Today in Campaign 2016
Here are some highlights from the campaign trail:
- Hillary Clinton, for the first time since launching her campaign, declared herself the inevitable nominee of the Democratic party, having held off a surprisingly strong challenge from her progressive rival, Bernie Sanders. While Clinton has maintained a comfortable lead in both delegates and votes, her opponent has refused to bow out of the primary race even as his path to the nomination narrowed. Today, Clinton said her pledged delegate lead is “insurmountable” and concluded that Sanders is no longer a barrier on her path to the nomination.
- “I will be the nominee for my party … That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I won’t be,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN.
- Sanders communications director Michael Briggs responded to Clinton’s declaration by saying that millions of Americans have growing doubts about her viability against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. “In the past three weeks, voters in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon respectfully disagreed with Secretary Clinton,” Briggs said in a statement.
- Billionaire David Koch has pledged to give former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson “tens of millions of dollars” to run a presidential campaign if he wins the Libertarian nomination, according to a report from Daily Caller. The Libertarian Party’s convention will be held next month.
- The likely and presumptive winners of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations have their work cut out for them, according to an exhaustive new poll from the New York Times. Trump is viewed negatively by 55% of the electorate, with only 26% viewing him favorably. It’s a massive enthusiasm gap, nearly matched by that of likely Democratic opponent Clinton, who is viewed negatively by 52% of voters, and positively by less than a third. Sanders, meanwhile, is viewed positively by 41% of voters.
That’s it for today - tune in tomorrow for more up-to-the-second updates from the campaign trail!
Hillary Clinton is fundraising off of comments she made in an interview earlier today in which she said that the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is not qualified to be president.
Today during an interview, I was asked if I think Donald Trump is qualified to be president.
My answer was no.
This week alone, he’s alienated Great Britain (one of our closest allies) and praised the reckless dictator in North Korea. A qualified nominee would recognize that either of those statements is a colossal mistake.
But a qualified nominee would also never suggest that we ban all Muslims from entering our country, violating our deeply-held principle of freedom of religion and endangering our partnerships with allies who are absolutely essential in the fight against terrorism.
So, no - Donald Trump is not qualified to be president.
But if we don’t work as hard as we can every day from now until November 8th, he’ll be the next president of the United States.
Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager declared tonight that the Vermont senator will take his pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination all the way to Philadelphia, pushing his quest to the party’s national convention.
Although the nation’s final primary will be in Washington, DC, on June 14, with the final primaries of consequence taking place in California and New Jersey one week previous, Jeff Weaver told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that Sanders will push past those conventional deadlines
“That’s not the end of the election, frankly, because there are a bunch of superdelegates at the convention who have to vote, so the election is not over when the primary-caucus voting is over,” Weaver said.
The plan, Weaver said, is for Sanders to close his gap in pledged delegates in the final primaries with enough momentum to sway enough superdelegates to swing over to his side.
America’s gun rights activists have been so successful, they’re running out of territory to fight over. Pushing for more gun-carrying on university campuses “kind of indicates you’re in engaged in a mop-up action after you’ve won the war”, said Dave Kopel, an attorney and prominent gun rights advocate.
But as 80,000 National Rifle Association members and their families begin to gather in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday for the group’s annual meeting, they are not all feeling secure in their victories. After years of dodging the issue, some Democratic politicians are once again focusing on the toll of gun violence. A better-funded gun control movement is playing defense in state capitals across the country – and has had some success in getting voters to approve gun control policies directly via ballot measure.
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year has also put the what many have called the most NRA-friendly decision in supreme court history on uncertain ground.
The court’s 2008 District of Columbia v Heller decision found that Americans have an individual right to own firearms for personal protection and struck down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban. But Heller was decided 5-4, with more liberal justices arguing against its sweeping interpretation of the second amendment. The outcome of the 2016 election will determine whether Scalia’s replacement on the court is another gun-rights-friendly conservative, or a more liberal justice who might shift the balance of the court.
Jennifer Baker, an NRA spokeswoman, said the organization sees “a very real risk” that Heller could be overturned.
