For Hillary Clinton, struggle to change public perception persists
Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in three debates. She leads in many preference polls of the most competitive states. Barring a significant shift in the next two weeks, she is in a strong position to become the first woman elected U.S. president. But Clinton will end the campaign still struggling to change the minds of millions of voters who don’t think well of her, a glaring liability should the Democratic nominee move on to the White House. While many see her as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she is consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half of the country. Most voters also consider her dishonest. Clinton’s advisers have spent months trying to erase that perception. They’ve set up small events where she had more intimate conversations with voters. They’ve tested a seemingly endless stream of messages aimed at assuring the public that the former secretary of state was in the race to do more than fulfill her own political ambitions. As Clinton starts making her closing argument to voters, her team appears to have come to terms that the mission remains unfulfilled. “Honest and trustworthy has become our most talked about metric because it’s not great,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director. “But we’ve never thought it’s the metric people make a decision on.” If Clinton wins, that theory may be proven true. Just 36 percent of voters believe Clinton is honest and trustworthy, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll. That’s compared with about 60 percent who believe she has the qualifications and temperament to be commander in chief. The public’s perception of Clinton has bounced up and down throughout her time in public life. Her favorability rating fell below 50 percent at times during her years as first lady, but rose to its high water mark then and while she was as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Democrats blame some of the current negative personal perceptions of Clinton on the hard-charging tactics she’s used to try to discredit Trump, though they believe her sustained assault on Trump’s character and temperament has been crucial. Party operatives also say Trump’s personal attacks on Clinton have made it all but impossible for more positive messages to break through. He’s called her a “liar,” a “nasty woman” and pledged to put her in jail. “When you’re under relentless assault from a reality TV star, it’s hard to come out of that with anybody feeling good about anyone,” said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide. Still, Clinton’s advisers acknowledge that some of her troubles have been of her own making, including her penchant for privacy. She’s spent nearly the entire campaign struggling to explain why she used a private email server in the basement of her home while she led the State Department. She hid a pneumonia diagnosis this fall from nearly all of her senior staff, then left the public unaware of her condition and whereabouts for 90 minutes after the illness caused her to rush out of a public event in New York. “She is a politician that does not seek to be the center of attention and is inherently more private than most politicians, certainly presidential candidates,” Palmieri said. “That doesn’t always serve you great in a campaign for president.” Clinton frequently shoots down questions about the public’s negative perceptions by saying she’s viewed more positively when she’s doing a job rather than running for one. There’s some evidence to back that up. When she ran for re-election to the Senate from New York in 2006, she won with 67 percent of the vote, a big jump from the 55 percent share from her first race in 2000. Her approval rating when she left the State Department, where her job kept her out of day-to-day politics, sat at an enviable 65 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. But if Clinton is elected president, she won’t have the luxury she had as secretary of state to stay away from the political fray — with Republicans in Washington in the opposition, and possibly Trump, too. The businessman keeps flirting with the idea he could contest the election results if he loses. There are also persistent rumors that, if he loses, he might try to harness the enthusiasm of his millions of supporters into some type of media venture. “The notion that Trump is going to go quietly into the night and wish her Godspeed is highly unlikely,” said David Axelrod, another former Obama adviser. “She’s going to have to contend with that and whatever it is he chooses to make his vehicle.” Clinton has begun acknowledging the challenge that could await her in the White House, if she wins, centering her closing argument to voters on a call for unity after a bitter campaign. “My name may be on the ballot, but the question really is who are we as a country, what are our values, what kind of a future do we want to create together,” she said Friday at a rally in Ohio. Some Democrats see the transition — the two-month-plus stretch between the Nov. 8 election and the Jan. 20 inauguration — as a crucial opportunity for her to signal, if she wins, that a Clinton White House would be different from a Clinton campaign. In a nod to bipartisanship, she could nominate a Republican for her Cabinet. Clinton could start moving on some of her more broadly popular policy proposals as a way of boosting her appeal, assuming no crisis demands immediate action. Still, Axelrod said changing the public’s view of Clinton will be a “long-term project.” “There’s no silver bullet to turn around years of wear and tear on her image,” he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Emails show concern over Bill Clinton’s Wall Street speech
