Today in Campaign 2016
Here are the highlights from today in campaign news:
- Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a “fraud” who would “scam America like he scammed all those people at Trump University,” the Republican’s defunct for-profit business school that is the subject of a federal lawsuit. The Democratic frontrunner, who was in New Jersey campaigning ahead of the state’s 7 June primary, trained her fire on Trump the day after a court ordered the release of testimony in the university case. “This election will determine what direction this country heads in and there could not be a more stark and important difference because every day we learn more and more about Donald Trump,” Clinton said at a rally in Rutgers University.
- Some of the harshest critics of Trump University have been revealed to be former employees of the now-defunct university majority-owned by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. In sworn testimony, three former staff members have described the real estate school as “a facade, a total lie” and a “fraudulent scheme” that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”
- A new poll of a hypothetical general-election matchup between Trump and Clinton aligns roughly with recent polling awarding a slight edge to the former secretary of state, while exposing a stark gender gap that could represent the most forbidding obstacle standing between Trump and the presidency. Women preferred Clinton to Trump 54-30 in the poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University from 24 to 30 May. Men went for Trump to a slightly lesser degree, 51-35. With women expected to make up as much as 54% of the electorate in November, Trump’s challenge is to display either a greater lead on Clinton among men – or to correct his numbers with women. Women both constitute more than half the US voting population and are more likely to vote than men.
- The presumptive Republican nominee has announced he is to visit the UK on the day after the country votes on whether to remain in the EU. Trump’s announcement throws up the question of whether David Cameron will meet him, as the visit comes the day the result of the EU referendum is declared – a vote some polls suggest the prime minister faces losing.
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Barack Obama made his most aggressive foray yet into the battle to succeed him, warning that Trump - although he wouldn’t say his name - would serve the interests of his fellow billionaires and heighten the risk of another financial crisis. “The one thing I can promise you is if we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of okey-doke just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we’re not going to build on the progress that we’ve started,” he said to applause and cheers from 2,000 people in a brightly lit gymnasium. “If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or if we don’t vote at all, we won’t build on the progress that we’ve started.”
- Clinton raised more than $40 million for her campaign and the Democratic National Committee in May, according to her campaign. Clinton raised roughly $27 million for her personal campaign, starting the summer with more than $42 million on hand, and more than $13.5 million for the Democratic National Committee and downballot races through the Hillary Victory Fund.
#BillionaireShade.
Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist and current world’s wealthiest person Bill Gates said today that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “hasn’t been known” for his charity work.
Speaking at an event hosted by ReCode, Gates declared that Trump “hasn’t been known for his philanthropy... He’s been known for other things.”
The line was prompted by a question regarding whether the candidate, who claims that his personal fortune exceeds $10 billion, had been approached to sign Gates’ “Giving Pledge,” a campaign to encourage the world’s wealthiest people donate the majority of their estates to charitable causes, whether during their lifetimes or upon their death. Famous signatories of the pledge include financier Warren Buffett, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, financial information titan and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Ruth Guerra, the Republican National Committee’s head of Hispanic media relations, is resigning from her position, according to the New York Times, spurring speculation that lingering discomfort with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continues in the upper echelons of the party’s establishment.
The Times reports that Guerra, whose job was to tailor the party’s message for Latino voters, is joining the American Action Network, a super-Pac that aims to elect conservative members of Congress.
Quoting two RNC aides, the Times reports that Guerra, who is of Mexican descent, was “uncomfortable” working to elect Trump, whose platform has included draconian immigration policy since his announcement speech last summer.
Update: The RNC has already named a new director of Hispanic communications, Helen Aguirre Ferré. Describing Aguirre Ferré as “a seasoned journalist” in a press release, the RNC avoids naming the party’s presumptive nominee.
“I’m excited to welcome Helen Aguirre Ferré as our new Director of Hispanic Communications,” said party chair Reince Priebus. “Helen will be an integral part of our Party’s ongoing commitment to build relationships and communicate our message directly with Hispanic voters.”
Updated
Gerald Sparks, a union member, asks Barack Obama about the “tens of thousands” of Syrian refugees that the administration is letting into the country, and asks, in part, “How can you guarantee that there’s none that can be radicalized?”
