Today in Campaign 2016
- Donald Trump backed away from his recent “Obama founded ISIS” comments, claiming that he was simply being sarcastic. Except, then he told a rally in Erie, PA, this afternoon: “But not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”
- Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine released their tax returns, showing that Hillary and Bill took home nearly $11m in 2015, and paid a total of 43.2% tax. Kaine and his wife Anne Holton had an adjusted gross income of $313,441, and paid a total of 25.6% in tax. The Clinton campaign used the tax return release to push against Trump for refusing to release his while his organization is audited.
- Trump opened a field office in Orlando, Florida, directly across the road from the Pulse nightclub, the scene of a mass shooting that killed 49, mainly gay people of color, in June.
- The Guardian returned to its secret Trump voters from earlier in the year, to see if the outrageous things Trump says changes the minds of people who planned to vote for him. And, turns out, it does! Four of the ten are no longer Team Trump.
- Just to take us off for the weekend, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is talking about his experiences with marijuana edibles - not something you’re likely to hear from either Team Trump or Clinton.
Gary Johnson tells @MSNBC's Richard Lui he last used Marijuana 3 months ago. It seems he had edibles. There you go. pic.twitter.com/LlxS0oWmY0
— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) August 12, 2016
Have a lovely weekend!
Corey Lewandowski joins the paid speech circuit
Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has signed to a speaker’s bureau as an insider who can reveal “behind the scenes” secrets from the campaign.
The former campaign manager, who was charged with battery for allegedly grabbing a reporter, signed a confidentiality agreement as part of his employment with Trump, and it’s unknown what effect that will have on the content of his speeches, notes Politico, who first broke the news of Lewandowski’s new speech career.
Lewandowski was fired from Team Trump in late June, and Donald Trump Jnr later accused Lewandowski of attempting to sabotage the campaign. He’s also getting work as a CNN commentator.
His profile on the Leading Authorities website proclaims:
What did the Trump and Sanders campaigns see that no one else saw? Why was no one able to predict Trump’s eventual nomination? What do businesses and associations need to know as we head into 2017?
Audiences will appreciate Lewandowski’s insights into polling, demographics, historic rallies, and the energy that drove Trump to become the unexpected nominee, plus what all this means for future candidates and elections.
If you’re interested in going behind the scenes of this year’s race, there is no one better positioned to discuss Trump’s runaway success than Corey Lewandowski. Whether paired with a Democratic colleague or by himself, audiences will enjoy getting an insider’s perspective on this unprecedented election.
There’s no advertised price for a Lewandowski speech, although it’s probably less than the $250,000 per speech that Hillary Clinton received for speaking to Goldman Sachs.
Here’s the view from the new Trump Orlando office, where you can see the Pulse nightclub memorial.
Pulse nightclub memorial site in Orlando reflected in the window of Trump's new field office. Photo by @mmcnarney. pic.twitter.com/LbRk2TdLE2
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 12, 2016
Trump opens Orlando field office across from Pulse nightclub
Donald Trump will open a campaign office directly across the road from Pulse nightclub, the scene of the June Orlando shooting where 49 people, mainly gay Latinos and people of color were killed, reports Bloomberg.
Bloomberg describes the new office, one of 24 being open in coming weeks. Florida is a key swing state:
The Orlando field office, which will officially open Monday, is tucked inside a tax preparer’s storefront, sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and a cell phone accessory shop.
It was unoccupied and locked Friday, but posters are taped to the front windows, chairs are neatly arranged, and packages of bottled water and snack chips, still wrapped in plastic, wait on a side table.
From the front door, one can see the steady stream of mourners who still visit Pulse throughout the day and night. The dark building is surrounded by chain-link fence and a privacy screen that’s now covered with rainbow flags and homemade signs of sympathy and remembrance. Candles and flowers are arranged on the sidewalk.
The morning after the shooting, Trump tweeted that his thanks for being congratulated about Islamic terrorism (the shooter Omar Mateen was Muslim, but - as it came out in days after the shooting - also seemed to be struggling with his own sexuality).
Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
Trump regularly references the Orlando shooting, which is the nation’s worst mass shooting in history, during his rally speeches, saying if more people had guns they would have been able to stop the shooter.
“If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist or right to their ankle and this son of a bitch comes out and starts shooting and one of the people in that room happened to have [a gun] and goes ‘boom, boom.’ You know what, that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks,” he said in the days following the shooting. He later clarified that he meant for guards and security guards to be armed, not club goers.
