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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Scott Bixby, Tom McCarthy and Claire Phipps

Trump praises Putin again as he and Clinton face foreign policy questions – as it happened

The forum features two half-hour interviews on national security and military issues with both candidates.
The forum features two half-hour interviews on national security and military issues with both candidates. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

I’m winding down this live coverage now, but you can find our wrap of who said what and why over here.

Thanks for reading. The campaign live blog will be back with the US morning.

And you can read Spencer Ackerman’s analysis here:

Updated

So, we know why Reince Priebus thinks Clinton proved herself “not fit to be commander-in-chief”. Here’s why he thinks the Republican candidate is:

Updated

At NBC News’ commander-in-chief forum, Trump ordered off his familiar campaign menu of word salads. He lied about opposing the Iraq war, criticized Obama’s 2011 withdrawal and repeated his advocacy of stealing Iraq’s oil – a measure he evidently believes would require a minimal force presence, despite the certainty that the well-armed locals might have a problem with their principal source of wealth being plundered by a foreign power.

Speaking before an audience of veterans, Trump unexpectedly attacked the current generation of generals and flag officers. While previously Trump had said he knew better than the generals about fighting Islamic State, this time he intimated that he’d get “different generals” – a habit more typical of caudillos than American presidents.

He followed up by saying his ultimate plan to defeat Isis would be some parts of his still-unspecified plan, and some parts of his unspecified generals’ unspecified plan. He waved away his lack of specifics for a war in which 5,000 US troops are currently serving as not wishing to “broadcast” his plans to the enemy.

He interrupted a veteran’s question about veterans’ suicide rates after she gave the correct number, 20 per day, so he could give an incorrect one, 22. Trump fumbled through a question about redressing sexual assault against female service members – something he once tweeted was the inevitable result of mixed service, a point he defended on Wednesday – by arguing the military needed to set up internal courts, as if the military does not already have its own well-established justice system.

Trump’s reversion to his typical ignorance and certitude obscured a poor showing from his opponent. Hillary Clinton spent her preceding half-hour grilling defending herself on her lax handling of classified information, a situation that a former Navy lieutenant in the audience correctly observed would spell doom for a low-ranking service member.

She acknowledged her vote for the Iraq war was a “mistake” and gestured in the direction of the same for her advocacy of the 2011 Libya war, but waved it away by pointing out Trump’s support for the same disastrous interventions, a baffling decision for a candidate whose central pitch is that Trump is uniquely unqualified to be president.

To reassure a progressive veteran in the audience Clinton offered that she would treat the use of force as a “last resort”.

“We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again,” Clinton said, as if there were not this minute thousands of them there.

Colin Powell's advice to Clinton on using personal email

Although it didn’t directly come up in the forum on Wednesday evening, this is intriguing reading: a 2009 email exchange between Hillary Clinton and former secretary of state Colin Powell in which she asks for – and he gives – advice on using her Blackberry in the state department.

The full exchange is here, released by Deomcratic Rep. Elijah Cummings via the House oversight committee, but here’s a snippet of Powell’s email:

I didn’t have a BlackBerry. What I did do was have a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line (sounds ancient.) So I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts. I did the same thing on the road in hotels.

Now, the real issue had to do with PDAs, as we called them a few years ago before BlackBerry became a noun. And the issue was DS would not allow them into the secure spaces, especially up your way. When I asked why not they gave me all kinds of nonsense about how they gave out signals and could be read by spies, etc. Same reason they tried to keep mobile phones out of the suite. I had numerous meetings with them. We even opened one up for them to try to explain to me why it was more dangerous than say, a remote control for one of the many tvs in the suite. Or something embedded in my shoe heel. They never satisfied me and NSA/CIA wouldn’t back off. So, we just went about our business and stopped asking. I had an ancient version of a PDA and used it. In general, the suite was so sealed that it is hard to get signals in or out wirelessly.

However, there is a real danger. If it is public that you have a BlackBerry and it it government and you are using it, government or not, to do business, it may become an official record and subject to the law. Reading about the President’s BB rules this morning, it sounds like it won’t be as useful as it used to be. Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.

For those now wondering when we can watch the two candidates go head to head – on the same stage, at the same time, presumably answering something like the same questions – here’s the schedule:

  • Monday 26 September, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY. Moderated by Lester Holt, NBC.
  • Sunday 9 October, Washington University, St Louis. Moderated by Martha Raddatz, ABC, and Anderson Cooper, CNN.
  • Wednesday 19 October, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Moderated by Chris Wallace, Fox News.

There’s also a vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine:

  • Tuesday 4 October, Longwood University, Virginia. Moderated by Elaine Quijano, CBS News.

Ben Jacobs and Sabrina Siddiqui were watching the forum for Guardian US tonight and send this roundup:

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton struck a pointed contrast on deploying ground troops to Iraq in the first televised forum of the two presidential nominees on Wednesday.

During the town hall, held by NBC News and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Clinton pledged that the US was “not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we are not putting ground troops into Syria” – while Trump disagreed.