Obama begins his answer by refuting Sparks’ numbers. “We don’t have tens of thousands of Syrian refugees,” Obama says. “”We’re trying to admit several thousand so far - I think, we’ve been able to admit about 2,500. In contrast, Canada has taken in 25,000, and we’re a much bigger country than them. Germany has taken in half a million.”
“We have some obligation to help, just like we’d expect people to help if Americans were in trouble,” Obama continues. “We’re not spending a lot of money on bringing in and housing refugees. And this is what I mean about making sure that when we’re deciding elections... we’re looking at the facts.”
“It’s not close to the kinds of numbers you’re talking about,” Obama says bluntly. Additionally, he continues, “refugees are actually must admitted on a much stricter standard than your average tourist.”
“It’s like a month-long process. But if you are somebody from France, you don’t even need a visa - you just hop on a plane, and you’re here in the United States.” Obama points out that even if that tourist were on a terror watch list, Republicans in Congress have blocked him or her from being barred from purchasing a firearm.
“That’s a much bigger danger than the Syrian refugees,” he concludes.
Barack Obama: Trans bathroom access about 'kindness, that's all'
President Barack Obama, asked about the rising visibility of the issue of bathroom access for transgender students in American public schools, pushes back against the notion that his administration is focusing on the issue of high school bathrooms over “more pressing” issues.
“Somehow people think I made it an issue,” Obama says. “I didn’t make it an issue. There are a lot of things that are more pressing!”
But, he says, “You have transgender kids in schools, and they get bullied, and they get ostracized, and it’s tough for ‘em. And we’re of a generation where that stuff was all out of sight and out of mind, and so people suffered silently. But now, they’re out in the open. And the question then is, schools are then asking us, the Department of Education, is, how should we deal with this?”
“And my answer is that we should deal with this issue the same way we’d want it dealt with if it was our child,” Obama says. “And that is to try to create an environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids, and that’s sort of the bottom line. I have to just say what’s in my heart, but I also have to look at what’s the law. And my best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so they’re not in a vulnerable situation.”
“I’m not the one who’s making a big issue of it,” Obama says, but as president, it’s his duty to ensure that “these kids are not excluded and ostracized.”
“Look, I have profound respect for everybody’s religious beliefs on this, but if you’re in a public school, children are to be treated with kindness. That’s all.”
“My reading of scripture tells me that that Golden Rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief,” Obama concludes. “As president of the United States, those are are the values that I think are important.”
“You don’t choose the issues all the time - issues come to you. And then you have to make your judgement about what you think is right.”
Updated
Next question comes from Vanessa Corredera, a professor of English, who asks the president to address student-loan debt.
“How do you continue to address this issue in your final months in office?” Corredera asks, in particular the humanities, “which are often under attack.”
“I have been emphasizing STEM education,” Obama says, “not because I think the humanities are unimportant, but because we generally have not bene producing as many engineers and as many scientists… as compared to China, for example. And we send a lot of people into banking, and folks like me who become lawyers,” Obama says, the US needs to push Americans to study STEM education “if we’re gonna remain the most innovative economy in the world.”
“The broader issues of financing education,” Obama says, is government spending. “The reason that college is so much more expensive for this generation than for my generation has to do with government spending.”
“They kept tuition really really low. What happened around the 80s 90s, state leg said they gotta build more prisons,” Obama says. “They started cutting higher ed budgets, and they made up for it with higher tuition.”
In the first question from an audience member, local Bill Kircher, a “fifth-generation fruit and vegetable grower,” asks about increasing regulation.
“At what point are we over regulated, if not now?” Kircher asks.
“My administration’s policy has been to encourage family farming, rather than big agribusiness,” Obama says. “We want you to succeed. The problem generally has been family farms getting bought up by larger agricultural operations. It’s been you guys not always getting good prices for the products that you put together.”
“I don’t doubt that some” regulations put a burden on you, Obama continues. “Previously, you didn’t think that you were able to provide health insurance for your employees - the problem is that if they’re not getting health insurance thorough you, they’re relying on taxpayers like everybody else to bear those costs.”
“There have been a bunch of regulations that have been put in place in the past… that are outdated,” Obama admits, but “making sure we’ve got clean air and clean water… that is part of our overall obligation.”
Host Gwen Ifill asks President Barack Obama about his thoughts on his potential successor’s slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
“What do you think it means when you hear the words, ‘Let’s make America great again?’ ” Ifill asks.
“I think America’s pretty great,” Obama protests. “America is the strongest country on earth, its economy is the most durable on earth. We are a country that has incredible diversity, people are striving, working hard, creating businesses - we’ve got the best universities in the world, the best scientists.”
“We’ve got some challenges,” Obama admits, “but overall, not only are we recovered from the crisis, that we had but we’re well-positioned to do extraordinarily well going forward as long as we make some good decisions.”
“When we’ve gone through a tough time,” Obama says, “then you feel nervous. People lost homes, people lost savings, people were worried about whether or not they could make ends meet. Even though we’ve recovered, people feel that the ground under their feet isn’t quite as solid.”
Under those circumstances, Obama says, voters are likely to get “tempted” by a candidate who comes along primising “some simple answer.” Obama doesn’t name Donald Trump explicity, telling Ifill that “he does a pretty good job mentioning his own name,” to chuckles from the audience.
Barack Obama hosts town hall in Elkhart, Indiana
After making an aggressive foray into the battle to succeed him at a speech in this small Indiana town earlier today, President Barack Obama is holding a town hall discussion with the residents of Elkhart, Indiana, hosted by PBS NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill.
Elkhart, the first town Obama visited after winning the White House in 2008, has been the site of five presidential visits since, a poster child of the economic recovery that Obama says he has stewarded in America’s small towns. We’ll be livblogging the proceedings - watch it live here:
Barack Obama today made his most aggressive foray yet into the battle to succeed him, warning that Donald Trump would serve the interests of his fellow billionaires and heighten the risk of another financial crisis.
Returning to Elkhart, Indiana, the first city he visited as president, Obama defended his economic record over the past seven years against not only Republicans but “talking heads” who theorise that outsiders Trump and Bernie Sanders have thrived because of bad trade deals that hollowed out communities.
The president stood at a podium jacketless, with his sleeves rolled up, apparently relishing a return to election campaign mode even though he is not on the ballot. He did not mention Trump or Hillary Clinton by name but displayed how he is likely to be a formidable weapon for his fellow Democrat during the general election.
“The one thing I can promise you is if we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of okey doke just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we’re not going to build on the progress that we’ve started,” he said to applause and cheers from 2,000 people in a brightly lit gymnasium. “If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or if we don’t vote at all, we won’t build on the progress that we’ve started.”
He has not yet made a horse his running mate, but Donald Trump can be compared to one of the most notorious of all Roman emperors, Caligula, according to best-selling historian Tom Holland.
Holland told the Hay festival there were fascinating parallels between the actions and success of Trump and what was going on in Rome 2,000 years ago.
Caligula has gone down in history as one of the maddest and baddest of all Roman emperors, a name synonymous with the worst excesses of absolute power.
But there was more to the story of Caligula, Holland said. He is not quite the psychopath of popular imagination and we can see similarities between what is happening now and then.
What is known for sure about Caligula, Holland said, is that he had a great love of spectacle and dressing up; and he enjoyed hurting and humiliating people.
The young Caligula spent six years on the island of Capri, where he often directed and appeared in spectacular pornographic tableaux for his great uncle, the emperor Tiberius – a man it was said, who enjoyed having swimming boys nibble at his private parts.
Hillary Clinton raises $40 million in May
Likely Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton raised more than $40 million for her campaign and the Democratic National Committee in May, according to her campaign.
Clinton raised roughly $27 million for her personal campaign, starting the summer with more than $42 million on hand, and more than $13.5 million for the Democratic National Committee and downballot races through the Hillary Victory Fund.
Donald Trump’s counterpoint to Hillary Clinton: I know you are, but what am i?
Crooked Hillary Clinton is a fraud who has put the public and country at risk by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails. Many missing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2016
The Trump Organization, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s holding company, has released a statement about the court-mandated release of documents that paint a deeply unflattering portrait of the now-defunct real estate school, saying that the unsealed depositions actually boost the Trump Organization’s case.
“The Court’s order unsealing documents has no bearing on the merits of Trump University’s case,” the statement reads. “Much of the unsealed evidence, including declarations and siurveys from former Trump University students, demonstrates the high level of satisfaction from students and that Trump University taught valuable real estate information.”