One Trump supporter still appreciates “the lowest form of humanity”.
This lady just came up to me and said "I still love CNN." pic.twitter.com/3uSqnkRFRf
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 12, 2016
“We have to win Pennsylvania. I went to school here. My kids went to school here,” said Trump.
He talks more about winning, and needing to get the country winning again. He then thanks the crowd, and heads offstage to the tune of Rolling Stone’s Can’t Always Get What You Want, which has become a bit of signature tune for him as he leaves and seems like the most confusing campaign message song of all time.
Oh, those protesters from before were calling for Trump’s tax forms, on the same day that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine’s tax forms were released.
Half-dozen protesters just popped up at @realDonaldTrump's event, holding signs that say "TAX FORMS." Same day Clinton released tax returns
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) August 12, 2016
Trump was 'being sarcastic' over Obama ISIS comment: 'but not that sarcastic'
Trump references his ‘Obama is the founder of ISIS’ comments from this week, blaming the media for making it a story.
“Of course I was being sarcastic, they know it,” says Trump. Before adding shortly afterwards, he adds: “But not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”
When Trump mentions “I said Obama was the founder of ISIS,” the audience cheers loudly.
He then criticizes the “dishonest media people.”
“They knew I was being sarcastic... These people are the lowest form of life, I’m telling you. The lowest. The lowest form of humanity. Not all of them, they have about 25% that are OK,” says Trump.
“If I ever said I short circuited, it would be headlines all over the world. They would call for the death penalty,” says Trump to laughs, referencing Hillary Clinton’s ‘short-circuited’ over emails.
“I’m not looking at notes, I’m not reading teleprompters. Not easy, not easy. And if I make one mistake, it’s like ‘oh he got a wrong date, headlines!’”
A man unfurled a Confederate flag with the word ‘Trump’ emblazoned on it at a Florida rally for the Republican candidate on Thursday. The man was soon approached by police officers who asked him to take it down. Later the flag was replaced with an American flag hanging in the same spot.
A protester appears, stopping the rally. Once they are taken away, Trump replies:
“The Bernie Sanders protesters were much much stronger, they had much more passion, I have to say.”
He says protesters are on the same side as him.
“You know it’s interesting, if I can speak to them for like five minutes: we want a strong military, we want to take care of our people, we good housing, we want good education... we’re all in it for the same thing,” says Trump.
Currently Trump hitting his normal talking points at this PA rally: build a wall between Mexico, bad trade deals, special interests controlling Washington and “Crooked” Hillary.
“They’re going to build that plant. Now, if I were here five years ago and if President Obama made me Secretary of Keeping Business in the United States. I like the sound of Secretary of Defense better....I like the Sound of Secretary of the Treasury, I like the Sound of Secretary of State, but would I be good at keeping jobs over here,” says Trump.
Before Trump arrived, Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, addresses the crowd, telling them “don’t believe the garbage you read” and says the RNC and Trump were working strongly together.
“We’re going to put him in the White House and save this country together,” says Priebus.
Updated
Watch: Donald Trump rally in Erie, PA
Donald Trump walks out to Lee Greenwood’s Proud to be an American.
Trump Tower has less stories than Donald Trump would have you believe, because yuge buildings are worth more.
An AP report noted today that Trump conflates his building size as a marketing tool:
When a Virginia teenager attempted to scale the all-glass front of Trump Tower this week, journalists struggled to answer basic questions.
Among them: How tall is the Republican presidential candidate’s namesake Manhattan skyscraper anyway?
The Trump Organization claims in marketing materials that the building is 68 stories tall. But outside groups and city records list Trump Tower at 58 stories.
Trump told The New York Times in 2003 he skipped 10 numbers when labeling the residential floors because the ceilings on lower floors were so tall.
Another New York Times story from this year, which focused on the highest buildings in the city, also pointed out the difference:
“Is Trump known for exaggerating his buildings’ heights?” I asked.
Gerometta replied that he didn’t know about that, but he did know this: Trump was probably one of the first builders to skip floor numbers in order to inflate the total count. “What he markets as the 90th floor is often actually the 72nd floor, just to make it sound more impressive.”
As we prepare for Trump’s 2pm event in Erie, Pennsylvania to kick off, here’s a little taster, care of a video the Republican nominee tweeted showing him and “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani - to the sound of soaring strings! - visiting a small business and hearing about businesses struggling with the cost of health insurance.
