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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 24, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Wednesday's Leading Stories
- More than half of the non-government individuals who met with Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state made financial donations to the Clinton Foundation, a new report from The Associated Press says. “At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs. … Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.” (The Associated Press)
- Brian Fallon, a spokesperson for the Clinton campaign, criticized the report, saying, “It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton's basis for meeting with these individuals.” He called the report, "a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation." (The Associated Press)
- Donald Trump said in a statement, “It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history. We've now learned that a majority of the non-government people she met with as secretary of state gave money to the corrupt Clinton Foundation. ... It was wrong then, and it is wrong now -- and the foundation must be shut down immediately." (CNN)
- Mike Pence said that the foundation “must be immediately shut down” and called for “an independent special prosecutor” to investigate “if access to Hillary Clinton was for sale.” (Politico)
Polls
- Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton 44 to 43 percent in Missouri, according to a Monmouth University poll. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 4.9 percent. Gary Johnson registered at 8 percent. (Monmouth University)
- Trump leads Clinton in Utah by 15 points, according to a Public Policy Polling survey. Trump registered at 39 percent to Clinton’s 24. Gary Johnson took 12 percent, and Evan McMullin took 9 percent. (Public Policy Polling)
- In a poll from Saint Leo University, Clinton leads Trump in Florida, 51.7 to 37.7 percent. (Saint Leo University)
- Clinton is tied with Trump in South Carolina, 39 to 39 percent, in a Feldman Group Poll commissioned by the South Carolina Democratic Party. (The Hill)
Democrats
- Five key staffers quit Bernie Sanders’ new political organization, Our Revolution, including digital director Kenneth Pennington. Sanders’ former presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver was asked to run the organization as its president. According to Politico, the staff departures were caused, at least in part, by “still-raw tensions left over from the presidential campaign which by the end had become a war between the older aides who felt that their experience and planning explained Sanders’ ability to translate his message into votes, and younger aides who felt dismissed by older aides whom they felt didn’t appreciate how much of what Sanders achieved was because of their digital and organizing prowess, which turned the senator into a sensation.” (Politico)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton proposed a small business plan and cautioned about “what a Trump economy would mean” in a conference call with small business owners. She proposed a new standard tax deduction for small businesses and additional deductions for start-ups. “I believe when you succeed, families thrive and our nation prospers. But I also know that in lots of ways, the odds are stacked against too many of you too many times. It’s clear that big corporations get a lot of the breaks. It’s much harder for you to get a loan, to file taxes, to offer health care to your workers,” Clinton told listeners on the call. (HillaryClinton.com)
- In the same conference call, Clinton also commented on how financial regulations affect community banks and credit unions, saying that regulations enacted by the Obama administration were “primarily aimed at the big banks on Wall Street” and that smaller financial institutions “face complex regulations that don’t really make sense for their size or their mission.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Fundraisers for Clinton have been reaching out to donors to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, Politico reports. The efforts have focused on Republicans opposed to Donald Trump’s candidacy and are intended to build on Clinton’s previous successes in courting high-profile Republicans earlier in the month. The donors are being asked to join the Together for America Finance Council. (Politico)
Republicans
Donald Trump
- At a town hall event in Austin, Texas, Donald Trump said that he is open to “a softening” on some of his immigration policies. “There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people. We want people — we have some great people in this country. We are going to follow the laws of this country.” Trump added that he still plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying, “It's going to happen, 100 percent.” (The Texas Tribune)
- Melania Trump has threatened to sue 10 news outlets, including The Daily Mail and Politico, for defamation. Her lawyers have put the outlets “on notice... for making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly having been an 'escort' in the 1990s.” Politico is also being threatened with a lawsuit for its reporting on Melania Trump’s immigration history. (CNN)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein offered praise for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his organization in an op-ed for The Hill. Calling Assange “a hero,” she said, “What WikiLeaks actually does — to political parties, the military, and other powerful entities — is pull back the curtain of censorship, spin, and deception to show the public what’s really going on. Unlike pundits in the mainstream media, WikiLeaks doesn’t tell us what to think. They invite us to read the emails, watch the footage, and decide for ourselves.” (The Hill)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- When asked by The New York Times if he considered Donald Trump a fascist, Gary Johnson responded in the affirmative. “It walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. Where’s the Constitution in all this?” said Johnson, adding that Trump is “saying horrible things.” Johnson also criticized Hillary Clinton over potential conflicts of interests with the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as secretary of state. (The New York Times)
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
