Today in 2016
- Donald Trump did not deny that he has not paid federal taxes for as many as 18 years, and insisted that a $916m loss in 1995 was actually evidence that he is an incredible comeback story. He also said the 1990s, a decade of growth, low unemployment and stability, rivaled the Great Depression for despair and desolation. He saw dystopia at an earlier rally too, describing: “race riots on our streets on a monthly basis. Somebody said don’t call them race riots, but that’s what they are.”
- Hillary Clinton said that her opponent “represents the same rigged system that he claims he’s going to change,” and painted him as a business failure. ““How anyone can lose a dollar, let alone a billion dollars, in the casino industry is beyond me.” A round of new polls showed Clinton ahead of Trump in several swing states off of the first presidential debate last week. Nationally, a CNN poll had her up 47% to 42% over Trump, and a CBS poll had her up 45% to 41%.
- Several veterans groups turned against Trump over an ambiguous remark he made about PTSD. In context: “They see maybe what people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it. And they see horror stories, they see events that you’d see in a movie and you wouldn’t believe it. We need mental health help, and medical. It’s one of the things that’s least addressed, and it’s one of the things I hear the most about when I go around and talk to veterans. So we’re going to have a very robust level of performance having to do with mental health.”
- And Tim Kaine and Mike Pence prepared to face off in Tuesday’s one and only vice-presidential debate of the election. On Monday, Pence was slapped down by the seventh circuit court of appeals, which rejected his attempt to deny aid to Syrian refugees, calling it “nightmare speculation”.
Trump closes out the rally by saying he will lower taxes, restore law and order, and “appoint justices of the supreme court who will uphold and defend the constitution of the United States”.
“We are going to rebuild America, we are going to unite America again,” he says. “Imagine what we can accomplish as one people, under one God, saluting one American flag.”
He claps to himself, slightly off time to the simplistic rock beat playing out him out, and wanders slowly off stage.
“It’s these hardworking immigrants who are hurt the most by open borders,” Trump continues. The US does not have open borders, and Barack Obama has deported more than 2.5 million people since he took office.
“Illegal immigration also brings with it massive crime and massive drugs,” Trump says, baselessly, since crime statistics do not show any clear bump or relationship between noncitizens and crime.
He moves along to terrorism, and the San Bernardino terrorist attacker Tashfeen Malik, who came to the US on a fiancee visa. “They should’ve checked her Facebook page and they never would’ve let her into our country,” he says, falsely, since Malik never posted publicly in support of jihad but rather in private messages.
“Or the Orlando shooter, the son of a Taliban supporter from Afghanistan.” The gunman in the Orlando attack, the worst mass shooting in US history, was an American citizen born in Queens, New York, as was Donald Trump.
“The investigation of Hillary Clinton was rigged,” Trump says, impugning the ethics and professional conduct of the FBI, whose director was deputy attorney general of George W Bush.
“We’ve become a banana republic,” Trump says, moving on to polls. “We’re up in Florida. We’re up in a lot of places.”
New CBS national poll among likely voters:
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 3, 2016
Clinton - 45
Trump - 41
Johnson - 8
Stein - 3
“This is a state with a rich immigrant history, and a rich Latino history,” Trump says. “You are all Americans, and great Americans.”
A few months ago, Trump refused to admit a federal judge born in Indiana was American, insisting that judge Gonzalo Curiel is “Mexican” because his parents were born in Mexico. For five years, Trump refused to admit that Hawaii-born Barack Obama was American.
Trump says that all Americans enjoy the same civil rights, then segues into a discussion of violence in cities, saying that Clinton “attacks” the police. He then rattles down a laundry list of conservative issues, citing his support for “school choice” and repealing Obama’s signature healthcare act. He then says Clinton supports trade deals like “Bill Clinton’s Nafta”, referring to the trade deal negotiated and signed by George HW Bush and then signed again by Clinton.
The businessman now says that Hillary Clinton is only in itself for herself and her donors, but that he’s here for the American people.
“We have a very tough situation right now. For me impossible is just a starting point. From the depths of that terrible real estate depression, I created a company worth billions and billions of dollars and created tens of thousands of jobs.”
The worth of Trump’s company is unclear, since he refuses to release his tax returns and the company is privately held. It’s similarly unclear how many jobs he’s created, though CNN estimates about 34,000. Trump also allegedly stiffed hundreds of small businesses for their contract work on his projects.
He claims that “Hillary Clinton made her money as a corrupt public official, breaking the law and putting government offices for sale.”
Hillary Clinton was investigated for criminal wrongdoing in the use of her private email server as secretary of state, but the FBI recommended no charges and did not find evidence of deliberate malfeasance or criminal negligence. She has never been investigated or charged with selling public offices.
“We’re a divided nation and each week it seems we’re getting more and more divided, with race riots on the streets on a weekly, monthly basis.”
Trump is apparently referring to protests against police violence, which are not happening on a weekly or monthly basis but after police shootings or the release of videos.
Trump: 1990s were worse than the 1930s
Trump defends his tax practices at length. He says it was his responsibility to find ways to not pay taxes, essentially, for the sake of his business and family.
“I was able to sue the tax laws of this country and my skills as a businessperson to dig out,” he says. “I did a great job.”
He then blames the 1990s for his $916m losses documented in the tax return, whose contents he does not deny are accurate. But he still calls it “an alleged filing from the 1990s, a long time ago, at the end of one of the most brutal economic downturns in our country’s history.”
“The conditions facing real estate developers in the 1990s,” he says, were “far worse that the great recession of 2008, which was nothing compared to the early 1990s”.
