Today in Campaign 2016
- Late-breaking news: The Washington Post reports that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is considering a last-minute meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto tomorrow in Mexico City, hours before he is scheduled to deliver a major address on immigration in Phoenix aimed at clarifying his increasingly murky stance on the issue.
- The State Department says about 30 emails that may be related to the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI’s recently closed investigation into her use of a private server.
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Marco Rubio has launched his political comeback with a decisive victory in the Florida primary that sets up a battle with Democrats for control of the US Senate in November. Despite announcing his decision to seek re-election only two months ago, the freshman senator saw off a challenge from Trump-supporting real estate developer Carlos Beruff to win the Republican nomination by a comfortable 71 percentage points to 19 in tonight’s contest.
- In an interview with MSNBC, Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist implied that he has had access to Hillary Clinton’s medical records, and what he has seen of the former secretary of state’s medical history is “really not so good”. The admission by Dr. Harold Bornstein - a likely violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, if Bornstein is indeed referring to Clinton’s private medical records - came as part of a longer interview with MSNBC in which Bornstein attempted to play down the four-paragraph letter he penned in December that claimed Trump “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” if he is elected.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz wins primary
Florida congresswoman and former head of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz has won her Democratic primary, according to the Associated Press, winning 58% of the vote in Florida’s 23rd District with 56% of precincts reporting, compared to 43% for law professor Tim Canova.
Canova raised more than $3m after Vermont senator Bernie Sanders called for his election following Schultz’s resignation from the chairship of the DNC after leaked emails revealed a climate of anti-Sanders sentiment in the upper echelons of the DNC.
The Guardian’s Dan Roberts has more on Marco Rubio’s victory in the Florida primary:
Marco Rubio has launched his political comeback with a decisive victory in the Florida primary that sets up a battle with Democrats for control of the US Senate in November.
Despite announcing his decision to seek re-election only two months ago, the freshman senator saw off a challenge from Trump-supporting real estate developer Carlos Beruff to win the Republican nomination by a comfortable 71 percentage points to 19 in Tuesday’s contest.
Previously, Rubio had announced his retirement from politics after losing his home state to Trump by some 20 points in the presidential primary election. He was persuaded to change his mind as Republican leaders in Washington sensed that the senate race in the state could prove pivotal.
On Tuesday night the Associated Press also projected Florida congressman Patrick Murphy had won the Democratic nomination to run for the Senate – by a margin of 59 to 18 percentage points. It sets up a tight race with Rubio in November, who is now narrow favourite to hold the state and could prevent Democrats netting the four seats nationwide they may need to swing control of the Senate.
Murphy saw off a lackluster challenge from a once promising leftwing fireband, Alan Grayson, who was badly damaged by domestic abuse allegations and reacted angrily to probes into his background.
It looked to be a disappointing night overall for the progressive wing of the Democratic party, which had also hoped to unseat the former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz after she was seen to take sides against Bernie Sanders in the presidential race.
Sanders endorsed the anti-establishment candidate Tim Canova in the 23rd House District around Miami, but he was trailing Wasserman Schulz by some 16 percentage points by the time of the Senate declarations.
Canova, who did not receive much direct support from Sanders, hinted at a possible concession as soon as the polls closed, telling supporters: “No matter what happens, we should all be proud of what we’ve accomplished in a short period of time.”
Trump campaign manager in 2008: Clinton and Obama argued 'whether she should let him sit on the back of the bus'
Donald Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said that “Hillary and Obama were arguing about whether she should let him sit on the back of the bus of her presidential ticket” in an appearance on Larry King Live in 2008, a comment with racial undertones that the Democratic Coalition Against Trump is emphasizing in a video released of the remarks.
Report: Donald Trump considering trip to Mexico
The Washington Post reports that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is considering a last-minute meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto tomorrow in Mexico City, hours before he is scheduled to deliver a major address on immigration in Phoenix aimed at clarifying his increasingly murky stance on the issue.
Talks on logistics and security for the candidate’s potential visit are still ongoing between Trump’s campaign team and the Mexican government. Trump is scheduled to appear at fundraisers in California tomorrow morning, as well as deliver his immigration address in Phoenix at 6pm local time (9pm ET). The trip to Mexico City to meet with Nieto - who has previously invited Trump to debate him in Mexico - would occur somewhere in the middle of the day.
