Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.
If there were any lingering doubts that Hillary Clinton had stopped worrying about turning off her liberal base and had begun aggressively courting the center, they were dispelled today.
On Thursday, Clinton, met with top police officers from around the country in New York. The meeting was to ‘discuss crime and reducing imprisonment’, as The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports, but the symbolism was the story.
Clinton’s team spent the primary season wary of alienating the Black Lives Matter movement, even signalling to the biggest police union in the country that the Democratic nominee didn’t want the union’s endorsement.
But now that she’s courting — very successfully — Republicans who can’t tolerate Trump; Clinton clearly feels comfortable wrapping her arms tighter around law enforcement.
Clinton was rewarded for her Thursday outreach by the enthusiastic support of New York police commissioner Bill Bratton.
A few states away, GOP nominee Donald Trump held a competing event to ram home his campaign’s theme that he’s the “law-and-order candidate.”
Trump stopped by a North Carolina gun range to flout his shooting skills with local police, and later met law enforcement officers with the local Fraternal Order of Police (the same union that Clinton snubbed).
Meantime, follow TheHill.com throughout the weekend for fresh stories as the campaign rolls on, including a story about the “wartime” tactics of the pugnacious Breitbart boss Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign CEO.
RACE TO 1600 PENN
IT’S WAR: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Trump is steeling himself for a protracted battle against an increasingly hostile press, adding the media to the list of establishment institutions he intends to crush on his way to the White House.
WHAT BANNON MEANS: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Trump’s decision to make Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon his campaign CEO is being viewed as full-fledged rebuke of the Republican establishment and the mainstream media.
TAX ATTACKS: The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: A pair of Democratic senators on Thursday criticized Donald Trump for refusing to release his tax returns and urged the Senate to pass legislation in September requiring presidential nominees to do so.
ETHICAL QUANDARY: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: There is no record showing Hillary Clinton or her top aides took State Department-mandated ethics training during her time leading the agency.
PLAYING DEFENSE: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Jane Sanders, the wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is defending Hillary Clinton after Donald Trump questioned her health.
ODDS AND ENDS
KAINE UP LATE: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is making his debut on CBS’s “The Late Show” next week, according to the network.
TALK ABOUT A REVOLUTION: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Bernie Sanders will address supporters on Aug. 24 to tout “Our Revolution,” a new organization intended to harness the energy of his supporters and help progressive political candidates across the country.’
POOR STEVE! The Hill’s Paulina Firozi reports: A man named Steve Bannon has been hit with a barrage of angry tweets following Donald Trump’s announcement of the hire of a Breitbart executive with the same name as his campaign CEO.
POLL POSITION
LANDSLIDE FORECAST: The Hill’s Vicki Needham reports: Hillary Clinton gets 348 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 190 in the latest edition of the University of Virginia’s Center’s for Politics Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
CLINTON LEADS THE NATION: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 4 points in a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday that includes third-party candidates.
GEORGIA’S TIGHT: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are tied for support in a new poll out of Georgia, which has historically been a relatively safe state for Republican presidential candidates.
AND SO IS NEVADA: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in a close race in Nevada, according to a new Suffolk University poll released Thursday. Clinton leads Trump by 2 points in the state, 44 percent to 42 percent, which is within the poll’s margin of error.
INCUMBENTS SOLID: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley is leading his primary challenger by 9 points in Iowa, a poll released Thursday shows. Meanwhile in Colorado, first-term Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet has a double-digit lead over his Republican opponent, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn.
THE DAILY TRUMP
NSFW: The Hill’s Nikita Vladimirov reports: Naked, life-size statues of Donald Trump are being unveiled Thursday in several U.S. cities.
ANTI-SEMITISM ALLEGED: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: A foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump is facing allegations of anti-Semitism, according to a new report.
DONALD J. BREXIT: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Donald Trump on Thursday tried to link himself to British voters’ decision to exit the European Union earlier this year in an early morning tweet. “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT,” the GOP presidential nominee wrote.
BILLIONAIRE ON BILLIONAIRE VIOLENCE: The Hill’s Nikita Vladimirov reports: Billionaire investor Howard Marks on Wednesday said that Donald Trump’s economic policies would result in a “more isolated U.S. economy.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I know I am the B-list Republican celebrity.”
— Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, in a Manchester, N.H. town hall on Thursday
CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS
NOT IDEAL: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D) is considered an “inactive” voter in Indiana where he is mounting a late campaign to win his Senate seat, according to CNN.
TIED TO TRUMP: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Rep. Patrick Murphy’s (D-Fla.) campaign to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio launched a new digital ad Thursday knocking the Florida Republican for supporting Donald Trump in the general election after dismissing him as a “con man” in the GOP primaries.
BIG ONE: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Former Vice President Al Gore is endorsing Democrat Patty Judge as she seeks to unseat longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
MONEY WATCH
RUBIO IN THE MONEY I: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: A major Republican super-PAC is promising another $15 million to support Sen. Marco Rubio’s Florida reelection bid.
RUBIO IN THE MONEY II: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has raised nearly $5.5 million since announcing he’d seek reelection in late June, according to figures from his campaign.
TRANSPARENCY? NOT SO MUCH. The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made it through his entire presidential campaign without completing a routine requirement of those seeking the office — filing a personal financial disclosure with the federal government.
THE BIG HOUSE: The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports:Babulal Bera, the father of Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), was sentenced on Thursday to a year and one day in prison for managing a money-laundering operation to fund two of his son’s House campaigns.
WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND
(All times Eastern)
Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Sheriff David Clarke and Rudy Giuliani on his Fox News show, which airs at 10 p.m. today. Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” which airs from 7-8 p.m. today. On Friday, Trump has a rally in Dimondale, Mich., at 2 p.m. On Saturday, Trump is holding a rally in Fredericksburg, Va., at 6 p.m.
Libertarian ticket Gary Johnson and Bill Weld hold a 10 p.m. rally today in Las Vegas, Nev., and Johnson has a rally in Albuquerque, N.M. at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
And on Sunday, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to attend a ‘summer celebration/fundraiser’ with Cher in Provincetown, Mass.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Write us with tips, suggestions and news: Jonathan Easley, Ben Kamisar, Jonathan Swan, Lisa Hagen.
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