Today in Campaign 2016
Donald Trump is mid-speech in Daytona Beach, Florida at the moment, which means that our recap of today in campaign politics - much like campaign politics itself, writ large - has been hijacked by Trump.
- Republican National Committee chief Reince Priebus, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House speaker Newt Gingrich are among numerous Republicans in Trump’s orbit who are hoping to stage an intervention with Trump - possibly facilitated by his children - to reset a campaign in crisis.
- Meg Whitman, a top Republican donor and fundraiser, endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, saying she cannot support a candidate who has “exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division”.
- A federal judge’s refusal to release video of Donald Trump testifying in a lawsuit about the now defunct Trump University denies critics of the Republican presidential nominee a chance to use potentially powerful images against him.
- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has jumped on reports that the US paid $400m in cash to Iran after the country’s historic nuclear deal, saying that the episode was a “scandal” for Hillary Clinton, who started the talks as secretary of state.
- It was billed as the “eighth wonder of the world” when it opened a quarter-century ago on the glitziest stretch of the Jersey shore, but after multiple bankruptcies and the longest union strike in Atlantic City casino history, the Trump Taj Mahal is about to go the way of the Colossus of Rhodes.
- Paul Ryan might not be getting an endorsement in his race for reelection, but Mike Pence is backing Ryan. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Only 97 more days to go ...
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has more on the clatch of conservatives hoping to stage an intervention with Donald Trump after six calamitous days for his campaign:
Although there had long been the belief among party elders that Trump, whose success as a candidate has been attributed to outlandish statements and a yen for courting controversy, would pivot in a general election and somehow become a more sober, focused political figure, that expectation increasingly seems like wishful thinking on their part. Instead, top Republicans are expressing growing regret that they have hitched their wagon to such a flawed candidate.
Now, GOP figures are trying to make peace with the fact that Trump, who even seemed to pick a fight with a bawling infant at a campaign rally on Tuesday, is not becoming more “presidential”. Instead, the Trump who is bashing McCain as having “not done a good job for the vets” is the same erratic candidate who prompted party elders to roll their eyes in the summer of 2015 when he said John McCain “was not a war hero”.
Trump’s unusual behavior is also prompting some prominent Republicans to jump ship. While many top GOP figures have insisted that they would not vote for Trump under any circumstances, including Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, this week marked the first time outside of national security circles that any explicitly said that they would support Hilary Clinton.
On Tuesday, Richard Hanna, a retiring GOP congressman from upstate New Yorkannounced that he would be voting for Clinton in November. In an op-ed in the Syracuse Post-Standard, Hanna wrote: “While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs Clinton. I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing.”
Hanna has been joined in his support for Clinton by former top staffers for Jeb Bush and Chris Christie as well as former California gubernatorial candidate and top Republican donor Meg Whitman, who told the New York Times that she would raise money for the former secretary of state.
In the age of Trump, the US treads carefully at the Olympics
Before they arrive in Rio, every US athlete is shown a video produced by the US Olympic Committee. A fictitious American athlete lands in Rio only to be frustrated that the bus is either late or slow, and sends an angry tweet that instantly goes viral. His social media feeds explode with retorts. He is a pariah before he’s off his first bus, hated by millions of people around the world. His Olympics are ruined.
All because of a snarky tweet about a slow bus.
The USOC is asking their athletes to refrain from complaining about Rio, begging them to hold back from commenting on unfinished dormitories, polluted water or shoddy facilities. The organization has watched as other countries have denounced the conditions of their housing, unsanitary performance venues and long waits for buses and wants to be sure that no one from the US does the same.
“That’s not laundry that needs to be aired publicly,” one USOC official said this week.
The video is a part of a campaign they devised to deliver this message. The athletes have also been given presentations on the proper way to behave at an Olympics, including social media tips and one-on-one meetings with former Olympic stars. US officials say these are all part of the typical preparation they give athletes before any Olympics, but they are also being extra vigilant in Rio.
The US delegation are aware that as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, any attack on Brazil’s lack of preparedness for the Games will be perceived as arrogance. And while no one from the USOC will reference the current presidential election or Donald Trump, they seem determined to keep their team from being one more thing the rest of the world dislikes about the US. The last thing the USOC wants is for its athletes to be booed in front of a worldwide audience at Friday’s opening ceremony.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has jumped on reports that the US paid $400m in cash to Iran after the country’s historic nuclear deal, saying that the episode was a “scandal” for Hillary Clinton, who started the talks as secretary of state, Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Mazin Sidahmed report.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US officials secretly sent “wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies” to Iran, carried into the country by an unmarked cargo plane, suggesting that it may have been linked to the release of a group of Americans held in Iran. The US state department has denied this.
