Today in Campaign 2016
- Donald Trump scrambled to dig himself out from an avalanche of fresh abuse allegations today, after a series of women came forward to dispute his claim that his comments about sexual assault were only empty boasts. “There is nothing the political establishment will not do, no lie they won’t tell to hold their prestige and power at your expense and that’s what’s happening,” he told a rally in Florida. “The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election.” After a series of initial denials in capital letters on Twitter and more than an hour after his speech was due to start, Trump launched into an hour-long attack on the media and female accusers he called “horrible, horrible liars”. “Take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. And you tell me what you think. I don’t think so,” Trump said of Natasha Stoynoff, a People magazine reporter who alleged he had “forced his tongue down my throat”.
- First lady Michelle Obama delivered a devastating rebuke to Trump, calling past comments and alleged misconduct by the Republican nominee “cruel”, “frightening” and beyond the “basic standards of human decency.”
This is not normal, this is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful, it is intolerable, and it doesn’t matter what party you belong to... No woman deserves to be treated this way – none of us deserves this kind of abuse.
- To get to the facts of the matter, here is a timeline of the allegations by more than a dozen women, many of which have only been made public in recent days.
- New Jersey governor Chris Christie is facing an official misconduct complaint stemming from the closure of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge in 2013. A judge signed the summons today, sending the case to the Bergen County prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether the case will lead to an indictment. The Republican governor appointed the prosecutor.
- Hillary Clinton hinted at a possible landslide in the 8 November election, exhorting several thousand supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser today to help her “have the kind of victory we need” to serve as a “rebuke” to Donald Trump. On a day when Trump went on the attack – calling women who have accused him of inappropriate touching and kissing “horrible, horrible liars” – an increasingly confident Clinton encouraged her backers to double down on their efforts during the final weeks of the fractious 2016 campaign.
- “Everything we care about is at risk,” she said. “If you can help me to have the kind of victory we need, that stands as a rebuke of all the bigotry and bullying we’ve seen, then together, together we will build the future that all of us, particularly the children of our country, deserve to have.”
Speaking to a Linda Ross, a friend of Jessica Leeds, a woman who has accused Donald Trump of physically assaulting her onboard an airline flight in 1979, CNN’s Don Lemon revealed tonight the moment when Leeds decided to come forward with her allegations.
“We were sitting together on her couch, and I looked right at her and I said, ‘Oh, my God, Jessica, he just flat out lied right to our faces,’” Ross said, regarding the moment in the second presidential debate in which Trump pledged that he had never sexually assaulted a woman.
“I mean, that’s how personal it felt,” Ross continued. “He just flat out lied to our faces, and we were both shaking. We were so angry... She said, ‘I’ll think about it,’ and I went home at the end of the debate. I live two floors below her and the next morning, I got an e-mail from her telling me that she had sent a letter or an e-mail to the New York Times on Monday.”
Even the right-tilting New York Post seems to be going bearish on Donald Trump in its woodcut for tomorrow:
Tomorrow's Cover: Donald Trump launches an all-out attack after multiple women accuse him of sexual assault https://t.co/juq3rYptyK pic.twitter.com/3i2NuvINkK
— New York Post (@nypost) October 14, 2016
Poll: Donald Trump's lead in Texas falls to margin of error
A new poll in the Lone Star State has Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s lead over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton slipping to a mere four percentage points, within the margin of error in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in four decades.
The WFAA-TV and Texas TEGNA television stations poll shows Trump holding a four-point lead over Clinton, 47% to Clinton’s 43% in a survey with a four-point margin of error.
“I think to put these numbers in context - it shows that Trump’s position has eroded a little bit,” political science professor Matthew Wilson told WFAA. “His lead is down to four percentage points according to this poll, but even in the wake of some really terrible news for him, he still leads in Texas, which shows what a tough nut Texas is to crack for Democratic candidates right now.”
Historically, Texas is one of the most blood-red states in the Union: Mitt Romney won Texas by 16% in 2012.
After a day of extraordinary statements – attacking women who have accused him of sexual assault, and invoking shocking antisemitic tropes – Donald Trump exercised what might be seen as a rare degree of restraint.
Speaking to a Cincinnati arena filled with roughly 15,000 people tonight, he merely insulted the state’s Republican governor, mocked Hillary Clinton’s health and watched as his supporters treated the press with the same affection that lions in the Coliseum treated Christians.
In the first full day after Trump faced a barrage of accusations of groping and sexual misconduct from nearly a dozen women, the Republican nominee went on the offensive. In a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump insisted that he would never have sexually assaulted one woman who came forward – because she was unattractive.
“Take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. And you tell me what you think. I don’t think so,” Trump said of Natasha Stoynoff, a People magazine reporter who alleged he had “forced his tongue down my throat”. The Republican nominee also attacked the New York Times – which reported the statements of two women who alleged Trump groped them.
He threatened to sue the paper and insisted he had eyewitnesses who could disprove the New York Times’ reporting. He described the women who alleged sexual assault against him as “horrible people, they’re horrible horrible liars”. Trump insisted that the press as a whole was “false and slanderous in every respect” and said “the depths of their immorality is absolutely unlimited”.
The allegations came less than a week after a leaked tape was revealed of Trump bragging about groping women and insisting: “When you are a star they let you do anything.”
At the same rally Trump also warned darkly about Clinton meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers”.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti Defamation League, promptly denounced the statement, which harkened back to antisemitic tropes like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
.@TeamTrump should avoid rhetoric&tropes that historically have been used ag. Jews & still spur #antisemitism. Lets keep hate out of cmpgn https://t.co/9LMnurQ3Xg
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) October 13, 2016
A good reminder that, for those of you lucky enough to not have to watch Sean Hannity’s television show as part of your job, he’s a little soft on the facts.
Kathleen Willey tells Sean Hannity the mainstream media hasn't reached out to her. I contacted her repeatedly for a year. No response.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 14, 2016
Tony Abbott defends Trump’s policies as ‘reasonable enough’ and ‘classic conservatism’
Tony Abbott has described some of Donald Trump’s policies as “classic conservatism” while calling others “over the top” after garnering criticism for seemingly giving support to the Republican presidential candidate.
The former Australian prime minister urged “Trump haters” not to get “too excited” over his comments after he told Paul Murray on Sky News that the vast majority of Trump supporters were not deplorables.
“[They are] decent people who want to see change inside their country and that’s fair enough,” he said on Thursday night.
“Many of the Trump positions are reasonable enough, and there will be tens if not hundreds of millions of Americans who will continue to support some of those positions.”
Since tapes surfaced of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, which he later denied, several alleged victims have come forward. The accusations include claims from beauty pageant contestants that Trump burst into their dressing rooms while they were naked.
Taking to Twitter on Friday morning, Abbott sought to head off the inevitable reaction to his comments, but instead prompted further rebuke.
“Before the Trump haters get too excited, some of his views are OTT but cutting tax and boosting defence are classic conservatism,” he wrote.
