Johnson’s first step is to qualify to participate in the presidential debates alongside Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during his campaign event at the BB&T Center on August 10, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Clinton, the Democrat, is campaigning in Florida in search of an advantage in the nation’s largest swing state.
Clinton, as you might expect, does have a distinct advantage with West Virginia voters who identify themselves as liberal, with 62 percent backing her compared with just 18 percent for Trump.
Trump and Clinton are now tied in the Midwest – which includes crucial battleground states like OH and Iowa – and Trump has a 1-point lead in the South.
The possibility of Russian involvement in cyber intrusions that were revealed in July “raises some grave questions about potential Russian interference with our electoral process”, Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane as she flew to a rally in IL.
“We are going to have to take those threats and attacks seriously”, Clinton told reporters.
Clinton’s comments follow reports that the Russian government may have been involved in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails just days before the party’s national convention. She has mostly traveled by private jet during the primaries and the summer but was being accompanied on the plane by journalists for the first time.
Trump, meanwhile, continued to face questions about his immigration policy a day after refusing to rule out a pathway to legal status for immigrants in the country illegally.
Any immigrants who want full citizenship must return to their countries of origin and get in line, he told reporters.
Trump “can’t even go to a friendly foreign country without getting into a fight”, she said during a campaign stop in Hampton, Illinois.
Trump, the Republican nominee, released an open letter early Tuesday from 88 retired generals and admirals citing an urgent need for a “course correction” on America’s national security policy. He even got into a Twitter war with the President of Mexico and then he delivered his most hate-filled hard lined speech yet, doubling down on his absurd plans to send a deportation force to round up 16 million people to deport them.
“He can try to fool voters into thinking somehow he’s not as harsh and inhumane as he seems but it’s too late”, Clinton said.
When pressed about whether she believed the Russians were actively trying to elect Trump to the Oval Office, Clinton took a long pause before responding.
“I’m going to continue to focus on what we’re doing to create jobs here at home, what we’re doing to make sure Americans have the best possible opportunities in the future”, she said.
Trump, meanwhile, addressed his proposed border wall plan in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.
The Republican White House contender said the Mexican president violated some “ground rules” by admitting that the two did actually discuss payment of his proposed border wall between the two countries, but added, “that’s ok”. “He came out saying one thing and the Mexican president contradicted him nearly immediately”, Clinton told ABC News in an interview in an apparent reference to the contradictory statements between Trump and Nieto after their meeting last week.
But an immigration speech that Trump gave following his trip to Mexico drew criticism from some of his Hispanic supporters, and several backers advising him on the issue made a decision to part ways with his campaign. And she doesn’t have the energy or the stamina to bring ’em back.
Both Trump and Clinton made overtures to a news media that each candidate sees as often hostile to them, talking to reporters on their private planes. The other swing states are Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Under extensive criticism from her rival and journalists for not holding a full press conference in nine months, she answered questions for more than 22 minutes on several topics, including tensions with Russian Federation over accusations of cyber-espionage. Clinton, buffeted by controversy over her use of a private email server as US secretary of state, has been criticized by Republicans and the news media for months for failing to hold a news conference. “I look forward to the debates”, he said. FBI Director James Comey said that while Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” in dealing with sensitive materials, there was no evidence they intentionally mishandled classified information.
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The start of full-fledged campaigning opens a pivotal month, culminating in the first presidential debate on September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