The WSJ quoted Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, as accusing the Obama administration of paying a “ransom to the ayatollah for US hostages” – even though the payment related to the money the US owed to Iran from before the country’s 1979 revolution.
Cotton and a number of Republicans critical of the nuclear deal have often characterized the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets as financial rewards to Tehran following the nuclear deal.
On Wednesday, Trump seized the opportunity to attack his election rival. Although the nuclear agreement was reached under the current secretary of state, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton is credited with initiating the talks.
Trump Taj Mahal casino to close, losing 'multi-millions a month'
It was billed as the “eighth wonder of the world” when it opened a quarter-century ago on the glitziest stretch of the Jersey Shore, but after multiple bankruptcies and the longest union strike in Atlantic City casino history, the Trump Taj Mahal is about to go the way of the Colossus of Rhodes.
The casino, once the crown jewel of the now-defunct Trump Entertainment Resorts company, will shutter after Labor Day weekend, according to a statement issued by Tropicana Entertainment’s CEO Tony Rodio, who put the failure of the casino at the feet of striking union members and “the prior equity owners who put it into its recent bankruptcy” - that is, the Trump Organization.
“Icahn Enterprises [which owns Tropicana Entertainment] saved the Tropicana [another Atlantic City casino owned by the company], and to date has lost almost $100m trying to save the Taj when no other party including the prior equity owners who put it into its recent bankruptcy were willing to invest even one dollar to save it,” Rodio said, referring to Carl Icahn, the current owner of the Trump Taj Mahal, who purchased the final shares of the resort casino from Trump in February.
“Currently the Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now with this strike, we see no path to profitability,” Rodio continued. “Unfortunately, we’ve reached the point where we will have to close the Taj after Labor Day weekend.”
More than 1,000 members of the by Local 54 chapter of the Unite-HERE union have been on strike since 1 July, demanding restoration of the health insurance and pension benefits that were stripped from the casino’s employees by a bankruptcy court judge in 2014.
In a statement by the president of Local 54, Bob McDevitt, the union put the blame on mismanagement by Icahn - and threw in a sideshot at Donald Trump, who has floated Icahn as a potential treasury secretary if he wins the presidential election in November.
“In the end, these workers stood up for what every other casino worker doing their job in this town has, and what every other casino worker here has had since gaming was introduced to Atlantic City over three decades ago,” McDevitt said. “If this is the guy Donald Trump wants to be Treasury Secretary of the United States, then this country is doomed.”
Atlantic City, once seen as a potential rival to Las Vegas as a gaming capital of the country, struggled economically after the Great Recession, combined with the redevelopment of Las Vegas and the construction of casinos in nearby Philadelphia. Inaccurate reports of the city’s partial destruction during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 dampened tourism further, and plans for further casino construction dwindled as a result.
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Ben Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate, has called on the family of an Army captain killed in action in Iraq to apologize to Donald Trump for accusing “someone of something that’s not true.”
In the interview on CNN, Carson, now a Trump surrogate, told host Wolf Blitzer
“I think, you know, he should clearly move on,” Carson said, of Trump’s ongoing feud with the parents of Humayun Khan, an American Muslim who was awarded the Bronze Star after he was killed in a truck bombing in Iraq. “I don’t think it would be harmful if they apologized to him and he apologized to them, but I don’t see that happening.”
Blitzer pressed Carson on why he thinks the Khans should apologize to Trump, who accused Khizr Khan, Humayun’s father, of “not allowing” his wife, Ghazala, to speak at the Democratic National Convention with him because of their religious beliefs.
“For one thing, you know, if you accuse someone of something that’s not true, it usually is a reasonable thing to acknowledge that,” Carson said. “Rather than make this a one-sided issue, why don’t we all just say, ‘back off a little bit.’ We have such important issues to deal with, and let’s just call a truce. And the best way to call a truce is simply to say, ‘I’m over that, you’re over that, I’m sorry I said this if I offended you, the other side, I’m sorry I said that,’ because that’s not our issue.”
