Clinton campaign accuses Trump of ‘unhinged’ attack on Alicia Machado
The other 15%: what effect will third-party voters have on the election?
‘Trump talks a big game’ on factories – but workers express doubt
11.28pm BST
11.15pm BST
Flashback: The Republican party’s platform declared pornography to be “a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions.”
11.09pm BST
Trump may be trying to spin last night’s 3am Twitter meltdown as proof that he’s got the stamina to be president - “at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!” he tweeted - but Twitter is providing some pretty hilarious rebuttals.
.@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/7gmi5hkUEz
.@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/LcyBxQfXnR
@realDonaldTrump or, y'know, to tweet stuff
@realDonaldTrump @PhilipRucker I suspect that call at 3 am will be necessary because of a Tweet sent at 2:30 am.
@realDonaldTrump that's like saying "hey, at least I work out" when your workout is punching a beehive.
10.52pm BST
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s distaste for former Miss Universe Alicia Machado’s alleged appearance in a nonexistent sex tape appears to run counter to his own background, according to a report from Buzzfeed News: Trump appeared as himself in a softcore girl-on-girl pornographic film produced by Playboy in 2000.
Trump’s (clothed) role in the Playboy Video Centerfold film features him opening a bottle of champagne and pouring its contents on a Playboy-branded limousine and welcoming a bevvy of Playboy playmates to New York City.
Other scenes from the film feature fully nude women posing in sexual positions, dancing naked, touching themselves while naked, touching each other sensually, rubbing honey on themselves, taking a bath, and dressing in costumes.
The VHS cover of the video reads: ‘From luxuriating in a warm, soapy tub, to reveling at an exclusive night club, Carol and Darlene bare their sex appeal and lead you on a sensual journey of discovery.’
10.44pm BST
According to a hacked recording of a conversation with campaign donors at a private event in February, according to the Intercept, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton described herself as “center-left to the center-right” as far as how she fits on the political spectrum, a position that will likely not endear her to the liberal Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party ahead of the election.
On the other side, there’s just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free healthcare, that what we’ve done hasn’t gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don’t know what that means, but it’s something that they deeply feel.
So as a friend of mine said the other day, I am occupying from the center-left to the center-right. And I don’t have much company there. Because it is difficult when you’re running to be president, and you understand how hard the job is - I don’t want to overpromise. I don’t want to tell people things that I know we cannot do.
10.35pm BST
"I'm spending $100 million." – Donald Trump, nearly doubling the amount of money he's personally spent on his presidential campaign
10.30pm BST
Is this what keeps you up at night, @realDonaldTrump? Thinking of new & interesting ways to call women fat or ugly or sluts?
You never tweet at 3am with ways to help students getting crushed by debt or seniors struggling on Social Security, @realDonaldTrump.
You never tweet at 3am with ways to create new jobs for workers or hold Wall Street accountable, @realDonaldTrump.
Nope, @realDonaldTrump: the only things that keep your mind racing at night are your next racist, sexist tweets & disgusting lies.
A thin-skinned bully who thinks humiliating women at 3am qualifies him to be President does not understand America & is not fit to lead.
10.22pm BST
In a deposition released on Friday afternoon, Donald Trump acknowledged that his infamous statement that Mexico was deliberately sending rapists into the United States was planned in advance.
Related: Trump says Mexico 'rapist' comments were planned in deposition video
10.17pm BST
Watch it live here:
10.06pm BST
Onetime presidential candidate and former House speaker Newt Gingrich compared Hillary Clinton’s citing of Donald Trump’s history of racist and misogynistic comments toward a Venezuelan pageant queen to Clinton’s handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
“This is the new Benghazi lie,” Gingrich told Sean Hannity on his eponymous radio show, first reported by Buzzfeed News.
9.30pm BST
I’ll be here in Florida so much you’ll get sick of me.
9.14pm BST
Speaking in Coral Springs, Florida, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told the audience that Donald Trump’s late-night tweetstorm encouraging American voters to watch a nonexistent sex tape of a Venezuelan pageant queen with whom he has been engaged in a feud is evidence that he is “unhinged” and temperamentally unfit to serve as president.
“Who gets up at three o’clock in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against the former Miss Universe?” Clinton asked incredulously.
9.06pm BST
Watch it live here:
8.57pm BST
If it’s an unnerving experience to have nine-time Grammy winner Mary J Blige close her eyes and sing directly to you about police violence from just a few feet away, Hillary Clinton didn’t show it.