“Some people in some respects it was almost the equivalent of 1929, the disaster.”
No reasonable person would compare the global chaos and economic desolation of the 1929 stock market crash, much less the subsequent depression of the 1930s, to the stability and economic growth of the 1990s.
“The reason I never felt endangered,” he says, was because he knew the tax code, financial system “and I knew how to fight”.
Trump’s millionaire father also continuously supported his son. In a 2007 deposition, Trump admitted to having borrowed from his father’s estate in the 1990s: ‘I think it was like in the $9m range.”
Updated
Trump is now expounding on how many rows of crowd the media is going to show later on TV.
“My people don’t get it, my people don’t. They don’t get it my people. But if they would span the crowd,” he says. “We went to Pueblo today, we had a tremendous crowd.”
The fire marshal, he says, “was fantastic”. “I said, ‘How can you have a fire it’s a concrete floor!’”
“I made a center piece of my economic revitalization plan, and this is big stuff, the largest tax cut since Ronald Reagan, and the largest regulatory reform in American history.”
“We’re bringing it way down to 12.5% for middle income, and to 0% for people who aren’t doing so well.” Trump’s tax plan would save the wealthiest Americans millions of dollars, and only marginally benefit lower earners who make up the vast majority of the country.
“The personal taxes, the corporate taxes. Trillions of companies are outside are country, because the taxes are so much,” he continues. “Just about the highest in the world, our taxes.”
This is not true. The US ranks 31st for tax revenue, 17th for corporate tax revenue, and 19th for tax revenue per capita among the world’s industrialized nations., according to the OECD.
“And with all those taxes, the roads are bad, everything is bad.”
Trump did not pay federal income taxes in 1995, and has not denied that he paid no tax for the following 18 years.
Trump is now bemoaning the absence of “a general MacArthur”, alluding to the second world war era general who was eventually fired by president Harry Truman for his efforts to expand the Korean war into a deeper conflict with China, which the joint chiefs of staff opposed.
“In the old days we used to read, it’s called, the element of surprise,” Trump says. He says it’s foolish for the US and its Iraqi allies to announce that they plan to retake Mosul – giving notice to civilians. “We don’t have surprise anymore.”
“Remember, a few weeks ago, $400m in cash,” he goes on, alluding to money given to Iran as part of a $1.7bn Hague-mediated settlement for a failed arms deal, which dates back to 1979, in cash because of the bars on transactions between US banks and Tehran. “Nut then that turned out to be wrong, it was $1.7bn in cash. In cash!”
Trump then says he’s really grateful for the National Rifle Association’s endorsement. He says that Hillary Clinton is responsible for a “campaign of distraction” by special interests and hedge fund managers. He does not specify these interests beyond the hedge fund managers, the wealthiest of whom would disproportionately benefit from Trump’s tax proposals, according to an analysis by the conservative Tax Foundation.
“All that stands between you and the country you want are Hillary Clinton’s special interests.” He tells people to mail in their ballots and get out the vote.
“I wish those cameras would, hey would you do me a favor fellas and span the room.” The camera spans. “Pretty amazing. Place is packed. New record!” he shouts, in the manner of Steve Holt!
In Loveland, Colorado, Donald Trump has marched out from backstage and soaked up some adoration from the crowd.
“Unbelievable,” says the Republican nominee, former reality TV star who may not have paid federal taxes for 18 years, and head of a defunct “university” under investigation for fraud and a charity that had been used to pay legal settlements. He hugs a very enthusiastic young man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
“John Elway is a winner, so congratulations,” Trump praises the Denver Broncos. Back in 1983, John Elway rejected an offer from Trump to join his doomed attempt to get into football. Elway is now general manager of the Broncos, and in the hall of fame.
Donald Trump’s friends and reluctant Republicans are out across the country talking about him.
In New Hampshire, senator Kelly Ayotte is in a close race for re-election against Democratic governor Maggie Hassan, and tonight she’s facing questions about her promise to vote for Trump.
"Wld you tell children to be like Trump?" Ayotte: "There are many role models we have. I believe he can serve as President, so absolutely."
— Taniel (@Taniel) October 3, 2016
His would-be VP is in Virginia, prepping the crowd for his showdown Tuesday night against Clinton’s pick, senator and former Virginia governor Tim Kaine.
Pence’s emcee at Ashland, Va., rally fires a shot at Kaine, “the guy who as governor closed our rest areas and that’s about it."
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) October 3, 2016
And in Loveland, Colorado, retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn is talking about Hillary Clinton, who he says has been “caught in lie after lie after lie”.
“Where’s the 33,000 emails, I mean who breaks their phone with an iPhone, I mean c’mon!”
The crowd chants “lock her up”.
If you’d like to read about lie after lie after lie, you may be interested in clicking through the link below.
Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence made a cameo in federal court today, as the loser in a court battle over Syrian refugees who have been screened to settle in the US.
The seventh circuit court of appeals accused Pence of baseless “nightmare speculation” and compared the governor’s attempt to block refugees to an attempt to exclude black people from his state, Indiana. Pence tried to deny 174 refugees resettlement aid, and the case was taken to court.
“The governor of Indiana believes, though without evidence, that some of these persons were sent to Syria by ISIS to engage in terrorism and now wish to infiltrate the United States in order to commit terrorist acts here. No evidence of this belief has been presented, however; it is nightmare speculation,” Judge Richard Posner wrote in the opinion.