“Trump University’s sales tactics are commonplace - no different than any other companies in the industry,” the statement concludes. “Trump University looks forward to using this evidence, along with much more, to win when the case is brought before a jury.”
Former employees of the now-defunct university have described the real estate school as “a facade, a total lie” and a “fraudulent scheme” that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”
The Donald Trump phenomenon confused the great minds of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Needing to thwart a new, weightless force in American politics, they nicknamed him Dangerous Donald, rubber stamping his renegade brand. Leave it to Trump to have to give them a better one: fraud.
On Tuesday, Trump called a press conference to prove he gave $6m to veterans groups, a very large sum of very beautiful money that he totally would have given even without the press hounding him. Honest to God. Later, US district court judge Gonzalo Curiel released 400 pages of “Trump University” documents showing how much Trump promises are worth.
The documents confirm what everyone who wasn’t making money off the deal already knew: that, like every get-rich-quick scheme, it reliably delivered that outcome to the people running it by efficiently separating hopeful attendees from their money in exchange for empty promises of billionaire real-estate savvy.
It’s uncanny how much Trump’s sham university sounds like his campaign. Trump U salespeople were encouraged to pitch the three-day Gold Elite package to student-clients for the low, low price of $34,995 dollars, pushing clients to max out credit cards or tap other assets to pay for it even if it put them financially at risk. (The Silver Elite package ran $19,495, while the Bronze Elite dinged students a mere $9,995.) An early part of the pitch included the “blast phase” that focused on “giving your clients hope again”.
If clients balked at the price of the Gold Elite package, salespeople were told to tell them that everything was horrible, and only one expert had the solution:
You’re not even close to where you need to be, much less where you want to be. It’s time you fix your broken plan, bring in Mr Trump’s top instructors and certified millionaire mentors and allow us to put you and keep you on the right track. Your plan is BROKEN and WE WILL help you fix it.
Eschewing things like concrete strategies for making money (item one of which would, presumably, be “don’t spent $35,000 on three days of seminars in a hotel conference room), salespeople were instead told to play on clients’ self esteem and anxieties:
Marco Rubio’s accusations of fraud weren’t enough to derail Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination, but likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is hoping that it’s enough to throw the candidate off-track ahead of the general election.
Trump himself is a fraud.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2016
He's trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University.https://t.co/yMt4mGLwYO
South Dakota senator John Thune has called on Mount Rushmore State voters to back presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying that “if people want change, I think their answer is Trump.”
At a Minnehaha County Republican party Lincoln Day dinner, Thune cited the potential election of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as the primary reason for his endorsement of Trump, according to the Argus Leader. “We have to get it right in 2016 because the future of our country is hanging in the balance in so many different ways,” Thune said. “And there are three words that ought to scare everyone in this room: President Hillary Clinton.”
Veteran newscaster Dan Rather has issued a scalding statement on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s sustained attacks on political journalists, calling the candidate’s actions “particularly personal and vicious.”
“I felt a shudder down my spine yesterday watching Donald Trump’s fusilade [sic] against the press,” Rather wrote in a Facebook post. “This is not a moment to be trifled with. It wasn’t his first tirade and it won’t be his last.”
“This is a dirty, nasty election. And it is only going to get worse,” Rather continued. “The reporters in the trenches need no lecture from me. They are walking through daily mindfields, bracing themselves against winds of discontent whose effects no one can predict.”
“I know what it is like to sit in those seats and feel the scorn and even wrath of politicians of all political persuasions,” Rather said. “Attacking the press for unfair coverage has long been a bipartisan pursuit. Sometimes it works. I am happy to say that more often it doesn’t. But Trump’s brand of vituperation is particularly personal and vicious. It carries with it the drumbeats of threatening violence. It cannot be left unanswered.”
The friendship between Hillary Clinton and Cory Booker continues...
With Secretary Clinton in Newark. pic.twitter.com/w9Z7Gc482i
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) June 1, 2016
Report: Donald Trump has been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits
In a massive analysis of three decades’ worth of legal filings, USA Today has found that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been involved in an astounding 3,500 lawsuits in both state and federal courts, including 1,900 where he or his companies were a plaintiff and about 1,300 in which he was the defendant.
Since Trump announced his candidacy a little less than a year ago, at least 70 cases have been filed, with 50 civil lawsuits remaining open as of today. The cases range from the well-documented lawsuits by former customers of Trump University to personal injury suits to more than 1,700 suits involving his casino dealings.
