Friday, September 30, 2016
Anti-Trump Republicans bat for Clinton
The Hillary Clinton campaign made a fresh push Thursday to let Republicans do the talking for them when it comes to Trump.
Ex-GOP lawmakers and members of past Republican administrations touted the Democratic nominee – and blasted her opponent – on a call organized by a Clinton campaign wing. On the call were: former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former Rep. Claudine Schneider,former Secretary of the Air Force Mike Donley, and former George H. W.Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Cicconi.
Gutierrez said he’s a “lifelong Republican” but decided to “wholeheartedly support Secretary Clinton.” He called Donald Trump’s economic stances “alarmingly simplistic” and said his decision to back Clinton was reinforced by Monday night’s debate. “I speak for a lot of Republicans. Very, very few of them are going to vote for Donald Trump,” he said. “They find this candidacy to be repugnant.”
Ciconni said many Republicans are coming forward and breaking with the party. “To me and my colleagues, this is an easy choice.”
The call, part of a long-running Clinton camp push to tout Republicans breaking with Trump, comes on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that the former Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia, is supporting the Clinton-Kaine ticket.
Hey, how about a "Pantsuit Tee"? Hillary offers clothing for the emasculated man
Attention all of you political fashionistas!
Hillary Clinton wants to outfit men in something called the "Everyday Pantsuit Tee." I'm sure it'll be all the rage among the skinny jeans and soy latte crowd.
The $30 shirt, available on her online store, promises to bring "a whole new meaning to casual Friday."
Click here to join Todd’s American Dispatch: a must-read for Conservatives!
Hillary Clinton wants to outfit men in something called the "Everyday Pantsuit Tee." I'm sure it'll be all the rage among the skinny jeans and soy latte crowd.The union-printed shirts are unisex. Pantsuit bottoms not included.
Remember when President Obama sold yoga pants? They were five percent spandex -- think stretchy pants.
See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →
Well, maybe just one. Does anybody remember what happened to ObamaCare's Pajama boy?
I don't have the fashion prowess of Tommy Hilfiger or Michael Kors, but I think it's safe to say, Hillary's pantsuit tee is political clothing for the emasculated man.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
Clinton blasts Trump over report of his possible Cuba interests
Trump renews Clinton attacks amid Cuba business questions |
Clinton accused Trump of acting against U.S. interests by defying the sanctions in the past, suggesting that “his personal and business interests ahead of the laws and the values and the policies of the United States of America.”
According to a Newsweek report, the work was done by a consulting firm called Seven Arrows on behalf of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., Trump’s publicly traded casino company. The magazine said Trump reimbursed the consulting firm for $68,000 of business expenses for its Cuba work — even though neither Trump nor the firm had sought a federal government waiver that would have allowed them to pursue such activities.
Clinton told reporters aboard her plane that Trump appeared “to violate U.S. law, certainly flout American foreign policy, and he has consistently misled people in responding to questions about whether he was attempting to do business in Cuba.”
She reiterated that she supported President Barack Obama’s decision to re-open ties with Cuba while she was secretary of state and will continue to do so if she becomes president. However, she said that the report shows that Trump put himself first.
“This latest report shows once again that Trump will always put his own business interest ahead of the national interest - and has no trouble lying about it,” the Clinton campaign said in a statement.
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“I know we’re not supposed to talk about years ago when it comes to the Clintons, but with Trump there is no statute of limitations,” Conway added.
Supreme Court cautious on new cases as term begins under cloud of vacancy politics
Campaign trail reacts to Supreme Court abortion ruling |
Democrat Hillary Clinton, for her part, spontaneously "loved" the idea of a Justice Barack Obama, but has been coy on others she thinks deserve a bench nomination.
Even with the Supreme Court kicking off its term Monday, it is this election-year guessing game – over whom the eventual winner will nominate to fill the court vacancy left by Antonin Scalia’s death – that’s captured the attention of court watchers.
The uncertainty, meanwhile, has left the court itself seemingly tip-toeing around major issues, as justices wait for a nomination – and confirmation – to break what is essentially a 4-4 split.
Nothing less than the ideological balance of the court is at stake on Nov. 8.
Despite recent GOP trial balloons hinting otherwise, President Obama's choice of Judge Merrick Garland may not get a Senate hearing and vote, leaving it for the next White House occupant to put his or her instant legacy-building stamp on the third branch of government.
A Clinton pick could signal a decisive shift to the left for the first time in decades.
"Any issue you care about, the Supreme Court is ultimately where it's going to be decided. There are a lot of people that rank this as an important issue for them during this election year," said Carrie Severino, chief counsel at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network.
She said if Clinton is elected, "it would have a very dramatic shift on the court, and an incredible impact for a generation."
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, churns along gingerly with an ideologically divided 4-4 bench, preparing to kick off its term Monday with a less-than-impressive docket so far. Caution over its short-term future may leave the justices reluctant to engage for now in divisive cases, absent a long-term five-vote majority.
