Hundreds Gather To Honor Suffragist Movement, Celebrate That Women Across The Country Are Voting Today For A Woman To Be President
Voting takes less time than ever, but there’s one place voters are guaranteed to wait in long lines: the grave of women’s suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony. Hundreds have visited the cemetery, which is holding extended hours tonight, to honor the movement to ensure half the population has the right to vote and celebrate that women across the country are voting today for a woman to be president.
ABC News: Voters Travel Near and Far to Pay Homage to Feminist Icon on Election Day: “One hundred and forty-four years ago, a woman named Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in a presidential election. Today, millions of women will cast their vote for Hillary Clinton — the first female presidential nominee for a major political party.”
USA Today: People are covering Susan B. Anthony’s grave stone with ‘I Voted’ stickers: “Many people smiled and laughed in delight at the occasion. Others wept. ‘I never cried when I filled out my ballot before. But I realized my daughters — and I have three of them — have the right to vote for a woman. It made my cry,’ said Jodi Atkin of Irondequoit, who trekked to the grave site with daughter Jessie. Both were clad in white, which many women chose to wear on Tuesday to honor those who, like Anthony, helped secure their right to vote.”
CNN: Hundreds flock to Susan B. Anthony’s grave on Election Day: “Brynn Hunt, a Rochester resident and first-time voter, was one of many to visit the site Tuesday morning. ‘I voted today because of women like her,’ she said. Hunt said she wore white in honor of women’s suffrage. Early Tuesday, hundreds of people began to form to thank Anthony for her efforts.”
CBS News: Steady crowds at Susan B. Anthony grave on Election Day: “A steady stream of people are arriving at Rochester’s Mount Hope cemetery, decorating Anthony’s grave with ‘I Voted’ stickers and American flags. Some are leaving yellow roses, which was a symbol of the women’s suffrage movement.”
New York Times: Voters Gather at Susan B. Anthony’s Grave in Rochester: “The line to the grave site grew throughout the day. By noon it had snaked and doubled back on itself through the orange and gold trees. The color of the leaves was reflected in the yellow flowers many carried or wore pinned to pantsuit lapels — the bright roses the suffragists took to symbolize their cause, which began in the 1840s and continued for 80 years. A woman moved among the stones with a hand drum looking to form a drum circle. Others knelt with their children and whispered about who Anthony was and who Hillary Clinton is.”
Sarah Maslin Nir: The scene at Susan B. Anthony’s grave. And it’s a scene. (video)
Katie Marino: After voting my mom & I visited Susan B. Anthony’s grave with hundreds of other people. Thank you, women’s voices are heard now. #IVoted
Tricia Fitzmaurice: A fitting tribute at Susan B. Anthony’s grave in Rochester today. We all owe her a thank you. #HistoryIsHappening #SenecaFallsSuffragists
Brynn Hunt: “I voted today because of women like her.” Today I voted in my first primary election, visited Susan B. Anthony’s grave, and wear white to honor women’s suffrage. We have come a long way since the 19th amendment was passed, but we still have a long way to go. I’m proud to say #imwithher
MaxbGenius: “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” – Susan B. Anthony #vote #suffrage #equality #rochester
Jes Karakashian: This wraps around twice. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. #imwithher
On Sunday, representatives for Hillary for America appeared a number of Sunday morning talk show. Tim Kaine was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, campaign manager Robby Mook was interviewed by Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, and campaign chair John Podesta was interviewed by Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. Each were asked about the FBI’s renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Kaine called for FBI Director James Comey to release additional details about the investigation and questioned whether Comey had even seen the emails in question.
Mook said that while it seems the emails were discovered on a computer owned by former Representative Anthony Weiner, he is confident that there is no new information to be found and that Weiner’s wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, has cooperated with the FBI’s investigation. On CNN, Podesta called on Comey to explain the move adding, “This is something that has been tossed into the middle of the campaign. We would have preferred that that not happen, but now that it has happened, we would prefer that Mr. Comey come forward and explain why he took that unprecedented step.” Videos of the interviews are below.
On Saturday, Hillary for America responded to the revelation that the FBI has found “additional evidence” related to Hillary Clinton’s email with a call for more information from the FBI and Director James Comey. Campaign Chair John Podesta and Manager Robby Mook held a press phone briefing earlier today. A transcript of their comments is below:
CAMPAIGN CHAIR JOHN PODESTA: The extraordinary letter that was long on innuendo and short on facts that Director Comey sent yesterday to eight Republican committee chairs. Twenty-four hours after that letter was sent, we have no real explanation of why Director Comey decided to send that letter to congressional leaders. In fact, the more information that has come out, the more overblown this all seems, and the more concern it creates about Director Comey’s actions. For starters, it seems clear that some of initial characterizations of the FBI’s actions were inaccurate, despite initial reporting that the letter amounted to the quote, unquote, “Reopening of the investigation concluded last July.” It seems that that is not at all the case. That notion was pushed of course was by Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
It is not surprising that Congressman Chaffetz would take the opportunity to distort the facts to mount an attack on Hillary Clinton. This is someone who has promised to launch years of new Hillary Clinton investigations when she is president. Even conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, and said earlier this week that Chaffetz says undermined his own legitimacy and he was – that he was “obsessed with finding something, anything to hang around Hillary Clinton’s neck.” So while some initially ran with the notion that an investigation was being reopened, those were Chaffetz’s words, not Comey’s, and outlets have already walked back this claim.
But this is exactly the problem that Director Comey has created with sending off his letter just 11 days out from the presidential election. By providing selective information, he has allowed partisans to distort and exaggerate in order to inflict maximum political damage, and no one can separate what is true from what is not because Comey is not been forthcoming with the facts. What little Comey has told us makes it hard to understand why this step has been warranted at all. For instance, he says, quote, “The FBI cannot assess whether or not this material may even be significant,” unquote.
And the reporting that has surfaced in the hour since this letter surfaced create even more confusion why Comey would have raised this on the eve of the election. NBC has reported from law enforcement sources that the emails in question were never withheld by Hillary Clinton or the Clinton campaign. NBC reported that the emails in question did not come from Clinton’s server at all. That has now been corroborated by a slew of other news outlets, and according to the Los Angeles Times, Clinton did not even personally or receive any of the emails in question.
Reports indicate that many of these emails are likely duplicates of ones that have already been turned over and reviewed by the bureau and its investigation last July. It is in fact entirely possible all the emails in question are just that, duplicates. So that is what we have learned from reporting in the wake of Director Comey’s message to congressional leaders. So just to recap and to put this in perspective, there is no evidence of wrong doing, no charge of wrong doing, no indication that this is even about Hillary. In fact, there are reports that the emails they want to look at are duplicates of things they already have and aren’t even from or to Hillary.
Even Director Comey said, “This may not be significant.” If that is all true, it is hard to see how this amounts to anything, and we are not going to be distracted, and Hillary is not going to be distracted in the final days of this election over nothing. But we should not be forced to get this information from second and third hand sources, from leaks, from law enforcement and FBI sources, Director Comey was the one who decided to take this unprecedented step. We now learned against the advice of senior Justice Department officials, who told him it was against long-standing department policy from Democratic and Republican administrations. Director Comey was the one who wrote a letter that was light on facts, heavy on innuendo, knowing full well what Republicans in Congress would do with it. It’s now up to him, who owes the public answers to the questions that are now on the table, and we’re calling on him to come forward and give those answers to the American public. So with that, let me turn it over to our campaign manager, Robby Mook.
CAMPAIGN MANAGER ROBBY MOOK: Well, thank you John, and this is a very concerning situation. As John explained, the more information that comes out, the more overblown this entire situation seems to be. That, in turn, has raised more questions about Director Comey from his colleagues in law enforcement circles to take this extraordinary step 11 days out from the presidential election. Just this morning, there is a startling report in the Washington Post saying that senior Justice Department officials warned Director Comey not to do this and that it was inconsistent with the practices of the department. He was apparently told that “we do not comment on an ongoing investigation, and we don’t take steps that will be viewed as influencing an election,” according to one Justice official who spoke to the Post. As a result of this, Comey has come under considerable pressure from not just Democrats but also Republicans and legal experts alike.
The Washington Post amplifies this point. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Akerman says, “Director Comey acted totally inappropriately. He has no business writing to Congress about supposed new emails that neither he nor anyone in the FBI had ever reviewed. It is not the function of the FBI director to be making public pronouncements about an investigation, never mind about an investigation based on evidence that he acknowledges may not be significant.”
Also former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said he respects Comey, however, quote, “I don’t understand this idea of dropping this bombshell, which could be a big dud. Doing it in the last week or 10 days of a presidential election without more information, I don’t think that he, I don’t think he should because how does it inform voters? It just invites speculation.” And in addition, former Justice Department spokesperson, Matt Miller, said, “The Justice Department’s long-time, long-standing practice is ‘don’t do anything seen as trying to influence an election.’ That’s usually interpreted as 60 days, let alone 11. It’s completely unfair to Secretary Clinton, and it’s really unfair to the voters. There’s no reason he had to send this letter.”
And finally, according to reports, Attorney General Loretta Lynch “expressed her preference that Comey follow the department’s long-standing practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election,” but he said he felt compelled to do otherwise. So as John said, “It’s now incumbent on Director Comey to immediately provide the American people with more information than what is contained in his letter.” He owes the public the whole story, or else he shouldn’t have cracked open this door in the first place. Both campaigns and leaders in both parties of Congress are in full agreement on this fact.
And the last thing I’d say before I turn it back to Brian is that based on the anecdotes I’m hearing from our team on the ground, this situation has created an urgency, an intensity among our volunteers and activists that was already high because we are so close to the election but that our volunteers are rallying behind Hillary. They know what a fighter she is. I think they were heartened that she came out and addressed this so forthrightly, that she is calling for the full story to be told. And they’re as upset and concerned as we are here, and they are turning out, not only to have her back but to rally our supporters to turn out and vote as early voting goes into full swing. And we’re not just seeing this in our offices on the ground, but also in our, in our online, in the online space as well. And the, I think this is, we already had momentum and wind behind our back going into yesterday. I think this has only increased the momentum that we’re feeling among our activists on the ground.
In addition, HFA released two briefs featuring articles and coverage from the press showing that as more details have been released, the less significant the evidence appears. The releases are below:
Comey Under Fire After Sending Unprecedented Letter
FBI Director James Comey is under widespread criticism for breaking department precedent by commenting on an ongoing investigation, and doing so just days before a presidential election. Indeed, the Washington Post reported this morning senior Justice Department officials made perfectly clear to Comey that he would be in violation of long-standing DOJ policy.
Moreover, according to CNN, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates both objected to Comey sending this inappropriate letter to Congress. Nevertheless, Director Comey independently decided to move forward, rattling the presidential election with a note that was heavy on innuendo and extremely light on actual information or needed details.
The result? Broad bipartisan condemnation and demands for the swift disclosure of more information:
Washington Post: Justice officials warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent with department policy: “Senior Justice Department officials warned the FBI that Director James B. Comey’s decision to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Comey told Justice Department officials that he intended to inform lawmakers of newly discovered emails. These officials told him the department’s position “that we don’t comment on an ongoing investigation. And we don’t take steps that will be viewed as influencing an election,” said one Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the high-level conversations.”
CNN: Comey notified Congress of email probe despite DOJ concerns: “Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates objected to FBI Director James Comey’s decision to notify Congress about his bureau’s review of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s personal server, law enforcement officials familiar with the discussion said. Comey decided to disregard their objections and sent the letter Friday anyway, shaking the presidential race 11 days before the election and nearly four months after the FBI chief said he wouldn’t recommend criminal charges over the Democratic nominee’s use of the server.
New York Times: Justice Dept. Strongly Discouraged Comey on Move in Clinton Email Case: “Mr. Comey’s letter opened him up to criticism not only from Democrats but also from current and former officials at the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, including Republicans. ‘There’s a longstanding policy of not doing anything that could influence an election,’ said George J. Terwilliger III, a deputy attorney general under the first President George Bush. ‘Those guidelines exist for a reason. Sometimes that makes for hard decisions. But bypassing them has consequences.’”
Politico: Comey’s disclosure shocks former prosecutors: “James Comey’s surprise announcement that investigators are examining new evidence in the probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server put the FBI director back under a harsh spotlight, reigniting criticism of his unusual decision to discuss the high-profile case in front of the media and two congressional committees.”
Los Angeles Times: “The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.
Washington Post Editorial: The damage Comey’s bad timing could do: “Mr. Podesta said he is ‘confident’ full disclosure ‘will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.’ If so, the question will be how badly damaged was Ms. Clinton’s candidacy by the 11th-hour re-eruption of a controversy that never should have generated so much suspicion or accusation in the first place.”
New York Times Editorial: “But Mr. Comey’s failure to provide any specifics about a new, potentially important development, less than two weeks before Election Day, is confounding. As Mr. Comey put it in July: “The American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest.” They deserve details even more urgently today.”
Bloomberg: FBI Shocker on Clinton Fuels Criticism of Comey’s Tactics: “FBI Director James Comey is facing extraordinary pressure to explain himself after dropping a bombshell on the campaign of Hillary Clinton just 11 days before the presidential election… Former prosecutors and lawmakers from both parties expressed shock and dismay at Comey’s highly unusual decision, which flouted decades of legal custom that call for avoiding taking actions that could affect the outcome of an election.”
Washington Post: FBI Director James B. Comey under fire for his controversial decision on the Clinton email inquiry: “Nick Ackerman, a former federal prosecutor in New York and an assistant special Watergate prosecutor, said Comey ‘had no business writing to Congress about supposed new emails that neither he nor anyone in the FBI has ever reviewed.’”
Huffington Post: News Outlets Dial Back Reports Of FBI ‘Reopening’ Clinton Email Case: “The story took several other turns on Friday afternoon that complicated the early, screaming headlines, and then ensured the story would remain a topic of discussion in the days ahead. Multiple outlets subsequently reported that the new emails weren’t sent by Clinton and didn’t come from her private server.”
CNN Legal Analyst, Paul Callan: Time for FBI director Comey to go: “Comey’s public announcement in July that the FBI had concluded its investigation regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in the conduct of official State Department business and would not recommend the lodging of criminal charges was historically unprecedented in a high-profile political case.”
Washington Post Op-Ed by Former DOJ Spokesman Matt Miller: James Comey fails to follow Justice Department rules yet again: “With each step, Comey moved further away from department guidelines and precedents, culminating in Friday’s letter to Congress. This letter not only violated Justice rules on commenting on ongoing investigations but also flew in the face of years of precedent about how to handle sensitive cases as Election Day nears…. The director of the FBI has great power at his disposal…. With that independence comes a responsibility to adhere to the rules that protect the rights of those whom the FBI investigates. Comey has failed that standard repeatedly in his handling of the Clinton investigation.”
New York Times: F.B.I. Chief James Comey Is in Political Crossfire Again Over Emails: “The reaction was swift and damning, with Mrs. Clinton’s supporters and even some Republicans blasting Mr. Comey. Indeed, Mr. Comey, who was attacked this summer by Democrats and Republicans for both his decision not to bring charges against Mrs. Clinton and for the way he handled it, found himself in an even stronger crossfire on Friday.”
Los Angeles Times’ Michael McGough: FBI director should have known what his Clinton emails letter would unleash: “Having raised new doubts about Clinton so close to an election, Comey has an obligation —a moral obligation if not a legal one — to do everything he can to expedite the “additional work” required to determine whether this new information does, in fact, cast doubt on his earlier conclusion that Clinton wasn’t criminally culpable.”
Aurora Sentinel Editorial: FBI’s Comey needs to come clean on details, motivation — or resign: “If there’s damning or critical information about Clinton staff handling of email that creates the clear and immediate threat to national security that would warrant such a ploy, Americans deserve to have Clinton explain them, and Clinton must get that opportunity. Otherwise, Comey needs to apologize for his infelicity and possibly politically motivated stunt, and immediately step aside.”
