Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Campaign Week That Never Seems to End
Giuliani: Trump 'better for the United States than a woman'
Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani on Sunday suggested that a man such as Donald Trump would be a better president "than a woman."
"Don’t you think a man who has this kind of economic genius is a lot better for the United States than a woman, and the only thing she’s ever produced is a lot of work for the FBI checking out her emails," the former New York City mayor said on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.
Giuliani's statements come on the heels of a week during which the Republican nominee has been criticized by Hillary Clinton's campaign for comments he has made about women. At Monday's debate, Clinton said Trump had insulted former Miss Universe Alicia Machado by calling her "Miss Piggy." Trump and Giuliani both criticized Machado and tried to justify Trump's comments about how much weight Machado had gained.
Giuliani told Stephanopoulos that Clinton was "programmed" to bring up Machado's story.
"Then she mentioned the woman’s name, the model’s name, and then she made it appear as if [moderator] Lester Holt had brought it up. She had obviously been programmed to bring that up," Giuliani said.
In addition, the Trump surrogate also said that if Clinton is going to attack Trump on how he "deals with women," the GOP nominee's campaign will discuss how the former secretary of state "deals with women."
"We have to respond by how she deals with women, which is to take money from governments that kill women, take money from governments that stone women, take money from governments that have women who can’t drive cars," he said. "Not just money, millions and tens of millions of dollars from countries in which women are treated like property and killed when they get raped."
"And so now, basically, it’s 'Don’t lecture me, Hillary, on feminism, because you’re a phony.'"
The Trump and Clinton campaigns both released ads targeting women this past week.
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Rudy Giuliani, Continuing Rebuke of Hillary Clinton, Says ‘Everybody’ Commits Infidelity
Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor and an ally of Donald J. Trump’s, suggested on Sunday that “everybody” commits infidelity, setting off a backlash on Twitter.
The remark came during an exchange on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” after Chuck Todd, the show’s host, asked Mr. Giuliani whether he was “the right person” to bring up former President Bill Clinton’s infidelities in this heated campaign.
“You have your own infidelities, sir,” Mr. Todd said.
“Everybody does,” Mr. Giuliani responded. “You know, I’m a Roman Catholic and I confess those things to my priest.”
The reaction from Twitter users was swift and unforgiving.
“No Rudy - not everyone does,” wrote Diana Hess, a self-described Hillary Clinton supporter.
“Um, I’ve been married for almost 20 years. No infidelities,” wrote John Bielski, whose Twitter account describes him as a labor lawyer in Philadelphia. Mr. Bielski, whose Twitter profile says he loves his wife and daughters more than his favorite sports teams, went on to ask, “Am I doing marriage wrong?”
Mr. Trump hinted last week after the first presidential debate - in which Mrs. Clinton criticized him for shaming a Miss Universe winner 20 years ago for gaining weight - that he would open a line of attack on Mr. Clinton’s infidelities.
Mr. Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates, has repeatedly attacked Mrs. Clinton for her defense of her husband during the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the 1990s and her attempts to discredit women who accused her husband of sexual assault.
“After being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said Bill Clinton violated her,” Mr. Giuliani told Elite Daily after the debate, “then you’re too stupid to be president.”
Mr. Trump has also raised the issue of Mrs. Clinton’s marriage in recent days. At a rally on Saturday in Manheim, Pa., he asserted that Mrs. Clinton has no loyalties to anyone but her donors.
“I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth,” he told the audience. “And really, folks, really, why should she be, right?”
But on Sunday, the line of attack showed signs of backfiring.
“Just bizarre,” Glenn Greenwald, a journalist, lawyer and founder of The Intercept, a news media site he began in 2013, wrote on Twitter. “Trump & Giuliani have 6 wives between them & are sermonizing about marriage to the Clintons, who have been married 41 years.”
Others highlighted the illogic of Mr. Giuliani’s assertion that “everybody” cheats. If everybody cheats, then why attack Mr. Clinton for it?
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks on “Meet the Press” aired at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time.
By 11:30 a.m., a clip of the exchange had been shared more than 600 times.
Many Twitter users wrote that the Republican Party has drifted from its conservative social values.
Jeet Heer, a senior editor at The New Republic, wrote: “GOP 2004: Gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of wedding vows! GOP 2016: Adultery for all!”
In an interview after the show, Mr. Giuliani said he was speaking not just of marital infidelity, but about “all forms of infidelity, which there are many.”
“By infidelities, I don’t just mean marital. People lie. People cheat. People misrepresent. People commit sins,” he said. “The point that I was trying to make was, as far as I can tell, among human beings, there are very few that don’t have some.”
When asked why, if all people commit sins, he felt that raising the issue of Mr. Clinton’s infidelity is fair game, he said: “I’m not attacking the Clintons. I’m attacking Hillary.”