Several appeals dealing with the death penalty, criminal law and voting districts have strong racial underpinnings, and will be argued this fall.
"When you think about the rights in the balance, whether it's racial equality, gender equality, reproductive access, religious liberty, all of these issues that go to the Supreme court, Americans care deeply about," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center. "So I think they care deeply about who will be appointing the next justices."
Until then, some on the court worry an eight-member bench will shy from fully deciding contentious cases -- opting to rule on narrow aspects, or splitting evenly where no binding precedent is established.
"A tie does nobody any good," Justice Elena Kagan said earlier this month. "We're there to resolve cases that need deciding, answer hotly contested issues that need resolving, and you can't do that with a tie vote."
For issues like abortion, executive power, health care, and national security -- who sits on the Supreme Court matters. In the years between 1969 and 1993, Republican presidents placed 11 members on the high court, including two chief justices. Democrats got zero.
In the two-dozen years since, one Republican leader appointed only two justices -- Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts -- while a pair of Democrats successfully named four. Garland remains a wild card.
Members of the high court know that political reality all too well.
"It's likely that the next president, whoever she will be, will have a few appointments to make," an increasingly chatty Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in July.
Her recent comments on Trump drew bipartisan scorn. "He is a faker," she told CNN. "He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego."
Ginsburg offered regrets for her "ill-advised" remarks, but not a direct apology to Trump.
The GOP nominee also drew criticism for suggesting last month that "Second Amendment people" might not take kindly to Clinton's judicial choices if she wins in November. He denied suggesting violence against anyone for their views.
As for Clinton, legal and political sources close to her campaign are privately suggesting she, if elected, could preserve the status quo and re-nominate the well-liked moderate-liberal Garland next January, avoiding a bruising confirmation in her first 100 days with a potentially more left-leaning pick.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last month he was convinced Clinton will stick with the 63-year-old Garland.
The nominee herself has said little about her options, except for one.
"I love that, wow," she told supporters in February when someone suggested she name her former boss, Obama.
Clinton also has said she has a "litmus test" for a justice nominee, and emphasized any potential appointments would have to support the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance reform.
Trump’s list includes a mix of state and federal judges -- all conservatives. The Republican says he would appoint "pro-life" justices who are "very conservative" and "like Judge Scalia."
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Dem lawmaker wears Hillary pin during House hearing on Clinton email probe
Another Crook in the government or just a dumb ass? |
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, raised eyebrows Wednesday when she showed up wearing a gold Hillary Clinton campaign pin to a House Judiciary Committee hearing dealing with the FBI probe regarding Clinton’s private email server.
The committee heard testimony from FBI Director James Comey on the agency’s decision not to pursue charges and a newly revealed set of controversial immunity deals given to Clinton’s staff.
Jackson Lee asked Comey questions while wearing the "H" campaign pin -- though the exchange left no doubt as to her leanings on the matter.
"[Republicans] want you to prosecute, or ask the DOJ to prosecute, Secretary Clinton regardless of the facts. So they’ve engaged in an almost daily ritual of holding hearings, desperately trying to tear down the investigation," she told Comey.
The House has guidelines restricting certain forms of campaign-related activity, but there is no apparent ban on wearing pins. However, while it is not unusual in the slightest for representatives to express their political beliefs on Capitol Hill, wearing campaign paraphernalia during an oversight hearing is more of a rarity.
Jackson Lee also was spotted wearing the pin on the House floor during the vote to override President Obama’s veto of a bill allowing 9/11 victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia.
Jackson Lee’s expression of support for Clinton was noted on a pro-Donald Trump subreddit, /r/The_Donald, in a thread entitled “Don’t mind me, just doing my impartial oversight with my shiny gold H pin on.”
Jackson Lee’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from FoxNews.com.
Jackson Lee isn’t the only lawmaker to sport an "H" pin on the Hill. On Tuesday, Clinton’s running mate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., arrived on the Senate floor wearing the lapel pin.
When alerted to it, he said he had forgotten to take it off.
Gary Johnson has 'Aleppo moment' when asked about his favorite foreign leader
FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2016 file photo, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson speaks during a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP) |
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said he was having another “Aleppo moment” after drawing a blank when he was asked to name is favorite foreign leader in an interview Wednesday.
Asked on MSNBC’s “Hardball” to come up with a name, Johnson blanked in a fashion similar to a moment he had on the network earlier this month.
"I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment," Johnson said as he tried to make light of the awkward moment.
Johnson said he was thinking of the name of the former president of Mexico, but was “having a brain freeze.” His running mate Bill Weld chimed in that he was thinking about Vicente Fox, Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006 who has recently had spats with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over his determination to build a wall at the Mexican border and to have the country pay for it.
Another political gaffe could hurt the presidential aspirations for the former New Mexico governor even more. Johnson failed to reach the 15 percent needed to get on stage for the first presidential debate. As of Wednesday, Johnson was polling at 6 percent in the Real Clear Politics polling average.