Related: 'That was so emotional!': Mary J Blige gets the 411 on Hillary Clinton
8.39pm BST
Yet another reliably conservative newspaper’s editorial board has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, on the heels of a historic anti-endorsement against Donald Trump by USA Today.
The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has not endorsed a Democrat for president in its entire 148-year history, wrote in an editorial released this afternoon that Clinton “has the better temperament to be president - and the experience, background and relationships with world leaders that we need in a president.”
We could see an administration that reneges on its treaty commitments to dozens of nations, throwing the world into turmoil and increasing tensions in regions that historically have relied on the United States to be a stabilizing force. We could see an administration that ruins US trustworthiness in international finance by seeking to refinance terms with debt-holders, putting a singular economic power in the same basket as Greece. We could also see an administration that launches a trade war by abandoning Republican tradition and abrogating international trade deals, destroying a framework that has greatly enriched our nation and the world, even if its benefits haven’t been as well-distributed as one would hope.
8.10pm BST
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Pulitzer-Tony-Emmy-Grammy-MacArthur Genius Grant-winning composer, star of the Broadway sensation Hamilton and also just a really nice guy, has composed a one-song musical about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, inspired by a 272-word sentence Trump spoke at a rally in Sun City, South Carolina:
8.01pm BST
It’s 3am - do you know where your president is?
That’s the message of a July advertisement produced by pro-Hillary Clinton Super Pac Priorities USA Action, taking a nod from Clinton’s iconic “3 A.M.” advertisement in 2008 to criticize Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as unprepared for and uninterested in serving as president.
7.53pm BST
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s sole response to the barrage of criticism after a late-night tweetstorm in which he encouraged American voters to watch a (nonexistent) sex tape of a Venezuelan beauty queen who has criticized Trump for calling her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”:
For those few people knocking me for tweeting at three o'clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!
7.49pm BST
BuzzFeed has obtained surreal videos of Donald Trump’s deposition in June in a case in which he sued a restaurateur for pulling out of his Washington, DC, hotel project because of terrible things Trump had said about Mexicans.
Trump sued companies connected with restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian, who pulled out of Trump’s hotel citing Trump’s comments about Mexicans. Trump launched his presidential campaign by saying that Mexicans were rapists bringing guns and drugs to the United States.
7.08pm BST
Hillary Clinton called Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe under attack from Trump, to express her support, the Clinton campaign said. Spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton made the call en route to the airport to fly to her afternoon event in Coral Gables, Florida, and he paraphrased the conversation:
On the trip here, they connected. Clinton started by thanking her for all she had done and the courage she has shown, particularly as this became elevated through a war of some pretty unpleasant words.”
Machado responded and said, ‘of course, I’ve supported you for a really long time, I’ll continue to support you.’
6.54pm BST
Where is everybody? Hello? Everybody?
Lunch time at The DC Trump International Hotel. pic.twitter.com/BTOlqZ9mV9
6.53pm BST
The presidential look.
6.43pm BST
The New York Daily News has uncovered audio of a 1999 Donald Trump interview with Howard Stern in which Trump says, of his daughter Ivanka:
She made me promise or swear to her that I would never date a girl younger than her. So, as she grows older, the field is getting very limited.
@rexrode_lisa
"@realDonaldTrump you date girls young enough to be your daughter.That's perverted" Dated. No, that's talent.
6.30pm BST
Local ClickonDetroit reports:
Donald Trump receive 0 percent support in the city of Detroit during a recent WDIV/Detroit News poll.
The poll, run from Sept. 27-29, found 39 percent of voters across Michigan supported Trump, placing him roughly 7 points behind Hillary Clinton.
6.27pm BST
The Clinton camp marked the start of Rosh Hashanah Sunday with a statement reading in part:
As the High Holiday celebrations begin, I send my best wishes for a Shana Tova – a happy and healthy new year – to Jewish families and communities in the United States, Israel, and around the world.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a time for prayer and contemplation. They are a time to recall our past year, take a hard look at what we’ve done and what we’ve said, and ask how we can do better in the year ahead. They challenge us to do the difficult work of self-reflection—key to becoming a better family member, friend, and neighbor.
6.24pm BST
Trump has done an unexpected interview with Grand Rapids local ABC news, and reporter Andrew Krietz has tweeted key lines:
.@realDonaldTrump on @wzzm13: Twitter is really modern day form of communication -- I find it very effective.
.@realDonaldTrump on @USATODAY's not endorsement: They're not much of a paper; we are doing well in all the polls.
