Tag: Donald Trump

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Hillary Clinton Responds To Trump Attacks On “Deplorables” Comment

As often done in this campaign cycle, the Clinton campaign is countering Donald Trump’s attacks on Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment by using his own words against him.

Perfect.

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Mike Pence: Donald Trump Has Given “Tens Of Millions” To Charity

Moments ago, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that his running mate Donald Trump has given “tens of millions” of dollars to charities.

Within minutes, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold sent an email to the Trump campaign asking for details for those donations.

Fahrenthold has been doing some deep reporting on Donald Trump’s foundation and it’s spending habits. Very interesting read.

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NBC News’ Katy Tur Schools Trump Surrogate On Trump’s “Birther” History

After almost 15 months on the campaign trail reporting on the Donald Trump campaign, NBC News reporter Katy Tur was not having Trump surrogate Jack Kingston try and pretend that Trump has recanted his long-held claim that President Obama was not born in the United States.

Lately, several of Trump’s surrogates have attempted to assert that the Donald admitted he was wrong on the issue long ago. When in truth, he has never acknowledged his crusade to “prove” Obama was born in Kenya was folly.

Watch Katy Tur plow right through Kingston as she shares what she has heard from Trump supporters every day for the last 14 months.

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Hillary Clinton Attacked For “Basket Of Deplorables” Comment

There’s faux outrage in Trumpland today after Democrat Hillary Clinton described Donald Trump’s most extreme supporters as “the basket of deplorables” at an LGBT fund raiser in New York City last night.

Via Politico:

“You know,” Clinton said at the LGBT event, “to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.”

“Right?” Clinton said as the crowd laughed and applauded.

“The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it,” Clinton continued. “And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”

The Democratic nominee then sought to draw a distinction between the two halves of the “basket.”

“Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket,” she said, “are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change.”

These Trump supporters, Clinton said, “don’t buy everything he says,” but “hold out some hope that their lives will be different” with him as president. “They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

I guess this means that Hillary just lost the racist vote. Quel dommage.

The Trump campaign is attempting to liken the statement to Mitt Romney’s now infamous “47 percent” comments caught on tape at private fund raising event during the 2012 presidential campaign.

It’s entertaining to see Trump’s campaign, which was launched on the idea that “political correctness” should be ditched in today’s society for more “straight talk,” get all twisted because Hillary called Trump’s followers out for what they are.

I guess they like straight talk until the subject turns to them.

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton has issued a statement expressing “regret” over the “generalistic” nature of her comment last night.

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong.”

See the full statement below.

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Calls for Independent Federal Investigation Into Pam Bondi “Pay For Play” Scam Intensify

Donald Trump with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

The editorial board of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel published an op-ed today calling for an independent federal investigation into Donald Trump’s $25,000 donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reelection fund.

Trump loves to call his presidential opponent “Crooked Hillary” although she has never been charged or found guilty of anything. But in this tawdry campaign donation escapade, it clearly looks like Trump is the one guilty of “pay for play.”

The timing is certainly curious, with the contribution arriving just three days after Bondi’s office said it was considering whether to join a class-action lawsuit against Trump University, an education company that promised to turn students into successful real estate investors, but left many empty-handed. Bondi’s office decided not to join the suit.

The donation from the candidate’s foundation also violated tax rules governing nonprofit organizations. As a result, the GOP presidential nominee recently paid the IRS a pocket-change fine of $2,500.

Maybe there is nothing untoward here. Maybe it’s nothing more than coincidence, as Bondi and the Trump campaign maintain.

[snip]

It’s hard to tell who looks worse in this, Bondi or Trump.

It was learned this week that in 2014, after Bondi decided not to investigate Trump U, the billionaire hosted a $3,000-a-person fundraiser for her at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

So, to recap: Trump University investigation comes up, three days later $25,000 appears from Trump, the next day Bondi decides not to prosecute, and then Trump throws a $3K a person fund-raiser for Bondi at his resort.