“Our supporters really understand the importance of a supreme court nominee in terms of their rights. They make the connection,” she said. “The stakes have never been higher than they have been in terms of this election.”
Hillary Clinton may not have deemed Donald Trump qualified to serve as president, but the real estate tycoon has decided that he is qualified to serve as an aviation expert.
Speaking at a fundraiser in New Jersey on behalf of campaign surrogate Chris Christie, Trump told the assembled donors that the missing EgyptAir Flight 804 was “blown out of the sky.”
“If anyone thinks it wasn’t blown out of the sky, you’re 100% wrong, folks,” Trump said.
The EgyptAir flight, which went missing late last night, had 66 people on board. Although officials in multiple countries have not ruled out terrorism, US aviation authorities told ABC News that no explosion - such as one caused by a bomb - was detected along the plane’s flight path by American satellites.
Trump, for the record, has been citing terrorism as the cause all along.
Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2016
Hot fire:
If you cite supporting torture and hosting pageants as foreign policy "qualifications," your definition needs work. https://t.co/3JbmzuxEK5
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 20, 2016
Poll: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are massively disliked
The likely and presumptive winners of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations have their work cut out for them, according to an exhaustive new poll from the New York Times.
Donald Trump is viewed negatively by 55% of the electorate, with only 26% viewing him favorably. It’s a massive enthusiasm gap, nearly matched by that of likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, who is viewed negatively by 52% of voters, and positively by less than a third. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, is viewed positively by 41% of voters.
When broken down into qualities that voters find important in their president, Trump and Clinton are viewed with intense skepticism. On trustworthiness, the two are nearly tied, with only 31% of voters calling Trump “trustworthy,” and 32% saying the same of Clinton. Asked whether the candidate shared their values, Clinton performed slightly better, at 37%, while Trump stayed at 31%, still deeply negative territory for both candidates.
Donald Trump’s campaign has responded to likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s declaration that he is unqualified to serve as president, protesting that she’s the one who is unqualified.
“The fact that Hillary thinks the temporary Muslim ban, which she calls the ‘Muslim ban’, promotes terrorism, proves Bernie Sanders was correct when he said she is not qualified to be President,” the campaign said in a statement.
“Look at the carnage all over the world including the World Trade Center, San Bernardino, Paris, the USS Cole, Brussels and an unlimited number of other places,” the statement continued. “She and our totally ignorant President won’t even use the term Radical Islamic Terrorism. And by the way, ask Hillary who blew up the plane last night - another terrible, but preventable tragedy. She has bad judgement and is unfit to serve as President at this delicate and difficult time in our country’s history.”
The New York Post’s Page Six is reporting - yes, the famous gossip column sometimes reports political news - that Donald Trump’s putative campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and spokesperson Hope Hicks got into it in the middle of a New York City sidewalk last night, engaging in a screaming match over the role of Paul Manafort, who the presumptive Republican nominee has tapped as the chargé d’affaires at the party’s national convention this summer.
Onlookers were stunned to see Hicks, 27, hollering at Lewandowski, 42, in plain view of passersby on 61st Street near Park Avenue.
One witness told us, “ Hope was screaming at Corey, ‘I am done with you!’ It was ugly, she was doubled over with her fists clenched. He was stood there looking shocked with his hands on his head.”
Other sources insist the street showdown was about how to handle the announcement that seasoned political operative Paul Manafort would be taking an even larger role in Trump’s campaign, and how Lewandowski’s role would be defined going forward.
Palace intrigue in Page Six - just another day in Trumpland.
A delegate for Donald Trump from Maryland has been indicted for production of child pornography, among other charges that included illegal possession of a machine gun and illegal transport of explosives, WJLA reports.
Caleb Andrew Bailey, who acts as a delegate for Trump in Charles County, faces up to 50 years in prison.
“We strongly condemn these allegations and leave it in the capable hands of law enforcement,” Trump’s campaign told The Daily Beast. “He will be replaced immediately.”
A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC has unveiled its newest anti-Donald Trump advertisement, in which he is lambasted as a “con man” whose business initiatives - Trump Mortgage, the Trump Network, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka and Trump University, among others - are all scams or failures.