Newsweek: Hillary Clinton’s Emails: The Real Reason The FBI Is Reviewing More Of Them: “Unfortunately, by trying to have things both ways – revealing the change in circumstances while remaining vague about what the agents know – Comey has created that misleading impression that could change the outcome of a presidential election, an act that, if uncorrected, will undoubtedly go down as one of the darkest moments in the bureau’s history.”
New Yorker: James Comey Broke With Loretta Lynch And Justice Department Tradition: “Coming less than two weeks before the Presidential election, Comey’s decision to make public new evidence that may raise additional legal questions about Clinton was contrary to the views of the Attorney General, according to a well-informed Administration official. Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department’s longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election, but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise.”
Charlotte Observer Editorial: Comey drops Hillary Clinton email bombshell; so tell us more: “But it is extraordinary for such volatile information to emerge so close to Election Day and that’s especially true given how few specifics are known. Because Comey was so vague, voters can’t know what to think. The new emails could be anything from meaningless to evidence of criminal activity by Clinton to most anything in between.”
ThinkProgress: The ‘new’ Clinton emails might all be duplicates: “So, to be clear, the FBI Director delivered a gut punch to the Clinton campaign, despite the fact that 1) he doesn’t know what he has; 2) it may be something that he already had; and, 3) whatever it is that he has, it reportedly didn’t come from Secretary Clinton, and was not sent to her.”
Huffington Post: Heat Rises For FBI Director James Comey As Both Campaigns Demand Email Answers: “Both camps demanded that FBI Director James Comey disclose more details about the emails and the bureau’s investigation, which he made known in a letter to Congress just 11 days before the election…. Many challenged the FBI director’s motives, increasing the pressure on him to comply with calls from both campaigns for more information.”
Once Again, “Bombshell” Clinton Revelation Fizzles As Facts Come Out
Yesterday, Republican Congressional leaders leaked an unprecedented letter from FBI Director James Comey, with initial reports including dire headlines for Hillary Clinton. But like most “bombshell” discoveries about Clinton over the course of this campaign, it fizzled rapidly as facts actually became available. Let’s review…
YESTERDAY’S BOMBSHELL: NBC News: FBI re-opening investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server
Jason Chaffetz: “FBI Dir just informed me, ‘The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.’ Case reopened”
GOP: “BREAKING NEWS: The FBI is re-opening their investigation into @HillaryClinton’s secret server.”
…facts emerge:
Investigation not reopened. Huffington Post: News Outlets Dial Back Reports Of FBI ‘Reopening’ Hillary Clinton Email Case
No emails had been withheld. NBC News: “the e-mails Comey announced today were NOT originally withheld by Clinton or campaign.”
Emils not from Clinton’s server.Bloomberg: New Clinton E-mails Not From Her Private Server, AP Says
Emails reportedly not to or from Clinton. Los Angeles Times: “The emails were not to or from Clinton”
No indication emails bear significance. Comey memo to employees: “we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails”
Many emails likely duplicates of ones already turned over.ThinkProgress: The ‘new’ Clinton emails might all be duplicates
Comey letter violates DOJ policy. Washington Post: Justice officials warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent with department policy
Comey overruled AG Loretta Lynch. CNN: “Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with FBI Director James Comey’s decision to notify Congress about his bureau’s review…”
Former officials on both sides of aisle criticized Comey. New York Times: “Mr. Comey’s letter opened him up to criticism not only from Democrats but also from current and former officials at the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, including Republicans.”
Clinton and Trump both calling for more information. Huffington Post: “Both camps demanded that FBI Director James Comey disclose more details about the emails and the bureau’s investigation”
This is hardly the first time. It seems the script is always the same:
Bombshell allegation is made hastily without facts available
Media breathlessly covers the latest supposed Clinton Scandal
Republicans declare that this time they’ve found the smoking gun
Initial explosive reports slowly fizzle on account of facts
Here are just five of the many recent examples:
BOMBSHELL: @GOP, 8/30/16: “BREAKING: State Dept discovered 30 emails recovered from Hillary Clinton’s private server that discussed Benghazi.”
…facts emerge: Los Angeles Times, 9/7/16: “There appears to be only one new communication related to Benghazi… a complimentary note from a diplomat to Clinton, praising how she handled herself before a Senate panel investigating the matter.”
BOMBSHELL: @GOP, 5/5/16: “Hacker ‘Guccifer’ told news outlets that he repeatedly accessed Clinton’s unsecure email server & that ‘it was easy’”
…facts emerge: FOX News, 7/7/16: Comey: Hacker ‘Guccifer’ Lied About Accessing Clinton’s Emails
BOMBSHELL: @AP, 8/23/16: “BREAKING: AP analysis: More than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation.”
…facts emerge: Vox, 8/24/16: “Except it turns out not to be true. The nut fact that the AP uses to lead its coverage is wrong, and Braun and Sullivan’s reporting reveals absolutely no unethical conduct…. the AP excluded from the denominator all employees of any government, whether US or foreign.”
BOMBSHELL: Washington Post, 8/22/16: The FBI found 15,000 emails Hillary Clinton didn’t turn over. Uh oh.
…facts emerge: CNN, 10/7/16: “Okay, so what’s in this latest batch? Short answer: No bombshells. More than half of the emails are these so-called “near duplicates” of previously released emails… There are also a number of emails between Clinton and her close aides in which they discuss scheduling matters — timing for phone calls, meetings, etc…. None of the new emails contained information marked as classified or upgraded to classified.”
BOMBSHELL: The Hill, 7/5/16: FBI director: Clinton emails were marked as classified at the time
…facts emerge: MediaIte, 7/7/16: FBI Director Admits Hillary Clinton Emails Were Not Properly Marked Classified
Tonight, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will face off in the final debate before the election on November 8th. Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, the third debate will be moderated by Fox News’s Chris Wallace and will focus on debt, entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and “fitness to be president.” The debate will begin at 9 pm ET and will be available live on most major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, CNN, Univision, Telemundo, C-SPAN). There will also be a number of live stream options including CBSN, YouTube, Twitter, and the Wall Street Journal. A live stream of the debate is available below.
On Sunday night, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the second of three debates. The debate was intended to be a town hall style event moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz; however, it quickly descended into a series of personal attacks. Clinton hammered Trump for his comments about women, Muslims, immigrants, and everyone else has insulted. Trump went after Bill Clinton’s sexual scandals and threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton if he is elected. For 90 minutes, the candidates bickered, and occasionally, spoke about policy.
While pundits will argue who won and who lost last night’s debate, what is important is who you feel will best represent you. This political cycle has become more about personality and less about the issues at stake. Both candidates have outlined a series of policies they believe are important to them and that says a lot about their beliefs. What is key is that on November 8, you have a choice. You have a voice at the ballot box and make sure it is heard. Vote.
A video replay of the debate is below.
Hillary for America responded to the debate with two press releases. The first is titled “Results are In: Clinton Won the Debate” and second is titled “Another Night of Trump’s Lies.” Both press releases are below.
Results Are In: Hillary Clinton Won The Debate
The results from the second presidential debate are crystal clear, Hillary Clinton is the victor. Last night, Donald Trump repeated the same falsehoods he’s spewed since the start of his campaign, admitted to evading federal taxes for years and tried to mask his offensive comments and actions against women as “locker room talk.” Post-debate polls and journalist have agreed there’s only one candidate fit to be commander-in-chief.
@nytimes: Clinton endured the nuclear attack and Trump solved none of his problems.
@HuffingtonPost: Political figures from both parties thought Trump’s performance was a disaster
@Mic: Hillary Clinton won the second #debate, mostly because Donald Trump totally imploded
LA Times: Second presidential debate updates: Hillary Clinton won again, our analysts say “… He [Trump] had a big hole to climb out of, and he did not do it. He was snappish throughout, repeatedly interrupting Clinton and badgering the moderators. He repeated falsehoods — that neighbors of the San Bernardino terrorists saw bombs in their apartment and said nothing, that he had never tweeted about a sex tape involving last week’s Trump target, a former Miss Universe … Clinton, by contrast, was knowledgeable on policy matters and handled criticisms … It seems unlikely that he will benefit in any meaningful way from tonight’s debate, and it’s very possible she will benefit.”
