Today in Campaign 2016
- Donald Trump was put on trial in his absence during the vice-presidential debate as his running mate Mike Pence was accused of trying to defend the indefensible. But Democrat Tim Kaine, embracing his role as Hillary Clinton’s attack dog, interrupted so aggressively that many analysts felt he lost the debate on style to the calm, composed and measured Republican Indiana governor. In a focus group conducted by strategist Frank Luntz for CBS News in the swing state of Ohio, 22 people said that Pence won and only four said Virginia senator Kaine prevailed. When Luntz ran a similar group during last week’s presidential debate, Clinton beat Trump 16-6.
- But Pence didn’t win with everyone: Using #ThatMexicanThing, the Latino community flipped the script on a comment made by the Indiana governor during Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate. “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again,” Pence responded to Virginia senator Tim Kaine at one point. Kaine brought up Donald Trump’s controversial past statements many times during the debate, including when the Republican nominee said that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists across the border in a June 2015 speech. He continually asked Indiana governor Mike Pence to defend his running mate’s remarks.
- Donald Trump took credit for his running mate’s performance in the vice-presidential debate during a rally in Nevada, claiming Mike Pence’s success proved Trump has good taste in people. “Mike Pence did an incredible job and I’m getting a lot of credit, because that’s really my first so-called choice, that’s really my first hire, and I tell you, he’s a good one,” said Trump at a rally on Wednesday in Henderson, Nevada. “He was phenomenal – he was cool, he was smart – he was meant to be doing what he’s doing, and we are very very proud of Governor Mike Pence. Thank you, Mike Pence.”
- On Sunday, a 200-person flashmob appeared in New York City’s Union Square. Wearing brightly coloured suits and T-shirts with slogans like The Future is Female, they performed a carefully choreographed, five-minute tribute to Hillary Clinton, as Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling played over loudspeaker. The “pantsuit power” flashmob and its resulting video, which was released on Tuesday, was orchestrated by film-makers and real-life partners Celia Rowlson-Hall and Mia Lidofsky in an attempt to “dance Hillary Clinton into the White House”. Over the course of nine days, the couple, who are based in Brooklyn, pulled together volunteers from all over North America, organizing a 10-camera shoot on a micro-budget and sourcing hundreds of suits from thrift stores all over New York.
New Clinton ad has Hollywood stars asking 'what will you say'
In an advertisement directed by Hollywood director Lee Daniels, actors Taraji P. Henson, Bryshere Gray, Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett, Tasha Smith, Gabourey Sidibe and Grace Byers encourage their fans to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee in November.
The Trump campaign has released a statement criticizing the White House for the impending enaction of the Paris Agreement intended to address climate change, calling the accord - which President Barack Obama today called “the best possible shot to save the one planet we’ve got” - a “bad deal” that will cost the American economy trillions of dollars.
“It will also impose enormous costs on American households through higher electricity prices and higher taxes,” wrote deputy policy director Dan Kowalski.
“As our nation considers these issues, Mr. Trump and Gov. Pence appreciate that many scientists are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions. We need America’s scientists to continue studying the scientific issues but without political agendas getting in the way. We also need to be vigilant to defend the interests of the American people in any efforts taken on this front.”
Thirty-four more days.
Neo Nazi at Trump rally pic.twitter.com/4TeOg5PpDp
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 6, 2016
The White House has accused Israel of a betrayal of trust, in an unusually sharp rebuke over its plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes deep in the West Bank.
Days after Obama approved a $38bn Israeli military aid package and attended former president Shimon Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem, the White House railed at the construction of 300 housing units on land “far closer to Jordan than Israel”.
Warning that the decision jeopardizes the already distant prospect of Middle East peace as well as Israel’s own security, press secretary Josh Earnest said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s word had been called into question.
“We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement,” he said.
“I guess when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well.”
The sharper-than-normal comments come as the White House weighs a last-ditch effort to get the peace process back on its feet before Obama leaves office in January.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, told an audience of supporters that when in the state, one must correctly pronounce the state’s name,
Unfortunately, he insisted on using the incorrect pronunciation.
While discussing meth overdoses in Nevada, Trump segued into a spiel on the correct pronunciation of the state’s name, using a long A instead of a short A, which is not the preferred pronunciation.
