• This liveblog was amended on 13 October 2016. Previous posts made unverified claims regarding a young girl’s age about whom Trump had made inappropriate comments.
A new poll for Bloomberg Politics has given Hillary Clinton a nine point lead in the critical state of Pennsylvania. The margin is even bigger in the Philadelphia suburbs, where more than 80% of voters say they are bothered by the 2005 video of the Republican nominee bragging about groping women.
Clinton has 51 percent to Trump’s 42 percent in a two-way race statewide, with her margin swelling to 28 percentage points in four suburban counties that were once reliably Republican, according to a Bloomberg Politics poll conducted Friday through Tuesday after the video’s release.
Clinton’s suburban advantage is 18 points larger than President Barack Obama’s winning margin there in 2012, meaning that to match Clinton’s strength in those counties and in urban areas, Trump would have to dramatically improve on his 11-point lead in the rest of the state. Losing Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes would sharply curtail his paths to the White House.
Here’s video of Donald Trump making his clearest demand yet for Hillary Clinton to be jailed over her mishandling of classified information as secretary of state.
Speaking at a rally in Florida on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate says: “She has to go to jail.”
Summary
On an extraordinary day even by 2016 standards, a raft of allegations emerged about Trump’s behaviour towards women and young girls.
- Two women, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks, told the New York Times that Trump groped or kissed them without consent.
- Another woman, Mindy McGillivray, claimed she was groped by the Republican nominee at a Trump foundation event at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.
- Natasha Stoynoff, a reporter for People magazine, who said Trump forced himself on her shortly before she was due to interview him and his wife in 2005.
- Two Miss USA contestants claimed Trump deliberately walked in on them when they were naked in a dressing room. Five Miss Teen USA contestants also told Buzzfeed he had entered their dressing room while the young women – aged between 15 and 19 – were getting changed.
- A recording emerged in which Trump appears to sexualise a young girl, with a video recording him saying of the child: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”
In separate recordings that emerged in the past week, Trump himself told Howard Stern in 2005 that he did in fact go backstage when contestants were undressing:
Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it ... I sort of get away with things like that.
But on the specific allegations of inappropriate touching made on Wednesday, the Trump campaign has issued a number of denials:
- Trump’s lawyer has written to New York Times editor Dean Baquet to demand his organisation take down the article in which two women claim they were groped and kissed without their consent.
- The letter said the article was “reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel” and demanded “a full and immediate retraction and apology”.
- In response to claims by People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff, the campaign said: “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”
- Trump himself has not commented. His last tweet was eight hours ago, exhorting supporters to join him for a rally in Ohio.
Elsewhere
- Trump again insisted that Hillary Clinton “has to go to jail” over the deletion of 33,000 emails from her private server.
- Hillary for America chair John Podesta said the FBI believes the hacking of his personal email account – which was then published by WikiLeaks – was committed by Russian state intelligence.
- Trump says Isis will take over the US if Clinton wins.
- And, speaking to supporters, in Lakeland, Florida, Trump pondered the possibility of losing the election:
If I lose, I will consider it the biggest waste of time, energy and money that I have ever done in my entire life.
Updated
The latest Trump tape to be retrieved from the archives was unearthed by CBS news, which found a 1992 video of the businessman making inappropriate comments about a young girl:
In an Entertainment Tonight Christmas feature in 1992, Trump looked at a group of young girls and said he would be dating one of them in 10 years. At the time, Trump would have been 46 years old.
The video, released Wednesday evening, was shot at Trump Tower.
In the clip, Trump asks one of the girls if she’s “going up the escalator”. When the girl replies, “yeah”, Trump turns to the camera and says: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”
Updated
In the latest of our Anywhere but Washington series, Paul Lewis and Tom Silverstone find that Trump supporters in the poorest county of West Virginia are keeping the faith:
If you’re just joining the live blog, here’s a snapshot of the latest developments on the US election treadmill:
- New wave of sexual harassment allegations threatens to sink Trump campaign.
- A second Miss USA contestant: Trump barged into room when we were naked.
- Trump lawyers given court date over lawsuit alleging rape of 13-year-old.
- Trump says Isis will take over US if Clinton wins.
- Australia’s NSW parliament labels Trump ‘a revolting slug’ unfit for public office.
A reminder: on the specific allegations of inappropriate touching made on Wednesday, the Trump campaign has issued a number of denials.
Trump’s lawyer has written to New York Times editor Dean Baquet to demand his organisation take down an article in which two women claim they were groped and kissed without their consent by the Republican nominee.
The letter said the article was “reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel” and demanded “a full and immediate retraction and apology”.
In response to claims by People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff that Trump forced his tongue down her throat ahead of an interview, the campaign said: “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”
Trump himself has not commented. His last tweet was seven hours ago, exhorting supporters to join him for a rally in Ohio:
I will be in Cincinnati, Ohio tomorrow night at 7:30pm- join me! #OhioVotesEarly #VoteTrumpPence16
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2016
Tickets: https://t.co/XlHGD1VrMo pic.twitter.com/XUFuGc4Fg5
However, a 3am tweet storm from Trump is not unknown; it’s currently 2am on the US east coast.
US enters Yemen war
Retaliating for days of attacks on a navy warship, the United States has launched its first strike on Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, becoming an active combatant in a brutal war led by Washington’s ally Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon announced late on Wednesday that it struck and destroyed three radar sites controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen. The sites were described as being involved in two missile attacks over the past four days on the destroyer USS Mason, operating out of the Bab al-Mandeb waterway between Yemen and east Africa.
There was no immediate word on any casualties from the US attack on the radar sites, which the Pentagon noted came with the direct authorization of President Barack Obama.
Read the full story here:
Buzzfeed has now reported the claims of five Miss Teen USA contestants who said Trump entered their dressing room while they were changing. But, Buzzfeed also reports, that revelation doesn’t seem to have fazed Trump supporters:
“Frankly, I think that was years ago. It didn’t kill anybody,” said Gay Light of Oxford, Florida.
Trump himself told Howard Stern in 2005 that he did in fact go backstage when contestants were undressing:
Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it ... I sort of get away with things like that.
Katrina Pierson, spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, has told CNN that the women who have come forward with claims about the nominee simply want “15 minutes of fame”.
Pierson also disputed the account given to the New York Times by Jessica Leeds, who claimed Trump had moved an armrest between their seats and grabbed her without her consent during a flight to New York more than 30 years ago:
The first-class seats have fixed armrests so what I can tell you about her story, if she was groped on a plane, it wasn’t by Donald Trump and it certainly wasn’t in first class.
(I’m not able right now to fact-check the moveability of first-class armrests in the early 1980s, but I’m sure someone will.)
Edit: here’s Pierson reeling off her knowledge of early 1980s aircraft:
I'm never complaining about sports TV talk shows again. pic.twitter.com/r9tELXOchh
— Jason Gay (@jasongay) October 13, 2016
Updated
Trump allegations: summary
By the early hours of Thursday (US time) the list of new allegations against Trump included:
- Two Miss USA contestants who claimed Trump deliberately walked in on them when they were naked in a dressing room. Five Miss Teen USA contestants also told Buzzfeed he had entered their dressing room while the young women – aged between 15 and 19 – were getting changed.
- Two women, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks, who allege Trump groped or kissed them without consent – one in the first-class seat of an aircraft.
-
A claim by another woman, Mindy McGillivray, that she was groped at a Trump event at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.
- An account by Natasha Stoynoff, a reporter for People magazine, who says Trump forced himself on her shortly before she was due to interview him and his wife in 2005.
- An incident in which Trump appears to sexualise a young girl, with video recording him saying of the child: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”
Updated
So Trump has not (yet) filed suit against the New York Times. But here’s the letter sent by his lawyers to the New York Times, demanding the newspaper take down the article detailing how two women allege they were groped by the Republican nominee, and calling for “a full and immediate retraction and apology”.
