Will Donald Trump's effort to work the referees pay off?
Donald J. Trump has been complaining about the media for months and last week suggested that Lester Holt, the NBC anchor who is moderating the debate, might be biased against him because of his party affiliation.
"And by the way, Lester is a Democrat," Mr. Trump told Bill O'Reilly of Fox News.
In fact, Mr. Holt is a Republican.
On Monday, Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump's campaign manager was pressed to explain why Mr. Trump misinformed the public about the newscaster's party affiliation during an interview with MSNBC. After dodging and weaving, she rejected the idea that Mr. Trump lied about Mr. Holt.
"He didn't lie," Ms. Conway said, arguing that Mr. Trump was unaware of Mr. Holt's political leanings. "A lie would mean that he knew the man's party registration."
Priorities ad takes apocalyptic tone
The advertising wars went full apocalypse on debate day.
Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Mrs. Clinton, unveiled a new 30-second ad calling for the "Trump Train" to be stopped in its tracks. With a hurtling train and haunting flames as a backdrop, the ad uses the Republican nominee's own words to paint him as someone to dangerous to be president.
"I am not in favor of gay marriage," Mr. Trump says in one clip, with the word "unequal" flashing across the screen.
Other clips play Mr. Trump calling for a low minimum wage, a ban on Muslim immigration and punishment for women who had abortions.
The ad also surfaces some of Mr. Trump's sexist comments from years ago
"I said I'm going to get the bathing suits to be smaller and the heels to be higher," Mr. Trump said in 1997 of his plans to reform the Miss USA pageant.
Team Trump touts the backing of Bush alumni.
The Trump campaign, seeking to demonstrate that the Republican establishment has coalesced around Mr. Trump, announced on Monday the formation of the Bush Alumni Coalition, a group of more than 50 former Bush administration appointees who back the Republican nominee.
The list includes the likes of Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary, and John Ashcroft, former U.S. Attorney General.
The coalition comes amid reports that former President George H. W. Bush will vote for Mrs. Clinton, and as former President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, who ran against Mr. Trump in the primary contest, have declined to throw their support behind Mr. Trump.
Harry Reid unloads on Donald Trump, labeling him 'racist'
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the outgoing Democratic minority leader, pulled no punches on the floor of the senate on Monday, declaring unequivocally that Mr. Trump is "racist."
"Donald Trump is a racist," Mr. Reid said. "Racist is term I don't throw around lightly."
The attack took Mr. Reid's criticism of Mr. Trump to new heights and he pointed to Mr. Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigration, his confrontation with a Muslim gold star family and his suggestion that a federal judge of Mexican heritage could not treat him fairly as evidence.
Mr. Reid also assigned blame to all Republicans for allowing Mr. Trump's behavior to go unchecked and said it was doing damage to the country.
"Republicans are normalizing this racist behavior," Mr. Reid said. "This will be their legacy."
Debates end up being a party of two.
The Commission on Presidential Debates did not offer invitations to the first debate to Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the Libertarian and Green Party nominees, and party crashing was taken seriously.
After holding a press conference at Hofstra, Ms. Stein was escorted away by campus security and local police for failing to have the appropriate credentials. The police van that took her away was stopped twice as she departed, Ms. Stein tweeted during the incident.
Ms. Stein was planning to hold a demonstration outside of the debate with her supporters on Monday night, according to a Long Island Press report.
Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson will be waching the debate from the Twitter offices in New York City, where he will attending their watch party and live tweeting his responses and reactions to the debate, per a Twitter spokesman.
And here's how to watch the showdown
■ Start time: 9 p.m. Eastern
■ Duration: About 90 minutes
■ Airing on TV: On NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN and Fox News.
■ Streaming online: Right here at nytimes.com, as well as many other websites.
Want more? We have a whole guide.
Continue reading the main story
No comments:
Post a Comment