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First Read's Morning Clips: Trump's Subtle Downballot Push

A roundup of the most important political news stories of the day.
IMAGE: Donald Trump in Naples, Fla.
Donald Trump at a rally Sunday in Naples, Fla.Evan Vucci / AP

OFF TO THE RACES: Trump’s subtle downballot push

Trump’s push for downballot Republicans is pretty subtle, writes Ali Vitali.

From the New York Times: “Hillary Clinton moved aggressively on Sunday to press her advantage in the presidential race, urging black voters in North Carolina to vote early and punish Republican officeholders for supporting Donald J. Trump, even as Mr. Trump’s party increasingly concedes he is unlikely to recover in the polls.”

A new ABC News tracking poll shows Clinton with a double digit national lead.

And POLITICO: “Now, heading into the final 15 days of the 2016 presidential election, Clinton’s plan is to keep goading Trump from afar while making trying to deliver a positive closing statement to voters that will make her likely election about something more than a simple rejection of Trumpism.”

Tim Kaine told one of us(!) that it ain’t over til it’s over.

Obama campaigned for Clinton in Nevada over the weekend.

Clinton’s numbers look like Obama’s in 2012, while Trump’s look like McCain’s in 2008.

“The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email use,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

An eleventh woman has accused Donald Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Trump asked a crowd in Florida if he was right to run for president.

Reince Priebus says Trump is “not willing to not concede if he loses and there's no fraud."

The New York Times writes: “For the first time since the days of poll taxes and literacy tests a half-century ago, the Justice Department will be sharply restricted in how it can deploy some of its most powerful weapons to deter voter intimidation in the presidential election. Because of a Supreme Court ruling three years ago, the department will send special election observers inside polling places in parts of only four states on Election Day, a significant drop from 2012, when it sent observers to jurisdictions in 13 states.”

From the Wall Street Journal: “In an election year marked by unpredictable twists and turns, some incumbent Republicans who started the cycle with stiff challenges now appear to be gliding to victory. Some who seemed to be on cruise control to a win early on are having to step on the gas in the final stretch.”

From the Washington Post: “Plans to send heavier weapons to CIA-backed rebels in Syria stall amid White House skepticism”

John McCain is hanging on even as Hillary Clinton aims for a win in Arizona, writes Paul Kane.