Today in Campaign 2016
- Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in her first televised interview since the release of video that showed her husband bragging about sexually assaulting women, Melania Trump defended her husband’s “boy talk” as having been “egged on” by a television interviewer. “I said to my husband that, you know, the language was unappropriate,” Trump said. “It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know.”
- Despite the pressures of the campaign on her marriage, Trump said, she does not want people feeling bad for her. “People think and talk about me like, ‘oh Melania, oh poor Melania.’ Don’t feel sorry for me, don’t feel sorry for me. I can handle everything.”
- In an interview with Fox News’ Carl Cameron, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that while it would be “very easy” to apologize for recent sexual assault allegations made against him, “you can’t apologize for an event that never took place.”
- “First of all, they are all lies,” Trump said. “They are made-up stories, they were fabricated. Whether they like Hillary or whether they just want to become a little bit famous or something. You take a look at the butler. The butler was supposed to be the witness, the butler was my witness. I mean it was 100%, that was a disgrace that they were able to say it. It would be very easy to apologize but you can’t apologize for an event that never took place. These events never took place.”
- Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has “informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November”, the Financial Times reported:
Mr Kushner – an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign – contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
- Their conversation was brief and has not progressed since, the people said. Mr Bourkoff and Mr Kushner both declined to comment.
- The heat is on in Arizona. Clinton campaign manger Robby Mook summarized the state of the race as such: we think Hillary Clinton can win Arizona.The traditionally ruby red Republican state has only voted for the Democratic ticket once since the end of WWII, Bill Clinton in 1996. The campaign said it will spend $2 million in television, digital, and mail advertising there.
This is a state that would really foreclose the path for Donald Trump to win the White House,” Mook said of Arizona.
- Donald Trump has released a rare video message on Twitter accusing the Department of Justice, the State Department and the FBI of “colluding” to make Democratic rival Hillary Clinton look good.
Crooked Hillary colluded w/FBI and DOJ and media is covering up to protect her. It's a #RiggedSystem! Our country deserves better! pic.twitter.com/n2NpH3zmcy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
This happened:
This is not great. pic.twitter.com/gH1TmbcIYy
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) October 18, 2016
Donald Trump releases plan for 'ethics reform'
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, hitting hard against “crooked” opponent Hillary Clinton, has released a five-point plan for government reform “to drain the swamp in Washington, DC.”
The seven-sentence plan, as written:
First: I am going to re-institute a 5-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for 5 years after they leave government service. I am going to ask Congress to pass this ban into law so that it cannot be lifted by executive order.
Second: I am going to ask Congress to institute its own 5-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staffs.
Third: I am going to expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists.
Fourth: I am going to issue a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
Fifth: I am going to ask Congress to pass a campaign finance reform that prevents registered foreign lobbyists from raising money in American elections.
Not only will we end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation.
Report: Apprentice staffer claims Donald Trump laughed about groping
A female staffer on The Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump’s longrunning reality show, told The Daily Beast that actor Gary Busey sexually assaulted her on the set of the show - and that Trump laughed about the incident afterwards:
Multiple Apprentice employees, including the alleged victim herself, told The Daily Beast that the Academy-Award-nominated actor “grabbed” one of their colleagues “firmly between [the] legs” during the 2011 season of Celebrity Apprentice. Busey also forcibly put the female staffer’s hand on the crotch of his pants. The alleged incident, which they say took place during a location shoot in SoHo in New York City, prompted a firestorm among members of the Apprentice crew.
Citing five on-staff sources, The Daily Beast reports that the alleged incident took place when the celebrity contestants were tasked with selling inventory at an art gallery, where the contestants had been drinking.
“We were smoking cigarettes outside, and Busey was standing next to me. And then at one point, he grabbed me firmly between my legs, and ran his hand up my stomach, and grabbed my breasts,” the staffer told The Daily Beast. “I didn’t know what to do. So I made this joke that, ‘Oh, I’ve never been sexually harassed by a celebrity before!’ Then he grabbed my hand and put it [over] his penis, and said, like, ‘I’m just getting started, baby.’”
The staffer’s colleagues told The Daily Beast that Trump was made aware of the incident, responding that Busey needed to keep his hands to himself.
“Gary, did you do a bad thing…[and] got your hands where they’re not supposed to be,” a staff member recalled Trump as saying. Anoter said that Trump mockingly called Busey a “bad boy, a very bad boy.”
Donald Trump: 'You can't apologize for an event that never took place'
In an interview with Fox News’ Carl Cameron, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that while it would be “very easy” to apologize for recent sexual assault allegations made against him, “you can’t apologize for an event that never took place.”
“First of all, they are all lies,” Trump said. “They are made-up stories, they were fabricated. Whether they like Hillary or whether they just want to become a little bit famous or something. You take a look at the butler. The butler was supposed to be the witness, the butler was my witness. I mean it was 100%, that was a disgrace that they were able to say it. It would be very easy to apologize but you can’t apologize for an event that never took place. These events never took place.”
