Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 23, 2016
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server while secretary of state resulted in the discovery of 14,900 emails that were not previously disclosed. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the State Department to submit a new schedule for their release by September 23, expediting a previously planned rolling production set to begin mid-October. “We’re pleased the court accelerated the State Department’s timing. We’re trying to work with the State Department here, but let’s be clear: They have slow-walked and stonewalled the release of these records,” said Tom Fitton, the president of one of the plaintiffs in the case, Judicial Watch. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, “State has not yet had the opportunity to complete a review of the documents to determine whether they are agency records or if they are duplicative of documents State has already produced through the Freedom of Information Act.” (The Washington Post)
- A separate set of emails were released on Monday that “illustrate the way the Clintons’ international network of friends and donors was able to get access to Hillary Clinton and her inner circle during her tenure running the State Department,” The Washington Post reported. Most of these communications were directed to Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, who worked for both the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. (The Washington Post)
Polls
- Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in a four-way race in Ohio, 43 percent to 39 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll out on Monday. Gary Johnson registered 10 percent support and Stein 1. “Trump does almost as well as Clinton in getting the backing of fellow partisans, with 83% of Republicans supporting their party's nominee and 88% of Democrats backing their standard bearer. Independents are evenly split at 35% for Trump and 35% for Clinton, with 20% supporting Johnson,” the pollsters noted. (Monmouth University)
- A Roanoke College poll of voters in Virginia has Clinton up by 16 points, 48 percent to 32 percent. Johnson pulls 8 percent and Stein 3. In a two-way race, Clinton’s margin increases to 19 points. (Roanoke College)
Democrats
- In a conference call with Democratic legislators and aides on Saturday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she believes it is possible that Russian hackers could release fake and damaging information about Clinton and other Democrats as part of a document dump in October. (Politico)
- In an interview published on Monday by ThinkProgress, former Vice President Al Gore encouraged voters concerned with climate change to support Clinton over a third-party candidate. “I would also urge them to look carefully, as I know they have, at the consequences of going in another direction for the third or fourth alternative. ... The harsh reality is that we have two principal choices. And I am supporting Hillary Clinton. Again I respect those who analyze the situation differently, but in my experience it matters a lot,” he said, tacitly referencing his loss in 2000 to former President George W. Bush. (ThinkProgress)
Hillary Clinton
- U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and U.S. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) issued a subpoena to three firms that worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server—Platte River Networks, Datto Inc. and SECNAP Network Security Corp.—to testify on whether record-keeping and security standards were met in its maintenance. (The Associated Press)
- The Clinton campaign announced a new $80 million ad buy for the rest of this month through October in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina, and Omaha, Nebraska. Two states notably absent from the list were Virginia and Colorado. It also released a new ad on Monday called “Just One,” which suggests that Donald Trump’s temperament could lead to war. “In times of crisis, America depends on steady leadership, clear thinking, and calm judgment. Because all it takes is one wrong move,” the narrator says before the sound of a bomb dropping is heard. (ABC News, CNN)
- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Saturday that the Clinton campaign was “trying to pin” Clinton’s private email use on him. "The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did,” he continued. (People)
- Clinton made an appeal to young women voters on Monday in an op-ed for fashion website Refinery29, where she identified sexual assault, access to abortion clinics, childcare, and equal pay as “real fights that matter to your lives.” (Refinery29)
- West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice said on Monday that he could not “be a supporter” of Clinton. “The reason I can’t be is her position on coal is diametrically, completely wrong in many, many different ways,” he explained. (Politico)
- Clinton said on Monday that she planned to visit areas of Louisiana impacted by severe flooding in the future. "I am committed to visiting communities affected by these floods, at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response, to discuss how we can and will rebuild together,” she said in a statement. (The Hill)
- Clinton has encountered fewer negative ads than any other non-incumbent presidential candidate of the modern era, withstanding “in the general election less than one-third of the $50 million that Rubio’s campaign claimed he faced in negative ads during the GOP primary,” Politico reported Tuesday. (Politico)
Republicans
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump released a statement on Monday calling for the Clinton Foundation to be closed. “Hillary Clinton is the defender of the corrupt and rigged status quo. The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people. It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history. What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as Secretary of State was wrong then, and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately,” he said. (Donald J. Trump for President)
- On Monday, Trump was asked to clarify his position on addressing illegal immigration. “We have to be very firm. We have to be very, very strong when people come in illegally. We have a lot of people that want to come in through the legal process and it's not fair for them. And we're working with a lot of people in the Hispanic community to try and come up with an answer,” he said. When asked if he was flip-flopping from previous calls for deportation, he responded, “No, I'm not flip-flopping. We want to come up with one a really fair, but firm answer. That's — it has to be very firm. But we want to come up with something fair.” (Politico)
- In a pre-recorded interview with Fox News that aired Monday night, Trump backed deportation, at the least, for violent criminals. “We’re going to obey the existing laws. Now, the existing laws are very strong. The existing laws, the first thing we’re gonna do, if and when I win, is we’re gonna get rid of all of the bad ones. We’ve got gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country.” He also said he would not use detention centers. (Politico)
- The Associated Press evaluated the social media accounts of 50 former and current Trump campaign staffers and found that “at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.” Trump has approximately 70 paid staffers, according to recent FEC filings. (The Associated Press)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- In an interview on Fox Business Network on Monday, Jill Stein attributed the flooding in Louisiana to climate change. “We’re seeing flood after flood which is coming in at a level of a so-called a 500 year storm or 1,000 year flood. And when you have a whole bunch of them, and we’ve had some devastating floods recently in West Virginia, in Texas. There was a so-called ‘rain bomb’ over Phoenix recently. When you’re having so many severe storms and floods, you have to say there’s something going on here,” she said. (Fox Business Network)
- The Green Party reported on Monday that Stein has qualified to appear on the general election ballot in Minnesota. (Green Party)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- Gary Johnson was interviewed by CNBC on Monday where he discussed banking policy, tax policy, climate change, and the state of the Republican Party. When asked what would happen if Trump loses in November, Johnson said, “This is the demise of the Republican Party. This is an opportunity, I think, for the Libertarian party to become a major party.” (CNBC)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