Democratic senators call on Ted Cruz to hold hearings on Donald Trump's Russia comments
Two Democratic members of the senate have called upon Texas senator Ted Cruz to hold hearings on Donald Trump’s support of the Russian federation, imploring him as the chair of the senate subcommittee on oversight to “conduct an oversight hearing to determine whether existing federal criminal statutes and federal court jurisdiction sufficiently address conduct related to foreign entities that could undermine our elections.”
The senators, Chris Coons of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, cite Trump’s encouragement of Russian president Vladimir Putin to conduct a foreign cyberattack on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as evidence that he may have encourage a “hacking of a political party’s email system,” which, if proven, “constitute[s] unprecedented foreign interference in an American presidential campaign.”
“Trump’s comments implicate US criminal laws prohibiting engagement with foreign governments that threaten the country’s interests, including the Logan Act and the Espionage Act.” Furthermore, Coons and Whitehouse assert, they could violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.
The full letter can be read here.
Troll level: Expert.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) August 3, 2016
2 Senate Ds call on @tedcruz to hold hearing on Donald Trump's support of Russia: pic.twitter.com/UWk9QMd7uM
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After The Hollywood Reporter’s expose of Trump’s tiny hands - complete with printable Trump outline to check how your own paws match up - the Trump Has Tiny Hands PAC (yes, it is real) issued a statement calling for independent verification:
Americans Against Insecure Billionaires with Tiny Hands PAC applauds the brave work of Madame Tussaud in shining a vital light on the controversy that has gripped our great nation for the past two decades. Trump’s hand is finally on the table — and now everyone knows he’s barely got a pair of sevens.
While Americans everywhere are celebrating the news, we all recognize the need to go further. Ms Tussaud’s figurines were crafted under the direct control of Trump — and a lot of people are saying the grubby little handprints are probably fakes.
Do we know for sure that Marie Tussaud personally intervened on Mr Trump’s behalf to perpetrate hand fraud? Of course not. But it is suspicious that the Trump campaign isn’t addressing the rumors. We also reached out to Ms Tussaud to verify the original molds — and she seems to have no response either.
We need hard, physician-certified proof of Mr Trump’s hand size.
Because until we independently verify the authenticity of the replicas it’s impossible to rule out more of the same underhanded trickery that’s become a hallmark of the Trump campaign.
Americans need to know the truth — only then can this great nation rest easy knowing our potential Commander-in-Chief’s mitt measurements — only then can we be sure if Mr Trump’s been honest with the American people.
Mike Pence endorses Paul Ryan's re-election
Paul Ryan might not be getting an endorsement in his congress run from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, but Trump’s VP Mike Pence is backing Ryan.
"I strongly support Paul Ryan, strongly endorse his re-election," Pence says on Fox.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 3, 2016
If there’s a Trump campaign intervention being hatched, his team is claiming it knows nothing about it - and that it’s not necessary.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, was asked about the supposed Giuliani and Gingrich plan on Fox News today. His response:
That’s the first I’m hearing of... that... The campaign is focused and the campaign is moving forward in a positive way. The only need we have for an intervention with is maybe some media types who keep saying things that aren’t true.
After much talk yesterday about Speaker Paul Ryan not getting a Trump endorsement for his own race, Ryan’s top challenger, Paul Nehlen, is busy managing a press conference without a podium to balance your notes on.
Paul Nehlen, Paul Ryan's challenger, is holding a press conf right now w/ a guy holding up his script as he talks. pic.twitter.com/myRbDcCp6F
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 3, 2016
The Guardian has recapped the controversy that ensued after the family of Army captain Humayun Khan appeared at the Democratic convention on Thursday.
It took less than 24 hours for Trump to attack them after Khizr Khan spoke about his son, who died in the line of duty in Iraq. By Friday, Trump began to attack – first suggesting Khan’s wife, Ghazala, was “not allowed to speak” and then comparing his own “sacrifices” to those of the Khans’ son.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has announced the release of two new advertisements set to air in a half-dozen swing states ahead of the November general election, both of which focus on the economy - and at least one on Donald Trump.
In the first ad, “Someplace,” Trump details the production of his new line of shirts and ties while late-night host David Letterman asks where they come from (the answer: Bangladesh and China).
“It’s good,” Trump said. “We employ people in Bangladesh. They have to work, too.”
