Trump says Putin favored Clinton for president

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he gets along “very, very well” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he says the Russian leader would have preferred to have his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton in the White House.

Trump tells Christian broadcast station CBN in an interview taped Wednesday that Clinton would have weakened the U.S. military and driven up energy prices — two things Putin would have welcomed.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 election to bolster Trump, and to hurt Clinton.

Trump also says in his first interview following a lengthy face-to-face meeting with Putin that he thinks the two “get along very, very well.” But he says Putin will always want “what’s good for Russia, and I want what’s good for the United States.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Clinton says FBI chief and Putin cost her election

NEW YORK—Hillary Clinton on Tuesday laid the blame for her defeat in last year’s White House race squarely at the feet of FBI director James Comey and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, saying they had “scared off” voters.

The Democrat, speaking at a charity luncheon in New York, said she took “absolute personal responsibility” for a series of campaign blunders that contributed to her loss against Donald Trump.

But she pointed a finger at Russian hacking and interference and at the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, who revealed just before the November 8 election he was re-opening a probe into Clinton’s use of a personal email server while secretary of state.

“I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off,” Clinton said.

“If the election had been on October 27, I’d be your president.”

In January the US intelligence community announced it had concluded Russia interfered in the election — and that Putin himself ordered a campaign to undermine the US democratic process and harm Clinton’s electability in order to help Trump win.

Clinton described the Russian president as someone who was “not a member of my fan club.”

“He certainly interfered in our election and it was clear he hurt me and helped my opponent,” she said.

Clinton pointed to the release of an old video tape on October 7 on which Trump is heard crudely discussing groping women, and how “within an hour or two” of the tapes’ release, the Russian theft of Clinton staffers’ emails were made public on WikiLeaks.

“What a coincidence. You just can’t make this stuff up,” she said.

Clinton’s remarks — which echoed CIA comments branding WikiLeaks a “hostile intelligence service” abetted by the likes of Russia — were the most extensive and direct about her loss since the shock result last year.

“The reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days,” she said.

‘Everybody but herself’

Political analysts widely consider that Clinton fell short in part because she failed to mobilize the coalition of non-whites, young voters, single women and college-educated whites who propelled Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012.

She was also faulted for not spending enough campaign time in traditionally Democratic strongholds Michigan and Wisconsin, states which fell to Trump on election day.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats have focused on Russian hacking — and alleged cooperation between Moscow and Trump associates — to mask their bitter defeat.

“The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, and so badly… so they made up a story — RUSSIA. Fake news!” Trump tweeted in February.

Clinton blamed “everybody but herself,” Republican congressman Jeff Duncan said on Twitter.

The 69-year-old former first lady, US senator and secretary of state has spent decades in the public spotlight.

“I’m now back to being an active citizen and part of the resistance,” she said, referring to the informal movement opposed to the Republican president.

Clinton is writing a book about her experiences, to be released later this year, and said it has been a “painful process” to relive the campaign and the mistakes she made.

“You’ll read my confession and my request for absolution,” she said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Mexico’s peso plummets to new low on Trump effect

MEXICO CITY—The Mexican peso endured one of its worst week in two decades, falling to a new record low on Friday over concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s economic policies.

The currency traded at 21.15 pesos per dollar on Friday afternoon, down 8.75 percent compared to last week and 1.65 percent from late Thursday, according to private bank Citibanamex.

The peso had started the day even worse, sinking to 21.45 to the dollar, before regaining some ground.

It was among the worst weeks for the peso since an economic crisis and devaluation of the peso in 1995.

The peso had rallied in the hours preceding Tuesday’s election on optimism that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would win.

But Trump’s triumph sent the Mexican currency past the 20 pesos barrier on Wednesday while the stock market plunged.

Shares fell 0.54 percent on Friday compared to Thursday and were down 3.68 percent for the week.

The Republican billionaire has vowed to make Mexico pay for a massive border wall and renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

While Mexico’s government criticized some of Trump’s remarks during the campaign, President Enrique Peña Nieto said Friday he felt “very optimistic” about relations with the new US administration.

Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade reiterated on Friday that the government, which has international reserves of $175.1 billion, does not need to intervene in the markets to protect the peso for now.

There is “volatility in all the global markets and therefore an intervention wouldn’t have had the impact that we would have hoped,” he said.

But authorities remain “vigilant” in case action is needed, Meade said.

source: business.inquirer.net

PH on wait-and-see mode over Trump’s BPO policy

MANILA — Malacañang is taking a wait-and-see approach on what the election of Donald Trump as United States President would mean for the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines.

There have been concerns about whether US companies would continue to outsource certain services to the Philippines, given that Trump has advocated US job protectionism, in order to provide more employment opportunities to Americans.

The BPO industry has been one of the most robust in the Philippines.

On these concerns, the President’s spokesperson Ernesto Abella said it would be better to see first what Trump would actually do.

“While his campaign might have raised some concerns especially in the BPO sector, the reasonable response is to wait and see what the new administration’s policy pronouncement’s will be,” Abella said.

Investors could also be expected to go where it would be most beneficial to them, he said.