The Republican nominee, who has long talked about the importance of “taking the oil” in the Middle East, said of Iraq: “We would leave a certain group behind and they would take the various sections where they have the oil.”

The United States currently has roughly 5,000 troops deployed in Iraq, mostly as official non-combat advisers for the Iraqi military, along with special operations forces who conduct and assist in raids against Islamic State. Navy and Air Force pilots also participate daily in air attacks on the terrorist group.

Trump also furthered his so-called “bromance” with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, whom he repeatedly praised and cast as a better leader than Barack Obama. In particular, Trump cited Putin’s 82% approval rating as a sign of the Russian leader’s acumen. Russia blacklisted the Levada Center, the country’s leading independent pollster, two days ago as “a foreign agent”.

Trump nonetheless went on to characterize his relationship with Putin as mutually beneficial. “If he says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him,” Trump said. “I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment. OK?”

Clinton, by contrast, sought to re-emphasize her foreign policy expertise while defending her legacy while serving as Obama’s secretary of state.

“I took responsibility for my decision,” Clinton said of her vote for the Iraq War. “My opponent has refused to take responsibility for his support.”

Indeed, Trump falsely stated that he had been against the war all along – a claim that went unchallenged by NBC moderator Matt Lauer. Clinton also pointed out there was “no difference” between her position on Libya and that of Trump.

“He’s on record extensively supporting intervention in Libya,” she said.

Donald Trump: ‘If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him.’
Donald Trump: ‘If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him.’ Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Updated

Claire Phipps here picking up the post-forum baton from Scott Bixby.

There is some bafflement about Trump’s response to a questioner who said his daughter had been deterred from joining the armed forces after seeing the statistics on sexual assault.

At first, Trump did seem aware that the US military does have its own court system:

It’s a massive problem. The numbers are staggering, hard to believe, even. But we’re going to have to run it very tight. I at the same time want to keep the court system within the military. I don’t think it should be outside of the military.

But immediately afterwards, he didn’t seem so sure:

We have to do something about that problem. And the best thing we can do is set up a court system within the military. Right now, the court system practically doesn’t exist. It takes too long.

And on this tweet from 2013, in which Trump appeared to say that sexual assault was an inevitable result of men and women being in the same place:

Trump had this to say:

Well, it is … it is … it is a correct tweet.

Megyn Kelly, on Reince Priebus’ “smile” exhortation to Hillary Clinton:

Has someone ever said to you, ‘smile!’ Isn’t it irritating? Makes you want to do the opposite.

Updated

Rachael Frederick, the veteran who seemed frustrated by Donald Trump’s false correction of her question about suicide among veterans, told Rachel Maddow tonight that it “seemed to me like he wanted to blame it on access and mental health care” instead of on post-traumatic stress in US military communities.

“We’re going to stigmatize the veterans who are suffering with mental health diseases?” she asked incredulously, pointing out that Trump’s answer included describing veterans in “tremendous, tremendous pain” who commit suicide.

“I know many vets,” Frederick said, “who live with chronic pain every day, so I don’t think that’s the ’cause of veteran suicide.”

Hillary Clinton has responded to Reince Priebus’ request that she smile more when discussing topics like veteran suicide and the Libyan civil war:

Talk less – smile more!

Donald Trump: I could tell by 'the body language' that intelligence analysts disapprove of President Obama

One of the more remarkable exchanges from this evening is when Donald Trump told Matt Lauer that he could tell from “the body language” of the intelligence officials sent to brief him on classified information that they did not approve of the national security measures taken by President Barack Obama.

“What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts sayd and our truly - when I call it intelligence, it’s there for a reason - what our experts said to do. And I was very, very surprised,” Trump said.

“In almost every instance. And I could tell - I’m pretty good with the body language, I could tell they were not happy. Our leaders did not follow what they were recommending.”

The chair of the Republican National Committee has cast his vote on tonight’s proceedings:

Because it bears repeating, here is the full transcript of Donald Trump simultaneously declaring that he has a plan to defeat Isis and that he will embrace a plan created by unnamed generals after 30 days of strategy:

“When I do come up with a plan that I like - and that perhaps agrees with mine, or maybe doesn’t - I may love what the generals come back with,” Trump said.

“I have a plan, but I don’t want to - look, I have a very substantial chance of winning. Make America great again. We’re going to make America great again. I have a substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is. Let me tell you, if I like, maybe, a combination of my plan and the generals’ plan, or the generals’ plan - if I like their plan, Matt, I’m not going to call you up and say, ‘Matt, we have a great plan.’ This is what Obama does.”

Video: Donald Trump refers to American generals having been “reduced” to a point where “it’s embarrassing for our country”.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is already hitting Donald Trump for incorrectly “correcting” a veteran on the number of military veterans who die from suicide every day:

That concludes NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief” forum aboard the Intrepid aircraft carrier.

Here is NBC’s political editor, saying what anchor Matt Lauer failed to:

Updated

Donald Trump is asked by the father of a young woman who avoided joining the military over concerns about military sexual assault “what specifically would you do to support all victims of sexual assault in the military?”