Before the Trump haters get too excited, some of his views are OTT but cutting tax and boosting defence are classic conservatism
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) October 14, 2016
Idaho Statesman endorses Hillary Clinton
A famously right-leaning Idaho newspaper has endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, acknowledging that while there was “low to medium enthusiasm for Clinton” on the paper’s editorial board, none of its members could bring themselves to endorse Donald Trump.
Citing issues relevant to Idaho voters ranging from education, immigration and rural issues to gun control and health care, the Idaho Statesman, the state’s most widely circulated newspaper, criticized Trump as insufficiently reliable on conservative issues, or unreliable, period.
On health care, for example, “We are confused by Trump’s approach - one day he is going to repeal it, the next he proposes single-payer alternative - but we believe Clinton will work to make the improvements that are absolutely needed.”
On more lofty qualifications like communication style and positivity, the Statesman’s editorial board compared Trump to a “spoiled child.”
“We live in the real world, with real problems that need real solutions,” the board concludes. “We need someone with pragmatic approaches that include patience and compassion. We need Hillary Clinton to be the next president.”
Sean Hannity, in his interview with three women who have accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape, inferred from their anecdotes on his show that they might fear for their lives if Hillary Clinton were to be elected president.
“There’s been so many things happen to so many people connected to the Clintons,” Paula Jones said. “She’s gonna rule the world.”
Fox News personality Sean Hannity, who has functioned as an arm of the Trump campaign’s communications strategy since the Republican primaries, held a special on his show tonight in which he interviewed a trio of women who have accused former president Bill Clinton, husband of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, of sexual impropriety.
Donald Trump was originally scheduled to appear on the show, but pulled out of the appearance after more than a dozen accusations of sexual harassment, assault and inappropriate behavior were reported in various media outlets, including the Guardian US, surfaced on Wednesday night.
The women - Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey - have long alleged that Bill Clinton committed acts of sexual impropriety toward them, ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault to rape, and have made a similar appearance on Hannity’s eponymous show in the past.
“Back in 1978, when I was working for BC’s campaign for governor, I was raped by Bill Clinton. I was viciously raped,” Broaddrick told Hannity. “And three weeks later, at a fundraiser for him... Hillary personally threatened me.”
Clinton has long denied Broaddrick’s claims, and Broaddrick herself submitted an affidavit in 1997 denying that Clinton had made “any sexual advances” towards her.
Regarding the alleged threat, Broaddrick said that at a fundraiser for her husband’s gubernatorial campaign, Hillary Clinton “comes straight to me and says to me, big smile, very pleasant voice, says to me, ‘I’m Hillary, it’s so nice to meet you. I just want to thank you for everything you do for Bill’s campaign.’”
Clinton then allegedly grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, saying in “a very angry voice, a very low voice, and she pulls me close to her and she says, ‘Do you understand everything you do?’”
“I don’t know what she’s capable of.”
Jones, a former Arkansas state employee whose lawsuit over allegations of sexual harassment eventually lead to Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives, told Hannity that after she was invited to his room at an Arkansas hotel, Clinton propositioned her and exposed himself to her.
“And I said, ‘I’m not that kind of girl, and I need to walk by to my desk,’” Jones said. Clinton then allegedly told her: “You’re a smart girl - let’s keep this between us.’”
Clinton settled Jones’ lawsuit out of court for $850,000 without admission of guilt.
Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer aide, has alleged since 1998 that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her in the Oval Office in 1993.
“I headed back out the hall to go back to the door that led into the Oval Office, and he took my coffee cup from me and put it on a desk or table, and next thing I knew, he had me backed into a corner,” Willey told Hannity. “My mind was racing, and I thought, ‘should I slap him, or kick him, or knee him?’”
Willey then says that when Clinton was distracted, she then fled the Oval Office.
Updated
Report: Donald Trump called deaf Celebrity Apprentice 'retarded,' according to staffers
Citing three staffers from the hit reality show The Apprentice that turned Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump into a star, The Daily Beast reports that Trump “had a habit of insulting, mimicking, and demeaning” Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who is deaf.
“[Trump] would often equate that she was mentally retarded,” one staffer, who like the others was bound by an ironclad nondisclosure agreement, told The Daily Beast.
“[Trump] would make fun of her voice. It actually sounded a lot like what he did [to] the New York Times guy,” another staffer told The Daily Beast, in reference to an incident in which Trump mocked a disabled reporter during a rally. “Like, to make it seem like she was mentally not there? [It] sounded like he got a real kick out of it. It was really upsetting.”
“In the boardroom, he would talk to her like she was ‘special,’” another source said. “He took her deafness as a some kind of [mental] handicap.”
Matlin eventually placed second in the 2011 season of Celebrity Apprentice.
Indian governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was asked about self-image by a journalist quoting an 11-year-old girl, who said that when she heard words used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, “they make me feel bad about myself.”
Pence’s response:
Well, I would say to any one of my kids and any children in this country that Donald trump and I are committed to a safer and more prosperous future for their family. The weak and feckless foreign policy that Hillary Clinton promises to continue has literally caused wider areas of the world to spin apart. The rise of terrorist threats that have inspired violence here at home, and we’ve seen an erosion of law and order in our streets. And we’ve seen opportunities and jobs evaporate and even leave Ohio and leave this country. I would say to any of our kids that if Donald Trump and I have the chance to serve in the White House that we’re going to work every day for a stronger, safer and more prosperous America.
So, in response to a young woman’s questions about Trump’s attitudes toward women, Pence responded with foreign policy, law and order, and lost manufacturing jobs.
What’re your thoughts?
Report: Donald Trump may have lied about donating to 9/11 charities
A review of hundreds of pages of sealed records into charities aimed at benefitting those affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks by the New York City controller show that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may not have fulfilled a self-made obligation to donate $10,000 to a major 9/11 charity, according to the New York Daily News.
“For the periods covered by the audits, we did not find any record of a donation from Trump himself or a Trump entity to either the Twin Towers Fund or the New York City Public/Private Initiative,” said New York City controller Scott Stringer in a statement to the Daily News.
According to the city’s records, there is no evidence that Trump gave to either the Twin Towers Fund or the New York City Public/Private Initiative through at least mid-2002, although the limits of the audit mean that the controller’s office is “unable to conclude definitively that Trump never gave to either of these two funds.”
Trump pledged $10,000 to the Twin Towers Fund as part of a donation initiative sparked by radio personality Howard Stern, according to the New York Daily News. A review of records from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump’s personal charitable arm, shows that between 2001 and 2014, there was no donation listed to either the Twin Towers Fund or the NYC Public/Private Initiative.
Hillary Clinton hinted at a possible landslide in the 8 November election, exhorting several thousand supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser on Thursday to help her “have the kind of victory we need” to serve as a “rebuke” to Donald Trump.
On a day when Trump went on the attack – calling women who have accused him of inappropriate touching and kissing “horrible, horrible liars” – an increasingly confident Clinton encouraged her backers to double down on their efforts during the final weeks of the fractious 2016 campaign.
“Everything we care about is at risk,” she said. “If you can help me to have the kind of victory we need, that stands as a rebuke of all the bigotry and bullying we’ve seen, then together, together we will build the future that all of us, particularly the children of our country, deserve to have.”