“As to the BPO industry investors, in the end they will decide and invest in business-friendly countries where they can get better returns,” he said.  SFM

source: business.inquirer.net

Clinton says US owes Trump ‘a chance to lead’

WASHINGTON — A day after Donald Trump, against all odds, won election as America’s 45th president, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday (Thursday Philippine time) lamented that the nation proved to be “more divided than we thought” but urged supporters: “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”

Standing before a crowd of crestfallen campaign aides and backers, Clinton said, “This is painful and it will be for a long time.”

Trump’s triumph, declared only after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House.

He’ll govern with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and lead a country deeply divided by his rancorous campaign against Clinton.

He faces fractures within his own party, too, given the numerous Republicans who refused to back him or only tepidly supported his nomination.

As he claimed victory early Wednesday, Trump urged Americans to “come together as one united people.”

That sentiment was echoed by the GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had been a reluctant Trump supporter. “This needs to be a time of redemption, not a time of recrimination,” Ryan said in a news conference, saying Trump had earned a “mandate” to enact his agenda.

Clinton, hoping to become the first woman to be elected president, conceded defeat in a telephone call to Trump.

With several million votes still to be counted, she held a narrow lead in the nationwide popular vote. Most of the outstanding votes appeared to be in Democratic-leaning states, with the biggest chunk in California, a state Clinton overwhelmingly won. With almost 125 million votes counted, The Associated Press tally had Clinton with 47.7 percent and Trump with 47.5 percent.

Summoning her most magnanimous tone after a bitter race, Clinton said of the man whose victory she declared would be a danger to America and the world: “I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.”

As her supporters waited for her in a New York ballroom, the scene of despair played out for all on live television. Cameras zoomed in on the exhausted and miserable faces of several of her closest aides, some dressed in hoodies or other casual clothing. The familiar campaign music of Bruce Springsteen in the background added to the sense of disappointment.

“We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought,” Clinton said in a speech she never hoped to deliver. “But I still believe in America and I always will.”

Global stock markets and US stock futures plunged early Wednesday, but later recovered. The Dow Jones industrial average was up almost 1 percent in midday trading in New York.

President Barack Obama congratulated Trump in a phone call and invited him to a meeting at the White House Thursday to discuss transition.

Obama said at the White House Wednesday that he had significant differences with Trump but added that the same had been true when he took office after George W. Bush. He said Clinton had accomplished much as the first woman nominated for president by a major political party.

He noted that despite the painful loss for the Democrats, “the sun came up” as usual Wednesday morning.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Obama and Trump had “a very nice talk” when the president called him.

Trump, who spent much of the campaign urging supporters on as they chanted “lock her up,” said the nation owed Clinton “a major debt of gratitude” for her years of public service.

A New York real estate developer who lives in a sparkling Manhattan high-rise, Trump forged a connection with white, working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country.

He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of problems plaguing many Americans and tapped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroad.

GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states, including North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could shift the bench to the right for decades.

Trump has pledged to usher in sweeping changes to US foreign policy, including building a wall along the US-Mexico border and suspending immigration from countries with terrorism ties. He has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoken of building a better relationship with Moscow, worrying some in his own party who fear he’ll go easy on Putin’s provocations.

Putin sent him a telegram of congratulations.

Upending years of political convention on his way to the White House, Trump leveled personal insults against his rivals, declared Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowed to suspend Muslim immigration to the US

He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two White House terms, relying instead on large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was often in chaos.

Clinton faced persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. And her troubles flared anew late in the race, when the FBI Director reviewed new emails from her tenure at the State Department. Just two days before Election Day, Comey said there was nothing in the material to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.

Trump will inherit a nation deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men significantly backed Trump. More than half of white voters went for the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Trump wins Indiana and Kentucky, Clinton takes Vermont: networks

WASHINGTON, United States — Republican Donald Trump won Indiana, the home state of his running mate Mike Pence, while Hillary Clinton took the northeastern state of Vermont, in the first results of Tuesday’s US presidential election, television networks projected.

It was still too early to determine a winner in three of the first six states to close their polls — Republican-leaning South Carolina and Georgia, and the key battleground of Virginia, the networks said.

Those first results give the 70-year-old Republican billionaire an early lead in the count of Electoral College votes — 19 to three for Clinton.

The lead in the running tally toward the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House — a majority of the 538 up for grabs — was expected to change hands as the evening wore on in the closely contested election. CBB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Clinton, Trump fight to the finish in bitter US presidential vote

LEESBURG, Virginia—White House rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were still flailing for a knockout blow on Monday as a presidential race that has cast a pall over US democracy neared its end.

With one day of campaigning left, both sides had packed schedules in the swing states that will decide whether the Democratic Party candidate can convert her slim opinion poll lead into final victory.

The 70-year-old Trump, a populist tycoon who coopted the Republican Party and created a raucous, nativist grassroots movement in his own image, was still campaigning on Sunday midnight.



Branding 69-year-old Clinton the “most corrupt candidate ever to seek the office of the presidency,” he urged supporters to “deliver justice at the ballot box on Nov. 8.”

Clinton, a former US secretary of state running to become America’s first female president, had events planned through Monday midnight to take her into polling day itself.