“Meth overdoses in Nevada - Ne-VAH-da - and you know what I said? You know what I said? I said when I came out here, I said, ‘nobody says it the other way, it has to be Ne-VAH-da, right?”
The audience protested, but Trump apparently did not hear them.
“And if you don’t say it correctly - and it didn’t happen to me, but it happened to a friend of mine, he was killed.”
Donald Trump campaigns in Reno, Nevada
Watch it here live:
We’re not saying that The Simpsons predicted Donald Trump’s candidacy, but we’re not not saying it.
This was hilarious in 2000. pic.twitter.com/JeXtIHYZjz
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) October 5, 2016
Poll: Eight-in-ten New Yorkers don't want Trump children to run for mayor
Donald Trump’s eldest son may be interested in running the largest city in the United States, but the city’s residents feel very differently about the matter, according to a new poll.
According to a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal, 80% of registered New York City voters don’t want Donald Trump Jr. run for mayor, and 81% said they felt the same way about sister Ivanka Trump. New York, an overwhelmingly Democratic city that nevertheless has elected Republicans to serve as two of its past three mayors.
In July, Donald Trump Jr. declared that he would “love to” run for mayor.
“I never like to rule anything out,” he said, in response to a question about whether he would run against Bill De Blasio, a leading progressive voice and ally of Hillary Clinton, whom he served as campaign manager when she was elected to the US Senate in New York in 2000.
“We always like to keep our options open, so if I could do that as a service to my country, I would love to do that.”
Donald Trump, never a huge fan of the first amendment of the US constitution, threatened during a campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada, this afternoon to sue political groups running “nasty” advertisements against him.
“I saw today... a commercial where, it was really a nasty commercial, totally made up, about me with vets,” Trump said. “There is nobody that loves the vets more or respects the vets more. They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on false commercials, and it’s a disgrace. So what we’ll do, I guess we’ll sue them. Let’s sue them.”
Trump may have been referring to a campaign advertisement run by Hillary Clinton’s team called Sacrifice, which juxtaposes statements he has made about the military with video of veterans watching those statements:
Which part of the commercial could be “totally made up” is unclear, since most of the statements are verbatim recordings of Trump’s own statements, but we’ve reached out to the Trump campaign to clarify.
Overheard when Donald Trump walks into a first-grade classroom: “See! I told you his hair wasn’t orange!”
1st graders at International Christian Academy react to Trump walking into their class. pic.twitter.com/5ZQr7Ep98G
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 5, 2016
Donald Trump's Playboy escapades included photographing models
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose interest in “disgusting” sex tapes has been well documented, was revealed by Buzzfeed News last week to have appeared in a softcore same-sex Playboy video last week. Now, CNN reports that Trump’s appearances in the ladmag’s properties extended to actually photographing models and conducting interviews with would-be Playboy Playmates.
In the 1994 video, titled Playboy Centerfold, Trump helps the magazine search for its “40th Anniversary Playmate,” a daunting task that required the real-estate tycoon to ask young (clothed, we should mention) models what makes them the right woman for the job.
“I believe that it’s not just beauty, I think it’s an attitude,” a model answers in response. “I think it has a lot to do with personality and an attitude. I think Playboy really represents that, and I believe that I have that, and I have what it takes to represent them.”
“Well, I think you have what it takes too,” Trump responds. “And I think everyone in this room thinks you have what it takes also.”
Last Friday, Trump was accused by the Clinton campaign of “unhinged” behavior toward former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado after a late-night Twitter rampage in which he alluded to unproven accusations that Machado appeared in a sex tape, which he encouraged American voters to “check out.”
Eighty-two days later:
How long before this gets deleted? pic.twitter.com/wEXyBhBVjS
— Pumpkin Spice Scotté (@scottbix) July 14, 2016
Following the example of other media organizations that have broken historical precedent by endorsing Hillary Clinton, the Atlantic has endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, only its third presidential endorsement in the magazine’s 159-year history.
“We are impressed by many of the qualities of the Democratic Party’s nominee for president,” the editorial reads, “even as we are exasperated by others, but we are mainly concerned with the Republican Party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, who might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency.”