He made clear that the decision to resurrect the issue of Mr. Clinton’s affairs - and Mrs. Clinton’s attacks on the credibility of women who made claims of sexual impropriety - is linked to her raising Mr. Trump’s treatment of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, in the final moments of the debate.
“If she would like to stop attacking on things that happened 20 years ago, he’ll stop attacking things that happened 20 years ago,” Mr. Giuliani said.
He added, “I don’t know if it is a winning or losing strategy, but if you get attacked, you have to defend yourself.”
Yet the idea of excusing Mr. Clinton’s infidelity, while attacking Mrs. Clinton’s response it, struck some women as hypocritical.
“I’m no Hillary fan, believe me,” said Paula Cullen of Spokane, Wash., who describes herself on her Twitter account as a “former feminist.” “But to dismiss the original immoral behavior as, ‘Well, everybody does it,’ but make an issue of her reaction is a sign that we’ve lost our moral compass.”
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Trump suggests military members with mental health issues aren’t ‘strong’ and ‘can’t handle it’
Donald Trump told a group of military veterans on Monday that some members of the military develop mental health issues because they are not "strong" and "can't handle it."
"When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat, they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over. And you're strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can't handle it," the Republican presidential nominee told an audience of military veterans at an event in Northern Virginia on Monday morning. "And they see horror stories, they see events that you couldn’t see in a movie - nobody would believe it."
Mental health advocates have been trying for decades to destigmatize depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other issues in hopes of empowering people to not be afraid to seek medical help. The stigma surrounding mental health has been especially difficult to fight in the military, where many service members think that they should handle these issues on their own and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Suicide has become an epidemic among veterans, and more than 20 end their lives each day.
Trump said these suicides often occur because veterans are not able to quickly make an appointment for "what could be a simple procedure, a simple prescription."
Trump's campaign defended the candidate's comments and accused the media of taking his words out of context.
“The media continues to operate as the propaganda arm of Hillary Clinton as they took Mr. Trump’s words out of context in order to deceive voters and veterans - an appalling act that shows they are willing to go to any length to carry water for their candidate of choice," retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, one of Trump's top advisers, said in a statement. "Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country."
Marine Staff Sgt. Chad Robichaux, whose question Trump was answering in his remarks, issued a statement after the event calling it "sickening that anyone would twist Mr. Trump’s comments." Robichaux, who suffered from PTSD, added: "I took his comments to be thoughtful and understanding of the struggles many veterans have."
Monday's town-hall-style event in Herndon, Va., was hosted by a political action group called Retired American Warriors. Trump gave prepared remarks and then fielded questions from the friendly audience. One combat veteran asked Trump what he would do to end the "social engineering" in the military, which now allows women and transgender people to serve. Trump agreed that the military has become too "politically correct" and said he would follow the recommendations of top military leaders.
"We have a politically correct military, and it's getting more and more politically correct every day," said Trump, who received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. "And a lot of the great people in this room don't even understand how it's possible to do that. And that's through intelligence, not through ignorance - believe me - because some of the things that they're asking you to do and be politically correct about are ridiculous."
Trump's comments came during his first campaign event since new revelations about his personal taxes, which have drawn intense scrutiny, but he did not mention the New York Times report on Saturday that said he declared a loss of $916 million on his 1995 income tax returns, which could have enabled him to avoid paying federal income taxes for 18 years.
Instead, Trump continued to criticize Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state and laid out his plan to counter the threat of cyberattacks, an issue that came up during the presidential debate last week, although he struggled to provide a clear answer.
“Hillary Clinton’s only experience in cybersecurity involved her criminal scheme to violate federal law,” Trump said, referencing Clinton’s emails. A Justice Department criminal investigation of Clinton’s email practices resulted in no charges against her.
Trump said the threat of cyberattacks from the governments of countries such as China, North Korea and Russia constitutes “one of our most critical” national security concerns. As president, Trump said, he would promptly commission a review of cyber-defenses and weaknesses and ensure that the issue is a high priority.
However, Trump has sent mixed messages about safeguarding against online attacks from foreign intruders. During the summer, he called on Russia to hack Clinton's emails in hopes of recovering the ones that she said were personal and deleted.
“Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” Trump said in July.
Trump said those who violate rules governing classified information should be prosecuted to the “fullest extent of the law.” And he claimed that "lately, we’re more interested in protecting the criminals than making sure we’re strong and powerful.”
Trump added: “I think we need to go back to a little more old-fashioned method of thinking.”
With about five weeks left until the election, Trump is trying to recover from a bruising few days. In addition to new attention on his taxes, his performance in his first debate against Clinton was viewed as weak, polling shows, and he continued to engage in personal feuds that many Republicans deemed counterproductive.
At Monday's event, Trump repeated some positions he has emphasized earlier in his campaign, including the need for authorities to engage in "profiling" to guard against the threat of terrorism. He also railed against political correctness and vowed to protect religious liberty.