The Democrat spent the last eight days of campaigning under a renewed FBI inquiry into whether she had exposed US secrets by using a private e-mail server at the state department.

Note of optimism

That burden was finally lifted on Sunday, when the FBI confirmed it would not seek criminal charges, but at the cost of another cycle of headlines about an issue that has hurt her.

She tried to end Sunday’s round of rallies on a note of optimism about the United States, albeit couched as a warning that her supporters need to rise to counter the Trump threat.

“I really want each and every one of us to think for a moment about how we would feel on Nov. 9, if we were not successful,” she said in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“When your kids and grandkids ask you what you did in 2016, when everything was on the line, I hope you’ll be able to say you voted for a better, stronger, fairer America,” she added.

World markets were rocked last month when the renewed FBI probe threatened to sink Clinton’s chances, but Asian, European and US exchanges opened higher after that threat was lifted.

But Trump came back fighting, and experts said the renewed scandal had already damaged the former first lady’s chance of succeeding President Barack Obama.

Clinton’s lead dropped from 5.7 to 2.9 percentage points in the week since the scandal resurfaced, according to influential data journalist Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com.

Trump is predicting a ballot upset on a par with Britain’s shock vote this year to quit the European Union, or what on Sunday he called: “Brexit plus, plus, plus.”

All-out
Clinton has booked a star-studded roster of supporters—headlined by President Obama and rock star Bruce Springsteen—for her final events on Monday.

But Trump is also touring key swing states and was determined not to let Clinton off the hook over her e-mails, a symbol for his supporters of the corruption of the Washington elite.

“The rank-and-file special agents of the FBI won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes,” Trump told a rally in Michigan, a state that was won comfortably by Obama in 2012.

“Right now she’s being protected by a rigged system. It’s a totally rigged system. I’ve been saying it for a long time,” he declared, as his supporters chanted “Lock her up!”

Opinion polls tightened

Late last month, with Clinton seemingly on a glide path to victory, a renewed FBI investigation in Clinton’s e-mail use sent shock waves through both campaigns.

Trump seized on the opening, condemning Clinton’s “criminal scheme” and arguing that she is unfit to be president.

He has previously threatened to reject the result of Tuesday’s vote if he loses, alleging that the race has been “rigged” by the media and the establishment elite.

Opinion polls tightened as Trump began to recover ground he had lost after several women accused him of sexual assault, and the race looked headed for a photo finish.

Clinton made no direct reference to her reprieve during her Sunday campaign stops.

Russian interference

Instead, she hammered her opponent over his sometimes ugly rhetoric and, implicitly, the alleged covert Russian interference that have poisoned the race.

“There are powerful forces inside and outside of America that do threaten to pull us apart,” she said. “We’ve arrived at a moment of reckoning in this election. Our core values as Americans are being tested.”

If Clinton wins, she will seek to build on Obama’s cautious but progressive legacy, including his controversial health insurance reforms.

Trump has vowed to tear up the healthcare reform, along with free trade agreements, to rebuild a “depleted” US military and review US alliances. —AFP

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Clinton looks to consolidate lead over Trump

CHARLOTTE, United States—With just over two weeks to go before Americans vote for a new president, Hillary Clinton—who has widened her lead over Donald Trump—is stepping up her efforts in key battleground states to consolidate her lead.

The Democratic former secretary of state, who is vying to be America’s first female president, leads the Republican real estate mogul among likely voters by 50 percent to 38 percent, according to a national ABC News poll.

That is her highest score since the start of the race to succeed Barack Obama in the White House.

“We are behind,” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admitted Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” nevertheless insisting that the race was not over.

At an evening rally in Naples, Florida, the 70-year-old Trump called on his supporters to turn out en masse to “get rid of Crooked Hillary once and for all,” using one of his favorite nicknames for his 68-year-old rival.

“Numbers are looking phenomenal in Florida. Don’t believe the media,” he insisted.

The Sunshine State is a key prize in the presidential race, one of several battleground states that are key for both candidates if they want to win on November 8. Most polls put Trump a few points behind Clinton there.

‘Systemic racism’

Conscious that winning the minority vote will help lead her to victory, the 68-year-old Clinton started her day Sunday at a mainly black church in Durham, North Carolina—another of the swing states up for grabs.

Obama won the southern state by a razor-thin margin in 2008, but lost it to Mitt Romney four years later. Team Clinton is pulling out all the stops to put it back in the Democratic win column.

Before a congregation that included Sybrina Fulton—the mother of slain unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, whose death shocked America in 2012—Clinton called for awareness of the “systemic racism” seen across the country.

“If we are honest with each other, we know we face the continuing discrimination against African-Americans and in particular young African-Americans,” she said.

“These conversations can be painful for everybody, but we have got to have them.”

She accused her Republican opponent of painting “a bleak picture of our inner cities” and ignoring the successes of black leaders “in every field and every walk of life.”

Hillary and Michelle

Clinton will return to North Carolina on Thursday with the woman who has emerged as one of her best campaign weapons—Michelle Obama. It will be their first joint rally for the former and current first ladies.

“Part of the great joy of being an American is to know that you can contribute to making things better for yourselves and for young people and for people who have been left out and left behind,” Clinton told a rally in Charlotte.

“Everybody has a role to play and the choice in this election really is about what you want, what you believe for yourself and your future,” she added, notably mentioning the need to respect women—an allusion to Trump’s woes over allegations of sexual misconduct.

The new ABC News poll said 69 percent of likely voters disapprove of Trump’s response to questions about his treatment of women, after a series of women alleged he either groped or forcibly kissed them in years past.

Trump has strongly denied those allegations, and on Saturday threatened to sue the “liars” who came forward with claims about his past behavior.

Clinton is leading nationally in both two-way and four-way contests by an average of about six points, according to RealClearPolitics. She is also ahead in most of the crucial battleground states.

The 70-year-old Trump is clinging to an edge—but only a slight one—in traditionally Republican strongholds like Texas, where he has a three-point lead.

‘Not over yet’

Team Clinton is gunning for a landslide win, using its momentum to push ahead in the battle for control of Congress. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are now in Republican hands, and the Democrats would like to change that.

Clinton unleashed a pair of powerful surrogates on the campaign trail Sunday—her husband, former president Bill, in Florida, and the current president in Nevada.

“We’re not taking anything for granted at all,” campaign manager Robby Mook told Fox News Sunday. “You know, this is not over yet.”

While Clinton has received several major newspaper endorsements, Trump got his first major thumbs-up, from The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Mr Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave,” the paper wrote, adding he would instead shake up the US capital’s “political elites.”/rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Victory in sight, Clinton still grapples with negative views

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in three debates. She leads in many preference polls of the most competitive states. Barring a significant shift in the next two weeks, she is in a strong position to become the first woman elected U.S. president.

But Clinton will end the campaign still struggling to change the minds of millions of voters who don’t think well of her, a glaring liability should the Democratic nominee move on to the White House.

While many see her as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she is consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half of the country. Most voters also consider her dishonest.

Clinton’s advisers have spent months trying to erase that perception. They’ve set up small events where she had more intimate conversations with voters. They’ve tested a seemingly endless stream of messages aimed at assuring the public that the former secretary of state was in the race to do more than fulfill her own political ambitions.

As Clinton starts making her closing argument to voters, her team appears to have come to terms that the mission remains unfulfilled.

“Honest and trustworthy has become our most talked about metric because it’s not great,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director. “But we’ve never thought it’s the metric people make a decision on.”

If Clinton wins, that theory may be proven true.

Just 36 percent of voters believe Clinton is honest and trustworthy, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll. That’s compared with about 60 percent who believe she has the qualifications and temperament to be commander in chief.

The public’s perception of Clinton has bounced up and down throughout her time in public life. Her favorability rating fell below 50 percent at times during her years as first lady, but rose to its high water mark then and while she was as secretary of state under President Barack Obama.

Democrats blame some of the current negative personal perceptions of Clinton on the hard-charging tactics she’s used to try to discredit Trump, though they believe her sustained assault on Trump’s character and temperament has been crucial.

Party operatives also say Trump’s personal attacks on Clinton have made it all but impossible for more positive messages to break through. He’s called her a “liar,” a “nasty woman” and pledged to put her in jail.

“When you’re under relentless assault from a reality TV star, it’s hard to come out of that with anybody feeling good about anyone,” said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide.

Still, Clinton’s advisers acknowledge that some of her troubles have been of her own making, including her penchant for privacy.

She’s spent nearly the entire campaign struggling to explain why she used a private email server in the basement of her home while she led the State Department. She hid a pneumonia diagnosis this fall from nearly all of her senior staff, then left the public unaware of her condition and whereabouts for 90 minutes after the illness caused her to rush out of a public event in New York.

“She is a politician that does not seek to be the center of attention and is inherently more private than most politicians, certainly presidential candidates,” Palmieri said. “That doesn’t always serve you great in a campaign for president.”

Clinton frequently shoots down questions about the public’s negative perceptions by saying she’s viewed more positively when she’s doing a job rather than running for one. There’s some evidence to back that up.

When she ran for re-election to the Senate from New York in 2006, she won with 67 percent of the vote, a big jump from the 55 percent share from her first race in 2000. Her approval rating when she left the State Department, where her job kept her out of day-to-day politics, sat at an enviable 65 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

But if Clinton is elected president, she won’t have the luxury she had as secretary of state to stay away from the political fray — with Republicans in Washington in the opposition, and possibly Trump, too.

The businessman keeps flirting with the idea he could contest the election results if he loses. There are also persistent rumors that, if he is loses, he might try to harness the enthusiasm of his millions of supporters into some type of media venture.

“The notion that Trump is going to go quietly into the night and wish her Godspeed is highly unlikely,” said David Axelrod, another former Obama adviser. “She’s going to have to contend with that and whatever it is he chooses to make his vehicle.”

Clinton has begun acknowledging the challenge that could await her in the White House, if she wins, centering her closing argument to voters on a call for unity after a bitter campaign.

“My name may be on the ballot, but the question really is who are we as a country, what are our values, what kind of a future do we want to create together,” she said Friday at a rally in Ohio.

Some Democrats see the transition — the two month-plus stretch between the Nov. 8 election and the Jan. 20 inauguration — as a crucial opportunity for her to signal, if she wins, that a Clinton White House would be different from a Clinton campaign.

In a nod to bipartisanship, she could nominate a Republican for her Cabinet. Clinton could start moving on some of her more broadly popular policy proposals as a way of boosting her appeal, assuming no crisis demands immediate action.

Still, Axelrod said changing the public’s view of Clinton will be a “long-term project.”

“There’s no silver bullet to turn around years of wear and tear on her image,” he said./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Why embattled Trump may keep hammering Bill Clinton misdeeds

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s efforts to drag Hillary Clinton down by focusing on her husband’s misconduct may be a relatively new strategy for him, but it’s not for the advisers whispering in his ear.

If it seems odd for a Republican presidential nominee who is facing a wave of accusations about sexual misdeeds to be picking a fight about sexual misdeeds, the Clinton fixation of four of his top advisers offers one possible explanation.

Some of them have been waiting a quarter-century to more deeply explore accusations that the former president has assaulted women.

Trump is “surrounded by people who have been obsessed with bringing down the Clintons based on pseudo-scandals for years,” said David Brock, an ally of Hillary Clinton who as a former Republican operative spent much of the 1990s hunting down dirt on the Clintons. “For people with longstanding Clinton animus, they’re probably gleeful that even though this is a losing strategy, this is what he’s decided to do to close out his campaign.”

It was the Clinton campaign itself, back in the 1992 presidential race, that coined the phrase “bimbo eruptions” to deal with multiple allegations of extramarital affairs by Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton helped the campaign keep a lid on the controversy, going on television to stand by her husband and working behind the scenes to discredit his accusers.

Flash forward to Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 for lying about his relationship with the White House intern, but the Senate voted not to convict him and he has managed to repair his image with his post-presidential philanthropic work.

The right has long harbored a grudge that the Clintons have managed to build a political dynasty in spite of the allegations.

Keith Appell, a longtime conservative consultant, said many people feel Bill Clinton’s misconduct has never gotten a full airing. He called the current discussion fair game because there’s “very legitimate proof that Hillary enables her husband for sheer political ambition.”

Now, Republican operatives are seizing the moment, using Trump as their megaphone.

Chief among those pushing Trump’s new approach is his longtime friend and sounding board Roger Stone, who co-authored a book published in October 2015 called “The Clintons’ War on Women.”

In a moment that seemed ripped from that tome, Trump displayed three Bill Clinton accusers at a brief press conference before Sunday’s debate in St. Louis and then seated them in the audience. Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey say Clinton forced himself on them decades ago. Paula Jones filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him in 1994, which he paid $850,000 to settle without apologizing or acknowledging culpability.

Before and during Bill Clinton’s presidency, the issue of sexual abuse allegations “never got the news coverage it deserved at the time because the media was much more narrow and more controlled,” Stone said in an interview Thursday. “It’s a new day.”

And, yes, he said, having a publicity-savvy major party political nominee showcasing the women’s claims certainly helps.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, also has a tie to the issue: Back in the 1990s, her future husband, George Conway, wrote the Supreme Court brief that cleared the way for Jones’ civil suit against the president. Clinton’s denial of his affair with Lewinsky during a deposition in the Jones case led to his impeachment trial.

Another key Trump adviser, deputy campaign manager David Bossie, cut his teeth in politics by going after the Clintons. He was executive director of a group that in 1992 sought to charge callers $4.99 to listen to tapes of alleged conversations between then-candidate Clinton and Gennifer Flowers, a model and actress Clinton admitted having a sexual encounter with. She said she’d been his mistress for 12 years. Bossie went on to investigate the Clintons’ Whitewater land deal.

During Hillary Clinton’s first run for president in 2008, Bossie’s group, Citizens United, produced a movie about her, including riffs on her “vindictiveness” in covering up her husband’s affairs.

A gleeful Bossie told AP in an interview in late May, when he was leading an outside group attacking Clinton, that his history of Clinton research gave him “an enormous vault of material to work with.”

“Nowhere in their campaign plan of two years ago did they see they were going to have to defend Hillary Clinton’s support of women as a general election matter,” Bossie said. He joined the Trump campaign three months later, bringing along his decades of Clinton immersion.

Steve Bannon has picked up the Clinton haranguing in more recent years, using the media company Breitbart News as a repository for every scrap of information and gossip about Bill Clinton. The former chairman of Breitbart, he’s now the chief executive officer of Trump’s campaign.

The Bill Clinton-heavy approach began in earnest after recent revelations of a 2005 tape in which Trump is heard bragging about kissing women without consent and grabbing their genitals.

Appell said Trump is “responding in kind” by pointing the finger at Bill Clinton

Still, he says, the strategy might not pay off on Election Day.

“As fascinating as some of this might be, it is not what closes the deal with voters,” Appell said. “Over the next three weeks, what will close the deal is telling people what you’ll do for them.”/rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

WikiLeaks’ Assange promises leaks on US election, Google

BERLIN  — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is promising “significant” disclosures on subjects including the U.S. election and Google in the coming weeks as the organization marks its 10th anniversary.

