Mark Burnett, the creator of “The Apprentice” says he does not have the legal ability to release footage from the show, denying reports that he is intentionally blocking the release of footage that may harm Donald Trump, CNN reports.
BuzzFeed reported that Burnett had privately threatened to sue staff if they leaked tapes to the media.
Priorities USA, the leading super PAC trying to elect Hillary Clinton, “is preparing to expand beyond the presidential race and potentially run television ads focused on a handful of competitive Senate races,” CNN reports.
“According to a source familiar with the plans, Priorities USA is currently producing television ads to potentially air in Senate contests in North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all competitive races that are also battleground states for the presidential race.”
“I don’t characterize that as sexual assault.”
— Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), quoted by the Weekly Standard, on whether Donald Trump’s comments that he could “grab them by the pussy” was sexual assault.
The Lid: “But here’s another wrinkle that further complicates that bleak picture for the GOP: Despite the fact that Trump is now losing by double digits, fully two-thirds of Republicans say that others in their party should stick with the nominee. Just nine percent say that downballot Republicans should renounce their support of Trump, and 14 percent say they should call on Trump to quit. That’s a very, very tough place for Republicans to be right now.”
For members: A Looming Disaster for Republicans
“As Donald Trump’s campaign unravels, the Republican National Committee has gone dark — failing to give GOP vendors guidance on whether to keep working for the nominee or to move resources into down-ballot races, and not even returning calls from party members ahead of a critical late-afternoon meeting about the way forward,” Politico reports.
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) told the New York Times there was “a general sense in the House that more humiliating disclosures about Mr. Trump were likely to come before Nov. 8, Election Day.”
Said Rigell: “There’s a consensus, even among supporters, that the likelihood of something else breaking in a very embarrassing and negative fashion, is certainly better than 50-50. The conference, members, et cetera, are bracing themselves for another salvo of this.”
“During Sunday’s debate, Donald Trump once again said he doesn’t know whether Russia is trying to hack the U.S. election, despite Friday’s statement by the U.S. intelligence community pointing the finger at Putin — and despite the fact that Trump was personally briefed on Russia’s role in the hacks by U.S. officials,” NBC News reports.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is counseling individual senators and candidates about how to position themselves alongside Trump — without dictating strategy — as he talks them through the political perils of this election cycle,” Politico reports.
“Officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent all weekend talking to candidates and campaign aides, urging them to be prepared to talk about Trump wherever they go but declining to offer explicit advice on whether Republicans should pull their support from Trump.”
“Republicans are still waiting for later this week to see just how bad the damage is in battleground states before they consider reevaluating their support for the Republican nominee, who was caught on tape in 2005 boasting about sexual conquests and describing grabbing women’s genitals.”
“The real campaign manager, in fact, the entire time, has been Jared Kushner, who is still the real campaign manager, even today.”
— A Trump adviser, quoted by the New Yorker., on Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 11 points nationally, 46% to 35%, with Gary Johnson at 9%.
The poll was taken after the video of Trump making lewd comments was disclosed but before last night’s debate.
In the generic congressional ballot, Democrats lead Republicans, 49% to 42%.
“Speaker Paul Ryan told House Republicans on a conference call Monday morning he is done defending Donald Trump and will focus on keeping an increasingly imperiled House majority, according to sources on the call,” Politico reports.
Said Ryan: “You all need to do what’s best for you in your district.”
Washington Post: “The speaker, who has pledged to vote for Trump, did not address whether he would revoke his official endorsement, said a second source present on the call. The tone of that call, which lasted roughly an hour, added that source, was ‘nervous.'”
Nate Silver: “These instant-reaction polls actually do have a correlation with post-debate horse-race polls: The candidate who wins the former usually gains in the latter. Perhaps Clinton’s win was modest enough that this will be an exception, especially given that the sentiments of pundits and television commentators (which sometimes matter as much as the debate itself) were all over the map.”
“So suppose that we call the debate a draw. Suppose, furthermore that the tape the Post published didn’t damage Trump. Instead, let’s say the polls look about the same a week from now as they do today, with Clinton holding a 5 or 6 percentage point lead. Maybe Clinton’s numbers were a little inflated after the first debate and Trump has even gained a point or two, somehow.”
“That’s still a fairly awful position for Trump with time running out, undecided voters getting off the sidelines, early voting already taking place in many states and little or no ground game to help provide a strong finishing kick. There’s the third debate, but without an extremely strong performance in that one, Trump is probably left hoping for an ‘October surprise’ or a big polling error (not impossible, but it would have to be larger than the 4-point margin by which Brexit polls missed).”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball moves Ohio to Hillary Clinton’s column:
There has been a lot written about why Donald Trump will perform better in Ohio than nationally — we devoted an entire article to it last week. Both the state’s history of having a slight Republican lean and its current demographics make it friendlier to Trump than the nation as a whole. However, polling in the state is showing that Donald Trump’s lead from a few weeks ago has evaporated, and the most recent surveys actually have had Clinton ahead. We’ve also caught wind of some unreleased polling that mirrors these results. If Clinton has a national lead of around four or five points, there’s good reason to think that Ohio will end up voting for her, even if it has a redder tint than usual.
The Clinton campaign also appears to be redoubling its efforts in this historic bellwether, further putting to bed rumors that the Clinton campaign might not be focusing much on the state (although one never knows what might happen in the final month of this contest). Clinton herself is campaigning on Monday in Columbus, a place where she will likely need to match or probably even exceed Obama’s performance to win the state, and President Obama is campaigning in Cleveland and Columbus later in the week. On Thursday, Trump will be in Cincinnati, the heart of vote-rich southwest Ohio, a conservative region that is vital to any Republican’s statewide chances.
If Clinton wins Ohio, Trump has no path to victory. No Republican has ever won the White House without it, and, particularly in this election, Ohio’s demographics should make it relatively low-hanging fruit for the Republicans. So we now have Trump as the underdog in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, three electoral vote-rich states that he absolutely needs to have any chance to win.
“It’s absolutely false… It’s the greatest honor of my life.”
— Gov. Mike Pence, in an interview on CNN when asked if he was going to drop off the Republican ticket.
After last night’s debate, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway suggested that some of the male members of Congress who are not supporting Donald Trump have sexually harassed women, according to CBS News.
A CNN poll finds Hillary Clinton won the second presidential debate with Donald Trump by a wide margin, 57% to 34%.
A YouGov survey also found Clinton the winner, 47% to 42%.
Politico: “Trump, who has effectively squandered his chance of becoming president due to a bumbling, gaffe-marred two-week interim between the first debate and Sunday’s showdown in St. Louis, was the aggressor for much of the debate. But his marginally successful attacks over Obamacare and Clinton’s email controversy were aimed mainly at his own base, as were his hot-tempered hyperbole and gruff stage presence—he actually seemed to stalk Clinton, standing behind her, scowling as she answered questions posed by undecided voters in a town hall-style setting.”
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.