General counsel for the Trump Organization Alan Garten told USA Today that the Trump Organization, the candidate’s holding company, faces “far less litigation of companies of our size” than other conglomerates. USA Today, however, found otherwise:
Even by those measures, the number of cases in which Trump is involved is extraordinary. For comparison, USA TODAY analyzed the legal involvement for five top real-estate business executives: Edward DeBartolo, shopping-center developer and former San Francisco 49ers owner; Donald Bren, Irvine Company chairman and owner; Stephen Ross, Time Warner Center developer; Sam Zell, Chicago real-estate magnate; and Larry Silverstein, a New York developer famous for his involvement in the World Trade Center properties.
To maintain an apples-to-apples comparison, only actions that used the developers’ names were included. The analysis found Trump has been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of the others - combined.
The whole article is worth a read, particularly in light of the candidate’s well-established litigious reputation.
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has announced a major policy address in San Diego, California, tomorrow, in which the former secretary of state will “make clear the threat that Donald Trump would pose to our national security and to put forth her own vision for keeping America safe at home and leading in the world,” according to a campaign release.
“Throughout this campaign, Trump has refused to outline any coherent foreign policy doctrine, failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of world affairs, and repeatedly proven he’s temperamentally unfit to serve as our commander in chief,” the release continues. “Clinton will rebuke the fear, bigotry, and misplaced defeatism that Trump has been selling to the American people. She will make the affirmative case for the exceptional role America has played and must continue to play in order to keep our country safe and our economy growing.”
The address will take place at the Prado at Balboa Park Ballroom at 2:30pm EDT on Thursday.
Some of the harshest critics of Trump University have been revealed to be former employees of the now-defunct university majority-owned by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican US presidential candidate.
In sworn testimony, three former staff members have described the real estate school as “a facade, a total lie” and a “fraudulent scheme” that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money”.
In extracts from their evidence to a class-action lawsuit against the school, made public this week, the former staff tell the inside story of the “front-end high-pressure speaker scam” at Trump University.
Ronald Schnackenberg, who worked at Trump University’s headquarters on Wall Street between 2006 and 2007, said he felt compelled to resign because he thought the company was “engaging in misleading, fraudulent and dishonest conduct”.
Schnackenberg said the “primary goal of Trump University was not to educate students” but to “make money, as quickly and easily as possible”.
Sanders calls for fracking ban
At a campaign appearance in Spreckels, California, Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders repeated a call for a national ban on fracking – “I think it’s too late for regulating,” he said. Sanders also called for a fracking ban to be added to the Democratic party platform.
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton supported fracking – natural gas extraction from shale using pressurized injections – around the world. She has more recently said she opposes fracking where local communities oppose it, but she has not supported a fracking ban outright.
Clinton calls Trump a 'fraud'
Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a “fraud” who would “scam America like he scammed all those people at Trump University”, the Republican’s defunct for-profit business school that is the subject of a federal lawsuit, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino at Rutgers University in New Jersey:
The Democratic frontrunner, who was in New Jersey campaigning ahead of the state’s 7 June primary, trained her fire on Trump the day after a court ordered the release of testimony in the university case.
“This election will determine what direction this country heads in and there could not be a more stark and important difference because every day we learn more and more about Donald Trump,” Clinton said at a rally in Rutgers University.
She was introduced by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Jon Bon Jovi, the state’s “patron saint”.
Speaking of his relationship with the former Secretary of State, Bon Jovi joked of her accomplishments that “all those titles get confusing and it gets a little awkward for me, so I just like to call her Mrs. C.”
When Booker took the mic from the musician, he quipped: “I hate to contradict Bon Jovi but, dear God, Hillary Clinton - you give love a good name.”
Updated
Donald Trump’s grip on high-profile golf events is to be significantly loosened, with the PGA Tour on the verge of confirming the first World Golf Championship event of the year will no longer be played at the US presidential candidate’s Doral venue, writes Guardian golf correspondent Ewan Murray:
The tournament, formerly the WGC-Cadillac Championship, is expected to move to the outskirts of Mexico City from 2017.