Assange, speaking by video link to an anniversary news conference in Berlin, said Tuesday that WikiLeaks plans to start a series of publications this week, but wouldn’t specify the timing and subject. He says the group hopes “to be publishing every week for the next 10 weeks” and the leaks include “significant material” on war, arms, oil, Google and the U.S. election.

Sweden is seeking Assange’s extradition in a rape investigation. He hasn’t left the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012. Assange denies the rape allegation and says he fears being extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves. TVJ

source: technology.inquirer.net

As woes mount for Trump, Clinton seizes offensive

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump’s presidential hopes suffered a punishing new setback Monday as authorities clamped down on his charitable foundation, while Hillary Clinton seized the offensive to brand the Republican an unscrupulous businessman.

With just five weeks to go before the November 8 election, the billionaire Trump is struggling to regain his footing against a surging Clinton and climb out of one of the darkest periods of his White House campaign.

Already weakened by damaging revelations about his taxes, Trump was hit with an order by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that the Donald J. Trump foundation must “cease and desist from soliciting contributions” in New York.

The notice informed the charity that it had engaged in fundraising activities that were not permitted under the law because it had not been registered with state authorities.

With Team Trump on the defensive after leaked documents suggested he may have paid no income tax for two decades, Democrat Clinton rounded on him as a real estate bully who cares little for his fellow countrymen.

“While millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working hard paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation. Imagine that,” a fired up Clinton said in Toledo, Ohio.

“He has been ‘dissing’ America in this whole campaign,” she charged, riding high on a surge in polling carried out after the bruising first presidential debate.

The pair face off in their second showdown on Sunday.

Vice presidential nominees Mike Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana, and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia take the stage Tuesday for their only debate of the campaign cycle.

Personal attacks
Trump used an appearance before military veterans in Virginia to pound the former secretary of state once more for handling classified information via a “basement” private email server.

But he appeared to stumble when he addressed the mental problems facing military personnel and suggested some were returning from battle ill-equipped to cope with debilitating conditions.

“When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump said.

Retired lieutenant-general Michael Flynn, a Trump advisor, said the candidate was merely “highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country.”

In recent days, Trump’s strongest line of attack has been personal, and of a rare brutality even for this bare-knuckles campaign: he mocked Clinton over the weekend for coming down with pneumonia and even questioned her fidelity to her husband.

“Hillary Clinton’s only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself,” he said.

“I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth. And really, folks, really, why should she be, right?” said the Manhattan billionaire, who revived talk of Bill Clinton’s past infidelities following his lackluster debate performance.

‘Poster boy’ for bullying

A defiant Trump meanwhile dodged swirling questions about his tax record.

Trump’s top allies praised their candidate’s business acumen following the bombshell revelation by The New York Times that he declared a loss of $916 million on his 1995 tax return, enabling him to legally avoid paying taxes for up to 18 years.

If true, the report based on documents leaked to the Times is proof of the tycoon’s “absolute genius,” said former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump surrogate.

Trump reportedly took massive, though legal, tax breaks on failing businesses, earning millions while shareholders and investors swallowed the losses and contractors went unpaid.

Clinton seized on the Times report to blast her rival — not just for refusing to pay his share, but as a business failure.

“How anybody can lose a dollar, let alone a billion dollars, in the casino industry is kind of beyond me,” she said. “Here’s my question: What kind of ‘genius’ loses a billion dollars in a single year?”

Trump parried the accusations during a rally in Pueblo, Colorado saying he has long railed against “unfairness” of US tax laws.

“Honestly, I have brilliantly used those laws,” he said.

“As a businessman and real estate developer, I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit, and to the benefit of my company, my investors and my employees,” he said.

Polls released by Politico/Morning Consult and CNN/ORC showed Clinton with a six-point and five-point lead, respectively.

A fresh Quinnipiac battlegrounds poll showed Clinton leading in Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but trailing Trump in Ohio.

Clinton, visiting the crucial swing state, trumpeted her endorsement by one of Ohio’s favorite sons, basketball superstar LeBron James.

“I could not be prouder to have LeBron joining our team as we head into the home stretch,” she said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

US state of Oregon votes to legalize marijuana

PORTLAND, Oregon — Voters in the northwestern state of Oregon and the Washington capital district approved ballot measures Tuesday allowing the recreational use of marijuana by adults, elating legalization activists who hope to extend their winning streak across the United States.

Oregon will join the company of Colorado and Washington state, where voters approved the recreational use of pot two years ago. And the US capital is on the same path unless Congress, which has review power, blocks the move.

Another marijuana-legalization measure in Alaska was maintaining a steady lead in early returns.

Other key issues on state ballots included minimum wage increases and abortion. Voters in Washington state, faced with two competing measures on gun sales, approved an expansion of background checks.

The marijuana measure in Washington, DC, would make it legal to possess up to two ounces (56 grams) of pot and up to three mature marijuana plants for personal use, but it does not provide for the legal sale of marijuana, leaving that matter up to the DC Council. That’s different from the measures in Oregon and Alaska, which would follow the example of Colorado and Washington state in setting up systems for regulating and taxing retail sales of marijuana.