Hillary Clinton‘s campaign asked former President Bill Clinton to cancel a speech to a Wall Street investment firm last year because of concerns that the Clintons might appear to be too cozy with Wall Street just as the former secretary of state was about to announce her White House bid, newly released emails show. Clinton aides say in hacked emails released Friday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks that Hillary Clinton did not want her husband to cancel the speech, but after a “cool down period” was eventually convinced that canceling was the right step. Campaign manager Robby Mook said he realized canceling the lucrative speech would disappoint both Clintons but “it’s a very consequential unforced error and could plague us in stories for months.” The Clintons’ paid speeches have been an issue throughout the campaign, particularly Hillary Clinton’s private speeches to Wall Street firms. Hillary Clinton earned about $1.5 million in speaking fees before launching her presidential campaign, while Bill Clinton reaped more than $5 million from banking, tech and other corporate interests, according to financial documents filed by Hillary Clinton. The campaign has never released transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s speeches, but the hacked emails did reveal excerpts flagged by her advisers as potentially concerning. In the excerpts, Clinton talked about dreaming of “open trade and open borders” in the Western Hemisphere. She also says politicians sometimes need to have “both a public and a private position” on issues. Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak to Morgan Stanley executives in April 2015, a few days after his wife was set to launch her bid for president. “That’s begging for a bad rollout,” Mook wrote in a March 11, 2015, email. In a later email, Mook says he feels “very strongly that doing the speech is a mistake” with serious potential consequences for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “People would (rightfully) ask how we let it happen.” Hillary Clinton was scheduled to campaign in Iowa, “where caucus-goers have a sharply more negative view of Wall Street than the rest of the electorate,” Mook wrote. “Wall Street ranks first for Iowans among a list of institutions that ‘take advantage of everyday Americans,’ scoring twice as high as the general election electorate. … This is a very big deal in my view.” Clinton’s longtime aide, Huma Abedin, assured Mook the next day that Clinton was fine with canceling the speech, especially if Bill Clinton agreed. The candidate “just needed a cool down period,” Abedin wrote. The emails were among thousands published this week by WikiLeaks, which has been releasing a series of emails hacked from the accounts of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. U.S. intelligence officials last week blamed the Russian government for a series of breaches intended to influence the presidential election. The Russians deny involvement. Podesta’s hacked messages offer insight into the various strategies and responses considered by those close to Clinton as they grappled with pitfalls in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, including the 2009 decision to use a private email server while serving as secretary of state. In a separate email, Clinton aides discussed how to explain her 2001 support for an overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy system. Sanders was citing past criticism by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as evidence of Clinton’s favoritism to Wall Street. Clinton defended the vote in a TV interview earlier this year, saying she pursued language to ensure women received child support if a spouse went into bankruptcy. In a Feb. 7 email, adviser Ann O’Leary noted that Clinton had overstated her case: “She said women groups were all pressuring her to vote for it. Evidence does not support that statement.” Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said Friday that the campaign has taken unspecified precautions to secure its emails. Asked whether officials were considering releasing all of Podesta’s emails at once, Palmieri said, “That is what the Russians would like us to do and we are not going to do that.” Emails released Friday also show that Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, used a second alias to communicate with her mother’s campaign: Anna James. Chelsea Clinton also used the alias Diane Reynolds, according to emails previously made public. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Democratic Convention: what to watch for on Day 4
On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton will take the stage to formally accept her party’s nomination. But not before a bevy of speakers stand up and speak on her behalf, highlighting issues facing women with a strong emphasis on workplace fairness and pay. Among those speakers is Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, who will introduce her mother to close out the evening, mirroring Ivanka Trump introducing her father at the RNC. Themed “Stronger Together,” the DNC reveals “Hillary will speak about her vision for our country — her belief that we are stronger together and that America is at its best when we work together to solve our problems.” The list of Thursday’s key primetime speakers: Hillary Clinton: the Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States Chelsea Clinton: daughter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton John Allen: retired general Henrietta Ivey: Henrietta is a home care worker helping to lead the Fight for $15. Beth Mathias: Beth works two jobs and her husband works the night shift at a factory in Ohio. Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed: Jensen was fired from her job at a pizza restaurant in Bonner Springs, Kansas, for asking her boss why she was paid 25 cents less than her male co-worker and friend, Jake. Khizr Khan: Khan’s son was one of 14 American Muslims who died serving the United States in the 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Candidates of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chad Griffin: President of the Human Rights Campaign Gene Karpinski: League of Conservation Voters President Sean Patrick Maloney: Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus Congressman from New York Sarah McBride: LGBT rights activist Barbara Mikulski: U.S. Senator from Maryland
