WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):
4:47 p.m.
A former State Department information technology official has refused to answer questions from a conservative legal group as part of a civil lawsuit over Hillary Clinton’s emails.
John Bentel on Monday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to 90 questions posed by lawyers from Judicial Watch. A federal judge in August ordered the State Department’s retired director of Information Resource Management to be deposed by the group, which has filed numerous lawsuits targeting the Democratic presidential nominee.
Bentel was granted limited immunity from criminal prosecution as part of the FBI’s now-closed investigation into whether the former secretary of state mishandled sensitive government information that flowed through her private email server.
Bentel’s lawyer previously told congressional investigators that he does not recall any discussions involving Clinton’s email server.
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3:50 p.m.
Mike Pence is evoking Harry S Truman’s 1948 election win over Thomas Dewey in saying that Donald Trump could yet win a race pundits have all-but awarded to Hillary Clinton.
The Republican vice presidential candidate said the media and experts want voters to believe the Nov. 8 election “is all rolled up.” He spoke in a radio interview with Rush Limbaugh from his campaign plane Monday.
Pence said he and Trump have discussed Truman beating Dewey in a presidential election best remembered for a picture of Truman grinning while hoisting a newspaper aloft with a headline wrongly reporting that he’d lost to Dewey. Pence said that race “was a similar deal” to this year’s.
Pence is in North Carolina for events later in Salisbury and Greensboro.
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3:35 p.m.
Donald Trump is mocking the latest woman to accuse him of sexual misconduct, saying “I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”
Trump was referring to Jessica Drake, an adult film star who says he grabbed her and kissed her without permission.
Trump said Monday that the accusations are “total fiction.” Trump spoke on WGIR radio’s “New Hampshire Today” show.
At a Saturday news conference, Drake accused Trump of accosting her and offering her money to go up to his hotel room alone. She is one of several women who have said Trump sexually assaulted them.
Trump says he’ll sue his accusers after the election.
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3:25 p.m.
President Barack Obama is trying to counter the argument that Congress should be kept under Republican control as a check on Hillary Clinton if she’s elected president.
Obama says America can do better than gridlock. He said giving Republicans the opportunity to block Clinton’s initiatives means the possibility of another government shutdown, the blocking of Supreme Court nominees and preventing progress on dealing with climate change.
Obama was speaking to donors in San Diego during a three-day campaign and fundraising swing on the West Coast.
With Clinton leading in the polls, he is increasingly focusing his remarks on the need for donors to help get Democrats elected to Congress. He describes the current actions on Capitol Hill as “the Keystone Cops up there.”
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3:05 p.m.
Young voters are shifting toward Hillary Clinton in the closing stretch of the presidential campaign. That’s according to a new GenForward poll of Americans age 18 to 30.
Driving the shift are young white voters. They were divided between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump just a month ago and were more likely to support Republican Mitt Romney than President Barack Obama in 2012.
In the survey, Clinton leads among all young whites 35 percent to 22 percent, and by a 2-to-1 margin among those who are likely to vote.
GenForward is a survey of adults age 18 to 30 by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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2:35 p.m.
Donald Trump is pledging to “stand with” the men and women of law enforcement, saying they “have not been appreciated” by the current administration.
Trump addressed about two dozen law enforcement and rescue officers Monday at the sheriff’s office in St. Johns County, Florida.
The Republican nominee said that while “every profession has a bad person,” too much was made of isolated incidents of police misconduct.
Trump suggested that “you could have 100,000 wonderful events” but the press “would only write” about mistakes.
Trump vowed to empower the law enforcement officers with whatever support they needed.
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2:10 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is accusing rival Donald Trump of “basically declaring defeat” before the start of the battle to retake Mosul, Iraq, from the Islamic State group.
The Democratic presidential nominee is pointing to Trump’s tweet on Sunday that the campaign to retake Mosul was “turning out to be a total disaster,” adding the U.S. is “looking so dumb.”
Clinton said Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Trump has no plan to defeat IS and is proving what it would mean to have an unqualified commander in chief in the White House.
The U.S.-led coalition’s offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State militants is now in its second week. It involves more than 25,000 Iraqi troops, Kurdish forces and others.
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1:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is praising Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, saying she gets under Donald Trump’s “thin skin like nobody else.”
Clinton was joining the liberal favorite at a rally Monday at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, with two weeks to go before Election Day.
After Warren gave fiery remarks on her behalf, Clinton said that Trump was probably “tweeting away” in response. She said Warren “exposes” Trump’s poor temperament and lack of qualifications to be president.
The Democratic nominee was using the rally to build support for New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is challenging Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, and Colin Van Ostern, the party’s nominee for governor.
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1:40 p.m.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is warning Republican nominee Donald Trump that “nasty women” will come out in droves to help send Hillary Clinton to the White House.