A bill that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by three years in prison passed the Oklahoma legislature on Thursday, shifting controversy surrounding the measure on to the state’s anti-abortion leader, Governor Mary Fallin.
The bill, which opposing legislators say is patently unconstitutional, is almost unprecedented in modern times: a near-total ban on abortion. If it becomes law, any doctor who performed an abortion, except to save a woman’s life, would face criminal prosecution and the loss of his or her medical license. Oklahoma currently has two licensed abortion clinics.
Fallin, who is widely thought to be under consideration as Donald Trump’s running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, has not publicly indicated if she will sign the bill. Her office has said she does not intend to comment until it can review the legislation.
Without her signature or veto, the measure will become law in five days.
Sanders campaign: Millions have 'growing doubts' about Clinton
Bernie Sanders communications director Michael Briggs has responded to Hillary Clinton’s declaration that there is “no way” she won’t be the Democratic nominee, saying that millions of Americans have growing doubts about her viability against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“In the past three weeks, voters in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon respectfully disagreed with Secretary Clinton,” Briggs said in a statement. “We expect voters in the remaining eight contests will also disagree. And with almost every national and state poll showing Sen. Sanders doing much, much better than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump, it is clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign.”
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Ah, the importance of copyeditors.
The Texas Republican party has just adopted its 2016 platform, which, in addition to advocating for the preservation of American and Texas sovereignty, limiting government power and the preservation of human life, also states that homosexuality “has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.”
Presumably, this is the result of a few typos.
Located between sections condemning human trafficking and advocating for so-called reparative therapy for LGBT Texans, a misplaced verb appears to have accidentally given homosexuality the fervent endorsement of the Texas Republican party.
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino has more on Hillary Clinton’s declaration that she “will be” the Democratic presidential nominee.
While Clinton has maintained a comfortable lead in both delegates and votes, her opponent has refused to bow out of the primary race even as his path to the nomination narrowed. Today, Clinton said her pledged delegate lead is “insurmountable” and concluded that Sanders is no longer a barrier on her path to the nomination.
“I will be the nominee of our party,” Clinton said. “That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I won’t be.”
Clinton has 1,768 pledged delegates compared with Sanders’ 1,494 delegates, out of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination. When super-delegates – unbound delegates who are free to switch their support – are taken into account, Clinton needs just 90 more delegates to clinch the nomination.
The Sanders’ campaign maintains that if it can level the playing field with a win in California, where polling shows the candidates close, he can then flip enough super-delegates to wrest the nomination from Clinton.
Sanders has pledged to remain in the race until the California primary on 7 June, and has previously vowed to continue his campaign through the party’s convention in Philadelphia this summer.
“I should tell you, that there a lot of people out there – many of the pundits and politicians – they say Bernie Sanders should drop out … Well let me be as clear as I can be: I agree with you. We are in until the last ballot is cast,” Sanders told a crowd in California on Tuesday.
Donald Trump pushed for a blacks-versus-whites season of his reality show The Apprentice in 2005, Buzzfeed has excavated, citing media reports at the time that quickly led to heated backlash against the purported billionaire.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Trump declared that he “wasn’t particularly happy with the most recent season,” and so had decided to do the casting of the next season himself.
His big casting idea? “An idea that is fairly controversial - creating a team of successful African-Americans versus a team of successful whites,” Trump said. “Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world.”
Trump admitted at the time that “not everybody thinks it’s a good idea,” and never ended up going through with the notion.
Last month, Arizona senator John McCain reportedly told a group of donors that he’s gearing up for “the race of my life,” anticipating fallout among the state’s large Latino community from the nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican standard-bearer.
The first move in that race? Make Arizona voters forget he ever supported Trump-like policies.
The senior senator’s campaign blocked YouTube from displaying one of his very own campaign ads from his 2010 re-election campaign, after the ad was uploaded by challenger Ann Kirkpatrick’s campaign with Spanish subtitles. The ad featured McCain walking along Arizona’s border fence with a county sheriff, telling a Border Patrol agent to “complete the danged fence.”
