“We’ve really got a mess in the financial system with regard to campaigns right now… We’ve gotta rethink campaign finance.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by the Huffington Post.
Clinton Maintains Big Lead in Democratic Race
A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll finds Hillary Clinton continues to lead the Democratic field with 41% — a double-digit drop in two months — followed by Bernie Sanders at 23% and Joe Biden at 20%.
Trump Quote of the Day
“While we were expecting 10,000 people based on demand, and it would have been a happening, everyone’s safety is of far more importance to me.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by TPM, cancelling a Virginia rally due to an impending hurricane.
While Joe Biden Waits
First Read: “The Biden waiting game is no longer doing him or his party any favors. With Clinton and Sanders having already raised a combined $115 million… waiting to start raising money isn’t going to help him compete financially with Clinton, let alone Sanders. The waiting game has paralyzed parts of the non-Hillary wing of the Democratic establishment.”
“And as our NBC/WSJ poll shows, Biden disproportionally takes away support from Clinton when the vice president is included in the polling. As we’ve said before, if Biden wants to run and win (and start preparing to build a $1 billion enterprise for the general election in our Super PAC/501c4 Era), he has to get in ASAP. He doesn’t have until late October or early November. Sure, we get that Biden seems to be waiting to see how October fares for Hillary (see above). But that waiting game comes at a cost.”
Russian Airstrikes Hit U.S.-Backed Rebels in Syria
“Russian officials insisted they were attacking the Islamic State after efforts by the U.S. and its partners had failed to dislodge the extremists, but U.S. officials said the strikes appeared to target opponents of President Bashar al-Assad and hit units that were trained by the CIA,” the Washington Post reports.
First Read: “If Syria was already a black mark for the Obama administration, it’s now turning into a full-fledged debacle, with Russia now appearing to bomb Syrian rebels opposed to Assad.”
Which Presidential Candidate Lies the Most?
Wonk Wire has the rankings.
It’s a Big Month for Hillary Clinton
First Read: “”It’s the beginning of October, and we can’t stress enough how big the month will be for Hillary Clinton — and, by extension, the Democratic Party. Oct. 13 brings us the first Democratic presidential debate. Hillary’s testimony before the House Benghazi committee is on Oct. 22. Two days later, she (as well as the other Democrats in the field) speaks at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner — the same venue where then-candidate Barack Obama turned out his presidential fortunes in 2007. And October is the month where we SHOULD get an answer to whether or not Joe Biden is running.”
“Bottom line: This is going to be a decisive month for Hillary, especially given that she’s been stuck in a negative feedback loop over the past three months (Emails! Falling poll numbers! Biden! Emails! Falling poll numbers! Biden!). If she somehow doesn’t end up as the Democratic nominee, we’ll likely be able to trace it back to the events in October. Conversely, if she does wind up as the nominee — and remains the candidate to beat in the general — we’ll likely be able to trace it back to the events in October.”
Carson Jokes About Taunting the Police
Ben Carson joked that while growing up on Detroit he had fun taunting police officers “back in the day, before they would shoot you,” MSNBC reports.
Carson said he and his friends would throw rocks at cars which he joked “everybody did … because it was so much fun.”
When cops came, “always in unmarked cars, they’d be chasing us across the field and they would think they trapped us” at 10-feet-tall fences. But the cops “had no idea how adept we were at getting over those fences.”
Biden Won’t Decide Before First Debate
Vice President Joe Biden “has extended his window for deciding whether to jump into the 2016 presidential campaign, several Democrats say, allowing the contest to play out even longer before he answers one of the biggest questions hanging over the race for the White House,” CNN reports.
“He is not preparing for the first Democratic debate on October 13 in Las Vegas and is not expected to participate, people close to him say, because he feels no pressure to reach a decision by then. He is likely to reveal his plans in the second half of October.”
Bar Raised for Next GOP Debate
CNBC announced that candidates for the next Republican presidential debate on October 28 must have an average of at least 3% among recognized national polls in order to participate, CNN reports.
“It’s not clear how many candidates would clear the 3% mark, but it is expected to put Paul, Christie and Mike Huckabee at risk of being relegated to the undercard. All three of those candidates are currently hovering around the 3% mark in an average of recent national polls.”
Trump Pledges to Send Syrian Refuges Back
Donald Trump says if he wins the White House, he will send back Syrian refugees coming to the U.S., The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I’m putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration. If I win, they’re going back. They’re going back. I’m telling you. They’re going back.”
Wonk Wire: Americans divided over response to Europe’s migrant crisis
Hackers Tried to Gain Access to Clinton’s Computer
“Russia-linked hackers tried at least five times to pry into Hillary Clinton’s private email account while she was secretary of state, emails released Wednesday show. It is unclear if she clicked on any attachments and exposed her account,” the AP reports.
“Clinton received the infected emails, disguised as speeding tickets from New York, over four hours early the morning of Aug. 3, 2011. The emails instructed recipients to print the attached tickets. Opening an attachment would have allowed hackers to take over control of a victim’s computer.”
Carson Says a Hitler Could Rise in the United States
Ben Carson said that a government like Nazi Germany’s could reign over the United States, CNN reports.
Said Carson: “If you go back and look at the history of the world, tyranny and despotism and how it starts, it has a lot to do with control of thought and control of speech. If people don’t speak up for what they believe, then other people will change things without them having a voice.”
He added: “Hitler changed things there and nobody protested. Nobody provided any opposition to him.”
Quote of the Day
“I want to continue to be a Republican because it annoys them.”
— Colin Powell, quoted by the Daily Mail, noting that the “the party has shifted much further right than where the country is.”
Is Kevin McCarthy Ready to be Speaker?
New York Times: “In just the past 48 hours, the man who longs to be speaker of the House insulted the man he would replace, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, and suggested that a taxpayer-funded committee to investigate the terror attack in Benghazi was designed to harm the political fortunes of Hillary Clinton. The remark was a gift-wrapped gaffe for Democrats, who will now spend the week before Mr. McCarthy’s effort to be elected speaker painting him as a partisan hack.”
Clinton Moves to Make Biden Run More Difficult
Hillary Clinton’s campaign, “increasingly worried about the threat of a challenge from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., is making a sudden and urgent effort to throw roadblocks into his path,” the New York Times reports.
“After months of voicing doubt about a challenge from the vice president, Clinton campaign operatives are viewing Mr. Biden’s entry into the contest as a serious possibility and are trying to rally the party’s apparatus and its donors to her side… A campaign aide said that given the mistakes of Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign, they had always planned to make an early and aggressive push to lock down superdelegate support.”
Trump Gets Invite to Speak to Social Conservatives
“Donald Trump will address a private gathering of prominent social conservatives later this month outside Washington, sources say, part of an ongoing attempt by the Republican front-runner to demonstrate his kinship with a key constituency in next year’s presidential nominating contest,” National Journal reports.
“Tony Perkins, the group’s president—who serves more visibly as president of the Family Research Council—will moderate a Q&A session on stage with each of the candidates individually following their allotted speaking time of 30 minutes.”
Secret Service Official Sought to Smear Lawmaker
A top Secret Service official urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), a congressman critical of the service should be made public, the Washington Post reports.