Clinton - the third recipient of the Atlantic’s endorsement after Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson - “has flaws (some legitimately troubling, some exaggerated by her opponents), but she is among the most prepared candidates ever to seek the presidency.” Trump, on the other hand, “has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office.”
“His affect is that of an infomercial huckster,” the editorial seethes. “He traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.”
In the Atlantic’s mind, Trump disqualified himself for the presidency five years before he ever considered running for office, in his tight embrace of the so-called “birther” conspiracy that (baselessly) alleged that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore constitutionally ineligible to serve as president:
Trump made himself the face of the so-called birther movement, which had as its immediate goal the demonization of the country’s first African American president. Trump’s larger goal, it seemed, was to stoke fear among white Americans of dark-skinned foreigners. He succeeded wildly in this; the fear he has aroused has brought him one step away from the presidency.
Trump, the editorial concludes, “is not a man of ideas,” but “a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters - the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box - should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent.”
Back to Henderson, Nevada:
On the subject of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump tells the crowd in Henderson that despite Virginia senator and Democratic running mate Tim Kaine’s allegations last night - and his own fawning comments about the Russian strongman - he doesn’t “love” Putin.
“I don’t love, I don’t hate,” Trump says. “We’ll see how it works - we’ll see. Maybe we’ll have a good relationship, maybe we’ll have a horrible relationship, maybe it’ll be right in the middle.”
As long as Russia does the heavy lifting of defeating Isis in Syria, Trump continues, “that’s OK with me, folks - that’s OK with me.”
Updated
Hello from outside Hillary Clinton’s beautiful three-story Whitehaven mansion!
While Clinton prepares for Sunday night’s town hall debate, the small group of reporters, cameramen and photographers assigned to follow her for the day are clapping at mosquitos and waiting for lunch. (A Bloomberg reporter has been dispatched to CVS to buy bug spray and anti-itch cream. At least an hour prior, a campaign staffer was sent to fetch lunch.)
The day is shaping up to relatively quiet for the Clinton campaign.
It began with a later-than-planned departure from White Plains. Clinton, wearing an emerald green coat with her hair pulled into a ponytail, boarded the plane as reported shouted questions at her about last night’s vice presidential debate.
Without pausing, Clinton flashed a double thumbs-up at the press.
After arriving in Washington, Clinton entered her house to hunker down for an afternoon of debate prep before an evening of fundraisers. She placed a call to her running mate, Tim Kaine, and complimented him on his performance in last night’s debate.
Three members of her debate team were escorted into her home by secret service agents followed by her campaign chairman, John Podesta. Podesta told reporters that he thought Kaine did a “really great job” in the debate.
“At the end of the day, I think the impression that everyone came away with was that Mike Pence didn’t want to defend Donald Trump and as Senator Kaine said: If you can’t defend the person at the top of the ticket how can you ask people to vote for him?” Podesta said before disappearing inside.
The pool will wait in vans outside Clinton’s house until we leave for her fundraisers tonight.
Speaking in Henderson, Nevada, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took credit for the success of running mate Mike Pence’s performance during last night’s sole vice presidential debate against Virginia senator Tim Kaine.
“How many of you watched the vice president debate last night?” Trump asked the crowd. “Mike Pence did an incredible job and I’m getting a lot of credit, because that’s really my first so-called choice, that’s really my first hire, and I tell you, he’s a good one. He was phenomenal - he was cool, he was smart - he was meant to be doing what he’s doing, and we are very very proud of Governor Mike Pence. Thank you, Mike Pence.”
“I’d argue that Mike had the single most decisive victory in the history of vice president debates, and last night Americans also got to look firsthand at my judgment - you need judgment for people, for deals,” Trump continued. “Well, Mike laid out big and bold solutions for America - his opponent only talked about small and petty distractions.”
Updated
Donald Trump campaigns in Henderson, Nevada
Watch it live here:
Low ratings for veep debate
The vice-presidential debate had fewer TV viewers than any veep debate since 2000, Politico reports:
According to ratings data from Nielsen, the four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) and the big three cable news channels (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) averaged around 36 million viewers. Those numbers do not include people watching on channels like PBS, Fox Business Network or C-SPAN, or anyone streaming the debate online.