We will repeal and replace disastrous #Obamacare! #TrumpPence16 pic.twitter.com/Lx4Gdj5zGk
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
Updated
One of Donald Trump’s highest-profile surrogates is doubling down on his belief that there is “no doubt” President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim.
“If it acts like a duck, if it walks like a duck, and if it talks like a duck, it’s a duck!” former New York gubernatorial candidate and fellow real estate tycoon Carl Paladino told Fox Business host Connell McShane in a contentious interview on Don Imus’ radio show.
Paladino told the New York Observer last week that “in the mind of the average American, there is no doubt he is a Muslim. He is not a Christian,” Paladino said of the president. “Look at what he’s done with Iran, what he’s done with the Sunni-Shia thing over in Iraq and Iran, and with Isis.”
“Now I assume you don’t believe that. It’s not true,” McShane, who was filling in for Imus, told Paladino this morning.
“Wait, how do you know that’s not true?” responded Paladino. “That’s not fair, Connell - you’ve formed a conclusion about a man because he’s told you that, he’s said, ‘No, I’m not a Muslim.’ Oh, that’s great.”
“We’re not going to have this ridiculous talk,” McShane responded.
“So there’s no doubt he is? How would you know that that is true?” Paladino said. “This is the same guy who yesterday deprived the American people of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s foundation.”
“OK, that’s fine, but that’s different from saying there’s no doubt he’s a Muslim,” McShane shot back.
“If it acts like a duck, if it walks like a duck, and if it talks like a duck, it’s a duck!” Paladino said.
“That’s just nonsense,” McShane responded dismissively. “It’s just so silly, Carl - you lose everybody on this kind of stuff!”
“I don’t lose anybody!” Paladino responded. “I lose the press, that’s all I lose.”
Hillary Clinton’s effective tax rate in 2015: 43.2%
Donald Trump’s effective tax rate in 2015: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life:
If God ever wanted an apartment in Trump Tower, I would immediately offer my best luxury suite at a very special price. I believe God is everywhere and in all of us, and I want every decision I make to reflect well on me when it’s time for me to go to that big boardroom in the sky. When I get permanently fired by the ultimate boss, I want the elevator to heaven to go up, not down.
The man who climbed Trump Tower has been charged with reckless endangerment and trespassing, police announced on Thursday.
Stephen Rogata, who had recently changed his name from Michael Joseph Ryan, made headlines on Wednesday when he used four suction cups and a series of ropes to attempt to climb Donald Trump’s 58-story building in midtown Manhattan. The incident was livestreamed around the world as police inflated large crash pads and shut down the street in an attempt to get him down. He was eventually apprehended through the window of the building on the 21st floor.
The 19-year old from Great Falls, Virginia, later told police he was seeking an “audience” with Donald Trump.
Rogata had reportedly driven from Great Falls to New York on Tuesday night before checking into the Bowery Grand Hotel at 10am on Wednesday.
A video he uploaded to YouTube surfaced shortly afterward, in which he explained his motives: “I am an independent researcher seeking a private audience with you to discuss an important matter. I guarantee that it’s in your interest to honor this request,” he said in the video.
He is now being held at Bellevue hospital under police supervision where he is currently under psychological evaluation.
The tower is the headquarters for Trump’s campaign and his businesses and is also his residence.
Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine release tax returns
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has released her 2015 personal tax return, as well as that of her running mate, Virginia senator Tim Kaine and his wife Anne Holton, who additionally released 10 years of their returns.
The figures show Hillary and Bill Clinton earned nearly $11m in 2015, and paid a total of 43.2% tax.
“Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set the standard for financial transparency as she releases her 2015 personal tax return and builds on the Clintons’ tradition of making their returns public since 1977 and Kaine releases 10 years of his returns,” campaign communications director Jenn Palmieri said in a statement.
“In stark contrast, Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns,” Palmieri continued. “He has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years. What is he trying to hide?”
Trump, Clinton’s Republican opponent, has steadfastly refused to release any of his personal tax information, citing legal advice from Trump Organization counsel not to publicly disclose his tax returns before the completion of an audit.
In 2015, the Clintons paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34.2% on an adjusted gross income of $10,594,529. Adding an effective state and local income tax rate of 9.0%, the couple’s total tax rate was 43.2%. The Clintons donated $1,042,000, or 9.8% of their adjusted gross income, to charity.
