Good Wednesday morning. The general consensus: Mike Pence won the debate. The CNN/ORC poll post-debate poll -- which tends to track pretty closely with public surveys taken days later -- has Pence beating Tim Kaine last night, 48% to 42% (http://cnn.it/2dIQihu) Pence turned in a far better performance than Donald Trump. Even the Trump haters thought Pence was good.
ERICK ERICKSON (@EWErickson): “Pence has convinced me conservatives should not write him off for 2020 just by being Trump’s VP nominee. He was solid.”
34 DAYS until ELECTION DAY.
A FEW THOUGHTS: This won’t move polls a smidgen and Trump won’t be happy that his No. 2 was far better than he was. And while this debate won’t impact the race overall, there will be a lasting effect and well of support for Pence, particularly among the often fickle donor class that has been extremely frustrated by Trump. Though Pence clearly had the better evening Tuesday night, his one big flub came out of frustration with Kaine pressing him several times on Trump calling Mexicans rapists. Democrats have already seized on his clumsy retort — “You whipped out that Mexican thing again.”
--@samsteinhp: “CNN’s John King, reporting from a source close to Trump, that the reviews that Pence did better [than] he did won’t go over well with Trump”
--@JohnJHarwood: “Trump adviser on debate after Pence passed up opportunities to defend him: ‘Pence won overall, but lost with Trump’ … more from adviser on Trump reaction to strong Pence debate following poor Trump showing last week: ‘he can’t stand to be upstaged’”
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--WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “Trump’s best debate”: “If Donald Trump could make the case for Donald Trump half as well as Mike Pence makes the case for Donald Trump, the New York businessman would be well on his way to the White House. That’s our conclusion from Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, in which the Indiana Governor made the sustained case against the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama status quo in Washington that Mr. Trump should have made last week …
“Mr. Kaine’s marching orders clearly were to absorb the Clinton campaign’s opposition research file on Mr. Trump, keep repeating it, and dare Mr. Pence to defend it. The point seemed to be to remind Americans that Mr. Trump can be crude, nasty and untutored. This fits the Clinton campaign strategy to delegitimize Mr. Trump personally as a potential President. His affirmative case for Mrs. Clinton and her agenda were almost afterthoughts. For the most part Mr. Pence dodged this trap, going back on offense against the Clinton-Obama record rather than defend every Trump statement, many of which are indefensible. This is a useful lesson for Mr. Trump to take into the next debate on Sunday night, a town hall in which audience members will ask the questions. People want to like their Presidents.” http://on.wsj.com/2cSlxVD
--@jmartNYT: “Pence is a former member of congressional leadership & sitting governor. No governors or senators in spin room for him, 2 House members.” ... @davidfrum: “There’s a lot to be said for running professional politicians for professional political offices.” ... @maggieNYT: “Eric Trump says Pence ‘represented the family’ and the party well. Pretty sure the family isn't running” Video of Eric Trump http://bit.ly/2dwwbnA … @MarkHalperin: “Biggest, truest reality postVP debate: 99% of political/media elites believe Trump MUST win next debate to have a chance for WH”
--DANA BASH -- the pride of GW -- presses ERIC TRUMP on whether Donald Trump has paid federal income taxes. http://bit.ly/2cRQkXx
GORE! -- @gdebenedetti: “I’m told it’s true: Al Gore will soon be hitting the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton.”
PICS BEHIND THE SCENES -- Reince Priebus talking debate strategy on TV http://politi.co/2cRyWNK … Robby Mook getting the full-candidate treatment swarmed by press in the spin room http://politi.co/2dPNnaZ … Jennifer Palmieri spinning the media pre-debate http://politi.co/2dPLNpv … Reporters meeting the brewmasters at the Anheuser Busch media open bar http://politi.co/2dIigON … FROM THE SCOTT MAHASKEY FILES -- Debate attendees taking photos http://politi.co/2dCWkmL … Powerful solo shot before spectators allowed into the arena http://politi.co/2dQLFCC
--THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN had top operatives spinning hourly before the debate. Trump’s campaign had nobody. PENCE went on a run around Longwood University to get ready for the main event. CBS’s ELAINE QUIJANO turned to veteran CBS anchor -- and three-time debate moderator -- BOB SCHIEFFER and senior White House correspondent Bill Plante to help her prep for the debate. Schieffer played Pence and Plante played Kaine. WISCONSIN GOV. SCOTT WALKER, who played Kaine for Pence, was seen as very effective. The Pence team sought more advice from Walker than expected.
