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Pro-Trump Misinformation Is Big Business

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BuzzFeed News identified more than 100 pro-Trump websites being run from a single Macedonian town.

The young Macedonians who run these sites don’t care about Donald Trump. They are responding to straightforward economic incentives: As Facebook regularly reveals in earnings reports, a US Facebook user is worth about four times a user outside the US. The fraction-of-a-penny-per-click of U.S. display advertising — a declining market for American publishers — goes a long way in Veles. Several teens and young men who run these sites told BuzzFeed News that they learned the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.

Eric Trump Says David Duke Deserves ‘a Bullet’

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Eric Trump told KHOW Denver that former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke deserves “a bullet.”

Said Trump: “Ross, it’s disgusting and by the way, if I said exactly what you said, I’d get killed for it but I think I’ll say it anyway. The guy does deserve a bullet. I mean, these aren’t good people. These are horrible people.”

He added: “In fact, I commend my father. My father’s the first Republican who’s gone out and said, ‘Listen, what’s happened to the African-American community is horrible and I’m going to take care of it.'”

Georgia Governor Refers To ‘Colored People’ In Speech

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“A racially charged phrase used by Governor Nathan Deal during a speech to educators has the governor saying he made a mistake in what he said, but not in what he meant,” Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Said Deal: “The irony of some of the groups who are opposing doing something to help these minority children is beyond my logic. If you want to advance the state of colored people, start with their children.”

He later clarified: “I did not mean to insult anyone, but I was upset.”


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U.S. Fears Cyber Mayhem on Election Day

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“The U.S. government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine the presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling,” NBC News reports.

“The effort is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, but reaches across multiple government agencies, including the CIA, the National Security Agency and other elements of the Defense Department, current and former officials say.”

State Poll Roundup: Thursday

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Here are the latest state polls of the presidential race:

Colorado: Clinton 39%, Trump 39%, Johnson 5% (University of Denver)

Colorado: Clinton 44%, Trump 34%, Johnson 9% (University of Colorado)

Michigan: Clinton 47%, Trump 44%, Johnson 4% (Mitchell)

North Carolina: Trump 49%, Clinton 44%, Johnson 4% (Trafalgar)

New Hampshire: Trump 40%, Clinton 39%, Johnson 10% (WBUR)

Arizona: Clinton 45%, Trump 44%, Johnson 7% (Saguaro Strategies)

New Hampshire: Trump 48%, Clinton 43% (American Research Group)

New Hampshire: Trump 42%, Clinton 42% (Boston Globe/Suffolk)

Utah: Trump 37%, Clinton 31%, McMullin 24% (Monmouth)

Utah: Trump 42%, Clinton 31%, McMullin 21% (Rasmussen)

Georgia: Trump 45%, Clinton 44%, Johnson 8% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)

Texas: Trump 49%, Clinton 40%, Johnson 6% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)

Arizona: Trump 45%, Clinton 40%, Johnson 9% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)

Trump Has Never Been Closer to Winning

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Washington Post: “If the polls closed right at this moment (which they won’t) and if the results in each state perfectly mirrored the current RealClearPolitics average of polls in each state (which they won’t), Hillary Clinton would be elected president by an electoral college margin of 8 votes. From her high in the polls a week or two ago, Clinton’s leads in a number of critical battleground states have collapsed or evaporated entirely. The election could come down to one state with four electoral college votes that flips from Clinton to Donald Trump and, boom: A 269-269 electoral college tie, and a vote by the House of Representatives to decide on the next president — who, given the composition of the House, would almost certainly be Donald Trump.”

For members: Clinton’s Most Obvious Path to Victory

Cruz Stumps for Trump But Won’t Say His Name

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) campaigned for Donald Trump for the first time on Thursday, joining Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on the trail in Iowa, but could not bring himself to so much as say Trump’s name, Politico reports.

“Instead, he dedicated his speech to slamming the Affordable Care Act and warning of what Hillary Clinton’s appointments to the Supreme Court would mean for Americans.”

‘The FBI Is Trumpland’

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“Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election.”

“Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited.”

Poll Worker Injured by Booby-Trapped Trump Sign

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“A poll worker in Texas was injured Tuesday when he tried to move a Donald Trump campaign sign and cut his hand on box-cutter blades that had been attached to it,” the Huffington Post reports.

“The tampered sign was discovered Tuesday morning blocking an official polling sign at Collin County College in Plano, according to NBC Dallas. A precinct official had ordered the sign to be moved.”

Toomey Still Won’t Say If He’ll Vote for Trump

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“With just five more days until Election Day, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) says he is still undecided in the 2016 presidential election,” WTXF reports.

“However, for Toomey, it is not a matter of whether he will cast his vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Instead, Toomey is undecided on whether or not he was cast a vote for the republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, at all.”

Clinton’s Firewall Is Educated White Women

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James Hohmann: “Our fresh Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll, which has Hillary Clinton ahead by just 2 points among all likely voters nationally, finds that Donald Trump is losing college-educated white women by 27 points.”

“If the Republican nominee was anywhere close to Romney’s 52 percent support level among this traditionally Republican-leaning constituency, he would likely win the election. But drilling into the crosstabs of our polling and reviewing credible, state-level data demonstrates how highly unlikely it is that this constituency will waver in the final days. It is one of the reasons that, even though the race has tightened pretty dramatically, Clinton retains a significant structural advantage.”

Clinton Remains the Favorite

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Stuart Rothenberg: “A final flurry of quality polls in the next few days should give us more of an idea where the race stands. But even then, turnout is likely to be the key — with the focus on three important demographic groups that prefer Clinton: blacks, Latinos and younger voters.”

“If those groups turn out in numbers comparable to 2012, Clinton will win, possibly comfortably. If they don’t, an upset can’t be ruled out.”

“The bottom line: Clinton remains the favorite (in both the popular and electoral votes), though a less comfortable one than a week ago. The fight for the Senate looks like a toss-up, with Democrats still having more paths than the GOP to a majority. And, the House is not in play.”

Publishers Campaign for Obama Books

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“Vice President Joe Biden is thinking about writing a book. Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently sold one for seven figures. Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is shopping one, and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has been fielding inquiries. But as publishers prepare to compete for a slew of political memoirs, all eyes are on the president and first lady,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Barack Obama’s literary accomplishments are rare for a sitting president. His critically-acclaimed 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, won a Grammy for best spoken-word album. So did his second book, The Audacity of Hope, a book published in 2006 that discusses his time in the Senate and his policy positions. Each book has sold more than three million copies in print and e-books in the U.S., according to a publishing executive. “

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

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