Johnson and Weld were speaking at town hall at the University of New Hampshire in appeal to the millennial voter, according to the Los Angeles Times. The pair have garnered enough millennial support to make some nervous. President Barack Obama has come out to say that a third-party vote was essentially “a vote for Trump.”
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Frustrated Trump advisers pan him for lousy debate prep (anonymously)
Kurtz: When campaign aides vent to the press |
Donald Trump believes he won the first presidential debate. He’s proclaimed that publicly and told me so himself.
Some of his advisers disagree, and they believe his debate prep was something of a disaster.
One well-placed source told me that there were too many people in the room during these sessions, as many as a dozen at a time, and some, including two generals, had no experience with debates or even campaigns. The result was that the candidate got lots of conflicting advice on what to say and do from a team that hadn’t even agreed internally on the best strategies.
I’m also told that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, hardly unabashed Trump fans, provided debate advice by phone.
The result, in this source’s view, is that Trump was overprepared, which left him without a clear plan to deliver his message or respond to Hillary Clinton’s jibes.
A harsher indictment was delivered to the New York Times, one in which Trump advisers attempted to blame the boss.
It’s striking that they would criticize their
candidate from behind a curtain of anonymity. In effect, they’re saying,
hey, don’t blame us, we tried to tell him but he wouldn’t listen.
Or viewed another way, they are using the press to send him a message that he needs to change his approach for the second debate in St. Louis.
Now much of this is inside baseball. Hillary Clinton is widely credited, even by many conservative commentators, as having delivered a strong performance at Hofstra and kept her opponent on the defensive. She will probably get a polling bump of a couple of points. But Trump’s supporters remain in in his corner after watching him go toe-to-toe with a former secretary of State without committing a major gaffe.
When campaigns are in a tailspin, loyalty sometimes melts as its consultants and strategists scramble to salvage their own reputations at the boss’ expense. But Trump, against all the odds set by the pundits, is in an extremely competitive race against Clinton and could win the thing.
Here’s what the Times reported yesterday:
“Campaign advisers to Donald J. Trump, concerned that his focus and objectives had dissolved during the first presidential debate on Monday, plan to more rigorously prepare him for his next face-off”—but that “whether he is open to practicing meticulously is a major concern.”
Yes, that is the sound of some folks throwing the nominee under the bus.
These unnamed sources “were privately awash in second-guessing about why he stopped attacking Mrs. Clinton on trade and character issues and instead grew erratic, impatient and subdued as the night went on. In interviews, seven campaign aides and advisers, most of whom sought anonymity to speak candidly, expressed frustration and discouragement over their candidate’s performance.”
The Gang of Seven is clearly ticked off.
The last time this kind of internal carping hit the press, during the “let Trump be Trump” debate, Paul Manafort was gone and Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway were tapped to run the show.
Trump’s fans are angry at the media coverage portraying him as having lost the debate, at least according to my Twitter feed. And who knows? It’s not like the press hasn’t been repeatedly wrong about Trump.
But a story in which some of Trump’s own advisers are anonymously quoted as saying he was “erratic” in a debate watched by 84 million people doesn’t help the cause. Even if the Times reporters sought out these sources, you don’t usually see Hillary advisers anonymously griping about their candidate.
Even successful campaigns go through near-death experiences. Clinton was sliding in the polls through her pneumonia period and Democrats were starting to panic. In the end, the burden is on Trump himself, and not his inner circle, to find a way to win.
Odds and Ends
--Howard Dean standing by his ludicrous suggestion that Donald Trump might have a coke problem makes me want to ... scream. It’s outrageous for a doctor, ex-governor and former presidential candidate and party chairman to act like a smear merchant. Kudos to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough for calling on his colleague to apologize.
--A former Chris Christie ally, David Wildstein, has testified that the governor laughed when he told him the George Washington Bridge lanes were being closed as an act of political retaliation. I don’t know if that’s true, and the former presidential candidate has denied it, but imagine if Trump had chosen Christie as his running mate.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
Some of his advisers disagree, and they believe his debate prep was something of a disaster.
One well-placed source told me that there were too many people in the room during these sessions, as many as a dozen at a time, and some, including two generals, had no experience with debates or even campaigns. The result was that the candidate got lots of conflicting advice on what to say and do from a team that hadn’t even agreed internally on the best strategies.
I’m also told that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, hardly unabashed Trump fans, provided debate advice by phone.
The result, in this source’s view, is that Trump was overprepared, which left him without a clear plan to deliver his message or respond to Hillary Clinton’s jibes.
A harsher indictment was delivered to the New York Times, one in which Trump advisers attempted to blame the boss.
See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →
Or viewed another way, they are using the press to send him a message that he needs to change his approach for the second debate in St. Louis.
Now much of this is inside baseball. Hillary Clinton is widely credited, even by many conservative commentators, as having delivered a strong performance at Hofstra and kept her opponent on the defensive. She will probably get a polling bump of a couple of points. But Trump’s supporters remain in in his corner after watching him go toe-to-toe with a former secretary of State without committing a major gaffe.
When campaigns are in a tailspin, loyalty sometimes melts as its consultants and strategists scramble to salvage their own reputations at the boss’ expense. But Trump, against all the odds set by the pundits, is in an extremely competitive race against Clinton and could win the thing.
Here’s what the Times reported yesterday:
“Campaign advisers to Donald J. Trump, concerned that his focus and objectives had dissolved during the first presidential debate on Monday, plan to more rigorously prepare him for his next face-off”—but that “whether he is open to practicing meticulously is a major concern.”
Yes, that is the sound of some folks throwing the nominee under the bus.
These unnamed sources “were privately awash in second-guessing about why he stopped attacking Mrs. Clinton on trade and character issues and instead grew erratic, impatient and subdued as the night went on. In interviews, seven campaign aides and advisers, most of whom sought anonymity to speak candidly, expressed frustration and discouragement over their candidate’s performance.”
The Gang of Seven is clearly ticked off.
The last time this kind of internal carping hit the press, during the “let Trump be Trump” debate, Paul Manafort was gone and Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway were tapped to run the show.
Trump’s fans are angry at the media coverage portraying him as having lost the debate, at least according to my Twitter feed. And who knows? It’s not like the press hasn’t been repeatedly wrong about Trump.
But a story in which some of Trump’s own advisers are anonymously quoted as saying he was “erratic” in a debate watched by 84 million people doesn’t help the cause. Even if the Times reporters sought out these sources, you don’t usually see Hillary advisers anonymously griping about their candidate.
Even successful campaigns go through near-death experiences. Clinton was sliding in the polls through her pneumonia period and Democrats were starting to panic. In the end, the burden is on Trump himself, and not his inner circle, to find a way to win.
Odds and Ends
--Howard Dean standing by his ludicrous suggestion that Donald Trump might have a coke problem makes me want to ... scream. It’s outrageous for a doctor, ex-governor and former presidential candidate and party chairman to act like a smear merchant. Kudos to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough for calling on his colleague to apologize.
--A former Chris Christie ally, David Wildstein, has testified that the governor laughed when he told him the George Washington Bridge lanes were being closed as an act of political retaliation. I don’t know if that’s true, and the former presidential candidate has denied it, but imagine if Trump had chosen Christie as his running mate.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
Jets owner, Hollywood producer, Wall Street titans helped drive Trump’s $18M day
Trump vows to be much tougher on Clinton in next debate |
The campaign announced the total on Tuesday, the morning after the Republican nominee’s first presidential debate with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. In doing so, the campaign listed some of the influential figures involved in the billionaire businessman's accelerating fundraising.
About one-third of the money reportedly came in the form of relatively small, online donations. The remainder was solicited during a phone-calling blitz during which more than 100 top fundraisers went to Trump Tower in New York City to make calls.
“We had a massive fundraising day,” said Mnuchin, the Trump campaign’s finance chairman. “With this kind of energy and generous support behind us, we are going to have President Donald J. Trump in the White House.”
The campaign listed 26 of the fundraisers including Mnuchin, Trump and several top officials from the Republican National Committee.
Mnuchin led one of six teams in the effort, part of a larger joint-fundraising effort with the Republican National Committee known as the Trump Victory Committee.
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Trump, who essentially self-funded his primary campaign, has largely trailed Clinton in general election fundraising. Clinton last month, for example, raised $143 million, compared to $90 million for Trump.
Still, Trump and Clinton are essentially tied in most national polls.
Mnuchin, who followed his father as a partner at Goldman Sachs, joined the campaign as finance chairman this spring, facing the task of getting a bare-boned operation to at least compete with the Clinton fundraising juggernaut.
His finance and production company, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, is connected to such blockbusters as “The Devil Wears Prada” as well as the “X-Men” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series.
His fundraising team, MAGA (Make American Great Again) also included venture capitalist and GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and Ray Washburne, a Trump Victory vice chairman and one of several Dallas-based investors.
The Yuuuge Team, a reference to one of Trump’s favorite campaign expressions, was led by Lew Eisenberg, Trump Victory’s finance chairman.
Eisenberg is a financier and investor with long, deep ties to Wall Street and Republican fundraising circles. He started on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs and in 2002 was the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman.
His political support and connections have come with several prestigious appointments including chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, during and in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Johnson, the Jets owner, was among the first high-profile figures to back Trump. The businessman and philanthropist is the great-grandson of a Johnson & Johnson co-founder.
Others included Trump attorney Michael Cohen and financier and Fox News contributor Anthony Scaramucci.
Team Deplorable, a reference to what Clinton called half of Trump’s supporters, included financier Roy Bailey; Gentry Beach, a long-time Trump friend and another Dallas investor; and former Texas Rangers baseball team owner Tommy Hicks.
