| | | | Trump digs in -- and extends his fight with the Khan family | | By any conventional standard, Donald Trump just blundered through the worst three days of any presidential candidate in living memory, writes CNN's Stephen Collinson. Today, he once again escalated his fight with the Khizr and Ghazala Khan -- the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in combat -- and faced rebukes from within his own party. Arizona Sen. John McCain said Trump "disparaged a fallen soldier's parents." Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said Trump has to "stop responding to every criticism." And the VFW said it "will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression."
A smart political move would be to end this fight as quickly as possible. Yet Trump extended it another day by tweeting his criticism of the Khans -- right in the middle of their interview on CNN's "New Day" this morning. But he didn't mention it at his afternoon rally in Columbus, Ohio. | | What's Trump's strategy here? The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza says he can't figure it out.
Quitting the GOP: Sally Bradshaw, the longtime Jeb Bush aide, told CNN's Jamie Gangel she's switched her Florida voter registration to independent and will vote for Hillary Clinton if the election's close. "I can't look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump," she said.
The big question: Will other Republicans -- especially on Capitol Hill -- follow her lead and say they won't vote for Trump? McCain and others were critical of his comments about the Khans. But by declining to withdraw their support for him, GOP leaders -- fearful of losing their Senate majority and putting the House up for grabs -- are treating this controversy like myriad others Trump has weathered. | | Hillary Clinton got a 7-point bounce from the Democratic National Convention -- catapulting her back in front of Donald Trump in the latest CNN/ORC poll, just out this evening. The results are similar to another new poll out today from CBS News, which had Clinton at 46% to Trump's 39%.
In a head-to-head race without third-party candidates, Clinton leads Trump, 52% to 43%, the poll found.
The good news for Clinton: A majority of her supporters (58%) say their vote is more to back her than to oppose Trump -- a sharp shift from May (48%). The Democratic convention left 49% of registered voters more likely to vote for Clinton vs. 39% who said they're now less likely; that's better than the 42% who said after the GOP convention they're more likely to vote for Trump vs. 44% who said they're less likely. Many more tidbits from the new poll from CNN's Jennifer Agiesta. | | Emerging theme: Trump vs. the process | | Donald Trump has spent the last two days raising fundamental questions about whether the general election will be conducted fairly -- complaining first about the debate calendar, and now about whether his votes will accurately be tallied on November 8. "I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged. I have to be honest," he told supporters today in Columbus, Ohio.
This is an emerging theme: Trump is delegitimizing the process. His complaints go well beyond the normal attacks on Hillary Clinton, and signal to his supporters that the will of American voters might not be fairly reflected in the election's results.
The looming question: If Trump loses, what happens on November 9? Losers of presidential elections have typically -- in their own ways -- legitimized the winners, either on the night of the election or, in Al Gore's case, the weeks after. What would Trump do?
I wasn't the only one with this thought today... | | "Our challenge is to become a pro-market party and not a pro-business party." -- House Speaker Paul Ryan, making the case for free trade (despite Donald Trump's opposition) at the Koch donor summit. | | | Clinton's 'Four Pinocchios' email problem | | From CNN's David Wright: Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler awarded Hillary Clinton four "Pinocchios" -- the worst rating -- after the former secretary of state defended her use of a private email server in a "Fox News Sunday" interview by claiming the FBI director said she had been "truthful" about the subject.
Here's what Clinton said: FBI Director James Comey "said my answers were truthful, and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails."
And here's how the Post scored it: "Clinton is cherry-picking statements by Comey to preserve her narrative about the unusual setup of a private email server. This allows her to skate past the more disturbing findings of the FBI investigation." | | A few miles (and lots of money) separate Trump and Koch | | From CNN's Theodore Schleifer at the Koch donor retreat in Colorado Springs, as Donald Trump and Charles Koch circled each other from just a few miles apart: The Republican financial establishment is still largely declining to fund Trump's political hopes. Yet allies and foes alike note that Trump is making unmistakable progress, converting cold donors into lukewarm supporters -- or even turning them so passionate that they would challenge the Koch Brothers themselves.
The main thing working against Trump: time. If he does not raise cash quickly enough, Republicans worry Trump could face unprecedented disadvantages in field organization and advertising. "There's been a lot of green shoots of progress with the major donor community," said Phil Musser, a Republican strategist who advises top moneymen and has helped guide Mike Pence in the fundraising world. Musser said his donors are loosening up now that they believe Trump has a plausible path to victory. "That might not be popular to say, but major donors tend to be the most sophisticated political animals in our party." | | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refused to say whether Russian hackers were responsible for the DNC email leak. ... Bernie Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver says Donald Trump can win. ... Trump says he raised $35.8 million in July.
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