“We’re gonna have to run it very tight,” Trump says. “We have to come down very very hard on that and your daughter is absolutely right, it is a massive problem, but we have to do something about that problem.”

Matt Lauer then quotes this tweet:

“This should have been expected?” Lauer asks incredulously.

“Something has to be happening - part of the problem is nobody gets prosecuted,” Trump says. “When you have somebody that does something so evil, so bad as that, there has to be consequence for that person.”

A Marine Corps aviation specialist who struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder asks Donald Trump what his plan will be to stop the suicide of 20 veterans a day.

“Actually, it’s 22,” Trump says, drawing a shocked look from the questioner. “They need help, they need tremendous help, and we’re doing nothing for them.”

“We are going to make it efficient and good and if it’s not good, you’re going out to private hospitals and doctors.”

Donald Trump touts Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings and dismisses the invasion of Crimea.

“Do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does?” Trump says. “I think when he calls me brilliant I’m gonna take the compliment.”

For the record, this never happened.

Donald Trump is asked whether he would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country if they serve in the armed forced.

“I think that when you serve in the armed forced, that’s a very special situation, and I could see myself working that out, absolutely,” Trump says. “If they plan on serving I would absolutely hold those people - it would be a very special circumstance, thank you.”

Matt Lauer asks Donald Trump if anything he’s learned in intelligence briefing make him “reconsider some of the things you say you can accomplish”.

“What I did learn is that our leadership - Barack Obama - did not follow what our experts and our truly when they call it it intelligence, it’s there for a reason, what our experts said to do.”

Asked about his proposed 30-day turnaround plan for “my generals” to come up with a plan to defeat Isis, Matt Lauer asks Trump whether “the plan you’ve been hiding this whole time asking someone else for their plan?”

“I may love what the generals come back with,” Trump says. “I have a plan, but I don’t want to be - look, I have a very substantial chance of winning, make America great again.”

“If I like their plan, Matt, I’m not gonna call you up and say, we have a great plan. This is what Obama does.”

A retired Marine Corps captain asks Donald Trump about his “secret plan to defeat Isis,” and “what is your plan for the region” once Isis is defeated.

“If you really look at the aftermath, Iran is going to be taking over Iraq. They’ve been doing it, and it’s not a pretty picture,” Trump says. “If we’re gonna get out, take the oil. If we would’ve taken the oil, you wouldn’t have Isis. Isis formed with the power and the wealth of that oil.”

Asked how the US would go about “taking the oil,” Trump decries the loss of “the spoils” to the victors in conflicts.

Asked about his comments declaring that he knows “more about Isis than the generals do,” Donald Trump is defensive.

“The generals under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have not been successful,” Trump says. “The generals have been reduced to rubble - they have been reduced to a pint where it’s embarrassing for our country.”

“We need change, Matt - we have to have it, and we have to have it fast.”

Donald Trump joins 'Commander-in-Chief' forum

Following former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has joined Matt Lauer onboard the Intrepid to discuss national security, military issues and veterans affairs.

Asked to avoid attacking Clinton, Trump tells Lauer that he will keep his attacks “to a minimum”.

Asked about his personal and professional life experiences that prepare

“I’ve built a great company, I’ve been all over the world, I’ve dealt with foreign countries. I’ve done very well, as an example, in dealing with China,” Trump says.

“I think the main thing is that i have great judgment - I have good judgment,” Trump says. “I was totally against the war in Iraq... perhaps almost as bad was the way Barack Obama got out.”

Trump defends his temperament and regretting inflammatory comments, telling Lauer that “when you say regret, yeah sure I regret, but in the meantime, I beat 16 people and here I am.”

“If you saw what happened in Mexico the other day, where I went there,” Trump says, “if you look at what happened, look at the aftermath today, people that arranged ther trip in Mexico have been forced out of government.”

Matt Lauer asks about fighting terrorist attacks in the United States either organized by or inspired by Isis.

“I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure that that’s the result,” Clinton says, but “I’m not going to promise something that I think most thinking Americans know will be a huge challenge.”

Calling for an “intelligence surge,” Clinton tells Lauer that “we have to do a better job of not only collecting and analyzing the intelligence we do have but distributing it much more quickly.”

“The last thing we need to do is to play into the hands of Isis. Going after American Muslims, defaming a Gold Star family... that is not going to help us in defeating Isis and protecting our homeland security.”

With that, Clinton - who apparently violated her agreement to avoid criticizing Donald Trump - is done for the night.

Next up: Trump himself.

Hillary Clinton, on fighting Isis:

We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again.

A Marine Corps sergeant and Arabic translator who is undecided asks Hillary Clinton whether she thinks the criticism of the Veterans Association have been “worse than they really are”.

“I will not let the VA be privatized, and I do think there is an agenda out there supported by my opponent to do that. I think that would be very disastrous for our military veterans,” Clinton says, pledging to have a meeting every week in the Oval Office about the VA.