Trump joined running-mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, sons Eric and Donald Jr., and daughter Ivanka Trump on one of the other teams.
“We’re still going! Thank you America, #MAGA,” Trump tweeted after the announcement Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Navy launches investigation into sailor who didn't stand for National Anthem
In the Navy, for real? What a IDIOT! |
U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Senior Chief Petty Officer Joel Cesar said it’s up to the sailor’s commander whether she faces any punishment for failing to salute the flag on Sept. 19.
The sailor under investigation is Petty Officer 2nd Class Janaye Ervin, an intelligence specialist in the Navy Reserve. She was recently in Hawaii for about two weeks for an exercise. She’s assigned to the Navy Operational Support Center at North Island, Calif.
Ervin had explained her actions in a since-deleted Facebook book.
"I feel like a hypocrite singing about the 'land of the free' when I know that only applies to some Americans," she wrote. "I will gladly stand again, when ALL AMERICANS are afforded the same freedom."
Ervin said she was threatened with jail time for her actions.
The sailor's failure to salute comes after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick received national attention when he refused to stand for the anthem before NFL preseason games earlier this year. He cited racial injustice and police brutality among the reasons for his actions.
Since then, other athletes all over the U.S. have engaged in their own protests during the anthem.
According to Military.com, Ervin’s protest comes two weeks after another sailor stationed in Pensacola, Fla. filmed herself for the morning ceremony. Officials with the Naval Education and Training Command told Military.com that the unidentified sailor was subject to administrative discipline.
The Navy's protocol handbook says sailors in uniform must salute during the anthem. They must also face the flag, or if a flag is not visible, sailors are required to face the direction of the music.
Troops who don’t stand for the National Anthem could face prosecution under the Navy’s Uniform Code of Military Justice for violating Article 92, which says that troops can be punished for failing to obey a lawful general order.
Hillary Clinton posts backstage picture from debate on Twitter
Now this is what a real president should look like :-) |
If Trump's record on women is fair game, then so is Hillary's, plus 5 more debate takeaways
2. Hillary Clinton does not hold the American people in high esteem. She previously referred to us as a “Basket of Deplorables” and irredeemable. But during the debate she accused us of having an “implicit bias” against African-Americans. She seems to believe the only way to redeem all of us gun-toting, Bible-clinging Deplorables is to shame us into submission.
3. If Donald Trump’s record on women is fair game, then so is Hillary’s. She needs to be called out for taking money from countries that treat women as second-class citizens. She needs to be called out for the terrible things she said about her husband’s “lady friends.” Hillary also took a swipe at Trump’s achievements. She said the only reason he was successful was because of his father. To be fair, Trump could argue that the only reason for Hillary’s success is because of her husband.
4. Trump needs to let go of the birther stuff – even if the mainstream media won’t. And he needs to either release his tax returns or come up with a better excuse for why he won’t.
5. There was no clear winner – but that does not mean Trump lost. In spite of the Mainstream Media’s disgusting narrative, millions of Americans tuned in to discover that Trump does not wear gold-lined bed sheets or burn crosses at Mar-a-Lago.
6. There is bipartisan agreement that Hillary should never do another shoulder shimmy on national television. Ever.
Trump: Campaign has raised nearly $18 million since debate
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told supporters Tuesday that his campaign had raised nearly $18 million since Monday night's debate against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Earlier, Trump had tweeted that he had raised nearly $13 million in the previous 24 hours through online donations and “National Call Day,” a challenge for top fundraisers rewarded for pulling in at least $250,000.
“We’re still going! Thank you America! #MAGA" (Make America Great Again), Trump also said in the tweet. He announced the updated figure at an airport rally in Melbourne, Fla.
Most polls have Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton virtually tied, with less than six weeks before Election Day.
Trump, who essentially self-funded his primary campaign, has largely trailed Clinton in general election fundraising.
Clinton last month raised $143 million, compared to $90 million for Trump.
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“I just learned that we’re only $1 MILLION away from raising a record amount of money in a 24-hour period,” reads the letter, which requests donations of $100 or less. “The press is reporting on it as we speak. But you and I both know that if we don’t break this record now, they’ll use that against us to boost Hillary.”
He also pointed out that both campaigns have just three days left before having to file their final, federal end-of-the-quarter fundraising report and that the second of their three debates is just 12 days away.
“We have to keep fighting, we have to keep pushing,” he wrote in closing. “We can’t get complacent and give up.”
Clinton, Trump trade taunts after testy debate
How the candidates' debate performance will impact the race |
At an evening rally in Melbourne, Fla., Trump said the former secretary of state was "stuck in the past."
"For 90 minutes, on issue after issue, Hillary Clinton defended the terrible status quo, while I laid out a plan to bring back prosperity for the American people," Trump said Tuesday. "For 90 minutes, she argued against change. I want dramatic change."
The real estate mogul added that he was "holding back — I didn't want to do anything to embarrass her." Trump previously said he held back to avoid embarrassing the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, who also was in the debate audience.