Warren was joining Clinton at a rally Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire. Warren was picking up on Trump calling Clinton “such a nasty woman” during last week’s final debate.
She said that Trump thinks because he’s wealthy “he can call women fat pigs and bimbos.” She said “nasty women have really had it” with guys like Trump.
The liberal favorite said Trump should know that “nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart and nasty women vote.”
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1:30 p.m.
Tim Kaine is taking a shot at Republican Sen. Marco Rubio while campaigning in Florida.
Kaine pointed to Rubio’s past comments that Donald Trump is a “con artist” and “dangerous.” He said it makes no sense for Rubio to now support the Republican presidential nominee.
He said if someone can’t condemn Trump, “you’ve got to ask the question whether they’re the right person to represent you.”
Kaine said it will be important to have a Congress that can work with a Democratic administration. He praised Rubio’s Democratic rival, Patrick Murphy, but didn’t explicitly make the case for a Democratic-controlled Senate.
In a Saturday interview with the Associated Press, Kaine said Demcorats have run a campaign against Trump, not the entire Republican Party.
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1:15 p.m.
Tim Kaine is cautioning Florida voters not to get complacent in the final weeks of the election despite polling that shows the Democratic ticket better positioned to capture the White House.
Kaine is speaking in Miami, where in-person early voting began today. Earlier in the day he greeted people submitting early ballots. Donald Trump is also campaigning in Florida, a must-win state for the Republican presidential candidate.
Kaine said winning Florida would be “checkmate” for Clinton. And he reminded voters that the race could still change, noting thatTrump saw a surge in September.
He said, “we can’t take anything for granted.”
Kaine has campaigned frequently in Florida, where he’s used his Spanish language skills to reach out to Hispanic voters.
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11:40 a.m.
Donald Trump is suggesting that too much government oversight has hurt America’s farmers.
Trump declared that the Environmental Protection Agency “has been a disaster” and “regulations have been a total catastrophe.” He was addressing dozens of farmers gathered for a roundtable on agricultural issues in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Monday.
Trump also criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying that with “NAFTA we get nothing except the drugs.”
Trump said of Mexico: “We get the drugs, they get the cash.”
Trump has frequently pledged to roll back government regulations overseeing industries like agriculture and energy production.
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11:30 a.m.
Donald Trump is saying “the truth is that we’re winning” – and claims that “phony polls” are trying to suppress the vote.
Trump spoke Monday at a farmers’ roundtable in Florida. He insisted that his campaign is ahead, even though most polls show him trailing Hillary Clinton.
He told the crowd gathered next to a pumpkin patch in Boynton beach: “I believe we’re winning.”
He then, without evidence, blamed that several “mainstream” media polls for weighing their respondents with Democrats.
He also told reporters that he felt “very good” about his chances in Florida, a state that is essential for his White House hopes.
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9:40 a.m.
Donald Trump is suggesting that Democrats are making up “phony polls” to drive down turnout.
Trump tweeted Monday that the polls were created “to suppress” his support. He did not back up his claim with evidence.
Most polls show Trump losing nationally and in key battleground states.
He later tweeted complaints that Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, has not been asked about what he described as the “horrible views” about Catholicism unearthed in campaign aides’ emails in the WikiLeaks hack. Kaine is Catholic.
But Kaine was asked about that during his Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Kaine rejected the notion of anti-Catholic views in his party by pointing to his place on the ticket.
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8 a.m.
Polling places are starting to open for early voting in the battleground state of Florida.
Fifty counties will open polling places on Monday, including the state’s largest counties: Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach. The remaining counties will start in the coming week.
Early voting by mail has been underway for weeks. Nearly 1.2 million voters in Florida have already mailed in ballots. The state has nearly 13 million registered voters.
Polls have shown a tight race in Florida between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. A victory in the state is critical to Trump’s hopes for capturing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Both candidates are sweeping through Florida this week, trying to boost turnout among their supporters.
Election Day is Nov. 8.
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6:40 a.m.
President Barack Obama is stepping up the pace of his campaign to boost Hillary Clinton for president while pushing the efforts to restore Democratic control of the Senate.
Getting into the Las Vegas spirit Sunday night, Obama told Nevadans they have a winning hand in Clinton and Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.
“You’ve got black jack,” Obama told a crowd of 3,000 boisterous supporters packed into a local high school, while another 2,100 were in an exterior courtyard.
Obama was unsparing in his criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, describing the billionaire businessman as unfit to serve as president. Obama said that for years, Republican politicians and far right media outlets have served up “all kinds of crazy stuff” about him, Clinton and Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevadan who leads Senate Democrats. Obama cited as an example those who questioned whether he was born in the U.S. and others who argued that he aimed to take away everybody’s guns.
Filed under: National, News, Ohio Votes 2016 Tagged: clinton, clinton emails, democrat, election, presidential race, republical, trump 