Trump ignores qs about his tweets via @finneganLAT pic.twitter.com/oqAxvPO0pr
6.09pm BST
Trump has stopped to pay his respects at the tomb of president Gerald Ford and Betty Ford:
.@realDonaldTrump lays flowers at the tomb of President and Mrs. Ford at the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, MI. pic.twitter.com/lgM4vRHUUa
5.58pm BST
At least they have donuts?
If trump wins OH, it'll be largely organic (and some help from u @robportman). Below is Trump STATE hq on a Sat am. pic.twitter.com/1pq6kEM2hF
5.49pm BST
Here’s a new video ad from Trump hitting Clinton with footage in which she says, “Why aren’t I 50 points ahead? you might ask.”
The ad brings up Clinton’s emails, Isis, and her “basket of deplorables,” to set up the punch line, “do you really need to ask?”
5.41pm BST
Clinton proposes a national service reserve. People would be trained, and then in times of crisis would get the call. The network would be activated during a natural disaster, or to meet a public health need such as passing out drinking water in Flint, or to address another community crisis.
Members of the service corps could still hold down full-time jobs, she says. It would be “a true, bipartisan, public-private partnership.”
I don’t think you’ll hear anything about this from my opponent, and you know what, I think that’s a shame, because national service has always been a bipartisan goal...
This should be something that we all can get behind. And when you listen to what’s being said in this campaign, it can be discouraging.. that makes it more important that we come together...
I’m well aware that candidates usually don’t focus on national service in the final stretch. .. Some people say, well why aren’t you out there beating up on your opponent... and all the rest of it?
Well, I’ll do that, but...
I’m trying to end this campaign focusing on issues that are really close to my heart. And this is one of them.
5.34pm BST
Readers are much better at asking smart questions than I am, which is why I have been ending each of these articles with a request to get in touch with me. Earlier this week, Alan wrote me an email which asked:
I would like to know more about what supporters of the Greens and Libertarians will actually do on US polling day. Do we expect them to vote for their own lost causes as a principled act of faith, stay at home or switch to a mainstream party?
Related: The other 15%: what effect will third-party voters have on the election?
5.33pm BST
Meanwhile...
Trump motorcade on ground in Grand Rapids just passed train for Barnum and Bailey circus.
5.32pm BST
Clinton quote De Tocqueville on America’s “spirit of volunteerism.” Then she says as president she would “make a major push in support of national service.”
She wants to:
5.27pm BST
Clinton says that Americans are good at finding ways to give back to the country. She’s talking about the good-works group Americorps, founded by Bill Clinton, which she says will add its millionth member next month.
Other examples of volunteerism she describes include tutoring students and working in the Peace Corps.
5.21pm BST
We have a Trump sighting. His plane landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, moments ago. The Trump reporting pool relays this scene:
About a dozen white men in suits came down the stairs of the plane. Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, and Steven Mnuchin were among them. At 12:04 pm, Trump came down the stairs and got into a vehicle. At 12:05, the motorcade started rolling.
5.18pm BST
Clinton seems like she’s having an upbeat day. She’s smiling through this speech:
“My opponent believes in what he calls a strongman approach... that in no way resembles the strong, vibrant America I know. ... He said, ‘I alone can fix it.’ I alone? Well, we’ve learned that that’s his way. One person getting supreme power and exercising it ruthlessly... but that is not how change happens in America.”
5.15pm BST
Here’s Clinton. Excited crowd it sounds like.
“We have to make every single day count,” she says, reminding the audience that only 39 days remain until election day.
5.15pm BST
There’s a bounty of state polling out this morning showing Clinton with healthy leads in key places:
Three polls post debate in Florida. Clinton has led in all three. Unless there's an insane map, Trump cannot win without Florida.
Clinton leading 3 new post-debate polls:
Florida
Clinton 46%
Trump 42%
Michigan
Clinton 42%
Trump 35%
New Hampshire
Clinton 42%
Trump 35%
Suffolk poll has largest Clinton lead in Nevada (+6) all year -- but GOP Rep. Joe Heck still leads #NVSen race 38-35 https://t.co/FHZfBfxiTo
52% of Michigan likely voters say Clinton won the debate, 20% say Trump prevailed, per @ChadLivengood.https://t.co/09BF2htOw1
"Please proceed Donald," pro-Clinton operative @woodhouseb says in news release spelling out polling with Clinton ahead in 8 battlegrounds. pic.twitter.com/jOwcblZrGy
5.09pm BST
Clinton’s Fort Pierce, Florida, program has just begun. The candidate plans to talk about the importance of national service, and to announce the formation of a national youth service corps.