For comparison, the 2012 VP debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan averaged over 51 million viewers. The 2008 debate between Biden and Sarah Palin set a high watermark for viewership with 70 million, while the 2004 debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards averaged just under 44 million viewers. The 2000 debate between Cheney and Joe Lieberman averaged 29 million viewer
The 36 million figure isn’t final; updated figures will be released this afternoon.
(h/t @bencjacobs)
Updated
Ever heard a tenor sax on God Bless America?
You have now:
Beautiful morning- thank you @ICLV! pic.twitter.com/xzJhrLgjHP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016
Gore to hit trail for Clinton
Former vice president and climate change Cassandra Al Gore will hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton this month, according to various reports including CNN and NBC.
The reports quote unnamed Democrats as saying that the party hopes Gore will boost Clinton’s appeal with millennials.
Well, they loved Sanders, who’s 75. Gore’s only 68.
Updated
At a stop at the International Christian Academy at the International Church of Las Vegas, Donald Trump spoke to a group of 72 pastors, pledging to nominate Supreme Court justices who will rule in favor of religious liberty, according to a report by his traveling pool.
Trump also had high praise for running mate Mike Pence’s debate performance, saying he, Trump, was “very proud”:
Whenever anyone says, ‘Maybe we’ll sit this one out,’ you know with the Supreme Court, they never want to sit it out. And I was very proud last night of Governor Mike Pence. I watched - he won. He won on the issues. He won on – somebody said he won on style. The style doesn’t matter – the issues, the policy matters. He’s getting tremendous reviews from me and everybody. He was great — he’s been a wonderful choice, and as you know he’s a great Christian…so that’s very important to me.
Done with Des Moines, Bernie Sanders motors up to Madison, Wisconsin, for another rally on behalf of Clinton.
Here’s a photo. Crowd estimates?
I'm awful at crowd estimates, so here's a panorama of the crowd at the Madison @HillaryClinton rally feat. @BernieSanders. Start time in 30. pic.twitter.com/YJqW3m0OiF
— Laurel White (@lkwhite) October 5, 2016
Why is that kid repeating over and over, “I’m nervous! I’m nervous. I’m nervous!” And what does the second child say at the end about “see how that touches his hair but it’s orange”?
Trump is running around in Nevada today.
1st graders at International Christian Academy react to Trump walking into their class. pic.twitter.com/5ZQr7Ep98G
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 5, 2016
Updated
Clinton: Obamacare problems 'not [Obama's] fault'
As Bill Clinton paid a visit to a barbershop and coffee shop in Youngstown, Ohio, he was asked about his remark Monday that Obamacare is a “crazy system.”
“It’s clear from what I said that there are problems with it,” Clinton told pool reporters, referring to Obama. “That’s not his fault; he tried to get the public option.”
Clinton said was particularly “frustrating.. for people just a little bit above the subsidy line [who] are having insurance markets that are not working as well as they should.”
“The reason I decided to start talking about this,” said Clinton, was that he had “started my own focus groups about a year ago” and all the people said they were grateful for the progress on pre-existing conditions “but as time goes on it’s obvious that adversaries of healthcare are trying to use a problem that the bill has”.
“That’s what Hillary is saying: ‘we’ve got to help these small businesses”
Campaigning across Ohio for @HillaryClinton & stopped at Starting Lineup in Youngstown. No time for a cut but took the chair for a spin! pic.twitter.com/3xjegj6vvJ
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) October 5, 2016
Later Clinton stopped by a coffee shop.
“We got into the coffee business at the Foundation,” he told a barista. “Brazil is a big exporter of coffee and it’s very good for rebuilding the top soil.”
“In fourth grade I wrote a speech about you,” responded the barista.
Apparently they let Bill hop out of the bus and jog off into the exit-ramp pasture for this shot, somewhere in Ohio:
On the road again! Enjoying Day Two of our bus tour across Ohio campaigning for @HillaryClinton! #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/qiatB7JCN8
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) October 5, 2016
These polling numbers from YouGov are by-and-large better for Clinton than the averages, although not in Pennsylvania, where averages have her up five points, and Wisconsin, where averages have her up four points.
The averages have Ohio basically tied. But a new Monmouth poll out today has her a little better than that, at plus-two points.