“[Pence] provides no evidence that Syrian terrorists are posing as refugees or that Syrian refugees have ever committed acts of terrorism in the United States. Indeed, as far as can be determined from public sources, no Syrian refugees have been arrested or prosecuted for terrorist acts or attempts in the United States. And if Syrian refugees do pose a terrorist threat, implementation of the governor’s policy would simply increase the risk of terrorism in whatever states Syrian refugees were shunted to.”
Like Trump, Pence has taken the draconian position that the US should stop taking refugees from Syria because vetting processes are inadequate, in their eyes. A refugee who wants to come to the US must pass through interviews, background and medical checks by the Department of Homeland Security, US security agencies, immigration services and the UN, and the process takes 18 months to two years.
Posner wrote that Pence’s idea of exclusion by nationality is: “the equivalent of his saying (not that he does say) that he wants to forbid black people to settle in Indiana not because they’re black but because he’s afraid of them, and since race is therefore not his motive he isn’t discriminating. But that of course would be racial discrimination, just as his targeting Syrian refugees is discrimination on the basis of nationality.”
Prepare for the clash of veeps
Like the Gulf stream, or a young Republican who doesn’t wear beige chinos, we know Mike Pence and Tim Kaine exist – we just don’t really see them.
With the media focused on Donald Trump’s near daily indiscretions, and Hillary Clinton’s various responses to those indiscretions, both the Republican and Democratic vice-presidential nominees have been forced into the shadows.
But no more. Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate will be Kaine and Pence’s first chance to show us all what we’ve been missing. Here’s why it will definitely be exciting …
Finding out which is which
Both vice-presidential candidates are middle-aged white men. Both have single-syllable first and last names and five-letter last names. Both have grey hair. Both of them were largely unknown to the public before they were chosen as running mates.
Tuesday night is an opportunity for Americans to play spot-the-difference. Kaine and Pence will introduce themselves at the beginning of the debate – clearing up, once and for all, which one is Kaine and which one is Pence.
Read the full piece here:
Why isn’t the media chasing Clinton?
I'm old enough to remember when reporters chased after Clinton's van & crammed into her events. Today's press file: pic.twitter.com/zsSShYi2J8
— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) October 3, 2016
Clinton up by four points nationally – poll
A major new poll by CBS News (tweeted below by rival ABC News) has Clinton up four points nationally on Trump in a four-way race.
Before the debate, the same poll had the candidates tied. In a head-to-head matchup, Clinton led Trump by six points in the poll.
New CBS national poll among likely voters:
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 3, 2016
Clinton - 45
Trump - 41
Johnson - 8
Stein - 3
Voters think better of her, Dems more enthusiastic because of debate, via CBS/NYT pic.twitter.com/CIkQr5j6qS
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) October 3, 2016
Here's what we know. 1. Clinton leads by like 4 points nationally. 2. Democratic enthusiasm is up. 3. Trump is running out of time.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 3, 2016
And yes, I trust high quality national polls from CBS/CNN/FOX a lot more than the USC/CVOTER stuff.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 3, 2016
This chart by HuffPost Pollster hasn’t yet taken the new CBS poll into account. But it shows Clinton with a five-point lead on Trump in polling averages:
Updated
Trump developments used Chinese steel – report
Here’s the Newsweek report Clinton just alluded to at her Akron rally, that Trump has used Chinese steel instead of American steel (doesn’t seem out of character, does it?) in two of three recent big developments:
A Newsweek investigation has found that in at least two of Trump’s last three construction projects, Trump opted to purchase his steel and aluminum from Chinese manufacturers rather than United States corporations based in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. ...
Of Trump’s last three construction projects, the first to use Chinese steel was Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which opened in 2008. That the manufacturer is from China is not immediately evident; this fact is hidden within a chain of various corporate entities, including holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. ...
Another recent Trump building that has used metal from China is Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which opened in 2009. ... The building required tons of aluminum and Trump elected not to purchase the metal from Alcoa or any other similar American producer, but instead turn to a subsidiary of a Chinese aluminum manufacturer.
Read the full piece here.
Clinton: “I know that Ohio is a tough tough state.. but I need your help to talk to anyone who thinks they might be voting for Trump...
“You’ve got to stage an intervention. You’ve got to sit them down, and point out how everything he says he wants to do is absolutely opposite of what he has done.
Clinton hits Trump for using Chinese steel
Clinton is hammering Trump on his tax returns. She says her husband and she pay taxes. “And frankly, we are grateful that we could.”
“Did any of you see the debate last Monday?”
Rah-rah, cheer cheer.
She reiterates the questions she has about his taxes: He’s not rich, he’s not charitable, he owes money to foreign lenders - or maybe he does not pay taxes.
She informs the crowd that Trump lost a billion dollars on casinos in the mid-1990s. One interpretation of his tax returns.
“Ask yourself this. Who loses money on casinos? Really. And yesterday some of his supporters say, well, ‘It just shows he’s a genius. That he didn’t pay any taxes.” Well, what kind of a genius doesn’t pay taxes in the first place?
She notes that Trump claimed not paying taxes made him “smart,” and asks, “what’s that say about the rest of us...”
“This is the same person who’s been going around really just dumping on America. He says the military’s a disaster? Well, he really could not be more wrong, but thank goodness the rest of us are” paying to support the men and women in uniform.
Clinton says Trump failed to pay taxes for 20 years but wants tax cuts for him and his family.
“What’s he want us to do, pay him to lose money?”
The crowd chants again. She’s got them going with this part.
“We know he stiffed people... we know he took bankruptcy... we know he paid no taxes probably 20 years...”
