A first for the Donald: Trump says he regrets hurtful comments he’s made in heat of debate
For the first time since declaring his presidential run, Republican Donald Trump offered an extended apology to those who may have been hurt by his caustic comments, saying that he regrets some of what he’s said “in the heat of debate.” “Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that,” the GOP nominee reading from prepared text, said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C. “And believe it or not, I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.” He added: “Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.” As the crowd cheered, Trump pledged to “always tell you the truth.” The remarks came as Trump makes significant changes to a campaign that has struggled since the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions from self-created distractions. Earlier Thursday, Trump moved to invest nearly $5 million in battleground state advertising to address daunting challenges in the states that will make or break his White House ambitions. He also shook up his campaign in recent days, tapping a combative conservative media executive, Stephen Bannon, to serve as CEO of the campaign. The New York businessman’s campaign reserved television ad space over the coming 10 days in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker. While Democrat Hillary Clinton has spent more than $75 million on advertising in 10 states since locking up her party’s nomination, Trump’s new investment marks his first of the general election season. Election Day is 81 days away, with early voting in the first states set to begin in five weeks. The step into swing-state advertising, which came after Trump’s second staffing shake-up in as many months, did little to alleviate the concerns of Republican officials frustrated with Trump’s refusal to adopt the tools of modern-day political campaigns. “We may have reached the point of no return for Donald Trump,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant, a senior aide to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio‘s presidential campaign. In addition to Bannon, Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway filled the campaign manager position left vacant since Trump fired his former campaign chief almost two months ago. But Trump struck a new, inclusive tone on Thursday, as he worked to improve his dismal poll numbers among non-white voters. “I will not rest until children of every color in this country are fully included in the American Dream,” he said. Conway insisted Thursday that the new team would help re-focus the nominee, without sacrificing the authenticity that fueled his successful primary campaign. “We’re going to sharpen the message,” Conway told CNN. “We’re going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin — that he doesn’t lose that authenticity that you simply can’t buy and a pollster can’t give you. Voters know if you’re comfortable in your own skin.” Rarely do presidential campaigns wait to advertise, or undergo such leadership tumult, at such a late stage of the general election. Yet Trump has struggled badly in recent weeks to offer voters a consistent message, overshadowing formal policy speeches with a steady stream of self-created controversies, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq. He now trails Clinton in preference polls of most key battleground states. And his party leaders, even at the Republican National Committee, have already conceded they may divert resources away from the presidential contest in favor of vulnerable Senate and House candidates if things don’t improve. Trump’s advertising plans highlight his shrinking path to the presidency. Although Trump claims his popularity with white, working-class voters could translate to victories in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine or Connecticut, there’s little evidence to back that up. His first major ad buys shows him focused on more conventional battlegrounds. Trump is spending at least $1.4 million in Florida, $1 million in Pennsylvania, about $831,000 in North Carolina and $746,000 in Ohio, according to Kantar Media. His biggest single-market investment comes in the Philadelphia area. “That is the most direct route to 270,” said Chris Young, RNC field director. “Those states are critical on that pathway.” Trump has struggled so far with women, minorities and young voters. “His performance with those voters is so dismal that it puts other states potentially in play in an offensive way for Democrats,” said Jeremy Bird, who ran field operations for President Barack Obama‘s 2012 campaign and is now advising Clinton’s operation. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump makes first ad buys in battleground states, including Florida
With his new leadership team promising a sharper message, Donald Trump on Thursday moved to invest nearly $5 million in battleground state advertising. The investment over the coming 10 days in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania marks the Republican presidential contender’s first major general election expenditures in the swing states, which are considered critical to his narrowing path to the White House. The advertising plans, confirmed by Kantar Media’s political ad tracker, come a day after Trump announced another senior staffing shakeup. Weary Republican leaders hope the new leadership team can reverse the New York businessman’s struggles even as some worry it’s too little too late. The Republican nominee tapped Stephen Bannon — a combative conservative media executive with no presidential campaign experience — to serve as CEO of his White House bid. Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who has known Trump for years and gained his trust during her brief tenure working for him, will serve as campaign manager. “I think we’re going to sharpen the message,” Conway told CNN. “We’re going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin — that he doesn’t lose that authenticity that you simply can’t buy and a pollster can’t give you. Voters know if you’re comfortable in your own skin.” The Republican National Committee has already conceded it may divert resources away from the presidential contest favor of vulnerable Senate and House candidates if Trump’s standing does not improve in the coming weeks. RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer called Trump’s staffing changes the “healthy growth of the campaign at a senior level at a key point.” He also urged caution as Trump’s new team contemplates whether the fiery populism and freewheeling style that won him the Republican nomination will give him a better shot at the White House than uniting his party and rallying moderate voters. “I think people want him to be authentic,” Spicer said. “They appreciate he’s not a scripted politician, but there’s a recognition that words do matter.” The staffing changes are aimed in part at marginalizing campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who pushed Trump to moderate his tone and improve relations with skeptical Republican officials. In breaking with that approach, Trump appears set on finishing the race on his own terms — win or lose. Trump’s divisive tone and weak poll numbers have triggered a rash of Republican defections in recent weeks. Party loyalists have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump’s inability to stay focused on Democrat Hillary Clinton amid a series of self-created distractions. “I don’t care if Donald Duck is running the campaign,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National committeeman from Mississippi. “If he can make this thing about Hillary Clinton’s record and getting the country back on track, that’s what’s going to win this election.” Despite the new advertising investment, Trump is woefully behind: Clinton’s campaign has spent more than $75 million on ads in the weeks since she effectively locked up the nomination in early June, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker. Trump frequently boasts that his rival is spending heavily while he’s put nothing into advertising, banking so far on free wall-to-wall media coverage to carry his message. While his campaign has been silent through paid media, he’s had some assistance from outside political groups, Kantar Media shows. One, called Rebuilding America Now, has spent about $9 million in the past few weeks. The National Rifle Association’s political arm has also put more than $4 million into anti-Clinton messages. But these amounts pale in comparison to the $31 million the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA has spent on air since mid-June. And that’s just one of several groups helping her. Rarely do presidential campaigns wait so long to advertise, or undergo such a level of leadership tumult at such a stage of the general election. The developments come less than three months before Election Day, and roughly six weeks before early voting begins. Trump’s standing in the White House race plummeted throughout the summer and he now trails Clinton in preference polls of most key battleground states. He’s struggled to offer voters a consistent message, overshadowing formal policy speeches with a steady stream of controversies, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq. Bannon’s website has been fiercely loyal to Trump for months and sharply critical of Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Breitbart has also actively promoted false conspiracy theories about Clinton, and some have then made their way into Trump’s remarks. “Trump is on his third campaign manager in three months. If this was a hot dog stand, conclusion might be there was a problem with the dogs,” Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, a frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter. Republished with permission of the Associated Press. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump makes first battleground state ad buys
With his new leadership team promising a sharper message, Donald Trump on Thursday moved to invest nearly $5 million in battleground state advertising. The investment over the coming 10 days in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania marks the Republican presidential contender’s first major general election expenditures in the swing states, which are considered critical to his narrowing path to the White House. The advertising plans, confirmed by Kantar Media’s political ad tracker, come a day after Trump announced another senior staffing shakeup. Weary Republican leaders hope the new leadership team can reverse the New York businessman’s struggles even as some worry it’s too little too late. The Republican nominee tapped Stephen Bannon – a combative conservative media executive with no presidential campaign experience – to serve as CEO of his White House bid. Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who has known Trump for years and gained his trust during her brief tenure working for him, will serve as campaign manager. “I think we’re going to sharpen the message,” Conway told CNN. “We’re going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin – that he doesn’t lose that authenticity that you simply can’t buy and a pollster can’t give you. Voters know if you’re comfortable in your own skin.” The Republican National Committee has already conceded it may divert resources away from the presidential contest favor of vulnerable Senate and House candidates if Trump’s standing does not improve in the coming weeks. RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer called Trump’s staffing changes the “healthy growth of the campaign at a senior level at a key point.” He also urged caution as Trump’s new team contemplates whether the fiery populism and freewheeling style that won him the Republican nomination will give him a better shot at the White House than uniting his party and rallying moderate voters. “I think people want him to be authentic,” Spicer said. “They appreciate he’s not a scripted politician, but there’s a recognition that words do matter.” The staffing changes are aimed in part at marginalizing campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who pushed Trump to moderate his tone and improve relations with skeptical Republican officials. In breaking with that approach, Trump appears set on finishing the race on his own terms – win or lose. Trump’s divisive tone and weak poll numbers have triggered a rash of Republican defections in recent weeks. Party loyalists have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump’s inability to stay focused on Democrat Hillary Clinton amid a series of self-created distractions. “I don’t care if Donald Duck is running the campaign,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National committeeman from Mississippi. “If he can make this thing about Hillary Clinton‘s record and getting the country back on track, that’s what’s going to win this election.” Despite the new advertising investment, Trump is woefully behind: Clinton’s campaign has spent more than $75 million on ads in the weeks since she effectively locked up the nomination in early June, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker. Trump frequently boasts that his rival is spending heavily while he’s put nothing into advertising, banking so far on free wall-to-wall media coverage to carry his message. While his campaign has been silent through paid media, he’s had some assistance from outside political groups, Kantar Media shows. One, called Rebuilding America Now, has spent about $9 million in the past few weeks. The National Rifle Association‘s political arm has also put more than $4 million into anti-Clinton messages. But these amounts pale in comparison to the $31 million the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA has spent on air since mid-June. And that’s just one of several groups helping her. Rarely do presidential campaigns wait so long to advertise, or undergo such a level of leadership tumult at such a stage of the general election. The developments come less than three months before Election Day, and roughly six weeks before early voting begins. Trump’s standing in the White House race plummeted throughout the summer and he now trails Clinton in preference polls of most key battleground states. He’s struggled to offer voters a consistent message, overshadowing formal policy speeches with a steady stream of controversies, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq. Bannon’s website has been fiercely loyal to Trump for months and sharply critical of Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Breitbart has also actively promoted false conspiracy theories about Clinton, and some have then made their way into Trump’s remarks. “Trump is on his third campaign manager in three months. If this was a hot dog stand, conclusion might be there was a problem with the dogs,” Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, a frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Steven Kurlander: Debating debatable debates
In 21st century American politics, it’s a given that if you are running for office, you should expect to debate your opponent(s) during the campaign — no matter whether you are running for school board or president. Debating your opponent is part of proving your mettle for the job you are running for. Normally, it’s not a good move for a candidate not to show up to debate your opponent. Bob Greene wrote in 2012 “Today debates between the candidates — even when one of them is the incumbent — are all but mandatory. A candidate would be seen as chicken for not agreeing to debate. “ It appears that Donald Trump may think otherwise. He set off a controversial debate about the presidential debates themselves when first tweeted he was debating skipping the three upcoming presidential debates, which are set up by the “nonpartisan, nonprofit” Commission on Presidential Debates. CNN’s Rachel Sklar wrote: “Donald Trump is complaining. Of course, that’s nothing new — the notoriously thin-skinned Republican nominee is an inveterate pouter, openly sulking about perceived injustices like lawsuits presided over by “Mexican” judges, accurate press coverage and Megyn Kelly being mean to him. At 70, he may be the grumpiest old man on Twitter.” A visit to any American retirement community would confirm that grumpy, thin-skinned old men don’t like to debate anything, let alone the political issues of the day. But in this day and age of social media, a 24-hour news cycle, and an American electorate already inundated with instantaneous presidential election news, Trump may be right to question the antiquated formats of these debates and particularly the moderators who nowadays show no semblance of neutrality at these events. In 2016, if you ask Americans whether they rather tune into a presidential debate between Hillary and Donald or an NFL game being broadcast at the same time, it’s easy to predict that they’d rather eat their Doritos and wings watching football. Political debates used to carry the aura of significance in terms of having great impact on elections and how voters decide who to vote for. Students of history were taught of the impact on American history of the infamous seven Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 Illinois Senate campaign and the Nixon-Kennedy debates of the 1960s. But since the Nixon-Kennedy debates, presidential debates have devolved in terms of their quality of political discourse, their fairness in how they are conducted and their true impact on voters. The true question is not whether Trump should debate or not, but whether the upcoming presidential debates carry any significance at all. At this point, most Americans are voting against, not for, either Clinton or Trump. They both carry big negatives among American voters. The debates, no matter what is said, won’t matter in this regard. Americans also have been already subjected to 13 GOP presidential primary debates and 10 Democratic presidential primary debates, and most of those debates, particularly the Republican ones, already proved trivial in dialogue and insignificant in terms of affecting how voters cast their ballots in the primaries. Given all this, aside from being called a chicken by the mainstream press that despises him anyway, Trump has nothing to lose by refusing to debate Hillary Clinton. There’s only one way the upcoming three presidential debates can change voters’ minds, and that’s if third party candidates can participate in them. The Commission on Presidential Debates right now doesn’t allow third party candidates to participate in the debates unless they reach a 15 percent polling threshold in five polls among voters. If Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party or Jill Stein of the Green Party were allowed to take the stage with Clinton and Trump, then there’s no debating that these debates would suddenly become very significant in the 2016 race. Allowing Johnson and Stein on the debate platform on three occasions would guarantee that Americans would hear some serious political discussion (that they crave at this point) — and that a third-party candidate could have a serious impact on the race, or even win the White House. This is not debatable: If Johnson and/or Stein take the stage, a serious Donald Trump would definitely show up and the presidential debates for the first time in decades would be a truly historical event. ___ Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly’s Kommentary. He is a communications strategist and an attorney in Monticello, New York, writes for Florida Politics and is a former columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He can be emailed at kurly@stevenkurlander.com.