Trump's lawyers demand @nytimes take down "reckless, defamatory" article on groping claims, or they will "pursue all available actions" pic.twitter.com/eeHwGKHKSs
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) October 13, 2016
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential candidate, has also issued a statement about the latest allegations against Trump. (I don’t think he’s saying women aren’t Americans. It’s just odd phrasing.)
Donald Trump cannot win this election. It’s time for Republicans, and all Americans, to face that reality. And it’s time to reject the notion that he is the only option other than Hillary Clinton.
Americans deserve better. Women deserve better.
Our latest polls-only forecast gives Clinton an 87% chance to win the presidency: https://t.co/2uB2oqpXy4 pic.twitter.com/GLZeEP5aLb
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) October 13, 2016
The Evan McMullin campaign – the independent conservative candidate has been polling strongly in the key state of Utah – has issued a statement.
It says the behavior of those Republican officials still backing Trump “borders on defending the criminal”:
By now we know Donald Trump will do nothing but deny his predatory and disgusting actions when it comes to his abusive pattern of behavior with women.
At this point, it’s not Donald Trump’s behavior and judgement that’s in question; it’s the behavior and judgement of the Republican elected officials who continue to back him.
That RNC chairman Priebus, most members of Congress, and other so-called conservative public figures continue to stand by Donald Trump – and in some cases defend his statements and actions – is now beyond objectionable; it now borders on defending the criminal.
People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff says it was hearing the Access Hollywood tapes in which Donald Trump bragged about grabbing and kissing women that prompted her to come forward:
I listened to him talk about how he treats women on the Access Hollywood tape. I felt a strong mix of emotions, but shock wasn’t one of them. I was relieved. I finally understood for sure that I was not to blame for his inappropriate behavior. I had not been singled out.
Others whose stories have been published today – including Mindy McGillivray and Jessica Leeds – say it was the presidential nominee’s claim during Sunday’s debate that he had never acted in the way he’d described that prompted their decision to speak out.
Here’s the key exchange between Trump and CNN moderator Anderson Cooper:
Cooper: For the record, are you saying, what you said on the bus 11 years ago, that you did not kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?
Trump: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
Cooper: So you’re saying you never did that.
Trump: I said things that, frankly, you hear those things. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respect for women.
Cooper: Have you ever done those things?
Trump: I have not.
Leeds, watching the debate on TV, said that when she heard this denial:
I wanted to punch the screen.
McGillivray said she leapt up and shouted at the TV screen:
You liar!
Giuliani apologizes for false Clinton 9/11 claim
Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani has apologised for his earlier comments in which he said – wrongly – that Hillary Clinton had falsely claimed to have been in New York on the day of the 9/11 attacks.
Giuliani told supporters in Florida earlier:
I heard her say one day she was there that day. I was there that day. I don’t remember seeing Hillary Clinton there.
In fact, Clinton – then a serving senator – was in Washington DC on 9/11 and flew to New York the following day, where she joined Giuliani, as many have been quick to point out today:
Here is a picture of Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton walking together through NYC post-9/11, after Clinton had flown back from DC pic.twitter.com/03gKLAwlQJ
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) October 12, 2016
The former New York mayor has now told the Associated Press:
I made a mistake. I’m wrong and I apologize.
Hillary Clinton’s press spokesman has responded to the latest allegation, from People magazine:
This man must never be President.https://t.co/f5sR3BwBOg
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) October 13, 2016
People magazine writer: Trump 'forced his tongue down my throat'
People magazine has another report, by Natasha Stoynoff, who was a writer for People at the time of the alleged assault she recounts, in 2005.
The Trump campaign has responded: “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”
You can read the full report here. Here is Stoynoff’s account of an interview with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate to mark the anniversary of his wedding to Melania:
We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.
Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger – a looming figure – and he was fast, taking me by surprise, and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself …
I tried to act normal. I had a job to do, and I was determined to do it. I sat in a chair that faced Trump, who waited for his wife on a loveseat. The butler left us, and I fumbled with my tape recorder. Trump smiled and leaned forward. “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” he declared, in the same confident tone he uses when he says he’s going to make America great again.
And Stoynoff addresses questions over why she – and a number of the other women who have now come forward – is speaking out now:
Like many women, I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (‘It’s not like he raped me…’); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted People feature killed. ‘I just want to forget it ever happened,’ I insisted …
The other day, I listened to him talk about how he treats women on the Access Hollywood tape. I felt a strong mix of emotions, but shock wasn’t one of them. I was relieved. I finally understood for sure that I was not to blame for his inappropriate behavior. I had not been singled out.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway confirmed to the Guardian on Wednesday night that the Republican nominee is planning to sue the New York Times.
The suit comes less than four weeks before the election and in the aftermath of a story published by the New York Times earlier Wednesday in which two women described being groped by Trump.
The Republican nominee has been under siege for the past five days after audio emerged of him bragging about grabbing women’s genitalia and saying: “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”
A number of prominent Republicans including 2008 nominee John McCain announced after the audio was leaked that they would not vote for Trump in November.
The New York Times wouldn’t be the first outlet to face litigation from Trump. The Republican nominee’s wife is currently suing the Daily Mail and he has long pledged to “open up” libel laws in the United States.
Trump to sue the New York Times
And @GuardianUS can confirm that @realDonaldTrump will sue the New York Times
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 13, 2016
This is Claire Phipps, taking up the live blog from Scott Bixby.
For those struggling to keep on top of the flood of accusations against Donald Trump, the Daily Beast has a timeline of all the alleged gropes/assaults here.
Meanwhile, multiple reports are suggesting that Trump is preparing to sue the New York Times, which in the last few hours reported the stories of two women who said they were “inappropriately touched” by the presidential nominee.
The Guardian’s latest catch-up is here:
Updated
A second Miss USA contestant: Trump barged into room when we were naked
Donald Trump deliberately walked in on two young Miss USA 2001 contestants while they were naked and getting dressed for a rehearsal, one of the former beauty contestants has claimed in an interview with the Guardian.
The two women were putting on their outfits to rehearse the opening number, the former contestant recalled, when Trump, who owned the pageant at the time as part of the Miss Universe family of pageants, burst into the room without a word.
Just before he entered, the former contestant said, she heard the security detail outside the dressing room tell someone approaching the door that the women inside were naked.
“Mr Trump just barged right in, didn’t say anything, stood there and stared at us,” she recalled. Trump’s attitude, she said, seemed to be: “I can do this because I can.”
“He didn’t walk in and say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I was looking for someone,’” she continued. “He walked in, he stood and he stared. He was doing it because he knew that he could.”
The alleged incident happened in her shared dressing room behind the stage at the Genesis convention center in Gary, Indiana.
The woman – who did not wish to be identified – is the second competitor from the 2001 Miss USA pageant to claim that Trump took advantage of owning the pageant, which he broadcast on NBC, in order to view the contestants naked.
A torrent of sexual misconduct accusations have followed Trump throughout his run for president. But a 2005 tape of Trump bragging that his fame allowed him to grope and kiss women without their consent has inspired even more women to come forward with stories of his impropriety.
Donald Trump, who has vowed to “open up” libel laws, is reportedly on the verge of suing the New York Times:
A lawsuit is being drafted now by Trump against the NYT. Very possible it could be announced tonight, though discussions ongoing.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 13, 2016
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, on Donald Trump allegations:
Donald Trump cannot win this election. It’s time for Republicans, and all Americans, to face that reality. And it’s time to reject the notion that he is the only option other than Hillary Clinton. Americans deserve better. Women deserve better.
Flashback: Jill Harth, a former business associate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, speaks out about incidents that occurred during the early 1990s in which she alleged Trump made ‘aggressive sexual advances’ on her: “If I hadn’t pushed him away, I’m sure he would have just went for it.”
The Washington Post’s Robert Costa says that Donald Trump is “going to war” against media outlets that have published stories relating to allegations of sexual assault against Trump:
NEWS: Trump tonight is considering litigation against news organizations, per two people close to him
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 13, 2016
TRUMP is furious about the news stories tonight. "Going to war" is how multiple top sources describe the coming response...