The trip was first broached with the US embassy in Mexico City earlier this week, a fast-tracking of an international visit by an American presidential candidate that is typically planned over the course of weeks, not days.
Trump’s approval ratings among Latino voters are historically bad, and his at-this-point theoretical relationship with Nieto’s government is even worse: Trump has long pledged to force Mexico to pay for a 2,000-mile border wall along the US-Mexico border, a suggestion Nieto responded to coldly.
“No way,” Nieto told CNN earlier this year.
Standing by.
Standby... the Post has confirmed an explosive development in the campaign tonight... expected to happen, tho details still being sorted out
— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 31, 2016
Republican Governor Chris Christie today vetoed an attempt to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in the next year and to at least $15 an hour over the next five.
Christie said raising the minimum wage would burden small businesses and described the proposal as the “heavy hand of government”.
Announcing his decision at an event at a market in Pennington, the governor said raising pay was the job of business owners.
“All of this sounds great, raising the minimum wage, when you’re spending someone else’s money,” he said.
Democrats, who control the statehouse, and liberal groups have put the legislation at the center of their agenda. The legislature sent Christie the measure in June. Democratic leaders say they will pursue a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage without the need for Christie’s approval.
“The governor’s actions have only served to temporarily thwart a unified effort to raise New Jersey families and provide a much needed boost to our economy,” said Analilia Mejia, director of the left-leaning group NJ Working Families.
Marco Rubio wins Florida senate primary
Republican senator and onetime presidential candidate Marco Rubio has won his primary in Florida this evening, and is set to face off against Florida congressman Patrick Murphy in the general election.
At the time the Associated Press called the race, Rubio had won 71% of the vote to developer Carlos Beruff’s 20%; Murphy had won 59% to congressman Alan Grayson’s 18% and Pam Keith’s 15%.
Rubio had originally intended to retire in the event of his race for the White House ending unsuccessfully, but his decision in June to re-enter the race nearly cleared the field of would-be Republican nominees.
Updated
Keeping an eye on Florida...
No surprises in the early-vote #FLsen returns pic.twitter.com/qeIBQRttNO
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) August 30, 2016
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on former Texas governor Rick Perry joining the cast of Dancing With the Stars:
Rick Perry may have infamously forgotten the third government agency he wanted to abolish in 2011 – but he’ll need to remember his dancing shoes this fall.
The three-term governor of Texas and two-time failed Republican presidential candidate is appearing on the reality show Dancing With The Stars. According to a report from Entertainment Tonight, Perry will join Olympian Ryan Lochte, one-hit rapper Vanilla Ice and former NFL star Calvin Johnson on the televised dance competition.
Although the show has been televised for 23 seasons, Perry will be only the second former elected official to take his turn twirling on stage.
However, he won’t be the first competitor with close ties to the GOP. Past seasons have featured the former House majority leader Tom DeLay, who resigned in 2006 after being charged with campaign finance violations, as well as Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, and Antonio Sabato Jr, a former soap opera actor who spoke in support of Donald Trump in Cleveland in July.
In the show’s most recent season Marla Maples, Trump’s ex-wife, finished 10th behind former NFL player Doug Flutie and ahead of actor Mischa Barton.
Donald Trump surrogate Pastor Mark Burns has re-tweeted the same image that landed him in hot water yesterday, only this time, without Hillary Clinton in blackface:
Getting Your Head chopped off by ISIS is more important than a cartoon...Can You Hear Me Now? #STOPTHEPANDERING pic.twitter.com/jKfMmd1uYN
— Pastor Mark Burns (@pastormarkburns) August 30, 2016
Poll: 31% of Trump supporters support wall along Atlantic Ocean
In the darkest days of this presidential campaign, political reporters have come to rely on the good people at Public Policy Polling to answer the questions none of us thought to ask: How many people would choose being crushed by a giant meteor instead of electing Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Who plans on voting for Deez Nuts in the presidential election? Who’s winning, Jill Stein or Harambe?