Just one day earlier, the floodgates began to open up on Trump, as women accused him of putting his hands up a woman’s skirt on an airplane, shoving his tongue down a reporter’s throat at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, bursting into beauty pageant dressing rooms and ogling the semi-clad contestants.
Not one but two incidents from 1992 surfaced in which the Republican standard bearer – then 46 – told young girls that he would be dating them in the not-too-distant future.
During the San Francisco fundraiser, Clinton rued that “the disturbing stories just keep coming”.
“The whole world has heard Trump brag about how he mistreats women,” Clinton said. “But it’s more than just the way he degrades women, as horrible as that is. He has attacked immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims and our military, which he’s called a disaster.
“There’s hardly any part of America that he has not targeted,” she continued. “Now, it makes you want to turn off the news. It makes you want to unplug the internet. Or just look at cat gifs. Believe me, I get it. In the last few weeks, I’ve watched a lot of cats do a lot of weird and interesting things.”
This sounds familiar: after yesterday’s tape of a then 46-year-old Donald Trump saying of a young girl “I am going to be dating her in 10 years”, here’s a report from the same year (1992) in which Trump reportedly told two 14-year-olds: “In a couple of years, I’ll be dating you.”
Donald Trump once told 14-year-old girls, 'In a couple of years, I'll be dating you' https://t.co/nslYeqp8dg pic.twitter.com/ayDeW6nGNz
— L.A. Times Politics (@latimespolitics) October 13, 2016
Pence: I believe Trump
And what of Mike Pence? Trump’s VP candidate was interviewed on Thursday evening and was pressed directly by WBNS’ Scott Light on the claims that have been made against his running mate.
Light: But governor, can you say with certainty that he has never done this: assaulted a woman. Yes or no?
Pence: I can say with certainty that Donald Trump has denied that any of those actions that have been alleged have ever occurred. And I believe him.
People magazine is standing by its reporter Natasha Stoynoff and her allegations that Donald Trump forcibly kissed her against her will, despite receiving a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyers, according to CNN:
People Magazine spox confirms they received the letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer, and says they stand by their story.
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) October 14, 2016
Jess Cagle, People’s editor-in-chief, earlier published a defence of the story, which you can read in full here:
We are grateful to Natasha Stoynoff for telling her story. Ms Stoynoff is a remarkable, ethical, honest and patriotic woman, and she has shared her story of being physically attacked by Donald Trump in 2005 because she felt it was her duty to make the public aware.
To assign any other motive is a disgusting, pathetic attempt to victimize her again. We stand steadfastly by her, and are proud to publish her clear, credible account of what happened.
Australia’s former prime minister Tony Abbott – he’s a Liberal, but not in the sense that Trump supporters might use the word – has praised the Republican nominee for his “classic conservative” policies, while conceding that “some of his views” might go a bit far:
Before the Trump haters get too excited, some of his views are OTT but cutting tax and boosting defence are classic conservatism
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) October 14, 2016
Abbott’s successor, current PM Malcolm Turnbull, said today he wouldn’t get involved in the US elections. But on Monday he called Trump’s comments on grabbing women’s genitals “loathsome”:
They deserve the absolutely universal condemnation that they’ve received.
If the slew of Trump allegations and his responses are getting a bit much, Hillary Clinton shares your pain, she told a rally in San Francisco earlier on Thursday:
It makes you want to unplug the internet or just look at cat gifs.
Believe me, in the last few weeks, I have watched a lot of cats do a lot of weird and interesting things.
And back in Cincinnati, where Trump has just said there is no better or safer place to be than a Trump rally:
Not fans of political correctness pic.twitter.com/0BnkwIGm2I
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 13, 2016
Meanwhile:
Barack Obama is LIGHTING INTO Republicans who just now figured out Trump is unacceptable. "You don't get points for that."
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 14, 2016
"People who know better stood silently by." Can't argue with that.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 14, 2016
Updated
Trump says if Clinton goes to China "if she goes down in Tiananmen Square, they'll just leave her there."
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 14, 2016
Trump says “multi-generational terrorism … is embedded in our communities … all over our country”:
I am going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country!
To be strong, the US needs to be a rich country, Trump adds. Current trade deals are “terrible, horrible”, he says.
Updated
Donald Trump is speaking now in Cincinnati. He’s on to his favoured topics: Hillary Clinton should be locked up; he’ll appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her. He’s going to build a wall. And who is going to pay for it, he muses.
Mexico, the crowd helpfully supplies.
Apparently that is indeed the correct answer, Trump confirms.
Trump: The Clintons are the past but we are all going to be together a very bright future
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 14, 2016
Updated
A lawyer for Billy Bush – caught on tape laughing along with Trump’s comments about groping women – has said Bush would have been fired if he had stood up to Trump, Associated Press reports:
An attorney for Billy Bush is defending the TV personality’s part in a lewd 2005 exchange with Donald Trump.
Marshall Grossman told the Hollywood Reporter that Bush would have been fired from his then job with Access Hollywood if he’d been passive or told Trump to shut up.
Grossman noted Bush was a NBC Universal employee talking with NBC’s The Apprentice star.
The attorney, who was quoted by the trade paper online Thursday, declined comment when reached by phone.
Bush, who joined NBC News’ Today as a co-host in recent months, was suspended after the tape became public last week. NBC is said to be privately negotiating his exit.
Both NBC and Access Hollywood declined to comment on the report. A publicist for Bush didn’t immediately respond when asked for comment.
More on one of the previously lesser-known Bushes here:
Updated
Let’s hope People magazine is checking its Twitter notifications: it looks as if Melania Trump’s lawyers have sent that letter to the wrong postal address.
Mathew Katz, news editor at Time magazine (People is part of Time Inc), says the company moved almost a year ago:
This was mailed to the wrong address - we (Time Inc.) moved downtown in November https://t.co/yhXkx3mLPt
— Mathew Katz (@MathewKatz) October 13, 2016
Updated
Melania Trump demands retraction from People magazine
Melania Trump has now weighed in on the flurry of accusations that have hit her husband in recent days, posting to Twitter a letter apparently sent by her lawyers to People magazine, which published an account by reporter Natasha Stoynoff who said Donald Trump had kissed her against her will at his Mar-A-Lago estate a decade ago.
The letter – tweeted with only a “!” for comment – demands that People magazine remove and apologise for statements in the article that describe a meeting between Stoynoff and Melania Trump after the alleged groping took place:
Mrs Trump did not encounter Ms Stoynoff on the street, nor have any conversation with her. The two are not friends and were never friends or even friendly.
At the time in question, Mrs Trump would not have even recognized Ms Stoynoff if they had encountered one another on the street.
Your publication of the false statements is actionable and gives rise to claims of damages.
The letter gives the publisher 24 hours to respond:
Failure to do so will require Mrs Trump to consider her legal options.
! @people #NatashaStoynoff pic.twitter.com/zXNm6boveP
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) October 13, 2016
Updated
Watch in full: Michelle Obama's speech in Manchester, New Hampshire
Only hours old, this speech is being lauded as one of the most important addresses of this presidential campaign.
