LGBTQ news and entertainment
Democrat Hillary Clinton releases a second campaign video highlighting opponent Donald Trump’s ties to racial bias through the years.
The spot features Trump himself posing the rhetorical question to African-American voters, “What do you have to lose?,” ending with a one word answer.
No, seriously – stop and watch this.
One of the internet’s most popular parodies takes on Donald Trump’s immigration flip-flop.
This. Is. Fabulous.
(h/t JoeMyGod)
In a calm, sober voice former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke today about the dangers of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s close ties to the so-called “alt-right” movement.
Throughout the speech, she calmly explains what the “alt-right” is – a loosely defined term for white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment – and how Trump is intimately connected to the extreme-right movement.
Via Vox:
Speaking at a community college in Reno, Nevada, Clinton said Trump had brought a racist fringe into the “mainstream” in a way that no other major party nominee had in American history.
“Of course, there’s always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment,” Clinton said, according to remarks released by the campaign before the speech. “But it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”
Clinton also called out the fringe “alt-right” group by name as she produced examples of how Trump had amplified the voices of racist and misogynists:
Clinton’s speech also highlighted Trump’s support for the “Birther” conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, his attacks on Mexican-American Judge Gonzalo Curiel, and his initial refusal to disavow KKK leader David Duke.
I really encourage you to watch the speech in full. When you consider the Trumpster’s ranting and rave voice on the campaign trail versus the sure, steady focus of Clinton, it’s hard to imagine folks not voting Clinton.
Full speech below.
Bless Katrina Pierson’s little heart. I can only hope she gets paid a LOT of money for embarrassing herself like this.
Via The Hill:
Donald Trump’s spokeswoman on Thursday defended the GOP nominee over criticism about his immigration policies. “He hasn’t changed his position on immigration. He’s changed the words that he is saying,” Katrina Pierson said on CNN.
“What he has always said from the beginning is that he does not want to allow people to stay in this country illegally. He does want to build a wall.” When pressed, Pierson continued to say Trump is not giving a different message, but is just “using different words to give that message.”
“Everyone on the news is saying that he’s a bigot and that he’s a racist because of the words that he uses,” Pierson said. “Now, he’s simply saying, yeah, we are going to follow the law. We are going to enforce the law.”
Bolding is mine.
The latest Quinnipiac polls shows Democrat Hillary Clinton breaking the 50% barrier as she now leads Republican Donald Trump 51% to 41%.
While Trump is winning with men by 6 points (48%/42%), Clinton beats Trump with women by a whopping 24 points (60%/36%). As we all know, more women vote than men.
A similar scenario is found when comparing white versus non-white voters. Trump leads among white voters by 11 points (52%/41%), but Clinton gets a much bigger share of non-white voters. She currently leads Trump with non-white voters by 62 points (77%/15%).
From the polling results:
“We are starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clinton landslide as her 10-point lead is further proof that Donald Trump is in a downward spiral as the clock ticks,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
“Trump’s missteps, stumbles and gaffes seem to outweigh Clinton’s shaky trust status and perceived shady dealings. Wow, is there any light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?”
More results from the survey:
• 90% say they’ve made up their minds regarding which candidate they will be voting for.
•A big majority of Trump supporters – 64% – say they are voting for Trump as an anti-Hillary vote. Only 25% say they are voting pro-Trump.
• 66% of voters say Clinton is qualified to be president, while 58% say Donald Trump is not qualified to be president.
• 87% of voters say Clinton is intelligent, where only 67% of voters say Trump is.
• 51% say Clinton cares about average Americans, where only 41% say the same about Trump.
• Trump’s tax returns are giving him a problem: 74% of likely voters say Donald Trump should release his tax returns, including 62% of Republicans.
This was not a small poll. From August 18 – 24, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,498 likely voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones.
Democrat Hillary Clinton previews her upcoming speech today on Donald Trump’s ties to the “Alt-Right” fringe of the conservative spectrum.
Per the video, “the alt-right is the sort of ‘dressed up in suits’ version of the Neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements.”
Trump’s new campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, who has never run a presidential campaign, runs Breitbart News – one of the leading sources for “alt-right” news.
There’s a reason the most hateful fringe of the right wing is supporting Donald Trump.https://t.co/AqB3DM2m0N— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 25, 2016
UPDATE: The Trump campaign predictably had a virtual meltdown via press release over the video.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign went to a disgusting new low today as they released a video tying the Trump Campaign with horrific racial images.
“This type of rhetoric and repulsive advertising is revolting and completely beyond the pale.
“I call on Hillary Clinton to disavow this video and her campaign for this sickening act that has no place in our world.”
After launching his campaign with an attack on undocumented immigrants, and continuing on for over a year promising his supporters he will deport 11 million of them through using a “deportation force,” Donald Trump finally acknowledges that the entire concept was flawed, ruthless and inhumane.