“Donald, release everything up until 2009. Show the American people your taxes!”
She says if she’s president, it will be law that any nominee must release taxes.
Now she hits him on the Newsweek report that Trump used Chinese steel and aluminum in two of his last three construction projects.
“He once again stiffed us. He sent that money overseas... it turns out he bought that steel and aluminum from the Chinese. It turns out he owes big money to the Chinese.”
How can he make America great again when he won’t even buy American products in our country?
Clinton:
When I think about the way that my opponent has taken advantage of people, I gotta tell you, I am really grateful my dad never got a contract from him. [Cheers]. Because I have met people he stiffed... he wouldn’t pay them.
Now you’ve gotta stop and ask yourself, what kind of person does that? Someone who works hard and has a contract that they expect to be honored...
Clinton narrates a story of a small business stiffed by Trump.
Trump didn’t care. He basically just walked away from them, made them feel like they had failed even though they had done the work they had been asked to provide. I’ve gotta tell you, that is not the way we are supposed to do business in America...
But you’re going to help me make sure he never gets near the White House!
Cheers and the Hillary chant again.
Updated
Clinton says what she has been saying on the stump, that she’s going to close this campaign the way she started her career in public life, by fighting for kids and on behalf of the vulnerable.
“My opponent and I have a very different view about what it takes to get ahead and stay ahead, because we have different life experiences...
I have noticed that he always puts himself first. And maybe that’s because he was born into a millionaire family...his father bailed him out, apparently that’s a pattern, you’ve got to be bailed out when you do business with him... and he has taken advantage of every single element of our tax code that he could.. and meanwhile, he stiffed people.
Clinton reminds the crowd that the deadline to register to vote in Ohio is 11 October and early voting starts the next day.
“Because we have just 36 days left. 36 days.”
She invites people to get involved on behalf of the campaign, “Because we are running to win Ohio in this election.”
Hillary! Hillary! The crowd chants.
“I was especially honored to receive the endorsement of LeBron James,” Clinton says, to cheers.
“But I’ll tell you what really moved me the most is he’s given back to his hometown... he is someone who uses the platform he has earned... to speak out and to speak up for those who may not have a voice...
“I am truly honored...”
Here’s Clinton.
Trump’s done.
Up next: Hillary Clinton in Akron, Ohio. Here’s a live video stream:
Trump: US beset by race riots
It appears that the mainly peaceful protests for justice and protection from officially sanctioned violence that have played out in American cities in the last two years just look like “race riots” to Trump.
Trump says there are “race riots on our streets on a monthly basis. Somebody said don’t call them race riots, but that’s what they are.”
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 3, 2016
Trump on Don King, in Pueblo: "Whether you like him or not, that’s a smart cookie, a tough cookie, and he’s done a job."
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) October 3, 2016
Reminder: Don King has killed two people. https://t.co/d43kKkJhCI
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) October 3, 2016
The mic goes out again. "I'm telling you, the commission on presidential debates is operating this microphone....What a joke they are."
— Nick Riccardi (@NickRiccardi) October 3, 2016
“Naw, that commission on presidential debates, what a joke they are. I gotta go through them, on Sunday night again?” Trump adds.
Trump is now trashing Bernie Sanders as having made a “deal with the devil” who can’t even draw a crowd anymore.
“He made a deal with the devil, and his supporters are no longer his supporters, that I can tell you.”
As recently as Saturday, the Trump campaign playbook was to attract Sanders voters using leaked audio of Clinton talking about them.
Trump describes 1995 losses as part of a comeback legend
Now Donald Trump is addressing the exposure of his $916m in reported losses in 1995.
He paints it as a comeback story. Which seems a much better way to frame it, politically, than saying “I’m a genius, of course I don’t pay taxes,” which was the Trump campaign messaging this weekend.
Trump is talking about getting into debt trouble in the mid-1990s, which he characterizes as a tough time for real estate. “Survive till ’95” was the motto, he says.
“For me, impossible is just a starting point, that’s when you begin,” Trump says.
Good, solid, political messaging there.
“The only person who didn’t think that I was in trouble was a guy named Donald J Trump. I didn’t know what they were talking about. Power of positive thinking...”
He explains he had taken out big loans from big banks.
“When the bottom fell out of the real estate market, [the debt] stayed the same, but the value of assets plummeted...
“My knowledge of the tax code gave me a tremendous advantage... now [his competitors are] gone and I’m here, and I’m ready to turn things around for our country...
“The early 90s was a very tough time for the world. But in tough times, you need very tough and smart people. These are tough times for America. We need very tough and very smart leadership.
“I enjoyed getting up every morning to take on the financial establishment... and win.”
Trump:
If we don’t win this election, it will never happen again. This opportunity will never happen again.”
Textbook Art of the Deal, there, folks.
Donald Trump is addressing a rally in Pueblo, Colorado. He’s talking about government debt and the decaying infrastructure. Sounds like he’s about to make a pitch for a heavier tax burden for all Americans, to relieve the debt and pay for all the repairs the country so urgently needs. Let’s listen in.
Here’s a live stream:
Updated
Dead heat among likely voters in North Carolina
Hillary Clinton does not need to win North Carolina in one of her seemingly most viable routes to the White House (see map below) – in which she holds Virginia, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, loses the second district in Maine and then loses Florida and Ohio as well as Nevada and Iowa.
Clinton does not need to win North Carolina in such a scenario – but some of her supporters may not be comfortable with cutting it quite this close:
Now, a new poll of likely voters conducted by J Ann Selzer for Bloomberg – one of the tippy-top names in polling – finds Clinton up on Trump 46-45 in a two-way race in the Tar Heel state – “a statistical tie when the 3.5 margin of error is factored in.”
