Hillary Clinton will launch a millennial outreach program on college campuses while Donald Trump will continue delivering millennial speeches to retirees. Anthony Weiner came one step closer to realizing his destiny of hosting a struggling a political talk show on NY1. And a guy is using a lookalike website to siphon tens of thousands of dollars in donations from unwitting Trump supporters, something that only Trump himself is supposed to be allowed to do. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, August 29th, 2016:
WEINER DELETES ACCOUNT, MARRIAGE - Bad news for Republican oppo researchers hankering for a White House with the infamous former New York representative bouncing around. Paige Lavender: “Huma Abedin, a top aide to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, announced Monday that she is separating from her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). ‘After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,’ Abedin said in a statement first reported by NBC News. ‘Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy.’ Abedin’s announcement comes after the New York Post reported Weiner sent photos of his crotch to another woman, including an image that featured the couple’s son. Weiner deleted his Twitter account on Monday.” [HuffPost]
TRUMP THRILLED: “Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him. I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information. Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.” [DonaldJTrump.com]
FORMER CONGRESSMAN LAUNCHES DATING SERVICE - Here’s what North Carolina Democrat Brad Miller said on Facebook in response to the latest in Weiner World: “If you’re ever remotely tempted to marry someone with whom I served in Congress, please check with me first.” Thanks, Brad!
DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ AND TIM CANOVA DO BATTLE TOMORROW - Alex Seitz-Wald: “There are Bernie Sanders signs on the walls of Tim Canova’s field office here, where former staffers and volunteers from the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign now work the phones and prepare to knock doors in a heated congressional primary against former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. A whopping $3.8 million dollars worth of Berniecrat anger at Wasserman Schultz, who stepped down from her DNC post amid accusations she and top staffers had worked against Sanders in his primary challenge to Hillary Clinton, has flooded to Canova. That’s given the little-known law professor a shot at toppling the six-term congresswoman in Tuesday’s primary.” [NBCNews]
AN EVEN BIGGER SCAM THAN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN - Fortunately for this guy, Donald Trump never sues people. Eli Stokols: “At a glance, the two websites look virtually indistinguishable. Both feature a photo of Donald Trump, in a suit and red tie, in front of a giant American flag. Both seemingly offer a chance for two to win dinner with Donald Trump. One is at donaldjtrump.com; the other is at dinnerwithtrump.org. The first belongs to Trump’s campaign. The second is a scheme run by Ian Hawes, a 25-year-old Maryland man who has no affiliation with Trump or his campaign and who has preyed on more than 20,000 unsuspecting donors, collecting more than $1 million in the process. In just its first three weeks of operation, Hawes’ PAC spent more than $108,000 on Facebook ads, offering an opportunity to win ‘Dinner with Donald Trump’ — and netted itself nearly $350,000 in donations, according to federal records.” [Politico]
OBAMA ADMIN HITS SYRIAN REFUGEE GOAL - Elise Foley: “The 10,000th Syrian refugee to resettle in the U.S. this fiscal year arrived on Monday, the White House announced, following through on an ambitious plan by President Barack Obama to welcome more people from the country. The administration also is set to meet its goal of welcoming 85,000 refugees from around the world by the end of the fiscal year, National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in a statement. It’s the Syrian refugees who have been particularly controversial ever since Obamafirst announced plans last September to admit 10,000 of them in the 2016 fiscal year ― which ends Sept. 30 ― and especially after terrorist attacks in Paris last November.” [HuffPost]
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TRUMP CAMPAIGN ACTUALLY BUYING ADS NOW - Igor Bobic: “Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his second general election television ad, contrasting his plan to restart the economy with that of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The 30-second spot, which is backed by about a $10 million ad buy, is slated to run this week in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Clinton’s America, the narrator in the ad says, ‘the middle class gets crushed, spending goes up, taxes go up’ and ‘hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear.’ ‘It’s more of the same, but worse,’ the narrator concludes. The spot is Trump’s first major commitment on television ads in the general election. The businessman’s first ad, released last week, hit Clinton on the topic of immigration, and was part of a smaller buy totaling $4 million that ran in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania...To date, the Clinton campaign has spent $68 million on ads in the general election, while the Trump campaign has spent just $14 million, according to NBC News.” [HuffPost]
Huh. @ShaneGoldmacher: Zero bookings as of an hour ago, per a media buyer, and the week has already begun
DON’T PANIC - Natalie Jackson: “With about 10 weeks left until the election, the race is nowhere near over. Hillary Clinton seems to have a strong lead in the polls for now, but Donald Trump could rise by a few points in the coming weeks. Even in his worst weeks Trump has averaged 38 percent to 40 percent support in national polls. That probably means his floor of support is around 38 percent, and, at his current estimate of 40 percent, he has more room to grow upward than to drop…. At this point in 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama were locked in a tighter race with fewer undecided and third-party voters, but the poll averages still moved a lot in September and October. The combination of unpopular candidates and high undecideds could bring even more polling volatility to the fall of 2016.” [HuffPost]
It might already be too late for Trump to turn things around.