Hillary Clinton’s turn: Guide to the Democratic National Convention
It’s Hillary Clinton‘s turn. The Democratic National Convention opening Monday in Philadelphia is Clinton’s chance to hit reset after a vigorous primary against Bernie Sanders and the unlikely movement that formed behind the Vermont senator. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has endorsed Clinton, but many of his supporters have not. Some of them were dismayed by her choice of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate. Last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland exposed deep, lingering reservations about Donald Trump from within his own party. The Democratic gathering is expected to be a more smoothly choreographed display of unity among Clinton, Sanders and Democratic lawmakers and voters. What to know about the week: THE POINT Both parties use their national conventions to formally nominate candidates for president and vice president. Party leaders showcase their nominees, and the prime-time speeches by the candidates and prominent politicians win some of the largest television audiences of the campaign. That makes the convention a critical opportunity for a party to introduce its candidates to the country. Democrats also will adopt its platform, which lays out policy principles but has no binding effect. THE LOCATION The Wells Fargo Center, home to the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, is the convention site. The arena has been transformed with stages, platforms, cameras and lights. Democrats are hoping that city’s historical role in the founding of American democracy will serve as a powerful backdrop for the themes they’ll highlight. WHO’S GOING More than 5,000 delegates are among the 50,000 people set to be in Philadelphia. They include alternates, lawmakers, special guests, journalists and protesters. Among the delegates, about 15 percent are superdelegates, mainly members of Congress and members of the Democratic National Committee. At the GOP convention, a striking number of prominent Republican lawmakers and party leaders were nowhere to be seen, including the party’s previous two presidents and its two most recent presidential nominees. In contrast, bold-name Democrats have been eagerly vying for a chance to speak in Philadelphia. Most Democratic senators and House members are expected to attend. THE SCHEDULE First lady Michelle Obama is set to speak Monday. That’s also when Sanders will give his speech — a closely watched moment for signs of whether his loyal supporters will line up behind Clinton, as he’s asked them to do. Former President Bill Clinton, the candidate’s husband, is the speech to watch Tuesday. A day later, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden come to Philadelphia. On Thursday, the final night, Chelsea Clinton will introduce her mother for her speech accepting the Democratic nomination. Kaine, who made his debut as Clinton’s running mate at a joint appearance Saturday, will give a speech introducing himself to the country. Officials haven’t yet said when, but the running mate typically speaks Wednesday. Other scheduled speakers are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. THE ENTERTAINMENT Shoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, Lenny Kravitz and Cyndi Lauper will appear in Philadelphia during the convention. Fergie will perform at The Creative Coalition’s gala. THE ROLL CALL States will get a chance to announce how their delegates are voting in the formal roll call Tuesday. It’s a high point for Sanders delegates; they’re pushing to have their votes fully tallied. In 2008, Clinton halted the roll call midway through to call for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s approval by acclamation, or unanimous vote. Sanders says he favors a state-by-state roll call, but he hasn’t indicated exactly what he will do. There’s a total of 4,763 delegates. It takes 2,382 to win the Democratic nomination. Clinton arrives in Philadelphia with 2,814 delegates to Sanders’ 1,893, according to an Associated Press count. That includes the superdelegates, who can vote for any candidate they choose. This year, those superdelegates overwhelmingly backed Clinton. The remaining 4,051 are pledged delegates, won by the candidates based on the results of state primaries and caucuses. THE PROTESTS If there are any fireworks in Philadelphia, expect them to come from Sanders supporters. They have said they plan to show up in full force. Philadelphia officials estimate between 35,000 and 50,000 people will demonstrate across the city each day. Activists have put the estimate higher, at roughly 100,000. Among the groups planning to demonstrate are gun control advocates, the group Occupy DNC Convention and Trump supporters from Pennsylvania. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Mike Pence with Donald Trump on blocking some immigration