“John McCain is trying to hide his comments and agenda from the Latino community and Arizonans now that he admits he’s caught in the ‘race of his life,’ ” D.B. Mitchell, a Kirkpatrick campaign spokesperson, told the Hill.
According to Lorna Romero, a McCain campaign spokesperson, the advertisement was only blocked for copyright violation - not because it provided McCain’s previous stance on border fences to Spanish-speaking voters.
“The Kirkpatrick campaign launched a digital ad which was a clear copyright violation and YouTube agreed,” Romero said.
Bill Weld, the former two-term governor of Massachusetts and Libertarian vice-presidential hopeful, has likened the rise of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to a mass pogrom in Nazi Germany that helped spark the Holocaust.
“I can hear the glass crunching on Kristallnacht in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vienna when I hear that, honest,” Weld told the New York Times today, referring to Trump’s planned expulsion of 11 million undocumented immigrants from the US. Although Weld does not consider himself a member of the #NeverTrump movement, he continued that “when I think about some of the positions, I think they’re way out there.”
When asked point-blank whether he considered Trump a fascist, Weld said that his statements spoke for themselves. “My Kristallnacht analogy does evoke the Nazi period in Germany,” he said. “And that’s what I’m worried about. A slippery slope.”
“No, I wouldn’t call Mr. Trump either a fascist or a Nazi,” Weld continued. “I’m just saying, we got to watch it when we get exclusionary about people on account of their status as a member of a group.”
The question of whether Trump’s populism is sliding into authoritarianism has been raised with greater volume lately, but this is the first comparison of the real estate tycoon’s candidacy to the rise of Adolf Hitler by any candidate on the national stage.
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Bernie Sanders is beefing up his Hollywood support ahead of the California primary on 7 June.
Clinton says Trump isn't 'qualified' to be president
Hillary Clinton just sat down for an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN, where she declared Donald Trump’s behavior this week proof that he is “not qualified” to be president, and that she wouldn’t respond to his personal attacks.
“I know that’s exactly what he’s fishing for, and I’m not going to be responding,” said Clinton.
The Democratic frontrunner also said despite Bernie Sanders continuing his campaign, she thinks there’s no doubt she’ll be the nominee.
“That is already done, in effect, there is no way that I won’t be,” she told Cuomo, in an interview in her hometown of Park Ridge, Illinois. “I’m three million votes ahead of him, I have an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates.”
The former secretary of state said she understood how the Sanders campaign felt, as she’d won nine of the last 12 primaries in 2008 and understood the emotional toll when the maths doesn’t add up to a win.
“I know the intense feelings, particularly among your supporters as you go towards the end,” said Clinton.
But she said it was up to Sanders to unite his supporters against Trump, not her.
“I’m absolutely committed to doing my part, more than my part. Senator Sanders has to do his part,” she said, referring to how she came out in support of Obama in the 2008 election.
“What brings us together is Donald Trump,” said Clinton.
Although she didn’t address Trump’s latest comments, where he referenced allegations of rape against her husband Bill Clinton (allegations he has always vehemently denied), Clinton did focus on several of Trump’s policies, calling policies such as his ban on Muslims “potentially dangerous”.
“It sends a message of disrespect and it sends a message that makes the situation inside those countries not to go all in, the way we need them to go all in,” said Clinton.
“All Muslims. Nobel Prize winners, entertainers, sportspeople, the new mayor from London... The whole approach is incredibly provactive and wrong-headed,” she said.
Clinton also addressed EgyptAir 804, the crashed plane whose wreckage has been found in the Mediterranean this morning.
“If this turns out to be an act of terror… our biggest concern is what’s going on in Europe. That is something we do need to address and deal with with all of our partners,” said Clinton.
Updated
Now other sources connected to the Koch brothers are denying the Daily Caller report that David Koch has pledged “tens of millions” to support Libertarian Gary Johnson.
"Reports that we are supporting or considering supporting any 3rd party presidential candidate are false" -- Koch source to @LACaldwellDC:
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) May 19, 2016
David Koch reportedly pledges "tens of millions" to Libertarian candidate
Billionaire David Koch has pledged to give New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson “tens of millions of dollars” to run a presidential campaign if he wins the Libertarian nomination, according to a report from Daily Caller.