SPOTTED in FARMVILLE: Sean Hannity, accompanied by a five-person entourage, greeted like a hero in the filing center … Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) wandering around the media center after hitting the buffet … Breitbart’s Matt Boyle at the Budweiser bar … Having dinner in the beer tent: Dan Balz, Phil Rucker, Jen Palmieri and Donna Brazile ... Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore -- once a 2016 longshot -- hanging around the spin room unrecognized … Bob Barnett walking with an aide … John Harwood talking one-on-one with John Podesta … Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) chatting up DNC Chair Donna Brazile pre-debate … Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, Pence pal Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Jesse Jackson, Eric Trump and Matt Schlapp
ALEX BURNS: “Under sustained pressure from Mr. Kaine, Mr. Pence declined for almost the entire evening to break from Donald J. Trump on any questions of judgment and policy. He calmly sidestepped a flurry of attacks over Mr. Trump’s offensive remarks, opting to ignore them rather than defend his running mate, and delivered his own, sanitized version of the Trump-Pence message. In a tone of reassurance, Mr. Pence insisted there was nothing improper about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns.” http://nyti.ms/2cSp3iX
BOB COSTA: “Indiana Gov. Mike Pence spent Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate being the opposite of Donald Trump, both in style and in substance. Pence was humble. He was a font of homespun Midwestern values and traditional Republican orthodoxy.” http://wapo.st/2dwnzxh
GLENN THRUSH’s FIVE TAKEAWAYS “FROM THE DEBATE THAT DIDN’T MATTER”: “The first and only vice-presidential debate of 2016 was less a game-changer than a channel-changer, a snippy and probably inconsequential 90 minutes marginally won by Mike Pence – a confident, slightly smarmy debater very much in the mold of those calculating Washington, D.C., politicians who are destroying America … Hillary Clinton is lucky she’s facing Trump instead of Pence … Tim Kaine wasn’t trying to win the debate – he was trying to bash Trump …
“Snatching discord from the jaws of victory? Clinton and her brain trust, according to several Democrats I spoke to, were satisfied (if not elated) by Kaine’s performance. Whether Trump appreciated Pence’s defenses, well that’s less clear. Moments after the candidates left the stage, John Harwood of CNBC and The New York Times quoted a Trump adviser saying that the GOP nominee, who was watching the debate from a hotel in Vegas, was less than satisfied with his running mate … Pence dodged almost every tough question ... Quijano was a weak moderator.” http://politi.co/2dsCUQ9
PAUL RYAN -- The speaker’s post-debate statement: “I could not be more proud of my friend Mike Pence’s performance tonight. Mike articulated very clearly why Republicans have better solutions to grow our economy, provide more good paying jobs, address the growing threats to our national security, and improve the lives of American workers. He delivered a strong view of the conservative principles that drive our party and provided clear contrast between the policies of a Trump-Pence administration and four more years of failed Obama-era policies.”
POLLS -- MONMOUTH: PENNSYLVANIA -- Hillary Clinton 50, Donald Trump 40, Gary Johnson 5, Jill Stein 2 http://bit.ly/2dsBOUp … ELON: NORTH CAROLINA -- Hillary Clinton 45, Donald Trump 39 http://bit.ly/2dDNG7E
HAPPENING TODAY -- DONALD TRUMP has an 11:30 a.m. event in Henderson, Nevada, followed by a 3:30 p.m. rally in Reno. Mike Pence goes to Harrisonburg, Virginia, at 11:30 a.m. and Grantville, Pennsylvania, at 7 p.m.
