Presumptuous Politics : Sep 26, 2016

Monday, September 26, 2016

Hillary Cartoons 2016

As Clinton Focuses On Debate, Trump Says He'd Champion Women

Roanoke, Va. – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is arguing that he'll do more to help women from the White House than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he's taunting her over the infidelities of her husband.
As Trump campaigned in the battleground state of Virginia, Clinton stayed close to home in New York while preparing for Monday night's opening debate. She was spotted at a Westchester hotel near her home in Chappaqua, but her campaign would not comment on whether she was holding practice sessions at the hotel.
Clinton and Trump were expected to meet separately on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sought to project neutrality in this year's election. There were perceptions that he favored Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama in 2012.
Trump told supporters at a rally Saturday in Roanoke, Virginia, that Clinton has not delivered for women and children.
"My opponent likes to say that for decades she's been fighting for women, that she's been fighting for children. Why, then, are 70 million American women and children living in poverty or on the brink of poverty in our country?" Trump asked. "For years she's been doing this and she's done nothing."
The appeal came hours after Trump threatened on Twitter to invite a woman who'd had an affair with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to sit in the first row at their first debate. The Clinton campaign had invited Mark Cuban, a fellow billionaire and Trump rival, to the event.
"If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!" Trump said.
Trump's campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday, and it remained unclear whether Flowers would actually attend.
Earlier Saturday, one of Clinton's supporters, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, accused Trump and his fellow Republicans of "making hate OK." She told Clinton campaign volunteers in Nashua, New Hampshire, that she never predicted a major presidential candidate would base a campaign on scapegoating Mexicans, women and Muslims.
Warren was particularly critical of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who denounced Trump in the primary campaign but announced Friday that he strongly opposed Clinton and would vote for his former rival.
"Is that really what your word is worth, Ted Cruz?" she asked.
In Texas, Cruz described as "agonizing" his decision to announce that he would vote for Trump but denied that he had given in to pressure to support his rival for the Republican nomination. His announcement Friday, from which the word "endorsement" was conspicuously absent, drew criticism because of his longstanding antipathy for the man he had called a "pathological liar."
"Any path we took, if I supported Donald, if I didn't support Donald, the criticism was going to be there," Cruz told a packed Austin auditorium during a policy forum organized by The Texas Tribune. He had refused to endorse Trump at the Republican National Convention and instead urged Republicans to vote according to their conscience.
Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, assured home-schooling advocates in North Carolina that Trump would be their champion if elected. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Clinton's running mate, praised American Indian culture and highlighted his efforts to win federal recognition of the state's tribes while visiting the Chickahominy Indian Tribe Fall Festival near his home in Richmond.

Clinton campaign defends immunity deal for aide Mills, others in FBI email probe

Mills, other Clinton aides granted immunity in FBI probe

The Hillary Clinton campaign on Sunday defended the Justice Department's decision to grant immunity to Cheryl Mills and other Clinton aides in the FBI’s investigation into Clinton's use of a private server system while secretary of state.
Clinton campaign strategist Joel Benenson told “Fox News Sunday” that such deals are “fairly routine” and pressed the point that Mills received only “limited immunity.”
Revelations about Mills, a chief of staff for Clinton at the State Department, and two other staffers being granted immunity as part of the FBI probe emerged last week in an Associated Press interview with House oversight committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
Benenson said such immunity is granted to encourage witnesses to cooperate by ensuring them that anything uncovered in their files outside the scope of the investigation cannot be used against them.
In Mills’ case, she turned over a laptop computer, and her testimony in the FBI investigation and potential testimony before Congress was not covered in the immunity deal.
“So a limited immunity is when anything else is irrelevant to them,” Benenson said Sunday. “They wanted to make sure they had access to Cheryl Mills' information about e-mails -- not anything else.”
Mills and four other Clinton aides have been granted some form of immunity, including lawyer Heather Samuelson, then-State Department information resources Director John Bentel and former agency IT specialist Bryan Pagliano.
The immunity issue -- as an example of why voters doubt Clinton’s trustworthiness -- could come up Monday night during the first presidential debate between Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Republican rival Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, told ABC's "This Week."
The agency’s two-year investigation found that several Clinton emails via the server system included at least parts of classified information and that Clinton was “extremely careless” with that information. However, the FBI concluded the investigation without recommending criminal prosecution.
“Immunity deals should not be a requirement for cooperating with the FBI,” Chaffetz said Friday in a statement.
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said Republicans were just “trying to make something out of nothing by rummaging through the files of a Justice Department investigation that was closed months ago without any charges whatsoever.”