“Every one of those charges were false and they were lies,” he continued. “It didn’t even take place. I didn’t see them. The woman on the airplane, 35 years ago, 30 years ago? I mean, you don’t even believe that one. Okay? I don’t know maybe you’re very gullible, but you don’t believe that one. We have a woman on the airplane 35 years ago? No. These were bogus charges. These were lies. These were fabrications. I like saying it.”
“Somebody else would say let’s focus on jobs, which I do, let’s focus on ISIS, let’s focus on the second amendment and judges of the Supreme Court justices. I agree with that, but I want the truth to come out.”
Are you a fan of Broadway?
The Hillary Clinton campaign is hosting a star-studded Broadway spectacular at the St. James Theater in Manhattan, which is livestreaming here:
Melania Trump told Anderson Cooper that as first lady, she would hope to fight against bullying on social media.
Unrelatedly:
"@Don_Vito_08: "A picture is worth a thousand words" @realDonaldTrump #LyingTed #NeverCruz @MELANIATRUMP pic.twitter.com/5bvVEwMVF8"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Updated
Melania Trump, on Donald Trump’s Twitter use:
He’s an adult - he knows the consequences.
Continuing her interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Melania Trump told the anchor that the hardest part of the campaign has been media scrutiny of herself and her family, echoing claims by her husband that journalists and outlets are stacked against the Republican presidential nominee.
“I didn’t expect media will be so dishonest and so mean - I didn’t expect that,” Trump said. “From New York Post, two days in a row, they put me on the cover from pictures I did many, many years ago as a model.”
“It was done as art, as a celebration of female body, so they put it twice in a row,” she said, of the publication of risqué photographs from her modeling days in the 1990s. “In that story, they put the date when pictures were taken wrong. They never called me,” she said, “and suddenly becomes I was here illegally, I was married before. I was, like, ‘yeah, find the husband I was with before I was with my husband.’”
“Every story, it’s a female! It’s a female reporter!” she said. “It’s unacceptable.”
“I know he respects women, but he’s defending his, because they are lies,” Trump said, of her husband’s attacks on his accusers’ looks and credibility.
Despite siding with her husband during the controversies of the past two weeks, Trump indicated that she has cautioned their young son, Barron, from using similar language.
“I let him have a normal childhood as possible - we talk a lot, a lot about the campaign. We talk about the language, because we don’t allow the using that language,” Trump said. “I tell him that, there are consequences as well, and he needs to be careful of the langue he uses.”
“It was my decision not to be on the campaign trail,” Trump said. “I will be a parent to our boy, to our child.”
While she stands back, Trump said, her husband is happy to be leading the charge.
“He will fight ’til the end - and he will fight for the American people as he fight for himself.”
Melania Trump: 'Don't feel sorry for me'
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in her first televised interview since the release of video that showed her husband bragging about sexually assaulting women, Melania Trump defended her husband’s “boy talk” as having been “egged on” by a television interviewer.
“I said to my husband that, you know, the language was unappropriate,” Trump said. “It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know.”
Trump, breaking the traditional role of candidate’s spouse as cheerleader-in-chief, has largely eschewed appearances on the campaign trail following speculation that her speech at the Republican National Convention in July plagiarized Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. This makes the Slovenian-born former model’s appearance with Cooper notable even if more than a dozen allegations of sexual impropriety had not been leveled against her husband over the past week.
“Every Friday something comes out,” Trump told Cooper, dismissing the controversies that have followed her husband since he announced his candidacy for the White House last June.
“It’s very hard, especially for him,” she continued, “because he did so many stuff in his life. He was on so many tapes, so many shows. And we knew that, that, you know, tapes will come out, people will want to go against him. But my husband is real, he’s raw. He tells it like it is.”
Asked about whether she views her husband’s behavior in the video as “locker-room” stuff, as he has characterized it, Trump agreed.
“It’s kind of two teenage boys - actually, they should behave better,” Trump said. “I know how some men talk - that’s how I saw it.”
No matter the subject matter, she continued, Trump does not view her husband’s remarks in the video as descriptive of sexual assault.
“No, that’s not a sexual assault,” Trump said. “He didn’t say he did it, and I see many many women coming to him and giving phone numbers, and want to work for him and inappropriate stuff from women. And they know he’s married.”
“Every assault should be taken care of in court of law,” Trump said, but the accusations made in the media are “damaging and it’s unfair.”
“I believe my husband. This was all organized from the opposition,” Trump said. “They don’t have any facts and even the story that came out in People Magazine, the writer that she said that my husband took her to the room and start kissing her, she wrote in the same story about me that she saw me on Fifth Avenue and I said to her, Natasha, how come we don’t see you anymore? I was never friend with her. I’d never recognize her.”
“How we could believe her? That never happened.”
Despite the pressures of the campaign on her marriage, Trump said, she does not want people feeling bad for her.
“People think and talk about me like, ‘oh Melania, oh poor Melania.’ Don’t feel sorry for me, don’t feel sorry for me. I can handle everything.”
Donald Trump, on his low poll numbers:
There’s an undercurrent that they can’t poll.