Give it a watch.
Comedian Rob Delaney has raised tens of thousands of dollars in a bid to oust Republicans who tried to distance themselves from Donald Trump following his recent scandals.
Delaney, star of the TV show Catastrophe, established a fund on ActBlue, a fundraising site for the Democratic party, to raise money for opponents of Republicans who retracted their endorsement from Donald Trump in the past week after a recording of Trump making lewd remarks during an Access Hollywood appearance about groping women surfaced.
The fund has raised $68,294 from 1,176 donors in the four days since its launch.
“That’s what it took for you to disavow him?” Delaney said in a blogpost announcing the fund titled No Getting Off the Train. “Since I’m not a total moron, I know that what really happened is that it finally became clear to anyone who knows how elections work that Trump was definitely going to lose.
“So the same drive for self-preservation that led these turd balls to endorse him in the first place,” he continued, “has compelled them to pull the ripcord when Access Hollywood revealed their pussy tape and gave them the opportunity to pretend they care about women or something.”
Bill Clinton, responding to questions about allegations against Donald Trump:
I think my job is to tell people why Hillary should be president. I think Michelle Obama just gave the best speech of the campaign. I have nothing else to say.
Donald Trump in 1998: My 'record' with 'the women' is too 'controversial' to be president
During a 1998 appearance on CNBC with host Chris Matthews, current Republican presidential nominee and then simple tycoon Donald Trump declared that if Bill Clinton’s personal pecadillos were enough to prompt impeachment proceedings, his own history with women was more than sufficient to keep him out of the White House.
“Can you imagine how controversial I’d be?” Trump said at the time. “You think about him with the women. How about me with the women? Can you imagine?”
Trump was still confident that “his women” would be better received by the American public.
“Yeah. They might like my women better, too, you know?”
Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, at Columbus Middle School in an address putatively geared towards millennial voters, beleaguered Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a raucous crowd
“Our government has been taken hostage by global special interests,” Trump said, reiterating a conspiratorial tone from earlier today that has many observers cautioning against dog-whistling.
Hillary Clinton, Trump said, is the apex of that corrupt enterprise.
“She is a criminal - she is a criminal,” Trump said.
Speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Jessica Leeds, one of the dozen women who have come forward with allegations that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump behaved sexually inappropriately towards them, detailed the incident on-air for the first time.
Leeds told the New York Times in a blockbuster story published last night that Trump fondled her and kissed her while they were seated next to each other in the first-class section of a plane in 1979, an allegation Trump has denied.
“The guy in the seat across the aisle could see,” Leeds told Cooper, but she held out hope for a stewardess to come to stop Trump’s advances. “But she never came.”
Asked where Trump kissed her, Leeds responded: “Wherever he could find a landing spot.”
Donald Trump campaigns in Columbus, Ohio
Watch it live here:
Here’s the full text of comments Hillary Clinton gave the press regarding Donald Trump and cats:
“The whole world has heard Trump brag about how he mistreats women,” Clinton said. “And the disturbing stories just keep coming, but it’s more than just the way he degrades women, as horrible as that is. He has attacked immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims, and our military, which he’s called a disaster. There’s hardly any part of America that he’s not targeted.”
“Now, it makes you want to turn off the news,” Clinton continued. “It makes you want to unplug the internet. Or just look at cat Gifs. I get it… I’ve watched a lot of cats do a lot of weird and interesting things. But we have a job to do and it’ll be good for people and for cats.”
Hillary Clinton, on Donald Trump’s comments today:
It makes you want to unplug the internet or just look at cat gifs.
In other news relating to inappropriate sexual conduct by Republican politicians, a married Louisiana lawmaker has released a bizarre video in which he obliquely apologizes for sending explicit text messages to an underage teenage boy.
Mike Yenni, the president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana - the state is organized by parishes, rather than counties - admitted to sending “improper texts” to a 17-year-old boy, promising voters that he was “smart enough to never repeat the past.”
“Last summer, I was old enough to know better, but I guess I was still young enough to do something stupid,” the 40-year-old politician said. “I chose to send improper texts to a young man. I made a bad decision. I regret my actions.”
“I apologize to the families involved and anyone I embarrassed, especially my own family,” Yenni continued.
New accusation: Donald Trump allegedly looked up models' skirts
Another woman has joined the chorus of people alleging that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior towards women, after wave of claims about Trump’s alleged sexual transgressions emerged late last night.
According to a report from the Huffington Post, Lisa Boyne, Trump “paraded women in front of their table, looked under women’s skirts, and commented on whether they were wearing underwear” during a dinner in the mid-1990s:
According to Boyne, the group was seated at a semi-circular table, with the women in the middle and Trump and Casablancas flanking either end. The women couldn’t get out of their seats without one of the men getting up - which they refused to do. Instead, Boyne said, Trump insisted that the women walk across the table, allowing him to peer up their skirts while they did so. Trump ‘stuck his head right underneath their skirts,’ Boyne said, and commented on whether they were wearing underwear and what their genitalia looked like.
“It was the most offensive scene I’ve ever been a part of,” Boyne said. “I wanted to get the heck out of there.”
The Trump campaign denied the allegations in a statement to the Huffington Post, as it has denied all the allegations that have surfaced over the past 24 hours.
“Mr. Trump never heard of this woman and would never do that,” spokesperson Hope Hicks said.
A new set of polls from NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and Marist College show a neck-and-neck race for president in Ohio, and a narrow gap in North Carolina, with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton trailing Republican rival Donald Trump by a single point in Ohio among likely voters, and leading him by four points in North Carolina.
In North Carolina, leads 45% to Trump’s 41%, with Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson trailing at 9%. In Ohio, Trump leads by one point, 42% to Clinton’s 41%, with Johnson at 9% and Green nominee Jill Stein at 4%.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is hyping Michelle Obama’s widely lauded speech to a group of supporter in New Hampshire earlier today:
Every minute of Michelle Obama’s 30 minute speech today is worth watching. https://t.co/ZlEX3YaU6a
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 13, 2016
Trump assault allegations aren't new. Why are we only listening now?
When I first reported the story of Jill Harth’s sexual assault accusation back in July, I didn’t get a single interview request to talk about it. The radio show I’d already been booked to go on engaged me only briefly, during an hour-long interview, on the matter of a woman accusing the Republican nominee of grabbing her crotch in a child’s bedroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate, before changing the subject.
Even Democratic opposition organizations had made a calculation early in the campaign that it wasn’t strategic to get into personal matters with Trump. Because he had said so many damning things out in the open, it hardly seemed necessary to skewer his personal life.
Harth’s story is a complicated one and her character, like the characters of most living, breathing women, is also complex. But her accusation against Trump was always plausible. She has stood by it for 20 years. Now, finally, Harth’s account and those of women like her are not just gaining traction. They have been placed center stage in the campaign.