Washington Post: On Twitter, Hillary Clinton won the debate “In general, Twitter users were more favorable to Clinton than Trump — in line with the snap polls. This was particularly true when she addressed the tape of Trump’s lewd comments about women and in the half-hour after the debate.”
New York Times: “With Donald J. Trump’s campaign engulfed in crisis, the second presidential debate promised a clash of grand proportions: a decisive, even cataclysmic showdown between one candidate on his heels and the other, Hillary Clinton, emerging as a strong front-runner.”
Reuters: “Wall Street rose on Monday morning amid gains across most sectors, driven by oil prices, and as Democrat Hillary Clinton was widely seen as the winner of the second presidential debate. A Clinton presidency would be more positive for the markets because her positions are more well known than those of her Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters poll.”
Economic Times: Hillary Clinton ‘clear winner’ of 2nd presidential debate: Polls “Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton today emerged as the “clear winner” after the second US presidential debate … Trump fell back on the tricks he has learned from his years in pro wrestling and reality television, making clear how deep his cynicism goes and how little regard he has for his party, let alone the presidency … The editorial added that during the debate, Trump “struggled” to construct coherent statements of his own policies, “wandering down strange, shadowy alleyways as he pursued his various claims about Clinton”, including that she, not he, was responsible for his birth”
Washington Post: “Winner: Hillary Clinton: … Clinton went into this debate with massive momentum in the race — much of it caused by Trump’s stumbles — and didn’t make any sort of glaring error that would allow the Republican back into the contest. She was steady, knowledgeable and pleasant — even in the face of some very personal attacks — throughout. And she let Trump talk, which, as has been the case since he got into the race, is always his undoing.”
New York Magazine: “On Sunday night, the Republican presidential nominee was asked why he had bragged about committing sexual assault. Donald Trump dismissed such boasts as locker-room talk, promised to prosecute his chief political opponent, attacked Hillary Clinton for allegations of sexual violence made against her husband (despite the fact that numerous women have made such allegations against Trump himself), all while sniffling into his microphone 93 times … Most early metrics suggest that Clinton won the debate”
Slate: “She had to appear unruffled while Trump, stewing and pacing, loomed behind her, physically menacing her with his bulk. He threatened to have her imprisoned if elected; she betrayed not a hint of rage or shock … Trump bullied and lied. He once again dismissed his hot mic boasts about sexual assault as “locker-room” talk. He denied sending an early morning tweet telling Americans to check out the (nonexistent) sex tape of a former Miss Universe, when the tweet, less than two weeks old, is on the internet for all to see”
Huffington Post: “The town hall format allowed Trump to stalk the stage, lurking behind Clinton as she answered questions, and he muscled his way into directly confronting the Democratic nominee on issues such as her emails and her modest record of accomplishment in Congress. He proudly admitted that he had indeed used $916 million in tax write-offs against his income, but attacked Clinton for not changing the very law he used … But other polls, including from CNN, showed Clinton winning handily.”
Business Insider: Clinton scores decisive victory over Trump in 2nd debate “A CNN/ORC instant poll taken immediately after Sunday night’s presidential debate in St. Louis gave Hillary Clinton a decisive victory over Donald Trump.Fifty-seven percent of 537 registered voters surveyed in the immediate aftermath of the political showdown said the Democratic nominee won the contest.”
The Oxford Eagle: Hillary Clinton won the presidential debate tonight over Donald Trump “Trump, the Republican, missed on facts in accusations against Clinton, he rambled at times late in the debate, and he spoke over moderators and Clinton at times. Trump even dissed his Republican vice presidential running mate at one point, when he disagreed with running mate Mike Pence’s position on the proper strategy to deal with the civil war and humanitarian crisis in Syria.”
Iowa State Daily Editorial: Clinton wins second presidential debate “… Trump seemed to cycle through sound bite arguments and, like last time, gave very little of anything resembling a straight answer. Almost immediately, Trump received questions about his latest scandal: his 2005 comments that depicted the Republican candidate bragging about sexual assault. And while Trump seems to think that this “locker room talk” means very little when faced with his favorite talking point, ISIS, he failed to show the American public not only remorse, but a stance that showed anything other than complete disregard for severity of sexual assault and the power of words.”
Denver Post Editorial: Trump doubles down on desperate strategy in second debate “Trump’s attacks before and during Sunday’s debate represented a cynical Hail Mary pass that we hope objective voters see through as the desperate acts of a badly damaged politician.Rather than trying to reverse the perception of him presented by a video recording in which he talks about women as if he were a common thug, Trump chose to blame Hillary Clinton for her responses to well-known problems she and her husband dealt with years ago. Only in a mind as unprincipled and undisciplined as Trump’s does such an argument make sense.”
Miami Herald Editorial: In debate, Trump’s scorched earth vs. down-to-earth Clinton “Donald Trump had one job at Sunday night’s debate: Persuade the group of undecideds in the room and beyond that his misogynistic bragging in a video that surfaced last week has absolutely no bearing on his fitness to be president. News flash: Donald Trump is unfit to to be president. He ducked, dodged, backtracked, spoke in ridiculously broad generalities — Hillary Clinton was a “disaster” as a U.S. senator — took responsibility for absolutely nothing … It was more of his scorched-earth approach, based on the belief that he will make life better for Americans simply because he says so.”
Las Vegas Sun Analysis: Donald Trump didn’t win anyone over with performance in second debate “Sunday night in St. Louis, Donald Trump proved yet again he’s not interested in winning over any voters outside of his loyalists. After reiterating a tepid apology for his disgusting hot-mic remarks in a 2005 video, he tried to divert attention from it by discussing former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs and pledging to have a special prosecutor investigate Hillary Clinton over her email scandal if he were elected president. Classic Trump, the same as when he challenged moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN over the debate rules, saying he was in a “one-on-three” situation against Cooper, Clinton and moderator Martha Raddatz from ABC News. … As for those who question Trump’s fitness to serve, however, he did nothing to convince them to vote for him.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: A debate unlikely to win voters over to Trump’s side “Trump made clear he is not aiming for a campaign reset but instead will use misogyny as a theme to attack his opponent. As angry accusations flew between him and Clinton, Trump stated bizarrely, “We have a divided nation … because of people like her. Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart …tremendous hatred.” In response to the laundry list that Hillary Clinton gave of his insulting treatment of women, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants and disabled people, Trump’s response was to wave it off along with the scandal that erupted Friday regarding his 2005 remarks: “It’s just words, folks. Just words. … That was locker room talk.” He then, inexplicably, tried to transition from that to a critique of the Obama administration and the Islamic State. … Whether Trump managed to win over undecided voters with his show Sunday night is anyone’s guess. This newspaper is unswayed in our belief that he is dangerously unfit to be the next president.”
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Donald Trump may have lost the 2016 election in 2005 “The recording strikes Americans who’ve reliably loathed Trump as another we-told-you moment. They wonder, correctly, why all Republicans and Trump converts weren’t long ago repelled by his notorious comments about women, Mexicans, Muslims and others he has diminished. Why, Republicans, are you just now offended? Fair question. One answer: because this raw revelation reaches a more frightful order of magnitude. Here we have Trump not only demeaning women but describing how he preys on them. … We’ll be surprised if this week’s opinion polls don’t suggest that millions of Americans are finished with Trump. After Sunday night, this fate both echoes and looms: He may have lost the 2016 election in 2005.”
Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: Trump’s performance in Sunday’s debate did little to steady his ship “With all the slime attached to Trump’s campaign, and not just in the past few days, his only hope of repairing the damage to his own chances, and to the whole election cycle, would be for him to make a convincing case, in the little time remaining, that in spite of everything he has the ideas, the skills and the temperament to lead this nation. He didn’t do that Sunday.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Desperation, thy name is Donald Trump: Thoughts after the second presidential debate “Perhaps the only suspense that remains in the final month of this race is whether Trump will face this adversity with any dignity. Spoiler alert: The Trump who showed up Sunday in St. Louis for his second debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton seems determined to go down in a blaze of desperation. The New York businessman is grasping for anything that might stop the bleeding from a series of self-inflicted wounds dating to their first face-off nearly two weeks ago…If Trump’s goal Sunday was to reassure his remaining supporters and to keep undecided voters from giving up on him, he failed before the Washington University debate even began.”
Dallas Morning News Editorial: Debate exposes the same old mile-wide-and-inch-thin Trump “With Republicans in panic mode — some even encouraging Trump to step down in favor of vice presidential nominee Mike Pence — Trump showed himself Sunday to be incapable of contrition. He also exhibited an inability to describe any strategy he would employ — from health care to Syria — if elected to the White House. While Democrat Hillary Clinton talked more about policy and tactics, Trump resorted to broad-brush — and often bewildering — attacks, such as saying Clinton “has tremendous hate in her heart.”
Boston Globe Editorial: Vile words drown Trump’s mediocre performance “AS HIS FELLOW Republicans deserted him one by one, Donald J. Trump put up the best fight he’s capable of at the second presidential debate in St. Louis on Sunday night. But it was nowhere close to good enough. Trump wasn’t convincing as a potential president. … There are probably no magic words that Trump could have said that would have undone the damage he has inflicted on his campaign. If anything, Sunday’s debate will make it easier for his fellow Republicans to leave him to his fate.”
Another Night of Donald Trump’s Lies
Donald Trump kept fact checkers busy after last night’s debate. In the 12 hours following the debate, he garnered more than 75 fact checks. From his wild exaggerations to dangerous falsehoods, Trump continued his pattern of bold-faced lying to millions of viewers. Here are just some of the reviews of Trump’s untrue statements on topics including taxes, foreign policy, his own offensive comments and more.
Trump’s Lies About His Own Offensive Comments to Women:
AP: “Donald Trump, asked whether his early morning tweets directing people to check out a sex tape showed discipline, said: ‘It wasn’t ‘check out a sex tape.’’ THE FACTS: Wrong. Trump told his 12.2 million Twitter followers to check out a sex tape as he criticized a former Miss Universe.”
CNN: “Trump: I didn’t say ‘check out the sex tape’ VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said he never tweeted ‘check out a sex tape’ in the wee hours of the morning a few days after the first presidential debate. That’s false — he did.”
Huffington Post: “During Debate, Trump Denies Telling People To Check Out A Sex Tape On Twitter. Yeah, well, he literally directed people to check out a sex tape on Twitter.”
NPR: “[DJT:] I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women that I do. [FACT CHECK:] Trump has had many occasions to make this claim over the course of the campaign, dating back to his tense interaction with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland in August 2015, when Kelly reminded him of his history of offensive comments about women. Here is a partial list compiled by PBS.”
Politifact: “Trump said the tweet he sent out ‘wasn’t saying, ‘check out a sex tape’’ but rather to ‘just take a look at’ Machado’s background. That’s ridiculous. While Trump did urge his Twitter followers to check out Machado’s ‘past,’ he literally wrote ‘check out sex tape’ in the tweet. We rate his statement Pants on Fire!”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] No I didn’t say that at all. [FACT CHECK:] He did say that. The exact words were, ‘You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.””
Trump’s Lies About the Economy & Taxes:
Huffington Post: “Trump’s $20 Trillion Debt Line Is Ridiculous”
NPR: “[DJT:] We have no growth in this country. There is no growth. [FACT CHECKER:] The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic organization, evaluated the U.S. economy this summer and concluded: ‘Seven years after the financial crisis, the US economy has rebounded: output has surpassed its pre-crisis peak by 10%, robust private-sector employment gains have sharply reduced unemployment, fiscal sustainability has been largely restored and corporate profits are high.’”
AP:“Trump wrong on Clinton tax claim… DONALD TRUMP: ‘She is raising your taxes, and I am lowering your taxes. …She’s raising everybody’s taxes massively.’ HILLARY CLINTON: ‘He would end up raising taxes on middle-class families’ THE FACTS: Clinton is not raising taxes on ‘everybody.’ Nearly all of Hillary Clinton’s proposed tax increases would affect the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.”
Buzzfeed Reporter: “Trump says AGAIN that the US has the highest taxes in the world. That’s…untrue.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said of Clinton’s plan, ‘She is raising everybody’s taxes massively.’ Everybody? No. Analyses by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the pro-business Tax Foundation both concluded that almost all of the tax increases proposed by Clinton would fall on the top 10 percent of taxpayers. Hardest hit would be the less than 0.1 percent of taxpayers who earn more than $5 million per year.”
Huffington Post: “Note To Trump: This Is How The Senate Works. Trump seems to misunderstand how the Senate works. He accused Clinton of not doing enough to get rid of the carried interest loophole when she was a senator. Clinton noted that she has been in favor of getting rid it for years.”
Huffington Post: “Trump Says He’ll Get Rid Of A Wall Street Loophole. His Tax Plan Says He Won’t.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump admitted that he used a $916 million loss declared on his 1995 tax returns to avoid paying federal income taxes. But he refused to say how many years he paid no income tax and simultaneously claimed to have paid a ‘tremendous’ amount of taxes. More questions than answers.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that growth is “down to 1 percent” and that taxes in the United States are the “highest in the world” Wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said he would reduce the tax rate on business income to 15 percent. Not exactly.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: IRS audit doesn’t prohibit Trump from releasing taxes”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s wrong on the U.S. being the highest taxed nation”
Trump’s Lies About The Affordable Care Act:
AP:“Trump overstates cost of Obama’s health plan. DONALD TRUMP: Obamacare ‘is going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.’ THE FACTS: Trump vastly exaggerates the cost of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The cost of the coverage expansion in Obama’s health care law is nowhere near what the government spends on Medicare and Medicaid, for example.”
FactCheck.org: “He also cherry-picked high proposed premium increases in the exchanges, and he said that the law should be replaced with ‘something absolutely much less expensive,’ when repealing the law is expected to increase federal deficits.”
FactCheck.org: “Finally, Trump said that the ACA is ‘unbelievably expensive for our country. … We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive.’ But the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation’s latest estimates on the impact of repealing the law find doing away with it would likely increase federal deficits over the 2016-2025 time period.”
Trump’s Lies About Hillary Clinton and Health Care:
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton “wants to go to a single-payer plan” like the health care system in Canada. Untrue.”
NPR: “[DJT:] But she wants to go to single-payer. [FACT CHECKER:] Clinton does not support single-payer. She supports expanding Medicare to people 55 and over, but has not come out in support of a complete overhaul of the health system so that it would be more like Canada or many European health systems.”
Politifact: “Trump says Clinton ‘wants to go to a single-payer plan’ for health care. She has consistently said she would fight efforts to repeal Obamacare and would try to improve it. She said she wants a public option to be ‘possible’ but she has not called for moving to a system of only single payer. Clinton has not called for a single-payer plan. At times, she has praised the health care systems of other countries that have a single-payer plan, but she has not advocated that plan for the United States. We rate Trump’s claim False.”
AP:“Trump wrong on Clinton and health care. DONALD TRUMP: ‘She (Clinton) wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster…she wants to go to single-payer, which means the government basically rules everything.’ THE FACTS: It’s Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — not Clinton — who supports a Canada-style government-run health care system.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump falsely claims Clinton is proposing Canada-style healthcare system.”
FactCheck.org:“Trump used an old GOP scare tactic, wrongly claiming that Clinton wanted to implement a government-run, ‘single-payer,’ health care system, like Canada’s… Clinton supports making Medicare available to those over age 55, and creating a ‘public option,’ or a federal insurance plan, that would compete with private plans on the ACA exchanges. She hasn’t called for a single-payer system.”