HILLARY TO TALK WITH THE YOUNGS - Assuming the campaign can find enough depleted uranium to power the “Fight Song” generator through October. Abby Phillip: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign is launching a new, two-week, back-to-school effort to energize and register college students in the final stretch before Election Day. In the fall, as students head back to campuses, the campaign plans a push to launch new or reengage existing chapters of Students for Hillary, in an effort to mobilize young voters at about 280 college campuses across the country. It is part of an overall goal of registering more than 3 million new voters this election...Student organizers will launch regular phone banks, voter registration drives and voter outreach efforts on their campuses. The efforts will be reinforced by celebrity surrogates and campaign staffers who will participate in voter registration drives and round tables as well as a social media engagement campaign.” [WaPo]
EVAN BAYH LOSES FRIEND :-( - It seems like just yesterday Bayh and the Chamber of Commerce were galavanting around in a montage-worthy blur of tandem bicycles, rowboats in public ponds and shared cotton candy purchases. Maureen Groppe: “Evan Bayh, one of the more business-friendly Democrats during his two terms in the Senate, helped the U.S. Chamber of Commerce fight government regulations after leaving office in 2011. He also worked for a private equity firm and served on multiple corporate boards. But now the world’s largest business group wants to block Bayh from returning to the Senate. The U.S. and Indiana chambers of commerce will be touring the state Monday to announce their support for GOP Rep. Todd Young over Bayh in Indiana’s Senate race. The group, which spent $1 million on ads to help Young win the GOP primary, is spending at least that much in statewide ads beginning Monday. ‘This is a race we’ve been committed to from the very beginning,’ said Rob Engstrom, the national political director for the U.S. Chamber. ‘This is a restatement of that belief.’” [Indianapolis Star]
ABOUT TRUMP’S CRIME CLAIMS - Mollie Reilly: “Violent crime is on the decline nationally, having hit its lowest point in decades in 2014. And while some cities saw upticks in the homicide rate in 2015 from the previous year, the overall trend in most cities is still downward. Year-over-year changes don’t really give you the whole picture. In New York City, for example, there were 350 homicides in 2015 versus 333 in 2014. But that’s nowhere near the city’s peak. In 1990, 2,245 people were killed in New York City. Something similar is happening in Chicago, where the murder rate fell dramatically from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. There are, of course, exceptions ― 2015 was Baltimore’s deadliest year on record, with 344 homicides.” [HuffPost]
Trump will be speaking at a black church in Detroit on Saturday.
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a bunch of clumsy puppies.
DEADBEAT NEWT MUST PAY! He probably still won’t pay, but the Federal Election Commission won’t let Newt Gingrich off the hook for his costly 2012 campaign for president. The former speaker of the House and runner-up for Donald Trump’s VP made his deadbeat intentions official on Aug. 1 when he filed a debt settlement plan that proposed repaying none of the money he owed. The FEC rejected this plan in a letter to the campaign committee dated Sunday. The letter from the chief federal election finance regulator states that Gingrich’s plan to not pay his creditors “does not meet the requirements” under the applicable federal election law. Further, the committee “may not terminate based on this [debt settlement plan] filing because it contains no debt settlement agreements and must continue to file all required reports.” [w/ HuffPost’s Paul Blumenthal]
Bomani Jones strong on the current political sports controversy.
AMERICA’S GREAT RACIST AWAKENING CONTINUES - Andrew Kaczynski: “A robocall from white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke urges voters to vote for him for U.S. Senate in Louisiana and for Donald Trump for president. ‘Massive immigration must stop now. We’ll be out numbered and outvoted in our own nation, it’s happening,’ Duke says. ‘We’re losing our gun rights, our free speech. We’re taxed to death. We’re losing our jobs and businesses to unfair trade. We’re losing our country. Look at the Super Bowl salute to the Black Panther cop killers. It’s time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me, David Duke for the U.S. Senate.’” [BuzzFeed]
COMFORT FOOD
- A history of those incessant drug commercials
- Beyonce’s VMA performance is worth a watch.
- The commercial jingle is dead: read this post-mortem.
TWITTERAMA
@MeganAmram: When life gives you Weiners, make Clinton aide
@kevinroose: Wiener: u up
Woman: yeah
Wiener: what r u wearing
Woman: nothing
Wiener: I have information on the whereabouts of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
@smod2016: Priorities of my administration:
1. Strong foreign policy
2. FOIA reform
3. Exterminate all life except deep-sea, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria
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