Trump addressed crowds on Thursday calling the most recent allegations “slander and libels ... part of a concerted, coordinated, and vicious attack”, while Michelle Obama made a powerful speech on what’s at stake this election. If we don’t vote against Trump, she said at a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, “We’re telling our sons that it’s OK to humiliate women”. It’s not just the sexual assault allegations, she explained, though they cannot be marginalized. It’s about Trump’s entire world view. “What’s more, strong men,” Obama said, “men who are truly role models, don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful”.
Women know this. Americans know this. Why then did it take Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault on video for the country to take the claims seriously?
This is an issue that’s come up before this year, and not just on the presidential campaign trail. We didn’t need one woman to come forward against Bill Cosby in order to get society’s attention – we didn’t even need 10 of them to. We needed male comedian Hannibal Buress to make a joke about it. For a lone woman to be heard she seems to require special status. Numerous women have now come out to accuse Roger Ailes, former Fox boss – and current Trump surrogate – of sexual harassment. But they were only empowered to do so after one of the country’s most famous female anchors filed a lawsuit.
Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus is living up to his promise to continue supporting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the face of a tsunami of crises that threatens to drown every down-ballot Republican in the country.
In an email under the subject line “Attention required:”, Priebus writes to supporters of the Republican Party that “the future of our great country... is at stake in this election. The party that wins the White House, and controls the Senate and the House will determine the course of our nation, from our National Security, to the balance of the Supreme Court, to the future our kids and grandkids will live – it is all on the line just 26 days from now.”
Without naming Trump, Priebus encourages voters to sign up for the Republican National Committee’s “Voter Target Survey” to ensure that the party is “targeting the right people.”
The fact that Priebus is sending out an email asking for survey responses to ensure adequate voter targeting less than four weeks before the general election is a story in and of itself, considering that the RNC held a presser with reporters last fall in which Priebus described the party’s data-gathering and voter-turnout operations as the most sophisticated in Republican history.
No moment like the last moment!
Bernie Sanders has set the bar low, and implies that Donald Trump still can’t clear it:
When you run for president there has got to be at least a threshold of decency.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 13, 2016
People Magazine has reiterated its support for a writer who penned a disturbing story in which she accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of forcing her against a wall and “forc[ed] his tongue down my throat,” dismissing Trump’s attacks against the report.
“Donald Trump on Thursday spoke out against claims that he has assaulted women by defiantly attacking his accusers and the media outlets who printed their stories,” People editor in chief Jess Cagle wrote in a piece titled Why We Printed Natasha Stoynoff’s Story of Being Assaulted by Donald Trump.
“At a raucous rally in Florida, the GOP nominee denied all of the allegations, saying: ‘These vicious claims of inappropriate conduct about me with women are totally and absolutely false,’” Cagle continued. “He also attacked media reports of the alleged abuse, including one by People writer Natasha Stoynoff, as ‘lies.’ But People stands by Stoynoff’s story of being assaulted by Trump in 2005 while on assignment for the magazine.”
Earlier today, Cagle issued a statement underscoring her faith in the veracity of Stoynoff’s story, calling her “a remarkable, ethical, honest and patriotic woman.”
Trump blames sexual assault claims on collusion between Clinton and media
But with allegations to the contrary casting an ever-growing shadow over the campaign, Trump instead sought to dismiss the accusations as a vast establishment conspiracy, orchestrated by his opponent Hillary Clinton “as part of a concerted, coordinated and vicious attack”.
“There is nothing the political establishment will not do, no lie they won’t tell to hold their prestige and power at your expense and that’s what’s happening,” he told a rally in Florida. “The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election.”
Read further:
Trump camp: Serbia story a hoax
The Trump campaign knocks down reports that he opposed the 1990s Nato bombing of Serbian forces, saying Trump never spoke to the Serbian weekly where the remarks were said to appear. A Trump aide says she was not a go-between for Trump:
“Mr. Trump never gave an interview to the Serbian weekly magazine Nedeljnikas as falsely reported by the discredited Newsweek, nor was such an interview conducted through our Indiana State Director. This was a hoax and we look forward to receiving a formal retraction and apology from all involved.”– Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor
”Regarding the article about a media interview with a Serbian politician and Mr. Trump via my email, this is completely false. I have never served as a conduit to interview Mr. Trump for anyone.” - Suzie Jaworowski, Indiana State Director
Here’s video of Michelle Obama’s powerful rebuke to Donald Trump’s “sexually predatory behavior,” in her phrase:
.@FLOTUS, I'm in awe. Thanks for putting into words what's in so many of our hearts. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 13, 2016
Updated
Trump Jr on sex assault claims: 'I've never heard anything dumber'
Donald Trump Jr. reacted on a North Carolina radio station to new sex assault claims against his father described in the New York Times and elsewhere, CNN reports:
“Come on guys, it’s so ridiculous, I’ve never heard anything dumber in my life. All of sudden, two, three weeks before election, someone comes out — it’s not like he hasn’t been in the public eye for 30 years,” Trump Jr. said on Charlotte Morning News on WBT radio. “I think it’s probably a typical New York Times smear campaign. “
Donald Jr on hot mic tape: "I've had conversations like that with plenty of people. two guys, amongst themselves. makes him a normal person"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 13, 2016
To Michelle Obama's point about how all this is also bad for boys https://t.co/UYSVqZDMRx
— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) October 13, 2016
Why ONLY NOW is Donald Trump Jr. deleting this 5 year old tweet? pic.twitter.com/j9GnR8NEYZ
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 13, 2016
Updated
Bill Clinton has a Bob Dylan sculpture. Or the foundation does, or something.
Congrats @bobdylan on a well-deserved Nobel for wise, powerful lyrics that touched minds & hearts. And TY for this amazing orig. sculpture! pic.twitter.com/YdhpIMHiDh
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) October 13, 2016
A Canadian colleague has characterized this as “the most Canadian thing ever,” and we can’t say we disagree. In our time of need, it’s a video of Canadians telling USA people they love us:
You’re next, Britain? We’re waiting.
(h/t @ruths)
“Take a look, you look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I don’t think so,” Trump said of Natasha Stoynoff, who wrote the “attacked by Trump” story for People.
Trump implies that a woman is not worthy of his unwanted sexual advances because of her looks, minutes after @FLOTUS delivered this: pic.twitter.com/K4wDyUnOm5
— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) October 13, 2016
"Our Independence Day is at hand, and it arrives finally on November 8th," Trump says, finishing a blistering speech here in FL.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) October 13, 2016
Trump and his family did the Howard Stern show some years ago. Here’s Trump sitting next to daughter Ivanka and copping to being a sexual predator at which everyone laughs:
The full interview is here: https://t.co/IkSyQNg4sJ
— Sid Verma (@_SidVerma) October 13, 2016
Trump: 'I take all these slings and arrows gladly for you'
Trump:
They knew they would stop at nothing to try to stop me. But I never knew that it would be this vile... Nevertheless, I take all these slings and arrows gladly for you. I take them for our movement.
Trump then elaborates on his conspiracy theory that Bill Clinton planned to meet with attorney general Loretta Lynch on her airplane on an Arizona tarmac.
“He was never there to play golf, folks. Don’t be foolish,” Trump says.
(If Clinton wanted a secret meeting with Lynch, would he have done it in public?)