Kaine and Holton had an adjusted gross income of $313,441, and paid a total of 25.6% in tax. The Clinton campaign released a table showing the effective tax rates paid by Kaine and Holton since 2006, although they did not release one for the Clintons:
Presidential candidates are not legally required to release their tax returns, although the practice has been the norm for more than four decades.
Trump’s critics have speculated that the real estate tycoon is hiding his tax returns because they may reveal that he has vastly overstated his personal wealth, has unsavory business ties with the Russians or may be stingy with charitable donations, or some combination thereof. Trump’s tax rate itself has been posited as a possible reason for the campaign’s reticence - the New York Times today floated the possibility that Trump may pay zero federal income tax in some years.
There are no laws prohibiting tax returns under audit from being released. Richard Nixon released his own taxes under audit in 1973, in part because of accusations of tax-dodging that eventually forced the disgraced former president to pay the IRS $476,431 in back taxes.
When asked about his taxes at the time, Nixon willingly released the returns that had been under audit: “I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.”
Updated
We’re trying!
I love watching these poor, pathetic people (pundits) on television working so hard and so seriously to try and figure me out. They can't!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
A new clutch of polls released by NBC and Marist College this morning in four key swing states show Donald Trump badly stumbling out of the gate in the first leg of the general election, down by double digits in Virginia and Colorado and with rival Hillary Clinton leading by healthy margins in Florida and North Carolina.
The polls, released at 11.30am ET, shows Clinton increasing her lead in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia, while maintaining her advantage in Florida.
Clinton leads Trump by 14% in Colorado, 46% to 32%, six points higher than the same survey showed last month ahead of the national conventions. After the selection of Tim Kaine as her running mate, Clinton now has a 13% lead in his home state of Virginia, 46% to 33%. In North Carolina, she is polling ahead of Trump 48% to 39%.
Of course, in the most important state in the general election, the race is slightly narrower: Clinton leads in Florida with 44% to Trump’s 39%.
Updated
Secret Trump voters reverse their support: 'He seems to be insane'
Do the outrageous things Donald Trump says – from insinuating Hillary Clinton should be assassinated for her support of gun control to calling on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails – change the minds of people who had planned to vote for him? Yes, actually – at least some of them.
In the middle of primary season in February, the Guardian called for secret Trump voters to contact us and tell us why they were voting for Trump on the sly. More than 100 reached out – from yoga teachers to immigration lawyers – and we published 12 of those answers. Now that the general election season has well and truly begun, we checked back in with the original anonymous 12 to see if they are still on board the Trump train. We got 10 responses – and four of them have already jumped off.
“At first I was seduced by his showmanship and strong-man persona and charisma, and by his strong borders patriotism and willingness to speak about the problem with Islam, and considering banning all Muslims from coming into the USA,” said a 48-year-old scientist from California.
“But when he said the judge of Mexican heritage wouldn’t be fair in his lawsuit and women should be punished for having abortions, that really turned me off him,” added the scientist, who had been flipping between Bernie Sanders and Trump but will now vote for Clinton.
A retired biomedical engineer from Hawaii, aged 66, says he thought originally that the US needed someone like Trump to create total social upheaval in order to get rid of corruption and paid interests in politics.
“But now – fortunately? – Trump has demonstrated that he is much more than a narcissistic buffoon,” he said.
Donald Trump’s campaign has vacated his campaign headquarters in New Jersey after vowing to be competitive in the Garden State, with some of its staffers having gone unpaid since June, Politico reports.
“I mean, I love New Jersey,” Trump said to Sean Hannity after the opening of his office there. “I am New Jersey. Like a second home. I have property there. I have a lot of employees there. And frankly, I think we’re going to do well.”
Frankly, he doesn’t seem to be feeling that way any more.
According to Trump’s latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, the campaign last paid rent on the Edison property in May, and Politico quotes two neighboring employees who say that the operation has been a ghost town for at least a month.
Pressure is mounting on Donald Trump to release his tax returns - even from fellow Republicans.
When Donald Trump vowed this week to make childcare more accessible and affordable, it was just the second time during his White House campaign that he’s talked about an issue that affects millions of working Americans with young children.
The first came months ago in Iowa, when the eventual Republican nominee touted his own record as a business owner during a candidate Q&A, telling voters he provided on-site childcare service for his employees.
There is no evidence, however, that any such programs exist.
Trump, who previously voiced his opposition to government-funded universal pre-K programs, said in Newton, Iowa, in November that he had visited many companies that offered workers on-site childcare centers – and added that he offered such programs himself.