Trump’s Lies About Immigration:
Buzzfeed: “Donald Trump claimed that the US doesn’t have borders. ‘We’re going to have borders on our country that we don’t have now,’ Trump said. But enforcement along the US-Mexico border has never been higher. There are currently about 21,000 agents patrolling more than 6,000 miles of the nation’s borders.”
CBS News: “TRUMP: ‘I understand the border. She doesn’t. She wants amnesty for everybody.’… It is not true that Clinton supports ‘amnesty for everybody,’ but she does want to make it easier for people who came here illegally to stay by passing legislation with a path to citizenship.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump says Mrs. Clinton wants “amnesty for everybody, come on in, come on over.” Not her position.”
NPR: “[DJT:] […] we are letting people into this country that are going to cause problems and crime like you’ve never seen. We’re also leading drugs for through our southern border at a record clip. At a record clip and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. [FACT CHECKER:] Apprehensions at the Southwest border—a proxy for attempted crossings—have dropped by 79 percent from the peak in 2000. The Pew Research Center reports more Mexicans left the US than entered between 2009 and 2014.”
NPR: “[DJT:] ICE just endorsed me. They’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate. [FACT CHECKER:] The federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not make an endorsement. A union of immigration and customs officers voted to endorse Trump.”
Washington Post:“Trump overstates, by a lot, when he said Syrian refugees are coming to the United States by the “hundreds of thousands.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said we have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the United States from places like Syria, and we have no idea who they are. Way off.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump’s said the US took in ‘tens of thousands’ of Syrian refugees. That is not accurate.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says ‘tens of thousands’ of people from Syria are coming to the U.S. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘We are going to areas like Syria, where they’re coming in by the tens of thousands.’ FACT CHECK: False.”
Trump’s Lies About Muslims and Terrorism:
Buzzfeed: “Trump falsely claimed that Muslims in the United States are not reporting terror plots to the authorities. Trump cited San Bernardino where he said there were ‘bombs on the floor’ of the suspects’ apartment. There has never been any evidence that this was the case.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump claims that ‘many people’ saw bombs at the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘We have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on. When they see hatred going on, they have to report it. As an example: San Bernardino, many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and wounded many, many people.’ FACT CHECK: False. To this day, no one has said they’ve seen bombs in the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters’ apartment.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton will not say the phrase ‘radical Islam.’ TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘When there’s a problem, you have to state what the problem is or at least say the name. She won’t say the name and President Obama won’t say the name.’ FACT CHECK: False. Clinton used the term in June during an interview on NBC News’ ‘Today Show.’”
CNN: “Trump: ‘Many people saw the bombs all over the apartment’ VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “In stressing that Muslims need to notify the police of wrongdoing in their communities, Trump claimed without evidence that ‘many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and wounded many, many people’ in San Bernardino last year.”
Huffington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s Claim That ‘Many People Saw The Bombs’ In San Bernardino Is False”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton has never used the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ Just flat wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said ‘many people saw’ bombs all over the apartment of a couple who committed the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Not true.”
Politifact: “Trump said of Clinton, ‘These are radical Islamic terrorists and she won’t even mention the word.’ After the Orlando shooting, Clinton said she had no problem saying ‘radical Islamism’ which is similar but not the same as ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ She has also said that leaders should be careful not to demonize the religion of Islam, and that the United States needs specific strategies to fight ISIS. We rate this claim Mostly False.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s false claim on San Bernardino”
Huffington Post: “Don’t Believe Trump: No Syrian Refugees In The U.S. Have Been Linked To Terror”
Trump’s Lies About the Iraq War:
AP: “DONALD TRUMP: ‘I would not have had our troops in Iraq.’ Trump has repeatedly said in the campaign he opposed the Iraq War before it started. But the facts are clear: He did not.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump: ‘I was against the war in Iraq.’ No. He wasn’t.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says he was against the war in Iraq, and that suggestions he was not have been debunked. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘I was against the war in Iraq,’ Trump said, as he did in the first debate with Clinton. ‘It has not been debunked.’ FACT CHECK: False and false.”
CNN: “Trump: ‘I would not have had our people in Iraq.’ VERDICT: FALSE”
CNN: “Trump: My opposition to the Iraq War “has not been debunked” VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “And finally Trump pins too much blame for the rise in ISIS — whose origin dates back to the Bush administration — on the troop withdrawal…”
Huffington Post:“Donald Trump Continues To Lie About The Iraq War”
FactCheck.org: “Trump repeated that he ‘was against the war in Iraq’ and claimed that this ‘has not been debunked.’ But we have found no evidence that he was against the Iraq War before it began.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Yes, Trump’s Iraq War claim has been debunked.”
NPR: “[DJT]: I was against the war in Iraq. [FACT CHECKER:] There is no evidence to support this claim.”
Trump’s Lies About Libya:
FactCheck.org:“Trump conveniently leaves out that he posted a YouTube video in February 2011 voicing support for U.S. intervention in Libya to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power, and that he told CNN in a 2007 interview that the U.S. should ‘declare victory [in Iraq] and leave … [T]his is a total catastrophe and you might as well get out now, because you just are wasting time.’”
FactCheck.org:“It’s been half a year, and Trump is still making the false claim that ‘ISIS has a good chunk’ of Libyan oil fields. We first flagged this statement in April, when an expert on Libya’s oil operations told us there’s no evidence that the Islamic State has control of any oil fields in that country.”
Washington Post:“Fact Check: Trump’s wrong on ISIS and Libyan oil”
AP:“Trump wrong that IS is taking Libyan oil. DONALD TRUMP: ‘ISIS has a good chunk of their oil,’ referring to Libya. THE FACTS: Not quite. While it is true that the Islamic State group has targeted Libya’s oil fields and has aspired to grab some of the country’s oil resources, as it did in Syria, there is no evidence that it is reaping any revenue from Libyan oil. The prospect of the extremist group seizing Libyan oil is one reason the U.S. has conducted limited airstrikes against the Islamic State in Libya, where it now has a very small presence.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said that ‘Ambassador [Chris] Stevens sent 600 requests for help’ before he was killed in an attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012. But as the Washington Post Fact Checker reported, not all 600 came from Stevens, nor were they all requests for security upgrades, as it may have appeared to those watching or listening to the debate.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Clinton ignored 600 requests for increased security from J. Christopher Stevens, the ambassador to Libya, and only communicated with Sidney Blumenthal. Extremely misleading”
Washington Post: “THE FACT CHECKER | Trump made a ludicrous claim that U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens made 600 requests for help before he perished in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.”
Huffington Post: “Clinton refused to answer Stevens’ calls for help, Trump claimed… However, repeated GOP-led investigations into the Benghazi incident have found no evidence to blame Clinton for the deaths of Stevens and three other Americans there in a 2012 attack.”
Lies About Iran:
CBS News: “Donald Trump claimed that the Iran nuclear deal meant the United States paid Iran $150 billion. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘When I look at the Iran deal and how bad it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150 billion dollars to a terrorist state.’ FACT CHECK: False.”
CNN: “Trump says US is giving $150 billion to Iran REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s claim that Iran got $150 billion from the United States. THE FACTS: Trump always makes it sound like this is U.S. taxpayer money — and he always uses a too-high estimate.”
Trump’s Lies About Syria:
Buzzfeed:“Trump falsely declared that ‘Aleppo has already fallen.’”
Huffington Post: “Meanwhile, he added, only Assad’s coalition is fighting ISIS. In fact, Assad and his allies have focused on targeting civilians opposed to his rule and rebels who remain embedded among them ― allowing extremist militants to spread for years and control much of the country.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump accused Mrs. Clinton of being there for President Obama’s “line in the sand” in Syria. She said she wasn’t. Trump is wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Syria, Russia and Iran are fighting the Islamic State. Mostly misleading.”
NPR: “[DJT:] I think that it basically has fallen. OK? It basically has fallen. [FACT CHECKER:] Aleppo has not fallen to the Syrian government.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that the United States signed a “peace treaty” to bring an end to the civil war in Syria. Not even close.”