On the heels of new polls showing him lagging behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by double digits nationally, Donald Trump exuded confidence at the beginning of a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“We are going to win the state of Wisconsin, and we are going to win back the White House!” Trump vowed, perhaps unaware that he has not led a poll in the state over the past year. “We’re gonna win it back!”
Trump was immediately interrupted by a series of protesters.
Donald Trump campaigns in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Watch it live here:
Report: Billy Bush out at Today Show after video backlash
It's official: Billy Bush is leaving NBC. After several days of negotiations, the exit deal is done, and being announced now
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 17, 2016
In a statement to Today Show staffers obtained by the Guardian, executive producer Noah Oppenheim wishes Bush well:
Dear colleagues, Billy Bush will be leaving the Today show’s 9am hour, effective today.
While he was a new member of the Today team, he was a valued colleague and longtime member of the broader NBC family. We wish him success as he goes forward.
Bush, for his part, expressed gratitude for “conversations” he’s had with female family members in the wake of the video’s release. The 2005 video showed Bush joking with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about sexually assaulting women.
I am deeply grateful for the conversations I’ve had with my daughters, and for all of the support from family, friends and colleagues. I look forward to what lies ahead.
At various points in the video, Bush - a cousin of former president George W. Bush and onetime presidential candidate Jeb Bush - laughed along at Trump’s boastings. When apparently spotting actor Arianne Zucker outside the bus, who is wearing a purple dress, Bush said: “Sheesh, your girl’s hot as shit in the purple. Yes, the Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!”
Later in the clip, Bush jokingly asked Zucker to “choose between me and the Donald”, and adds: “Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that’s good legs. Go ahead.”
Updated
Tom Brady clammed up last week when asked to comment on the genital-grabbing talk of his good friend Donald Trump, but on Monday he explained why he acted so evasively: because he didn’t want to be a distraction to his team.
Last week, in the wake of Trump’s unpleasant boast that he could “grab women by the pussy” without their consent because he was so famous, Brady was asked by a reporter at Patriots media day: “Tom, you have kids of your own … how would respond if your kids heard Donald Trump’s version of locker-room talk?”
Brady didn’t answer the question, and after a brief thank you, hurriedly left the stage. His non-answer provoked much ire, especially since many other athletes were quick to criticise Trump’s remarks.
Brady, who threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns in New England’s 35-17 win over the Bengals on Sunday, told Boston sports radio WEEI that he ducked the question because didn’t want to create extra headlines.
He said: “It’s just the way it is right now. Obviously there’s a lot of headlines to make, and I’ve tried not to make a lot of headlines. I’ve been in an organization where we’re taught to say very little, we have respect for our opponents and we don’t do the trash-talking.
“The thing I’ve always thought is I don’t want to be a distraction for the team. That’s what my goal is. Not that there are things I’ve said and done that haven’t been, but you try not to be. It’s just hard enough to win and prepare without the distractions so when you start having the distractions it’s even harder to prepare.”
However, Brady’s refusal to answer the question arguably created just as much of distraction for the Patriots, a point which was acknowledged by former New England receiver Troy Brown on Sunday.
Brown said: “[He should have said] just something, a quick answer on the question to get it out of the way, just answer the question to say, ‘I don’t condone it’ and then walk off the stage. The optics of it weren’t great. I understood what he was trying to do. But the next time he’s asked that question, then give a quick answer and let it be. I’m not responsible for what comes out of my friend’s mouth. But I am responsible for correcting my friend.”
Today, Brady again said that he and Trump have been friends for 15 years, and that “I’ve always had a good time with him”.
Juanita Broaddrick, on Donald Trump’s accusers:
If these accounts are true, yeah. If any possibility of these accounts being true, then I express my sympathy to the women that anything might have happened to. But I just don’t know. I have no idea.
Juanita Broaddrick on Trump sexual assault accusations: “If these accounts are true... than I express my sympathy” https://t.co/2ap3Byyqyz
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 17, 2016
More excerpts from Anderson Cooper’s interview with Melania Trump have been released, with the would-be first lady telling Cooper that she feels husband Donald Trump was “egged on” by Access Hollywood host Billy Bush into bragging about sexually assaulting women.
“I said to my husband that you know the language was unappropriate,” Trump told Cooper, according to an excerpt released by CNN this afternoon. “It’s not acceptable and I was surprised, because that is not the man that i know. And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on. Because they were kind of, ah, boy talk. And he was lead on. Like egg on from the host to say, uh, dirty and bad stuff.”
Trump told Cooper that she had never heard Donald Trump use similar language before.
“That’s why I was surprised,” Trump said. “Because I said like, I don’t know that person that would talk that way. And that he would say that kind of stuff in private. I’ve heard many different stuff, boys talk. I - the boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, ‘oh this and that’ and talking about the girls and, but I was surprised, of course.”
The full interview will air on CNN at 8pm ET.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, on whether President Barack Obama is worried about election fixing:
Not at all. And neither is Mike Pence.
