WASHINGTON — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT):
10:30 p.m.
Hillary Clinton has at least twice as many six-figure donors as Donald Trump.
A joint fundraising account for Clinton and Democratic Party groups saw 317 who gave at least $100,000 between July and September, while a joint fundraising account for Trump and Republican Party groups counted 158 over those same three months.
Both presidential candidates use “victory” funds to enable generous donors to far exceed the $2,700 per-donor, per-election limit. The large donations are parceled out to the campaign, national party committees and state party groups.
Clinton has another joint fund for big donors, while Trump has another account for his campaign and the party that’s aimed at small donors.
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10:10 p.m.
There’s a new source of income for Donald Trump’s corporate portfolio: the joint fundraising account for his campaign and Republican Party.
Federal Election Commission reports filed Saturday show the Trump Victory Committee paid Trump’s TAG Air Inc. $511,306 over the past three months. That’s the holding company for Trump’s corporate aircraft. The committee is a partnership between Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and numerous state GOP groups.
This is the first FEC filing showing any political committee other than Trump’s campaign paying TAG Air. RNC leaders including Chairman Reince Priebus and national finance chairman Lew Eisenberg frequently accompany Trump on fundraising trips.
In all, Trump’s campaign has reimbursed TAG Air, Trump properties and other Trump products – right down to Trump bottled water – more than $8 million. The Republican presidential candidate stresses that his personal donations more than cover any Trump corporate reimbursements. As of the end of August, he’d given $54 million to his campaign and says he gave it another $2 million last month.
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9:20 p.m.
Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and other conservative billionaires are pouring money into a super PAC dedicated to defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency.
New campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that Adelson and his wife together donated $10 million last month to Future 45, a group that can accept unlimited amounts of money from donors. That was a huge portion of the total $12.3 million the group raised over the past three months. Kentucky’s Joe Craft, who made his fortune in the coal industry, gave $750,000.
Future 45 was founded by former TD Ameritrade chairman Joe Ricketts, who gave it $1 million. The super PAC and a related nonprofit entity – which does not disclose its donors – are spending heavily on anti-Clinton television ads in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
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8:50 p.m.
Donald Trump says that, if he’s elected to the White House, there won’t be any relationship more important to the U.S. than its relationship with India.
Trump says at a Republican Hindu Coalition fundraiser in New Jersey Saturday night that “under a Trump admiration we are going to become even better friends.”
He adds: “In fact, I’ll take the word ‘even’ out because we are going to be best friends. There won’t be any relationship more important to us.”
Trump also praises Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “great man” and says he looks forward to deepening diplomatic and military ties with India.
The event features colorful performances by popular Bollywood singers and dancers.
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7:35 p.m.
A Wisconsin sheriff who supports Donald Trump says it’s time to respond to government and media corruption not with words but with “pitchforks and torches.”
Sheriff David Clarke Jr. of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County makes the assertion in a Saturday posting on Twitter. He illustrates his point with a photo showing angry people with clubs and torches.
In the tweet, Clarke writes: “It’s incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time.”
Clarke is an elected Democrat but spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer. He has denounced the Black Lives Matter movement though he, too, is black.
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7:30 p.m.
Donald Trump is appearing alongside Bollywood performers at a charity event sponsored by the Republican Hindu Coalition.
Trump is set to speak at the “Humanity United Against Terror” event in Edison, New Jersey, on Saturday night.
Attendees have been watching colorful Bollywood song and dance performances, interspersed with political commentary.
The Republican Hindu Coalition was modeled on the powerful Republican Jewish Coalition.
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6:45 p.m.
Donald Trump is rolling out a new, multipoint plan to combat drug addiction as he talks about the role that prescription drugs play in the heroin epidemic.
Speaking at a rally Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Trump says he wants the Food and Drug Administration to speed up the approval of abuse-deterring drugs. He says he also wants to reduce the supply of drugs like oxycodone, and wants to make it harder to mail drugs like fentanyl to users and dealers.
Trump is also calling for more drug courts and for mandatory addiction treatment.
The Republican presidential nominee has long claimed he’d stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. by building a wall along the U.S-Mexico border and by deporting traffickers living in the U.S. illegally. His speech Saturday marks the first time he has spoken at length about prescription drugs and their role in the heroin epidemic.