Support for President: Gary Johnson 6%, Harambe 5%, Jill Stein 2%
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) July 31, 2016
In its latest poll, PPP found that in addition to widely supporting Trump’s signature policy proposal of building a wall along America’s border with Mexico, nearly one in three - 31% - of the Republican presidential nominee’s followers support building a wall along the Atlantic Ocean to keep Muslims from entering the country from the Middle East.
PPP found that 52% are opposed to that idea.
Donald Trump's doctor: I've seen Hillary Clinton's medical history, and it's 'not so good'
In an interview with MSNBC, Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist implied that he has had access to Hillary Clinton’s medical records, and what he has seen of the former secretary of state’s medical history is “really not so good”.
The admission by Dr. Harold Bornstein - a likely violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, if Bornstein is indeed referring to Clinton’s private medical records - came as part of a longer interview with MSNBC in which Bornstein attempted to play down the four-paragraph letter he penned in December that claimed Trump “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” if he is elected.
That letter, penned in five minutes as he awaited a Trump Organization limousine, was the result of a request from Trump himself, Bornstein told MSNBC:
“I guess he called and he said the Clinton organization was going to publish a letter on her health, and I know her physician, and I know some of her health history, which is really not so good, so I said ‘Why not. I would do that for you too,’” Bornstein said.
The letter describing Trump as profoundly healthy was released in response to letter released by Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton’s personal physician, that discussed her own health history.
Carly Fiorina is campaigning on behalf of the first Republican member of the House of Representatives to explicitly run against Donald Trump.
Had so much fun in Colorado—they’re in good hands with strong conservative leaders like @RepMikeCoffman! pic.twitter.com/EqLII6FnuA
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) August 30, 2016
Updated
Sean Hannity went on an extended rant on his radio program today blaming the #NeverTrump movement for the Republican presidential nominee’s polling woes, telling conservative commentators and politicians like Glenn Beck and Texas senator Ted Cruz that if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election this November, it will be on their heads.
“You own Hillary Clinton. National Review, you own it. Glenn Beck, you own it. Ted Cruz, you own it,” said Hannity, a Trump supporter. “She wins, I’m blaming all of you,, you own all of her policies.”
“Well, let me just say to all of you,” Hannity continued, after naming numerous members of the Republican party who have disowned Trump. “And that includes the commentator class. That includes the Jonah Goldberg class, that includes radio talk show hosts. Glenn Beck is like on a - it’s a holy war for him at this point. I mean, he’s off the rails attacking me every day. Blaming me for Trump. Well, no. I was fair to everybody, Glenn. Whether you want to admit it or not. I know I was fair. My conscience is clear. And I, frankly, I’m proud to pull the lever for Donald Trump with a clear conscience.”
Just give us something with a little flair.
From a GOP presidential candidate, this is huge!
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) August 30, 2016
From a design perspective, this is trash. https://t.co/KYugAmYApz pic.twitter.com/UeN4k9UVNM
The pharmaceutical company Mylan is facing more political pressure to confront the price hike of EpiPen after 20 US senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, sent an open letter on Tuesday to the company criticising its “exorbitantly expensive” price hikes.
Reports emerged last week that the company had implemented a series of gradual price increases inflating the price of the drug from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461% increase in cost since Mylan acquired the rights to EpiPen in 2007. During that same time, Heather Bresch, chief executive officer of Mylan, saw her pay rise $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671% increase. Last week, she sold 100,200 of her shares in the company for more than $5m.
“The EpiPen auto-injector delivers a life-saving dose of epinephrine to patients suffering from anaphylaxis. Anaphylactic shock can lead to serious injury or death if untreated; thus, making sure the EpiPen is readily available for use is a critical part of life for millions of Americans living with severe allergies,” the Democratic senators wrote in the eight-page letter addressed to Bresch.
“The EpiPen, however, has become so exorbitantly expensive that access to this life-saving combination product is in jeopardy for many Americans.
“Mylan’s near monopoly on the epinephrine auto-injector market has allowed you to increase prices well beyond those that are justified by any increase in the costs of manufacturing the EpiPen,” the senators wrote.
