| | | | Obama visits Louisiana flood zone -- finally, some say | | President Barack Obama went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tuesday to tour the devastation caused by historic flooding in the state. While Obama used his remarks to insist that politics had no place in the recovery efforts, the timing of the President's visit has become a political football.
As CNN's Theodore Schleifer and Allie Malloy report, Obama's visit comes after critics blasted him for not going sooner. Until Sunday, Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. But Donald Trump and Mike Pence visited the state last Friday, hitting Obama for not cutting his trip short.
"We are heartbroken by the loss of life," Obama said after seeing the damage. More than 60,000 homes have been damaged and 13 people killed. "I think anybody who can see just the streets, much less the inside of the homes here, people's lives have been upended by this flood," he added.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has defended the timing of the visit, saying he told the White House a trip would be better after the initial response phase. While the city's newspaper, The Advocate, originally criticized Obama for not coming sooner, the editorial board praised his decision to come Tuesday. "We welcome news of President Barack Obama's planned visit to Louisiana today to survey flood damage, which should help to advance relief and recovery in the disaster area as a national priority," the editorial board wrote.
Also Tuesday, Obama met with family members of Alton Sterling, a man who was killed in a police shooting in Baton Rouge last month, sparking protests, and with family members of deceased and injured officers of the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, who were killed in an apparent act of retaliation. | | Suspected Russian hackers targeted US reporters | | Russian hacking isn't just for political groups. The FBI and US security agencies are investigating cyberattacks on reporters at The New York Times and other US news organizations, which are believed to be linked to Russian intelligence.
The news, reported first by CNN's Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, follows high-profile hacks of Democratic political groups, including the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
"The intrusions, detected in recent months, are under investigation by the FBI and other US security agencies. Investigators so far believe that Russian intelligence is likely behind the attacks and that Russian hackers are targeting news organizations as part of a broader series of hacks that also have focused on Democratic Party organizations, the officials said. ... News organizations are considered top targets because they can yield valuable intelligence on reporter contacts in the government, as well as communications and unpublished works with sensitive information, US government officials believe."
Private-sector cybersecurity investigators are working with US officials to assess the breach, according to the officials. | | Drip, drip, drip: Clinton Foundation questions linger | | Questions about the link between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department under Hillary Clinton are only intensifying, with a fresh day of stories scrutinizing the relationship.
Donald Trump again called the foundation "the most corrupt enterprise in political history." His running mate, Mike Pence, reiterated the campaign's call for a special prosecutor to look into the organization.
Their statements followed an Associated Press analysis of Clinton's meetings as secretary of state that concluded more than half of the people outside the US government that she met with gave money to the Clinton Foundation, either personally or through organizations:
"At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million."
Clinton's campaign pushed back, with spokesman Brian Fallon saying the report relied on "cherry-picked" data and said it did not look at Clinton's full tenure.
"Just taking the subset of meetings arbitrarily selected by the AP, it is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton's basis for meeting with these individuals," Fallon said in a statement.
Experts tell USA Today that while donors had access to Clinton, evidence does not show any favors being granted. "These emails show that there was a long line of Clinton Foundation friends who had no qualms about asking the Clinton State Department for meetings, favors and special treatment," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO. "Not shocking, but it is disappointing that there were such blurred lines between State Department officials and outsiders. I see little action on these latest requests, but I think further investigation is needed."
Clinton was asked about her emails by Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night. She said the nearly 15,000 emails discovered by the FBI are no big deal. "Jimmy, my emails are so boring," she said. "And I'm embarrassed about that. They're so boring. So we've already released, I don't know, 30,000 plus, so what's a few more?" | | Trump opponents were target of 'catfishing' scheme | | Republican operatives who oppose Donald Trump's candidacy were the victim of a so-called catfishing scheme involving fake online identities that attempted to ply them for information, Politico reports.
Convicted con man Steven Wessel allegedly used a variety of fake personas to target the operatives, according to Politico, until federal prosecutors found out and that convinced a judge to revoke Wessel's bail and order the start of his prison sentence.
Identifying the targets as Rick Wilson, Liz Mair and Cheri Jacobus, Politico reports that the victims of the scheme suspect Wessel wasn't acting alone. "The questions were of such a degree of granularity and specificity and political acumen that unless (Wessel) had political experience it would be hard for him to come up with them," Wilson said. | | | Hillary Clinton continued her star-studded fundraising trip in California on Tuesday, raking in more than $3 million at an event at the home of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. CNN's Dan Merica has more. | | Did Trump jack up the rent for his own campaign? | | Donald Trump has made a habit of using his own resources (like his plane) on the campaign trail, reimbursing his holdings from the campaign. But federal campaign spending filings show that since he has started to accept external donations, the amount of rent he was charging for his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower has skyrocketed.
The Huffington Post reports: "Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March. The Trump campaign paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,458 in March ― the same amount it had been paying since last summer ― and had 197 paid employees and consultants. In July, it paid 172 employees and consultants."
But the Trump campaign says the numbers are misleading. "We calculated the rent based on the average rent per square foot in the area," the campaign said in a statement to CNN. "The campaign expanded from part of a single floor by adding the entirety of two separate floors. Overall, we still pay over $40,000 less in rent than the Clinton campaign. Also, Mr. Trump makes a personal contribution of $2 million per month to the campaign, obviously a much higher amount than rent. The reports obfuscate by talking about percentages of fundraising instead of amounts."
That didn't stop Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, from going on the attack. "The (Trump) campaign is kind of being run in a little bit of a, you know, not ask what your country can do for you, not ask what you can do for your country, but, 'Hey what can this campaign do for me?'" Kaine said Tuesday. | | Clinton's health is fine; what do we know about Trump's? | | We've already debunked the "healther" conspiracy theories floating around about Hillary Clinton's physical condition here at Nightcap, but what about her opponent's health? Donald Trump and his allies have cast plenty of aspersions toward Clinton, but Trump has released very little information about his own health, and is known for some unhealthy habits.
As CNN's Gregory Krieg reports, Trump released in December a letter containing a few paragraphs from his personal physician, a gastroenterologist, that described his blood pressure and lab results as "astonishingly excellent" while suggesting a President Trump would be the "healthiest individual ever elected."
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, found much of that language surprising and, in some cases, almost comically lacking in objective data. "I don't even know what to make of this letter," he told CNN's Ashleigh Banfield on Tuesday. "Whether you are a doctor or not, that degree of hyperbole and these words being used is very unusual. People don't write like that. ... 'Strength and stamina are extraordinary' -- what does that mean, exactly?" | | It's apparently now a trend: Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence posted his own picture of himself eating KFC on his campaign plane, following the lead of his running mate, Donald Trump. Perhaps intentionally, Pence did not use a knife and fork.
Also today, Pence took some time on the trail to keep up his grooming, stopping at a barbershop in Norristown, Pennsylvania, with the press corps traveling along. He even introduced himself for the first time to the barber: | | | Past and present in the history of Donald Trump's positions on immigration. ... Bernie Sanders' political group is reportedly already facing internal turmoil. ... Hillary Clinton has gotten a historic lack of negative advertising directed at her this campaign. ... Trump had a Gordon Gekko era as an activist investor. ... Melania Trump is threatening to sue news outlets for unfavorable stories about her. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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