When third-party candidates are included, Clinton leads Trump 44-43.
That’s really close. The poll was conducted from Thursday, 29 September through Sunday, 2 October, meaning the Alicia Machado headlines and the tax headline were out there for at least one day on which voters were interviewed.
“It’s hard to imagine a battleground state where things could be much closer, both in the overall horse-race number and in the underlying party ideology of the voters,” said Selzer, who oversaw the survey. “This is the kind of situation where third-party candidates could tip the balance.”
The poll has the Democratic senate candidate, Deborah Ross, up 46-44 against Republican incumbent Richard Burr, and Democrat gubernatorial challenger Roy Cooper up 50-44 over Republican incumbent Pat McCrory.
HuffPost Pollster’s average has Clinton up just over a point on Trump in the state:
Updated
Trump camp accuses media of distorting comments on vets
Amid criticism of Donald Trump for his casual categorization today of veterans who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress as not “strong” enough to “handle it,” the Trump camp has raised its voice to say the comments are being misinterpreted.
“The media continues to operate as the propaganda arm of Hillary Clinton as they took Mr. Trump’s words out of context in order to deceive voters and veterans—an appalling act that shows they are willing to go to any length to carry water for their candidate of choice,” said a statement issued by the Trump campaign and credited to Lt Gen Michael Flynn, the former director of the defense intelligence agency.
Flynn continued:
Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country. He has always respected the service and sacrifice of our military men and women—proposing reforms to Veteran Affairs to adequately address the various issues veterans face when they return home.”
Click through to read our earlier coverage, including an admonishment from a veterans’ rights activists for leaders to use “accurate and appropriate language.”
Trump categorizes some veterans as not 'strong' enough to go PTSD alone
Donald Trump’s seemingly offhand comments today about veterans who suffer from PTSD are drawing sharp criticism, AP reports:
Donald Trump is drawing criticism after he appeared to suggest that veterans who suffer from PTSD might not be as strong as those who don’t.
Trump made the reference Monday as he discussed his commitment to improving mental health services for veterans at an event held by the Retired American Warriors political action committee.
Trump said, “When people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it. But a lot of people can’t handle it.”
Trump has often cited improving mental health services for veterans as a top priority of he makes it to the White House.
He says, “We are losing so many great people that can be taken care of if they have proper care.”
Here’s the full quote for context:
OK, wait -- in context, that @realDonaldTrump quote on PTSD isn't nearly as damning. https://t.co/aRrX29IZ08 pic.twitter.com/wGaFl51OUl
— Leo Shane III (@LeoShane) October 3, 2016
Paul Rieckhoff from Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans Of America shared his thoughts:
Every national leader has a responsibility to use accurate and appropriate language when talking about mental health and suicide especially.
— Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) October 3, 2016
Terms like "killing yourself" or "mental problems", or any any suggestion that suicide only impacts the weak, perpetuates stigma...
— Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) October 3, 2016
...it can also promote contagion and may discourage people from getting help for mental health injuries. Getting help is a sign of strength.
— Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) October 3, 2016
Correction: the headline of this block has been changed to more precisely capture Trump’s comments.
Updated
Reporters Megan Carpentier and Laurence Mathieu-Léger visited mothers and daughters in Philadelphia to speak about why a Hillary Clinton presidency matters to them.
Polly Frey, a 67-year-old former stay-at-home mother and current furniture saleswoman in between jobs, lives with her daughter in the Philadelphia exurbs, and said she certainly sees herself in Clinton. “Being a new grandmother, definitely, it makes her more human and more attractive to me, how she would handle things,” she explained. “I worry about so much more now than I did with my kids, because you know what’s going on and you want to prepare them for what’s ahead and hope that they turn out to be even-tempered, moral, generous – all the things you would want in a human, which sometimes we don’t see in some of the candidates.”
Her daughter, Raina Murdock, is an IT professional who just turned 43 and has two children: Dexter, age four, and Meadow, one.
Murdock said, tearing up: “The one thing that I think is kind of cool, Meadow being the age she is, she’s not going to know any different” than that a woman can be president.
“There’s the quote where, it’s like Madeleine Albright’s granddaughter or something saying, ‘Well, isn’t a woman always secretary of state?’ That might be how Meadow feels about the president, and that’s pretty cool.”
“It’ll be second nature,” said Frey.
“She won’t see the limits that we’ve all seen,” replied Murdock.
Read the rest here.
Here’s Trump speaking about veterans’ mental health at a stop in Virginia this morning.
These two are so adorable you could turn their first date into a movie. Oh wait.
Side-by-side for 24 years. Here's to many more. #HappyAnniversary pic.twitter.com/nh8Xfc7IWU
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 3, 2016
Dave Matthews hosts a pro-Clinton concert
This in from the Clinton campaign:
On Monday, October 10, Senator Tim Kaine and musician Dave Matthews will campaign in the Denver Metro area and host a concert where they will highlight Hillary Clinton’s plan to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
The concert, occurring just one week before ballots are mailed to Colorado voters, will focus on urging supporters to make sure they’re registered to vote.
We’re definitely betting that Tim Kaine will be polishing his harmonica in preparation. Will Bill Clinton get out the old sax as well? Fingers crossed.
“In another words, Trump was taking from America with both hands and leaving the rest of us with the bill,” she says.
“He says only he can fix, but that is like letting the fox guard the hen house,” argues Clinton.