This is trolling of the highest order:
A new billboard in Dearborn, Michigan says in Arabic: "Donald Trump: He can't read this, but he's afraid of it." pic.twitter.com/Zm425od5G2
— Shadi Rahimi (@shadirahimi) October 17, 2016
Donald Trump accuses FBI, Justice and State Departments of 'colluding' on Clinton's behalf
Donald Trump has released a rare video message on Twitter accusing the Department of Justice, the State Department and the FBI of “colluding” to make Democratic rival Hillary Clinton look good.
Crooked Hillary colluded w/FBI and DOJ and media is covering up to protect her. It's a #RiggedSystem! Our country deserves better! pic.twitter.com/n2NpH3zmcy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
“This is very big and frankly it’s unbelievable,” Trump said in the apparently unscripted video. “What was just found out is that the Department of Justice, the State Department and the FBI colluded - got together - to make Hillary Clinton look less guilty and look a lot better than she looks. This is one of the big-breaking stories of our time, in my opinion - this shows corruption at the highest level, and we can’t let it happen as American citizens.”
“So let’s see how the press covers it,” he continued. “The press likes not to cover it because the best thing that Hillary Clinton has going is the media. Without the media, she wouldn’t even be in this race. This is collusion between the FBI, the Department of Justice and the State Department to make Hillary Clinton look like an innocent person when she’s guilty of very high crimes. So all I can say is, let’s hope that our country gets a fair shake. This is a big mess.
Trump was likely referring to recently released FBI documents indicating that undersecretary of state Patrick Kennedy pressured the FBI to un-classify certain emails from Clinton’s private servers after they had been previously deemed classified.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has released an advertisement demanding to reclaim the word “circus” from the current state of American politics.
Poll suggests voters would be leaning Republican with another candidate
More US voters trust the Republican party to handle the issues they care about, according to a poll released by George Washington University today.
When asked about specific candidates, however, the same voters were more likely to say they trusted Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president.
The findings suggest that the Republican party might have been well ahead in the race for the White House in 2016, had Donald Trump not been their candidate.
The GWU poll asked 1,000 registered and likely voters what they felt was “the most important issue that the next president should be focused on”.
“The economy” was selected by 23% of respondents, followed by “dysfunction in government” (14%) and foreign threats (13%). Jobs and healthcare were both chosen by 10% of respondents.
By a clear margin, the voters were more likely to trust the Republican party on the economy, taxes and jobs.
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs joined The Federalist’s Ben Domenech in-studio to discuss this week’s election news, the country’s heightened distrust in the media, and Trump’s influence on future politicians and down-ballot Republicans.
“There haven’t been people yet conscientiously modeling themselves after Trump, trying to adopt the avatar,” Jacobs said. “Part of it is that this has happened in such a dramatic way that if you were in a primary in March or April, no one would even think of being this sort of avatar Trump movement.”
Join us for a debate viewing party
Remember the good old days when debates were just about sniffles and shimmies? As the narrative of the presidential race grows increasingly ugly, the debates are becoming a surreal spectacle of American democracy. Join Guardian US, WNYC’s newest podcast United States of Anxiety, and Tumblr for a pop-up viewing party for the final debate.
We’ll have pre-debate rooftop drinks, a big screen and political games - and we’ll wrap up the evening with a lively post-debate panel featuring some of the sharpest minds in media to break down the debate through the lenses of gender, inequality, and race. Admission includes beer, wine and light snacks. Let’s get through this thing together.
When: October 19, 7.30pm
Where: 35 E 21st St, New York City, NY, 10010
Melania Trump on Bill Clinton's past scandals: 'They're asking for it'
Would-be first lady Melania Trump thinks that former president Bill Clinton’s past infidelities are fair game in the waning days of the presidential campaign, telling Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt in an interview that “they’re asking for it.”
“Well, if they bring up my past, why not?” Trump asked rhetorically, in an excerpt of an interview slated to air tomorrow morning.
“They’re asking for it. They started,” Trump continued. “They started from the - from the beginning of the campaign putting my, my picture from modeling days. That was my modeling days and I’m proud what I did. I worked very hard.”
Trump was referring to risqué photographs from her modeling career that were published in the right-tilting New York Post during the Republican primary campaign. A Super Pac supporting now-vanquished Trump foe Ted Cruz also republished an image of Trump straddling a fur blanket in nothing but jewels and heels.
The Clinton campaign has, so far, made no mention of Melania Trump’s past work as a model.
Trump also dismissed 2005 videotape of her husband bragging about sexually assaulting women as “not the man that I know,” saying that she has accepted his apology and that the couple is “moving on.”
“This is not the man that I know,” Trump said. “This is - we could see, as I always said, as my husband said, as well, for a successful businessman, entrepreneur, entertainer to achieving so much in his life, being in so many shows, so many tapes, it’s very hard to run for public office. And he did this anyway. He said, I want to help American people. I want to keep America safe. I want to bring back jobs, bring back economy, so our children, our futures will be the best way possible.”