Donald Trump's reporting pool to include blacklisted outlets
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has, at long last, debuted its print pool of reporters, which includes news outlets like the Washington Post, Politico, Buzzfeed News and the Huffington Post, all of which have been blacklisted from attending Trump’s events in official capacities for months, according to Politico.
The print pool - a rotating cast of reporters that follow the candidate’s daily movements in order to share resources with other pool members, avoiding redundancy and expenses - is a tradition for most presidential campaigns, but the Trump camp’s hostility to the idea (and the press in general) has delayed its creation.
It’s unclear whether the informal blacklist against certain outlets and reporters will continue upon the pool’s creation. Most journalists from blacklisted outlets have had their credentials to Trump’s events denied for months, forced to enter and file as members of the public and occasionally kicked out of venues anyway.
The inclusion of blacklisted outlets in the pool may mean that reporters who cover Trump one week from the pool may be banned from even attending his rallies the next.
The most powerful fundraisers in Republican politics are cutting their pursestrings in the race for the US Senate in Ohio, suggesting that incumbent Rob Portman has all but locked up his reelection.
According to a report from the Hill, the so-called “Koch network” of donors and operatives on the dole from billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch has cancelled $2.1m in advertising meant to bolster Portman’s chances against former Ohio governor Ted Strickland. The Koch network has already poured more than $10m into the race in advertising dollars, with the results to show it: Portman currently leads Strickland by roughly seven points in an aggregate of polls, and Democrats have shown signs of giving up on Portman’s seat as part of their plan to retake control of the senate.
“Rob Portman has run one of the strongest campaigns of the cycle, he maintains a significant lead in virtually every poll, and the dynamics of the race have changed,” Koch network spokesman James Davis told the Hill.
“We will remain on air through September 14th with our current ads, but given Portman’s strong position in the race, we are going to drop the remaining reservation and reserve flexibility over future spending.”
CNN’s Phil Mattingly says that Trump supporters have been told that Donald Trump’s appearance in Snohomish County, Washington - where Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney by 17 points in the 2012 lection - will likely be his last in the liberal Pacific Northwest:
folks in line at Trump's WA event say they were told this is Trump's last rally in this part of the country, so they felt they had to come
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) August 30, 2016
Preparations for the first presidential debate in four weeks vary wildly between candidates, our man in Washington David Smith reports, with Hillary Clinton said to be deep in books and Donald Trump taking a more freewheeling approach.
It is being described as the political equivalent of the Super Bowl, World Cup final and Rumble in the Jungle rolled into one – or the smartest person in the room versus the class clown.
When Hillary Clinton faces Donald Trump in the first presidential debate on 26 September, a record TV audience of tens of millions is expected to watch a fascinating clash of styles that could go a long way to determining who wins the White House.
Clinton, the Democratic candidate, is said to be deep in books and painstaking rehearsal, mastering every policy detail and leaving nothing to chance. Republican rival Trump, characteristically, is understood to be taking a more freewheeling approach, hoping that his experience as a reality TV celebrity will carry the day.
“It’s really different this time because Trump is such a wild card,” said Lanhee Chen, who helped prepare Senator Marco Rubio for this year’s Republican primary debates against Trump. “The most important thing as someone facing him is to have your own strategy and not get thrown off. The danger is to chase ever shiny objects that he throws out there. She should ignore the shiny objects and stay disciplined.”
The first contest, at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, will take place 56 years to the day after the first ever televised debate between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon; the more telegenic Kennedy went on to win a narrow election. The setpiece duels have not always been so consequential, but there is a sense that, in this most extraordinary of election years, Clinton v Trump could be a game changer.
FBI found up to 30 new Clinton emails on Benghazi, state department says
The State Department says about 30 emails that may be related to the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI’s recently closed investigation into her use of a private server, AP reports:
Government lawyers told U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta Tuesday that an undetermined number of the emails among the 30 were not included in the 55,000 pages previously provided by Clinton. The State Department’s lawyer said it would need until the end of September to review the emails and redact potentially classified information before they are released.
Mehta questioned why it would take so long to release so few documents, and urged that the process be sped up. He ordered the department to report to him in a week with more details about why the review process would take a full month.
