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Donald Trump found a CNN poll he liked, meaning the Great Democratic Media Conspiracy is really slacking. There might not be a resolution to our country’s judicial gridlock that would be palatable to all sides ― especially not since Paul the World Cup Octopus died. And Jared Kushner is in talks to start a Donald Trump TV channel, though the idea that any TV station would give Trump wall-to-wall coverage is laugha―-oh. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, October 17th, 2016:
TRUMP STARTS THE WEEK OFF JUST HOW YOU’D THINK HE’D START IT OFF - Apparently a cup of coffee and some Cheerios won’t suffice for The Donald. Christina Wilkie: “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump launched a flurry of new attacks against his detractors early Monday morning, as he prepared to face a week of unparalleled headwinds and controversies for his struggling campaign. Trump began the day by denying allegations from a growing number of women who say Trump sexually abused them.... Not content to merely deny the allegations against him, Trump also regularly uses his Twitter account to point fingers at others. Monday was Vice President Joe Biden’s turn.... Five minutes after posting the Biden video, Trump shared a tweet by Paul Joseph Watson, the editor-at-large for Infowars, the conspiracy theory website run by Alex Jones.... Trump had already shifted from denying the multiple sexual assault allegations against him to denying the integrity of the U.S. electoral system. ‘Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!’” [HuffPost]
CLINTON CAMPAIGN LOOKING TO SLIGHTLY EXPAND MAP - Man, they are really getting bold with their vote-rigging. S.V. Date: “With polling showing strong odds of Hillary Clinton winning the presidential election, her campaign says it is shifting millions of dollars to down-ballot races to improve her chances of having a more friendly Congress to work with. Campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Monday that $2 million will be spent in Arizona, $1 million in Indiana and Missouri, and $6 million will go to the existing battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire. The re-allocations include $2.5 million each in transfers to the Democratic Party’s House and Senate campaign arms. Mook said the ‘lion’s share’ of the campaign’s spending will continue to be those seven states that have been the focus for many months. If Clinton were to win most of those states, she would cross the 270 electoral vote mark and win the presidency regardless of what happens in traditionally Republican states.” [HuffPost]
Thing to watch: “The fault lines among evangelicals that the election of 2016 has exposed — among generations, ethnic groups and sexes — are likely to reshape national politics for years to come, conservative Christian leaders and analysts said last week in interviews. Arguments that were once private are now public, and agendas are no longer clear.” [NYT’s Laurie Goodstein]
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CONTENT SO GREAT YOUR HEAD WILL SPIN ― JUST THE BEST INFORMATION - Michael Calderone: “There have been rumblings for months that the media-obsessed former reality star’s endgame is to launch a media company after the election to capitalize on the support he’s received. That theory gained more traction Monday as the Financial Times reported that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke with a boutique media deal-making firm about the prospect of launching a television network. Kushner, who owns the New York Observer, contacted LionTree founder and chief executive Aryeh Bourkoff within the past couple months, according to the paper. Kushner, the scion of a New Jersey real estate family who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2009, has been one of Trump’s closest advisers. One Trump source recently told The New Yorker that Kushner ― who keeps a low profile and rarely gives interviews ― has been Trump’s ‘real campaign manager.’” [HuffPost]
TROLLERS GONNA TROLL - Marina Fang: “White House press secretary Josh Earnest joked Monday that it is hypocritical for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to suggest that opponent Hillary Clinton used performance-enhancing drugs for the last debate because he ‘snorted his way through the first two debates.’ At Monday’s press briefing, a reporter asked Earnest to comment on the GOP presidential nominee’s suggestion that he and Clinton take a drug test before the final presidential debate on Wednesday because she was ‘pumped up’ at the previous debate earlier this month. ‘So you’re telling me that the candidate who snorted his way through the first two debates is accusing the other candidate of taking drugs?’ Earnest said. ‘That’s a curious development in the campaign.’’ [HuffPost]