Updated
John McCain’s office has issued a clarification of remarks he made earlier today in which he declared that he wasn’t sure whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton would be better for the supreme court’s composition if he or she were elected:
Senator McCain believes you can only judge people by their record and Hillary Clinton has a clear record of supporting liberal judicial nominees. That being said, Senator McCain will, of course, thoroughly examine the record of any Supreme Court nominee put before the Senate and vote for or against that individual based on their qualifications as he has done throughout his career.
When asked by a Philadelphia radio station earlier today whether Trump would be better on matters like filling vacant seats on the nation’s highest court, McCain responded: “Uh, first of all, I don’t know, because I hear him saying a lot of different things.”
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s reported $1.25m contribution to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has prompted a high-profile Silicon Valley organization to cut ties with a startup incubator backed by the Republican donor.
Ellen Pao, a former Reddit executive and vocal advocate for diversity in tech, has announced that her group Project Include is ending its relationship with Y Combinator, the well-known startup “accelerator” where Thiel is a part-time partner.
“Thiel’s actions are in direct conflict with our values at Project Include,” Pao wrote today, referring to the not-for-profit group that she and a group of prominent Silicon Valley women formed earlier this year to push for “diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry”.
“Because of his continued connection to YC [Y Combinator], we are compelled to break off our relationship with YC. We hope this situation changes, and that we are both willing to move forward together in the future. Today it is clear to us that our values are not aligned,” Pao continued.
The announcement signals possible fallout in the California tech industry surrounding the political donations and campaigning of Thiel, who helped found PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook.
Thiel, a conservative outlier in the Democratic stronghold of Silicon Valley, became a state delegate for Trump earlier this year and delivered a much discussed speech at the Republican national convention, during which he said, “I am proud to be gay.”
Donald Trump has figured out why he likes some polls and hates all others:
New polls are good because the media has deceived the public by putting women front and center with made-up stories and lies, and got caught
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence told the crowd that he and Donald Trump are “gonna turn this country around.”
“I truly do believe that Donald Trump literally embodies the spirit of America,” Pence said, continuing a trend of using the word “literally” to mean its antonym.
“Even CNN’s poll says that we’re leading in Ohio by four percentage points!” Pence said. “This election is really a choice between two futures... and I choose a stronger America. I choose a more prosperous America. I choose an America that embraces and upholds the values in the Constitution of the United States of America.”
“It seems like everyday, the national media is doing half of Hillary’s work for her,” Pence said. “It really is amazing - they chase after every attack against my running mate.”
Hillary Clinton’s newest tactic: Highlighting Donald Trump’s “bullying.”
There are a lot of bullies in this world. The last thing we need is one in the White House. pic.twitter.com/M0owOglPjy
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 17, 2016
Poll: Clinton ahead in key swing states, tied in Ohio
In a four-way race, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in Colorado, Florida and Pennsylvania, according to the Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll out today. The nominees are tied in Ohio.
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Colorado: Clinton tops Trump 45% - 37%, with 10% for Johnson and 3% for Stein.
- Florida: Clinton edges Trump 48% - 44%, with 4% for Johnson and 1% for Stein.
- Ohio: Trump and Clinton tied 45% - 45%, with 6% for Johnson and 1% for Stein.
- Pennsylvania: Clinton leads Trump 47% - 41%, with 6% for Johnson and 1% for Stein.
The Quinnipiac pollsters attribute Clinton’s lead to a shift among independent likely voters embracing Hillary Clinton. Notable, Clinton has a double-digit lead among likely women and is crushing Trump among non-white voters by margins ranging from 28% to 76%.
Updated
Watch live: Mike Pence rallies in Columbus, Ohio
Updated
Just in: Melania Trump talks to CNN’s Anderson Cooper for her first sit-down interview since the allegations concerning her husband’s treatment of women became public. The interview will air at 8pm EST
After the release of the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, a number of women have come forward to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct and in some instances assault.
In a statement released after the publication of the hot mic recording, Melania Trump called her husband’s language “unacceptable and offensive”.
She continued: “I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
Also on TV tonight, President Obama joins the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Or stream the Broadway fundraiser for Hillary Clinton tonight. Lin-Manuel Miranda says he was up all night working on it.
Was up til 3 last night writing our thing for this thing. You can stream it. https://t.co/ZtBMRPgU1m
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) October 17, 2016
Updated
Because it’s that time of day when we could all use a pick-me-up. Melanianade, for your viewing pleasure.
You’ll just be that guy with the weird hair...
Updated
Did White House press secretary Josh Earnest just take a pot shot at Donald Trump? You be the judge:
Earnest was asked if he agrees with Donald Trump’s proposal that candidates should take a drugs test before presidential debates, David Smith reports.
“You’re telling me the candidate who snorted his way through the first two debates accused the other candidate of taking drugs?” Earnest shot back. “That’s a curious development.”
Asked to explain what he meant, Earnest said he was just having fun and was a little disappointed he did not elicit more chuckles from assembled journalists.
.@PressSec says ironic Trump asking for Clinton to take drug test after sniffling his way through debate
— Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) October 17, 2016
When they go low, we go... high? https://t.co/9bonesx4U2
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) October 17, 2016
Updated
Guardian political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui files this dispatch from autumnal New Hampshire, where Donald Trump got his start and where Democrats stand a real chance of clawing back a Senate seat.
