Congressional Candidate Curses Out Reporter
Congressional candidate and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino (R) went on a screaming, profanity-laced tirade with a Politico reporter who asked him to clarify his criticisms of a news story.
Trump Staffers Spread Racist Views
“Donald Trump’s paid campaign staffers have declared on their personal social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be U.S. citizens, ridiculed Mexican accents, called for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged and stated their readiness for a possible civil war,” according to an Associated Press review of their postings.
“The campaign has employed a mix of veteran political operatives and outsiders. Most come across as dedicated, enthusiastic partisans, but at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.”
Clinton Foundation Prepares to Scale Down
“The Clinton Foundation is preparing to scale back operations and hand off nearly all the ongoing programs that make up the organization’s work around the world, following a months-long internal effort to plan for Hillary Clinton’s possible election,” BuzzFeed reports.
Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton “outlined plans underway to find new homes for existing programs, speaking at points in deeply personal terms about his work for the last 15 years, according to an account of the 30-minute meeting, provided by a participant.”
Why Democrats Should Fear an October Surprise
John Fund: “Hillary must also remember what happened exactly 20 years ago during her husband’s campaign for reelection… Bill Clinton had to run out the clock on a growing campaign-finance scandal that in the last month of the campaign changed the dynamics of what had been a complete cakewalk of a race. Clinton ended up winning by eight points over Bob Dole (49 percent to 41 percent, with Ross Perot taking 9 percent of the vote). But that loss was not nearly as bad as Republicans had feared. Six final pre-election polls had Clinton winning by anywhere from eleven to 16 points. The New York Times/CBS poll was the most off-base, showing Clinton beating Dole 53 to 35 percent. CNN’s final tracking poll had Clinton ahead by 16 points. The respected Pew Research Center issued a final poll showing Clinton ahead 52 percent to 38 percent, a 14-point lead almost double the actual results on Election Day.”
“Those bad numbers prompted political experts Michael Barone and Everett Ladd to call for an investigation into how the polling industry had bungled the numbers so badly. Bill Clinton had his own answer. He told journalist Elizabeth Drew after the election that negative coverage of the fundraising scandal involving DNC finance vice chairman John Huang.”
Trump’s Best Week Yet?
Rick Klein: “If that was the best week of Donald Trump’s campaign, as his new campaign manager contends, even his closest allies are grading him on a serious curve. Trump just fired his previous campaign chief, of course, after a series of damaging revelations about his ties to Russia. He also disclosed a campaign-finance report that revealed his operation to be ‘more concert tour than presidential campaign,’ in the judgment of The New York Times. His new and overt efforts to reach out to black and Hispanic voters were clumsy and contradictory; even know it’s not clear if he would go ahead with his plan for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.”
“But he did go a week without seeming to offend a new ethnic group, and made his first move in the direction of apologizing for his past insults. Most importantly to the legions of Republicans who would rather support the GOP nominee than not, he showed that he’s trying to win. He may not be capable of long-term discipline. For now, though, Trump appears to be listening to advice of those around him.”
Why Trump Can’t Back Away on Immigration
First Read: “Since launching his presidential candidacy 14 months ago, Donald Trump’s most consistent and uncompromising policy issue has been immigration. Indeed, it was the subject of his first general-election TV ad that started airing on Friday. Yet over the weekend, his top aides and advisers suggested that Trump might be shifting on his past position that all of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States must be deported forcibly. ‘To be determined,’ is what newly minted Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway said on CNN when asked if Trump was retreating on the ‘deportation force’ he talked about during the primary season.”
“But here’s why it’s so hard — if not impossible — for Trump to retreat on immigration: He’s caught between his clear, unambiguous past statements and a base that might not willing to see him moderate on the issue.”