“Here’s what I am really just stunned by. I get stunned every day in this campaign... he has put forth a tax plan that would cut his own taxes even more. It would be like you’re paying zero, you expect us to pay you to stay in business in America,” says Clinton incredulously.
She goes on. “This is a real shocker: his plan would actually raise taxes for millions of middle class families. You know the people it would hit the hardest? The single parents. Whose lives and challenges he doesn’t care about, he certainly doesn’t understand,” says Clinton.
She asked if the crowd had seen the debate last Monday. Huge cheers and then the crowd started chanting “Hillary” so loudly, she couldn’t speak for a moment.
“What kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year? This is Trump to a T,” she says.
Now onto Donald Trump and his tax returns.
“A lot of us were wondering, what is he hiding - it’s really terrible,” says Clinton.
“The New York Times has discovered at least part of the answer,” she notes, pointing out their investigation over the weekend.
“How everyone can lose a dollar let alone a billion dollars in the casino industry is beyond me,” quips Clinton. “As a result, doesn’t look like he paid a dime of federal income tax for two decades,” says Clinton.
“And then in a category by himself: there’s Donald Trump,” declares Clinton, after going after Wells Fargo.
Clinton’s economic speech focusing on investment in the US and anti the “cowboy culture” on Wall Street.
“For most businesses, America is the most important asset on their ballot sheet. This country of ours, the system of ours, the rule of law. The opportunity to get an education... we created the biggest engine of economic growth in the world, the middle class. And when it thrives, the country thrives, and when it doesn’t, we don’t,” says Clinton.
“Patriotism is profitable. Standing up for America, investigating in America, will pay off,” says Clinton.
“We do not and we will not respect those who get rich by cheating everybody else,” she says.
“I want to send a clear message to every board room, to every executive team, if you scam your customers, exploit your employees, hurt the environment, rip off taxpayers... we will find ways to hold you accountable,” she declares.
“The tax code rewards corporations for outsourcing their jobs... rather than investing here in the United States. It is riddled with loopholes that let the rich get even richer and makes income inequality even worse,” says Clinton.
“I want to focus on what I call kitchen table issues,” says Clinton, reeling off cost of childcare, cost of college and education being the issues that she thinks keep people up at night having discussions over the kitchen table.
“That means we’ve got to have good schools in every zip code. You’ve got be willing to work and if you’re willing to work, you’ve got to be able to get ahead and stay ahead, that’s the basic bargain,” says Clinton.
“I hope to be elected president, but I know here in Ohio, LeBron will always be the king!” says Hillary Clinton, speaking about Cleveland Cavs’ star LeBron James.
“I’ve gotten a lot of endorsements over the year but I’ve got to say there’s something special about this one,” she adds.
Hillary Clinton hosts rally in Toledo, Ohio
David A. Fahrenthold, the Washington Post reporter who has been closely monitoring the Trump Foundation and Trump’s charity donations, notes that his reporting this week on the foundation not being properly registered seemed to have kickstarted the Attorney General’s cease-and-desist order. He wrote:
The night before that, The Washington Post had reported that Trump’s charity had been soliciting donations from other people without being properly registered in New York state.
According to tax records, Trump’s foundation has subsisted entirely on donations from others since 2008, when Trump gave his last personal donation. This year, the Trump Foundation made its most wide-ranging request for donations yet: It set up a public website, donaldtrumpforvets.com, to gather donations that Trump said would be passed on to veterans’ groups.
But the Trump Foundation never registered under article 7A of New York’s Executive Law, as is required for any charity soliciting more than $25,000 a year from the public. One important consequence: Trump’s foundation avoided rigorous outside audits, which New York law requires of larger charities which ask the public for money.
Here’s the full statement from the Trump campaign, tweeted by NBC reporter Katy Tur:
Trump campaign statement on NY AG Cease and Desist pic.twitter.com/tn13Yx7c5G
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) October 3, 2016
NY attorney general issues cease-and-desist to Trump Foundation
The New York attorney general served the Trump Foundation with a cease and desist order on Monday to stop soliciting contributions in New York due to a lack of publicly available financial documents.
Attorney general Eric Schneiderman’s office said in a statement:
The notice states that the Trump Foundation “is in violation of section 172 of Article 7-A New York’s Executive Law, which requires charitable organizations that solicit contributions in New York State to register with the Charities Bureau and to provide annual financial reports and annual audited financial statements.” Despite failing to register pursuant to Article 7-A, the Trump Foundation solicited contributions in New York State earlier this year, in violation of New York law.
The notice directs the Trump Foundation to “immediately cease soliciting contributions or engaging in other fundraising activities in New York” and “to provide the [AG’s] Charities Bureau with the information specified in Section 172 within fifteen (15) days” of receiving the notice.
It does not mean the foundation must stop distributing funds, but it cannot currently solicit them in New York because of the order.
A full copy of the order is available here.
A statement by the Trump campaign read on CNN said that Trump was concerned with the political motives of Schneiderman, who has been investigating both Trump Foundation and Trump University.
“The Trump foundation nevertheless intends to cooperate fully with the investigation as it’s an ongoing legal matter,” said the Trump campaign in a statement, according to CNN.
Updated
The Clinton campaign released a new Spanish language ad focusing on Latino workers in Trump’s hotels.
VO: Trump Hotel in Las Vegas has marble floors, crystal chandaliers, and expensive art on the walls. But those who work for Donald Trump will tell you, everything that glitters isn’t gold. Carmen works in housekeeping at Trump Hotel…
WORKER: He treats us like we’re second-class workers. He has no respect for us.