“We’re living in a technological world - you cannot tell me that you can’t do a better job getting that information.”

Asked by Matt Lauer about rates of veteran suicide, Clinton lays the blame on overprescription of opioids, sexual assault and one-size-fits-all mental health treatment that ignores specific needs.

“This month is Suicide Prevention Awareness month,” Clinton says. “I rolled out my mental health agenda last week, and I have a whole section devoted to veteran’s mental health. We’ve got to remove the stigma, we’ve got to help people currently serving” to feel safe to vocalize symptoms of depression, and “help our veterans reenter civilian life and live full productive lives.”

The next question comes from a former intelligence analyst for the Air Force, a Democrat who asks Hillary Clinton how she responds to questions about whether her “hawkish” foreign policy will continue.

“I assume you’re talking about Iraq, because of my vote, and you probably are talking about Libya, because of the role that I played in the administration’s decision about whether to take on Qaddafi,” Clinton responds.

“I view force as a last resort, not a first choice,” Clinton says. “I will also be as careful as I can in making the most significant decisions any president and commander-in-chief can make about sending our men and women into harm’s way.”

“Taking that action was the right decision,” Clinton says, of her advocacy for intervention in Libya. “Not taking it and permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would have been as dangerous and threatening as what we are seeing in Syria.”

The first question from the audience comes from retired Air Force lieutenant John Lester, a Republican who asks Hillary Clinton how she expects “those who were entrusted with America’s most sensitive information... when you clearly corrupted our national security?”

“You know and I know classified material is designated, it is marked - there is a header so that there is no dispute at all so that what is being communicated... is marked classified,” Clinton says. “And what we have here is the use of an unclassified system by hundreds of people in our government to send information that was not marked.”

“I communicated about classified material on a wholly separate system. I took it very seriously,” Clinton continues. “When I traveled I went into one of those little tents... because we didn’t want there to be any potential for someone to have embedded a camera to try to see whatever it is that I was seeing.”

“I take it very seriously - always have, always will.”

Hillary Clinton, speaking at NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief Forum” onboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid in New York City, tells anchor and host Matt Lauer and the US military veterans in attendance that the most important characteristic a commander-in-chief can possess is “steadiness”.

“Steadiness, an absolute rock steadiness, mixed with strength, to be able to make the hard decisions,” Clinton says. “These are not easy decisions - if they were, they wouldn’t get to the president in the first place.”

“What you want in a president, a commander-in-chief, is someone who listens, who evaluates what is being told to him or her, who is able to sort out the very difficult options being presented, and then makes the decision.”

When asked about judgment as it related to her use of private email servers during her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton admitted that she had made a mistake, but that it was not a disqualification from office.

“There is no evidence my system was hacked,” Clinton says.

NBC 'Commander-in-Chief' candidate forum begins

Hosted on the Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier anchored on the shores of New York City, the forum will feature two half-hour interviews on national security and military issues with both major-party presidential candidates.

First up: Hillary Clinton.

Ahead of NBC’s forum, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has released a new ad: “Nukes.”

Donald Trump pledged that his campaign could compete in New York as he accepted the presidential nomination of the state’s Conservative Party.

Trump pledged “we are going to play in New York - we’re not just doing this for fun” and boasted “upstate we are going to do so well.” In Trump’s view, “it’s always bad, never good when you lose your state and lose it badly.” Recent polls of New York have Trump losing by almost 20 points to Clinton, who represented the Empire State for eight years in the United States Senate.

Under New York’s unique election law, there is fusion voting which allows multiple political parties to nominate the same candidate and their votes to be counted cumulatively on election night.

Any chance of this coming up tonight?

Trump calls Clinton ‘trigger happy and unstable’

Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “trigger happy and very unstable” during a speech earlier today in which he further outlined his military strategy. Speaking at the Union League in Philadelphia, Trump mocked Clinton’s foreign policy record, saying “sometimes it seemed like there wasn’t a country in the Middle East that Hillary Clinton didn’t want to invade, intervene in or topple”.

In roughly an hour, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will appear on what NBC is billing as its “Commander-in-Chief” forum, a chance for both candidates to make their case - although not at the same time - that they are the candidate more prepared to handle military and veterans issues as president.

Here’s a quick rundown of the expected proceedings:

  • The two candidates won’t be appearing onstage at the same time - the campaigns are saving that for the first presidential debate of the general election campaign, set for 26 September at Hofstra University.
  • Hillary Clinton will go first, joining host Matt Lauer for a half-hour of questions and answers on subjects relating to the military. Donald Trump, having won the coin toss, chose to go second and will join Lauer for the second half-hour.
  • The forum will be held on the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. The Intrepid is a military and maritime history museum on the shores of Hell’s Kitchen, and is also a decommissioned aircraft carrier that’s home to a space shuttle and the SR-71 Blackbird, the coolest plane ever made.

Updated

Trump campaign manager: Timing of donation to Florida attorney general 'coincidence'

Barack Obama has taken the historic step of nominating the first Muslim candidate to become a federal judge.

