OFF TO THE RACES: A flurry of accusations against Trump
The story that kicked off last night’s flurry of allegations from the New York Times: “Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately.”
And there’s more:
- Physically Attacked by Donald Trump – a PEOPLE Writer’s Own Harrowing Story
- Palm Beach Post exclusive: Local woman says Trump groped her
- CBS: “In an “Entertainment Tonight” Christmas feature in 1992, Trump looked at a group of young girls and said he would be dating one of them in ten years. At the time, Trump would have been 46 years old.”
The Trump campaign is demanding a retraction from the New York Times.
And spokeswoman Katrina Pierson had this to say: “Just to answer the question on why they would come out… because 15 minutes of fame.”
NBC News: “As a flood of new allegations against Donald Trump emerged Wednesday, one of the women who says he approached her inappropriately told NBC News about two encounters similar to the behavior Trump boasted about in a now-notorious 2005 hot-microphone video.”
From Bloomberg: “Donald Trump believes his ploy at the Oct. 9th presidential debate to invite three women who claim they were assaulted by former president Bill Clinton — Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones — has left Hillary Clinton “shaken” and helped unify Republican voters behind his embattled campaign. So he’s doubling down on the strategy, which his advisers believe will make his opponent toxic and depress turnout among a key demographic group — young women — Clinton is counting on to win. A senior Trump adviser says the campaign will soon bring forward new accusers: “Women are coming to us who have been groped or sexually abused by Bill Clinton.” Trump is considering featuring these women at campaign rallies to “give witness to what Hillary Clinton actually did.” The Republican nominee’s decision to close out his campaign by attacking what he alleges to be Bill Clinton's history of sexual violence, and his wife's role after the fact, suggests the next few weeks could be among the ugliest in modern presidential history.”
From the Department of Questionable Timing, via the New York Times: “Some in G.O.P. Who Deserted Donald Trump Over Lewd Tape Are Returning”
Is the Trump camp pulling out of Virginia? NBC’s Alex Jaffe and Ali Vitali take a look.
Rudy Giuliani is apologizing for saying Hillary Clinton lied about being in New York City on 9/11.
Donald Trump is embracing WikiLeaks as an ally. The New York Times: “The Trump campaign’s willingness to use WikiLeaks is an extraordinary turnabout after years of bipartisan criticism of the organization and its leader, Julian Assange, for past disclosures of American national security intelligence and other confidential information. The accusation that Russian agents are now playing an almost-daily role in helping fuel Mr. Trump’s latest political attacks on Mrs. Clinton raises far greater concerns, though, about foreign interference in a presidential election.”
The Washington Post: “WikiLeaks released yet another batch of hacked emails from inside Hillary Clinton’s campaign Wednesday, and with them came another round of embarrassing headlines and new glimpses of internal anxiety over the candidate’s weaknesses. Republican Donald Trump and his allies seized on the emails, which reveal comments by an aide about Catholics, a line from a paid speech in which Clinton might be seen as playing down the threat of terrorism and an internal dispute over potential conflicts of interest posed by the Clinton Foundation.”
And from the Wall Street Journal: “Newly disclosed emails show there were close ties between Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and top Democratic Party officials long before she wrapped up the nomination, despite a longstanding mandate that the national party remain neutral in intraparty fights.”
POLITICO: “A POLITICO analysis of campaign finance records reveals that the committee has not spent anything on commercials boosting Trump since he emerged as the party’s likely nominee.”
A new Bloomberg poll has Clinton up nine points in Pennsylvania, and Marquette Law School puts her up by seven in Wisconsin.
The final countdown: Barack Obama has just 100 days left in office, Emma Margolin notes.