Hillary Clinton aide says Bernie Sanders backers to come around
The Latest on the Democratic National Convention and 2016 presidential campaign. (all times EDT): 7:10 p.m. A Hillary Clinton campaign adviser says he’s not worried about winning over Bernie Sanders’ supporters. “Most of them are going to come around.” That’s what John Podesta thinks. Podesta says he knows there are some in the Sanders camp who are still “emotional” and wish Clinton didn’t win more votes than the Vermont senator in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Podesta says most of Sanders’ supporters are looking at the election as a choice between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Podesta spoke after some Sanders delegates at the party’s convention wore neon yellow shirts to protest Clinton’s nomination. 6:50 p.m. Some Bernie Sanders supporters are wearing glow-in-the-dark shirts on the final night of Democrats convention in Philadelphia. They say it’s a way to remind presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that she hasn’t brought them all on board yet. For Clinton, the silent protest probably is preferable to the heckling and booing from that marked the early days of the convention. Sanders delegate Davena Norris says her bright shirt is meant to send a message that more needs to be done to curb the influence of money in politics. 6:45 p.m. Donald Trump is campaigning in Iowa and largely avoiding the topic that earned him lots of criticism this week. Only a day ago Trump encouraged Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by his Democratic presidential opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump’s comments raised the question of whether he was condoning foreign government hacking of U.S. computers and the public release of information stolen from political adversaries. Trump was condemned by Clinton and even some of his fellow Republicans. Running mate Mike Pence warned of “serious consequences” if Russia interfered in the election. Trump has since insisted he was being sarcastic. At the Iowa rally, he did say he wanted better relations with Russia and joked that writing letters was more secure than “putting something on a computer.” 5:40 p.m. Donald Trump says “a lot of lies are being told” about him in the speeches at the Democratic National Convention this week. The Republican presidential nominee is joking about it during a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa. “Boy, I’m getting hit” by Democrats – he says. “I guess they have to do their thing.” Trump is criticizing Democrats for not talking about terrorism or laying out a plan to aid the economy. 4:25 p.m. Die-hard Bernie Sanders supporters from Oregon’s delegation say they’re demanding a nationally televised apology at the Democratic National Convention before Hillary Clinton takes the stage Thursday night to accept the presidential nomination. The matter involves leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee that indicated party officials were biased against the Vermont senator. The DNC has apologized and the party’s leader, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is resigning her post. But Melissa Pancurak tells The Associated Press that those steps don’t go far enough. She says the Oregon delegates are part of a coalition of Sanders supporters working to get their demand to appropriate DNC officials before Clinton’s speech. 4:20 p.m. Donald Trump’s stand on abortion has been inconsistent, but his running says Trump would be a “pro-life president.” Mike Pence is campaigning in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he makes clear he opposes abortion. And the Indiana governor tells a town hall rally, “I don’t apologize for it.” Pence drew the ire of abortion rights advocates in March after he signed a law banning abortions that were being sought because of fetal genetic defects. That law has since been blocked pending the outcome of a court challenge. Pence says Trump would appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court who would send the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling to the “ash heap of history.” 4 p.m. “Disrespectful.” That’s what Elijah Cummings thinks of liberal supporters of Bernie Sanders who chanted an anti-trade slogan during the Maryland congressman’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. But Cummings says he’s not upset about it because he’s a veteran of civil rights protests and understands the passion that drove the mostly young delegates to shout over his speech Monday. Cummings says in an interview that most of those who were shouting probably didn’t know he worked with Sanders to draft the Democratic platform and he’s “never voted for a trade bill in 20 years in Congress.” He says more than 100 people have apologized to him for the outbursts. 2:37 p.m. President Barack Obama‘s mention of “fascists” and “homegrown demagogues” in his convention speech wasn’t aimed at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. That’s what White House press secretary Josh Earnest is telling reporters the day after Obama argued for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s election over Trump. Obama said “anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.” Obama had criticized Trump several times before arriving at that particular line in the speech, including saying that American power “doesn’t come from a self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way.” Trump said in his acceptance speech at last week’s GOP convention that “I alone can fix” a political system he says is rigged. 2:19 p.m. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is giving Hillary Clinton credit for her work on behalf of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Giuliani was asked at a Republican Party briefing Thursday in Philadelphia whether he took issue with the Democratic convention speakers who’d been praising Clinton. Giuliani said she was “enormously supportive and helpful.” Clinton was a U.S. senator from New York at the time. He says Clinton “has a right to tell people that she worked hard on behalf of the 9/11 families.” He adds that, “She did.” But Giuliani adds that “on all other aspects she fails the test.” Clinton and Democrats, he says, have “not done anything to prevent another attack.” 1:50 p.m.