The Libertarian Party’s convention will be held next month.
Although Koch and his fellow billionaire business brother Charles are usually aligned with the Republicans, both have expressed displeasure at the direction of the party and the rise of Trump.Johnson is trying to position himself as a Trump alternative.
Yesterday Johnson confirmed that former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld, would run as his vice-president if he got the nomination.
A classic step in launching a presidential campaign is a candidate’s own researchers vetting them to ensure their team knows exactly what dirty laundry might be aired - and why it stinks.
But Donald Trump refused to allow himself to be vetted, reports Mother Jones.
According to a source with direct knowledge, when Trump was considering entering the presidential race early last year, his political advisers, including Corey Lewandowski, who would become his campaign manager, suggested that Trump hire a professional to investigate his past. But the celebrity mogul said no and refused to pay for it.
Marital infidelity, connections to mob-related persons, bankruptcies, the hiring of undocumented workers, policy flip-flops, deals gone bad, legal troubles - Trump’s life is an opposition researcher’s dream. That was no secret to his political lieutenants, who prior to his announcement discussed the need to conduct a deep dive into the tycoon’s background. The point was to go beyond Googling and perusing the many books written on Trump - and mount a full forensic examination of everything Donald. Especially before anyone else did. (Trump’s aides had heard a rumor that wealthy conservative donors, perhaps including the Koch Brothers, were underwriting a private opposition research effort aimed at the former reality TV star.)
What has Donald Trump done to the Republican party?
The New York real estate developer has only been his party’s presumptive nominee for two weeks but his role as the GOP standard-bearer could have a generational impact on his party and on conservative ideology.
However, Trump’s heresies on a number of key issues could lead to a redefinition of what it means to be a Republican, as he pointed out himself in a recent interview on ABC: “Don’t forget, this is called the Republican party. It’s not called the conservative party.”
Although Trump’s personal political views have shifted through the years on any number of issues, “Trumpism”, for lack of a better term, has emerged as a populist blend of nationalism and protectionism. It is vociferously anti-immigration, strongly pro-tariff, opposed to cuts in entitlement spending and deeply skeptical of an interventionist foreign policy while still being very hawkish. Elements of this worldview have long lingered within the Republican party, animating the unsuccessful primary campaigns of Pat Buchanan in 1992 and 1996. The question is whether, thanks to Trump, this will emerge as a viable ideological wing of the Republican party.
So far, Trump has inspired a handful of Republicans facing primaries, including incumbent representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina – who is in a race with fellow incumbent George Holding due to redistricting – and Paul Nehlen, who is mounting a long-shot challenge to the House speaker, Paul Ryan, in Wisconsin.
Read the rest of this article here
Updated
Dying GOP Senator apologizes to Muslims for Trump
While on his death bed, a former GOP Senator attempted to apologize to Muslims for the Islamophobic behavior of Donald Trump.
Former Utah legislator Bob Bennett passed away earlier this month, but while he lay dying, he wanted to make amends for his party’s new leadership, his family told The Daily Beast.
“Are there any Muslims in the hospital?” Bennett asked his son Jim and wife Joyce.
“I’d love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump,” he said, according to his wife and son who recounted the story.
Bennett was a three-term Senator, losing his seat during the rise of the Tea Party in the 2010 elections.
“In the last days of his life this was an issue that was pressing in his mind… disgust for Donald Trump’s xenophobia,” said his son Jim. “At the end of his life he was preoccupied with getting things done that he had felt was left undone.”
Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, lambasted Fox News’ Megyn Kelly for her interview this week with Donald Trump, saying she didn’t go hard enough against his misogynist comments once face-to-face.
Noah declared last night:
Last night’s interview didn’t seem to be about journalism or the Republican Party or even the election. It seemed like it was about two brands - Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly - and whether they could forge a mutually beneficial partnership, just like Chipotle teams up with bacteria to help you lose weight.
Noah talked about the hype over the interview before it aired: “It was like if Apple revealed the new iPhone in the middle of a new Byeonce song in the middle of the new Star Wars sequel.”
