- 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 which 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 on an Orlando nightclub.
Amy SullivanHoward Dean defends Trump cocaine tweetFormer Gov. Howard Dean, right, discusses Donald Trump during an MSNBC appearance. 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. It did indeed sound like Republican nominee Donald Trump was battling allergies or congestion Monday night, although he insisted Tuesday on “Fox & Friends” that “there was no sniffling.” But while the sniffling immediately led to jokes on Twitter — and, naturally, a @TrumpSniff parody account — Dean’s tweet was a surprising take from a high-profile supporter of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
- Olivier KnoxDefying critics, Obama nominates Cuba ambassador
Secretary of State John Kerry, right, is greeted on the tarmac by Jeffrey DeLaurentis at José Martí International Airport in Havana, Aug. 14, 2015. Facing down congressional opponents of his historic outreach to Cuba, President Obama will announce Tuesday that he has chosen highly respected career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis to be the first U.S. ambassador to Havana in 55 years, a top official said. 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.
Lisa BelkinLester Holt tries, with mixed success, to fact-check the debatesAfter a week of debate over whether the moderator of the first presidential debate should fact-check answers in addition to asking questions, Lester Holt’s answer was to try, but not always succeed. More than half a dozen times during the debate, Holt interrupted to question a candidate — on all but one occasion, Donald Trump — who he said had gone off track. Holt’s most combative interaction with Trump was over whether the Republican nominee had supported the war in Iraq — which, not coincidentally, was what Lauer was strongly criticized for not challenging.
- Olivier KnoxTrump claims his ‘strongest asset’ is ‘my temperament’
Donald Trump — the brash, tough-talking candidate who memorably mocked his Republican primary opponents with derisive nicknames — declared in his first debate with Hillary Clinton on Monday that his strongest asset, “maybe by far,” is his temperament. “I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament.
- Jerry Adler and Hunter WalkerTrump avoids Bill Clinton’s scandals ‘out of respect for Chelsea’
Going into Monday night’s presidential debate, there was much speculation about whether Donald Trump would raise former President Bill Clinton’s history with women. In the spin room afterward, Yahoo News’ Hunter Walker asked Trump if he was “tempted” to raise the topic, as he has done repeatedly on the campaign trial. “I was, but I decided not to do it out of respect for Chelsea,” Trump replied.
Holly BaileyLester Holt calls out Donald Trump on stop-and-frisk in NYCDonald Trump reiterated his call for a national stop-and-frisk policy to curb crime in the nation’s inner cities, insisting that African-Americans and Hispanics are “living in hell” because of gun violence. “No, you’re wrong,” Trump interrupted.
- Hunter WalkerDiverse cast of characters helped the candidates spin ahead of the debate
A motley crew of allies and aides for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, appeared in the spin room ahead of their first debate, at Hofstra University on Monday night. Boxing promoter Don King has hit the trail for Trump with an argument aimed at minorities and women who are “left outs” in our society. “Trump brings a refreshing breeze to the climate by beating out the system, which is the real problem in this country … pitting black against white, brown against yellow,” King said.
- Liz GoodwinTrump boasts at debate that he did ‘good job’ on birther issue
Hillary Clinton sharply criticized Donald Trump for pushing a “racist birther lie” about President Obama during a heated exchange at Monday night’s presidential debate at Hofstra University. Moderator Lester Holt asked Trump to explain his yearslong campaign supporting the conspiracy theory questioning Obama’s citizenship and birthplace. “I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate, and I think I did a good job,” Trump said.
Liz GoodwinHillary Clinton, Donald Trump exchange fierce blows to kick off debateHillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded blows on a host of topics in the opening hour of the first presidential debate Monday, with Clinton pinning Trump on his refusal to release his tax returns and Trump painting Clinton as an ineffective politician with no fresh ideas. Debate moderator Lester Holt asked Trump why he’s broken with tradition in not releasing his tax returns.