Trump’s Lies About Russia:
Huffington Post: “Trump said he has no special ties to Russia, despite his campaign’s multiple ties to the country’s business and his stated admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] I don’t deal there and no businesses there have no loans from Russia. [FACT CHECKER:] Trump may not have current business ties with Russia, but he has in fact tried to engage his business interests with Russia since the 1980’s.”
Buzzfeed Reporter: “Trump just said ‘we don’t know if it is the Russians doing the hacking.’ Ummm… no.”
NPR: [DJT:] But I notice anytime anything wrong happens they like to say the Russians we don’t know if it’s Russian. [FACT CHECKER:] The U.S. intelligence community and Department of Homeland Security said Friday that Russia is behind this year’s campaign of hacks and the release of information related to the 2016 campaign.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said “maybe there is no hacking,” in response to Mrs. Clinton’s claim that Russians are engaged in an unprecedented effort to influence the election — on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Hacking is endemic.”
Trump’s Lies About Clinton’s Emails:
FactCheck.org: “Trump twisted the facts when he directly addressed Clinton about her use of a private email system while secretary of state. ‘You get a subpoena and after getting the subpoena you delete 33,000 emails. And then you acid wash them — or bleach them, as you would say — a very expensive process,’ Trump said…. there is no evidence that Clinton knew that the emails were deleted after the subpoena was issued.”
Trump’s Lies About Birtherism:
FactCheck.org:“Trump is wrong about Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager. Solis Doyle has said that a ‘rogue volunteer coordinator’ in Iowa was immediately fired when the campaign found out that the aide forwarded an email promoting the birther conspiracy.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump: ‘Sidney Blumenthal — he’s another real winner that you have — and he’s the one that got this started’ As for Blumenthal, he has denied a claim made by McClatchy’s former bureau chief James Asher that Blumenthal, a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 campaign, encouraged McClatchy to chase the story of Obama’s birth… Other than that, there is no clear evidence to support Asher’s account.”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] Well, you owe the president an apology because, as you know very well, your campaign Sidney Blumenthal, he’s another real winner that you have. And he’s the one who got this started along with your campaign manager and they were on television just two weeks ago he was saying likely that. [FACT CHECKER:] We have fact-checked Trump’s birther claims previously (several times) online and on air. […] As we noted, ‘There’s a big difference between what fringe supporters of Clinton said at the time, who were disavowed by the candidate, and the campaign Trump himself undertook in the subsequent years.’”
Tonight, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off in their second of three debates. This debate will differ from the last debate in that questions will be asked by members of the audience as well as the debate moderators, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz. The debate will begin at 9 pm ET and will be available live on most major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, CNN, Univision, Telemundo, C-SPAN). There will also be a number of live stream options including CBSN, YouTube, Twitter, and the Wall Street Journal. A live stream of the debate is available below.
Tonight, the running mates of presidential nominees Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) will face off in the only vice-presidential debate during the election cycle. Senator Tim Kaine (D) and former Indian Governor Mike Pence (R) will face off in their debate from Farmville, Virginia. The event will be moderated by CBSN’s Elaine Quijano. The debate will begin at 9 pm ET and will be available live on most major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, CNN, Univision, Telemundo, C-SPAN). There will also be a number of live stream options including CBSN, YouTube, Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed News, and the Daily Caller. A live stream is available below:
During last night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton spoke about a former Miss Universe winner that Trump has previously called “Miss Piggy.” Her name is Alicia Machado, and she took part in a conference call today where she answered questions from reporters. Hillary for America released the following information as well as selected transcripts from the call.
Alicia Machado today described the public humiliation she was subjected to by Donald Trump over her weight and heritage 20 years ago–which Trump repeated this morning in an interview on “Fox and Friends.” On a press conference call, Machado, a former Miss Universe winner, recounted Donald Trump’s constant verbal abuse after she won the pageant, including an incident where Trump publicly humiliated her by inviting reporters to watch her exercise. The experience eventually caused Machado to develop eating disorders. According to Machado, Trump would say to her, “You look ugly”, “You look fat”, and other times greeted her with a, “Miss Piggy”, or “Miss Housekeeping.” Just this morning, true to form, Trump repeated his demeaning and hurtful words: “she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”
On today’s call, Machado revealed more about her painful experience, as well as how she’s managed to move on and looks forward to a hopeful future for her and her daughter. Some notable highlights include:
“He always treated me as a lesser thing, he always treated me like trash and now, his face was like, ‘Now this trash is back, again'”
“For me this election has been like a bad dream…watching this guy again do stupid things and stupid comments so misogynous and so machista and I never imagined something like it. It is a really bad dream for me.”
“I was always really scared of him and continue to be scared of him…. I couldn’t have a good relationship with a person who constantly insulted me, offended me and mistreated me.”
“You can’t shake off racism, and we can’t take the risk of having such a violent, ill-tempered, sexist, misogynous person [as a President] as this man is.”
“20 years later, I am no longer a beauty queen. I am a real woman, I am a mother, I am a business girl, I am an actress, I am an activist.”
Instead of apologizing for his offensive remarks, Trump doubled down this morning on his hurtful comments. Hillary for America released a new video last night featuring Machado. Machado shared her story of how Donald Trump bullied her because of her weight and heritage. Hillary Clinton also closed last night’s debate by calling out Donald Trump for continually demeaning women like Alicia Machado.
Translated transcript from the press call with Alicia Machado:
“Washington Post, Ed O’Keefe: Alicia, thank you for doing this call. I’m just going to chime in. What did you think when you heard what Trump said last night and what are you planning to do for the campaign in the next few weeks? Are you going to travel to different states with them? Are you going to give interviews?
Well, last night I was with my family, with my mom and with my daughter, we were watching the debate and you know, I was really surprised. It was a big surprise for me because I have been sharing this story, my story, with all of my fans and all of the communities from the beginning.
And I have been talking about this for 20 years, this really bad experience working with Mr. Donald Trump. And last night, when I heard my President, whom I admire and respect, [inaudible] Mrs. Clinton. And I started crying. I started crying because I never imagined that such an important person like her would care about my story, know about my story. And I am really committed to the US, to my daughter.
And since the day this man decided to run for president, from that day I started to do my personal work, for personal reasons that are in my heart. I started to share with people so they can open their eyes and I believe that, above all things, we need a good person as a leader of the US. I was really surprised and I’m really grateful to Mrs. Clinton for taking my story into account. I know there are a lot of women who identify with me.
I lament that I could be an uncomfortable person for Mr. Trump, but that’s how things were. And I know very well what’s he’s capable of, this man. And that’s why I am fighting to make the community understand, now more than ever, that Latinos need to support the US, that we need to return all the beautiful and grand things the US has provided for us.
We need to participate in these elections and today I have a really normal day. Today I have a big casting, because I’m an actress all of this time, and I have a casting today, and in the morning I was with my daughter at school, she’s in second grade, and now I’m in my office, taking my brand, my products. You know, my life feels like it is right now, I want to support Mrs. Clinton until the end.
Basically by sharing my experience and focusing on abuse against women, the disrespect to women, violence against women, must end. We must reach equality, for which all women fight for every day. And I think Mrs. Clinton is the right person to continue this fight for equal pay, access to the same training, the freedom to express their ideas, women’s rights, and that my story as Miss Universe with this person will open eyes in these elections. This is perhaps, the tip of the iceberg.
My story, the story of a beauty queen, but 20 years later, I am no longer a beauty queen. I am a real woman, I am a mother, I am a business girl, I am an actress, I am an activist and you know, maybe my story can change minds, and I continue to stand with Mrs. Clinton until the end, whatever she might need, whatever she might need from me, I’m gladly here for her, and for the first female president of the United States, and for my Latino community, for the working women, am I here.