State Poll Roundup: Monday
Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
South Carolina: Trump 41%, Clinton 37% (Gravis)
North Carolina: Trump 39%, Clinton 38% (Gravis)
Alaska: Trump 39%, Clinton 30% (Ivan Moore Research)
Ohio: Clinton 43%, Trump 39% (Monmouth)
‘All It Takes Is One Wrong Move’
Hillary Clinton is out with a new ad hitting Donald Trump on his readiness to be commander-in-chief.
The Trump Spin Cycle
From Ben Pershing of National Journal:
- Trump blurts something out on TV
- Media analyzes strategic “shift”
- There is no “shift” (and therefore no strategy).
Is Georgia Really In Play?
CBS News: “Hearing the words ‘Georgia’ and ‘battleground state’ in the same sentence seems almost inconceivable to modern political observers, for whom the Southern state has long been seen as a Republican stronghold on the national level. But the combination of Donald Trump’s candidacy and the long-shifting demographics of the state have some Democrats thinking it could finally be within reach—enough so that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is opting to invest additional resources into the state.”
“It would still certainly be an uphill climb for Clinton and her campaign, according to veteran Georgia operatives on both sides of the aisle. But it’s within the realm of possibility, a testament to just how much Trump as the Republican nominee has the potential to alter the map of true battlegrounds this fall.”
The HuffPost Pollster average shows Trump leading Clinton in Georgia 44% to 42%.
What If Trump Won’t Accept Defeat?
Politico: “By hiring Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, a media provocateur in his own image, and accepting the resignation of the man who was supposed to professionalize him, Trump is signaling the final 78 days of his presidential campaign will be guided by a staff that indulges his deeply held conspiracy theories and validates his hermetically sealed worldview.”
“That includes his insistence that the only way he loses is in a “rigged” election. According to two long-time Trump associates, the notion of a fixed election isn’t just viewed as smart politics inside Trump Tower; it’s something the GOP nominee believes.”
Wonk Wire: Just 11% of Trump supporters are very confident in accurate vote count.
GOP Holds New Voter Registration Edge In Key States
Politico: “Trump’s poll numbers remain dire, but he can point to at least one ray of hope for a turnaround: Republicans have continued gaining ground in recent months in voter registration in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Iowa, while the late surge in Democratic registrations relative to Republican registrations that occurred in battleground states the final months of the 2012 election had not materialized in numbers released in early August.”
Should Democrats Go Big?
“Democrats are starting to fight about what they want Hillary Clinton’s win to look like: Play it safe and focus on beating Donald Trump in the states that will decide the election, or try to run up the score and clobber him?,” Politico reports.
“For strategists preparing for the final phase of the campaign, this is a question of how to allocate money, staff, attention and operations. But it’s really a question of confidence and appetite for risk. Democrats looking at good polls now are torn between being nervous they’ll regret going big and nervous that they’ll regret not going big.”
Quote of the Day
“This is the demise of the Republican Party. This is an opportunity, I think, for the Libertarian Party to become a major party.”
— Gary Johnson, in an interview on CNBC, on Donald Trump’s candidacy.
3 Attack Lines on Clinton That Trump Is Missing
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Giuliani Stokes Theory That Clinton Is Sick
Rudy Giuliani said the media “fails to point out several signs” of Hillary Clinton’s “illness” adding that “all you gotta do is go online,” Politico reports.
Said Giuliani: “Go online and put down ‘Hillary Clinton illness,’ take a look at the videos yourself.”
Is Trump TV the End Game?
Former Breitbart News spokesman and political strategist Kurt Bardella on CNN:
There is no doubt that there is a broader plan at play to extend the Trump brand and a conversation that they’re initiating right now beyond the November election. When you have a person who up until a week ago was running a major audience-driven media entity [Breitbart chief Steve Bannon], when you know he’s obviously having regularly conversations with Roger Ailes who helped build FOX News, there’s not doubt that you don’t bring people like that into your orbit versus traditional campaign personnel who know how to run national campaigns.
He’s making the case every day of when he loses this election, it will be because the media had it out for him and we need an alternative to make sure this never happens again.
For members: Maybe Trump Isn’t Trying to Win