Here’s the pivot!
From the New York Daily News:
“Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I’ve had very strong people come up to me, really great, great people come up to me, and they’ve said, ‘Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump.’ I have it all the time! It’s a very, very hard thing.”
Still, Trump said there would be “no amnesty” for undocumented immigrants, even if they have committed no crimes.
“No citizenship,” Trump said. “Let me go a step further — they’ll pay back taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them.”
Really? After telling the country for a YEAR that “they gotta go,” now Trump says he’s “softening” on his ideas to cope with illegal immigration in a play for the Hispanic vote?
This is the definition of a classic “flip-flop.”
Or is he really not reaching for Latinos, but just wants to look a bit more palatable to Republican voters who were on the fence?
And the political discourse descends even further into the abyss.
While Republican Donald Trump has referred to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s “bigotry” in the past, he’s now gone full tilt boogie on the accusation last night during a rally in Jackson, Mississippi.
From CBS News:
“Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,” he said. “She’s going to do nothing for African Americans. She’s going to do nothing for the Hispanics. She’s only going to take care of herself, her husband, her consultants, her donors. These are the people she cares about.”
Clinton responds to Trump labelling her a “bigot”
“She doesn’t care about you,” he said, addressing African American voters, who were not in the room to hear his pitch.
“You’ve had her policies. Democrats running some of the inner cities for 50, 70, 80 even over a hundred years. And look what you have right now. Poverty, no education, crime, you can’t walk down the street with your child,” Trump continued. “We’re going to fix it. Hillary Clinton has no remorse.”
While Jackson is predominantly black — nearly 80 percent of its residents are African American — the audience at Trump’s rally was predominantly white.
I keep wondering – if Trump wants to appeal to black voters, why doesn’t he go meet them face to face like in a predominately black church or school or community? How about some honest to go retail politicking?
Trump has brought this campaign season to so many all time lows. #Sad
At Mississippi rally, Donald Trump says “Hillary Clinton is a bigot.” https://t.co/7zQti3tHhH https://t.co/oTtSV7wfsN— ABC News (@ABC) August 25, 2016
Even some of Trump’s supporters were shocked by the rhetoric.
Watch woman's reaction to Donald Trump calling Hillary Clinton a 'bigot' https://t.co/oPbgukEF0R https://t.co/pcj9oalXAh— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) August 25, 2016
This new campaign spot from Hillary Clinton underscores one of the points I’ve made throughout the past year.
If Donald Trump is so pro-USA, why didn’t he have his products made in the USA? Why outsource to 12 other countries?
And we’re supposed to believe that now he’s a candidate for president his outlook is different? SRSLY.
Text of the spot:
“This factory has been here since 1883. We have over 60 people here making shirts labeled ‘Made in America,’ but Donald Trump’s brand of shirts come from China, his suits from Mexico, his coats from India. Trump’s products have been made in 12 other countries because he says there’s no place in America that he can make them. Well there is. You know Donald Trump says he’ll make America great again while he’s taking the shirts right off our backs.”
Well, here comes that “general election pivot” we’ve all been told was coming from Republican Donald Trump.
I can’t see how “softening” his approach to immigration will make his core supporters happy.
From CBS News:
Donald Trump indicated he could be on his way to one of the most surprising policy shifts of his presidential campaign: that he might be open to letting at least some undocumented immigrants in the United States remain. This came after days of confusion about his stance on large-scale deportations and after an immigration speech planned for Thursday in Colorado was scrapped.
“There could certainly be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump said to Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in a town hall that aired on Tuesday night on “Hannity.” “We have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country but we’re going to follow the laws of this country and what people don’t realize–we have very, very strong laws.”
His answer was in response to a question from Hannity about whether Trump would be willing to change laws to accommodate undocumented immigrants who had committed no crimes, apart from their immigration violation.
It could be a significant shift in both policy and tone for the GOP nominee, given that Trump has spent almost the entirety of his candidacy supporting a mass deportation policy that would allow those that hadn’t committed crimes to return legally after deportation. He has also routinely linked illegal immigrants to crime.
For months, Trump even touted the President Dwight D. Eisenhower-era “Operation Wetback,” a controversial operation in which the United States government rounded up and forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants, some of whom died in the process.
Political reporters have noted that Trump and his surrogates on the campaign trail have avoided the word “deportation” like the plague these past two weeks.
It’s interesting that Trump has mentioned that both Presidents Obama and Bush deported large numbers of undocumented immigrants during their administrations, and takes time to say we have “very, very strong laws.”
When you add that all up, you have to wonder what it is that Trump’s opposing then. He seems to be saying Obama and Bush did their jobs. And THAT makes for an odd pivot in my mind.