Trump repeated several attack lines against Clinton and resurrected the "Crooked Hillary" nickname he gave her earlier in the campaign.
"The only thing she's succeeded at is helping her donors and covering up her crimes," Trump said.
"[He was] kind of digging me for spending time off the campaign trail, getting prepared," Clinton told supporters in Raleigh, N.C. "I'll tell you what else I'm prepared for, prepared to be President of the United States."
Clinton also repeated her debate speculation that Trump is refusing to release his returns because he goes years without paying any federal taxes. "That makes me smart," was Trump's coy response in the debate, but on Tuesday, Clinton insisted it was nothing to brag about.
"If not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?" she asked her supporters.
The next debate between Clinton and Trump will be held Oct. 9 in St. Louis.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Clinton scores by staying on offense, Trump by sticking to serious issues
The tone was cordial at the outset, each candidate being polite to the other while hitting their talking points: she on equal pay for women, he on China and Mexico stealing American jobs.
Hillary Clinton said it was good to be with Donald Trump. Trump said he probably agreed with Clinton on child care. But it didn’t last long.
But Clinton, perhaps surprisingly, was the aggressor all night. She threw the first jabs, saying Trump’s father loaned him $14 million and that he was pushing “Trumped-up trickle-down” to mainly help the wealthy.
Trump came back by saying his dad gave him “a small loan,” made a show of calling her “Secretary Clinton” and said she should have started pushing for jobs years earlier.
“Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis,” she said.
“That’s called business, by the way,” he interrupted.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
When Trump insisted Clinton did nothing to create jobs for 30 years, she smiled and played the spousal card: “I think my husband did a pretty good job in the 1990s.”
It was 20 minutes into the faceoff when Trump finally went on offense, accusing Clinton of dropping her support for the Pacific trade deal to match his opposition.
“You called it the gold standard,” he said.
“Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts,” Clinton countered.
As the debate wore on, Clinton acted bemused at Trump’s charges, smiling and at one point suggesting he was saying “crazy” things. That seemed to aggravate the Republican nominee, who started talking faster and louder in pressing his case.
The good news for Trump is that he was debating serious issues with the former secretary of State, made no obvious gaffes and delivered no low blows.
His overarching indictment seemed to be that politics as usual had created a mess in the country: “Typical politician. All talk, no action, never gonna happen.”
The debate heated up when Holt asked why Trump wouldn’t release his tax returns. He gave his standard answer about an IRS audit but said he’d disclose them if Clinton would release her 33,000 deleted emails.
When Clinton gave an unusually crisp answer—it was a mistake and she would offer no excuses—Trump pounced. He said the private server wasn’t a mistake, that it was intentional, and noted that some of her aides had invoked the Fifth Amendment.
Just as he was getting a little traction, Clinton turned the debate to Trump’s business, saying she had met people “who were stiffed by you and your businesses, Donald,” and that “I’m certainly relieved my late father never did business with you.” Next thing you know, Trump was explaining his four corporate bankruptcies.
The differences were stark when the debate turned to crime. “We have to bring back law and order,” Trump declared. Clinton said it was unfortunate that he was painting “such a dire, negative picture of black communities.”
Clinton missed an opportunity to defend the police when asked if they are biased against blacks, saying many of us have to struggle with implicit bias.
The birtherism section did not go well for Trump. Asked why he had pushed the birther issue against President Obama, Trump blamed Clinton advisers Sidney Blumenthal and Patty Solis Doyle for first floating the issue in 2008. He deflected Holt’s question about why he continued to press the issue after the president produced his birth certificate. Clinton, ignoring his comments about her aides, accused Trump of pushing a “racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen.”
Trump was able to blame the administration for the rise of ISIS, repeating his refrain that American forces should have “taken the oil.” When she said Trump supported the invasion of Iraq (as she did in the Senate), he kept saying “wrong” as she was speaking—a microcosm of the debate.
Holt then declared as fact (which Matt Lauer did not) that Trump had supported the Iraq invasion. Trump called that "mainstream media nonsense," citing, as he has in the past, an interview with Neil Cavuto (in which Trump did not oppose the war) and private conversations with Sean Hannity (which Hannity has confirmed).
The bottom line: Clinton set the pace for the Long Island debate, and Trump spent much of his time responding. He scored his points, but often as a counterpuncher.
A final word about the moderator: Holt lost control of the debate several times. And he was more aggressive against Donald Trump. He asked Trump a hard question about not releasing his tax returns, but didn’t do the same with Clinton’s email mess, merely asking her to respond after Trump raised it in rebuttal. He pressed Trump three times on the birther issue, with no comparable attempt to pin down Clinton.
Holt's fact-checking attempts were all against Trump. He followed up on Trump’s call for stop-and-frisk tactics against crime, saying that in New York it was struck down by the courts. And he backed Clinton on Trump's lack of public opposition to the 2003 Iraq war.