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 13, 2016
Trump lawyers given court date over lawsuit alleging rape of 13-year-old
A federal judge in New York has ordered counsel for Donald Trump and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to appear in court along with the attorney for a woman referred to only as “Jane Doe” who alleges the Republican presidential nominee raped her when she was 13.
Judge Ronnie Abrams has slated an initial status conference in the civil lawsuit for 16 December in a New York district court.
The order raises the extraordinary prospect, were Trump to win the 8 November battle for the White House, of counsel for a US president-elect being called into federal court in proceedings relating to allegations of rape of an underage girl.
Trump has vociferously denied the accusations, dismissing them as fabrications and slamming the lawsuit as a sham designed to smear him as he runs for highest office. Epstein, an associate of the UK’s Prince Andrew who was convicted of underage sex crimes in Florida in 2008, has also denied the allegations.
A Guardian investigation this summer found that the lawsuit appeared to have been coordinated by a former producer on the Jerry Springer TV show who has been associated in the past with a range of disputed claims involving celebrities including OJ Simpson and Kurt Cobain. A publicist acting for “Jane Doe” also attempted to sell a video in which the woman describes her allegations against Trump to media outlets at a $1m price tag.
The court order gives no details of the legal complaint raised by “Jane Doe”. It instructs all parties to the case to set out in advance the nature of the allegations and the “principal defenses”, as well as any previous motions and discovery as well as the “estimated length of trial”.
The speaker of the New York City Council:
1/5 girls are victims of child sex abuse.
— Melissa MarkViverito (@MMViverito) October 13, 2016
I'm that 1/5.
Trump's misogyny & sexual violence has re-opened wounds I've tried to heal. #Basta
New South Wales upper house: Donald Trump 'a revolting slug unfit for public office'
For the first time, a legislative body has passed a motion officially condemning Donald Trump.
The upper house of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales unanimously passed a motion this evening – well, this morning, in Australia – condemning “the misogynistic, hateful comments made by the Republican candidate for President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump, about women and minorities, including the remarks revealed over the weekend that clearly describe sexual assault.”
The body affirmed that what it characterized as “hate speech from political candidates” has a “divisive, destructive impact” on the public, and stated that it agreed with “those who have described Mr. Trump as ‘a revolting slug’ unfit for public office.”
“It’s a great that all sides of Australian politics, from conservatives to liberals to greens, agree that Donald Trump is a ‘revolting slug’ and completely unfit for public office,” said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.
“It’s clear that all reasonable and decent people find Donald Trump’s behaviour obnoxious and that the world is hoping American voters reject his politics of hate.”
Updated
Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account has reacted to the latest news about allegations of sexual impropriety against Donald Trump:
We have to win this election.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 13, 2016
Donald Trump was 46 years old when this footage was taken.
The Clinton campaign has released a statement in response to new allegations against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump:
“This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women,” said Hillary for America communications director Jenn Palmieri. “These reports suggest that he lied on the debate stage and that the disgusting behavior he bragged about in the tape is more than just words.”
As Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of evangelical Liberty University, defended Donald Trump from allegations of sexual impropriety, students at Liberty University were putting the finishing touches on a manifesto for “Liberty United Against Trump,” a student group for students at the university “who oppose our president’s enthusiastic support of Trump, which misrepresents a majority of students.”
Here’s their statement in full:
In the months since Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed him, Donald Trump has been inexorably associated with Liberty University. We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history. Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.
A majority of Liberty students, faculty, and staff feel as we do. Donald Trump received a pitiful 90 votes from Liberty students in Virginia’s primary election, a colossal rejection of his campaign. Nevertheless, President Falwell eagerly uses his national platform to advocate for Donald Trump. While he occasionally clarifies that supporting Trump is not the official position of Liberty University, he knows it is his title of president of the largest Christian university in the world that gives him political credentials.
Associating any politician with Christianity is damaging to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But Donald Trump is not just any politician. He has made his name by maligning others and bragging about his sins. Not only is Donald Trump a bad candidate for president, he is actively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose.
A recently uncovered tape revealed his comments bragging about sexually assaulting women. Any faculty or staff member at Liberty would be terminated for such comments, and yet when Donald Trump makes them, President Falwell rushes eagerly to his defense – taking the name “Liberty University” with him. “We’re all sinners,” Falwell told the media, as if sexual assault is a shoulder-shrugging issue rather than an atrocity which plagues college campuses across America, including our own.
It is not enough to criticize these kinds of comments. We must make clear to the world that while everyone is a sinner and everyone can be forgiven, a man who constantly and proudly speaks evil does not deserve our support for the nation’s highest office.
Jesus tells a story in the Bible about a man who tries to remove a speck of dust from his brother’s eye, while he has a log stuck in his own. “You hypocrite,” Jesus says, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
We Liberty students are often told to support Donald Trump because the other leading candidate is a bad option. Perhaps this is true. But the only candidate who is directly associated with Liberty University is Donald Trump.
Because our president has led the world to believe that Liberty University supports Donald Trump, we students must take it upon ourselves to make clear that Donald Trump is absolutely opposed to what we believe, and does not have our support.
We are not proclaiming our opposition to Donald Trump out of bitterness, but out of a desire to regain the integrity of our school. While our president Jerry Falwell Jr. tours the country championing the log in his eye, we want the world to know how many students oppose him. We don’t want to champion Donald Trump; we want only to be champions for Christ.
The Clinton campaign has responded to Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone’s statements that he has had “back-channel communications” with Wikileaks, the organization that has released hacked documents and emails from the DNC and Clinton campaign.
“It is disturbing that Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump confidante, has confirmed the fact that has ‘back-channel communications’ with Wikileaks, an organization that is working with the Russian government to affect the American presidential election,” said Glen Caplin.
“It is also now clear that the illegal hack of John Podesta’s email is the work of the Russian government, according to the FBI. These are the facts, and it is time for the Trump campaign to answer for its possible ties to foreign espionage, and explain to the American people what is going on.”
Speaking with CNN’s Erin Burnett, evangelical Christian leader Jerry Falwell Jr. declined to say whether he would support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump if it were true that he has sexually assaulted women.
Trump has been accused of sexually inappropriate contact by multiple women in stories that have come out from multiple outlets tonight, ranging from an incident with a 23-year-old woman at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to a three-decade-old allegation from a woman who sat next to him on an airplane to a secretary who worked in Trump Tower in 2005.
“I can’t answer a hypothetical,” Falwell said.
“I’m gonna vote for Trump because I believe he’s the best-qualified to be president of the United States and I’m not going to say anything to besmirch the character of any of these women.”
Former Miss Teen USA: 'I believe every word' about Trump allegations
I wanna spill my tea so bad....... sooooo bad! But let me just say - I believe every word. https://t.co/PM5G2Q4H1K
— Kamie Crawford (@TheRealKamie) October 12, 2016
Report: Trump campaign CEO vows to turn Bill Clinton 'into Bill Cosby'
Bloomberg Politics reports that Donald Trump, far from being scared off of the subject of sexual propriety by a trio of new stories alleging sexually questionable behavior on the part of the Republican presidential nominee, will join Fox News personality Sean Hannity in a one-hour special tomorrow to exclusively discuss Bill Clinton’s past personal scandals.
“We have an opportunity to introduce new material into the campaign to educate voters on how they treat women,” deputy campaign manager David Bossie told Bloomberg.
The hunt for more accusers was spearheaded by Breitbart News chair and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon, who reportedly told campaign staffers that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “led a program of victim intimidation.”
“This has nothing to do with consensual sexual affairs and infidelities,” Bannon reportedly said. “This is Bill. We’re going to turn him into Bill Cosby. He’s a violent sexual predator who physically abuses women who he assaults. And she takes the lead on the intimidation of the victims.”
And Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s Twitter account has been hacked:
I've switched https://t.co/NbM5mj5lsn Trump 2016.Hi pol
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) October 12, 2016
More sexual harassment allegations against Donald Trump surface
A Palm Beach woman has publicly accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of groping her while she was a guest at his Mar-a-Lago club and estate in Palm Beach, the third allegation of such behavior to emerge tonight.