The Daily Show host said by laughing off some of Trump’s comments about her, “Megyn Kelly just got negged.”
(Negging is a technique from the terrifying world of “pick-up artists,” where a man insults a woman to make her vulnerable and then she attempts to prove herself worthy).
But Kelly fought back against Noah’s argument on Twitter this morning:
So grateful I have men like @Trevornoah 2 advise on how to deal w/gender attacks- I'm sure his life experience far better than mine on this!
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 19, 2016
Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti writes this week about how voters don’t necessarily care about Donald Trump’s bad history with women - partly because just presenting slurs the billionaire has said doesn’t give voters context of why they should care about them.
...Democrats seem to be under the mistaken impression that merely showcasing Trump’s sexism is enough to sway Americans. But in the wake of Bernie Sanders supporters leaving death threats and misogynist slurs on a Nevada official’s voicemail, it’s become harder to ignore the pernicious gender issues that plague the left.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign needs to explain to voters why they should care about Trump’s misogyny – and misogyny in general – and talk about the impact it could have. Because sexism knows no party, and some of those irate male Sanders fanscould make their way to Trump instead of supporting Clinton (something Trump’s campaign is prepared for.)
It’s true, the vast majority of Democratic voters aren’t misogynists. But they’re not all feminists either. If the Democratic elite assumes that all liberal voters are outraged by sexism, they’ll be making the same devastating miscalculation the GOP elite did when they assumed Republican voters were tied to the same conservative ideals they cared about.
Read the rest of her column here.
Former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Robert Gates criticized Donald Trump’s tweet about the EgyptAir 804 plan crash, where Trump remarked that the crash “looks like yet another terrorist attack.”
“Let’s just suppose that it turns out not to be a terrorist event,” said Gates on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning. “Then what do you say having made these allegations and so on. So it’s always better to wait until you actually know what the facts are before you open up.”
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. In an hour-long interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, Donald Trump resurrected allegations of rape against former president Bill Clinton.
Trump’s remarks came in response to a question from Fox’s Sean Hannity, who asked Trump how he felt about a recent New York Times article that dug into the candidate’s troubled history with women. Trump called the article a “con job” that made him “furious”.
Hannity asked:
Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey? In one case, it’s about exposure. In another case, it’s about groping and fondling and touching against a woman’s will.
“And rape,” Trump responded.
“And rape,” Hannity said.
Overnight the Hillary Clinton campaign issued a response which which didn’t directly mention Trump’s comments.
“Trump is doing what he does best, attacking when he feels wounded and dragging the American people through the mud for his own gain. If that’s the kind of campaign he wants to run, that’s his choice,” said Nick Merrill, Clinton’s campaign spokesman, in a statement.
In 1999, Broaddrick alleged that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978 when she was looking to volunteer on his Arkansas gubernatorial campaign. Clinton’s attorney denied the allegations on his behalf. Jones sued president Clinton for sexual harassment, and Willey has claimed that the president sexually assaulted her during his first term in the White House. Clinton settled out of court with Jones for $850,000, and denied Willey’s accusations.
The latest from Trump and Fox News comes as Clinton has yet to respond to an invitation from Fox to participate in a debate between the Democratic candidates, ahead of the California primary on 7 June. Bernie Sanders signed up for the debate yesterday.
Sanders meanwhile continues to gear up for the Golden State, last night holding a rally with thousands in Vallejo, California.
Check out this @BernieSanders Vallejo, CA crowd. People still filing in through the metal detectors. pic.twitter.com/xTMNuiCsOJ
— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) May 19, 2016
Elsewhere, Trump will hold a fundraising event in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with Governor Chris Christie late this afternoon, with the proceeds going to pay off debts from supporter Christie’s own failed campaign run.
Clinton will be in Illinois speaking at two fundraising events, one in Chicago and the other in Park Ridge. Sanders doesn’t seem to have any public events today.
Candidates are also looking to EgyptAir Flight 804, which disappeared en route from Paris to Cairo. Though French president Francois Hollande announced the plane had crashed and that “no hypothesis can be ruled out”, Trump has already declared it a terrorist attack.
Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2016
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