The hearing was held in one of several lawsuits filed by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, which has sued over access to government records involving the Democratic presidential nominee. The State Department has said the FBI provided it with about 14,900 emails purported not to have been among those previously released.
Clinton previously had said she withheld and deleted only personal emails not related to her duties as secretary of state. With the November election little more than two months away, Republicans are pressing for the release of as many documents related to Clinton as possible.
Obama commutes sentences for 111 drug offenders
The White House has listed the names of 111 federal inmates whose sentences for drug offenses the president has just commuted:
BREAKING: Obama cuts sentences of 111 federal inmates, new commutations for those convicted of drug offenses.
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) August 30, 2016
Here are the first five on the list:
· Malik Abuhamid Ibm Wakil Abdunafi – Baltimore, MD
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine, at least 50 grams of cocaine base (crack), heroin, and marijuana; distribution of cocaine and cocaine base (crack); distribution of heroin; possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, at least five grams of cocaine base (crack), heroin, and marijuana; Middle District of Pennsylvania
Sentence: 240 months’ imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release; $100,000 forfeiture (August 31, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on December 28, 2016, and obligation and payment of forfeiture remitted.
· Quentin C. Adams – St. Louis, MO
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (two counts); distribution of cocaine base; Western District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; eight years’ supervised release (June 15, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to a term of 262 months’ imprisonment.
· Sly Stallone Aikens – Hickory Grove, SC
Offense: Knowingly using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to, and possessing the firearm in furtherance of, a drug trafficking crime (two counts); District of South Carolina
Sentence: 360 months’ imprisonment; five years’ supervised release (April 29, 2005); amended to 235 months’ imprisonment (September 28, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to a term of 180 months’ imprisonment.
· Michael Alexander – Charlotte, NC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; Western District of North Carolina
Sentence: 240 months’ imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release (October 23, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on December 28, 2016.
· Alfonso Allen – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; distribution of cocaine base (two counts); possession with intent to distribute cocaine, cocaine base and marijuana; possession of a short barreled shotgun in furtherance of a felony drug offense; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; possession of an unregistered short barreled shotgun; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: Life plus 10 years’ imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release (August 25, 2009)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to a term of 360 months’ imprisonment.
Trump son says deportation plan remains 'the same'
Rush Limbaugh is going to flip when he hears this. Donald Trump’s plan remains to deport all undocumented migrants, Donald Trump Jr tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “That’s been the same, correct,” DTJ says.
Yesterday Limbaugh told listeners “I never took [Trump] seriously” on his stated plan to deport all undocumented migrants.
Who looks silly now, Rush Limbaugh.
Transcript via CBS News’ Sopan Deb:
Finally an answer on this. Don Trump Jr. tells CNN that Trump is still wants to deport all undocumented immigrants: pic.twitter.com/hr0hbzHVCw
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 30, 2016
Updated
Kaine says Trump's health disclosures insufficient
Clinton running mate Tim Kaine gets into the questions about Hillary Clinton’s health raised by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump surrogates.
What about Trump’s health, Kaine asks.
“Every presidential candidate should prove.. that they’re healthy enough,” Kaine says.
As for the “conspiracy theories” about Clinton’s health, “can I give you an up-close-and-personal on this?” Kaine asks.
“I have been on the trail with Hillary for five weeks and I can barely keep up with her. I’ve been on the trail five weeks. She’s been going for 17 months.”
“Trump is the guy who released a medical note from his doctor that... even said, Trump would be the healthiest individual to serve as president in the history of the country.
“I’d like to see him go one-on-one with president Obama, but that’s for another day...”
“Is that the standard that the American voter is entitled to?
“Hillary Clinton has met every test of disclosure we expect... Donald Trump has failed all of these tests miserably.”
Updated
Tim Kaine is speaking now in Erie, Pennsylvania – watch live:
Trump models worked without visas – report
Former models who worked with Donald Trump’s Trump Model Management have told Mother Jones that they worked in the United States without the appropriate visas and faced steep expenses charged by their employer.
From the Mother Jones piece:
According to a financial disclosure filed by his campaign in May, Donald Trump earned nearly $2 million from the company, in which he holds an 85 percent stake. Meanwhile, some former Trump models say they barely made any money working for the agency because of the high fees for rent and other expenses that were charged by the company. [...]