Nope. Doesn’t sound fishy to me. How about you?

For a more entertaining look at the story, check The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert looking into the debacle.

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Trump On Sexual Assault In The Military: What Do You Expect When You Put Men & Women Together?

At last night’s “Commander In Chief” forum, Republican Donald Trump doubled down on his 2013 opinion that sexual assaults were on the rise in the military because “what did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”

From his 2013 tweet (see above): “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”

When asked about the tweet last night, Trump replied that “I think that’s absolutely correct.”

Of course, one option might be for folks to act as civilized men and women.

You have to wonder if the Trumpster thinks we shouldn’t have coed universities? Maybe segregate office workers?

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Matt Lauer Getting Terrible Reviews For Lack Of Follow-Up During Presidential Forum

News outlets are howling at NBC News’ Matt Lauer after he allowed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claim he never supported the Iraq war to go unchecked with no follow up questions at last night’s “Commander In Chief” Forum broadcast on NBC and MSNBC.

Meanwhile, Lauer spent almost 13 minutes of his time (and several follow-up questions) with Democrat Hillary Clinton on her email controversy which has been  investigated and found to be a non-starter by the FBI.

Reporters across the internet were live fact-checking Trump even as he repeated his often debunked version of history that he always opposed the war in Iraq.

As many now know, back in 2002 in an interview with Howard Stern, Trump was asked if he supported an invasion of Iraq and he responded, “Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”

Trump’s statement last night via Politico:

“The main thing is: I have great judgment,” Trump said in response to a question as what he has done in his life that prepared him to send America’s men and women into harm’s way. “I heard Hillary Clinton say I was not against the war in Iraq. I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from 2004. You can look at before that. And I was against the war in Iraq, I said it’s going to totally destabilize the Middle East, which it has. It’s been a disastrous war. And perhaps almost as bad was the way Barack Obama got out. That was a disaster.”

NBC News eventually posted a fact-check online showing Trump lied during the forum after the fact.

Just a few responses from journalists:

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Seth Meyers Takes “A Closer Look” At Trump’s Approach To African-American Voters

Seth Meyers takes “A Closer Look” at Donald Trump’s recent outreach to African-American and Latino voters.

Meyers notes that even though Trump has a “well documented history of stoking racial resentment and attracting the support of white nationalists,” the thinking must have been he could “overcome all that by going to a church in Detroit and awkwardly swaying back-and-forth like a dad who brought his kids to a Demi Lovato concert.”

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Hillary Clinton Shares How She Coped With Monica Lewinsky Scandal

In advance of the coming presidential debates, Hillary Clinton spoke to CNN about how she coped with her husband Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky 20 years ago.

Donald Trump has hinted that he considers the subject “fair game” and won’t pause to somehow blame Hillary for the sins of her husband.

Having been legally married for almost 13 years now, and with my husband Michael for 22 years, I think it’s tawdry to bring up since Hillary wasn’t the one cheating on her spouse.

That said, I will add that both presidential candidates have faced challenges in their marriages. Hillary with Bill’s indiscretions and Trump with his two divorces.

While I believe political spouses should be off-limits, I think it does give the American voter information about how these two candidates handled personal challenges.

Hillary honored her marriage vows and worked through her issues with Bill. Donald, who did cheat on his first wife with his second, cut and run.

Take that info however you like.

I’m willing to bet that Hillary will not be bringing up Donald’s multiple divorces. #WhosTheClassAct

(h/t Boy Culture)

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CNN/ORC Poll: Donald Trump Leads Hillary By 2 Points

The latest CNN.ORC poll shows Donald Trump with a two point lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton as the race for the White House enters the final nine weeks of campaigning.

Trump tops Clinton 45% to 43% among likely voters, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 7% and the Green Party’s Jill Stein at just 2%.

Read the full results of the poll here, and watch CNN’s David Chalian break down the numbers below: