaign, as well as for the Democratic party. The campaign and allied action funds begin September with a more than $152 million war chest, built from donations from more than 2.3m people.
The average donation in August was $50, according to the campaign.
“Thanks to the 2.3 million people who have contributed to our campaign, we are heading into the final two months of the race with the resources we need to organize and mobilize millions of voters across the country,” campaign manager Robby Mook said in a release. “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric continues to drive voters away from him and the Republican Party and has created new opportunities for Democrats up and down the ticket. These resources will help us to register and turnout millions of voters to elect progressive candidates across the country.”
Of the $143m pot, a total of $62m was raised for Hillary for America - that is, Clinton’s official campaign - while roughly $81m was raised for the Democratic National Committee, as well as Democratic state parties, through the Hillary Victory Fund and the Hillary Action Fund.
The Clinton campaign starts the month of September with $68m in cash on-hand, with allied victory funds beginning the month with $84m.
Donald Trump’s campaign has not yet reported its August fundraising numbers.
Updated
Peña Nieto seeks Twitter fight with Trump
I’ll repeat what I told you in person, Mr Trump: Mexico will never pay for a wall.
– Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, replying to Donald Trump on Twitter
Repito lo que le dije personalmente, Sr. Trump: México jamás pagaría por un muro. https://t.co/IJNVe0XepY
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) September 1, 2016
Mexico will pay for the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2016
With a history of pushing legislation hostile to gay rights, abortion access and non-discrimination before the law, Mike Pence is one of the most polarizing running mate picks in... well, Sarah Palin was just eight years ago.
Anyway, Right Wing Watch has unearthed further odious content tied to Pence, published in the Indiana Policy Review when his name was on the masthead:
In one item titled “The Pinked Newsroom,” published in the December 1993 issue, the publication lamented that The Wall Street Journal took part in a job fair for gay journalists. The piece claimed that “gaydom” was a “pathological condition” and argued that LGBT editors and reporters should not keep their sexuality a secret because it might slant their coverage. “[T]he more extreme of the gay movement consider themselves members of a sexual determined political party,” the piece explained.
A few months earlier, in August 1993, the journal, with Pence on the masthead,published a piece objecting to the idea of gay people serving in the military.
Tim Kaine, apple picking pic.twitter.com/REJwXPgMXW
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) September 1, 2016
After Apple-Picking
By Robert Frost
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
Trump has one field office in Florida. Clinton has 51
The Tampa Bay Times reports that the Donald Trump campaign still has only one office open in the essential battleground state of Florida, despite a vow on 8 August by the campaign that it would open two dozen additional offices within two weeks:
The Republican nominee only has a Sarasota statewide headquarters open in the state he absolutely must win to be elected president, while the Democratic nominee has 51 offices even though she has multiple paths to winning that don’t require Florida’s 29 electoral votes.
Read further. A Trump advisor told the paper that those offices are on their way – in the next two weeks:
Karen Giorno, a Florida-based senior adviser to the Trump campaign, noted that they have 67 “county CEOs” helping identify and mobilize Trump supporters, 70,000 active volunteers, and three RVs working as “mobile field offices” criss-crossing the state and stopping at local festivals, gun shows and other functions to help organize Trump voters. Two dozen field offices are poised to open during the week of Sept. 5, she said.
McCain warns of Clinton victory in case for reelection
After easily dispatching with his Republican primary challenger, Arizona senator John McCain has turned toward the general election with a five-minute video in which he plays on the expectations of most voters (61%, in the Suffolk poll) that Clinton will win the presidency:
My opponent, Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, is a good person. But if Hillary Clinton is elected president, Arizona will need a senator who will act as a check, not a rubber stamp, for the White House.
McCain also alludes to the deep unpopularity of both presidential candidates:
No matter which side of the presidential election you’re on – whether you’re satisfied or dissatisfied with your choices for president – this election is an important one.
McCain appears to be a few points ahead of Kirkpatrick, in polling averages, but the consensus is that Kirkpatrick is a formidable challenger, especially with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket.
On Sept. 1! https://t.co/ubeRuW34lk
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) September 1, 2016
Updated
Here’s some analysis to go with that inert pile of numbers we threw at you a couple blocks ago.