Two other former Trump models—who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate—said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States.
The Trump campaign declined to answer questions about Trump Model Management’s use of foreign labor. Read the full piece here.
Clinton holds healthy Pennsylvania lead – poll
A new Monmouth University poll of likely Pennsylvania voters shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by eight points, 48-40, in a four-way presidential race. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson gets 6% in the poll and 1% back Jill Stein, while 4% are undecided.
The poll also finds the Democratic candidate, Katie McGinty, with an edge in the US senate race over incumbent Pat Toomey. Polling averages have the race neck-and-neck.
New Monmouth poll of Pennsylvania
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) August 30, 2016
President
Clinton: 48%
Trump: 40%
Senate
McGinity: 45%
Toomey: 41%
I am shocked. Shocked. Shocked that a poll that calls cell-phones finds Clinton with a larger lead in PA than one that didn't.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 30, 2016
The latest installment of the NBC / Survey Monkey national tracking poll, conducted online from August 22 through August 28 among registered voters, has Clinton ahead of Trump by six points, 48-42. Last week, Clinton led Trump in the tracking poll by 8 points.
New @PPPpolls (national)
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 30, 2016
Clinton 42%
Trump 37%
Johnson 6%
Stein 4%
McMullin 1%
[undecided] 10%
***
Fav/unfav
Clinton 41/52
Trump 33/60
Does that mean the race is tightening? FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver points out that Clinton’s numbers appear to have settled a bit, while Trump’s are stagnant:
Trump national polling average
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 30, 2016
Aug. 9: 37.8
Aug. 16: 36.7
Aug. 23: 37.3
Aug. 30: 37.7
So, not clear that Trump is improving, so much as Clinton is declining. People maybe jumped the gun in declaring her convention bounce over.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 30, 2016
Updated
Trump misplaces Steinbrenner with Mets
The Washington Post today posted thousands of documents upon which were built the recently published newsroom book Trump Revealed:
Just posted: Tens of thousands of pages of documents we used to write "Trump Revealed." Rummage around: https://t.co/slPzOj0DhA
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) August 30, 2016
The documents include transcripts of interviews with Trump.
In one of the transcripts, the internet has noticed, Trump refers to the “Mets’ George Steinbrenner.” Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, owned the Yankees, not the Mets. What Trump said is like referring to “Boston Celtics star Michael Jordan” or the “Lakers’ Mark Cuban.”
Donald Trump knows New York base ball. (from @washingtonpost transcript) https://t.co/zG0wdeckwd pic.twitter.com/4pDce4r29j
— Jason Markusoff (@markusoff) August 30, 2016
Limbaugh: 'I never took [Trump] seriously' on deportation force
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, a primary source of information for Republican primary voters, said on his show Monday that “I never took him seriously” on Trump’s vow to deport the 11-12 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
Last fall, Trump repeatedly called for a “deportation force” to conduct the expulsions. Competing primary candidates were not willing to follow him to that policy extreme. They lost.
It appears now that Trump no longer supports a deportation force – the candidate is due to roll out his immigration policy proposals, again, in a speech in Phoenix tomorrow.
A Limbaugh caller challenged the radio host on why he was pretending that Trump was not shifting on immigration. Cornered, Limbaugh revealed that he never took Trump seriously on the issue – a stance he forgot to share with listeners at the time.
It was all sleight of hand, but only some people were in on it? What else does Limbaugh know Trump was faking?
Media Matters has posted audio and a transcript:
CALLER: For you to sit here and say that now that he adopts all the positions of everybody he ridiculed as not even being a flip flop and it’s no big deal? This is why so many Republican voters have such a hard time going to the con man.
RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): Well, in the first place, I don’t think Trump has actually changed that much from what he said, and I’m also not aware that he told every Republican they had to agree with him or else -- whatever he was going to do to them he did. I’m just -- the point -- what is it --
CALLER: With all due respect, Rush, on Chuck Todd’s show, he specifically said when asked the question, “you mean you’re going to rip the families apart,” he said, “no, I’m not going to rip the families apart. They all have to go, even the U.S. citizen children.”