Donald Trump receives first classified intelligence briefing
Donald Trump has received his first classified intelligence briefing, meeting with national security officials for more than two hours on Wednesday. The celebrity businessman became entitled to the briefings once he officially became the Republican nominee for president. The briefing was delivered by career staffers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and was expected to cover major threats and emerging concerns around the world. The afternoon briefing was held at an FBI field office at a federal building in New York City, a facility which has the secure rooms required for such sensitive briefings. Trump did not speak to reporters upon entering or exiting the building and a campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the briefing. But Trump, in an interview that aired just hours before the briefing, suggested he would be skeptical of its contents when he was asked if he trusted the nation’s intelligence materials. “Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country,” Trump told Fox News. “I mean, look what’s happened over the last 10 years…it’s been catastrophic.” Trump brought along some top advisers, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, to the briefing. A U.S. intelligence official said that generally, advisers who attend the briefings must have appropriate security clearances. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to disclose information about the candidates’ intelligence briefings. Defense Intelligence Agency says that the agency maintains security clearances for all its former directors, including Flynn, who served in the post from 2012-2014. The briefing came two days after Trump delivered a speech on national security and just hours after he gathered several advisers for a security round table at Trump Tower. The advisers, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, encouraged the GOP nominee to press for more surveillance and more information-sharing with local police departments to fight terror threats if he’s elected president. The FBI does share with local police agencies through Joint Terrorism Task Forces. It wasn’t clear whether Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has received an intelligence briefing. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump’s new agriculture brain trust includes Alabama’s Robert Aderholt
Agriculture is vital to the Yellowhammer State. In fact, the agriculture industry boasts over 500,000 jobs and brings in more than $70 billion total a year to Alabama. Alabama 4th District U.S. Congressman Robert Aderholt knows this well. A member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, Aderholt serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, where he supports greater transparency, accountability and oversight to the appropriations process. Thus when Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump named Aderholt to his new agricultural advisory committee on Tuesday, one can’t help but think it’s a natural fit. Trump, looking to improve public opinion with voters across the country, especially in rural swing states, named over 60 members to the newly formed committee. Tasked with pioneering new ideas to strengthen America’s agricultural industry, the committee also will provide support to our rural communities. “The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities,” Trump said in a statement. “Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day. I’m very proud to stand with these men and women, and look forward to serving those who serve all Americans from the White House.” Aderholt is the second member of Alabama’s Congressional delegation to serve as a Trump adviser. Alabama U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, an early Trump supporter, was tapped to advise the nominee on foreign policy and immigration earlier this year.
Bob Sparks: Donald Trump campaign shakeup — will it be enough?
Donald Trump and his campaign are sending a signal with the announcement of Steve Bannon as campaign CEO and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager. Aside from the clear message that his is a campaign in trouble, it also provides a clear picture of a major focus of his campaign going forward. That focus is to make the election about Hillary Clinton and not Donald Trump. So far, Trump’s world-class lack of discipline has kept the spotlight on himself. There can be little doubt that Bannon has been brought on board to change that dynamic. If the candidate will cooperate and refrain from responding to criticism from Gold Star families, it will be interesting to see if this move works. “It’s an expansion at a busy time in the final stretch of the campaign,” Conway told The New York Times. Bannon is fairly well-known in conservative circles as the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, the media outlet liberals love to hate. Even some conservatives were unhappy with Breitbart’s softness for Trump during the primaries. No one is talking about Bannon’s accomplishments as a conservative filmmaker, but they should. His skill in that area will make him invaluable to Trump. That is if the candidate will cooperate. Bannon’s most recent work is the film version of Peter Schweizer’s New York Times best-selling book, Clinton Cash. The findings of Schweizer and his team at the Florida-based Government Accountability Institute (co-founded with Bannon) have given Trump and Republicans fodder for op-eds and TV ads for months. (Full disclosure: I represent a group from Japan that translated and published Clinton Cash in that country.) The book and the film chronicle the questionable donations to the Clinton Foundation from foreign governments doing business with the U.S. while Clinton was Secretary of State. Clinton is clearly vulnerable to political attacks on the activities of the Foundation. Millions of dollars have come into Foundation from some governments which operate on the notion that being gay is punishable by death. Or women are not even second class citizens. Those are in addition to the almost daily revelations provided by the release of still more emails. For those who like to fall back on the notion that only Fox News is talking about this, think again. The Boston Globe, no conservative organ, published an editorial Wednesday calling for the Foundation to stop accepting donations. Now. These should be the gifts that keep on giving for Trump. Instead, his instinct has been to talk about Clinton and President Barack Obama being the “founders of ISIS” during his most recent Florida swing. This is the state of the playing field as Bannon enters the game. If Bannon can keep Trump on message, a huge undertaking, we should expect television and online ads taking the most devastating snippets from the film. His imprint will be on other ads as well. Conway brings campaign experience, including decades as a pollster. She is also a frequent guest pundit on political shows. We will soon see if Trump puts his faith in his “core four” of Bannon, Conway, campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates. If Conway becomes the most frequent spokesperson, then despite denials, Manafort’s role has likely changed. Manafort is under scrutiny for his role in helping the pro-Russian government in Ukraine (at the time) direct undisclosed payments to U.S. lobbying firms. This dynamic will make him unable to effectively represent the campaign in media interviews, especially the Sunday shows. How does the Trump campaign talk about the Clinton Foundation while its campaign chairman is being peppered with questions by those seeking to create a moral equivalence between the two? The answer: by keeping the chairman under wraps. This is clearly Trump’s last chance to be relevant. It may already be too late, but with an opponent as flawed as Hillary Clinton, anything is possible if the focus stays on her. Only in America.