And I will continue supporting her until the end. For me, she’s the President and I want to keep working on my campaigns for pro women’s equality, for the respect to women and that our physical appearances do not define us as productive or intelligent beings. We are more than what we look like physically, that’s my point. And well, I will be with Mrs. Clinton until she becomes president and I am going to share with her my story so they can use it to help her win until the end. And wherever they want to invite me to share with the Latino community, to share my story, I will gladly do so.
MSNBC, Monica Alba: Hi Alicia, I wanted to know where exactly you watched the debate last night? And did you have a heads up from the campaign that Sec. Clinton was going to mention your story and what did you think of Donald Trump’s reaction when they were talking about it?
That debate was really clear, because Mrs. Clinton, you know, she is the right person. She has the experience, she’s a lawyer, she’s a really successful person, she’s [inaudible] to be a president. And that debate was really clear. It was watching brutality versus the intelligence and the serenity, he was uncalm. It was very, how can I explain this? It was watching Mrs. Clinton have a lot of patience to tolerate this person who is good-for-nothing, despicable, so vulgar, so rude. I thought it was incredible, it was an honor and a great responsibility that Mrs. Clinton mentioned me. I am really grateful. I will try to commit myself to the importance of them mentioning me, I will try to keep being an activist sharing my story, I’m trying to help younger girls and how I can do it.
His [inaudible]. I think he never, he wasn’t waiting for that. He was like, ‘oh my god, why did she pronounce that name?’ Maybe, Mr. Trump doesn’t even remember me, he doesn’t remember who I am. He doesn’t remember all of the things he did to me, all of the things he told me. Because it was evident, maybe he doesn’t remember the 18 year old girl he insulted, he offended, the one he mistreated thousands of times during one year. But I remember him, I have always remembered him. And I think his reaction, he always treated me as a lesser thing, he always treated me like trash and now, his face was like, “Now this trash is back, again.” And I don’t know. God’s timing is perfect.
CNN, Dan Merica: Just wondering if you had any contact with Mr. Trump since, well obviously not last night, but in the last few years if you have had any contact with Mr. Donald Trump?
(Sorry, could you translate what he just asked me?)
No, never. I haven’t seen him since the Miss Universe year. I was trying to forget all about that year, about the abuse, and the bad moments with him because Miss Universe was the most amazing experience for me. The people around the world with me were amazing, were so lovely, and I was the most worker Miss Universe in the history of the pageant. I did, I don’t know, maybe a 100 commercials, publicities and a lot of that kind of, you know, campaigns in that time.
And you know after Miss Universe year, I started my career have as an actress, I have 20 years in experiences as an actress, of course, in the Latin World, in movies, in soap operas, in theatres, well in a lot of projects. I was working really hard to forget that moment, to overcome my eating disorders after that year. I was in the middle of that problem for three or four years and at the same time I was working in telenovelas and on my career.
You know, being Miss Universe was just the opportunity to start a career as an actress and now I am a voice in my Latino community, and I’m an activist too. And you know, I was trying to forget and trying to give me up, myself to that bad experience with Mr. Trump. But I never saw him anymore and I don’t want to see him, anymore neither.
For me this election has been like a bad dream, you know I never imagined like 20 years later having put into this position and just like watching this guy again do stupid things and stupid comments so misogynous and so machista and I never imagined something like it. It is a really bad dream for me, but you know now I’m supporting Mrs. Clinton, I believe in her experience and she’s a girl, she is a strong girl, she is a smart girl and now I am not a beauty queen, I am not Miss Universe anymore. I am a worker woman and a mother and I have a family. I have a career, I have a business and you know I have (inaudible)
Univision; Fusion, Enrique Acevedo: Hi Alicia, I just wanted to ask you about your relationship with Trump when you were still Miss Universe, can you talk a little bit more about that, about how the interaction was? Not only yours, but also the other contestants and women around you. Other women also participated in the contest, what was their interaction with Mr. Trump?
Look, I, my relationship with Trump was during a bad year. You know, I didn’t share time with him while I was a candidate for Miss Universe because he wasn’t an owner, yet. I was the first Miss Universe when he bought the company. And my relationship with him started 15 days after the pageant. He had just bought the company. And, well, that was 20 years ago.
He also wasn’t the person he is now. At that moment I only remember some business guy, from person, because he was my boss at that moment. But my relationship with him was very close. Perhaps because he had just bought Miss Universe, maybe this was his new toy and he didn’t know to execute the contest, the company he had just bought because at the end of the day, being in Miss Universe like in some model agencies. And all the time, he was in the office, other times he was talking to me, I would go to a lot of events with him because he would ask me to be there. And I would go, it was my job. And so, my relationship with him started to become very rude. Very rude, because that’s the way to describe it.
Maybe when he started using my supposed weight gain to make a business, to make a big contract. Because he’s said I am the worst Miss Universe in history, but first, I don’t even think he remembers me, to begin.
And secondly, I’d like to remind him that I am in the Guinness Book as the Miss Universe with the most publicity campaigns accomplished in history, as the Miss Universe that has visited the most countries in one year, in the history of this contest. So that big publicity generated a lot of profits for the contest, but not for me. He didn’t pay me what was agreed on on the contract. I never had the courage to sue him, and I could’ve done it. I was scared and I didn’t dare to sue him. I was really young, I’ve never had a big team around me. I’m just a working woman, and that’s it. And I never dared. I was always really scared of him and continue to be scared of him. I never said anything because I was scared to be pinned as the rebellious, fat and conflictive Miss Universe because I would speak up and because I didn’t have a relationship with this person. I couldn’t have a good relationship with a person who constantly insulted me, offended me and mistreated me.
I was not brought up with that education. Despite all of this, despite having left Miss Universe with a horrible reputation of being fat, conflictive, problematic “rebellious”, those were all the adjectives that he gave me. And he was a very powerful man. Twenty years later, here I am, working, soap opera after soap opera, show after show. I think I have earned it with a lot of effort and I think I have also shown that I am not a conflictive person, and I wish this would establish a precedent for us Latinos and for women, that staying quiet and not speaking up is not always the right thing. I never imagined that this man would run for President. That is the reason why I now dare to talk a bit more and to render all my support to Mrs. Clinton. I have a daughter, a daughter who I want to see grow free, who I want to see grow smart, with her rights, who won’t have to withstand any humiliation from anybody, and that is why I do it. Because I believe my history with that man can open many people’s eyes. You can’t shake off racism, and we can’t take the risk of having such a violent, ill-tempered, sexist, misogynous person [as a President] as this man is.”
Tonight, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will face off for the first in a series of three presidential debates. The debate will begin at 9 p.m. ET and last for 90 minutes. NBC’s Lester Holt will moderate tonight’s debate and the announced topics of the debate will be America’s Direction, Achieving Prosperity, and Securing America. You can watch the debate on all four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS), all the news networks (CNN, CNBC, CSPAN, Fox News, and MSNBC), and the debate will be live streamed on Facebook and Twitter.
There are a number of live streams to choose from as well. NBC, PBS, and The Washington Post’s streams are embedded below:
Hillary for America has some requests for Clinton supporters as they follow along with the debate on various social media channels. Read the outlined hashtags and follow the Twitter accounts below to follow along with the campaign during tonight’s debate.
FACT CHECKING:
Text “FACT” to 47246 every time you think Trump is lying
Official debate hashtag: #Debates2016, #Debates (plural)
When Trump says something that makes you cringe: #LoveTrumpsHate
When Hillary say something that makes you proud: #ImWithHer
On Monday evening, Hillary Clinton called in to AC360 on CNN where she was asked by Anderson Cooper about the state of her health. Clinton said that she felt dizzy during yesterday’s September 11 memorial event and left. Following her diagnosis with pneumonia on Friday, she said she was advised to rest. “I was supposed to rest five days — that’s what they told me on Friday — and I didn’t follow that very wise advice,” Clinton said. Cooper then asked Clinton about her transparency about her health asking why she did not inform the public about the illness sooner. Clinton defended herself saying that she did not think it was “going to be that big a deal,” but she added that she has been transparent with releasing medial records last year. The Clinton campaign announced today that additional health records will be released later in the week. The video of Clinton’s interview is below.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 