Mindy McGillivray, a Palm Springs resident, told the Palm Beach Post that Trump groped her 13 years ago while she was at the beachside estate, when she was 23 and helping a photographer friend take photos of a concert taking place at the club.
“All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge,” McGillivray told the Palm Beach Post. “I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned.’’
Ken Davidoff, McGillivray’s photographer friend, told the Palm Beach Post that although he did not witness Trump groping her, she did say immediately following the alleged incident, “Donald just grabbed my ass!’’
Three separate stories alleging questionable sexual conduct against the Republican presidential nominee have surfaced in the past hour, with accusations that Trump groped McGillivray joining a story in the New York Times alleging that Trump inappropriately touched two women and video from 1992 showing Trump suggesting that he would soon be dating a girl who was, at the time, 10 years old.
Video: Donald Trump says of young girl “I am going to be dating her in ten years.”
Only moments after a New York Times story revealed two allegations of sexual impropriety against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, a video has surfaced showing the nominee joking about dating a young girl.
In a Christmas special on Entertainment Tonight aired in 1992, obtained by CBS News, Trump - then 46 years old - is shown admiring a group of elementary school students and asking one of them, a young girl, if she’s going up an escalator.
When the girl responds in the affirmative, Trump turns to the camera and says: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”
Trump has made similar comments in the past, telling a studio audience during an interview in 2006 that “if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
The comments echo similar remarks Trump made to radio host Howard Stern in which he said that he did a double-take when he first saw socialite Paris Hilton at age 12. “Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but is in actuality very beautiful is Paris Hilton,” Trump said. “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ At 12, I wasn’t interested… but she was beautiful.”
Updated
Report: Two women say Donald Trump touched them inappropriately
Two women have come forward with allegations that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump touched them inappropriately in incidents that allegedly took place decades apart.
In a damning report from the New York Times, Jessica Leeds, 74, and Rachel Crooks, 33, accuse Trump of the exact kind of behavior he categorically denied during the second presidential debate on Sunday.
Leeds “wanted to punch the screen” when she heard Trump deny that he had ever touched a woman inappropriately, a question asked in response to a video released last week that shows Trump bragging about being able to sexually assault women with impunity because of his fame.
In the first-class section of a public airline flight more than three decades ago, Leeds told the New York Times, Trump grabbed her breasts and attempted to push his hand up her skirt, after inquiring about her marital status and making smalltalk.
“He was like an octopus,” Leeds said. “His hands were everywhere.”
Leeds, who had been upgraded to first class, returned to her seat in coach to escape Trump’s advances, she said in the report, but later informed friends and family members of the incident.
“It was an assault,” Leeds said.
The second alleged incident took place in 2005, when Crooks, then 22, was working as a secretary at real-estate investment organization Bayrock Group, which is located in Trump Tower in Manhattan.
After encountering Trump in an elevator, Crooks told the New York Times, the two introduced themselves, but Trump did not let go of her hand after shaking it, allegedly kissing her on the face before he “kissed me directly on the mouth,” Crooks told the New York Times.
“It was so inappropriate,” Crooks said. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
Neither of the two stories have been reported before, but both have echoes of similar allegations made against Trump in the past. Jill Harth, a makeup artist, alleged in an interview with the Guardian that Trump cornered her and groped her in his daughter’s bedroom in the 1990s, and accused the real estate tycoon of attempted rape.
In a statement to the Guardian, the Trump campaign vociferously denied the allegations, dismissing the entire article as a “fiction.”
“This entire article is fiction, and for the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous,” said communications advisor Jason Miller. “To reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr. Trump trivializes sexual assault, and it sets a new low for where the media is willing to go in its efforts to determine this election.”
Miller further called the allegations “absurd,” and said that for the allegations to only surface less than a month before the upcoming general election “should say it all.”
“This is a sad day for the Times,” Miller concluded.
Donald Trump has made his clearest demand yet for Hillary Clinton to be jailed over her mishandling of classified information as secretary of state.
The Republican candidate made a reference to Clinton being imprisoned during last Sunday’s presidential debate, but his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway later insisted it “was a quip”.
On Wednesday, however, Trump reiterated his position and went further: “We are going to investigate this phony investigation,” he told a rally in Lakeland, Florida. “Hillary Clinton bleached and deleted 33,000 emails after a congressional subpoena. So, she gets a subpoena and after – not before, that would be bad – but after getting a subpoena to give over your emails and lots of other things, she deleted the emails.”
Chopping the air with his right hand, Trump roared: “She has to go to jail.”
The crowd erupted, punching the air, holding placards aloft and chanting, “Lock her up!” – a demand that Trump used to disavow.
He pressed for more: “And her law firm, which is the very big and powerful law firm, which is the one that said, ‘Oh, they’ll determine what they’re giving’, those representatives within that law firm that did that have to go to jail.”
Once again, Conway attempted to play down the threat. “You’re taking it literally,” she told CNN soon after. “You’re doing a disservice to the American people. You cherrypick what he says and you want to talk about it for days on end with a breaking news tag on it. I don’t think that counts as breaking news.”
Trump was widely criticised for his remarks at the debate, with many commentators saying they were evocative of “tinpot dictators” and authoritarian regimes where political opponents are arrested and incarcerated.
He was also condemned for lurking menacingly near Clinton during her answers in the town hall format. He sought to explain: “So I’m standing at my podium by my chair. She walks across the room, she’s standing in front of me right next to me ... I looked at the papers the next day, they say, ‘He invaded her space’. Believe me, the last space I want to invade is her space. I don’t want to invade her space.”
Trump has a growing list of foes to jab at on the campaign trail. He has spent the week firing angry tweets at House speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona senator John McCain, the Republican nominee from 2008.
“We as a group and a movement are the future,” he said. “We’re going to be the future. If we had a little help from our weak leadership, called our Republican leadership, we’d be sailing like you’ve never seen before.”
He also criticised the media for giving too little coverage to revelations from WikiLeaks. Pointing to journalists at the rally, he said: “These guys are so crooked – they’re worse than Hillary Clinton. I think they could be more crooked than Hillary, and that’s saying a lot.
“They make us sound like such jerks! It’s unbelievable. I tell you, these must be the most dishonest people you’ll ever see. You know who I’m talking about, back there – you should be ashamed of yourself.”
He added: “Without the press, without the media, Hillary Clinton is nothing. She’s nothing. She’s nothing. And she talks about my relationship with the Russians – what do I know about the Russians? What do I know about the Russians?
“I promise, I don’t have any deals with Russia. I think if we got along with the Russians, that would be good, and frankly, if we got along with the Russians and knocked the hell out of Isis, that would be good. That would be smart – but we don’t run government smart.”
In a bizarre aside, Trump even took on the NFL over its new regulations to limit concussions. “A little ding in the head you can’t play the rest of the season,” he said mockingly.
But the Democratic candidate remained his primary target. “It’s a choice between the pessimism of Hillary Clinton and the optimism of a movement powered by millions of people all over the country... She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president. Based on her crimes, she should not be allowed to run for president ... She would be the most dishonest and the most corrupt person ever elected to high office.”
The rally was punctuated by chants of “CNN sucks!”, “President Trump!” and “USA! USA!”
After speaking for 40 minutes, he posed holding supporters’ placards that said, “Women for Trump” and “Blacks for Trump gods2.com” – the latter being an amateurish fringe website that purports to show Clinton wearing “blackface” and link her with the Ku Klux Klan.
After a swing through Colorado and Nevada today, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has released a new Spanish-language advertisement featuring activist Astrid Silva, a Dream Act participant who describes how immigration has impacted her family.
According to a campaign-provided translation, Silva is shown asking Donald Trump Jr. whether she was at risk of deportation.
“So it’s a possibility, yeah,” Trump is shown responding. “His policy has been that.”