HILLARY CLINTON is in Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Russ Feingold. Tim Kaine goes to Philadelphia. Chelsea Clinton is going to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for a fundraiser at Brendan and Jana Johnson’s home.
BARACK OBAMA heads to FEMA this afternoon for an update on Hurricane Matthew.
BIG IN BEIJING -- From the NYT’s Chris Buckley: “The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, appears prepared to defy the Communist Party’s established script for transferring power and delay the designation of his successor until after a party congress next year, unsettling the party elite and stirring speculation that he wants to prolong his tenure.” http://nyti.ms/2dwFROM
HOT DOC -- New FEC filing: Playboy Inc. http://bit.ly/2dIYGgj
CLICKER -- David Sparks (@dsparks): “A century of presidential elections, in one GIF. An isarithmic history of the two-party vote, 1920-2012. Red is Republican, blue Democratic.” http://bit.ly/2dJh4eg
VIDEO DU JOUR: Veep’s “Selina Meyer” (Julia Louis Dreyfus) made her Snapchat debut last night with a Snapchat Live Story covering the Vice Presidential Debate. http://bit.ly/2de0bTZ
CLINTON CLEAN-UP -- “Bill Clinton firmly declares his support for Obamacare,” by Yousef Saba: “Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday evening firmly declared his support for the Affordable Care Act, after causing a dust-up by referring to some of the effects of President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement as ‘the craziest thing in the world.’ ‘I want to say this one thing about the health-care law, because that’s another thing they’ve been trying to tangle in — I supported the Affordable Care Act. I support it today,’ he said while campaigning for his wife in Steubenville, Ohio on Tuesday.” http://politi.co/2dHtmOO … Video of Clinton calling it crazy http://bit.ly/2ddU0PK
-- “Bill Clinton to make trio of Conn. stops for Hillary Clinton,” by Connecticut Post’s Neil Vigdor: “The 42nd president is scheduled to make stops [Monday] in the bucolic Litchfield County retreats of Warren and New Preston before ending his day with a private art gallery reception in Greenwich.” http://bit.ly/2ddY9TP
-- “Boston bank felt effects when Trump hit early debt,” by the Boston Globe’s Beth Healy http://bit.ly/2duzrAi
CATNIP FOR THE RIGHT -- “Obama DOJ drops charges against alleged broker of Libyan weapons,” by Ken Vogel and Josh Gerstein: “The Obama administration is moving to dismiss charges against an arms dealer it had accused of selling weapons that were destined for Libyan rebels. ... The deal averts a trial that threatened to cast additional scrutiny on Hillary Clinton’s private emails as Secretary of State, and to expose reported [CIA] attempts to arm rebels fighting Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi.” http://politi.co/2drYDIY
NEW AD -- “NRA out with biggest ad buy yet to boost Trump,” by Sarah Wheaton: “Starting Wednesday, the NRA is spending $6.5 million on a spot featuring a 26-year-old lawyer named Kristi McMains, who said the pistol in her purse saved her life when a man attacked her in a parking garage. It’s a play not just for rural voters – the NRA’s core base — but also millennials and women, groups Trump has struggled to attract. … [T]he ads are running on broadcast networks in Ohio, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as national cable.” http://politi.co/2dJhmSv
--FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- Two new VoteVets ads are launching today. In the Nevada Senate race, they are dropping $760,000 on broadcast and cable in anti-Joe Heck ad, which features Marine Vietnam Veteran Robert Nard of Las Vegas http://bit.ly/2dr1T9O ... In Maine’s 2nd Congressional district, they’re spending $500,000 on broadcast and cable with an anti-Bruce Poliquin ad, featuring retired Maj. Gen. Donald Edwards from Maine http://bit.ly/2ddYjuj
FIRST LOOK – Global Strategy Group’s quarterly Compass memo, which explores “the most effective words for Democratic campaigns to use against their GOP opponents.” http://bit.ly/2dJhy3T
WALL STREET WATCH -- “Twitter Is Expected to Field Bids This Week: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wants Twitter’s data trove and brand; he called social-media pioneer an ‘unpolished jewel,’” by WSJ’s Monica Langley: http://on.wsj.com/2dvb2tJ
WASHINGTON INC. -- “Lobbyists as Directors Test Rules for Corporate Boards: Directors at some companies are paid to lobby for those firms or allied trade groups, while also helping set the CEO’s pay,” by Theo Francis and Brody Mullins: “At Louisiana health-care company LHC Group Inc., the board’s compensation committee has approved a 90% raise for the chief executive over two years and given him personal use of the company plane. Members of compensation committees must be independent directors with no financial ties to the company or its executives, say rules adopted after the financial crisis ...