Holt often let the candidates go at it, and go at it they did. But his role may prove to be as controversial as what the nominees said.
Agency probes whether California Dem Party funneled illicit oil donations to governor
What's next for Jerry Brown amid illicit oil money scandal? |
“It was a laundry machine for dirty energy contributions to the Brown administration, a slush fund of sorts, hiding big oil, utility and other dirty energy dollars in close proximity to officials’ actions,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, the group that brought the complaint.
A Consumer Watchdog report “Brown’s Dirty Hands” highlighted transactions between 2011 and 2014 that seem to show contributions from Chevron, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. were given to the state’s Democratic Party around the time the party gave Brown’s campaign donations of similar amounts.
“Twenty-six energy companies with business before the state greased the skids via $9.85 million in political donations to Brown’s gubernatorial campaigns, ballot initiatives, favorite causes ... and the California Democratic Party since Brown’s run for office in 2010,” the report alleged.
In all, the companies gave $4.4 million to the state party, which gave Brown’s re-election campaigns $4.7 million.
Galena West, chief of enforcement for the Fair Political Practices Commission, confirmed Friday it is now investigating the California Democratic Party “for alleged violation of the Political Reform Act’s campaign reporting provisions resulting from information contained in your sworn complaint.”
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
California Democratic Party spokesman Michael Soller told the Los Angeles Times his group has received the letter from West and they have “been cooperating fully with their inquiry.”
Brown over the years has sided squarely with environmentalists on issues like climate change, but also has sparred with them in other policy disputes.
Consumer Watchdog often has gone after Brown and other state Democratic leaders over the years.
In March, the FPPC opened an investigation into Brown’s executive secretary, Nancy McFadden, over a similar Consumer Watchdog complaint.
Calls to Brown’s office by FoxNews.com were not immediately returned.
A spokesman for the governor told The San Diego Union-Tribune, “The decision not to broaden the investigation speaks for itself.”
Consumer Watchdog, in its report, also questioned the timing of company contributions and alleged they were made the same time the governor was discussing California’s climate change initiatives.
“The timing on donations suggests that the Brown Administration used the Democratic Party as a pass-through to Brown committees as reward for legislative or regulatory action on behalf of these companies,” the report said. “For example, at the end of December 2013, three months after weakened fracking legislation was chaptered, Chevron donated $350,000 to the Democratic Party. One week later, the party donated $300,000 to Brown for Governor 2014, while Chevron donated $54,400 to the campaign that day—the maximum amount allowed.”
A few weeks later, Brown came out against the oil severance tax that Consumer Watchdog argues would have produced billions for the state.
“Chevron had long opposed the tax,” the report said.
“Hopefully this will shed some light on what looks like a backdoor laundry machine for energy company contributions and probably extends beyond the energy industry,” Court said in a statement.
Trump questions Clinton's temperament, calls her 'out of control'
Donald Trump tried at Monday's debate to turn the tables on presidential rival Hillary Clinton, questioning her temperament and calling her “totally out of control” during a recent speech.
Trump, the Republican nominee, was referring to a video address Clinton, the Democratic nominee, gave last week to a union group in Las Vegas in which she touted her support for big labor, then loudly asked, “Why aren’t I 50 points ahead? … I need you to get Donald Trump’s record out to everybody.”
Trump said near the close of the 90-minute debate, “I don’t know who you were talking to, Secretary Clinton, but you were totally out of control. I said, ‘There’s a person that’s got a temperament problem. That’s out of control.’ ”
Clinton and others previously have called into question Trump’s temperament, with Clinton repeatedly suggesting it makes him “unfit to serve as president.”
On Monday, she said shooting Iranian vessels “out of the water” for approaching U.S. vessels in international waters in the Persian Gulf, as Trump recently suggested, would be tantamount to an act of war.
“I have better judgement,” Trump said. “I also have a much better temperament than she does. I think my strongest asset, maybe, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.”
Trump goes after Fed Reserve's Yellen, claims she's 'more political' than Clinton
Fed Reserve Janet Yellen |
He also called her “more political” than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“We have a Fed that’s doing political thing -- this Janet Yellen of the Fed -- by keeping interest rates at this level,” Trump said. “The day Obama goes off … playing golf for the rest of his life, when they raise interest rates, you are going to see some bad things happen.”
It was not the first time that Trump, a wealthy businessman, has come after Yellen and the Reserve about rates.
Last week, Yellen, the Reserve’s chairman, told reporters that “partisan politics play no role in our decisions” about setting short-term rates.
“We are in a very big, ugly bubble,” Trump said Monday. “The Fed is not doing its job. The Fed is being is more political than Hillary Clinton.”
Trump, Clinton clash at fiery first debate on trade, tax returns, temperament
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, in a fiery opening debate where seemingly nothing was off limits, clashed sharply Monday night as the Republican nominee worked to cast his rival as a career politician unable to bring change – and the Democratic nominee fought to tag Trump as an empty suit “hiding” something from the American public.