We’re the people who come here every day to clean his building, prepare the rooms, so he can be successful.
VO: Trump has said that wages are too high and the truth is employees like Carmen at Trump Hotel make three dollars less an hour than employees in other hotels in the same city. This is our country and it’s our duty to vote.
Join the millions of Hispanics voting for Hillary Clinton. A candidate who respects us.
Any thoughts on the effectiveness of the ad?
NY mag's special Obama edition
New York magazine today published a whole edition on President Obama and the end of his eight years - his legacy, the good and the bad.
New cover: Hope, And What Came After. A special issue and multimedia timeline on Obama's America. https://t.co/4nhfcpYKTd pic.twitter.com/GKT3hUOqRi
— NYMag PR (@nymagPR) October 3, 2016
The main cover story is a feature on the most important events during Barack Obama’s presidency - a “first draft” of Obama’s memoirs. The president sat down with Jonathan Chait to discuss five key situations during his presidency: the Republicans, Obamacare, BP oil spill, Cuba and drones.
It’s a very in-depth chat with Obama, who delves into what sort of legacy he’ll leave behind. Here he is on drone strikes:
What I will say, though, is that the critique of drones has been important, because it has ensured that you don’t have this institutional comfort and inertia with what looks like a pretty antiseptic way of disposing of enemies. I will say that what prompted a lot of the internal reforms we put in place had less to do with what the left or Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International or other organizations were saying and had more to do with me looking at sort of the way in which the number of drone strikes was going up and the routineness with which, early in my presidency, you were seeing both DOD and CIA and our intelligence teams think about this. And it troubled me, because I think you could see, over the horizon, a situation in which, without Congress showing much interest in restraining actions with authorizations that were written really broadly, you end up with a president who can carry on perpetual wars all over the world, and a lot of them covert, without any accountability or democratic debate.
But I will say that having these nonprofits continue to question and protest ensured that, having made that initial decision, we kept on going and that it got pushed all the way through. And it’s not — as I announced when we released our best estimates of the civilian casualties — it’s not a perfect solution. I think America will continue to have work to do in finding this balance between not elevating every terrorist attack into a full-blown war but not either leaving ourselves exposed to attacks or, alternatively, pretending as if we can just take shots wherever we want, whenever we want, and not be answerable to anybody. What I’ve tried to do is to move the needle in the right direction, to set some trends in the right direction. But there’s gonna be a lot more work to do.
And it seems like being president has had more than just an impact on Obama’s hair color.
A timeline of 8 years in Obama’s America, by @POTUS and 60 other players and witnesses https://t.co/pvNcv7tQHa pic.twitter.com/6JcbhRbtYG
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) October 3, 2016
Updated
We are divided in our confusion over this one.
This Trump answer on "confusion" and "divides" is amazing and is the reason I don't want the election to ever end pic.twitter.com/SRiqb6EOt0
— Matt Negrin (@MattNegrin) October 3, 2016
The Clinton plane is heading off to Ohio and her press pool is busy tweeting about it.
Clinton on LeBron James' endorsement of her: "It's great. I'm so excited!" pic.twitter.com/R7gASxh1Ih
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 3, 2016
It appears @brianefallon is showing Hillary Clinton baby pictures. pic.twitter.com/PHr53x12mS
— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) October 3, 2016
Fallon is Clinton’s campaign press secretary,
“The last thing you want to do is give notice to the enemy,” said Trump, who is complaining that Obama announced more US troops would be headed to Iraq to help the recapture of the city of Mosul.
“If I’m a leader and I’m seeing and watching what everyone else is watching, ‘an attack on Mosul is imminent’, I’m saying bye folks I’m out,” says Trump.
“Are we allowed to have even more in the military an element of surprise?” he asks.
Trump leaves the stage, there’s a q&a session but doesn’t seem to involve questions with journalists.
Trump: live in Virginia talking about cyber warfare
Trump: Cyberwarfare to be 'one of our greatest weapons' against terrorists
Trump says cyber warfare is the future for the US military.
“We should turn cyber warfare into one of our greatest weapons against the terrorists,” says Trump.
Says he would boost cyber security in the military and training so US military could launch “crippling. And I mean crippling. Crippling” attacks against enemies.
“This is the warfare of the future,” says Trump.
Speaks about major hacking at companies and institutions where FBI background checks were found and identity fraud took place.
“Cybersecurity is just one more area where the Obama administration has failed,” says Trump. He speaks of the growth of cybercrime. “It’s getting bigger very fast. It’s getting harder and harder to do,” he adds.
“To truly make America safe we must make cyber security a major priority... Cyber theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States by far,” says Trump.
“Cyber attacks from foreign governments especially China, Russia, North Korea.... we don’t want to have any servers in the basement here,” notes Trump.
Let’s remember that Trump called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton’s only knowledge of cybersecurity is a criminal scheme to violate federal law,” says Trump.
Trump takes to the stand at this veterans event in Virginia.
“It’s a privilege to be here this morning with you, so many distinguished members of our service,” says Trump.
Updated
Cuban on Trump's taxes: 'there's no transparency'
Billionaire Mark Cuban, who’s a Clinton surrogate, called into CNN to complain about revelations that Donald Trump seems to have avoided paying income taxes because he wrote off $916 million in losses in 1995.
“I get offered all the time these tax opportunities and I don’t take them... if Donald is taking tax shortcuts, maybe he bought an insurance policy as opposed to doing something in real estate and took a huge tax write off off that income. We don’t know. And that’s the inherent problem. There’s no transparency and he’s so ashamed of what he’s done he’s not willing to speak up and explain to us what happened,” said Cuban.