“As President, only Hillary Clinton will protect Dreamers and families like ours,” Silva says, again in Spanish. “Talk with your loved ones. Our future is in your hands, if you can vote, vote”
Clinton herself ends the advertisement in Spanish: “Soy Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.”
Hillary for America chair John Podesta has released statement after the Wall Street Journal reported today that the FBI believes that the hacking of Podesta’s personal email account was committed by Russian state intelligence:
It is now clear that the illegal hack of my personal email account was - just like the other recent, election-related hacks - the work of the Russian government. This level of meddling by a foreign power can only be aimed at boosting Donald Trump and should send chills down the spine of all Americans, regardless of political party. Despite receiving an intelligence briefing on the Russians’ role in masterminding these hacks, Donald Trump continues to side with the Russians by publicly denying their involvement and even cheering on further intrusions.
Worst of all, the growing number of links between Trump’s associates, Wikileaks and the Russian government raises troubling questions about the possibility that Trump’s allies had advance knowledge of the release of these illegally obtained emails. I intend to continue cooperating with the FBI investigation of these illegal hacks, and expect that federal investigators will follow the evidence in this case whether it leads - from Moscow to, potentially, back here in the United States.
Donald Trump says Isis will take over US if Clinton wins
Donald Trump warned voters at a rally in Ocala, Florida that electing Hillary Clinton in November would give Isis the blank check to “take over this country” and reprised the claim that they were “hoping and praying” she becomes president.
For the second day in a row, Trump centered his attention on the disclosures published by WikiLeaks from the hacked email account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. He accused the Justice Department of colluding with Clinton over the investigation into her use of private email while secretary of state.
“This is crime at the highest level. She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president,” Trump said in an hourlong attack against Clinton, again promising to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her.
The claim stems from an email exchange that references a conversation between Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman, then a staffer at the DoJ. The conversation took place two months before the FBI opened an investigation into Clinton’s email server and pertains to publicly available information about a lawsuit involving a Foia request.
The Clinton campaign has said the emails were hacked by Russian intelligence officers in an effort to sway the election. The campaign has not verified the authenticity of the emails.
But Trump did not beleaguer his raucous crowd with details. Instead he continued to rail against Clinton, only taking slight detours to berate the media and boast about his poll numbers.
“The election of Hillary Clinton in my opinion would lead to the almost total destruction of our country as we know it,” he said.
In an interview with CNN, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the network that “you’re taking it literally” when asked about Donald Trump’s pledge to send Hillary Clinton to jail.
When asked about Trump’s comments at a rally in Lakeland, Florida, this afternoon in which he declared that Clinton “has to go to jail,” Conway airily told CNN host Brianna Keilar that “you’re taking it literally” when Trump merely meant that Clinton is allowed to operate by a different set of rules than the average American.
The comment echoes Conway’s insistence that similar remarks in the second presidential debate were meant “in jest,” and that journalists who “fixate” on such remarks are doing so out of spite.
“You’re doing a disservice to the American people,” Conway said. “You cherrypick what he says and you want to talk about it for days on end with a breaking news tag on it. I don’t think that counts as breaking news.”
A new poll shows Hillary Clinton widening her lead in Michigan to a double-digit spread over Republican rival Donald Trump, as fallout from the release of a video showing the presidential nominee bragging about sexually assaulting women continues to undercut his support.
A poll from the Detroit News released this afternoon reveals Trump’s support in the state “showing signs of collapse” as the former secretary of state leads among likely voters 42.2% to 30.6% in a four-way poll conducted after the second presidential debate on Sunday.
According to the survey, one in four Michigan Republicans want Trump to drop out of the race after the release of the tapes, filmed in 2005 that show Trump telling an entertainment journalist that he can sexually assault women without recourse because of his fame. Among the Michiganders who have made similar calls for Trump’s removal from the Republican ticket include Michigan congressmen Justin Amash and Fred Upton.
“He is continuing to hemorrhage support,” said pollster Richard Czuba. “And that is the wrong direction for any campaign in mid-October. And if he does not do something to stanch the loss of his Republican support immediately, this is going to get completely out of hand for the entire Republican ticket.”
Among female voters, Clinton leads by 48% to Trump’s 24.6%, a nearly two-to-one split.
Commission on Presidential Debates releases final debate topics
The Commission on Presidential Debates, the group tasked with organizing and executing the upcoming final presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican rival Donald Trump, has released its list of debate topics for the event.
The debate, to be moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, will feature sections based around six different topics: debt and entitlements; immigration; the economy; the supreme court; “foreign hot spots”; and the two candidates’ respective fitness to be president. The format of the debate, to be held at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, will be identical to the first presidential debate.
The debate is scheduled for 19 October at 9pm ET, and will run for 90 minutes without commercial interruption.
'If only women voted, Trump would lose. We need men on our side'
If only men voted in the upcoming presidential election, Donald Trump - a man who brags about sexually assaulting women and deliberately walked in on naked teenage pageant contestants – would be our president. And here it was women who had to spend years convincing the country we weren’t too stupid to vote!
FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver released a map this week showing Trump’s men-only win alongside a map of a Hillary Clinton landslide should only women vote. In that scenario, Silver estimates Clinton would take the presidency with 458 electoral votes, a landslide victory.
Fantasy voting maps aside, the gender gap in November will be historic: One current poll shows Clinton leading among women by a massive 33 points, and more than 68% of white women with a college education voting for her (a group that Mitt Romney won in 2012).
If there was ever an election that was a referendum on gender in America, this is it. But that doesn’t mean the moment is just about women.
In the wake of tapes that some still characterize as “locker room talk,” right now is an opportunity for undecided male voters to demonstrate that they are better than all this. That, no, not all men talk about sexually assaulting women and laugh. That it is not normal male behavior to treat women as if we were no more than a collection of sexualized body parts. And that voting trends aside, they won’t vote for someone who talks like it is normal.
Donald Trump, on losing, again:
If I lose, I will consider it the biggest waste of time, energy and money that I have ever done in my entire life.
Updated
Donald Trump, on losing:
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, because what you’ve done has never been done in the history of this country.
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Pueblo, Colorado
Watch it live here:
Donald Trump, inexplicably, about the NFL’s concussion regulations:
Uh! Uh! A little ding in the head you can’t play the rest of the season.
Donald Trump, speaking in Lakeland, Florida, over chants of “CNN SUCKS!” attacked Republican party leaders who have backed away from his candidacy since video was released showing Trump making sexually predatory comments about assaulting women.
“If we had a little help from our very weak leadership, called our Republican leadership,” Trump said ruefully. “These are weak people.”
Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton 'has to go to jail'
Speaking to a raucous rally in Lakeland, Florida, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outright called for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned for her use of private email servers.
“What’s happening to our country is a disgrace - it’s never happened before,” Trump said. “She lied in front of Congress to such an extent... I will ask my attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor.”
“And furthermore, furthermore, we are going to investigate this phone investigation. It’s a phony investigation,” Trump vowed, before declaring: “She deleted the emails - she has to go to jail.”
“If you do this privately, it’s a criminal act,” Trump alleged, based on emails. “She’s running for president and she’s being protected and these people are protecting her, because without the press, she is nothing. She is nothing. And this has been her whole life.”
Donald Trump vows to bolster America’s relationship with the Russian Federation, categorically denying that his Russophilia is rooted in his business dealings in Russia, which he says are nonexistent.
“Without the press, without the media, Hillary Clinton is nothing,” Trump says. “She’s nothing. She’s nothing. And she talks about my relationship with the Russians - what do I know about the Russians? What do I know about the Russians?”
“I promise, I don’t have any deals with Russia,” Trump continues. “I think if we got along with the Russians, that would be good, and frankly, if we got along with the Russians and knocked the hell out of Isis, that would be good.”
“That would be smart - but we don’t run government smart.”
Donald Trump, on Hillary Clinton:
She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president. Based on her crimes, she should not be allowed to run for president.
Speaking in Lakeland, Florida, Donald Trump took the first five minutes of his rally to attack the press, as is his wont.