Abid Riaz Qureshi.
Abid Riaz Qureshi. Photograph: AP

The announcement comes just weeks after White House candidate Donald Trump made controversial remarks that it was “possible, absolutely” that Muslim judges could be biased against him. US judges who are Muslims have served at state level but never the echelons above – as appeals, federal or supreme court judges, according to Muslim Advocates, a national advocacy organization.

Abid Qureshi, a litigation and pro bono specialist practicing in Washington, was put forward on Tuesday night to serve on the federal judiciary at the US district court for the District of Columbia.

“I think it’s past time for an American Muslim to be nominated as a federal judge. I’m absolutely thrilled,” Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, told the Guardian on Wednesday.

Khera had lobbied both Obama, during a meeting at the White House in 2015, to nominate a Muslim to the federal bench, and Qureshi to apply, she said.

“A judiciary that reflects the rich diversity of our nation helps ensure the fair and just administration of the law, and it is vital for American Muslims to be included,” she added.

The selection of Qureshi, who was born in Pakistan and settled in the US as a young child, became the latest milestone in a significant increase in judicial diversity under Obama.

Since becoming president, Obama has led a push to nominate more women, African American, Latino, Asian American and openly gay judges.

Of Qureshi, Obama said: “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Donald Trump is pleased with Peter Thiel’s op-ed in the Washington Post:

Donald Trump - as 'John Baron' - reportedly threatened author in 1980s

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s old habit of pretending to be a Trump Organization spokesperson named “John Barron/Baron” when leaking flattering anecdotes to reporters has been known for quite some time. Trump’s now-retired nom de plume has largely been a subject of humor, an example of the preternatural media savvy of a construction tycoon whose self-image is inextricably linked with the attention of the news media.

But a report from Buzzfeed News suggests that Trump’s alter ego wasn’t just a tool for massaging his ego and boosting circulation to New York tabloid papers. According to a Trump biographer, “John Baron” threatened him with financial ruin if he continued research for a biography on Trump.

“I was spooked enough to go home and put all my assets in my wife’s name at the time, praying that she wouldn’t want to divorce me,” author Jerome Tuccille, who wrote Trump: The Saga of America’s Most Powerful Real Estate Baron, told Buzzfeed News. “I figured it was safer in her hands with Trump’s lawyers coming at me.”

According to Tuccille, he was contacted during the research portion of writing the book by a man representing himself as John Baron of the Trump Organization.

“I understand you’ve been calling people all over town harassing them and misrepresenting yourself,” Tuccille wrote in the book, recounting a conversation with “Baron” in which it was suggested that “I wouldn’t have a pair of socks left to my name if I went ahead with the book.”

“It was chilling,” Tuccille told BuzzFeed News. “It was chilling because I assumed that John Baron was a higher-up in his organization and that he was threatening me.”

Ared taffeta ballgown skirt worn with a grey T-shirt declaring “Hillary” in beading on the front and “2016” on the back might not be your typical catwalk combination, but at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Manhattan on Tuesday, the worlds of fashion and politics came together – for one night anyway.

Designer Prabal Gurung walks with models during a presentation of the “Made for History Collection”.
Designer Prabal Gurung walks with models during a presentation of the “Made for History Collection”. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

The Made for History fashion show and rooftop party at the Spring Studios event space in Tribeca were co-hosted by Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin, who has been in the spotlight recently after announcing a split with her husband Anthony Weiner following his latest sexting scandal last week.

Young female Clinton workers greeted guests wearing the Made for History merchandise, which can be bought on the Democratic presidential candidate’s website and ranges in price from around $25 for a bandana by Thakoon to a $60 special edition new Marc Jacobs T-shirt and a $75 canvas pouch by Brett Heyman. All proceeds go straight to the Clinton campaign, and 85% of purchases so far have come from first-time donors, according to Wintour.

“The collection is both stylish and distinctive, and unlike the Republican candidate’s unspeakably hideous ties, our collection is made in America by union workers,” announced the Vogue editor, to laughter and applause at the reference to Donald Trump.

Both Wintour and Abedin were dressed in a print of the individual US states by Jason Wu, designer of both of Michelle Obama’s inauguration gowns.

Clinton herself did not attend, but her daughter Chelsea was there.

It’s not an endorsement, but it’s close:

The Clinton campaign responds to Donald Trump calling Hillary Clinton “unhinged” in her criticism of his military record:

“Like a schoolyard bully who can’t rely on facts or issues, Trump has only one way of responding to legitimate criticism of his own vulnerabilities: ‘I know you are, but what am I?’” said Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“Hillary Clinton’s well-founded criticisms of Trump, laid out in meticulous detail, become taunts and insults from Trump with no basis in reality. When she lays out a thoughtful speech outlining why he is unfit to be Commander-in-chief, he calls her unhinged. She gives a speech on his disturbing history of racial discrimination and ties to white supremacists and the alt-right movement, he calls her a bigot. You could dismiss these actions as insecure schoolyard behavior but this man is running to be president of the United States.”

“As Hillary Clinton has said, anyone you can bait this easily is not someone you can trust to be commander-in-chief.”

In a letter to a blogger who writes about living with genital herpes, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton applauded her effort to stand against stigma against those with sexually transmitted infections, as well as “taking a courageous stand against the ridiculous, but very real, barrage of hate you received online”.

Ella Dawson, 24, frequently blogs about living with the infection - which is shared by one in six Americans - and is frequently targeted online by misogynist commenters and trolls.

Jill Stein charged with criminal trespass, criminal mischief for spray-painting construction equipment

Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s eye-grabbing protest against the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota over the weekend has led to more than attention for the also-running candidate - it’s led to a warrant for her arrest.

Jill Stein prepares to spray-paint “I approve this message” in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer at a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Jill Stein prepares to spray-paint “I approve this message” in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer at a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photograph: AP

The Morton County sheriff’s department has issued a warrant her arrest after Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, were accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the pipeline, which has been decried by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe as a violation of sacred tribal lands, as well as a pollution risk.

Stein sprayed “I approve this message” in red spray paint on the blade of a bulldozer after being encouraged by local protesters.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has announced that the Republican presidential candidate will make an appearance at the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy in Cleveland, Ohio, tomorrow, the first meaningful foray into education issues for the candidate.

Trump’s appearance at the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy - a majority-minority charter school - highlights the Republican nominee’s newfound focus on broadening his appeal to racial minorities, as well as a broadening of what has been a scant education policy since he announced his candidacy in June of last year.

The word “education” appears nowhere on the list of positions and policies on Trump’s campaign website, and is typically mentioned only once in stump speeches in which Trump decries Common Core.

The event begins at 2pm ET.

Hillary Clinton to highlight military, veterans issues at 'commander-in-chief' forum tonight

At NBC’s “commander-in-chief” forum tonight - the first time she and Republican rival Donald Trump will appear on the same stage as general election opponents, albeit not at the same time - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will welcome 11 guests, each of whom represent veterans and military issues.

Hillary Clinton walks from her C-17 military transport aircraft upon her arrival in Tripoli in October 18, 2011.
Hillary Clinton walks from her C-17 military transport aircraft upon her arrival in Tripoli in October 18, 2011. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

According to a Clinton campaign official, the roster of veterans and military activists will help demonstrate that “Clinton is the only candidate with a detailed, comprehensive policy to strengthen and support military families and veterans when they return home and she is the only candidate with a concrete plan to combat terrorism like ISIS and keep the homeland safe.”

The guests include Marine Corps veteran and founder of the Service Women’s Action Network Anu Bhagwati, retired Air Force brigadier general John Douglass, and second-year Army ROTC student Alexander Douglas, as well as veterans of each of the four main branches of the US military.

The invite list comes on the heels of the campaign’s announcement that Clinton had received the endorsement of 95 retired generals and admirals, including a number of four-star generals and onetime Defense Department officials in Republican administrations.

“Clinton is getting the backing of more senior military service members and former officials with command and management experience than any non-incumbent Democrat due to her proven record of diplomacy and steady leadership on the world stage,” the campaign official told the Guardian. “According to yesterday’s media reports, Trump has received more than 400 fewer endorsements than Mitt Romney received - 88 to Romney’s 500.”

Hillary Clinton knows where her electoral bread is buttered, the New York Times’ Trip Gabriel points out. There’s talk this cycle, like every four years, of Republicans snatching Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes back from Democrats by appealing to white blue-collar voters in the north and southwest while ceding Philadelphia and environs. Though polling in the state has tightened, Clinton appears to hold a comfortable edge of 4-9 points.

But she’s not leaving the state to chance:

Compare FiveThirtyEight’s forecasting model based on economic indicators with polling averages for the same period:

Updated

Trump derides Clinton as warmonger, proposes military expansion

Donald Trump derided Hillary Clinton as a warmonger on Wednesday, saying: “Sometimes it seems like there wasn’t a country in the Middle East Clinton didn’t want to invade,” even as he called for a major increase in US defense spending, writes the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs:

In the speech at the Union League in Philadelphia, a century-and-a-half-old institution crammed with portraits of civil war generals and long-dead club presidents, Trump laid out his vision for a more robust US military paired with a cautious foreign policy.

Trump railed against his Democratic opponent as having been “trigger-happy and very unstable” during her tenure as secretary of state, claiming that she produced “only turmoil, suffering and death” while in office.

By contrast, the Republican nominee promised to “prioritize diplomacy over destruction” and pledged that in his administration “our actions in the Middle East will be tempered by realism”.

The address, billed as a policy speech on military readiness, marked Trump’s second on policy in the past week after addressing immigration last Wednesday in Phoenix. Trump has taken a more scripted approach in recent weeks, which have seen Hillary Clinton’s lead narrow in national polls.

Read further:

Pence: Obama was born in United States

Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence has said “Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.” These guys don’t agree on anything.