Has the presidential race tightened? FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver thinks so:
The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has tightened. Clinton, whose lead over Trump exceeded 8 percentage points at her peak following the Democratic convention, is ahead by 4 or 5 percentage points today, according to our polls-only forecast.
The tighter margins in the polls, which reflect a loss of support for Clinton along with a modest improvement for Trump, have come gradually over the past few weeks. [...]
Silver warns Clinton supporters that the electoral college won’t necessarily protect her if the national race tightens further:
But what if the race continues to tighten? I’ve often heard Democrats express a belief that Clinton’s position in the swing states will protect her in the Electoral College even if the race draws to a dead heat overall. But this is potentially mistaken. Although it’s plausible that Clinton’s superior field operation will eventually pay dividends, so far her swing state results have ebbed and flowed with her national numbers.
Sanders to campaign for Clinton
Bernie Sanders will hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Labor Day for Clinton, according to a highly reliable local:
BREAKING: @BernieSanders to campaign for @HillaryClinton at Lebanon High School on Labor Day afternoon #nhpolitics #WMUR
— John DiStaso (@jdistaso) September 1, 2016
Clinton holds leads of varying sizes in new national polls
HuffPost Pollster has recently added four new polls to its average. Clinton leads them all, but the margins vary. Here they are (note that these margins are all for head-to-head races, excluding the Libertarian and Green candidates):
Suffolk / USA Today: Clinton +7
Ipsos / Reuters: Clinton +1
UPI / CVOTER: Clinton +3
Fox: Clinton +6
Pollster’s overall average depicts a six-point race:
Pollster estimate for 2016 President: Trump vs. Clinton: Clinton 48%, Trump 42% https://t.co/oRPJt9i883
— Tom McCarthy (@TeeMcSee) September 1, 2016
Majority of voters 'alarmed'; 44% think 'Donald Trump is a racist'
A new USA Today/ Suffolk University poll of likely voters has Clinton up 48-41 in a head-to-head race with Trump and up 42-35 in a four-way race. Those margins are in line with the averages.
The poll probes some interesting opinions apart from presidential preference. For example, asked “Just your own view, do you think Donald Trump is a racist?” 47% said no – but 44% said yes. 83% of African American voters surveyed said yes, while 61% of Hispanic voters said yes.
78% of respondents think Trump ought to release his tax returns. Only 31% think Clinton is “honest and trustworthy,” and as few – 30% – think Trump boasts those qualities.
Big 78-14 majority in Suffolk poll of likely voters think Trump should release tax returns. Clinton honest? 31% yes pic.twitter.com/yIUYSf1TOc
— Tom McCarthy (@TeeMcSee) September 1, 2016
How do Americans feel about the election? For 52%, the answer is “alarmed.”
Not sure I've seen a polling question like this, nor this majority response. pic.twitter.com/hEyFrOvNbz
— Austin Barbour (@Austin_Barbour) September 1, 2016
If you want to go into the demographic breakdowns, check out these charts. The National Review’s Liam Donovan points out that Trump appears to be underperforming with white voters:
Biggest thing that jumps out is Trump not doing nearly well enough among whites (49/41.) At that point AA/Hisp moot. pic.twitter.com/9HincNMRh5
— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) September 1, 2016
The survey has Clinton at +88 with African American voters and +41 with Hispanic voters, in a head-to-head matchup with Trump. 56% of Hispanics in the poll said they would be “scared” if Donald Trump were to be elected, and an additional 22% said they would be dissatisfied (12% said they would be satisfied; 10% said they would be “enthusiastic”).
That does sound uncomfortable...
Biden: “This is a guy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth that now he’s choking on because his foot’s in his mouth—with the spoon"
— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 1, 2016
Trump predicts Ohio win
To chants of “USA, USA, USA”, Trump took his nationalist message back to rustbelt later on Thursday at a lunchtime rally in Wilmington, Ohio.
The state has been hit hard by a decline in manufacturing jobs and the campaign seeks to weave together economic uncertainty with the uncompromising message on immigration.
“We will treat everyone with compassion but our greatest compassion will be for the American citizen,” Trump told the almost entirely white audience.
“No state has suffered more from bad trade deals,” he claimed. “Ohio has lost nearly one in three of its manufacturing jobs since Nafta and one in four since China entered the WTO [World Trade Organisation].”