APPARENTLY PALATABLE REPUBLICAN MIKE PENCE BUYS INTO RIGGED ELECTION MYTH - *Shakes head* “No, now see, that’s just not correct, HuffPost Hill.” Jonathan Easley: “Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence is urging supporters to sign up as poll watchers as he and Donald Trump raise questions about the integrity of the 2016 elections. Speaking at a rally on Monday in Ohio, Pence warned of the possibility of voter fraud, adding that the national media ‘is trying to rig this election with their biased coverage.’ ‘In terms of the actual vote itself ― if you’re here at a rally and you’ve not yet volunteered to participate in the electoral process by respectfully providing accountability at a polling place come Election Day, then you haven’t yet done all you can do,’ Pence said. ‘Voter fraud cannot be tolerated by anyone in this nation.’ ‘Demand that our public officials are upholding the integrity of the vote, but do all you can to respectfully participate in the process and ensure the outcome, an outcome we can all be proud of.’” [The Hill]
TRUMP TERRIBLE FOR THE #GOP #BRAND - Maybe he needs to get into the cloud ― or teach some homeless people to code. Ariel Edwards-Levy: “Voters trust the Republican Party to handle the economy and foreign policy, a new survey finds. They just don’t trust its presidential nominee. A new GW Battleground poll, released Monday morning, asked half of the likely voters surveyed whether they trusted the Republican Party or the Democratic Party more to handle a slate of issues. The GOP led on most of the issues and lagged only modestly on the rest. The other half of those surveyed were asked whether they trusted Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton more on the same issues. They preferred Clinton on every single metric. Trump, in other words, seems to have taken the GOP’s advantage on issues like taxes and foreign policy and turned it into a striking deficit, while driving Republicans’ weakness on health care and the middle class even deeper.” [HuffPost]
COUNTRY FIRST, LOL - Get off of John McCain’s lawn ― and by lawn, we mean “the Senate’s executive business calendar.” Chris Massie: “Republican Sen. John McCain said on Monday that he wasn’t sure if Donald Trump would be a better president for appointing Supreme Court justices than Hillary Clinton. Trump has released lists of 21 potential justices. He has pledged to choose from among those 21 when making Supreme Court selections, in a move that has earned him praise from conservatives, including his former rival in the Republican primary, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Asked on the Dom Giordano program on 1210 WPHT Philadelphia radio whether Trump was the superior candidate on issues like the Supreme Court, the Arizona senator replied, ‘Uh, first of all, I don’t know, because I hear him saying a lot of different things.’ Later in the interview, McCain used the opportunity to make the case for fellow Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is locked in a close battle to retain his Senate seat in Pennsylvania. McCain promised that Republicans would be ‘united against any Supreme Court nominee’ put forth by Clinton.” [CNN]
WHITE GUY IN POLITICS HAS RICH DAD - Film at 11...in dad’s fully furnished home theater. Christina Flom: “Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Patrick Murphy’s father recently donated $250,000 to the pro-Murphy super PAC Floridians for a Strong Middle Class, bringing his total contributions to the race to $1.75 million. The super PAC reported the donations in a quarterly disclosure report filed Saturday night to the Federal Election Commission, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Multimillionaire Thomas Murphy Jr. donated $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC over the summer, and had previously given $500,000 to Floridians for a Strong Middle Class. Super PACs are prohibited from coordinating campaign efforts with the candidates, but can raise unlimited funds.” [Roll Call]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a dog trying to deliver a newspaper.
CLINTON EMPLOYS TRUMP’S CULTURAL DOPPELGANGER IN NEW AD - Arthur Delaney: “GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump joins a roster of famous movie bullies in a new Hillary Clinton attack ad that draws from ‘A Christmas Story,’ ‘The Karate Kid’ and ‘Back to the Future.’ The latter film is an especially good choice because, as The Huffington Post reported last year, ‘Back to the Future’ bully Biff Tannen was inspired partly by Trump in the first place. The Clinton campaign sadly did not use a clip that showcases the Trump-Biff connection, however. The ad takes a clip from the first ‘Back to the Future’ film with a young Biff slapping George McFly in a 1950s diner. ‘Back to the Future Part II’ depicts blond Biff as a rich casino magnate on his third wife in a dystopian 1985. Screenwriter Bob Gale confirmed that rich Biff had been based on Trump in an interview with The Daily Beast last year.” [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- The Nobel Prize committee can’t locate Bob Dylan.
- Super relaxing video of carbonara being prepared outside.
TWITTERAMA
@ACNewman: America, I came here with nothing. Almost no possessions. Since I was fairly flush with $$, I bought some new stuff.
#TellAmericaItsGreat
@ashleyfeinberg: People who have their phones on anything but silent or vibrate in public should be arrested
@jackmirkinson: I love that Melania’s defense of her husband is “he’s too weak to rebuff BILLY BUSH”
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