Pressed recently about his claims that Obama was born outside the country, Trump has said “I don’t talk about that anymore.” Which is different, you may notice, from saying, “I don’t believe that anymore and I apologize for saying it.”

“The king of debt”

Updated

Trump’s done. A lot of the applause felt more dutiful than inspired but this line landed:

Trump:

And by the way, we love our flag.

Trump has run through the proposals to upgrade the military released by his campaign just previous to the speech. He has not mentioned how he would pay for his proposals or attract the new military recruits to fulfill them. But he says, repeatedly and with confidence, “It. Will. Happen.”

Bill Clinton is in Orlando, hitting Trump for his donations to attorney general Pam Bondi:

Trump, speaking in Philadelphia, says Clinton is “totally unfit” to be commander in chief.

Trump's August fundraising figures fall short – report

The Trump campaign raised $90m in August, Fox News is reporting, compared with $143m for Clinton. Reuters has further:

The report did not offer a breakdown of the amount raised by he New York real estate magnate, but Trump said at a rally on Tuesday that he himself contributed a lot of the money to his campaign in August.

In July, Trump took in $80 million.

Updated

Trump finally gets started in Philadelphia. He wants to talk about three crucial words, he says. “Peace through strength.”

Updated

Phyllis Schlafly's legacy: 'she encouraged us to speak'

Phyllis Schlafly, the 92-year-old founder of the Eagle Forum who died on Monday evening, is best known for her grassroots movement that prevented ratification of the equal rights amendment in the 1970s. But conservative women say that it would be a mistake to think of her as solely involved or interested in countering the feminist agenda, writes the Guardian’ Megan Carpentier:

They credit her reach as spreading far beyond that, to empowering women in the conservative movement, many of whom now lead their own national women’s groups whose areas of focus have broadened to include “free markets”, “personal liberty”, and “family values”.

“It wasn’t a women’s-only cause that she led,” explained Lil Tuttle, the policy director at the conservative Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute. “It was a conservative cause.”

“She encouraged us to speak out and speak boldly,” Tuttle added. “She was a uniter in a lot of ways.”

Read further:

And here’s Jessica Valenti on how Schlafly lost her war:

Phyllis Schlafly believed feminism was a losing battle. The conservative icon, who died on Monday aged 92, insisted that the movement for gender equality was “a fight with human nature”, and therefore doomed to fail. Women belonged in the home, she believed, men belonged in the workforce and women didn’t need any more rights than the ones they were already afforded.

But despite Schlafly’s predictions and beliefs, the world she left behind this week is one that largely embraces the issues she most feared. Feminism is more popular than ever, women are in the workforce en masse, LGBT rights are front and center and the country is mostly pro-choice.

It turns out “human nature” is more attached to social progress than it is the idea that women belong in the kitchen. And with Schlafly’s death, we’re witnessing the end of a particular brand of conservative antifeminism that simply can’t survive in a country that has moved well beyond its values.

Read further:

Trump's describes first move in office: 'ask the generals' for plan to beat Isis

Here’s a live stream of Trump’s event in Philadelphia:

The Trump campaign has issued a list of 10 proposals to “update and upgrade America’s military.” The proposals amount to a very large order for new military recruitment and spending, which Trump presumably will draw from thin air.

Here they are:

– “Immediately after taking office, Mr. Trump will ask the generals to present a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS.”

– ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild our military as soon as he assumes office.

– build an active Army of around 540,000, as the Army’s chief of staff has said he needs.

– build a Marine Corps based on 36 battalions, which the Heritage Foundation notes is the minimum needed to deal with major contingencies.

– build a Navy approaching 350 surface ships and submarines, as recommended by the bipartisan National Defense Panel.

– build an Air Force of at least 1,200 fighter aircraft, which the Heritage Foundation has shown to be needed to execute current missions.

– seek to develop a state of the art missile defense system.

– modernize our nation’s naval cruisers to provide Ballistic Missile Defense capabilities.

– enforce all classification rules, and enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.

– asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all relevant federal departments, to conduct a thorough review of United States cyber defenses and identify all vulnerabilities – in our power grid, our communications systems, and all vital infrastructure.

Trump is going with a 1:3 teleprompter-to-flag ratio in Philadelphia, Ben Jacobs reports.

Derry, New Hampshire, 19 August, 2015.
Derry, New Hampshire, 19 August, 2015. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Whoops.

Read our previous coverage:

Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in Philadelphia in about a half hour. We’ll have a live video stream of the event for you. Better yet, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs is at the scene:

Texas' biggest paper endorses Clinton, after 75 years of backing GOP

The Dallas Morning News, the biggest newspaper in the state, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, in its first endorsement of a Democrat in 75 years.

“There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November,” the endorsement begins. “We recommend Hillary Clinton”:

We don’t come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II — if you’re counting, that’s more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections. [...]

We’ve been critical of Clinton’s handling of certain issues in the past. But unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy.

A Washington Post poll of Texas voters released Tuesday found a neck-and-neck presidential race in the state, which is home to the presidents Bush and global energy interests and where Republicans have reliably won since Richard Nixon (not counting the post-Watergate Jimmy Carter hiccup).