Speaking on Fox News, Trump offered a typical response to the news. “I just heard that the PGA Tour is taking their tournament out of Miami and moving it to Mexico,” Trump said. “They’re moving it to Mexico City which, by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance. But they’re moving it to Mexico City. And I’m saying, you know: ‘What’s going on here?’ It is so sad when you look at what’s going on with our country.”
Doral, which Trump purchased in 2012 before overseeing a $250m redevelopment, has been a PGA Tour stop since 1962. The WGC there, held each March, carried a most recent prize fund of $9.5m. Trump appeared at the closing day of this year’s tournament, where he held lengthy talks with the PGA Tour’s commissioner, Tim Finchem. On Wednesday afternoon in Ohio, Finchem is expected to spell out Doral’s fate.
Read further:
On the stump at Rutgers, Clinton keeps after Trump about Trump University:
.@HillaryClinton on Donald Trump: "He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all of those people at Trump U."
— Lauren Gambino (@LGamGam) June 1, 2016
People magazine catches up with House speaker Paul Ryan at home in Janesville, Wisconsin. Ryan forbade any Trump talk:
And while his job does require some weekend phone calls to take care of business, Ryan says he doesn’t want to talk politics with his kids. (Or with PEOPLE. One condition of the Speaker getting on the phone for the magazine’s special Fathers’ Day gallery was that he not be asked about his party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, whom Ryan has famously declined so far to endorse.)
Ryan is a healthy eater:
And then there’s his no-sweets, no-processed-foods edict. “I’m probably pretty overbearing about that. I’m not a sugar guy and my general rule for diet at home is, ‘If it wasn’t a food 100 years ago, we don’t buy it or eat it.’”
Read the whole interview here.
Senator Cory Booker, following Bon Jovi onstage at Rutgers, delete your account:
I hate to contradict Bon Jovi, but by god: Hillary Clinton you give love a good name.
Update:
Headline: "Cory Booker announced a divorce today from his self-respect." https://t.co/ISrzvZ0MFF
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) June 1, 2016
This is worthy of a recall election, that's how bad it is. https://t.co/48nea5AR9k
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) June 1, 2016
Updated
Lauren Gambino is at the Clinton event at Rutgers University.
Just spoke to some Bernie supporters here at the Clinton rally who say they're "Bernie or bust" unless Clinton goes up against Trump ... 🤔
— Lauren Gambino (@LGamGam) June 1, 2016
Dancers practice for the HRC rally at Rutgers. pic.twitter.com/4rHg1EcLFc
— Lauren Gambino (@LGamGam) June 1, 2016
Appearing on behalf of Clinton at Rutgers, as we speak: recording artist Jon Bon Jovi. “Hello New Jersey,” he says. He reveals that he calls Clinton “Mrs C.”
Enter New Jersey bred @BonJovi pic.twitter.com/FMb0E0mJVq
— Lauren Gambino (@LGamGam) June 1, 2016
Updated
Hillary Clinton is holding a rally at Rutgers University in New Jersey, which votes Tuesday. Her warm-up acts are giving their speeches. Watch live here:
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is at the scene. She has spoken with Aisha Keller of Brooklyn, New York, who crossed the Hudson to hear Clinton.
It’s Keller’s first time attending a Clinton rally but she’s a big fan, she said.
Updated
Trump on Trump U: students left satisfied
The Donald Trump campaign has issued a statement on the release of documents describing sales techniques used by Trump University employees to recruit and upsell students, and a related class-action fraud lawsuit:
The court’s order unsealing documents has no bearing on the merits of Trump University’s case. Much of the unsealed evidence, including declarations and surveys from former Trump University students, demonstrates the high level of satisfaction from students and that Trump University taught valuable real estate information. Trump University looks forward to using this evidence, along with much more, to win when the case is brought before a jury.
Updated
Pittsburgh woman alleges $200,000 losses through Trump University
Pittsburgh’s WTAE reports that a local woman lost six figures through Trump University after she was assigned to a real estate coach with a criminal record (theft, drug distribution, sex solicitation) who convinced her to put money in a supposed fund of Spanish real estate that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme:
Eventually, she invested $230,000.
But just six months later, the SEC called Safevest a fraud and a Ponzi scheme and won a court order shutting it down.
Safevest ended up bankrupt, and Norris lost all her money.
“I lost a lot of money because I trusted this organization and I have nothing back. I will not get anything back,” she said.
Click here for video. The woman sued Trump University in 2008 but the case was thrown out for lack of jurisdiction.
Updated
This is fun from one of the architects of Huffpost Pollster, depicting where the polls were at in each election cycle going back to 2000.
A chart position below the midline represents a Republican lead, above a Democratic lead. The wrong-est years for the polls, judging from a glance at these graphics, was 2012, when a seeming neck-and-neck race yielded a four-point Democratic win (Obama won by seven points in 2008).
Also notable: how little time this election cycle, so far, the Democrat has spent below the midline. Further echoes of 2012?
Comparing the last 5 campaigns. pic.twitter.com/DBidX1q3IN
— Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) June 1, 2016
Clinton leads in Michigan in Detroit News poll
A batch of new state polling results has Hillary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump 43-38.5 in Michigan, which has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992 (inclusive). Bernie Sanders was viewed more favorably than either candidate, the survey found:
The telephone survey found Clinton and Trump are both equally unpopular in Michigan. Nearly 60 percent of polled voters view Trump unfavorably, and Clinton is not much better with 57 percent having an unfavorable view of her.
By contrast, Sanders has a slim popularity edge, with 43 percent viewing the democratic socialist favorably and 41 percent unfavorably.
The new poll, conducted by the Detroit News and WDIV-TV, surveyed 600 likely voters. The state will award 16 electoral votes in November.
Separately, Public Policy Polling finds Trump with a steady, 45-38 lead over Clinton in Georgia:
The racial divide in Georgia is massive with Clinton leading 80/2 among black voters, but Trump having a 67/17 advantage with white ones.
PPP does not detect, in its early state polling, a significant departure from 2012 patterning, apart from in Arizona, where Trump has so far experienced relatively weak support (68%) among Republicans.
In new @ppppolls 2016 bears a striking resemblance to 2012 (except in Arizona) https://t.co/BGUIR0KlY2 pic.twitter.com/e5EZU8a8bQ
— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) June 1, 2016
If this nutty election keeps following the demographically predictable contours of 2012 it will be the ultimate #lolnothingmatters
— Nick Riccardi (@NickRiccardi) June 1, 2016
Stay tuned, polling junkies...
Heads up: We will be releasing a new NBC/WSJ/Marist California poll at 5pm ET
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) June 1, 2016
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Libertarian party nominee Gary Johnson and running mate Bill Weld are holding a live chat on Facebook with the New York Times. Check it out!
Johnson has just taken a question about Barack Obama’s emissions caps on coal-fired power plants. “Personally I lost a lot of money in coal”, Johnson says. “People don’t want coal, it’s just that simple.... nobody’s going to build a new coal-fired power plant... so, why coal, if natural gas is cheaper and it’s as plentiful as it is?
“I think the whole coal situation has been blamed on environmental regulations... but it’s a great example of the free market at work, saying we don’t want coal anymore.
“Great example of the free market.”
Weld says “we should stick with our greenhouse gas emissions targets” and that we should “stick around” in the Paris climate deal.
Update:
Gary Johnson just told the NYT that he's suffering right now from buying underwear that's too small from https://t.co/naovgYFD71
— Alan He (@alanhe) June 1, 2016
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Et tu, Rove? (Unlike Brutus Rove has never been Caesar’s ally.)
Does GOP want its nominee defending these 6 issues in court this summer?https://t.co/95p6fG1ZnH
— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) March 8, 2016
So this just happened pic.twitter.com/hDRBiaIqCd
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 1, 2016
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Large Trump debts held by German bank
Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure revealed he owes at least $100m to Germany-based Deutsche Bank, raising questions about whether he would be personally vulnerable as president to potential manipulation by a foreign entity, or whether he would face conflicts of interest pertaining to banking regulations and other matters. Mother Jones has the story:
But the presumptive GOP nominee also has a tremendous load of debt that includes five loans each over $50 million. (The disclosure form, which presidential candidates must submit, does not compel candidates to reveal the specific amount of any loans that exceed $50 million, and Trump has chosen not to provide details.) Two of those megaloans are held by Deutsche Bank, which is based in Germany but has US subsidiaries. And this prompts a question that no other major American presidential candidate has had to face: What are the implications of the chief executive of the US government being in hock for $100 million (or more) to a foreign entity that has tried to evade laws aimed at curtailing risky financial shenanigans, that was recently caught manipulating markets around the world, and that attempts to influence the US government?
[...]
Should Trump move into the White House, four blocks away from his under-construction hotel, he would be its first inhabitant to owe so much to any bank. And in recent years, Deutsche Bank has repeatedly clashed with US regulators. So might it be awkward—if not pose a conflict of interest—for Trump to have to deal with policy matters that could affect this financial behemoth?
Read the full piece here.
It appears that the Clinton campaign is preparing to launch a sustained attack against Trump in connection with revelations about Trump University, which faces a couple class-action fraud lawsuits that could culminate around election time in November.
Here’s Clinton’s press secretary:
Rubio's strongest moment was when he called Trump a con man based in part on Trump U. Rubio wasnt around long enough to make case. We will
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) June 1, 2016
Here’s the Clinton campaign’s quick-turnaround-policy-shop:
Here's just one example of how Trump's "university" staff identified their prey. https://t.co/1sUIDz674e pic.twitter.com/CeQogCIsGg
— The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) June 1, 2016
Here’s our coverage of the controversy:
Update: the Clinton camp digs up this Ted Cruz tweet from March:
Get your own #TrumpUniversity certificate of deception here —> https://t.co/BwfVMBbHfU pic.twitter.com/QeeU9ZAtxu
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 3, 2016
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Clinton: Trump University 'a fraudulent scheme'
Hillary Clinton tweets news coverage of the release of Trump University documents describing how “university” employees were instructed to pressure potential “students” into signing up by painting a simple and wonderful picture of the rewards that awaited:
Trump University was a fraudulent scheme used to prey upon those who could least afford it. https://t.co/oz5ycvA2J1 pic.twitter.com/9ue4nVEdwt
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2016
Apparently not knowing about Brexit may make Donald Trump unique among would-be world leaders – but his (apparent) ignorance establishes him comfortably among the members of a different tribe, a tribe truly his: New Yorkers.
Here’s the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt asking New Yorkers about Brexit, and them not having any idea what he is talking about:
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. In an as-yet hypothetical general election matchup, Hillary Clinton polled ahead of Donald Trump by a narrow margin, 45-41, in a Quinnipiac University survey of 1,561 registered voters published Wednesday morning. The poll indicated that Clinton could gain significant additional support, however, once the Democratic nominating contest is resolved, with 75% of respondents who supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries picking Clinton over Trump (11% chose Trump).
Voters thought Trump to be more “honest and trustworthy” (44-39) and a “stronger leader (49-45), but found Clinton to be better-prepared for the presidency (56-35) and more intelligent (51-37), the poll found.
Speaking of trustworthy, an internal memo laying out Trump’s techniques for squeezing money out of prospective students at his defunct Trump University was released Tuesday on orders of a federal judge presiding over one of two class-action lawsuits against the university.
Here’s part of one script that Trump salespeople were instructed to use to get students to go into credit card debt to enroll in the school’s real-estate instruction:
It’s time you fix your broken plan, bring in Mr. Trump’s top instructors and certified millionaire mentors and allow us to put you and keep you on the right track. Your plan is BROKEN and WE WILL help you fix it. Remember you have to be 100% honest with yourself!
Make American Great Again. Read further:
The Democrats increased their focus on California, with Sanders planning rallies in Davis and Palo Alto on Wednesday and Clinton planning a major foreign policy address on Thursday that her campaign said would distinguish her from Trump.
Speaking of foreign policy, Trump appeared not to know what “Brexit” means in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter:
“And Brexit? Your position?” I ask.
“Huh?”
“Brexit.”
“Hmm.”
“The Brits leaving the EU,” I prompt, realizing that his lack of familiarity with one of the most pressing issues in Europe is for him no concern nor liability at all.
“Oh yeah, I think they should leave.”
Trump may learn more, quickly: he is to visit the UK on the day the EU referendum result is announced, his team said Wednesday.
The billionaire property developer is to visit the Turnberry hotel at the golf course in Ayrshire on 24 June for its official relaunch following a £200m redevelopment.
Trump’s announcement throws up the question of whether David Cameron will agree to meet him, since the event comes the day after the UK’s referendum on European Union membership on 23 June – a vote some polls suggest the prime minister faces losing.
Thank you for reading and as always join us in the comments.