Since the recording of Trump emerged, Republicans and right-leaning independents everywhere have found themselves soul-searching as they vacillate between party and principle. But in the battleground of New Hampshire, a state that holds the distinction of being the first in US history to have an all-female delegation of congresswomen and senators, Trump’s latest controversy is, for some female voters, perhaps the final straw.
A number of women who spoke with the Guardian at the strip malls of the Manchester suburbs said they were deeply troubled by Trump’s remarks, even as they confessed to still being torn over their choices.
Updated
White House "not at all" concerned about 'rigged' election
The White House has full confidence that the 2016 election will be won “freely and fairly”, reports David Smith reports from the White House briefing room.
Asked if he is concerned that the election will be rigged, White House spokesman Josh Earnest replied: “Not at all. Neither is Mike Pence, who is the second highest ranking official in the Trump campaign. Neither is Paul Ryan.”
Earnest noted that many battleground states including Florida and Ohio have Republican governors so he assumes they have confidence in their systems. “We have seen these kind of suggestions in the past but every time there’s been an effort to conduct a study and investigate suggestions of widespread voter fraud there’s never been evidence to sustain it.”
The press secretary told Monday’s briefing that Barack Obama has confidence the election will be conducted “freely and fairly”.
Updated
If you’ve ever listened to a Donald Trump speech you’ve probably heard a thing or two about the so-called “mainstream media”. (You talking to me?)
Well, it turns out the MSM just might have a liberal bias after all – at least when it comes to this election.
A new report by the Center for Public Integrity found: In all, people identified in federal campaign finance filings as journalists, reporters, news editors or television news anchors — as well as other donors known to be working in journalism — have combined to give more than $396,000 to the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Trump ...
Nearly all of that money — more than 96 percent — has benefited Clinton: About 430 people who work in journalism have, through August, combined to give about $382,000 to the Democratic nominee, the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis indicates.
While journalists are generally expected to remain agnostic in their political coverage. Many news organization restrict or prohibit reporters from making political donations out of concern the contribution will compromise a journalist’s – or the newsroom’s – impartiality.
To play devil’s advocate, reporters have been labeled “corrupt” “dishonest” “sleazebag” “real beauty” and on one occasion he appeared to imitate a disabled New York Times journalist. Oh, lest we forget: The Committee to Protect Journalists warned that Donald Trump poses an unprecedented threat to press freedom.
Read the full report here.
Clinton triples lead in Monmouth poll
Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 12 points, 50-38, among likely voters in a new Monmouth University poll of a four-way presidential race. That’s three times what Clinton’s lead in the poll was just three weeks ago.
Libertarian Gary Johnson drew 5% support in the poll and Green party candidate Jill Stein drew 2% support.
Voters have a favorable opinion of neither candidate, the poll found, but Trump’s already low favorability rating was measured as slipping further:
Currently, 38% of voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton and 52% have an unfavorable view of her. This compares with a 36% to 54% rating last month. Only 26% of voters have a favorable opinion of Trump, though, while 61% have an unfavorable view of him. This is down from a 32% to 57% rating last month.
The conference call with camp Clinton revealed more details about its concerted push to expand the electoral map and help Democrats win back the Senate this November. And there’s one man to thank for making it possible, campaign manager Robby Mook said.
“Donald Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day, and that is increasing prospects for Democrats further down the ballot,” Mook said.
The campaign will spend $6m on get out the vote efforts in seven key battleground states: Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The states are where Mook said the “senate majority will be won or lost”.
The Clinton campaign also senses an opportunity in Indiana and Missouri. Clinton will invest $1m in the two states, where she leads Trump but where Democrats stand to pick up important seats. Additionally, they will spend $2m in Arizona. They are also looking at a six-figure effort in Georgia coupled with $250,000 investment in Nebraska and Maine.
In total, Mook said the campaign is investing $100m in the “unprecedented” coordinated campaign effort aimed at boosting Democratic candidates in Senate, House, gubernatorial and even local races.
Mook was also asked to comment on Trump’s claim that the system is rigged.
Look, Donald Trump’s campaign is spiraling. He is desperately trying to shift attention from his own disastrous campaign. He knows he’s losing and is trying to blame that on the system. This is what losers do,” Mook said.
Chafee regrets placing metric system adoption at center of bid
After a year of soul-searching, reviewing videotapes and crafting comeback lines, Lincoln Chafee has decided what went wrong with his US presidential bid last year: he should never have proposed that the United States adopt the metric system.
Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor and US senator, made adoption of the metric system a key plank of his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. But that was a bad idea, he admits in a new interview with Esquire, in which he described the “sabbatical year” he has taken since suspending his presidential campaign on 23 October 2015.
“I was saying, should I put it in or not?” Chafee recalls of the decision to include his signature campaign plank. “My wife said, no, it will be misunderstood. And she was right.”
At his peak, Chafee hovered at about half a percentage point in national polling averages.