Clinton’s lead:
— YouGovUS (@YouGovUS) October 5, 2016
National +4
MI +5
CO +5
NH +4
WI +3
NC +2
FL +2
PA +2
NV +2
IA +1
OH +1
GA TIE
More: https://t.co/W4VbfiI6zg pic.twitter.com/CJqallWDyr
Recent shifts in Gallup daily net favs are also visible across full set of national polls. pic.twitter.com/dHSihAnXA1
— Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) October 5, 2016
Updated
Obama warns of 'devastating' hurricane Matthew
Barack Obama met with representatives of FEMA, the national guard, the department of homeland security and others to discuss what Obama described as the “devastating” hurricane that is barreling toward Florida and has already “hammered” Haiti en route to the Bahamas.
Hurricane Matthew, a category four storm, has been blamed for 11 deaths already and is the most powerful storm to hit the region in almost a decade.
“Everyone needs to pay attention” Obama said, according to a White House pool report. He urged citizens living in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to listen closely to their local and state leaders and evacuate if asked.
Obama said families can rebuild and repair, but “you cannot restore life it is lost.”
“I want to emphasize to the public this is a serious storm,” Obama said. “We hope for the best, but we want to prepare for the worst.”
10/5/16 11am Hurricane #Matthew update, Hurricane Warnings extended north along Florida's East Coast https://t.co/dy8yioiDqn #FLwx pic.twitter.com/02vJUQy09X
— Craig Fugate (@CraigatFEMA) October 5, 2016
Updated
Here are a couple good Trump-related features for your lunchtime reading.
– Mike Freeman in The Bleacher Report on how “Donald Trump is tearing the NFL apart”:
The player, who is black, emphasized that teammates’ frustration with their coach’s public endorsement was not universal. But in private discussions, he said, “Some of the African-American players on the team weren’t happy about Rex doing that.”
Indeed, said another black player on the Bills who requested anonymity to speak freely about tensions swirling with a combination of protests led by Colin Kaepernick and a combustible candidate: “I see Trump as someone who is hostile to people of color, and the fact that Rex supports him made me look at him completely differently, and not in a positive way.”
Ryan declined to comment, but at least one white Buffalo player—Richie Incognito, the offensive lineman notorious for a bullying scandal that included racial slurs and who has now become a force in the Bills clubhouse—insists that Trump’s winning message has resonated with NFL players like him.
– Spencer Woodman in Racked on “Trump, China and the ties that bind”:
If my reasoning was correct, I had just narrowed down my search for Trump’s factories from the 3.7 million square miles of the People’s Republic of China to just a handful of industrial parks in the obscure necktie capital of the world. [...]
Despite the harsh working conditions and long workweeks, many of the Shengzhou workers I spoke with did not have the financial wherewithal to rent their own apartments. Several workers I interviewed instead chose to sleep in bunk bed-packed dormitories paid for by the companies they worked for. [...]
Although the Shengzhou workers stopped short of criticizing the factories outright, they didn’t mince words when I asked them what they enjoyed about their jobs: Nothing, they said.
“The best part of the job?” one repeated my question. “There is no happiness in work.”
(h/t @bencjacobs)
Updated
Sanders says that Trump’s “birther” blather was “a racist effort to undermine the legitimacy of the first African American president in our nation’s history.”
Pence: the winner of the debate was... Trump
Trump running mate Mike Pence has appeared before cameras for the first time since leaving the debate stage last night to declare that the winner in Virginia was Trump:
HARRISONBURG --
— Kevin Cirilli (@kevcirilli) October 5, 2016
PENCE: "From where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate. Donald Trump's vision to 'Make America Great Again' won the debate."
Here’s NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard:
Mike Pence arrives for his first post-debate bus tour stop in Harrisonburg, Virginia. pic.twitter.com/58Vc8x27xO
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) October 5, 2016
Pence continued: Donald called me late last night to congratulate me. Some people think I won. But I’ll leave that to others.
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) October 5, 2016
Bernie Sanders is onstage at Drake University in Des Moines. Here’s that live stream again:
Sanders is talking about equal pay and educating the workforce. He repeatedly uses the construction, “Hillary Clinton and I believe... that is not what Donald Trump believes.” The crowd is applauding warmly.