The Drug Policy Alliance, one of the leaders of the legalization campaign, said Tuesday’s results would bolster its efforts to push through a ballot measure in California in 2016.

Oregon’s measure calls for pot legalization by July 1, and requires the state Liquor Control Commission to adopt regulations by Jan. 1, 2016.

Oregon sheriffs were among the law’s chief opponents, contending that legalization would give children access to marijuana and could lead to more people driving under the influence.

The campaign in DC included a debate about race — the measure’s supporters said blacks in the city had been disproportionately targeted for marijuana arrests.

In Florida, a measure that would have allowed marijuana use for medical reasons fell short of the 60 percent approval to pass; near-complete returns showed it getting about 57 percent of the vote. Twenty-three states allow medical marijuana.

In other state ballot measures, voters in Colorado and North Dakota rejected measures that opponents feared could lead to bans on abortion.

North Dakota voters rejected an amendment that would have declared in the state constitution “the inalienable right to life of every human being at every stage of development must be recognized and protected.”

Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota — all Republican-leaning states — approved increases in the state minimum wage at a time Republicans in Congress have blocked a national minimum wage increase.

In Washington state, voters approved a measure to expand background checks on gun sales and transfers; the checks will be extended to private transactions and many loans and gifts. A rival measure would have prevented the state from expanding checks in that fashion; it was trailing statewide.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

SF minimum wage rises to $11.05 per hour starting ‘15

• Voters to decide Nov. 4 whether to raise it to $15/hour in 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — The City’s minimum wage of $10.74 per hour will be adjusted to $11.05 per hour, effective January 1, 2015, the office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee announced.

Tomorrow, November 4, San Francisco voters will consider whether to increase the local minimum wage to $15.00 by July 1, 2018.

In December, City Hall will be mailing updated multilingual posters announcing the new rate to registered businesses with employees. Employers are required to post the notice in their workplace.

“A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay,” stated Lee. “That’s why I worked closely with Supervisor Jane Kim and the entire Board of Supervisors and with large and small businesses, nonprofits, labor groups, and those who represent working families to bring a fair and responsible consensus measure to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour.”

“Given all that San Francisco has already done to support a living wage, it’s no surprise that we’re leading the nation again,” said Supervisor Jane Kim, lead co-sponsor of the Minimum Wage Ordinance on the November ballot.

“Voters will get a chance to pass the most robust minimum wage increase in the country on November 4th.  Our residents deserve to be able to live where they work and support their families, period.”

In November 2003, San Francisco voters enacted a local minimum wage rate, and the law provides for annual rate adjustments based on the previous year’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban wage earners in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area.

The City uses the CPI adjustment published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in September to set the following year’s rate. Employers must pay San Francisco’s higher minimum wage for all covered work performed within the City.

When the San Francisco minimum wage of $8.50 per hour rolled out in 2004, the City had the highest minimum wage rate in the country. Because the legislation called for increases along with CPI, San Francisco still has the nation’s highest minimum wage at $10.74 per hour.

Despite CPI adjustments, the minimum wage has not kept pace with the true cost of living in San Francisco. Earlier this year, Mayor Lee convened a working group led by labor, nonprofit and business experts to consider a significant increase to the local minimum wage. Their consensus proposal would gradually increase the minimum wage.

The Federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. The California minimum wage is $9.00 per hour, and is slated to rise to $10.00 on January 1, 2016. Neither the Federal nor the State minimum wages are adjusted annually for inflation. San Francisco was among the first local jurisdictions to enact a minimum wage higher than Federal or State minimum wages. A growing number of cities and counties have passed or enacted local minimum wage laws in the last two years, including the City of Seattle, the City of San Jose, the City of Richmond, Bernalillo County in New Mexico, and Washington, D.C. Lee also supports President Obama’s effort to raise the Federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Additional information regarding San Francisco’s Minimum Wage Ordinance can be found at www.sfgov.org/olse/mwo or by calling 415-554-6292.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Romney wins 5 states, including Ohio; Santorum takes 3; Gingrich nabs Georgia

Columbus, Ohio (CNN) -- Mitt Romney won five Super Tuesday states including the big prize of Ohio, while Rick Santorum took three states and Newt Gingrich grabbed a vital triumph in Georgia, CNN projected.

Results from one more contest -- the Alaska caucuses -- were still being counted.

The five victories made it a good night for Romney, padding his front-running delegate total in the Republican presidential campaign, but he failed to get the convincing showing needed to demonstrate his ability to generate support among diehard conservatives.

Super Tuesday results

In particular, Romney was unable to attract strong support from tea party conservatives and evangelical conservatives -- voters who are important in a Republican primary but not as significant in a general election.

"He still has a problem with the base," said Ari Fleischer, a CNN contributor who was press secretary for President George W. Bush. "That base problem may make him attractive to independents if he gets to a general" election, but can work against Romney in the primary season.


Opinion: Why can't Romney win big?

In Ohio, Romney took a late lead of more than 12,000 votes over Santorum with 96% of unofficial results counted, and it was clear Santorum would be unable to overcome the difference.