Donald Trump shakes up campaign staff again
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has slipped in the polls in recent weeks, has shaken up his campaign again. The billionaire real estate mogul is bringing in Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News as chief executive officer and promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager. “I’ve known both of them for a long time. They’re terrific people, they’re winners, they’re champs, and we need to win it,” Trump told The Associated Press in a phone interview early Wednesday. The move comes just 82 days before the November election and represents yet another overhaul of Trump’s tumultuous quest for the White House. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who formally took over the reins following the departure of Corey Lewandowski in June, will maintain his current title, Trump said. Manafort deputy Rick Gates, who has been traveling often with Trump, is expected to maintain a senior role with the campaign. The news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes as opinion surveys show Trump trailing Hillary Clinton nationally and in a host of key battleground states following a difficult campaign stretch that saw him insulting the Muslim parents of a soldier who died in Iraq and temporarily refraining from endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was involved in a primary in his home state of Wisconsin. In tapping Bannon for a top campaign role, Trump is doubling down on his outsider appeal rather than appeasing more traditional Republicans. The conservative Breitbart figure has been a cheerleader for Trump’s campaign for months and was critical of Republican leaders, including Ryan. Bannon is a former Goldman Sachs banker but does not bring presidential campaign experience to Trump’s White House bid. Conway joined Trump’s campaign earlier this year as a senior adviser. A longtime Republican strategist and pollster, she has close ties to Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Trump long has resisted pleas from fellow Republicans to overhaul the flame-throwing approach on the campaign trail that powered his surge to the top of the GOP field in the primary season. Instead of working to broaden his appeal, Trump has largely hewed to the large rallies and attention-grabbing comments that appealed to the Republican Party base. “You know, I am who I am,” he told a local Wisconsin television station Tuesday. “It’s me. I don’t want to change. Everyone talks about, ‘Oh, well you’re going to pivot, you’re going to.’ I don’t want to pivot. I mean, you have to be you. If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people.” Conway called the moves “an expansion at a critical time in the homestretch.” Details of the new pecking order were hashed out at a lengthy senior staff meeting at Trump Tower Tuesday while Trump was on the road. Additional senior hires are expected in the next few days. Trump, whose campaign is built on his persona as a winner, said several times Wednesday that the campaign was “doing well,” and said his speech hours earlier in Wisconsin Tuesday was well-received. “We’re going to be doing something very dramatic,” Trump added. Trump’s campaign announced earlier that it would finally begin airing its first ads of the general election next week in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. While polls have shown Clinton building a lead following the Philadelphia convention, Democrats are fearful that a depressed voter turnout might diminish support among the minority, young and female voters who powered Obama to two victories. Clinton said at a voter registration event at a Philadelphia high school that she’s “not taking anybody anywhere for granted” in the race for the White House, saying the stakes “could not be higher.” In the Wisconsin outing Tuesday, Trump accused Clinton of “bigotry” and being “against the police,” claiming that she and other Democrats have “betrayed the African American community” and pandered for votes. “We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes — that’s all they care about,” the GOP nominee said in remarks delivered not far from Milwaukee — the latest city to be rocked by violence in the wake of a police shooting. Trump has been lagging in the polls since he was crowned the GOP standard-bearer in Cleveland last month. He charged that Clinton has been on the side of the rioters in Milwaukee, declaring: “Our opponent Hillary would rather protect the offender than the victim.” “The riots and destruction that have taken place in Milwaukee is an assault on the right of all citizens to live in security and to live in peace,” he said. Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri responded with a statement early Wednesday accusing Trump of being the bigot instead. “With each passing Trump attack, it becomes clearer that his strategy is just to say about Hillary Clinton what’s true of himself. When people started saying he was temperamentally unfit, he called Hillary the same. When his ties to the Kremlin came under scrutiny, he absurdly claimed that Hillary was the one who was too close to Putin. Now he’s accusing her of bigoted remarks — We think the American people will know which candidate is guilty of the charge,” she said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump reveals few details on extreme vetting of immigrants
Donald Trump is calling for “extreme” vetting of immigrants seeking admission to the United States, but he’s offering few specifics about how that might work, how long it might last or how taxpayers would foot the bill. Trump, who had previously called for an unprecedented temporary ban on immigration by Muslims, vowed Monday to overhaul the country’s screening process and block those who sympathize with extremist groups or don’t embrace American values. “Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted for immigration into our country,” Trump said in a foreign policy address in Youngstown, Ohio. “Only those who we expect to flourish in our country – and to embrace a tolerant American society – should be issued visas.” The GOP presidential nominee has made stricter immigration measures a central part of his proposals for defeating the Islamic State – a battle he said Monday is akin to the struggle against communism during the Cold War. He called for parents, teachers and others to promote “American culture” and encouraged “assimilation.” But he didn’t say which countries or regions would be subject to the “extreme” vetting, and his announcement that government agencies would create the list suggested that would not happen before the election in November. The candidate’s aides said federal agencies would use questionnaires, social media, interviews with family and friends or other means to vet applicants’ stances on issues including religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights. Trump did not clarify how U.S. officials would assess the veracity of responses to the questionnaires or how much manpower it would require to complete such arduous vetting. He did say that implementing the policy overhaul would require a temporary halt in immigration from “the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.” “We will stop processing visas from those areas until such time as it is deemed safe to resume based on new circumstances or new procedures,” Trump said. The address comes during a trying stretch for Trump’s presidential campaign. He’s struggled to stay on message and build a consistent case against Democrat Hillary Clinton, repeatedly roiling the White House race with provocative comments that have deeply frustrated many in his own party. Clinton has seized on Republican concerns about Trump, highlighting the steady stream of GOP national security experts who’ve said their party’s nominee is unfit to serve as commander in chief. She kept up that argument Monday as she campaigned alongside Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a working class area where both have family ties. Biden called Trump’s views “dangerous” and “un-American.” He warned that Trump’s false assertions last week about President Barack Obama founding the Islamic State extremist group could be used by extremists to target American service members in Iraq. “The threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks,” Biden said. Trump has since said he was being sarcastic in accusing Obama of founding the Islamic State. Still, he directly blamed the president and Clinton, who served as Obama’s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, for backing policies that “unleashed” the group, including withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq in late 2011. He also challenged Clinton’s fitness to be president, declaring she lacks the “mental and physical stamina” to take on the extremists. Trump was vague about what he would do differently to decimate the Islamic State in its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. He vowed to partner with any country that shares his goal of defeating the extremist group, regardless of other strategic disagreements, and named Russia as a nation he would like to improve relations with. Russia and the U.S. have been discussing greater coordination in Syria, where the Islamic State is part of a volatile mix of groups fighting for power. But they have been unable to reach an agreement on which militant groups could be targeted. Trump also vowed to end “our current strategy of nation-building and regime change” – a criticism that extends to policies of both parties. He panned the long, expensive Iraq War started under Republican President George W. Bush, as well as Obama’s calls for new leadership in some Middle East countries during the pro-democracy Arab Spring uprisings. Obama has held up Bush’s years-long commitment to setting up and securing a new government in Iraq after the initial invasion as a reason to avoid U.S. military intervention in countries like Syria. Trump’s most specific anti-Islamic State proposals centered on keeping those seeking to carry out attacks in the West from entering the United States. He said attacks involving “immigrants or the children of immigrants” underscore the need to implement “extreme vetting.” Trump first announced his call for banning Muslims last year during the GOP primary. He introduced a new standard following the June massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, vowing to “suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we fully understand how to end these threats.” That proposal raised numerous questions that the campaign never clarified, including whether it would apply to citizens of countries like France, Israel, or Ireland, which have suffered recent and past attacks. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Donald Trump speech will focus on ‘foreign policy realism’
Donald Trump will declare an end to nation-building if elected president, replacing it with what aides described as ‘‘foreign policy realism’’ focused on destroying the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations. In a speech the Republican presidential nominee was scheduled to deliver Monday in Ohio, Trump will argue that the country needs to work with anyone who shares that mission, regardless of other ideological and strategic disagreements. Any country that wants to work with the United States to defeat ‘‘radical Islamic terrorism’’ will be a US ally, he is expected to say. ‘‘Mr. Trump’s speech will explain that while we can’t choose our friends, we must always recognize our enemies,’’ Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said ahead of the speech. Trump is also expected to outline a new immigration policy proposal under which the United States would stop issuing visas in any case where it cannot perform adequate screenings. It will be the third iteration of a policy that began with Trump’s unprecedented call to temporarily bar foreign Muslims from entering the country — a religious test that was criticized across party lines as un-American. In a speech after the Orlando nightclub shooting, Trump introduced a new standard, vowing to ‘‘suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we fully understand how to end these threats.’’ Now, aides say, the campaign needs access to undisclosed government documents to assess exactly where the most serious threats lie. He is also expected to propose creating a new ideological test for admission to the country that would assess a candidate’s stances on issues such as religious freedom, gender equality, and gay rights. Through questionnaires, searching social media, or other means, applicants would be vetted to see whether they support US values like tolerance and pluralism. The candidate is also expected to call in the speech for declaring in explicit terms that, like during the Cold War in the fight against communism, the nation is in an ideological conflict with radical Islam. Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and top US government officials have warned of the dangers of using that kind of language to describe the conflict, arguing that it plays into militants’ hands. While Trump has been criticized in the past for failing to lay out specific policy solutions, aides say that Monday’s speech will again focus on his broader vision. Additional speeches with more details are expected in the weeks ahead, they said. Trump is also expected to spend significant time going after President Obama and Clinton, the former secretary of state, blaming them for enacting policies he argues allowed the Islamic State to spread. ‘‘Mr. Trump will outline his vision for defeating radical Islamic terrorism, and explain how the policies of Obama-Clinton are responsible for the rise of ISIS and the spread of barbarism that has taken the lives of so many,’’ Miller said Sunday in an email, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group. The speech comes as Trump has struggled to stay on message. Last week, an economic policy speech he delivered calling for lower corporate taxes and rolling back federal regulations was overshadowed by a series of provocative statements, including falsely declaring that Obama was the ‘‘founder’’ of the Islamic State group. Trump’s allies said Sunday they’re confident that this time, the billionaire developer will stay on track. ‘‘Stay tuned, it’s very early in this campaign. This coming Monday, you’re going to see a vision for confronting radical Islamic terrorism,’’ his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said on Fox News Sunday. Trump and his top advisers, meanwhile, have blamed the media for failing to focus on his proposals. ‘‘If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20 percent,’’ he tweeted Sunday. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Martin Dyckman: Donald Trump’s America on trial in modern day ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’
Above all, there was fear: fear of today, fear of tomorrow … fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves … Only when you understand that, can you understand what Hitler meant to us: “Lift your heads. Be proud to be German. There are devils among us: Communists, liberals, Jews, Gypsies. Once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed.” Those words are from the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. They address an eternal question: Why do good people do terrible things? The speaker, Ernest Janning, played by Burt Lancaster, is a former German judge on trial before an Allied tribunal for crimes he committed in service to the Third Reich. He had been a decent man, widely respected for his legal acumen and his integrity. Now, over the objection of his defense attorney, he insists on testifying for the prosecution. He is explaining why he conducted a show trial of an elderly Jewish man falsely accused of sexual relations with a Gentile woman, and why he determined to convict him and sentence him to death even before hearing any testimony … It was because the future of Germany was at stake. And if a few minorities had to suffer, so be it. The screenplay was closely modeled on actual events, including a Nazi show trial, and on the excuses that “good” Germans gave for their participation. Turner Classic Movies showed the film the other night (Aug. 11). Whether the scheduling had to do with the current election campaign I don’t know. But the timing couldn’t have been better. Comparisons with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany should be made rarely lest they trivialize those monstrosities. But there is much — too much — about Donald Trump and his campaign that resembles them. Only the targets of Trump’s demagoguery are different. The methods are the same. He cannot tell a truth if there’s a lie to be told. He peddles fear and capitalizes on hate. He whips his crowds into froths of rage against Hillary Clinton and against reporters whose lives, too, he puts in danger by targeting them at his rallies. The Secret Service had to see to the safety of one of them. All across our country — in schools, on streets, at public meetings, and even from pulpits — Trump’s venom is being echoed in denunciations and harassment of Americans because of their religious faith. In New York City Saturday, an imam and his assistant were murdered execution-style on a city street. The motive remains unknown, but it would surprise no one if it turns out to be a hate crime. The message of Judgment at Nuremberg is not that such things happen. It is, rather, in the question that Ernest Janning asks during his confession: “What of those of us who knew better? We who knew the words were lies, and worse than lies. Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country … “And then, one day, we looked around … and found that we were in an even more terrible danger.” We should take that scene as a parable for what’s happening in the United States of America right now. We are in terrible danger — though it appears to be diminishing — of debasing our country and endangering the world with the most unprepared, unsuited and unworthy person who has ever sought the presidency. “I think he’s mentally unstable., I think he’s dangerously unqualified,” says former Sen. Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire, the latest prominent Republican to put country above party. That’s what John McCain should be doing too. But McCain still pretends that Trump is fit for the presidency. If Trump’s death threat against Clinton didn’t shock McCain’s conscience, what could? Surely McCain knows better. Surely, so do Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and other Republicans who have mortgaged their reputations to the delusion that Trump would be better than Clinton. Or is it just because they crave to share in the power of a Trump presidency? Do they miscalculate, as so many Germans once did, that they could control the monster they are making? If the polls are correct, Trump will lose. But the dangerous hatreds he deliberately inflames will continue to fester. We will all be the losers for that. And those who know better but who continue to support him, with endorsements or money or even with just their silence, will have lost more than an election. They will have forfeited the respect of people who once admired them. ___ Martin Dyckman is a retired columnist and editorial writer for the newspaper now known as the Tampa Bay Times. He lives in suburban Asheville, North Carolina.
Donald Trump goes on tear against media, not Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump‘s campaign on Sunday went on a new tear against the media, blaming the “disgusting” press for a week of distractions at a time when Republicans have urged him — again — to focus on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Trump will get another chance to reset his campaign on Monday when he is expected to lay out his plan for defeating what running mate Mike Pence on Sunday called, “radical Islamic terrorism” with “real specifics” on how to make the United States safer. But Trump set up that address with extensive new complaints about the latest disastrous week of coverage and reports of campaign chaos. Not to blame, Trump suggested, were his own remarks that gun rights supporters could “do something” if Hillary Clinton becomes president and appoints liberal judges, or his repeated insistence on the falsehood that President Barack “Obama founded ISIS.” “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20 percent,” he tweeted before noon. That tweet was followed by: “My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm.” His anti-media tweet storm topped a half-dozen posts by midafternoon. It was the latest in a series of implicit acknowledgments by the Republican presidential nominee that he is not winning and in fact could be headed for a big loss to Clinton on Election Day in less than three months. Signs were popping up across the political landscape that Trump’s year-plus flirtation with presidential politics was in danger of not advancing much further. Gaffe-by-gaffe, additional Republicans have come forward to say they’re not supporting his bid, with Carlos Gutierrez, secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush, announcing his support for Clinton on Sunday. Meanwhile, GOP leaders in Washington and in the most competitive states have begun openly contemplating turning their backs on their party’s presidential nominee and putting their money and effort instead behind the party’s House and Senate candidates. Frustratingly for Republicans, Trump’s missteps have overshadowed difficult news for Clinton: The new release of 44 previously-unreleased email exchanges Clinton had while at the State Department. They became public on Tuesday and showed her interacting with lobbyists, political and Clinton Foundation donors and business interests while serving as secretary of state. The New York Times on Sunday cataloged a culture of crisis inside the Trump campaign. That set off Trump on a Twitter rant Sunday morning. He called the report “fiction” and reiterated that he is not about to change what he sees as a winning campaign formula. “I am who I am,” he tweeted. Given that, Trump’s allies set out Sunday to bat down bad publicity and warn people not to write Trump off. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., warned that the “campaign is not over” and described Trump as still being in transition from the bulldog who beat 16 rivals in the GOP primary to a general election candidate who communicates differently to a wider electorate what he wants to do differently than Clinton. “He’s got to wrestle in his own heart, how does he communicate who he is, what he believes, the change he thinks he can bring to America, why what he’s doing is fulfilling the desires of the American people,” Sessions said on ABC’s “This Week.” Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort criticized the news media for not focusing on what otherwise would have been a substantive week of dueling economic speeches from Trump and Clinton. He said Trump is continuing to raise millions of dollars while traveling to key battleground states — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida — and remains personally “very connected” to the operations of his campaign. “You could have covered what he was saying, or you could try and take an aside and take the Clinton narrative and play it out. And you chose to do that instead,” Manafort said on CNN. Pence said on “Fox News Sunday” that he remains proud to be Trump’s running mate and advised: “Stay tuned, it’s very early in this campaign. This coming Monday, you’re going to see a vision for confronting radical Islamic terrorism.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