National polls have begun to narrow again in recent days and although Clinton is still ahead here on average, the latest survey shows the candidates currently tied in Ohio.
“A new era of American greatness is going to begin a little earlier than scheduled on November 8th,” boasted Trump to wild cheers. “I think we’re going to win Ohio, big league.”
Annnd... Trump’s done. Was that his shortest speech yet?
Update:
Trump didn't mention Wilmington, Ohio (or its economic woes) by name once
— Jeremy Pelzer (@jpelzer) September 1, 2016
To be clear, this is the reason politicians typically would go to Wilmington. To talk about this. 8,000 jobs lost. https://t.co/zrLgJ3cRlY
— Chrissie Thompson (@CThompsonENQ) September 1, 2016
Updated
Donald Trump is delivering remarks in Wilmington, Ohio. He has already begun. Sorry to be a bit slow with supplying the video stream – he began on time!
Biden is onstage in Warren, Ohio, and he’s talking, of course, about kitchen tables. He’s boosting for senate candidate Ted Strickland, who’s behind in the polls to popular Republican incumbent Rob Portman, who so far seems to have shaken the purported Donald Trump Drag.
Roll Call writer and CBS News contributor Leslie Sanchez reports that there may be a wider defection under way from Trump’s Hispanic advisory board. Developing...
Hispanic leader who advises Trump camp telling me half of Trump's Hispanic advisory board is ready to resign today (15 of 30)
— Leslie Sanchez (@LeslieSanchez) September 1, 2016
Vice president Joe Biden is scheduled to pop up momentarily in Warren, Ohio, on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Here’s a live video stream:
Fun (?) fact: Warren, Ohio - where VP Biden is holding an campaign for Hillary Clinton - is the hometown of Roger Ailes.
— Elyse PG (@elysepg) September 1, 2016
Updated
Trump’s Mexico trip is not playing well for president Enrique Peña Nieto at home. “President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico’s decision to meet with possibly his country’s most-disliked man is turning into a public relations disaster for him, with social media posters and politicians calling it a national humiliation likely to lower the president’s already historically low popularity ratings,” runs an AP report:
Not only did Peña Nieto not demand that Donald Trump apologize for calling Mexican migrants rapists and criminals, but he stood silently by in their joint press conference while the Republican candidate repeated his promise to build a border wall between the countries.
Trump has suffered some internal damage from yesterday’s manic adventures, too, including the loss of two top backers from the Latino community who have hit EJECT:
This is how I feel: disappointed and misled https://t.co/7wqVBFwEjB
— Alfonso Aguilar (@amigoaguilar) September 1, 2016
Here's a Trump Latino advisor Jacob Monty now rebuking Trump: "He must want to lose. He can do that without me." pic.twitter.com/5QznNFfyje
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) September 1, 2016
Updated
Trump promises Legion crowd 'to help to strengthen respect for our flag'
American schoolchildren will be taught greater respect for patriotic values, Donald Trump promised on Thursday, as he followed a key anti-immigration speech by stepping up his appeal to “Americanism”, writes Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:
“We will stop apologising for America, and we will start celebrating America,” the Republican presidential candidate told an enthusiastic audience at the American Legion convention in Cincinnati.
A Trump administration, he said, would consult with the military veterans group to promote “pride and patriotism” in schools – “teaching respect” for the US flag and pledge of allegiance.
“That flag deserves respect, and I will work with American Legion to help to strengthen respect for our flag,” said Trump. “You see what’s happening. It’s very, very sad. And, by the way, we want young Americans to recite the pledge of allegiance.”
“One country, under one constitution, saluting one American Flag.. always saluting,” he added. “In a Trump administration, I plan to work directly with the American Legion to uphold our common values and to help ensure they are taught to America’s children. We want our kids to learn the incredible achievements of America’s history, its institutions, and its heroes.”
The call to “advance the cause of americanism – not globalism” came as Trump doubled down on the anti-immigration message at the heart of his campaign.
Further to come...