Trump was scheduled to campaign in Colorado later Monday.
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In new blow to campaign, Trump's foundation ordered to halt fundraising
New York's attorney general ordered Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's charitable foundation to immediately stop fundraising in the state, warning that a failure to do so would be a "continuing fraud."
For Trump, the cease-and-desist order was the latest in a series of blows that has sent his campaign reeling. The New York businessman and his aides spent much of the weekend pushing back against suggestions that he may not have paid U.S. federal income taxes for almost 20 years.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said the Donald J. Trump Foundation was violating a state law requiring charitable organizations that solicit outside donations to register with the office's Charities Bureau.
The order followed a series of reports in The Washington Post that suggested improprieties by the foundation, including using its funds to settle legal disputes involving Trump businesses.
"The failure immediately to discontinue solicitation and to file information and reports required under Article 7-A with the Charities Bureau shall be deemed to be a continuing fraud upon the people of the state of New York," according to a letter dated on Friday that the office posted online on Monday.
Trump's campaign has suggested that the probe launched by Schneiderman, a Democrat, was politically motivated.
While again putting Trump's campaign on the defensive, the order could also undercut his efforts to make the Clinton Foundation, the family charity of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, a primary target in his campaign against her.
Trump has sought to paint the Clinton Foundation as a "pay-to-play" operation under which the former secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, rewarded big donors to the foundation with access.
The scrutiny of the Trump Foundation came as the Republican candidate was dealing with a torrent of bad news, including his shaky performance in first debate with Clinton on Sept. 26 and the release by the New York Times of tax records that showed Trump taking an almost $1 billion loss in 1995 that may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
In its series on the Trump Foundation, The Washington Post reported that Trump may have violated U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules against “self-dealing” by using foundation money to purchase two portraits of himself, which were then hung at his private golf clubs in New York and Florida.
The newspaper also said that Trump may have improperly used the foundation to settle legal disputes, including one at the his Palm Beach, Florida estate; diverted income from his business to the charity to avoid paying income tax; and donated foundation money to support Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, who was considering launching an investigation into Trump University, Trump’s for-profit education venture. The foundation ended up paying a $2,500 fine to the IRS for that donation.
In response to the Post's reporting, Schneiderman's office began a probe into the Trump Foundation.
The Trump campaign said in a statement on Monday that the charity would cooperate with the investigation.
"While we remain very concerned about the political motives behind AG Schneiderman’s investigation, the Trump Foundation nevertheless intends to cooperate fully with the investigation," said Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
"Because this is an ongoing legal matter, the Trump Foundation will not comment further at this time,” she added.
The New York Attorney General’s Office is the sole regulator of charities in the state. A spokesman for the office said it is not unusual for the regulator to send notices to charities whose filings are overdue or incomplete, but a cease-and-desist letter is more serious.
While letters such as the one the Trump Foundation, which is based in Woodbury, New York, on Long Island, received are not judgments of wrongdoing, they are sent only after the office gets “a clear indication of wrongdoing,” the spokesman said.
Trump established the charitable foundation in 1988, but it runs no programs of its own. Instead, it donates money to other nonprofit groups such as the Police Athletic League for youths. Once the foundation began soliciting money from other donors beyond the Trump family, it was required by New York law to register with the state.
It is a radically different vehicle than the New York City-based Clinton Foundation, which has a $354 million in assets and almost 500 staffers. It has worked to reduce the cost of drugs for people with HIV in developing countries, eradicate childhood obesity in the United States and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, among other things.
Trump has accused Clinton of being corrupted by donors to the Clinton Foundation while she was U.S. secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Clinton has dismissed Trump’s allegation as a political smear.
There has been no evidence that foreign donors to the foundation obtained favors from the State Department while Clinton headed the agency. While some donors were able to obtain meetings with her or senior State Department officials, sometimes with the help of senior Clinton Foundation officials, Clinton has said the fact that they had donated to the foundation did not play a role in her decision to meet with them.
However, the foundation did not, as promised in an ethics agreement signed by Clinton in order to become secretary of state, annually disclose the names of all its donors nor seek prior approval from the State Department for new donations by foreign governments.
GuideStar, an information service for nonprofits, recently provided side-by-side analyses of both foundations. It awarded the Clinton Foundation its highest marks for transparency, saying the organization had provided reams of data about the efficacy of its global programs.
The Trump Foundation, it said, had not provided enough information for GuideStar to evaluate its effectiveness.
In addition, Charity Navigator, a nonprofit rating service, had given the Clinton Foundation a four-star rating, its highest, for its transparency and financial accountability.
It gave no rating for the Trump Foundation because, the service said, it is a family-focused entity.
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Lol and this all happened in one day of news reporting. What started things off was the release of Donald Trump's 1995 tax returns, and the ONTD_p post for that is here.