Joe Henderson: DNC Day 3 – organization is everything
Florida Democrats have long since undertaken the groundwork to deliver the Sunshine State to Hillary Clinton in November. In fact, you could say that began in 2008 and continued four years later when Barack Obama carried Florida in both of his presidential campaigns. The local operatives, so critical in big elections, who turned out the vote for Obama have stayed busy trying to do the same for Clinton. “They never left,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. “Some of the players might be different now, but the model is still the same.” That organization stands in stark contrast now to Republican nominee Donald Trump, who appears to have little visible infrastructure in place here. Clinton has a major head start on him and that could the difference in what shapes up as a closely contested contest. The work of turning out the vote will take on a new urgency after the balloons drop at the end of Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night. Buckhorn, who has solidly been in the Clinton camp, figures to be an important part of all that. “Organization is everything,” Buckhorn said. “In Florida presidential races it’s all about the turnout and not so much about TV or radio (ads). Building connections matter. Field organization matters. Gathering data is important. It becomes a combination of analytics and data mining. Marry the two of those and you’ve got something.” Clinton is popular among Florida Democrats. In 2008, she received 49 percent of the primary vote to 32 percent for Obama, who by that point was well on his way to winning the nomination. In the March primary this year, Clinton nearly doubled up Bernie Sanders 64 percent to 33 percent. But Trump received 1.079 million votes in the GOP state primary, nearly as many as Clinton’s 1.1 million. Even given Trump’s renowned penchant for outrageous and, as Democrats charged after his suggestion that Russia hack more of Hillary’s emails, treasonous behavior, polls show a tight contest between the two for Florida’s 29 electoral votes. “You never underestimate anybody,” Buckhorn said. “The proof is in the bodies. Organizing means putting those bodies on the road, making those phone calls, knocking the doors. I haven’t seen any evidence of the Trump people doing that (in Florida).” WEDNESDAY TAKEAWAYS: That was a show of force Wednesday night by the star-packed Democratic lineup. President Barack Obama, as expected, set Clinton up perfectly to be the right person to accept the baton of leadership from him. I thought former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, took Trump apart on The Donald’s own playing field in the world of business. But for the star of the night, give me Vice President Joe Biden. Who else but Biden could call Trump’s claims “a bunch of malarkey” and turn it into a rallying cry. The hashtag “malarkey” quickly started trending on Twitter and prompting many clever MIMEs – the best of which was a signature red Trump ball cap with the word “Malarkey” emblazed instead of his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Sitting through vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine’s speech was like sitting through a warmup band you don’t really want to hear before the main show begins. I’ll give a tepid thumbs-up to his mocking “Believe Me” impersonation of Trump, but he should have stopped it after one or two times. I mean, it wasn’t THAT funny. So it’s all there for Hillary now to see if she can convince the undecided Americans that she is best for the job. Stick to the end for the balloon drop. Balloon drops are cool. ___ Joe Henderson has had a 45-year career in newspapers, including the last nearly 42 years at The Tampa Tribune. He has covered a large variety of things, primarily in sports but also hard news. The two intertwined in the decade-long search to bring Major League Baseball to the area. Henderson was also City Hall reporter for two years and covered all sides of the sales tax issue that ultimately led to the construction of Raymond James Stadium. He served as a full-time sports columnist for about 10 years before moving to the metro news columnist for the last 4 ½ years. Henderson has numerous local, state and national writing awards. He has been married to his wife, Elaine, for nearly 35 years and has two grown sons — Ben and Patrick.