“These guys are so crooked - they’re worse than Hillary Clinton. I think they could be more crooked than Hillary, and that’s saying a lot.”
“They make us sound like such jerks! It’s unbelievable. I tell you, these must be the most dishonest people you’ll ever see. You know who I’m talking about, back there - you should be ashamed of yourself.”
Speaking at a campaign rally in front of his private jet, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tells a crowd of supporters in Lakeland, Florida - roughly halfway between Tampa and Orlando - urges the attendees to boo the fire department.
“I assume the fire marshall’s a Democrat - unbelievable, it never stops,” Trump says, in referance to what he claimed to be crowd restrictions at the rally.
“There’s a movement going on that’s amazing, and in 27 days, we are going to win Florida and we are going to win back the White House.”
Donald Trump campaigns in Lakeland, Florida
Watch it live here:
Putin denies effort to influence US election
Even as WikiLeaks released another trove of internal documents from Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted his country was not involved in an effort to influence the US presidential election, Reuters reports:
Last week, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of launching a hacking campaign to “interfere with the U.S. election process.”
Clinton’s campaign, which has charged the Kremlin is trying to help Republican Donald Trump win the White House on Nov. 8, took its allegations a step further on Tuesday when John Podesta, chairman of the Democratic nominee’s campaign, accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia.
In Moscow, Putin said nothing in the hacking scandal is in Russia’s interests and accused all sides in the U.S. presidential campaign of misusing rhetoric about Russia for their own purposes.
“They started this hysteria, saying this (hacking) is in Russia’s interests, but this has nothing to do with Russia’s interests,” Putin told a business forum.
Putin said his government would work with whoever won the U.S. election, “if, of course, the new U.S. leader wishes to work with our country.”
WikiLeaks, the organization started by Julian Assange that publishes leaked information on the internet, this week released thousands of emails from Podesta’s email account and has not said how it obtained them. Last week, it posted excerpts from Clinton’s private speeches to banking and financial firms.
The Clinton campaign has not confirmed the authenticity of the messages.
Video: Trump 'walked in on naked girls', says former Miss Arizona
Tasha Dixon says that during the 2001 Miss USA pageant, she and other contestants were forced to meet with Donald Trump – dressed or not. ‘Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis,’ Dixon recalled. She says Trump ‘strolled in’ while girls were topless and naked, but there was no one to complain to, as he owned the pageant.
Hot mic moment destroys Trump in Wisconsin poll
Marquette University is out with a new poll of Wisconsin voters showing a dramatic decline in support for Trump after his comments about touching women’s genitals without consent came to light.
The poll shows a 24-point swing over four days among female likely voters:
Among female likely voters in WI:
— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) October 12, 2016
Thursday: Clinton 45%, Trump 36%
Friday: Clinton 60%, Trump 33%
Saturday+Sunday: Clinton 56%, Trump 23%
But the effect was observable across all groups, the Washington Post points out:
A pollster was in the field in Wisconsin before, during and after the hot-mic tape. Guess what. https://t.co/Tk2xHWqWnk
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 12, 2016
The poll showed a surprisingly tight senate race in the state, with incumbent Republican Ron Johnson, whose goose had been looking cooked, just two points behind challenger and former senator Russ Feingold:
US Senate race in WI:
— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) October 12, 2016
Feingold 46%
Johnson 44%
Anderson 4%#MULawPoll
The poll showed Clinton with a seven-point lead, 44-37, in a four-way race.
Trump’s done. He was very sweaty at the end, and the crowd was beginning to sway on its feet a bit. Hot venue apparently.
Trump: Isis will take USA if Clinton wins
Trump now says that Isis wants Clinton to win because if she does, “they’ll not only take over that part of the world, they’ll take over this country, they’ll take over this part of the world.”
Isis will take over the United States if Hillary Clinton is elected president. – Donald Trump
Why the Holy Shnikes? Because this is a 358-180 map. (NB: The 538 team here imagines states splitting electoral votes in a way that does not actually happen, thus the impossible 341.3-196.6 electoral vote split you see there; for our characterization of a 358-180 count, we just give a state’s votes to whichever side it’s leaning toward, so Arizona’s 11 go to Clinton and Georgia’s 16 go to Trump.) (Obama beat McCain 365-173.)
Holy shnikes pic.twitter.com/erfNglTnmK
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 12, 2016
Updated
Trump, on the debate with Clinton: “That’s why I was so happy with what I did to annihilate the enemy the other day. So happy.”
Trump says he just found out that former press secretary Mike McCurry used to work for Clinton. “Did you know that?” he asks the crowd.
Trump is dissing Al Gore now: “what happened to him?”
Introducing Trump, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani says he doesn’t remember seeing Hillary Clinton “there that day.” It’s unclear what day he was referring to. But he was photographed next to her enough in the aftermath of the attacks that it seems a strange claim to make.
Giuliani is suggesting Clinton doesn't care about 9/11. "I was there that day, I don't remember seeing Hillary Clinton."
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) October 12, 2016
Here is a picture of Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton walking together through NYC post-9/11, after Clinton had flown back from DC pic.twitter.com/03gKLAwlQJ
— Jose A. DelReal (@jdelreal) October 12, 2016
Trump says it’s 114 degrees in the room.
Let Hillary Clinton stand up here for an hour and talk how I talk and let’s see how long she lasts folks.
What a joke. What a total joke. Our country’s in such trouble.
Then he slams “the corporate media.”
Trump says, seemingly without grounding, that Clinton was fed debate questions – the Wikileaks emails don’t show that – and complains that he didn’t get questions from the Republicans:
Why can’t Reince feed me information prior to the debate? I’m so mad at the Republicans they don’t feed me information like Hillary gets. ..They should be feeding me all the information prior to the debates.
Trump on 3rd debate: “I look so forward to the next one in Las Vegas.”
So he’s planning on attending, then?
Trump mentions losing
“Do they make a deal where everybody protects each other in Washington?” Trump asks. “Do they make deals like this? This is the most heinous thing I have ever seen involving justice in the history of the United States.”
Then he mentions the possibility of his losing:
“Folks, whether I win, lose or draw, I’m ashamed of what’s happened to our country, and so are you.”
Trump says he’ll appoint a special prosecutor to look into Clinton’s campaign links with the justice department. That seems in addition to the special prosecutor he wants on the emails issue.
Trump is attacking Clinton tirelessly and with a vituperativeness on par with Debate No. 2.
He says he is “so disappointed in Congress. And I mean both sides.”
“This is crime at the highest level. She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president.”
Trump: “The election of Hillary Clinton in my opinion would lead to the almost total destruction of our country as we know it.”
Now he’s weaving a Clinton campaign-justice department conspiracy theory cinched by Bill Clinton’s visit to Loretta Lynch’s plane.
It’s Alex Jones lite from the mouth of a presidential nominee.
But wait, there’s more:
RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 5 (673 new emails) #HillaryClinton #PodestaEmails #PodestaEmails5 https://t.co/6vmubbuixs pic.twitter.com/hubwKQ4Szu
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 12, 2016
Have a read and tell us what you find. John Podesta emails just released.
Here’s Trump.
Trump supporter threatens black woman with racial slur – police
A 55-year-old white man in the New York state capital of Albany was arrested Monday night after threatening a black woman with a racial slur, police said.
The man, Todd M. Warnken, had been kicked out of a ShopRite store after “being disruptive inside,” the Albany Times Union reported police as saying. The paper continues:
In the parking lot, he harassed a black woman waiting for a cab, Smith said.
Smith said Warnken yelled, “Trump is going to win and if you don’t like it I’m going to beat your ass,” punctuating the sentence with a racial slur.
Officers interviewed the woman and a group of people who had gathered outside the store. Warnken was arrested a short distance away, Smith said.
(h/t @megancarpentier)
After his Ocala, Florida, rally, where he is running about an hour behind so far, Trump has a rally scheduled for Lakeland, Florida, which is in central Polk county.