If Trump is serious about "making America great again," he should start by making his products in America.https://t.co/1VVoUbgAn3
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 3, 2016
The second ad, “How To,” emphasizes Clinton’s stance on restructuring the tax code to ensure that wealthy earners pay their “fair share.”
Making our economy work for everyone starts by making sure those at the top pay their fair share in taxes.https://t.co/uDdkrzKL9O
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 3, 2016
The Hollywood Reporter has hunted down Donald Trump’s hand-size with the dogged determination of Woodward and Bernstein, before coming upon the answer in plain site: A plaque at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum in Times Square:
Trump does indeed have hands just below average size, particularly for a man standing 6-foot-2. According to various human anatomy websites, the average-height American adult male (5-foot-10) has an average hand size (measured from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist) of 7.44 inches. Trump’s measures 7.25 inches.
You can even print off your own copy to see if your hands are bigger than his:
To be fair, my hands are like cricket bats. pic.twitter.com/mrfqgIxOp0
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) August 3, 2016
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This was possibly intended as a DM:
At time when US is newly concerned about terrorist attacks, we can't afford such unprincipled & out-of-touch leadership on world stage
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) August 3, 2016
Napoleon reportedly once said “when the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him,” which might explain why Hillary Clinton is touring a tie factory in Denver, Colorado, today while key members of Republican party leadership reportedly plotting an intervention to save Donald Trump’s candidacy from himself.
According to NBC News, Republican National Committee chief Reince Priebus, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House speaker Newt Gingrich are among numerous Republicans in Trump’s orbit who are hoping to stage a conversation with Trump - possibly facilitated by his children - to reset a campaign in crisis.
NBC News reports that “the idea is in its early stages,” but may be a last-ditch effort by Republicans in charge to stem the bleeding after a cataclysmic five-day stretch on the campaign that has seen Trump, in no particular order, pick a fight the family of an Army captain killed in combat, offhandedly mention that he’s “always wanted” a Purple Heart, decline to endorse House speaker Paul Ryan against his primary challenger, declare that the handling of sexual harassment has “got to be up to the individual” and kick a baby out of one of his rallies.
Trump, meanwhile just sent out an email asking his supporters to buy an autographed copy of his book, The Art of the Deal.
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Donald Trump raises $80m in July
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has released new fundraising numbers for the month of July, in which Trump’s campaign and joint fundraising committees with the Republican party raised approximately $80m, ending the month with $37m in cash on hand.
“We are extremely proud of our 69% growth in small dollar donations which shows the broad based support of over one million donors across America,” said Steven Mnuchin, the Trump campaign’s finance chairman, in the release.
Trump’s haul is an increase from the previous month, which ended with $51m raised and $20m in cash on hand, but the putative billionaire still trails opponent Hillary Clinton in funds raised and saved - the former secretary of state brought in $90m last month, and has $58m in cash on hand.
Report: Trump asked foreign policy experts on nuclear weapons, ‘If we have them, we can’t we use them?’
MSNBC’s Morning Joe once faced a cascade of accusations that its hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, aired uncritical interviews with Donald Trump in the nascent days of the Republican presidential primary.
Although they pair fought back against those criticisms at the time, the show appears to be going into overtime on critical coverage to compensate for those early interviews. On this morning’s episode, Scarborough told viewers that a few months ago, Trump asked a foreign policy adviser “why we can’t use nuclear weapons?” three times in an hour-long meeting.
The story was relayed during an interview with former CIA director Michael Hayden. Beginning by saying that he had to be “very careful here”, Scarborough repeated an anecdote:
Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times, he asked, at one point, ‘If we have them, why we can’t we use them?’
That’s one of the reasons he has - he just doesn’t have foreign policy experts around him. Three times, in an hour briefing, ‘Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?’
Watch: What are some major concerns about Trump's handling of national security? Hayden and #morningjoe weigh in. https://t.co/FyFoSmJlJI
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 3, 2016
Brzezinski gravely responded: “Be careful, America, and be careful, Republican leaders. Your party is blowing up.”
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Donald Trump's plan for electoral victory? It's a secret.
In the same 50-minute sitdown interview with the Washington Post in which he declared that he may not endorse House speaker Paul Ryan or Arizona senator John McCain against their primary opponents, Donald Trump told reporter Philip Rucker that he has a brilliant strategy “to do great in states that some people aren’t even thinking about” come November.
It’s just a secret.