Chafee has rewatched – multiple times – the tape of his October 2015 debate with Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and other Democratic primary candidates, he told Esquire, and he thinks he was treated unfairly by moderator Anderson Cooper.
“If I had to do it over again I would’ve engaged more and said, ‘I didn’t come here to debate five people, I came to debate these four people!’ Chafee said. “I’ve watched the tape a couple times. I couldn’t get a rhythm going without any time, and without being interrupted in my answers.”
Chafee June 2015 announcement of a presidential run was covered by the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, who deemed the announcement “weird.”
Chafee expounded at the time on his expertise in the metric system, saying: “I happened to live in Canada as they completed the process. Believe me it is easy. It doesn’t take long before 34 degrees is hot.” Responding to a follow-up question Chafee said this would be “a symbolic integration of ourselves into the international community after mistakes of past 12 to 14 years”.
Updated
The heat is on in Arizona.
We just hung up the phone after a conference call with Clinton campaign manger Robby Mook who summarized the state of the race as such: we think Hillary Clinton can win Arizona.
The traditionally ruby red Republican state has only voted for the Democratic ticket once since the end of WWII, Bill Clinton in 1996. The campaign said it will spend $2 million in television, digital, and mail advertising there.
This is a state that would really foreclose the path for Donald Trump to win the White House,” Mook said of Arizona.
Bernie Sanders heads to the desert on Tuesday, followed by Chelsea Clinton on Wednesday and Michelle Obama on Thursday. Mook even hinted at the possibility of an appearance by Clinton herself in the coming weeks.
The state is also home to a hotly contested Senate race between senator John McCain, who is seeking a sixth term, and Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick. The two were locked in a dead heat this summer but McCain, who recently withdrew his support for the Republican nominee, has pulled far ahead in recent polling.
The Clinton campaign is hopeful Republicans’ triangulation over how to handle Trump may help in close senate races like Arizona.
Updated
Donald Trump seems almost to be free-associating now, on a busy morning on the candidate’s Twitter feed:
Voter fraud! Crooked Hillary Clinton even got the questions to a debate, and nobody says a word. Can you imagine if I got the questions?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
Maybe someone showed him a flash card. Anyway, how the line about “Clinton even got the questions to a debate” relates to “Voter fraud!” is initially unclear. One supposes the person who supposedly handed Hillary Clinton the questions before the first presidential debate and/or facilitated her collusion with moderator Lester Holt is/was/would have been a voter. Maybe that’s it.
In other Trump tweets this morning, he seems upset by the latest news on Hillary’s emails, which Reuters phrases thus:
Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy pressured the FBI to un-classify certain emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server that were previously deemed classified, according to FBI documents released Monday that cited redacted sources.
In the documents, an unnamed person interviewed by the FBI said Kennedy contacted the FBI to ask for the change in classification in “exchange for a ‘quid pro quo.’”
‘Quid pro quo’ is a loaded phrase in this election – the right has used it when making claims about the activities of the Clinton Foundation. Others have used it when wondering about Trump’s habit of donating to political figures involved in investigations of his business and charitable interests.
Obama speaks in Washington
President Barack Obama is speaking now on education at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, a magnet school in Washington DC.
Updated
Over the weekend, Twitter took the opportunity to prematurely thank Billy Bush for donating his exit settlement to women’s charities. The Today anchor is currently negotiating the terms of his departure with NBC after his unflattering appearance in the recently published 2005 Access Hollywood video.
On the hot mic recording, Bush giggles as Donald Trump boasts about groping and kissing women without their consent. Since the video’s release, several women have come forward with sexual misconduct and assault allegations against Trump that match his own description in the tape. The Republican nominee has vehemently denied each of the claims.
Bush hasn’t actually said he will donate the money, but no matter.
What a guy! #ThanksBilly pic.twitter.com/rsnUmmLUfU
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) October 16, 2016
What a great save. Really the only decent thing to do. #ThanksBilly !! https://t.co/4eE0VHytFy
— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) October 16, 2016
Aaaand I've been had by a hoax. Damnit Gad. Damnit https://t.co/Es9ntmB2m0
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) October 16, 2016
Updated
Journalists have devoted unknown hours of deep investigative research to expose the large-scale voter fraud phenomena Trump keeps warning us about.
The conclusion:
Is there evidence of large scale voter fraud?
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) October 17, 2016
...
...
No.
“Voter Fraud” is a dog whistle that means “brown people are voting” which makes it dumb to refute by pointing out actual fraud doesn’t exist
— Jonah Sutton-Morse (@jsuttonmorse) October 17, 2016
You are more likely to be groped/sexually assaulted by Trump then you are to be the victim of voter fraud. https://t.co/o8ezhpJrJV
— Eric Heggie (@ericheggie) October 17, 2016
Talk about going full Breitbart. I debunk this in my 2012 book, #TheVotingWars. See also Minnite, Myth of Voter Fraud (1/2) https://t.co/NsYgyJBHpw
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) October 17, 2016
A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation found 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast https://t.co/oYLo60E8GF
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) October 17, 2016
Donald Trump has received little love from the land of milk and honey. But billionaire Pay Pal co-founder Peter Thiel stands out.