Updated
Kaine tells press Clinton doesn't talk to that Clinton talks to them
Hillary Clinton running mate Tim Kaine has told CBS News that “Hillary takes questions from reporters every day,” “she talks to the press everywhere she goes,” and “she did a press conference”:
.@timkaine, pressed by @NorahODonnell, says Clinton talks to the press "everywhere she goes" pic.twitter.com/oRSV1j06gh
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) September 1, 2016
It’s been 270-plus days since Clinton held a press conference. She appeared at an American Legion convention in Ohio yesterday without taking questions from the press. She has not permitted press access to her fundraisers including multiple events last weekend in the Hamptons. A week ago, after her speech on Trump’s “long history of racial discrimination,” Clinton declined to take questions from reporters, instead offering them chocolate. The Clinton campaign, in an unusual move, has barred reporters from her plane:
A @jeneps tweetstorm on Clinton's press practices https://t.co/zdM8LRLzKv pic.twitter.com/cUBpTe1QnD
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) September 1, 2016
What might reporters ask Clinton? She might be asked how her staff handled requests from the Clinton foundation when she was secretary of state. She might be asked about the seemingly continuous discovery of work-related emails she did not turn over to the state department after she said she turned over all her work-related emails. She might be asked about her false assertion that FBI director James Comey had called her statements about her email “truthful,” about her subsequent explanation that she “short-circuited” when she said that and about other possible short-circuits.
It’s plain why Clinton might not prefer to do a news conference. She might be asked, after all, about Anthony Weiner. And maybe her campaign calculates that it would look bad for her to answer questions about potential pay-for-play through the Clinton foundation, even if her answers are perfect. The whole exercise might just stir up whatever thoughts and feelings people have about Clinton that caused 60% of responding registered voters to tell Washington Post pollsters last month that they do not think she is trustworthy.
Updated
Trump: 'there's softening'
“I think you’re going to see there’s really quite a bit of softening,” Trump tells conservative radio host Laura Ingraham this morning, vis-à-vis his immigration policy platform.
After an immigration speech last night devoid of softness, Trump maintains still "oh, there's softening." pic.twitter.com/KeRvw5l9XD
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) September 1, 2016
While we do not wish to punt on whether Trump’s current stance represents a “softening” from his previous stance, our evaluation of the question is hampered by having only his words to go on. And what are words? “What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.” Here’s a link to the full text of the Tractatus with an intro by Bertrand Russell.
Wow. This doesn't sound like "softening." GO, TRUMP!!!
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 1, 2016
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Did you catch Donald Trump’s big speech on immigration last night? No matter if not; to understand where Trump now stands on immigration, you may simply refer in your textbooks to the fall of 2015, when Trump emerged as a scorched-earth, anti-“amnesty”, anti-immigrant hardliner.
“There was no pivoting. There was no softening. There was just Donald Trump,” writes the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs of the speech:
In a much heralded immigration speech in Phoenix, the Republican nominee finally put to rest any pretence that he would moderate his views for a general electorate. “There will be no amnesty,” Trump proclaimed to a cheering crowd on Wednesday.
The Guardian’s Rory Carroll was in the room. “Donald Trump has vowed anew to deport millions of undocumented people and to build a wall on the border with Mexico, defying expectations that he would soften his stance on immigration,” he reports:
The Republican presidential candidate doubled down on his hardline stance in a speech on Wednesday night which delighted core supporters and dismayed his few remaining Latino allies who had expected a tack towards moderation.
The speech struck a contrast with Trump’s remarks earlier in the day as he stood in Mexico next to President Enrique Peña Nieto:
Trump began his Thursday by yelling about Mexico on Twitter:
Mexico will pay for the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2016
Trump did not say that in his appearance with Peña Nieto. Trump claimed the two did not discuss the matter of payment. Peña Nieto did not speak up when the world was watching but later tweeted that he had told Trump flatly that Mexico would not pay for a border wall.
Whatever else it did, the entire exchange elevated the fringe fantasy of a Mexican border wall to the realm of diplomatic debate.
Trump just failed his first foreign test. Diplomacy isn't as easy as it looks. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 1, 2016
#Trump takes the stage: 'what a crowd.. So many people.' pic.twitter.com/3YzsUNv9X1
— Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) September 1, 2016
Biden to campaign for Clinton
The vice-president is to speak on Clinton’s behalf at two events in Ohio today. Clinton herself has no scheduled public events until Labor Day.
Trump is to speak to the American Legion in Cincinnati this morning and then at a rally in nearby Wilmington.
Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