“I think I’m going to to do great in Ohio, we’re going to do great in Pennsylvania, I think I’m going to do great in Florida and I think I’m going to do great in states that some people aren’t even thinking about,” Trump said, when asked about the nature of the coalition he hopes to build ahead of the general election. “Because I’m different than Republican candidates, than other Republican candidates. I’ve got states that we can win that other Republican candidates wouldn’t even stop over for dinner.”
Asked which states in particular Trump sees as being able to flip, he kept mum.
“Well, I’d rather not say,” Trump responded. “Because why should I highlight it? But we have some states that I think are very competitive in that no Republican has ever been competitive in. But I’d rather not say what they are. Don’t you agree with that? I’d rather not say what they are.”
Rucker, understandably skeptical about Trump’s “secret-state strategy,” repeated his question, to be rebuffed.
“I have states, and you know this, I have states that no other Republican would do well in that I think I’m gonna win,” Trump said. “But I don’t want to name those states.”
It is, of course, impossible to keep a national campaign’s strategy a secret - all one has to do is look at advertising spending and a candidate’s travel schedule. But Trump, who has reserved less than $1m in airtime compared to Hillary Clinton’s $98m, has only allocated $293,000 to advertising in Florida and $178,000 in Ohio. In Pennsylvania, seen as a must-win for the candidate, he has reserved $15,000 worth of airtime.
ABC News reports that Republican leadership is actively exploring what would happen if Donald Trump were to drop out as the Republican presidential nominee, and whether it is feasible for Trump to be forced from the nomination.
There is no mechanism for Trump to be dropped by the party post-convention, but Trump’s apparently unpredictability is leading party chiefs to explore what would happen if he threw in the towel:
Then, it would be up to the 168 members of the Republican National Committee to choose a successor, though the process is complicated.
One Republican legal expert has advised party officials that, for practical reasons, Trump would have to drop out by early September to give the party enough time to choose his replacement and get the next nominee’s name on the ballot in enough states to win.
97 days to go ...
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s campaign liveblog.
All is fine at Trump Tower, reported Donald Trump this morning on Twitter, despite reports that campaign chair Paul Manafort is “mailing it in” and his campaign staff is “suicidal”:
There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before. I want to thank everyone for your tremendous support. Beat Crooked H!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2016
But if the first five days of the general election are any indication, the only “tremendous” thing about the Trump campaign is the number of fires it has failed to put out. Since Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic presidential nomination last Thursday, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the family of a dead American soldier, pointedly refused to endorse the highest-ranked Republican elected official in the country, suggested that women who are sexually harassed in the workplace get another career and said he wanted a baby kicked out of one of his rallies for crying too loudly.
These incidents are beginning to lead to a crisis of confidence among Republicans, more of whom seem to be aligning themselves with Clinton every day. Just yesterday, the billionaire politician manqué Meg Whitman, a top Republican donor and fundraiser, endorsed Clinton for president. Whitman declared that she could not support Trump, a candidate who has “exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division” and whose “demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character”.
Whitman joins other notable defectors from the Republican party, including the New York congressman Richard Hanna; Sally Bradshaw, a former Jeb Bush aide and coauthor of the 2013 Republican “autopsy”; and the former Chris Christie aide Maria Comella.
Some unnamed figures with the Republican party leadership are even speculating about how to replace Trump on the ballot if he is forced to drop out by some as-yet undefined calamity:
Priebus "furious," per @jonkarl. Senior GOP officials "actively exploring" how to replace Trump on ballot if he drops out. @GMA
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) August 3, 2016
All in all, expect Trump’s claim of “great unity in my campaign” to be refuted by news from across the campaign field today.
Here are the big moves today:
- Donald Trump will be holding a town hall event at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, at 3pm ET, then will hold a rally at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena at 7pm ET.
- Indiana governor Mike Pence will hold a town hall event at Mile High Station (go Broncos) in Denver, Colorado, at 3pm MT (5pm ET) and then will hold a rally at at Antlers Colorado Springs at 6pm MT (8pm ET).
- Hillary Clinton will hold a competing event near Denver at Adams City High School in Commerce City, Colorado, at 3pm MT (5pm ET).
- Virginia senator Tim Kaine will hold an organizing event in Greensboro, North Carolina, after taking a tour of a local factory.
- CNN will host a primetime one-hour town hall with the Libertarian party ticket, former governors Gary Johnson and William Weld, at 9pm ET in New York City.
Got it? Good – on with the show ...
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