Update: here’s further from Texas: the state’s longest-serving governor and two-time presidential candidate, Rick Perry, is on Dancing with the Stars this season, and apparently he will win:

Updated

President Barack Obama’s trip to Laos wasn’t all coconuts. He held a[n extremely polite] town hall too, which you can watch on C-Span:

Trumps ends media blacklist

The Donald Trump campaign has retired a media blacklist it had maintained since before the candidate won the nomination, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports.

The blacklist resulted in a ban certain media organizations, including the Washington Post, BuzzFeed and Politico, from Trump events.

“I figure they can’t treat me any worse,” Trump told CNN Money.

Critics pointed out that the blacklist was punitive and sought to chill any reporting on Trump that the sensitive candidate may construe as negative.

The application of the blacklist was inconsistent. Trump gave hours of interviews to supposedly banned outlets and linked to and disseminated favorable reports from those outlets.

Updated

Trump hosted fund-raiser for Florida attorney general

In a new twist in the controversy over a Donald Trump donation to help re-elect Florida attorney general Pam Bondi in 2014, the Huffington Post reports that Trump went further than writing a $25,000 check from his foundation’s account – he hosted a fundraiser for Bondi at his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.

Trump’s support for Bondi has come under scrutiny, in part, because the check-writing and fund-raising was timed to Bondi’s decision not to join a New York state inquiry into consumer complaints about Trump University. The timing strikes some people as suspicious.

Bondi’s office announced three days after the check landed that she would not be looking into Trump University. The IRS fined the Trump family foundation for making a banned donation to Bondi. Bondi told the Associated Press that she had spoken with Trump and sought his donation personally. Trump has denied speaking with Bondi about Trump University but Trump’s campaign has conceded the two spoke as Bondi was making a decision about whether to join the inquiry. But they can’t say what the two spoke about.

Bondi introduces Trump at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida, on 14 March.
Bondi introduces Trump at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida, on 14 March. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

From the Huffington Post:

In March 2014, Donald Trump opened his 126-room Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, for a $3,000-per-person fundraiser for Pam Bondi. The Florida attorney general, who was facing a tough re-election campaign, had recently decided not to investigate Trump University. [...]

Since he began his run for the White House, Trump has repeatedly claimed that Bondi is merely someone he has supported politically. But his fundraising efforts for her were extensive and varied: In addition to the $25,000 donation from his foundation and the star-studded Mar-a-Lago event, Trump and his daughter Ivanka each gave $500 to Bondi’s campaign in the fall of 2013. The following spring, Ivanka and her father donated another $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida ― Bondi’s single biggest source of campaign funds.

For more information about the scandal, read our summary report:

Why is a $25,000 campaign donation Donald Trump made in September 2013 to Pam Bondi, a Republican running for re-election as Florida’s attorney general, now such a big deal?

Trump circumvented Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules by routing the money through a charitable entity, the Donald J Trump Foundation, which is prohibited by law from making political donations. More controversially, however, Bondi’s office was at the time mulling whether to join a New York state probe into allegations that customers who paid thousands of dollars to Trump University, Trump’s for-profit education company, for a real estate investment course were ripped off. Just days after Trump’s donation arrived, Bondi dropped her investigation into the alleged fraud, citing “insufficient grounds” to proceed.

Read the full piece here.

Update: Trump campaign manager tells ABC News this morning that Trump and Bondi “both said that they’ve never discussed the Trump University lawsuit... they may have talked about anything. He has a residence in Florida.”

Conway works to turn the conversation to meetings Hillary Clinton took while secretary of state with Clinton Foundation donors.

Updated

Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs is in Philadelphia with Donald Trump for a rally this morning before the candidate heads to New York City to participate in a forum on veterans’ issues. Hillary Clinton is also participating in the forum, but the two candidates are not scheduled to cross paths. Bill Clinton is scheduled to make an appearance on behalf of his wife in Florida, and Chelsea Clinton is campaigning today in Pennsylvania.

Trump: ‘I think I will’ release medical records

Trump and Clinton return to trail

Trump launched an assault on Clinton on Tuesday evening in a cavernous convention center in Greenville, North Carolina, marking his first public rally since Labor Day, the unofficial kickoff to the fall campaign. After bemoaning that Clinton didn’t talk about policy but instead engaged in “hitjobs” against him, Trump proceeded to return the favor. Only hours before, at a Tampa rally, Clinton had called him “temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States”.

Obama enjoys refreshing coconut

Darn that looks good. Luang Prabang, Laos.
Darn that looks good. Luang Prabang, Laos. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Trump’s son-in-law’s paper breaks DNC hacking news

The New York Observer, the paper owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, which is not known for its national security reporting, is now receiving leaks about hacked Democratic emails, the paper says, from the hacker Guccifer 2.0, who has been linked to Moscow. The emails don’t seem particularly new, but the outlet is.

Speaking of Vladimir Putin, this happened on Hillary Clinton’s plane yesterday:

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