“Over the years, Donald Trump or his businesses have been accused of stiffing carpenters, dishwashers and lawyers, leaving a trail of lawsuits and grudges in his wake. Now he is in a billing dispute with one of his own campaign aides,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission indicates that his campaign has disputed a bill for $766,756 from a vendor, the well-regarded Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “As of this writing (Monday afternoon), Clinton leads in every national poll now except for the controversial University of Southern California/Los Angeles Times panel, a survey that has had a pronounced Republican lean the entire cycle. Some of the national polls, though, are very close. Her leads in Rust Belt states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin appear durable, although Trump’s team is arguing that it can put these states into play. We agree that a potential path to victory for Trump might include one or more of these states, but at this point there’s precious little indication from polling that he can win them: Clinton has led every post-convention poll in each state included in the RealClearPolitics average.”
“However, the potential outcomes in some of the most competitive states on the Electoral College map are now more uncertain. These developments, along with recent polling data, precipitate ratings shifts in Arizona, Florida, and Ohio. We are moving all three from Leans Democratic to Toss-up.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has strongly encouraged Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) re-election bid in 2018, the Texas Tribune reports.
Rick Klein: “The Clinton campaign responded to the unusual letter from FBI Director James Comey by unloading on the messenger with an argument that carries troubling implications. The Clinton campaign is suggesting that political motivations were behind Comey’s move… Eric Holder and nearly 100 former Justice Department officials wrote a letter calling Comey out from their perspective.”
“Then there’s Harry Reid, unleashing the sort of campaign tactic he brought in 2012 when he said (falsely) on the Senate floor that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes. The Senate minority leader wrote a letter to Comey saying he may have violated federal law with a ‘clear intent to aid one political party over another.’ Reid also did his best Roger Stone in writing that Comey is withholding ‘explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors and the Russian government.'”
“The Clinton camp may have had no choice this late than to go to war with Comey. But what shouldn’t be lost is this means the campaign of the Democratic nominee for president – the candidate who wasn’t complaining about a rigged election– is now asking voters to question whether the director of the FBI is trying to influence the election’s outcome.”
Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Georgia: Trump 49%, Clinton 42%, Johnson 3% (SurveyUSA)
New Hampshire: Trump 45%, Clinton 43%, Johnson 4% (Praecones Analytica)
Nevada: Trump 48%, Clinton 44%, Johnson 4% (Remington)
Colorado: Clinton 44%, Trump 45%, Johnson 4% (Remington)
Florida: Trump 48%, Clinton 44%, Johnson 2% (Remington)
Virginia: Clinton 48%, Trump 43%, Johnson 3% (Remington)
Ohio: Trump 48%, Clinton 43%, Johnson 3% (Remington)
Pennsylvania: Clinton 45%, Trump 43%, Johnson 3% (Remington)
North Carolina: Trump 47%, Clinton 45%, Johnson 2% (Remington)
Indiana: Trump 50%, Clinton 39%, Johnson 4% (Monmouth)
“Please God, let this end soon.”
— DNC chair Donna Brazile, on Twitter.
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds Hillary Clinton has a slim three-point lead over Donald Trump one week before Election Day, 42% to 39%, with Gary Johnson at 7% and Jill Stein at 5%.
“In a separate poll conducted before Comey’s disclosure, Clinton was leading by three points in the four-way race… Put simply, there is not yet evidence that the revelations have drastically altered the contours of the election.”
For members: A Reality Check
The latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll finds Hillary Clinton is seen unfavorably by 60% of likely voters in the latest results, a new high. Trump is seen unfavorably by essentially as many — 58%.
Marking the depth of these views, 49% see Clinton “strongly” unfavorably, and 48% say the same about Trump –- unusual levels of strong sentiment.
In the horse race, Clinton edges Trump by one point, 46% to 45%, with Gary Johnson at 4% and Jill Stein at 2%.
Huma Abedin “has told colleagues she was taken aback when she learned that the FBI found her emails on a laptop belonging to her estranged husband Anthony Weiner and doesn’t know how the messages got there,” Politico reports.
“The newly found emails number in the tens of thousands or more, with at least some pertaining to the period when Abedin worked for the State Department from 2009 to 2013, first as a deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Clinton’s and later as a consultant.”
“Donald Trump initially offered the vice-presidential running-mate slot to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but then withdrew it, sources said,” the New York Post reports.
After lobbying by his family, Trump agreed to name Gov. Mike Pence and broke the news to Christie, saying it would “tear my family apart if I gave you VP.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some 30% of undecided voters call themselves Republicans, compared with 21% who call themselves Democrats, an analysis of Wall Street Journal/NBC News national polling shows.”
“In another sign of the Republican tilt of undecided voters, some 42% of those voters say they want the next Congress to be controlled by the GOP, suggesting that they are Republicans at heart. Some 35% say they prefer Democratic control.”
Richard Branson writes about first meeting Donald Trump:
Some years ago, Mr Trump invited me to lunch for a one-to-one meeting at his apartment in Manhattan. We had not met before and I accepted. Even before the starters arrived he began telling me about how he had asked a number of people for help after his latest bankruptcy and how five of them were unwilling to help. He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people.
He didn’t speak about anything else and I found it very bizarre.
“Federal investigators have obtained a warrant to begin searching a large cache of emails belonging to a top aide to Hillary Clinton, federal law enforcement officials said Sunday, as prosecutors and F.B.I. agents scrambled to review as much of the information as possible before Election Day,” the New York Times reports.
“It remains unclear, though, whether they can finish their work by then.”
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said that FBI Director James Comey “may have violated a federal law when he disclosed, less than two weeks before the presidential election, that his office was pursuing potential new evidence related to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Reid: “I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
“Federal agents are preparing to scour roughly 650,000 emails contained on the laptop of former Rep. Anthony Weiner to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, as metadata on the device suggests there may be thousands sent to or from the private server that the Democratic nominee used while she was secretary of state,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The review will take weeks at a minimum to determine whether those messages are work-related emails between Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide and the estranged wife of Mr. Weiner, and State Department officials; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe.”
Politico: “In the hours after FBI Director James Comey threw a wrench into Hillary Clinton’s home-stretch plans, her campaign launched into an uncharacteristic frenzy of activity, quickly trying to turn the development into a base-energizing tool. But in her New York headquarters and her battleground state outposts, the news sent shivers down operatives’ spines, and immediately had them scrambling to gauge the effect on voters they need most…”
“Clinton’s strategists have projected a confident front, shrugging off any possible impact from Friday’s bombshell news and pointing to weeks of strong early voting and persistent polling leads, even as they blast Comey for re-injecting the email issue into the race with his cryptic letter to Congress. Their goal is now to convert Democrats’ anxiety over the FBI chief’s move into a fury and a rallying point for a base that has flirted with overconfidence in recent weeks.”
“He is like a recurring nightmare. It’s like one of those Damien movies – it’s like every time you think he’s dead, he keeps coming again.”
— Rev. Al Sharpton, quoted by the New York Times, on disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY).
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.