I believe they talked about her remaining in her position under a crooked Hillary Clinton administration. That’s what I believe. That’s what I believe folks. And I think that’s what most people in this room believe.
Trump said he had a nice life and he could have kept living it “instead of going through this absolute horror show of lies.”
Now I’m being punished for leaving the special club and revealing to you the terrible things that are going on with this country. Because I used to be part of the club, I’m the only one that can fix it.
Updated
Times to Trump: You can't sue us for printing stuff you brag about
Trump has just said he’s preparing a lawsuit against the New York Times for its reporting on women who have accused him of unwanted touching. Trump’s lawyer sent the Times a letter telling them to take the story down.
Here’s a letter from the New York Times’ lawyer replying to Trump’s lawyer.
“We decline to do so,” the letter says. “Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.”
The letter also says, “It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices.”
David McCraw, NYT lawyer, responds to Trump’s letter. pic.twitter.com/ziPBCIjkvP
— Sydney Ember (@melbournecoal) October 13, 2016
(thx @bencjacobs)
Updated
Trump says he’s the victim of “the single biggest pile-on in history”.
The great editors of the past ... ladies and gentlemen, are spinning in their graves.
“I will not allow the Clinton team to turn our campaign into a discussion of their lies,” Trump says, after like a half hour of talking about it.
These attacks are orchestrated by the Clintons and their media allies. The only thing Hillary Clinton has going for herself is the press... what they say is false and slanderous in virtually every respect.
Trump says he has polls showing him in a dead heat with Clinton. Then quotes Rasmussen (he is two points ahead in that poll).
Updated
Trump calls alleged victims 'horrible, horrible liars'
Trump’s now talking about the People magazine writer’s account:
Why wasn’t it part of the story that appeared 12 years ago? Why wasn’t it part of the story ... it would’ve been one of the biggest stories of the year ... Think of it, [she’s doing this story] and she said I made inappropriate advances. And by the way, the area is a public, people ...
Of the author:
Take a look, you look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I don’t think so.
These people are horrible people. They’re horrible, horrible liars.
“Why wasn’t in the piece? Biggest story of the year,” Trump says.
Updated
Trump calls assault claims 'totally and absolutely false'
Trump now says he’s the victim of a concerted, coordinated and vicious attack.
“It’s not coincidence that these attacks come at the exact same moment... as Wikileaks exposes documents” he says.
“These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false, and the Clintons know it. These claims are all fabricated, they’re pure fiction and they’re outright lies.”
Trump then attacks his alleged victims:
You take a look at these people, you study these people and you’ll understand.
He also calls the claims “preposterous” and “ludicrous.”
He says he has “substantial evidence” that he will reveal in the future to disprove the claims. “Even a simple investigation would have shown that these were nothing more than false smears.”
Trump says he’s preparing a lawsuit against the New York Times.
Updated
Trump says nation will not survive if he loses
This is a struggle for the survival of our nation, believe me, and this will be our last chance to save it.
Trump says the election will reveal whether the country is a democracy or whether the levers of power “are in fact controlled by a small band of global interests rigging the system. This is reality, you know it, I know it...”
Trump sounds distant in this speech. He’s talking about the invisible global network of elites and what they will do if you take them on.
“They will attack you, they will slander you, they will seek to destroy... everything about you including your reputation. They will lie, lie, lie... the Clintons are criminals, remember that. They’re criminals.
Trump says the global economy will explode unless he’s elected president. Then he makes a newish claim about Clinton, that she operates in secret “in order to enrich these global financial powers.” Trump says he read it in Wikileaks.
Lock her up! chants the crowd.
“Honestly, she should be locked up,” Trump says.
Each day he seems to go farther into Infowars territory.
What did you think of Michelle Obama’s speech? Watch it here:
If you missed FLOTUS speech just now, you can watch replay here.https://t.co/JSJwvLLHgA
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) October 13, 2016
Best speech of FLOTUS’s career, equal to her 2016 convention speech.
— laura olin (@lauraolin) October 13, 2016
Truly honored Michelle Obama is our First Lady.
— Lily Adams (@adamslily) October 13, 2016
Now listen to her & get involved. https://t.co/Lr7sJEQ2lG
.@FLOTUS: Trump's comments about women have "shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted." https://t.co/ir3KrSplho
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 13, 2016
.@FLOTUS on Trump: "This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable." https://t.co/NiL6b68w2T
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 13, 2016
Michelle Obama: If Trump is elected "We're telling our sons it's ok to humiliate women." https://t.co/8YTDI3Gswr https://t.co/23YSJOmk2f
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) October 13, 2016
Here now is Trump. This will be... different.
The first lady is winding toward her finish. A very powerful advancement of the message that Trump treats women despicably, is hurting people and the country by doing so and must not be elected:
BREAKING: First Lady on Trump: This was a powerful individual speaking openly about "sexually predatory behavior." https://t.co/UHJcVKRNiY
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) October 13, 2016
Meanwhile, in Trumpland:
Reporter kicked out of Trump meeting ahead of speech.
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 13, 2016
REPORTER: "Mr. Trump, can you deny, have you ever touched...?"
TRUMP: "Sleazebag." pic.twitter.com/j3TC2HN1oU
Michelle Obama: electing Trump would set bad example 'for entire world'
Obama:
If any of us raised a daughter like Hillary Clinton, we would be so proud... in this election, if we turn away from her, if we just stand by and let her opponent be elected, then what are we telling our children about what values they should hold.
If “we” elect Trump, Obama tells the crowd, “we would be telling our children that “everything they’re seeing and hearing is perfectly OK. We are validating it. ... we’re telling our sons that it’s OK to humiliate women. We’re telling our daughters that this is how they’re treated.”
She says “we won’t just be setting a bad example for our kids, but for the entire world.”
Obama says that Trump “routinely degrades women, brags about sexually assaulting women.”
Obama says it’s time to show that “enough is enough and we do not tolerate this kind of behavior in this country.”
Then she tells New Hampshire women to vote:
In 2012 women’s votes were the difference between Barack winning and losing... back in 2012 Barack won New Hampshire by about 40,000 votes, which sounds like a lot, but ... the difference was just 66 votes per precinct.
The first lady is not stopping. She says that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified presidential nominee ever “and yes, she happens to be a woman.”
“Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.”
Michelle Obama: Trump's comments 'disgraceful, intolerable'
Michelle Obama is delivering an extraordinary critique of Trump’s attack on women.
Maybe we just don’t want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women.
New Hampshire, be clear. This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable....
This is not about politics. This is about right and wrong.
We simply can’t expose our children to this, not for another minute, and not for four years....
Enough is enough. This has got to stop right now.
What messages are our little girls hearing?
Michelle Obama: Trump engaged in 'sexually predatorial behavior'
Michelle Obama says “we have heard a candidate talking about sexually assaulting women.”
She says she thinks about Trump’s comments all the time, and that they make her shake.
This was not just a lewd conversation ... this was a powerful individual speaking freely about sexually predatorial behavior...
It’s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life...
I feel it so personally, and I’m sure that many of you do too, particularly women...