“At LHC, however, two of the committee’s three members are lobbyists for LHC, which foots the bill for their work. The two are former Sen. John Breaux and former Rep. Billy Tauzin, both of Louisiana. The 2010 requirement that only independent directors can set executive pay at most public companies was the latest in a string of efforts by Congress, regulators and stock exchanges to make sure people who hold important roles on corporate boards are free of potential conflicts of interest that could sway their judgment.” http://on.wsj.com/2cSz9QI
VALLEY TALK -- “Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. intelligence – sources,” by Reuters’ Joseph Menn: “Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials ... The company complied with a classified U.S. government demand, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI … Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a U.S. Internet company agreeing to an intelligence agency's request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.” http://reut.rs/2ddYkOM
-- “Google Has Its Own Phones. Now It Must Fix Its Retail Strategy,” by Bloomberg: “Google unveiled new hardware from smartphones and smart speakers to wireless routers on Tuesday. It was a year-long odyssey that involved design, supply chain negotiations and the search for a manufacturing partner. Now the Alphabet Inc. unit must grapple with the equally daunting challenge of getting the gadgets to consumers. It has a history of retail strategies that either struggled or never got off the ground, according to people familiar with the company’s retail efforts.” http://bloom.bg/2dwEX4S
CLINTON, INC. -- “Clinton Foundation: Those ‘Hacked Files’ Aren’t Ours,” by The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris: “A hacker going by the name Guccifer 2.0 claimed to have published files hacked from the Clinton Foundation on Tuesday, including spreadsheets that appear to show corporate money being funneled to politicians and a computer file titled ‘pay for play.’ The files -- which weren’t posted in their entirety -- look conspicuously corrupt, and their presentation seems designed to confirm long-standing suspicions that the foundation is indeed a pay for play operation that trades off the Clinton family’s past, present, and potential future influence. But there’s a problem. The president of the Clinton Foundation says the documents aren’t theirs, and there’s no evidence that the organization’s networks have been breached.” http://thebea.st/2dIW9Ub
TROUBLE IN PARADISE? -- “CNN, ABC already feuding over next presidential debate,” by Page Six’s Emily Smith: “Anderson Cooper — who has just signed a new long-term deal with CNN — and ABC’s Martha Raddatz are moderating the town-hall debate together, and the rival network anchors are already feuding over who gets to grill the candidates on the most blistering topics. Sources describe the DC meetings among ABC and CNN producers, the on-air talent and network brass ahead of Sunday’s presidential debate as ‘acrimonious at best.’ Another added, ‘There won’t be just two presidential egos in the room on the next debate night, there will be four.’” http://pge.sx/2dD5rE4
--PODCAST ALERT – NYT’s new Run-Up episode is on Donald Trump’s taxes with David Barstow and Susanne Craig -- About anonymous sources: “The conversation is often framed around did they have noble intentions or was this score settling or some less-than-noble motive,” Barstow says to Michael Barbaro. “What really matters to me is,” he said “is this information real and, if so, it is newsworthy?” http://nyti.ms/2dJi1mU
-- “Steve Scully: the understudy moderator,” by Hadas Gold: “For every general election debate this year, there is a journalist waiting in the wings at the debate hall, ready to sit in the moderator’s chair should an emergency or illness arise. ... While covering the debates like the hundreds of other journalists who descend upon the four universities hosting the debates, Scully has also done the work to prepare his own separate sets of questions for every debate, as though he will be the moderator.” http://politi.co/2dJghdl
Rudy Giuliani spotted leaving Playhouse Sq at lunchtime. Who's in the back seat? pic.twitter.com/iwl8ZDmuDl
— Annie Wu (@AnnieWu216) October 4, 2016
SPOTTED at the Las Vegas home of Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson last night for a Joe Heck for Senate fundraiser: President George W. Bush, Lisa and Joe Heck, Phil Anschutz, Joe Ricketts, Todd Ricketts, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Danny Tarkanian … Wolf Blitzer having a late dinner on Monday night at Richmond hot spot Edo Squid.