Eilean Clark, a retired nurse and campaign volunteer, is introducing the candidate.
5.05pm BST
In a meeting with reporters, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri ties Trump’s attacks on Alicia Machado following this week’s debate to his attacks on Fox host Megyn Kelly after a debate 14 months ago.
Palmieri also denied Trump’s wild accusation that Clinton or her campaign had helped Machado gain American citizenship, and Palmieri said that Clinton would likely address Trump’s latest attack this afternoon at her rally in Coral Springs.
It is a pattern with him. And after a bad debate performance, he blamed Megyn Kelly. Now after a bad debate performance, he’s attacking Alicia Machado. It is not apparent to us why he simply can’t stop attacking her. He’s had many opportunities to right the offense that she took to how she was treated 20 years ago...
I certainly don’t think it helps him. I think it is distasteful to voters and backfires on him. ... This is our opponent. This is who we’re running against. This is our reality. We will do as we have done the whole time he has been the general election nominee, which is run our campaign on two tracks. There’s a positive message that she’s delivering but she’s also going to call him out.
4.55pm BST
In addition to multiple stops in Iowa Monday, senator Bernie Sanders will head to Minnesota Tuesday to stump for Clinton, the campaign has announced:
On Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders will campaign in Minneapolis and Duluth for the Clinton-Kaine ticket. Sanders will discuss Hillary Clinton’s plan to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, and Donald Trump’s plan, which would benefit himself and other millionaires and billionaires.
4.43pm BST
As we wait for Clinton in Fort Pierce – here are three recent news lines from the Clinton campaign.
President Barack Obama will campaign for Clinton in Miami on Wednesday and senator Bernie Sanders will campaign for her in Iowa on Monday.
For over 70 years, the Association of Flight Attendants has helped raise wages, benefits, and working conditions for its members all across – and above – America. Over the decades, it has brought our nation’s attention to important issues like discrimination, outsourcing, and equal pay. Every American worker deserves an advocate like the AFA in their corner, and I’m honored to have earned their endorsement.
4.36pm BST
This is not the first time Donald Trump has expressed an interest in sex tapes. In one Trump’s many appearances on Howard Stern’s radio show he said he had watched a leaked video of Paris Hilton having sex.
The (particularly) creepy thing about this is that Trump said he had known Hilton since she was 12-years-old. Trump said her parents were family friends.
From the Daily Beast:
Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but is in actuality very beautiful is Paris Hilton,” Trump told Stern. “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ At 12, I wasn’t interested… but she was beautiful.”
4.23pm BST
Here’s a live video stream of Clinton’s event in Fort Pierce, Florida, scheduled to start soon:
4.15pm BST
Hillary Clinton assesses Trump’s early-morning tirade against former beauty queen Alicia Machado and registers a verdict of “unhinged”. This is quite a tweetstorm. We will, by the way, have live video of Clinton from Florida shortly.
What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?
When something gets under Donald's thin skin, he lashes out and can't let go. This is dangerous for a president.
To Donald, women like Alicia are only as valuable as his personal opinion about their looks. https://t.co/OZv8yg8vjZ pic.twitter.com/PZWmPcORBR
We've heard Donald's insults for years, and his policies reflect this disregard—even contempt—for women.
While Donald continues day 5 of his Machado meltdown, we'll be in Florida talking about national service. You'll want to watch.
The Republican candidate and his campaign team are again generating attacks, insults and trying to revive slanders and false accusations about my life. All this in order to intimidate, humiliate me and throw me off balance again. The attacks that have emerged are slander and lies cheap generated with bad intentions, which have no foundation that have been spread by sensationalist media. This, of course, is not the first time that I face such a situation. Through their hate campaign, the Republican candidate insists discredit and demoralize a woman, which is definitely one of the most terrifying features. with this, seeking to distract attention from their real problems and its inability to pretend to be the leader of this great country. When I was a young girl, the now candidate, I was humiliated, insulted me, I disrespected publicly, as he usually did privately in the cruelest way. as this happened to me, it is clear over the years that their actions and behavior have been repeated with other women for decades. Therefore, I will keep standing, sharing my story, my absolute support Mrs. Clinton on behalf of women, my sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, friends and female community. My Latin and in general, I want to thank all the support, love and respect, my career, my person as a human being and my family. I became a citizen of this great country because my daughter was born here and because I wanted to exercise my rights, including voting. I will continue standing firm in my lived experience as Miss Universe and you with me supporting me. I’ve been so pleased with many kind words, for so much love. I’m focusing on my busy career, in my work as mother and I will continue taking positive steps for the Latino community, I will continue as activist for women’s rights and respect we deserve. I appreciate all your love and all your support again, thanks. “Thousands of blessings.