The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman? It’s cruel, it’s frightening, and the truth is it hurts. It hurts.
Here now is Michelle Obama in Manchester, New Hampshire, speaking for Clinton:
The People editor has released a statement defending journalist Natasha Stoynoff, the author of Physically Attacked by Donald Trump – a PEOPLE Writer’s Own Harrowing Story:
Statement from Jess Cagle, Editor in Chief of PEOPLE (via @jdisis) pic.twitter.com/DQfPOCfaxv
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) October 13, 2016
Comments: we’ve now turned them on. Sorry for their having been off. And thanks very much to reader Alex C for pointing it out.
Trump employees don't donate much to campaign
Reuters has analysed the donation records of tens of thousands of Trump employees and determined “only a dozen” donated more than $200:
Kerry Woolard, the 37-year-old manager of Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, went online in June and made her first political contribution: A $250 donation to the campaign of her boss, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Woolard’s donation was unusual.
Only a dozen of an estimated 22,450 people employed at Trump’s companies have donated more than $200 to the celebrity businessman’s bid for the U.S. presidency, a Reuters review of federal campaign finance records through August shows. Those who gave less to either Trump’s campaign or his joint fundraising committees would not have shown up in the review.
The contributors, including an office cleaner, a golf course groundskeeper, a bartender and an attorney, have given $5,298 to Trump’s campaign, a fraction of the $112 million Trump’s political operation has received from donors and joint fundraisers.
An employee at Trump enterprises gave $275 to the campaign of her employer’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. A 13th Trump employee, a lawyer at the Trump Organization, contributed to a Trump Super PAC, giving $1,000.
“Honestly, I wish I could do more,” said Woolard, who addressed the Republican national convention in July and has attended private dinners with Trump, his wife Melania, and their son, Barron. “He is an amazing boss, has been a great leader and I believe would do a great job for our country.”
Besweatered undecided Ken Bone is cashing in on his debate fame, per his Twitter feed:
Everyone wants to know if I've decided... and I have. uberSELECT helps you ride in style like me https://t.co/HyOS8z9SRd
— Ken Bone (@kenbone18) October 13, 2016
This is strange? But campaigning presents many scheduling conflicts.
.@realDonaldTrump just canceled his interview with Sean Hannity, scheduled to air tonight, per @FoxNews executive.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 13, 2016
CNN’s Brian Stelter reports:
On Thursday morning, he canceled on his friend Sean Hannity, a Fox News spokeswoman said. He had been scheduled to appear on Hannity’s Fox News show Thursday night. He backed out around 11:30 a.m. ET.
Hannity is still set to interview the four Clinton critics who appeared with Trump at a pre-debate photo op on Sunday: Kathy Shelton, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick.
Updated
Donald Trump’s media pool reports that he’s en route to his midday West Palm Beach rally. Here’s a live video stream in case you want to watch the warmup acts, which sound terrible:
One of Trump's warm up acts just knocked Clinton for using private email "and blaming it on a black guy, Colin Powell?"
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) October 13, 2016
Only 46 days till the election!
The best of last night's late-night TV: Go out and vote on Nov. 28 https://t.co/6s69SayzBB pic.twitter.com/pBApCKCch7
— POLITICO (@politico) October 13, 2016
Notice: An earlier block incorrectly attributed opposition to the 1990s Nato bombing of Serbian forces to Donald Trump, when in fact it was a Trump adviser who registered that view with a Serbian magazine, and not the candidate. The story was originally reported by Newsweek. The previous block in this blog has been updated.
The Trump campaign has not replied to a request for comment.
Update: Trump campaign says Syria story a hoax.
Updated
And here’s the latest Politics for Humans podcast, in which the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui puts political topics in people terms:
NEW Politics for Humans: @FareedZakaria & Amb. Ronald Neumann join me to discuss the global view on this election https://t.co/Ror6vlsKOH
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) October 13, 2016
Here’s Barack Obama on when Dylan was awarded a medal of honor:
On Bob Dylan
— Edward Tufte (@EdwardTufte) October 13, 2016
by Barack Obama pic.twitter.com/o0lC4V5Bsv
Trump campaign chair on Bill Clinton: 'we're going to turn him into Bill Cosby'
A senior Trump adviser tells Bloomberg the campaign will soon bring forward new accusers: “Women are coming to us who have been groped or sexually abused by Bill Clinton.” Bloomberg reports:
Trump is considering featuring these women at campaign rallies to “give witness to what Hillary Clinton actually did.” ...
On Thursday night, the Trump campaign will begin a new media blitz, his advisers say, with Broaddrick, Willey, and Jones appearing together on a one-hour Fox News special hosted by Sean Hannity. Additional interviews will follow.
The move to further amplify the campaign’s focus on Bill Clinton’s past relationships with women comes amid fresh allegations of Trump’s misbehavior...
“She’s led a program of victim intimidation,” [Trump campaign CEO Stephen] Bannon told Trump staffers, according to two advisers who were present. “This has nothing to do with consensual sexual affairs and infidelities. This is Bill. We’re going to turn him into Bill Cosby.”
Updated
Here’s the latest edition of Anywhere but Washington, in which Paul Lewis explores the power of the Republican presidential nominee’s message in the poorest county of West Virginia:
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh warned his listeners against the “rape police” on Wednesday, and mocked the concept of sexual consent.
Limbaugh said Trump’s critics on the left were being hypocritical:
“You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element. Do you know what it is? Consent,” Limbaugh said, in a clip published by Media Matters. “If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it’s perfectly fine. Whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there’s no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police.”
Many took to social media to explain to Limbaugh that the rape police were in fact just the police.
Influential US radio host rants against consent in sex (ie, for rape). Watch out for "rape police" (ie, police) https://t.co/x5RMSkGPLu pic.twitter.com/zxF4TjwBl9
— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) October 13, 2016
Someone should explain to Rush Limbaugh that "the rape police" are just, you know, the police. https://t.co/2EeTiKEMoq
— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) October 13, 2016
Limbaugh hosts one of the country’s most popular talk radio shows and draws millions of listeners daily.
He has a history of flippant comments about rape including saying, “no means yes if you know how to spot it” and that women on college campuses were imagining they were being raped.
NJ.com has further on the official misconduct complaint against Christie:
A judge in Bergen County ruled Thursday morning that there is enough probable cause for an official misconduct complaint against Gov. Chris Christie to move forward in connection with the governor’s alleged role in the Bridgegate scandal.
Bill Brennan, a retired Teaneck firefighter and citizen activist, filed the complaint against Christie. The September 2013 incident that became known as Bridgegate caused significant traffic issues over a four-day span in the Fort Lee area. The closures sparked a 16-month federal investigation.
Bergen County Superior Court Judge Roy McGeady ruled that there was probable cause for Brennan’s complaint to move forward. ...
McGeady said the case would now go to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutor, Gurbir S. Grewal, a Christie appointee, would probably recuse himself, McGeady said.
The audience in his court room, mostly there for minor criminal violations, applauded after he ruled.
Trump, one year ago: bombing Serbs was 'OK'
One year ago today, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs interviewed Trump about foreign policy.