The second Trump appearance has drawn protesters, Mother Jones reports, one of whom appears confused as to the meaning of the word “badonkadonk”:
These folks are playing the audio of the Trump tape over the speakers outside the Trump rally in Lakeland. pic.twitter.com/OXTxxA4Tdl
— DENALI (@timothypmurphy) October 12, 2016
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a friend of Donald Trump, runs away when asked about Trump’s “locker room talk” about sexual assault:
A special thanks to the guy who asked Tom Brady about Donald Trump locker room talk and the end of his press conference #WBZ #Patriots pic.twitter.com/sCx59IArsw
— Joe Giza (@JoeGiza) October 12, 2016
We’re still waiting for Trump to pop up in Ocala, Florida. Here are some pictures from the event meanwhile:
Republican mega-donors ramp up efforts to hold Congress after Trump tape
With Donald Trump’s campaign still reeling from his lascivious comments about groping women on an 11-year-old tape, a growing number of GOP mega-donors and outside groups are fretting about the Republicans losing their congressional majorities, and scrambling to pour tens of millions more into ads and voter mobilization drives in tight races to stave off Democratic challengers, writes Peter Stone in Washington for the Guardian:
The release of Trump’s remarks about assaulting women on Friday and his slash-and-burn attacks on Hillary Clinton and her husband in the second presidential debate, have fueled growing Republican worries about the Democrats taking one or both houses, say GOP donors and former members. If Clinton wins, meaning Vice-President Tim Kaine would hold the casting vote in the Senate, meaning the Democrats would only need to pick up four seats to control the upper chamber. The Republicans currently have 54 Senate seats, and the Democrats 44, along with two independents who caucus with them.
In two tight Senate contests, Nevada and New Hampshire, GOP candidates on Saturday announced they could no longer stomach Trump, and called on him to withdraw. On Monday, the House speaker, Paul Ryan, fired another salvo at Trump by saying he would no longer campaign for him or defend him, and told members they should feel free to focus on their own survival.
“I think Republicans were feeling pretty good about the Congress a couple weeks ago, but this morning they’re very worried,” former representative Vin Weber told the Guardian on Monday. Weber has helped raise funds for a politically-active non-profit, the American Action Network, and an allied Super Pac, the Congressional Leadership Fund, that are trying to keep the GOP majority. The fund has received $20m from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
Read the full piece here:
Sanders backs Sanders for UK seat
Bernie Sanders, the former candidate to be Democratic nominee for US president, records a video endorsing his older brother Larry in the British parliamentary byelections.
Sanders tells viewers in the video ‘that I do not know a heck of a lot about British politics’, adding: ‘But I do know a lot about my brother, Larry Sanders.’
The elder Sanders, who has lived in the UK since 1969, is standing for the Green party in the constituency of Witney, which will elect a new MP on 20 October to replace David Cameron, who quit the Commons last month
Iowa president for Republican women resigns in protest of Trump
Melissa Gesing, president of the Iowa federation of Republican women, has stepped down in protest against the Trump candidacy, in what she describes as an “incredibly painful” step.
“I cannot in good conscience lead this organization or look at myself in the mirror each morning if I do not take a stand against the racism, sexism and hate that Donald J Trump continues to promote,” Gesing writes in an open letter:
This is incredibly painful for me to do, and I wish our next #IowaFRW president - whomever that may be - all the best. #NeverTrump pic.twitter.com/iYnUEQoW64
— Melissa Gesing (@melissagesing) October 12, 2016
The Trump event in central Florida is heating up, though the candidate has yet to take the stage. Here’s a live video stream:
Internal Clinton campaign analysis in the summer of 2015 had Jeb Bush down as her strongest opponent, according to emails released by Wikileaks and flagged here by Politico:
Hillary Clinton's strongest general election rival was @JebBush, per internal Clinton campaign analysis from 7/2015 released by @wikileaks. pic.twitter.com/lrBss8u9zh
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) October 12, 2016
Six months before he won his first primary, Trump wasn’t even on the list.
Congress the next battle as Republicans drop support for Trump campaign
With Donald Trump’s campaign at risk of imploding, there are growing signs that both parties are focusing on the battle for Congress, where Republicans have everything to lose and could find Trump dragging them underwater like a drowning man. [...]
Voters support Democrats over Republicans for Congress by seven percentage points, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken after the release of the tape but before Sunday night’s presidential debate.
Democrats have been looking to tie candidates to Trump for some time and are now intensifying their efforts. One TV ad for a House seat in Wisconsin attacks Republican Mike Gallagher by playing the Trump video and stating: “Mike Gallagher still says we have to support Donald Trump. No, we don’t. We don’t have to support Mike Gallagher either.”
Read the full piece here:
Maine governor Paul LePage, a pro-Trump partisan who yesterday mused whether “we need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our country,” is about to hold a press conference.
He has brought along Russian nesting dolls with pictures on them of Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones and two other women.
Props for LePage. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/2rTZtLxJqX
— Michael Shepherd (@mikeshepherdME) October 12, 2016
Maine is important for Trump because his single most likely path to victory involves swiping the state’s second congressional district – rural northern Maine. There’s a new poll out today in fact that has Trump holding the narrowist of margins in the district:
Maine (MPRC)
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) October 12, 2016
Statewide
Clinton 44%
Trump 36%
Johnson 9%
CD1
Clinton 49%
Trump 32%
Johnson 7%
CD2
Trump 40%
Clinton 39%
Johnson 10%
Maine, like Nebraska, splits its electoral votes; a win in ME-2 would net Trump an electoral vote in the state and put him on the way to exactly 270...
...if he could manage to win every state Mitt Romney won plus Nevada, Iowa, Florida and New Hampshire. Oh yeah and Ohio.
Updated
Clinton asks for votes with Obama sizzle reel
If you have any good feelings about Barack Obama, as 55% of voters currently do,*** then you’ll love this new Clinton campaign video, which invites voters to bask in all of the most uplifting moments of the Obama presidency and then go out and vote for Clinton, because the other candidate’s “defining principle” is “opposition to all that we’ve done.”
The video draws heavily on an impassioned speech Obama gave last month before the congressional black caucus foundation, in which he said “I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election.... You want to give me a good send-off, go vote.”
Trigger warning: this video is heavy on the hopey-changey.
***But not in Iowa, according to new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll. The paper reports:
Fifty-two percent of Iowans responding to the latest poll disapprove of the Democratic president’s job performance, compared to 43 percent who approve of the job he’s doing. Still, that measure of approval is the highest seen in an Iowa Poll since shortly after he was inaugurated for a second term in early 2013. It remains lower than any Iowa Poll conducted during his first term in the White House.
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Good times. This is the southeastern livestock pavilion in Ocala, north central Florida, where Trump is due to speak in about an hour. We’ll have a live video stream.
#peopledancingatTrumprallies: Ocala, FL edition pic.twitter.com/RHBDhj3som
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) October 12, 2016
Florida bumps registration deadline 6 days – AP
This might bode well for the Clinton campaign, which has done far more than the Trump campaign on the ground in Florida to organize and register voters.
They just got six more days to work, AP reports:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Voter registration extended 6 more days in battleground state of Florida because of Hurricane Matthew.
Developing...
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Trump’s words worry schools fighting sex assault
Here’s an AP video describing how “Donald Trump’s remarks are digging up a painful reality at college campuses across the country”:
Lavrov: 'there are so many pussies around your presidential campaign'
When a word’s in the news, it’s really in the news.
Here Christiane Amanpour, whom Huma Abedin wanted to be when she grew up, asks Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov about “Donald Trump’s Pussy Riot moment”.
“Russia had its own Pussy Riot moment. What do you think of Donald Trump’s Pussy Riot moment?” she asks.
The answer has her in stitches.
!!!!! Russian FM Lavrov: "There are so many pussies around your presidential campaign on both sides" https://t.co/QzPtSTIsy4
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) October 12, 2016
Eric Trump, the nominee’s second son, has sent a fundraising email with the subject line “surge” claiming “right now all the momentum is on our side.”