Is Trump a genius for not paying taxes? Cuban was asked. He replied:
No, if he was such a genius, and there’s nobody who likes to brag about his genius more than Donald Trump, why won’t he just come out and explain what he did? That’s really the missing element here. If he was doing something that had some upside, the come out and say it, explain it to us. But more likely it was just another example of financial engineering and that creates problems for everybody.
Just a reminder of Cuban’s stance on taxes, he penned an op-ed for the Guardian back in 2011 on the importance of paying taxes:
Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes. Hire people. Train people. Pay people. Spend money on rent, equipment, services. Pay more taxes.
When you make a shitload of money. Do something positive with it. If you are smart enough to make it, you will be smart enough to know where to put it to work.
Donald Trump will be speaking soon to a veterans group in Virginia, no word if he’ll mention the tax debacle but we’ll be watching.
Sanders publishes pro-Clinton op-ed in Iowa paper
Bernie Sanders, who’s been a strong Clinton surrogate in recent weeks, penned an op-ed in Iowa paper the Quad-City Times in support of his former foe.
Too many in the media treat the presidential contest like “Dancing with the Stars” or a World Series contest. It’s not.
The decision Iowans face is not whether you like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. It’s not about who is ahead in the polls or who said something dumb yesterday. This enormously important election is about you and your family and what happens to us all over the next four years.
As Iowans well know, Hillary Clinton and I had some very vigorous debates. We do not agree on every issue. But there is no question that she is, far and away, the superior candidate in this election. That is why I intend to work as hard as I can to see that she is elected and Trump is defeated.
At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, we must not elect a president who wants to resurrect failed trickle-down economics. When the very rich are becoming much richer and there has been a ten-fold increase in the number of billionaires since the year 2000, it is economic insanity for Trump to propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the top 1 percent. His plan to scrap the estate tax would provide a $53 billion tax break to the Walton family of Wal-Mart, the wealthiest family in America. Who else would benefit? Trump’s own family would get a $4 billion tax break.
Ronald Reagan’s son Michael, the eldest of the Reagan children and the president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, unleashed another tweetstorm last night against the Republican nominee saying he was glad his dad “is not alive to watch” this election.
Reagan’s outburst started after Donald Trump insinuated at a rally that Hillary Clinton had cheated on husband Bill - “I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill,” said Trump.
If the RNC supports this I cant suppoet the RNC.Trump on Clinton: 'I don't even think she's loyal to Bill' https://t.co/zTBMcB3wUi
— Michael Reagan (@ReaganWorld) October 3, 2016
I am glad my father is not alive to watch this...He would tell us to vote the down ticket to stop Hillary.. https://t.co/ruSKUGaEZ8
— Michael Reagan (@ReaganWorld) October 3, 2016
My father would not support this kind of campaign,if this is what the Republican Party wants leave us Reagans out.Nancy would vote for HRC https://t.co/jkjKBvlwHa
— Michael Reagan (@ReaganWorld) October 3, 2016
Nancy, who passed away earlier this year, was not Michael’s mother - he is a product of Ronald Reagan’s first marriage to Jane Wyman. He announced in June that he did not believe his father would have supported Trump.
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House.
Trump taxes fallout
The Trump campaign is still reeling after the release of details of the nominee’s 1995 tax returns by the New York Times. The records showed a loss of $916m, and suggest the businessman may not have paid federal income taxes for 18 years as a result.
The Guardian’s Dan Roberts called it “the biggest crisis of his campaign”, noting that the news challenges the entire persona of Trump as a successful businessman and champion of the hard-working middle class.
On Sunday, Trump and his surrogates were trying to use the news to show the candidate as a “genius”.
I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2016
Times reporter Susanne Craig revealed how she found the documents in a manila folder – marked with Trump Tower as a return address – sitting in her office mailbox.
The whole experience has left me eager to share a bit of advice with my fellow reporters: check your mailboxes. Especially nowadays, when people are worried that anything sent by email will leave forensic fingerprints, ‘snail mail’ is a great way to communicate with us anonymously.
On Monday morning, one Associated Press reporter was inspired:
Just checked. No #TrumpTaxReturns here. pic.twitter.com/f9Sak3SoWo
— Matt Small (@newsmatt) October 3, 2016
LeBron backs Clinton
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, the most famous resident of the swing state of Ohio, has announced his endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
James explained his reasoning in an op-ed published in Business Insider and to be republished in a local paper, the Akron Beacon Journal. It was based around issues of income inequality and the work of his foundation:
Only one person running truly understands the struggles of an Akron child born into poverty. And when I think about the kinds of policies and ideas the kids in my foundation need from our government, the choice is clear.
That candidate is Hillary Clinton.
I support Hillary because she will build on the legacy of my good friend, President Barack Obama. I believe in what President Obama has done for our country and support her commitment to continuing that legacy.
Events today
It’s a day of Ohio for Clinton, where she will host a rally in Toledo before attending an early voting event in James’s hometown, Akron. The Cavs’ next game is at home on Wednesday, so who knows – James might make an appearance. Joe Biden is stumping for Clinton at two rallies in Florida, while Bill Clinton is hosting two rallies in Michigan, including one in Flint, home of the recent crisis over lead contamination in water.
Trump will hold two rallies in Colorado, the first in Pueblo at 3pm and then another in Loveland at 6pm (both local time).
SNL finally nails Trump
And if you missed it over the weekend, Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump is dead on and worth nine minutes of your time …
Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