Entering their first encounter after a solid week of intense preparation, Clinton seemed ready for several of Trump’s taunts on stage at Hofstra University.
When Trump, discussing how he’d been “all over” the country talking to inner-city communities, said, “You decided to stay home, and that’s okay” – Clinton had a swift retort.
“I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes, I did,” Clinton said. “And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Later in the debate, Trump summed up his counter-argument in a few words: “Hillary has experience, but it’s bad experience.”
The debate took a number of twists and turns, and it’s unclear how and whether it will tilt the race at a time when the polls are tightening. The general election rivals will meet twice more on the debate stage next month.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Trump, toward the close of the debate, tried to undermine Clinton’s persistent argument that he’s temperamentally unfit for the nation’s highest office.
“I have a winning temperament. I know how to win,” Trump said, before contrasting that against Clinton’s widely mocked video-conference address last week to a labor union. Trump told Clinton “you were totally out of control.”
She countered: “A man who can be provoked by a tweet should not have his fingers anywhere near the nuclear codes.”
Trump also repeated his charge that Clinton “doesn’t have the stamina,” while Clinton responded by reviewing her secretary of state resume.
“As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease fire, release of dissidents … or even spends 11 hours testifying before a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina,” she said.
Trump used the debate to hammer campaign themes like calling for a return to “law and order” and vowing to bring jobs back to America. Clinton focused on rebuilding middle-class America as well.
But in between, the debate veered into personal shots.
Trump reached back to the 1990s to hammer her former president husband Bill Clinton over NAFTA, which he called “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere,” and remind voters about her controversial comment from that era referring to some young criminals as “super predators.”
Clinton, though, had a sharp exchange with Trump as she challenged him to release his tax returns, which Trump has said he can’t do because of an audit.
Clinton questioned whether Trump is really as wealthy as he claims and said, “There’s something he’s hiding.”
Trump issued Clinton a challenge of his own, saying he’ll defy his lawyers’ advice and release his taxes if she releases the “33,000 emails” she erased.
“As soon as she releases them, I will release my tax returns,” Trump said.
The tone of the debate seemed to get more caustic as the debate neared its end.
Clinton said of Trump, “This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs.”
And they traded shots over Trump’s role in questioning President Obama’s birthplace. Clinton said he peddled a “racist lie,” while Trump said Clinton aides played a role as well.
“When you try to act holier than thou, it really doesn’t work,” he said.
The debate was moderated by Lester Holt, who stayed out of the fray initially but toward the end challenged Trump on a handful of assertions including his claim he opposed the Iraq war.
At one point, Trump also accused Clinton of “fighting ISIS your entire adult life,” and she later mocked him for blaming her for “everything” and saying what she described as “crazy things.”
The Democratic nominee also ripped Trump over his tax plan, which she said would “blow up the debt” while mainly benefiting the wealthy.
“I call it trumped-up trickle down,” she said. “That is not how we grow the economy.”
Trump, meanwhile, described Clinton as late-to-the-game when it comes to scrutinizing American trade deals.
“Secretary Clinton and others … should have been doing this for years, not right now,” he said.
He said he wanted to keep jobs and business in the United States by threatening to tax companies that move jobs outside the U.S. He told Clinton pointedly, “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. … I will bring back jobs. You can’t bring back jobs.”
He made a similar argument about her ability to take on the Islamic State.
“You were secretary of state when it was a little infant. Now it’s in over 30 countries. And you’re gonna stop them? I don’t think so,” he said.
The presidential debate, six weeks before Election Day, was the first of three in the final stretch of the campaign. The general election foes’ first face-off came as polling consistently shows a tightening race, in national surveys as well as in the battlegrounds that will decide the election.
This put even more pressure on the candidates to turn in a stellar performance Monday night, and seize the advantage going into October. Polls show both candidates are viewed negatively by sizeable swaths of the electorate – but Clinton faced the primary task of settling questions about her honesty while Trump faced the task of proving to voters he’s ready for the nation’s highest office.
The debate, though, seemed to gloss over two of the biggest trouble spots in Clinton’s record – her personal email use as secretary of state and ethical questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation. The latter issue did not come up during the debate, while the emails were addressed briefly.
While Trump has assailed Clinton throughout the campaign as dishonest, the Clinton campaign increasingly has pushed a narrative that Trump is temperamentally unfit to lead. The former secretary of state has enjoyed some help from influential voices in the media establishment, with The New York Times and Washington Post both publishing editorials Monday morning echoing that theme.
But Trump has dismissed such critiques, maintaining the public confidence heading into Hofstra that he exuded throughout the Republican primaries – during which the first-time candidate and debater vanquished 16 foes and dominated the stage over the roughly dozen early-season debates.
That record rendered him a rival not to be underestimated by the Clinton camp, which spent days preparing the Democratic nominee in study and mock-debate sessions even while Trump was out campaigning last week.
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