Trump, Clinton meet with Netanyahu as presidential debate looms

Possible 'wildcard topics' during first presidential debate

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday as the presidential candidates brush up on foreign policy hours before their debate.
Clinton’s meeting with Netanyahu was brief. The two met for less than an hour in Manhattan, according to Clinton campaign officials. Her meeting came after Trump sat down with the prime minister at his residence in Trump Tower at length, Trump campaign officials said.
Reporters were barred from covering either meeting.
Clintons' campaign said in a statement that the two had an "in-depth conversation." She stressed that "a strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States" and "reaffirmed unwavering commitment" to the relationship.
According to her campaign, Clinton stressed her support for the 10-year, $38 billion military aid package signed between the two countries earlier the month and opposition to efforts to boycott Israel. They also discussed Iran, the conflict in Syria and other regional challenges, including her support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict negotiated by the two parties — not an outside organization like the U.N. Security Council.
Trump and Netanyahu discussed such key issues as the Iran nuclear deal, Middle East stability and the problems that the Islamic State terror group has created in the region, according to Trump campaign officials.
Trump and Netanyahu are long-time acquaintances. But in December 2015, Trump postponed a trip to Israel to meet with Netanyahu after the prime minister’s office criticized his proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants -- in the aftermath of several terror attacks inspired or executed by radical Islamic terrorists.
The Trump campaign said Sunday that the nominee and the prime minister “have known each other for many years and had the opportunity to discuss many topics important to both countries,” citing ISIS, the Iran deal and Trump suggesting, if elected, continuing U.S. military aid to Israel.
Trump and other leading Republicans have suggested that Obama and his administration have failed to maintain strong ties with Israel, which has provided Western nations with support and stability amid decades of Middle East turmoil. The United States also provides billons annually to Israel in military aid.
Most recently, Trump and fellow Republicans have agreed with Netanyahu that the administration-brokered Iran nuclear deal hurts Israel, Tehran’s enemy, because it lifts economic sanctions without enough safeguards to ensure Iran has indeed curbed efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
“Mr. Trump recognized that Israel and its citizens have suffered far too long on the front lines of Islamic terrorism,” the campaign also said after the meeting. “He agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Israeli people want a just and lasting peace with their neighbors, but that peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State.”
They also said Trump acknowledged that Jerusalem has been “the eternal capital of the Jewish People for more than 3,000 years” and that the U.S., with Trump as president, “will finally accept the long-standing congressional mandate to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s meeting with each of the candidates was designed to put Israel on good footing with the next U.S. president. Both candidates likely will seek Netanyahu’s support for their respective White House bids, considering Israel is often called the United States’ most important ally.
The Israeli leader has sought to project neutrality this time after perceptions arose that he favored Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama in 2012.
But it also served to showcase the candidates' expertise in foreign policy in the shadow of their first debate Monday, six weeks before Election Day. Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, often says that Trump does not know enough about the world and lacks the temperament to be president. Trump has argued that he has extensive experience with foreign policy through his career as a business executive and blames Clinton for many of the nation's stumbles in foreign policy.