VANITY FAIR’s 2016 New Establishment List -- No. 44 Marty Baron … No. 34 Marc Benioff … No. 27 Richard Plepler … No. 24 Marc Andreesen … No. 19 Peter Thiel … No. 14 Sheryl Sandberg … No. 6 Evan Spiegel. http://bit.ly/2dDScmC
TRANSITIONS -- Maria Korsnick has been elected president and CEO of Nuclear Energy Institute. She has served as NEI’s COO since May 2015 … Senate Appropriations Republicans announced Fitz Elder IV has been named deputy staff director. Elder was previously SVP at The Russell Group.
WEEKEND WEDDING – Ryan Tracy, a WSJ reporter covering financial regulation, married Kali Edwards last weekend. Pic http://bit.ly/2de6XZD ... Podcast with the couple http://bit.ly/2dQYoci
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): O’Malley alum Annie Osborne, now a Masters of International Relations candidate at LSE ... Santina Leuci, executive editorial producer at ABC ... Dana Mayber, No.1 #Badger fan and policy advisor and special assistant for DPC in the White House (h/t Sophia Kim)
BIRTHDAYS: Doug Bailey ... Mandy Grunwald (hat tip: Jon Haber) ... Michael Morrell … MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts ... Teresa Heinz Kerry ... PepsiCo’s EVP of comms. Jon Banner, an ABC News alum, is 49 … Dr. James Hamblin, senior editor at The Atlantic, is 34 ... Carolyn Weyforth Glanville, Romney alum, now Flipboard VIP Outreach and partner marketing … Bob Geldof is 62 ... Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) is 73 ... Politico’s Sloane Potter and Amanda Harris ... Josh Althouse, conservative coalitions coordinator for Speaker Ryan ... Taylor Frechette ... Peter Schottenfels, OFA alum, now press secretary at Airbnb ... Jim Demers, NH state chair for Clinton 2016 and Obama 2008 (h/t Erik Smith) ... Karina Petersen, comms director for Sen. Murkowski (h/t Brian Hughes) ... Brayden McCarthy, Obama NEC/West Wing alum, recent HBS grad, and current VP for Strategy at Fundera, is 30 (Alex Levy, filing from home base in NYC) ... Banks Woodruff of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce – he celebrated early at the Ryder Cup over the weekend (h/t Melissa Neal) ...
… Matt Parker, Ohio Politico and Bush 43 WH alum (h/t PJ Wenzel) ... AEI digital strategy guru Joseph Kosten (h/t Meg Cahill) ... Emily Gribble ... Alison Young ... AP Albany bureau chief David Klepper ... Lainie Ori ... Jill Giuliani Kennedy … Fabien Levy ... Google’s Elisabeth Leoni, a Glover Park Group alum … CBS News’ Whitney Bright … Kevin Hall, Sen. Warner’s comms. director ... Megan Pollock, senior director of strategic comms at Samsung Electronics America ... Erick M. Sanchez, senior advisor at Frontier Solutions and an AFSCME and Tim Ryan alum ... John Boccieri … Mike Petruzzello, managing director at Qorvis ... Chris Michel ... Ashton Theodore Randle, VP of partnerships and outreach at GovPredict... Julie Copeland, executive director at Emerge Virginia ... Blanchi Bettina Cosio ... John Herzog ... Hasib Alikozai ... Michael Tardif ... John Jasik, judicial liaison at State ... Peggy Suntum … Jess Vilsack ... Jim Cavanaugh (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)