The investor will donate $1.25m to Trump’s campaign, according to a report in The New York Times on Monday. The money will go to Super Pacs supporting the Republican nominee as well as the campaign directly.
The only prominent supporter of the Republican candidate in the high-tech community, Mr. Thiel is making his first donation in support of Mr. Trump’s election. He will give $1.25 million through a combination of super PAC donations and funds given directly to the campaign, a person close to the investor said on Saturday.
The donation puts the billionaire investor high on a very short list of big Trump contributors. One of the biggest donors is Robert Mercer of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. He and his daughter Rebekah Mercer have given $15.5 million in support of the Republican candidate’s election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Geoffrey Palmer, a Los Angeles developer, has donated $2 million.
Read the full NYT story here.
Updated
On (and off) the campaign trail:
Hillary Clinton hunkered down in Chappaqua this weekend preparing for the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday. She has no public events scheduled before the debate.
Her running mate Tim Kaine is also down for the day, though Bernie Sanders will campaign for Clinton at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Bill Clinton is holding two events in New Hampshire. Chelsea Clinton will attend a glitzy, star-studded fundraiser-concert at New York City’s St James Theatre. Billy Crystal will host the show and performances promise something for everybody: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Dunham, Julia Roberts, Helen Mirren,Uzo Aduba, and many more.
Donald Trump spent the weekend campaigning up and down the East Coast. He has a rally today in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His running mate, Mike Pence, will hold two events today in the battleground state in Ohio.
Updated
This morning, Trump has again decried the electoral system, alleging “large scale voter fraud” without offering any evidence to support this claim.
Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
The Republican nominee also re-tweeted a link from a contributor to Alex Jones’ Infowars website, which has been pulling for Trump this election. Jones is the shock jock and conspiracy theorist who thinks Hillary Clinton is a demon.
"@PrisonPlanet: Trump accuser praised him in an email as recently as April! This is all yet another hoax. https://t.co/tcKzmIKpfS" Terrible
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has “informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November”, the Financial Times reported:
Mr Kushner – an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign – contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Their conversation was brief and has not progressed since, the people said. Mr Bourkoff and Mr Kushner both declined to comment.
Presumably Trump does not plan on setting up a TV station if he wins the presidency (a presumption that may be foolish).
Trump: election ‘rigged’ ‘at polling places’
When the Republican nominee failed to win an Emmy for The Apprentice, it was rigged. China tried to rig the Olympics. The 2016 primaries were definitely rigged, even though Trump won. The 2012 presidential election? Also extremely rigged, in Trump’s telling:
CORRECTED: This series of tweets from election night 2012 loom larger and larger in my mind. He's never renounced or tried to explain them. pic.twitter.com/IIpwUaWiLJ
— Billmon (@billmon1) October 16, 2016
Trump is once again yelling about a rigged election, except this time he is the Republican nominee and the accusation seems a greater threat to undermine faith in free and fair elections: half of Trump supporters told AP/ORC pollsters earlier this month that they had little or no faith that their votes would be counted fairly.
On Sunday, after Mike Pence and other surrogates went on TV to reassure the country that when he said “rigged” Trump was just talking about a media conspiracy, Trump clarified that no – he meant that local election officials, or someone, was rigging the election at the precinct level:
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
Rigging a presidential election would involve a conspiracy on par with the international banker-media-Clinton scheme against Trump that the candidate described last week. In short, presidential elections are transparent and decentralized and thus difficult to rig. The Twitter timeline of Ashby Law and the presidential historian Paul Brandus below are good places to start for more analysis along these lines:
Regarding @realDonaldTrump and "election rigging" pic.twitter.com/jtBmKcyYbh
— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) October 17, 2016
Warren: Trump ‘chicken’ for not releasing taxes
Democrats raise funds for burned GOP office in North Carolina
After a Republican office in liberal Orange County, North Carolina, was firebombed at the weekend, with no injuries, David Weinberger, a research fellow at Harvard Law School, and others set up a GoFundMe to rebuild. “Donations quickly poured in and the campaign’s $10,000 goal was surpassed within a couple hours,” Weinberger told the Huffington Post. “In total, organizers raised $13,167 from 552 donations before closing the fund.”
Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Clinton eyes Arizona
With the exception of Bill Clinton’s re-election, Arizona has not gone Democratic in a presidential election since Harry Truman. The Clinton campaign thinks it might this year, announcing Bernie Sanders early-vote rallies in Tucson and Flagstaff for Tuesday and a Chelsea Clinton event in Tempe on Wednesday.
Stunning quote on the state of the race in Arizona. Arizona! https://t.co/4jFOjb8JAS pic.twitter.com/Cdkjn6fYaO
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) October 16, 2016
Beyoncé: ‘Doing nothing right now is not an option’
If you need motivation to vote, here's Beyoncé giving an impromptu word about #Election2016. pic.twitter.com/78AaQDWkc3
— Raquel Willis (@RaquelWillis_) October 16, 2016
ICYMI, here’s the Saturday Night Live sketch that got under Trump’s skin:
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