Clinton, Trump take distinct paths to debate, now a prime-time, mega event

The final hours before the first 2016 presidential debate on Sunday seemed more like the eve of Super Bowl -- with experts offering predictions and strategies, the Clinton and Trump campaigns posturing and Americans wondering who indeed has first-row tickets.
Arguments about whether Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would do better on substance or style were indeed largely overshadowed this weekend by Trump suggesting Saturday that he’d invite Gennifer Flower, with whom Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has acknowledged having a sexual encounter.
GOP vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence told “Fox News Sunday” that Trump was merely mocking the Clinton campaign for confirming that Trump nemesis-entrepreneur Mark Cuban was indeed invited to a front-row seat at the Hofstra University debate.
He argued the campaign was really trying to “distract attention from where the American people are going to be focused,” which is picking a president to chart the future of America.
However, the Indiana governor’s comments did little to end the debate sideshow.
“It’s legitimate to have a business person sitting there who's been advocating for you because of your economic policies,” Clinton campaign strategist Joel Benenson told “Fox News Sunday.”
Former Obama campaign official Stephanie Cutter later told NBC’s “Meet the Press" that Clinton and Trump are “trying to throw each other off their game.”
“The difference is that Hillary Clinton is doing it with a legitimate businessman, also a celebrity,” she said. “Trump is just jumping right down in the sewer and swimming by inviting Gennifer Flowers.”
Clinton, a former New York senator and secretary of state, and Trump, a first-time candidate and reality TV star, are essentially tied with Election Day about six weeks away, according to essentially every major poll.
And their debate preparations are reflective of their paths to success -- with Clinton off the campaign trail to study briefing books at her Westchester, N.Y., home and participate in mock debates
Longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines, a combative political operative, is purportedly playing Trump in the rehearsals. And President Clinton has sat in on some sessions, offering advice from his own White House debates.
Trump has eschewed traditional debate preparations but has held midflight policy discussions with a rotating cast of advisers. He's also spent numerous Sundays batting around ideas with aides.
He remained on the campaign trail this weekend, with a stop Saturday in southwestern Virginia.
Trump’s loose approach is potentially risky, considering he is new to the many policy issues expected to come up during the debate. But advisers contend he will compensate by being quick on his feet and point to his experience at performing under pressure.
"Imagine the practice and the training of 13 years of reality television on 'The Apprentice' and then imagine Hillary's experience reading hundreds of papers," said Newt Gingrich, the former GOP House speaker and a Trump adviser who has been talking through policy with the candidate in recent days.
The 90-minute debate in Long Island, N.Y., is expected to attract 75 million viewers -- many of them disenchanted with both candidates, the least-popular presidential hopefuls in history.
On Sunday, Clinton campaign aides express concern about Trump's habit of saying things that might be untrue and voters’ general distrust of Clinton.
Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, on ABC’s “This Week” called on NBC debate moderator Lester Holt to correct inaccuracies made by the candidates. But Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said it's not the job of debate moderators to fact check.
The Clinton aides also fear Trump will be judged more for his performance than his grasp of the numerous challenges that pass across a president's desk.
Trump will likely need to prove to voters that he has the policy depth and gravitas to serve as commander in chief. Clinton will likely need to connect with Americans who question whether she can be trusted.
Clinton will be the first woman to take the stage in a presidential general election debate.
Trump emerged as the Republican nominee in an improbable primary run in which he gave an overall, solid debate performance amid a huge field of established politicians and debaters.
However, he will not likely be able to resort on Monday to the personal attacks that doomed such primary rivals as GOP Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

People familiar with Clinton's preparations say she has been working on addressing possible questions about her lack of trustworthiness, a problem that has dogged her throughout the campaign.
Supporters cringed during a candidate forum earlier this month when Clinton was pressed about her use of a private server system while running the State Department and became defensive, rather than apologizing and trying to move on quickly.
Clinton has debated more than 30 times at the presidential level, including several one-on-one debates with Barack Obama in 2008 and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016.
But this will be her first presidential debate against a candidate from an opposing party.
"It's a lot more comfortable running against people in the other party than it is debating in the primary," said Anita Dunn, who worked on debate preparations with Obama. "The differences don't have to be manufactured. The differences exist."