Holly BaileyTrump unloads on Clinton after tough debate: ‘She can’t even make it to her car’Amid rumors of campaign disarray and unease over his debate performance, Donald Trump took aim at Hillary Clinton in a more personal way Wednesday, mocking her for taking days off the campaign trail and suggesting she would only bring scandal to the White House if elected. Campaigning in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the celebrity businessman turned Republican presidential nominee delivered a scathing scripted speech casting Clinton as a corrupt insider who has had many opportunities to bring change to Washington but failed. For nearly a half-hour of his 45-minute speech, Trump relitigated a litany of Clinton scandals, including the flaps over her private email server and dealings between Clinton’s State Department staff and the Clinton Foundation.
Michael IsikoffRussia steps up trolling attacks on the West, U.S. intel report findsA new U.S. intelligence report says that the Russian government is conducting a wide-ranging and “opportunistic” campaign to expand its political influence in Europe by deploying Internet “trolls and other cyber actors” to challenge pro-Western journalists and spread pro-Kremlin messages in social media forums. The report, by the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, was originally requested by congressional intelligence committees late last year. The panels also asked for a separate report on Russia’s use of political assassination.
Yahoo Politics TeamTune in: 2016 vice presidential debateJoin us on Tuesday, October 4 for 2016’s sole vice presidential debate between Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. The two will face off in Farmville, Virginia, at Longwood University in a ninety-minute conversation moderated by Elaine Quijano. We’ll have a live stream of the debate, along with analysis from our New York studio and on the ground in Farmville.
David PogueYour kidney stone: A user’s guideEw! Who’d want to read about kidney stones? Heat leads to dehydration, which leads to kidney stones. According to some women who have both had a kidney stone and given birth, the stone hurts more than childbirth.
Dylan StablefordThis is the surreal 1997 press conference Donald Trump held to discuss Alicia Machado’s weightOn May 17, 1996, in Las Vegas, Alicia Machado, a 19-year-old from Venezuela, was crowned Miss Universe, the beauty pageant that Donald Trump would buy later that same year. Eight months later, in New York City, Trump, the contest’s new executive producer, stood next to Machado as she rode a stationary bike surrounded by a scrum of local cameramen and news reporters and flanked by a personal trainer. “I went to the Miss Universe contest last year,” Trump told reporters.
- Holly BaileyDuring visit to Windy City, Trump suddenly quiet on Chicago violence
Donald Trump speaks at the Polish National Alliance in Chicago on Wednesday. CHICAGO — It has been a central theme of Donald Trump’s campaign in recent weeks: the ongoing bloodshed from gun-related violence that has plagued the streets of inner city Chicago, killing more than 500 people so far this year and wounding thousands more. In stump speeches all over the country and at Monday’s debate against Hillary Clinton, Trump has repeatedly invoked the violent turmoil in President Obama’s adopted hometown, calling it a daily horror that no one in America should suffer.
- Colin CampbellConservative Arizona paper endorses Clinton
The Arizona Republic endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night, becoming the latest traditionally Republican newspaper to back the Democratic nominee. In a passionate editorial, the largest newspaper in Arizona argued that Republican Donald Trump was fundamentally unfit for the presidency. It was the first time the Republic had endorsed a Democrat.
- Jon WardThe surprising agreement between Trump and Clinton on gun control
In the four-dimensional chessboard on which the politics of gun control plays out, anything can happen — and for a brief moment in Monday night’s presidential debate, it did, as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton found themselves in agreement on at least one small aspect of it. At issue was a ban on gun sales to people on the government’s terror watch lists, a move that has taken on huge symbolic importance since Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., began pushing for it earlier this year in the wake of the deadly attack at an Orlando nightclub.
Amy SullivanHoward Dean defends Trump cocaine tweetHoward Dean isn't backing down. On an already unusual debate night, Dean — a former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee chair — raised some eyebrows when he sent out a tweet asking: “Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?"
- Olivier KnoxDefying critics, Obama nominates Cuba ambassador
Facing down congressional opponents of his historic outreach to Cuba, President Obama announced Tuesday that he has chosen highly respected career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis to be the first U.S. ambassador to Havana in 55 years. DeLaurentis is currently the top official at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
Calvin Woodward and Christopher s. Rugaber, Associated PressAP FACT CHECK: Trump, Clinton deny their own words in debateFor all of his occasional restraint, Donald Trump offered debate viewers a greatest-hits collection from his history of mangled facts, with some new ones thrown in. For all of her policy sobriety, Hillary ...
- Liz GoodwinClinton: Trump ‘bragged’ about not paying taxes
“He actually bragged about gaming the system to get out of paying his fair share of taxes,” Clinton told the crowd of roughly 1,500 at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh. “I think there’s a strong possibility he hasn’t paid federal taxes a lot of years, and this is a man who goes around calling our military a disaster, who goes around criticizing every institution from health care to education, our vets,” Clinton said. During the debate, Clinton brought up that the last tax returns Trump turned over to the public — from the 1970s — show that he paid nothing in federal income tax for several years.
Dylan StablefordObama and Biden trash Trump’s debate performancePresident Obama and Vice President Joe Biden blasted Donald Trump’s performance at Monday’s presidential debate while urging Americans to register in time to vote for Hillary Clinton. At a rally for Clinton at Drexel University in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, Biden ripped the Republican nominee over his assertion that the U.S. housing market collapse was good for his real estate business. “Can you imagine Ronald Reagan, the most conservative president we’ve had come along — can you imagine him saying, ‘It’s good business to take advantage of people’s misery’?