Updated
Using #ThatMexicanThing, the Latino community flipped the script on a comment made by Indiana governor Mike Pence during Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, writes Nicole Puglise for the Guardian:
“Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again,” Pence responded to Virginia senator Tim Kaine at one point.
Kaine brought up Donald Trump’s controversial past statements many times during the debate, including when the Republican nominee said that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists across the border in a June 2015 speech. He continually asked Indiana governor Mike Pence to defend his running mate’s remarks.
On Twitter, #ThatMexicanThing quickly became used to react to Pence’s statement, with users flipping the original sentiment and instead sharing their own stories of hard work and sacrifice.
#ThatMexicanThing when you're the proud son of immigrants & support pro-Latino and pro-American policies to promote working families.
— Ruben Gallego (@RepRubenGallego) October 5, 2016
#ThatMexicanThing my abuela picked cotton and dropped out of the 5th grade bc she couldn't speak English. My mom was first to go to college.
— 🌰🍁JuanPa🍂🎃 (@jpbrammer) October 5, 2016
#ThatMexicanThing when undocumented immigrants have collectively contributed to $12 billion in taxes each year. https://t.co/m5BfT7ZLVd
— LuisMiguelEchegaray (@lmechegaray) October 5, 2016
What does “that Mexican thing” mean to you? Please share your take with us at Guardian Witness.
Read the full piece here:
Updated
Clinton arrived at Washington National airport a few minutes ago, the press pool reports. Clinton will hold two fundraisers in DC this evening, with brief media access planned for one of the events.
Clinton surrogates deploy en masse
Bernie Sanders is appearing at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, today on behalf of Hillary Clinton:
Here's the scene for @BernieSanders at Drake. Probably 300 people here. pic.twitter.com/LEkoI1WJ8o
— Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR) October 5, 2016
Here’s a live video stream:
Chelsea Clinton will be in Dubuque, Iowa:
Heading to Iowa this morning, where voters (like Ruline!) are already heading to the polls. #WithHerFirst https://t.co/6yCpvcnvxr
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) October 5, 2016
Tim Kaine will be in Philadelphia while Bill Clinton is in Ohio. Senator Elizabeth Warren is holding a fundraiser for Clinton in California and the candidate herself has a fundraiser in Washington, DC.
Last night, Pence accused Kaine and Clinton of conducting an “insults-driven campaign” and of cutting loose an “avalanche of insults.”
Helpfully, for the entire election season, the New York Times has been indexing the incredibly long list of Clinton’s insu– oh wait. Trump said all that stuff:
Speaking of insult-driven campaigns, we've updated our Trump insult census. Ballpark estimate: 2,000 since mid-June. https://t.co/acA08AmdgB pic.twitter.com/VedVOtKEN9
— Kevin Quealy (@KevinQ) October 5, 2016
Palin: 'how is it that the dudes lucked out and got chairs?'
Sarah Palin has pointed out in a Facebook post that of the last five vice-presidential debates, only 2008 was a standing affair. And she just happened to be there, in heels:
“How is it that the dudes lucked out and got chairs over the last 20 years of VP debates minus one?” Palin wrote. “Want a real test - try standing in 👠👠 for 90 mins #heelsonglovesoff”
Kristin Salaky at TPM points out that the 2008 lectern arrangement was part of a negotiation between the campaigns in which Republicans sought to cap the amount of time Palin might end up having to speak on any one topic.
The presidential nominees continue to tout the performances at the debate Tuesday night of their running mates.
Jumping on her plane, Clinton gives Tim Kaine two thumbs up, Bloomberg reports:
How did Kaine do last night? "Great. Two thumbs up!" Clinton says while boarding her plane, putting up both thumbs.
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 5, 2016
Trump, meanwhile, credits Mike Pence with bravely overcoming the “constant interruptions” by Kaine:
The constant interruptions last night by Tim Kaine should not have been allowed. Mike Pence won big!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016
Constant interruptions... that sounds familiar from somewhere...
When Mike Pence led the anti-LGBT backlash
Mike Pence first rose to the national stage during a crisis that pundits said had “exploded”, “plummeted” and “crumbled” his chances of representing the GOP in the next presidential election, writes the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch:
It was March 2015 and same-sex marriage was on the verge of becoming legal nationwide – carried by probably the swiftest change in public opinion in US history – but the Indiana governor and establishment favorite going into 2016 was standing firm.
