Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Russia to help “find” Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. He then added that he could also really use Russia’s help to delete that whole part of the Internet where people can find evidence of anything he said before he started running for president.
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‘16 from 30,000:
It’s becoming an unofficial rule of the 2016 campaign that if more than about two days go by without Donald Trump dominating the headlines, he’ll do something to blast open the news cycle. And in many ways, scheduling a press conference this morning made sense for Trump after being reasonably subdued earlier in the week when Democrats were wallowing in the news of chaos on the convention floor in Philadelphia.
Then, he started talking. Trump appeared to urge Russia to engage in espionage against Hillary Clinton, saying “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” (His camp insists that he just meant that any actors with knowledge of Clinton’s emails should turn them over to the FBI.) It is difficult to overstate how much bewilderment and concern the comment prompted from foreign policy experts on both sides of the aisle. It’s almost certain to prompt some re-writing of the Democratic speeches planned for tonight, and it definitely put Trump squarely back in the headlines. But with Clinton already holding a pretty significant polling advantage on foreign policy issues, Trump’s statement may have worked only within the framework of his maxim that all press is good press.
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
- Donald Trump urged Russia to expose Hillary Clinton’s emails.
- Here’s our fact check of some of the other things Trump said in his press conference.
- Here’s a look at Clinton’s polling strengths and weaknesses.
- NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald writes that Terry McAuliffe has completely reversed his previous suggestion that that Clinton could eventually sign into law some version of the TPP.
- Perry Bacon Jr. writes about the unlikely partnership between Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
- After blasting the GOP for its focus on Clinton during last week’s convention, Dems in Philly haven’t been shy about blasting Trump, one of us notes.
- And in an interview with TODAY, Barack Obama tells Savannah Guthrie that “anything is possible” when it comes to Donald Trump’s chances of winning the presidency.
- Don’t forget to follow along with our convention blog for all the latest!
FOR THE RECORD…
“Her running mate Tim Kaine, who by the way did a terrible job in New Jersey. First act he did in New Jersey was ask for a $4 billion tax increase and he's not very popular in New Jersey. And he still isn't.”
Donald Trump on Tim Kaine, who was not the governor of New Jersey.
TOMORROW’S SKED
Mike Pence holds events in Michigan.
Donald Trump campaigns in Iowa
It’s the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention
