Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon says Donald Trump is “the master of the head fake,” CNN reports.
Bannon said the news that President Obama’s Trump-supporting half-brother Malik Obama is attending tonight’s final presidential debate is “just an appetizer.”
He added that Trump will be bringing guests who “expose Bill and Hillary’s sordid past.”
Donald Trump’s campaign manager said that she did not think the election will be rigged, though she argued that there’s “a larger conspiracy” working against her candidate, Politico reports.
Said Kellyanne Conway: “No, I do not believe that. So absent overwhelming evidence that there is, it would not be for me to say that there is.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is hitting back against Donald Trump’s claim that the election is “rigged,” CBS News reports.
Said Kasich: “Look, to say that elections are rigged and all these votes are stolen — that’s like saying we never landed on the moon, frankly. That’s how silly it is.”
Esquire reports Donald Trump himself made a surprise guest-greeting cameo at his own country club:
We dashed through a door from the main wedding hall and, boom!, I found myself in a small reading room with around six people, one of whom was Donald Trump. I froze. I had spent more than a year losing sleep over this man’s reprehensible speech, fretting that he was doing everything possible to incite a post-election day Civil War. Months’ worth of cable news panels, sober newspaper investigations, tweets, racist memes, speeches and debates flashed before my eyes and in that moment I knew there was only one thing to do: immediately retrieve my girlfriend, as I knew she’d want to get a photo…
Brielle got plenty of pictures with him and, once he cleared out, I asked her if he had touched her inappropriately. I was only half-joking.
Rick Klein: “Yes, Trump needs something dramatic to redirect a race that’s careening away from him. That will leave him prosecuting his case against Clinton, with some of the usual stunts, and at least one highly unusual one (inviting President Obama’s half-brother?). Clinton needs to answer that, perhaps more aggressively than at the second debate, where she seemed content to watch Trump’s implosion from some distance away.”
“But Clinton’s challenge Wednesday night in Las Vegas is different, at least so far as the debate has bearing on Nov. 9 as well as Nov. 8. Clinton is now less than three weeks away from being elected president, barring a stunning collapse. Acting like that means not just rebutting and attacking Trump but going broad, reminding voters of her promise, not just her opponent’s weaknesses. There’s an opportunity if not an urgency for her to use the final presidential debate to appear downright presidential.”
Olivia Nuzzi has a great profile of Scottie Nell Hughes:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said the presidential race is creating uncertainty for down-ballot races like hers that she hasn’t experienced before, the AP reports.
“Murkowski lost her 2010 primary to Joe Miller but won an improbable general election write-in campaign to retain her seat. This year is different than any of her past races, though, because of the uncertainty injected by the presidential race, she said.”
Politico: “Ever since Ryan distanced himself from the top of his party’s ticket one week ago, a frustrated and reeling Trump has lashed out at the Wisconsin Republican on a near-daily basis. Ryan has become one of Trump’s favorite targets. Yet instead of parrying the attacks and defending himself, the speaker has deployed a strategy of complete disregard: pretend he can’t hear the loudest guy in politics and focus solely on protecting his suddenly fragile House majority.”
“She has so many advantages. She has endless money. She’s got a lot of the media. She has a very popular president and first lady campaigning for her… I will tell you, I am mystified as to why she can’t get to those 52, 53 percent numbers in some of these states given the disadvantages we’re handed every day.”
— Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, quoted by Politico, arguing that Hillary Clinton should have a bigger lead.
New York Times: “The new arrangement calls for the candidates’ spouses to enter the hall closer to their seats, rather than crossing the room, and each other’s paths. That would avoid any potential for confrontations, given Mr. Trump’s penchant for dramatic stunts.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tells ABC News Republicans are making a mistake by jumping on allegedly hacked emails released by Wikileaks to criticize Hillary Clinton. In fact, he says he won’t talk about the hacked emails at all.
Said Rubio: “As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it. Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us.”
A new Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll finds Gov. Chris Christie’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point yet — just 21% — and is approaching a record level for any New Jersey governor in recent memory.
A new Bloomberg poll shows Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 9 percentage points nationally, 47% to 38%, with Gary Johnson at 8% and Jill Stein at 3%.
Key finding: “Among those with no college degree, her edge is 48% to 44%, erasing Trump’s 8-point advantage in September. Among whites with college degrees—a longtime Republican stronghold—she expanded her lead to 13 points.”
A new Brookings/PRRI poll shows Clinton leading by 15 percentage points, 51% to 36%.
Politico: “Last time Trump suggested Clinton was the devil, said she had ‘hate in her heart’ and paraded Bill Clinton’s accusers in front of the debate stage. And that was ten days ago, when he was doing better in the polls.”
New York Times: “Snubbed by Mr. Ryan in the final month of the campaign, Mr. Trump has seemed as eager to attack turncoat leaders in his own party as to make the case against Mrs. Clinton. He has reserved special venom for Mr. Ryan, blasting him as a weak leader with bad ideas about trade and immigration, and suggesting that Mr. Ryan might be sabotaging Mr. Trump’s campaign to pave the way for a presidential run of his own in four years.”
“These attacks have the potential to rip apart the Republican Party in ways that will last long beyond Election Day. Should Mr. Trump use a prime-time debate to sic the Republican base on its leaders — and to cast himself, essentially, as an independent candidate challenging elites on the left and right — he could inflict damage on the party far deeper than what Mrs. Clinton might deliver on her own.”
“Warning darkly of a stolen election, Donald Trump has called on supporters to turn out in droves on Election Day to monitor polling places, telling them they need to be vigilant against widespread voter fraud and a rigged outcome,” the New York Times reports.
“His language has stirred increasing fears of intimidation of minorities inside polling places, where their qualifications to vote could be challenged, or outside, where they would face illegal electioneering.”
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.