The state’s residents, big business and the rest of the country had quickly turned against Pence for signing into law a religious freedom bill that was interpreted as state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people and a bad faith reaction to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Indiana against the governor’s wishes.
But today, as his party’s vice-presidential nominee, Pence’s name now sits just below Donald Trump’s on bumper stickers and placards stuck in front yards across the country.
On this ticket, Pence is the GOP’s steady pair of hands compared with the politically inexperienced Trump, but the impact of the religious freedom battle lingers, and his decades of anti-LGBT attitudes that preceded it remain.
“I have seen no growth, no change, no evidence of nuance,” said Sheila Suess Kennedy, an Indiana University professor who first met Pence as a guest on his radio show, which was broadcast from 1994 to 1999. Like Pence, Kennedy was the Republican candidate for an Indiana congressional seat, but she lost her 1980 race and has been an Indiana political insider ever since. “He is convinced that God doesn’t like gay people and that’s it.”
Read the full piece here:
Bill Clinton struggles to remove foot from mouth on Obamacare
A sharp and detailed critique of the Affordable Care Act emerged on the campaign trail Monday – but it didn’t come from the Republicans.
At a rally in Flint, Michigan, Bill Clinton dropped this truth bomb:
So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.
Clinton tried to reverse that statement at a rally Tuesday in Athens, Ohio, saying:
Look, the Affordable Health Care Act did a world of good, and the 50-something efforts to repeal it that the Republicans have staged were a terrible mistake. We, for the first time in our history, at least are providing insurance to more than 90% of our people.
But the damage had been done, as Pence quoted Clinton during the debate, opening the way perhaps for Trump to press the case – if he focused on it.
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. The vice-presidential nominees debated last night, both turning in performances that thrilled their bases, although it’s not clear that Indiana governor Mike Pence thrilled his boss – “[Donald Trump] can’t stand to be upstaged,” an unnamed Trump adviser told NBC News afterward.
Pence was praised for his fluid style, while Hillary Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine won plaudits for working hard to pin Pence down on the many controversial things Trump has said. Pence’s tactic was to deny that Trump had said those things.
That has opened the way for some accountability journalism. The Huffington Post has produced an instructive video mashup of Trump saying all the things Pence denied he’d said. The Clinton camp put out something similar:
At the #VPDebate, Mike Pence tried really, really hard to deny pretty much everything Donald Trump has said and done. Let's replay the tape: pic.twitter.com/5XNKyFX6az
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2016
Politico, meanwhile, has produced coverage of “six Trump statements that Pence attempted to tweak, massage or erase all together”. Topics include tax returns, social security, insults, Russian president Vladimir Putin, nuclear weapons and abortion.
Top moment on Facebook of #VPDebate: “He is asking everybody to vote for somebody that he cannot defend.” - @timkaine
— issie lapowsky (@issielapowsky) October 5, 2016
Here’s a video of the debate highlights:
While there was no Trump-level always-be-closing salesman onstage to give the fact-checkers a real workout, the checkers nonetheless had plenty to do. Here’s the Guardian’s Alan Yuhas keeping them honest:
What if Pence were the nominee?
After the debate, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said that Pence had failed to defend Trump, but had come across as “smooth” and “sort of likable”. He was sunny where Trump is cloudy. Pence was in control where Trump is not.
But was Pence’s performance strong enough to occasion buyer’s remorse for the Republicans?
1. One thing that's going to be vastly overstated today on cable is "If Pence were prez candidate, he'd be blowing HRC away." No (con'd)
— Michael Tomasky (@mtomasky) October 5, 2016
Today on the trail
Clinton will be in Washington DC today for finance events, while Trump, who stayed overnight in Las Vegas, has a midday event in a suburb of Sin City and an afternoon event in Reno.
Clinton has a lot of surrogates in the field today – everyone short of the president and first lady, it seems. Bill Clinton is still somewhere on a bus in Ohio; Kaine will be in Philadelphia; Bernie Sanders will campaign in Des Moines, Iowa, and in Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Chelsea Clinton will campaign in Iowa.
Thanks for reading, and please join us in the comments.
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