The email includes a gif showing blue states flipping to red... in a scenario that appears to depend on a repeal of the 19th amendment:
New fundraising email from Eric Trump tells supporters campaign is making "huge gains" and includes this gif pic.twitter.com/MvUUCU7b3d
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) October 12, 2016
Isn't that @NateSilver538's map of the election if only men could vote? @igorbobic https://t.co/6lc81trc0k
— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) October 12, 2016
(thx @popovichn)
Clinton video spoofs 1986 Europe super-hit
The Clinton campaign seems to be feeling giddy.
They’ve produced a video spoofing The Final Countdown, the blockbuster 1986 hit rhyming “Venus” and “seen us” by the Swedish supergroup Europe, to make fun of Trump’s thrashing about in the last week:
Donald Trump: The final meltdown. pic.twitter.com/8wJEiJ0Sh5
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 12, 2016
Sure would be embarrassing if they lost now. Here’s the original:
Video: ‘Demon’ Obama sniffs hand to check for sulphur
President Barack Obama sniffs his own hand at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina on Tuesday, after Trump-supporting radio host Alex Jones said on Monday that Clinton and Obama are demons from hell who smell like sulphur
Video: Donald Trump tells supporters to vote ... on wrong date
Donald Trump gets the date of the US election wrong at a rally in Florida on Tuesday night. ‘Go and register,’ he tells the crowd. ‘Make sure you get out and vote – November 28.’ The Republican presidential candidate does not correct himself. The date of the presidential election is 8 November. Early voting starts in some counties on 24 October.
Video: Barack Obama: I made bad decisions in my youth
President Barack Obama refers to his past drug use when talking about making ‘bad decisions’ in his youth, while promoting his initiative for black males during an ESPN-hosted forum on Tuesday. He also discusses the benefits or tackling inequality to the wider economy
Donald Trump is having a notably unSheenlike morning on Twitter. Twice he’s tweeted this criticism:
Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2016
Here is our coverage from yesterday of the latest John Podesta emails released by Wikileaks. You yourself may search the Wikileaks emails on the Wikileaks web site here.
WikiLeaks reveals Hillary Clinton aide loves Lafayette Coney Island https://t.co/Equ6choy1m via @freep
— Kathy Gray (@michpoligal) October 12, 2016
LEAKED: Wikileaks hack reveals John Podesta's secret to creamy Risotto pic.twitter.com/A5dW4mG9c6
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) October 11, 2016
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Trump campaign manager: 'enough with the pussyfooting'
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tells George Stephanopoulos that elected Republicans have been “very wishy-washy” about whether they will support the nominee and the time is now to stop “pussyfooting around” and fish or cut bait:
"Enough with the pussyfooting around...do you support us or do you not support us?" -@KellyannePolls on GOP support: pic.twitter.com/EghXwuhRHN
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 12, 2016
The verb “pussyfoot” evokes a cat walking.
Not the best word choice. https://t.co/5zr4gyU5MP
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 12, 2016
Here are two examples of senators about whom Conway may be speaking. First, Nebraska senator Deb Fischer, who has gone back on her reversal of her endorsement as Trump. After the hot mic tape came out, Fischer said Trump should step down.
“The comments made by Mr. Trump were disgusting and totally unacceptable under any circumstance,” Fischer said on Saturday. “It would be wise for him to step aside and allow Mike Pence to serve as our party’s nominee.”
Then on Tuesday she said she’d vote for him.
“I plan to vote for Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence on November 8,” she said on local news. “I put out a statement ... with regard to Mr. Trump’s comments. I felt they were disgusting. I felt they were unacceptable and I never said I was not voting for our Republican ticket.
BREAKING: Newly released photo of Sen. Deb Fischer pic.twitter.com/dih7PlQXvu
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 12, 2016
After abandoning Trump over the week-end, 4 GOPers have re-committed to voting for him:
— Taniel (@Taniel) October 12, 2016
Deb Fischer
John Thune
Scott Garrett
Bradley Byrne.
At least Fischer and co. are transparent about their indecision. Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey, who is in a tough reelection fight, is solving the Trump problem by simply refusing to say what he thinks of the man:
Sen. Pat Toomey says he may not disclose before the election if he's voting for Trump #PASen https://t.co/IYzaogJVkq
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) October 12, 2016
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Veteran Republican operative and former Mitt Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens, on Trump’s invasive personal peepshow:
Not to be pedantic, but isn't this illegal? https://t.co/bx8mI4atY0
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) October 12, 2016
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Donald Trump has two events today in Florida, where he spent the night. Hillary Clinton will appear in Colorado and Nevada to make a special pitch to Latino voters.
‘Pussies in formation’
It may be good for Trump that he’s not home in New York this morning, because his eponymous tower is currently the scene of an impassioned anti-sexism demonstration, with protesters holding signs that say “pussies in formation” and chanting “Trump thinks he runs this town, pussy came to shut it down”:
Major protest outside Trump Tower with dozens of women including survivors of sexual assault who call Trump a predator. @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/1B8Cl7pLCd
— Dray Clark (@DrayClarkABC7) October 12, 2016
Women on our way to Trump Towers. "We want freedom. Tell the sexist GOP, we don't need 'em." #TrumpVsAllofUs #GOPCausedTrump pic.twitter.com/q4Pj1PvmiT
— Yong Jung Cho (@YongJungC) October 12, 2016
Trump took self-guided tours of pageant dressing rooms
Trump once boasted to Howard Stern that he would walk in on dressing rooms at beauty pageants he owned. Two reports this morning corroborate the boast.
Here’s what Trump told Stern, via CNN:
Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” Trump said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good. You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. But no, I’ve been very good,” he added.
Trump earns no Pinocchios for saying he liked to walk in on naked beauty pageant contestants https://t.co/oOfSlvGm99
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 12, 2016
Teen Beauty Queens Say Trump Walked In On Them Changinghttps://t.co/HJQIn8OFgU pic.twitter.com/wK2Zcc8J98
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 12, 2016
Trump brand is being damaged by Trump – poll
A Brand Keys poll of 1,536 registered voters across the country has found that the Trump brand has been “significantly diminished” since video emerged of him describing grabbing women by the genitals without their consent.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
But that added value has been significantly diminished since the video surfaced. The perceived added value in TV and entertainment, a category with which he’s closely associated after “The Apprentice,” fell 13 percentage points as of Oct. 9, while the value of the Trump brand dropped 8 percentage points in real estate and 6 percentage points in country clubs and golf clubs, according to Brand Keys.
“What we know for sure is that these brand engagement numbers correlate very highly with consumer behavior in the marketplace,” said Mr. Passikoff. As the Trump brand becomes more toxic, “consumers will be distancing themselves from Trump-branded products as well.”
Ummm ... Utah?
New Utah poll has Clinton and Trump tied:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 12, 2016
Clinton 26
Trump 26
McMullin 22
Johnson 14
MOE +/- 4.4% https://t.co/qaBQZmZpDa pic.twitter.com/nSwCiAOVD4
Voting in Ohio
Early in-person voting started in Ohio today. These people seem caffeinated!
Wow. The energy in Cleveland is ridiculous this morning! #OHVotesEarly pic.twitter.com/ZZcQaBd1Mm
— Jay Plant (@jaymplant) October 12, 2016
New @BaldwinWallace Ohio poll - first since Trump video and debate - has Clinton up 9 points in four-way race. https://t.co/pIdBiIjQLo
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) October 12, 2016
Clinton camp says team Trump knew Wikileaks was coming
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said the FBI is investigating Russia’s possible role in hacking thousands of his personal emails, an intrusion he said Trump’s campaign may have been aware of in advance, the AP reports:
“I think it’s a reasonable assumption, or at least a reasonable conclusion, that [Roger] Stone and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what [Julian] Assange was going to do,” Podesta told reporters aboard the Clinton campaign plane. Podesta acknowledged the evidence was “circumstantial.”
Stone, in an email to The Associated Press late Tuesday, said Podesta’s accusations were “categorically false” and “without foundation.”
Trust me, it will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) August 21, 2016
Thank you for reading and please join us in the comments.
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