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5:30 p.m.
The list of women alleging aggressive sexual behavior by Donald Trump is growing again. This time it’s a woman who claims he tried to kiss her on the mouth when he was introduced to her at a Mother’s Day brunch at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Cathy Heller tells The Guardian newspaper that Trump was greeting guests at the event about 20 years ago and she stood and extended her hand. She said Trump took her hand, then grabbed her and “went for the lips.” She says she leaned backward and almost lost her balance, turning her head at the last minute, and he kissed her on the side of her mouth.
Heller says she was in the company of her husband, children and in-laws and that the episode left her “angry and shaken.” The Guardian reports that two people provided accounts of the incident that matched hers.
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller dismisses Heller’s account as “a false accusation” and says it could hardly have taken place as described on Mother’s Day and in public.
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5 p.m.
A January 2016 email from Clinton’s personal lawyer, David Kendall, to her campaign chairman, John Podesta, followed up on a phone call to provide a history of allegations made by the woman who accuses Bill Clinton of raping her in the late 1970s.
The email appears in a release of hacked material from WikiLeaks.
Juanita Broaddrick was among the three past accusers of the former president who attended last week’s presidential debate in St. Louis at the invitation of Donald Trump. Bill Clinton has denied the rape accusation made by Broaddrick, and it was never adjudicated by a criminal court.
The documents in the WikiLeaks release include the affidavit that Broaddrick signed saying that Clinton did not assault her and the independent counsel’s history of the Paula Jones case in which Broaddrick later received immunity from any prosecution for perjury if she changed her story.
Kendall wrote in the email to Podesta, “Voila! She did, disavowing her sworn affidavit and sworn deposition testimony.” He concluded, “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can provide about this slimefest.”
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4:55 p.m.
A series of exchanges among Clinton aides and her attorney in August 2015 show internal wrangling over what to say to the public about the ongoing scandal over her use of personal email and a private server.
The exchanges appear in hacked emails released by WikiLeaks.
In one conversation, speechwriter Dan Schwerin sent campaign chairman John Podesta and top aides a suggested statement from Clinton saying that she had asked her team to “hand over my email server, as well as a thumb drive” with her emails. At the time, The Washington Post had reported that the FBI was looking into the security of the server and drive.
Clinton lawyer David Kendall pushed back on the statement’s wording because it didn’t specify that the server was being given to the Justice Department as opposed to the State Department, which was reviewing Clinton’s emails for public release.
Kendall predicted how Clinton critics might respond once the full facts came out: “There they go again — misleading, devious, non-transparent, tricky.”
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4:50 p.m.
Aides to Hillary Clinton wrestled with whether an open letter from her should specifically reference former Secretary of State Colin Powell in arguing that she used the same email practices as her predecessors.
In hacked emails released by WikiLeaks, the Clinton aides agreed to say that her actions had been “consistent with practice of prior secretaries” but to remove a reference in a fact sheet to Powell.
Powell’s private advice to Clinton about setting up private email later became public. In Powell’s own emails that were hacked this year, he complained that Clinton’s team was trying to blame him for her mistakes.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri in August 2015 also told her colleagues she hoped that “we could use the ‘server moment’ as an opportunity” for Clinton to be seen as taking a big step to deal with the controversy. But Palmieri said it was clear Clinton “is not in the same place,” unless campaign chairman John Podesta was able to get her to change her mind.
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4:45 p.m.
Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence says the people of Indiana “don’t like to hurry into new ideas.”
The Indiana governor pointed to the state’s slow acceptance of daylight saving time, which was adopted about a decade ago and only after intense debate.
Pence made the remarks in Indianapolis on Saturday during a ceremony celebrating the state’s 200th birthday.
He also dedicated a new plaza outside the Capitol building, which was supposed to be built a century ago for the state’s 100th birthday.
Pence says he’s glad it finally got done.
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4 p.m.
As Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign geared up in 2015, her aides hoped to procure some star power to give her a boost — someone sensational, but not too sensational.
New hacked emails released via WikiLeaks show that Clinton’s scheduling director asked aides for a list of celebrities willing to help the campaign and suggested options “somewhere between a high school band and Lady Gaga.”
Aides quickly gave the go-ahead to using actress Julianne Moore. One aide said “Girls” creator Lena Dunham would help but cautioned that the actress was “a bit more edgy.” Also floated were Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jesse Taylor Ferguson, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.
In another email, an aide listed musical performers who would likely help if in New York, among them Nick Jonas, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, John Legend and Alicia Keys.
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3:20 p.m.
Donald Trump says he raised $100 million last month for his presidential campaign and Republican partners.
That would make September the best fundraising month Trump has had. But it was no match for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee raised $154 million last month.
Trump and his allies began October with $75 million in cash reserves — exactly half of what Clinton’s team said it had.
Trump’s statement on Saturday comes five days ahead of when he and Clinton will file September fundraising details with federal regulators. Clinton disclosed her monthly totals two weeks ago.
Trump’s September fundraising includes a $2 million personal donation.
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3:10 p.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office says the Wisconsin Republican is “fully confident” that the November election will be carried out “with integrity.”
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong says the U.S. democracy “relies on confidence in election results.” She says Ryan has confidence in the states, which oversee voting.
Ryan’s office was responding to a question about whether the speaker agreed with Donald Trump’s assertion that the election may be “rigged.” Trump has offered no evidence to back up his claim.
Ryan has said he will no longer defend Trump or campaign for him. But he has not revoked his endorsement of the Republican presidential nominee.
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1:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is hitting back against Donald Trump’s assertion the White House race is shaping up as “a rigged election.”
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook says participation in the electoral system — and particularly voting — is something to be encouraged, and not, in his words, “dismissed or undermined because a candidate is afraid he’s going to lose.”
Mook points to what he says will be a record turnout on Election Day. And he says voters will turn out in unprecedented numbers because they can see through Trump’s “shameful attempts to undermine an election weeks before it happens.”
Trump posted tweets on Saturday morning alleging “false and unsubstantiated charges” and “outright lies” are being pushed by the media as part of a scheme to help elect Clinton president.
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1:10 p.m.
Donald Trump is accusing rival Hillary Clinton of being on some kind of drug during the last debate, and says that both candidates should be tested for substances ahead of the next one.
The Republican presidential nominee offered no evidence to support the bizarre claim, which he appeared to base on his belief that Clinton was energetic at the start of their second debate and downbeat at its conclusion.
He says, “I think she’s actually getting pumped up” while she’s off the trail. He also mocked Clinton for what he suggested was wasting time by preparing for their debates.
Trump called on both candidates to take a drug test prior to the final debate on Wednesday.
The GOP nominee made the extraordinary, baseless assertion when speaking at an outdoor rally on Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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12:55 p.m.
Donald Trump’s campaign is denouncing and severing ties with the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matt Borges.
It’s the latest crack in GOP unity in the critical battleground state, where Republican Gov. John Kasich is also not behind the party’s presidential nominee. Borges has been openly critical of Trump on several occasions and told some Ohio news outlets he wasn’t sure if he would vote for Trump.
Trump’s Ohio chairman Bob Paduchik is accusing Borges of undermining Trump as part of a bid to be the next Republican National Committee chair. Borges has been mentioned as a possible successor to Reince Priebus.
Paduchik says in a letter to state committee members that Trump is “very disappointed in Matt’s duplicity.”
Paduchik says he still expects the Ohio Republican Party to pay the campaign’s payroll and expenses in the state.
Borges did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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9 a.m.
Donald Trump has taken to Twitter on Saturday morning to go after Hillary Clinton and the media, and to claim again that the presidential race is looking like — in his words — “a rigged election.”
That’s an unprecedented assertion in a country with a history of peaceful democratic transition.
Trump is denying stories in which some women have accused him of sexual misconduct.
He says the allegations are “100 percent fabricated and made-up charges” and are being pushed by the Clinton campaign and the media. Trump says they “may poison the minds of the American Voter” and he claims: “FIX!”
Trump tweets that such “false and unsubstantiated charges, and outright lies” are being pushed before the Nov. 8 election in order to put Clinton in the White House.
By Associated Press