“You know, it’s not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks, and you need some swings and some toys,” Trump said. “It’s not an expensive thing, and I do it all over. And I get great people because of it. Because it’s a problem with a lot of other companies.”
Trump pointed specifically to two programs: “They call ‘em Trump Kids. Another one calls it Trumpeteers, if you can believe it. I have ‘em. I actually have ‘em, because I have a lot of different businesses.”
Trump went on to describe “a room that’s a quarter of the size of this. And they have all sorts of – you know, it’s beautiful – they have a lot of children there, and we take care of them. And the parent when they leave the job – usually in my case it’s clubs or hotels – when they leave the job, they pick up their child and their child is totally safe.
“They even come in during the day during lunch to see their child. It really works out well,” he said.
But the two programs Trump cited – “Trump Kids” and “Trumpeteers” – are programs catering to patrons of Trump’s hotels and golf club. They are not for Trump’s employees, according to staff at Trump’s hotels and clubs across the country.
“SARCASM” is now trending on Twitter.
I suppose they also failed to get your sarcasm about building a wall, banning Muslims & insulting Gold Star parents. https://t.co/hvZbausdbZ
— Hillary Clinton (@VoteHillary2016) August 12, 2016
Donald Trump: I was being sarcastic about Obama and Isis
Donald Trump has walked back his false claim that Barack Obama founded Isis, tweeting on Friday morning that he was only being sarcastic.
Focusing on CNN’s reports on his original comments, the Republican candidate wrote:
Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) "the founder" of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON'T GET SARCASM?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
On Thursday, Trump had refused to take the opportunity to reframe his remark to mean that Obama had created the context for the Islamic State’s growth. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt told him: “I know what you meant – you meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.”
But Trump disagreed. “No, I meant that he’s the founder of Isis, I do,” he said. “He was the most valuable player – I gave him the most valuable player award. I give her too, by the way,” he added of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Trump did acknowledge that the root of his argument was that if Obama “had done things properly, you wouldn’t have had Isis”, but he repeated: “Therefore, he was the founder of Isis.”
A scoop in this morning’s Politico Playbook:
Hours before a highly anticipated meeting between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, Donald Trump has personally demanded that the RNC open field offices in all 50 states, from true-blue Massachusetts to blood-red Alaska, a decision that an RNC staffer called “a complete waste of resources.”
Playbook cites RNC sources dismissing Trump’s request as an ego-driven “fool’s errand” for a candidate who enjoys nothing more than the right to brag about the historic nature of his candidacy. For the roughly 25 states that are neither competitive for Trump nor have contentious congressional races, the RNC will open volunteer-staffed officers at the cost of up to $90,000 a pop.
Donald Trump to hold 'emergency' meeting with RNC
After nearly two weeks of a campaign in crisis, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign will reportedly sit down with Republican National Committee officials in Orlando, Florida, today for what one official told Politico will be a “come-to-Jesus” meeting to discuss the state of Trump’s campaign.
Although campaign staffers have dismissed the meeting as a low-key discussion about the campaign’s strategy in swing-state Florida, others involved in the planning of the Orlando meeting have told multiple outlets that the sitdown amounts to pulling the emergency brake on a candidate who has careened from one self-inflicted controversy to another.
The meeting couldn’t come at a time of greater tension between Trump’s campaign and the Republican party. On Thursday evening, more than 70 Republicans published an open letter to RNC chair Reince Priebus calling on the RNC to redirect money pegged for the Trump campaign to be used instead for vulnerable congressional races – in effect abandoning the party’s presidential nominee.
The signatories – including former New Hampshire senator Gordon Humphrey, former congressmen Mickey Edwards and Christopher Shays and numerous former RNC staff members – wrote that Trump’s “divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide, and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck ...
“This should not be a difficult decision, as Donald Trump’s chances of being elected president are evaporating by the day,” the signatories state. Citing numerous controversies over the course of Trump’s candidacy, from the mockery of a reporter with a disability to his feud with the family of an army captain killed in action, the letter asserts that Trump has shown “dangerous authoritarian tendencies”.
Should make for an interesting sitdown.
Here’s what’s on the docket for today:
- Neither Hillary Clinton nor Tim Kaine have public events scheduled for today.
- Donald Trump will be holding a rally at Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, at 2pm ET, followed by a rally at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona, Pennsylvania, at 6pm ET.
Updated