Even if Santorum had managed to win the Ohio vote, he wouldn't get a majority of the delegates because his campaign failed to properly register them in some districts.

Santorum's victories in the Tennessee and Oklahoma primaries, and North Dakota caucuses, demonstrated his continuing strength among conservative voters, while Gingrich's win in the state that sent him to Congress allowed him to keep his campaign going.


source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/06/politics/super-tuesday/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Romney wins Washington state caucuses

(CNN) -- Mitt Romney won the Republican caucuses in Washington state, according to unofficial results early Sunday, giving the former Massachusetts governor a shot in the arm heading into Super Tuesday contests.

With 99% of the vote in, Romney had 38%. Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 25% and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 24%. They were trailed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 10%.

At stake in the contest are 40 delegates.

"We're in a good second place, but the good news is we're doing very, very well in getting delegates," Paul told supporters in Seattle, when about half of the vote had been counted. "The enthusiasm for the cause of liberty continues to grow exponentially."

Washington's caucuses come just three days before Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold primaries and caucuses. And because of that, all four major GOP presidential candidates campaigned in the state, hoping a strong finish would carry over to Tuesday.

State GOP chairman Kirby Wilbur predicted a large turnout and estimated between 500 and 1,500 did not vote in Kennewick city because of overcrowding.

"The leadership might have been unprepared for the turnout, but I don't know what else they can do when you rent the largest facility in the county," he said.

Even as caucuses began Saturday in Washington, the focus was shifting to Super Tuesday states. Romney campaigned in Cincinnati, where he took aim at President Barack Obama.

"He's out of ideas. He's out of excuses. And in 2012, we're going to make sure he's out of a job," he told a cheering crowd.

Romney got a boost earlier this week from wins in Arizona, Wyoming and Michigan. His win in Washington would be his eighth this election cycle.

Santorum similarly campaigned in the Ohio town of Blue Ash.

"This was the industrial heartland of the country," he said. "They now refer to it as the Rust Belt. After ... I take the corporate tax for manufacturers, eliminate it, cut it to zero -- we're going to be the stainless-steel belt across this country."

But in the days before the caucuses, the attention was on Washington state, as all four candidates made the long trip to the Pacific Northwest.

"This is the first time any one GOP presidential candidate has paid attention to us in recent memory, and my memory goes back to the 1970s," Wilbur said. "We used to be the ugly sister invited to the dance, but no one asked to dance. Now we are the princess."

Wilbur said that the state's contest used to follow Super Tuesday, when in most cycles the battle for the nomination was basically over.

Santorum, campaigning Thursday in Pasco, told supporters, "You are the voice that is going to speak very loudly before Super Tuesday and put this race on a whole other plane."

Romney, who campaigned in Washington on Friday, sounded a similar theme.

"There are a bunch of states that are going to make up their minds on Tuesday, but you guys are first, and so your voice is going to be heard," Romney said at a campaign event in Bellevue.

Paul campaigned in Washington two weeks ago and was back in the state Friday and Saturday. He was also running campaign commercials in Washington, as was Gingrich, who made a swing through the state last week.

The caucuses are open, meaning independent voters and Democrats can take part in the GOP contest.

While some smaller caucus meetings were held in private homes, most gatherings were larger and held in public places, such as schools, and included multiple precincts.

Besides voting for delegates, caucus-goers voted in a nonbinding GOP presidential preference straw poll. While delegates to the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida, won't be determined until later rounds of voting this spring, major news organizations, including CNN, will make proportional delegate estimates based on Saturday's presidential straw poll results.

The state GOP projected that 40,000 to 60,000 people would take part in the caucuses, up from the 12,616 who participated in the 2008 Republican caucuses. There was also a primary on the Republican side four years ago, with around a half million voters casting ballots.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/03/politics/washington-caucuses/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Romney wins Michigan as all eyes turn to Super Tuesday

Detroit (CNN) -- A relieved Mitt Romney headed back to the campaign trail Wednesday after sweeping crucial primaries in Arizona and his childhood home of Michigan to revitalize his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney needed to win both states, but especially Michigan -- where he grew up when his father was governor -- to assert his ability to overcome the conservative challenge from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

A Santorum victory in Michigan would have raised questions about how strong a candidate Romney is within his own party.

By early Wednesday morning, the Michigan Department of State had posted unofficial results from 80 of the total 83 counties. They showed Romney with 36% to 33% for Santorum.


Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 10% while former House speaker Newt Gingrich had 6%

Wayne County, home to Detroit, was not among the tallies, but numbers posted on its website also showed Romney with a sizable lead.

The state's 30 delegates will be allocated on a proportional basis, and Romney and Santorum each won three so far, according to the returns. However, it was unclear who would win the most Michigan delegates, which are based on congressional districts.

Romney's victory in Arizona was expected and more thorough. He had 47% to 27% for Santorum, 16% for Gingrich and 8% for Paul with 88% of the unofficial returns counted, according to the secretary of state website.

The result gave Romney all of the state's 29 delegates in the winner-take-all primary.

In a speech to supporters, Romney acknowledged he had to come from behind on his home turf in Michigan.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/28/election/2012/primaries/index.html?hpt=hp_t2