The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local): 10:40 p.m. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says he supports Donald Trump‘s call to “temporarily suspend immigration from countries where terrorists’ influence and impact represents a threat to the United States.” Pence spoke Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” giving his first TV interview since Trump invited him to join the Republican ticket for the White House. Last year, Pence came out against Trump’s proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the United States, calling such a ban “offensive and unconstitutional.” Trump’s spokeswoman recently said he no longer supports his proposed religious test. Pence says he “stepped up without hesitation” when Trump asked him to be his running mate. He says Trump “understands the anxiety and the aspiration of the American people” like no leader since President Ronald Reagan. __ 9:10 p.m. Hillary Clinton is expressing support for the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after an attempted military coup rocked Turkey’s capital. The Democratic presidential candidate is urging “calm and respect for laws, institutions, and basic human rights and freedoms — and support for the democratically elected civilian government.” She says, “All parties should work to avoid further violence and bloodshed, and the safety of American citizens and diplomatic missions must be ensured.” Turkish officials say the government appears to have repelled the attempted coup following a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire across Ankara. __ 8:10 p.m. A leader of conservatives making a last-ditch attempt to block Donald Trump’s nomination says she’s dropping her effort to force the Republican National Convention to vote on her plan to let delegates back any presidential candidate they want. The convention rules committee has already rejected Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh‘s proposal to “unbind” delegates from the candidates they were committed to by state primaries and caucuses. Unruh had been saying that despite that defeat, she’d get enough support to force a full convention vote next week on her plan to let delegates vote their conscience. But she said Friday that the Trump campaign and party officials have peeled away that support. She says she and her supporters believe delegates already have the right to vote their conscience and will oppose Trump’s nomination. ___ 5:35 p.m. Donald Trump says the taxes he pays are a private matter. But for candidates auditioning to be his running mate, similar reluctance wasn’t an option. Vice presidential search finalist Newt Gingrich said Thursday that Trump’s campaign required him to submit more than a decade worth of tax returns as part of the vetting process. Vetting potential vice presidents’ tax returns is a standard practice for candidates in both parties — but Trump has so far refused to make his own returns public on the grounds that he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. But tax scholars and former IRS officials have noted there is no rule against releasing tax filings during audits and say Richard Nixon released his returns while under audit in 1973. __ 5:15 p.m. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro has met with Hillary Clinton at her Washington home as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee considers her choice for vice president. That’s according to a person familiar with the Friday gathering, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Two other senior Democrats also appeared to meet with Clinton on Friday. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper were seen in separate cars that departed Clinton’s home Friday afternoon. Clinton is also vetting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine for the vice presidency and campaigned with him in his home state Thursday. Castro is considered a rising star in the party and is a former mayor of San Antonio. ___ 4:40 p.m. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has visited Hillary Clinton’s Washington home as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee ponders her choice for vice president. Hickenlooper was in a car that departed Clinton’s Washington home Friday afternoon. The Democratic governor declined to comment on his visit. The apparent meeting came after Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren visited Clinton’s house earlier Friday. Other candidates Clinton is known to be vetting are Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. A person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters said earlier that Clinton was holding meetings Friday about her running mate selection. ___ 4 p.m. Delegates to the Republican National Convention are embracing Donald Trump‘s choice for vice president — even those who have yet to warm up to Trump. Some delegates hope the choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will help unite Republicans and fire up the party base to support Trump. Not everyone is on board. But at the very least, Trump has all but assured that next week’s convention vote for vice president will go smoothly. Pence has a strong reputation among fellow Republicans as a social conservative. The former congressman has plenty of Washington experience and a calm, thoughtful demeanor that stands in stark contrast to the bombastic Trump. New Hampshire delegate Tom Rath called Pence a solid pick who should reassure a lot of people in the party. __ 3:40 p.m. An application by Bernie Sanders‘ campaign for a permit to rally during the Democratic National Convention has been denied. A spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says it was rejected because of the requested location in a park across from the convention site. She says the campaign sought to use a certain field that can only be used for recreational purposes. The application said the July 24 rally would be in support of Sanders’ campaign and estimated the crowd size at 15,000 to 40,000 people. Kenney’s spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, says it’s not too late for the campaign to apply for a different location, if it is still interested. Sanders said Friday he won’t be holding any large rallies during the July 25-28 convention, but will focus on attending smaller events and talking to delegates. __ 3:30 p.m.
Regarding Islamic terrorists, Lindsey Graham says he’d “kill every bastard he could find”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham gave an extremely low-key speech at the Sunshine Summit in Orlando on Friday afternoon, concentrating on foreign policy and his concern that the Republican Party could be blowing the Hispanic vote with candidates’ tough talk on immigration. Graham isn’t going anywhere in the GOP presidential race, and he essentially acknowledged that in his speech, talking more about how the Republican Party can win the presidency, not how he can personally. He spent a considerable amount of his 21 minutes on stage blasting Hillary Clinton‘s tenure as Secretary of State, specifically about her role in the Benghazi controversy. “A commander in chief is supposed to comfort the families … not lie to them,” he said in reference to how Clinton spoke with the families of the four Americans who died in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012 about a disturbing anti-Islamic video. It’s since been reported that she was emailing daughter Chelsea and two foreign governments that it was a terrorist attack. “The world is falling apart,” Graham warned. “I’ve never seen more danger than I do today. The last thing you want to do is continue the foreign policy of Barack Obama. The the worst possible outcome is to promote Hillary Clinton, because when people needed her, she should have had their backs, but she was not there.” He added that while some people think Benghazi doesn’t matter, he disagrees. “It matters a helluva lot. The next president of the United States needs to know what they’re doing or we’re all going to pay a heavy price.” In speaking about radical Islamic terrorists, Graham talked tough. “I would kill every one of those bastards that I could find,” he declared, speaking quietly and receiving tepid applause. He said that if elected he would call the Ayatollah in Iran and cancel the recent nuclear deal, and called Iranian leaders “religious Nazis.” On the domestic front, Graham said he worries about the GOP losing the Hispanic vote in 2016, and said the country needs to increase its legal immigration numbers, because of a declining U.S. population. “I don’t think we’re going to deport 11 million people,” he said in a direct rebuke to Donald Trump. He then went on to tout how religious and anti-abortion Hispanics are, and why they should be welcomed to the Republican Party. “To those who say Republicans need to be socially liberal to win an election, you don’t know what you’re talking about, but we have to reach out to faith-based minorities. I intend to do that.” Whether he does that as a leading U.S. senator whose profile has grown in his far-flung run for the presidency is unknown. Also unknown is how long he’ll remain in the race before Iowa caucus voters go to the polls in February.
Clinton Foundation acknowledges mistakes in revealing donors
The acting chief executive of the Clinton Foundation says the global philanthropy is working quickly to remedy mistakes it made in how it disclosed donors, saying that its policies on transparency and contributions from foreign governments are “stronger than ever.” Maura Pally posted the statement Sunday on the foundation’s website amid swirling questions about its financial support as Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her presidential campaign. The former secretary of state in recent weeks has sought to dismiss the scrutiny as “distractions and attacks” by Republicans seeking to discredit her, but on Sunday, Pally acknowledged the foundation had made some errors. Pally said the Clinton Foundation expected to refile some of its tax forms, following a voluntary external review, because it had “mistakenly combined” government grants with other donations. She stressed the total revenue was reported accurately and that grants were properly broken out on audited statements on its website. “Yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don’t happen in the future,” she said. Pally defended the foundation’s charitable work and reaffirmed its commitment to transparency. She explained that it took “unprecedented steps” to avoid potential conflicts of interest with annual disclosure of donors when Clinton became secretary of state in 2009. Now that Clinton is running for president, Pally said, the foundation intends to release the information quarterly and limit foreign government contributions to a “handful of governments.” Pally also described the foundation’s work with the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which she said received funding from a separate organization in Canada. She said that partnership does not disclose its donors because under Canadian law they are not disclosed without prior permission from each donor. “This is hardly an effort on our part to avoid transparency,” Pally said. That partnership has come under scrutiny because it is named after Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining billionaire who has donated more than $31 million to the Clinton Foundation since the mid-2000s. The Clinton Foundation was started in 2001 by former President Bill Clinton. Amid the questions about the foundation’s financing, Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea will be starting a nine-day trip to Africa on Wednesday to highlight the group’s work on issues such as economic growth and empowerment, climate change and empowering women and girls. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