Caitlin Dickson‘There was no sniffles,’ Trump says after debateWas Donald Trump sniffling throughout his first presidential showdown with Hillary Clinton Monday night? “There was no sniffles,” he said. Trump has recently attacked Hillary Clinton’s health, using his Democratic rival’s recent bout of pneumonia to question whether she has the “stamina” to be president.
Christopher WilsonDown Ticket #15: The most fascinating House contest of 2016, how the Clinton-Trump debate will shake up down-ballot races (and more!)Republican candidate Jason Lewis and Democrat Angie Craig vie for Minnesota’s Second Congressional District. SAINT PAUL, Minn. — As you may have heard, there’s a race this year between a well-organized and well-financed centrist Democratic woman (with an Arkansas background) and a political newcomer, a Republican who ran against the party establishment with some far-right views and a long history of controversial, even offensive, statements.
- Michael WalshGiuliani digs up Lewinsky scandal to bash Hillary Clinton
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Monday night that Donald Trump is too much of a gentleman to dig up the Lewinsky scandal to attack his political opponent. After the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Giuliani delivered a litany of reasons he considers Trump to be a feminist despite frequent accusations of chauvinism against the GOP nominee, including about fair treatment of women at his organization.
- Caitlin DicksonNYPD fact-checks Donald Trump’s debate claims on crime
The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton drew a plethora of fact checkers, poised and ready to scrutinize every statement uttered by either candidate Monday night. The New York Police Department, somewhat unexpectedly, joined the fact-checking fray. While on the topic of race relations, Trump reiterated his recent campaign trail declaration that black and Latino Americans “are living in hell” and that the solution is to expand New York’s “stop-and-frisk” policy, which has been curtailed in recent years. The controversial police tactic, ruled unconstitutional by a judge, was primarily used against black and Latino New Yorkers.
- Liz GoodwinClinton pokes fun at Trump for ‘defective’ mic complaint
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton poked fun at Donald Trump on Tuesday morning for complaining about his microphone after the first presidential debate. “Anybody who complained about the microphone is not having a good night,” Clinton told reporters in a brief question-and-answer session at the back of her plane before taking off for a rally in Raleigh, N.C. Monday night, Trump entered the spin room at Hofstra University after a tough first debate and complained that his mic had been “defective.” He mused whether that was on purpose.
Michael WalshDonald Trump: I opposed Iraq War, just call Sean Hannity!Feel free to call Sean Hannity if you want to know what Donald Trump thought about invading Iraq before the war started. Trump frequently touts his purported opposition to the now-unpopular war as proof of his vision when it comes to foreign policy. “I did not support the war in Iraq,” Trump said at the debate.
- Michael WalshRudy Giuliani: I’d skip future debates if I were Trump
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would not participate in the next two presidential debates if he were in Donald Trump’s position — that is, unless the moderators agreed to certain conditions. The outspoken Trump adviser expressed dismay over NBC journalist Lester Holt’s performance moderating the debate Monday night at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Politico reported. Giuliani was apparently aggrieved by Holt’s attempts to fact-check the Republican candidate on the legality of stop-and-frisk and whether he initially supported the Iraq War.
Andrew RomanoDebate scorecard: How Clinton and Trump compared on six key presidential qualitiesYou could, if you were so inclined, distill Monday’s marquee clash between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University to a single iconic incident: Trump sniffling several times per sentence, perhaps, or Clinton debuting a new dance move.
- Garance Franke RutaPreparation pays off for Clinton in debate matchup
Donald Trump is the king of declaratory moral judgments. This is particularly true when it comes to judgments about his presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. “She can’t bring it home,” he said in the spin room after the first presidential debate Monday in Hempstead, N.Y. “She doesn’t have what it takes to make America great again,” he observed wearily at another point.
Liz GoodwinClinton campaign takes victory lap after debateIn the “spin room” at Hofstra University, Hillary Clinton's top staffers took a victory lap after the debate, calling Trump unprepared and erratic and praising Clinton’s performance to the hundreds of reporters still in the arena.
Hunter WalkerClinton and her campaign stopped just short of calling Trump a ‘racist’ at the debateDuring their first presidential debate on Monday night, Democrat Hillary Clinton attacked her Republican rival, Donald Trump, for telling what she described as a “birther lie” that was “racist.” While she used the term “racist” to characterize Trump’s past comments, both Clinton and one of her top aides did not employ the word to describe Trump as a man. Trump spent several years raising questions about the debunked “birther” conspiracy theories claiming President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. Earlier this month, Trump said he no longer has questions about Obama’s origins after ducking the subject in an interview, embroiling his campaign in new controversy. At the debate, Trump argued he did a “good job” handling the issue and credited himself with pushing Obama to release his birth certificate.
Associated PressAP FACT CHECK: Trump, Clinton deny their own words in debateDonald Trump’s habit of peddling hype and fabrication emerged unabated in the first presidential debate while Hillary Clinton played it cautiously in her statements, though not without error. TRUMP, denying Clinton’s accusation that he supported the Iraq war: “Wrong. THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump expressed public opposition to the war before the U.S. invaded, despite his repeated insistence that he did.