Trump staked out the exact opposite position on the Kosovo intervention from the one his campaign advisor took in an interview revealed today. Ben wrote at the time:
The US needs to focus on fixing itself rather than on “nation-building” abroad,Donald Trump told the Guardian in an exclusive interview. The Republican presidential frontrunner then gave two examples of exceptions to his philosophy: in Kosovo in the 1990s, and in the conflict against Isis today. [...]
Asked about Bill Clinton’s support for intervention in Kosovo in order to prevent ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, however, Trump allowed: “It’s OK, sure.”
Updated
Carson: allegations against Trump 'a bunch of crap'
Asked on Fox and Friends about the numerous new allegations against Donald Trump of unwanted touching, former presidential candidate and stalwart if unpredictable Trump defender Ben Carson says the story is “a bunch of crap” cooked up by the media:
There’s an atmosphere that’s been created by the New York Times and others that says look, if you’re willing to come out and say something, we’ll give you fame, we’ll give you whatever you need… what a bunch of crap. The people have to see through this because again the train is going off the cliff. Our country is going off the cliff financially and so many other ways. If we don’t deal with this stuff now, our children are completely going to be disadvantaged and destroyed, their future will be destroyed.”
Judge summons Christie
Last month, a witness in a criminal case concerning the closure of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retribution testified that New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s office had been informed of the plan, despite Christie’s denials of any knowledge of the plot.
Christie now faces a new inquiry for official misconduct in the incident:
URGENT BREAKING: NJ judge issues Probable Cause criminal summons vs. @GovChristie for official misconduct in office #Bridgegate @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/VuqJursEfx
— Brian Thompson (@brian4NY) October 13, 2016
Correction: Comments attributed to Trump in an earlier version of this block were not made by Trump but by Trump campaign senior adviser Suzanne Ryder Jaworowski, Newsweek reports.
Jaworowski told a Serbian magazine that the US participation in the 1995 and 1999 Nato bombing of Serbian forces was “a big mistake,” in comments originally attributed to Trump. Newsweek has the story.
Update: Trump campaign says Syria story a hoax.
“The bombing of Serbs, who were our allies in both world wars, was a big mistake,” the Serbian weekly magazine Nedeljnik quoted the Trump campaign as saying. “Serbians are very good people. Unfortunately, the Clinton administration caused them a lot of harm, but also throughout the Balkans, which they made a mess out of.”
The 1995 bombing followed the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebenica and the Markale market massacres.
It’s estimated that more than 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) were rounded up by soldiers from the Republika Srpska and killed in and around the town of Srebrenica. Deemed an act of genocide, it was a war crime that came to symbolise the ugliness of the ethnic disputes that set the Balkans aflame in the 1990s.
You can read more about Srebenica here.
Updated
Where the candidates are today
Michelle Obama will participate in a campaign organizing event in New Hampshire today for Hillary Clinton, who has a fundraiser in San Francisco. Bill Clinton has two Iowa stops on his schedule, and Chelsea Clinton has a Maine organizing event.
Donald Trump has a noon event scheduled in West Palm Beach, Florida, and an evening event in Cincinnati, Ohio.
His campaign has also announced a late add: a speech in Columbus to focus on millennials.
Per pool note from @hollybdc, Trump is giving a surprise speech focused on millennials today in Columbus
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 13, 2016
#TBT
Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private
Donald was having a pool party at Mar-a-Lago. There were about 50 models and 30 men. There were girls in the pools, splashing around. For some reason Donald seemed a little smitten with me. He just started talking to me and nobody else.
He suddenly took me by the hand, and he started to show me around the mansion. He asked me if I had a swimsuit with me. I said no. I hadn’t intended to swim. He took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit.
(h/t @bencjacobs)
On the night of the second debate, as Trump staged a media event with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault and rape, Trump’s campaign manager called for every survivor of sexual assault to be heard:
RT if you agree. "Every" the operative word here. https://t.co/hqvij2DPjA
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 10, 2016
Impeach Jeb Bush!
On Earth B, Jeb gaffes today by telling reporters in his daily gaggle that his favorite Dylan song is "The Weight." His lead slips to 4 pts.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 13, 2016
Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel prize for literature. The Weight of course is a The Band song with songwriting credit going to Robbie Robertson.
Trump: allegations 'a total fabrication'
Trump is swiping left and right at publications this morning carrying stories about him making unwanted physical contact with women.
To this New York Times story, Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately, Trump says:
The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on women. WATCH!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2016
To this People magazine story, Physically Attacked by Donald Trump – a PEOPLE Writer’s Own Harrowing Story, Trump says:
Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the "incident" in her story. Because it did not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2016
This is from the People story:
When we took a break for the then-very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one “tremendous” room in particular, he said, that I just had to see.
“I just start kissing them,” he said to Bush. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.
Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. A wave of claims about Donald Trump’s alleged sexual transgressions and inappropriate behaviour – in one case involving comments about a young girl – has emerged, threatening the Republican presidential nominee’s already fragile campaign less than a month before election day.
Ever since video of the real estate mogul surfaced on Friday showing him bragging about how he could grab women’s genitals with impunity, more and more women have come forward to claim they were demeaned and touched inappropriately.
By late Wednesday evening the list of new allegations against Trump included:
- Two Miss USA contestants who claimed Trump deliberately walked in on them when they were naked in a dressing room.
- Two women who allege Trump groped or kissed them without consent – one in the first-class seat of an aircraft.
- A claim by a woman that she was groped at a Trump event at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.
- A People magazine reporter who says Trump forced himself on her shortly before she was due to interview him and his wife in 2005.
- An incident in which Trump appears to sexualize a young girl.
Read further:
A Trump lawyer sent the New York Times a letter asking them to retract a story:
Here it is: Trump campaign lawyer sends letter to @nytimes demanding "full and immediate retraction and apology" of article==> pic.twitter.com/yQpk5lgGOB
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) October 13, 2016
This isn't a lawsuit. This is what a lawyer writes to pretend to his client that's he's doing something beyond filing a suit that can't win. https://t.co/VaJCIxcHsv
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 13, 2016
The national field director for the Democrats circulates a video of Trump supporters abusing African Americans and scenes from the civil rights era:
Absolutely devastating. pic.twitter.com/n6Y6NOZvCe
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) October 13, 2016
Obama back on trail
Barack Obama will try to rev up Democrats in Ohio during a two-day visit, as the number of states that could swing to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump narrows to just a handful, the AP reports:
Obama heads to Columbus on Thursday to be the featured speaker at an annual dinner benefiting Ohio Democrats and Gov. Ted Strickland, who is running to oust incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman. On Friday, Obama will hold a rally in Cleveland for Clinton emphasizing early voting, a major focus for Democrats across the U.S. this year.
Before flying to Ohio, Obama planned to speak in Pittsburgh at the “White House Frontiers Conference,” where aides said he’d announce new funding for technology and research and tout innovations like self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. Obama, in an op-ed in the magazine Wired, said the U.S. needed to adapt its skills to address emerging threats like antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” cybersecurity and climate change.
Thank you for reading and please join us in the comments.
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