4.05pm BST
Ari Fleischer was a George W Bush press secretary:
Trump is on the verge of blowing it. Free advice: Focus on Hillary. No one else. Hillary is your opponent. No one else is.
As it has been for months, the 2016 winner will be the one who makes the campaign about the other candidate. Trump not helping himself.
Reminder that Republicans in Congress won't discuss the ongoing terrifying meltdown of the presidential candidate they still endorse.
3.44pm BST
It kind of seems like Trump is wallowing in losing today? Or is this some kind of plan B? We won’t pretend to read the tea leaves but would appreciate your doing so. What do you make of this, Trump drawing attention to the abandonment of his campaign by Republican mainstays?
The people are really smart in cancelling subscriptions to the Dallas & Arizona papers & now USA Today will lose readers! The people get it!
In the 34-year history of USA TODAY, the Editorial Board has never taken sides in the presidential race... We’ve never seen reason to alter our approach. Until now.
This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences. This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.
Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.
3.26pm BST
The New Hampshire senate candidates, Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte and Democratic governor Maggie Hassan, are holding a morning debate, which you can watch here. This is a very close race – polling averages have the candidates one point apart – which could determine whether Democrats succeed in their quest to swipe control of the senate from the GOP.
3.21pm BST
After he exhausted himself on Twitter this morning on the topic of Alicia Machado, Trump attacked the use of anonymous sources, to the mirth/horror of anyone who’s been tracking Trump.
The question is, of all the stories this week with anonymous sources saying damning things about Trump, which one got his goat? Or was it a kind of cumulative effect? Anonymous sources close to the candidate were cited as saying that Trump’s children are unhappy with the current campaign leadership and concerned about the impact on Trump businesses of the campaign, a report that the campaign denied sharply. Other anonymous sources were quoted calling Trump’s debate performance a “disaster”.
Remember, don't believe "sources said" by the VERY dishonest media. If they don't name the sources, the sources don't exist.
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
Trump, in 80s, famously called NYC papers and had them write as a "source close to Trump" https://t.co/0BYZMMJvhQ
3.13pm BST
Trump’s tactic of refuting charges of misogyny by trying to shame a former beauty queen whom he publicly shamed 20 years ago for gaining weight... how effective, would you say?
I see our favorite serial adulterer who's on this third marriage is criticizing the morality of a woman for allegedly having sex on camera.
Why refute misogyny claims when you could prove them? https://t.co/BFYjMZ88Zp
2.58pm BST
The actress Kate McKinnon will bring her Hillary Clinton impression to Saturday Night Live this... Saturday. Opposite McKinnon will be Alec Baldwin playing Trump.
Here’s McKinnon this morning explaining what it’s like to impersonate Clinton:
.@nbcsnl's Kate McKinnon on impersonating Clinton: I watch everything she does, I have a lot in common with her https://t.co/P1CRDrmtYH
2.58pm BST
What’s the news that Trump is trying to cover up by tweeting wildly about beauty queen Alicia Machado?
We wake up this AM to Trump telling people to watch a sex tape that doesn't exist as a way to distract from the Trump Foundation story.
Related: Trump violated Cuba embargo in 1998 business venture, report claims
Oh look, Trump is dominating the news cycle again. Whatever will we do.
2.09pm BST
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Hillary Clinton has two rallies scheduled in Florida today while Donald Trump is in Michigan.
Trump has again attacked a former beauty pageant contestant introduced by Clinton at Monday’s debate as an example of a woman whom Trump has objectified and insulted.
Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an "angel" without checking her past, which is terrible!
Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.
Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?
Related: Alicia Machado, Miss Universe weight-shamed by Trump, speaks out for Hillary Clinton
Remarkable Trump Day 4 Twitter tirade against Machado. We'll see how "Miss Housekeeping" plays in Nevada... pic.twitter.com/dycCitrdJZ
I'm going to assume this is the first time in American history a major nominee has invited the public to watch a sex tape.
Now Mike Pence has to practice a "sex tape" answer all weekend.
Continue reading...