Trump campaign says it didn’t know whom he was doing interview with
Republicans struggle to explain Trump’s fondness for ‘thug’ Putin
9/11 tapes reveal raw and emotional Hillary Clinton
6.33pm BST
Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, who came to Washington playing the Tea Party piccolo, and who has a reputation for saying all kinds of crazy stuff about “terror babies” and Muslim Brotherhood members in the White House and death squads and asparagus, has said further crazy things about Hillary Clinton, this time to attendees of a values voters summit in Washington, DC, where Donald Trump is scheduled to appear later today.
“You don’t make fun of people who are impaired, have special needs,” Gohmert, a Republican, said, continuing:
And whether you like it or not, Hillary Clinton has made clear she is mentally impaired. I get the impression that in law school and along the way she’s been very, very smart but i don’t know maybe it was the concussion, the fall back that she did. Or who knows, they won’t tell us what’s really going on with her.
We need to be praying for Hillary Clinton. There’s special needs there. There’s mental impairment.
5.16pm BST
How’s that Senate takeover going for you, Democrats?
The Democrats need to nab at least four seats from Republicans, and elect Hillary Clinton president, to gain control of the senate next year, plus retain the seat held by retiring minority leader Harry Reid in Nevada, which is not a no-brainer.
Eep. These new Quinnipiac numbers will make Dems sweat.
FL: Rubio 50-43%
NC: Burr 49-43%
OH: Portman 51-40%
PA: Toomey 46-45%
Would just be amazing if the Republicans held the Senate this year, with this map, while losing the presidential race.
Trump v. candidates
FL
Rubio +7
Trump-Clinton tied
OH
Portman +11
Trump +1
NC
Burr +6
Trump -4
PA
Toomey +1
Trump -5 pic.twitter.com/1mkM7buyLs
4.56pm BST
In compliance with a FOIA request by Politico, the Clinton presidential library has released photos of then-president Bill Clinton hanging out with Donald Trump at the 2000 US Open tennis tournament in Queens and at Trump Tower for a fundraiser.
Friday caption contest.
https://t.co/HtpMU3Xr7K pic.twitter.com/t0FaFQ4zRh
The 22 images were taken by official White House photographers in June 2000 during a visit the president paid to Trump Tower in New York City for a political fundraiser, and in September 2000 during the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. [...]
“I didn’t know him that well,” Clinton said last year. “I mean, I knew him. I knew him and I happened to be planning to be in Florida and I thought it’d be fun to go to his wedding, because it’s always entertaining.”
4.46pm BST
Here’s some fresh Hillary Clinton propaganda which we have to call that because it’s touching and human in a way that threatens the carapace of cynicism without which one might fear for one’s survival in this particular election year.
This is what people who know her mean when they say "if you only knew the Hillary I know." https://t.co/FJhieIdBnP
4.21pm BST
Bill Clinton, the Arkansas native and former governor who won Appalachia and Georgia at Carter ’76 levels, has said that Trump’s slogan “make America great again” is racist dog whistling:
“That message – I’ll give you America great again – if you’re a white southerner, you know exactly what it means, don’t you?” Clinton said to an audience in Orlando Thursday:
It means I’ll give you the economy you had 50 years ago and I’ll move you back up the social totem pole and other people down,. What Hillary wants to do is take the totem pole down and let us all go forward together!
4.01pm BST
North Carolina, whose 15 electoral votes are up for grabs, is already sending out absentee ballots to voters who’ve requested them. University of Florida professor Michael McDonald tracks early voting:
Of the 28,187 NC ballots sent as of today:
37.5% Dem
34.7% Rep
27.6% Unaffiliated
0.3% Lib
Also, these are just the ballots sent to voters. Trust more the returned ballots statistics. Those are actual votes
3.38pm BST
A new Hillary Clinton campaign ad rebuts Donald Trump’s assertion that he alone can fix all that’s gone wrong with America.
If you don’t remember Trump creepily saying that, it might be time to relive the climactic moment of the Republican national convention.
3.23pm BST
A co-founder of Facebook said to be worth around $10bn (50 times more than Donald Trump? 100 times more?) has just announced donations to multiple Democratic groups. Among Dustin Moskovitz’s aims is electing Hillary Clinton, whom he apparently has never met, president.
Moskovitz was college roommates with Mark Zuckerberg and just became, it looks like, the third-biggest Democratic donor out there.
This decision was not easy, particularly because we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections. We hope these efforts make it a little more likely that Secretary Clinton is able to pursue the agenda she’s outlined, and serve as a signal to the Republican Party that by running this kind of campaign — one built on fear and hostility — and supporting this kind of candidate, they compel people to act in response.
I just published “Compelled to Act” https://t.co/O55CV174eo We’re committing $20M to help Democrats in the 2016 election.
@hobbitj @teddyschleifer I have not yet met them, but hope to soon. We asked for nothing, but I accept that many won't believe it.
3.11pm BST
It’s the question everyone in US politics is trying to answer right now: who’s better, Obama or Putin?
Donald Trump’s daring to say Putin, a notion elected Republicans won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, has given cover for other closet admirers of the Russian strongman to come out of the closet.
I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president
Putin's an evil man. POTUS a good but incompetent man. Putin has served his country's national interest better. https://t.co/6R2N0dajHM
So Russia's interests are murdered journalists, shot down jetliners, a tanked economy, and global isolation? https://t.co/nfOC2Nt16D
He's excelled in evil. Great leader. Very strong. https://t.co/GsrV3Xz7fV
3. When Nixon met with Mao it didn't make Mao any less the greatest murderer of post WW 2 era, but most historians rank him effective leader
*Obama bows to foreign leader*
GOP: TREASON
*Trump praises Putin, criticizes US on Russia TV*
GOP: If you close your eyes, he’s like Reagan
Related: Almost everyone gets Russia wrong – apart from Obama | Trevor Timm
1.31pm BST
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Donald Trump has done a call-in interview for Russian propaganda outlet RT, which used to stand for Russia Today, slamming the US media and criticizing US foreign policy.
In Trump’s defense, the interview was with eternal TV host Larry King, an old Trump pal and probably not a fifth columnist. On the other hand, Trump’s untiring admiration for Russia – which Hillary Clinton yesterday called “scary”, “dangerous”, “bizarre” and “astonishing” – threatens to become a political liability, as he is running for president of the USA.
“He...did an intw w Larry King, a personal friend of his… He didn’t know it would be on Russian TV.”@kellyannepolls on Trump’s intw on RT
Congressional Republicans ducking questions about Trump’s kind words for Putin. Such a great package from @mkraju: https://t.co/2XCioRhuAG
For six years, Daniel Jones was the chief investigator for the Senate intelligence committee’s inquiry into CIA detentions and interrogations carried out in the post-9/11 Bush era. Jones and his team turned 6.3m pages of internal CIA documents into a scathing study which concluded that torture was ineffective and that the CIA had lied about it to two presidents, Congress and the US public.
But before Jones’s investigation was released in December 2014, the CIA searched through Senate files on a shared, firewalled network which had been set up by the agency for Jones and his team to securely receive classified documents.
Related: Senate investigator breaks silence about CIA's 'failed coverup' of torture report
Before giraffes mate do they neck?#ItsMy2Cents
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