Trump’s campaign meanwhile has been distracted by one controversial statement after another. Since the end of the Republican National Convention last month, the businessman has insulted Gold Star parents, encouraged Russian hackers to find Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails and proposed that the US not uphold its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation obligations.
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Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and top USA government officials have warned of the dangers of using that kind of language to describe the conflict, arguing that it plays into militants’ hands.
But those assertions were made before the Democrats wrapped up their convention and polls showed Clinton increasing her lead nationally and in some swing states such as OH and Pennsylvania. The polls also tested four-way matchups including Gary Johnson and Jill Stein and found that the margin between Clinton and Trump holds when the third party candidates are included.
“I’m not running against crooked Hillary Clinton”, Trump said in Fairfield, Connecticut, on Saturday night. The maverick billionaire saved his best theatrics of the weekend for a rally in CT where he railed against the press, saying his main opponent in the election is not “crooked Hillary” but the “crooked media”.
Politicians, particularly from the Republican party, frequently complain about media scrutiny and accuse journalists of being biased. Last week, an economic policy speech he delivered calling for lower corporate taxes and rolling back federal regulations was overshadowed by a series of provocative statements, including falsely declaring that Obama was the “founder” of the Islamic State group.
“His point about the Second Amendment was that people who care about the Second Amendment should be concerned about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, and those who are concerned can take up the cause”, Manafort said.
The quick-witted candidate laughed off the incident, saying the protester would be “going home to mommy” and that the best part was that “her mother is voting for Donald Trump”.
Frustratingly for Republicans, Trump’s missteps have overshadowed hard news for Clinton: The new release of 44 previously-unreleased email exchanges Clinton had while at the State Department.
But Trump set up that address with extensive new complaints about the latest disastrous week of coverage and reports of campaign chaos.
Tapper pointed out that it wasn’t just the news media that questioned Trump’s claims about gun owners and Clinton, but also fellow Republicans and Trump supporters.
Some Republicans outside the Trump campaign think paid advertising could be especially helpful for a candidate like Trump, who lacks discipline, to maintain a consistent message for voters. Trump tried last week, but it didn’t stick.
“The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened”.
He made the same mistakes in several campaign rallies and defended the remarks in an interview. In June, the Trump campaign revoked The Washington Post’s press credentials.
On Sunday the New York Times reported on a “secret ledger” in Ukraine allegedly showing potentially illegal cash payments to Manafort by his former client, former President Viktor Yanukovych. He said the bans are in place because the campaign has to “stand up and defend ourselves” from biased reporting.
Sabato said he sees no realistic scenario for Trump to win NY. “We raised over $132 million in the last two months”. “I would’ve said, ‘There have been some irregularities and we want to make sure that those don’t occur'”.
The New York Times on Sunday catalogued a culture of crisis inside the Trump campaign.
New polls suggest Trump is getting crushed by Clinton.
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“The only way they can beat it, in my opinion – and I mean this 100% – if in certain sections of the state, they cheat”, he said. That tweet was followed by: “My rallies are not covered properly by the media”.