[...]
Come on. You were watching the debates as well as the rest of us were. You know exactly what he said and you know exactly the way he ridiculed everybody on that stage.
LIMBAUGH: Yeah. I guess the difference is -- or not the difference. I guess the thing is -- this is going to enrage you. I could choose a path here to try to modify you. I never took him seriously on this.
CALLER: Yeah. But 30 million – 15 – 10 million, excuse me, 10 million people did –
LIMBAUGH: Yeah, and they still don’t care. That’s my point, they still don’t care. They’re going to stick with him no matter what.
Updated
Maine governor considers resignation
Maine governor Paul LePage has told a local radio station that he might “move on” after a string of controversies culminating last week in a voicemail in which he called a state legislator a “little son-of-a-bitch socialist cocksucker” and a video in which he expounded on the criminal nature of people of color.
“I’m looking at all options,” LePage said on WVOM, the Press Herald reported. “I think some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. I’m not saying that I am going to finish it.
“If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time to move on.”’
Update: LePage tweets an indication that he’s not resigning:
Regarding rumors of resignation, to paraphrase Mark Twain: "The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated." #mepolitics
— Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) August 30, 2016
LePage, a top Donald Trump supporter whose daughter works for the Trump campaign in Maine, has bragged about his proximity to Trump: “I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” he said in February. “So I think I should support him because we’re one of the same cloth.”
LePage has a long history of controversial, racially tinged statements.
Read further:
Updated
Hillary Clinton running mate Tim Kaine will unleash a multi-pronged attack on Donald Trump in an afternoon rally today in Erie, Pennsylvania, the Clinton campaign advises.
Sounds like we may hear about the fact that Trump has not released his tax returns and the fact that much of Trump’s business dealings are hidden from public view.
“While the public is in the dark about his finances and fitness, they know about Trump’s long track record of alleged fraud, making his need to answer these questions all the more urgent,” the Clinton campaign says in a statement.
Obama to guest edit Wired
The president will guest edit the November issue of Wired, the technology magazine, the publication has announced.
Check out the pocket squares on these guys:
Barack Obama (@POTUS) will serve as guest editor of WIRED’s November issue. https://t.co/bzw9WNgK54 #WIREDxPOTUS pic.twitter.com/OeGL84Uz8k
— WIRED (@WIRED) August 30, 2016
Surely the theme must be technology and elections? Nope, the theme of the issue is “Frontiers,” the magazine advises:
The theme of the issue: Frontiers. Like WIRED, our 44th president is a relentless optimist. For this completely bespoke issue, he wants to focus on the future—on the next hurdles that humanity will need to overcome to move forward. These will include personal frontiers, from precision medicine to human performance; local frontiers, including using data in urban planning and making sure renewable energy works for everyone; national frontiers, from civil rights to medical data; international frontiers, like climate change and cybersecurity; and final frontiers, including space travel and Artificial Intelligence.
Also of note:
The White House is also announcing a Frontiers conference, inspired by the issue, which President Obama will host with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University on October 13. You can learn more about the event at frontiersconference.org.
(h/t @holpuch)
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Primary day: McCain faces challenger as Democrats pick candidate to take on Rubio
Speaking of elections... people are actually voting today.
In Florida’s Democratic US senate primary, Representative Patrick Murphy is on track to defeat Representative Alan Grayson and claim the opportunity to face incumbent Republican Marco Rubio in November. Rubio is expected to nuke his primary opponent and averages five points ahead of Murphy in general election polls.
Politico’s Florida oracle Marc Caputo is predicting, meanwhile, a primary win for embattled Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was toppled from her perch atop the Democratic national committee last month when hacked emails revealed the DNC had a finger on the scale for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.
Arizona senator John McCain faces a challenger from the right, state senator Kelli Ward, in a primary contest today. McCain would be glad to come through with a comfortable margin before he braces for what looks like an even more difficult general election battle ahead, against Representative Ann Kirkpatrick.
“It’s not so much I think it’s close. I just don’t think you should heighten expectations,” McCain told Politico in an interview about the primary contest. “The one thing you never want to do in politics is heighten expectations. You always want to lowball it. That’s just the best way to handle it. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Trump's words on policy just 8% of Clinton's – AP analysis
As the Donald Trump campaign alternately pokes fun at Hillary Clinton for her policy wonkery and accuses her of an unwillingness to engage “on the issues,” the Associated Press has spent some serious quality time with the candidates’ web sites and determined that Clinton has supplied more information about her policy positions. A lot more. Like 1,253% more:
From the start, Trump has never been the kind of candidate to pore over thick policy books.
Indeed, he has mocked Clinton on the subject.
“She’s got people that sit in cubicles writing policy all day. Nothing’s ever going to happen. It’s just a waste of paper,” he told Time Magazine in June. “My voters don’t care and the public doesn’t care. They know you’re going to do a good job once you’re there.”
To date, Trump’s campaign has posted just seven policy proposals on his website, totaling just over 9,000 words. There are 38 on Clinton’s “issues” page, ranging from efforts to cure Alzheimer’s disease to Wall Street and criminal justice reform, and her campaign boasts that it has now released 65 policy fact sheets, totaling 112,735 words.
Trump’s campaign manager, meanwhile, is taunting Clinton for what she, the manager, paints as a failure to engage on the issues:
FancySchmancy! Can't she just debate the issues? Clinton campaign talking to Trump co-author for debate prep: report https://t.co/uHtFqBXm2U
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) August 30, 2016
One metric at which the Trump campaign has excelled the Clinton campaign is aides making headlines. A Washington Post analysis found that Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook has failed to get his name in half as many headlines as the Trump chairman who has been in his job about two weeks now. As for former Trump chairmans / managers – it’s no contest:
Steve Bannon has generated twice as many headlines this month as Robby Mook has all year: https://t.co/3p0sqasZ1H pic.twitter.com/RCp2YMIqJT
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) August 30, 2016
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, who is retiring at the end of the year, has asked the FBI to investigate possible Russian tampering in the US election, claiming the threat “is more extensive than is widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results”.
Reid’s letter follows a report by Yahoo News that the FBI had uncovered evidence that foreign hackers “penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials”.
“That incident was only a small part of what disturbed me,” Reid said in his letter to the FBI, which was obtained by the New York Times.
Trump: Kaepernick should find a different country
Donald Trump told a radio interviewer on Monday that a professional football player who declined to stand during the national anthem in protest of the oppression of people of color should find a different country.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand during the anthem at a Friday game, explaining afterwards: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
Trump’s delivered his take on the The Dori Monson Show on Monday, as BuzzFeed reports:
I have followed it and I think it’s personally not a good thing. I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him, let him try; it’s not gonna happen.
Perry, Lochte, Ice to Dance with Stars
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports on a big move for three-term governor of Texas and two-time failed Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry ...
... appearing on the reality show Dancing With The Stars. According to a report from Entertainment Tonight, Perry will join Olympian Ryan Lochte, one-hit rapper Vanilla Ice and former NFL star Calvin Johnson on the televised dance competition.
What do you think: does Perry have the moves to win this thing?
Thank you @Morning_Joe for including this clip in its segment on Rick Perry's DWTS debuthttps://t.co/eC3wUchx7z
— Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) August 30, 2016
Ailes’s shiner
Donald Trump’s campaign has denied that fallen Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has any role, “formal or informal”, in the campaign. But New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reports that Ailes showed up over the weekend to help Trump prepare to debate Hillary Clinton – and had a black eye:
2 sources say Ailes showed up for Trump debate prep with a black eye
— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) August 30, 2016
Ailes, who is long-married, left Fox in a sexual harassment scandal.
Trump to Washington state
Trump has an event tonight in Everett, Washington, no one’s idea of battleground country. Hillary Clinton has no public events on her schedule. The Trump campaign also announced ad buys in Michigan, where Clinton holds a seemingly healthy lead in polling averages (but where Trump does not appear to be losing as badly as he appears to be losing in, say, Pennsylvania).
Are you in New York this morning? Get your time capsule copy of today’s Post ...
10 out of 10 pic.twitter.com/Uw506eV5n2
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) August 30, 2016
Thanks for reading, and please join us in the comments.
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