| | | | Meet the 'healthers' -- debunking a conspiracy theory | | What began as a whisper on the fringes of the right has become a talking point for the Republican Party's presidential nominee. Donald Trump, once the country's most prominent birther, is taking cues from conspiracy theorists who have been trying to raise dubious questions over Hillary Clinton's health.
First thing to know here: The only medical professional to have examined Clinton (her doctor) and spoken about it has repeatedly said she is healthy and fit to serve.
But that hasn't stopped Breitbart, Drudge and their right-wing feeder blogs from ginning up a conspiracy theory that says Clinton suffered "brain damage" during a 2012 fall -- a tale Fox News' Sean Hannity has latched onto with his signature lack of restraint.
Here's my story.
Big picture: This kind of thing doesn't get much oxygen if Clinton isn't surging in the polls -- a development that, as Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere reports, has some Democrats considering how they want to win in November. | | Is Trump rethinking his immigration plan? | | Possibly -- but the mystery is now likely to persist a little longer than expected. The campaign has pushed back a speech slated for Thursday in Colorado while it fine-tunes its message. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the late-breaking news.
So what's going on here?
It's not entirely clear which part of the plan is being considered or reconsidered, but the smart money is on Trump's past pledge to launch a task force to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
As CNN's Tal Kopan reports, the candidate said today he's "not flip-flopping," but his new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN on Sunday the whole thing was "to be determined."
To be continued ... | | America, if you're listening, get ready for nearly 15,000 mostly new emails and private server-related documents.
As CNN's Ryan Browne, Laura Koran and Tom LoBianco report, a federal judge ordered the State Department to assess the 14,900 documents it received from the FBI as part of its investigation into Clinton's email practices during her time as secretary of state.
State has to report back to the court with a plan to release the documents on September 23 -- which could mean a whole new batch of Clinton emails go public in the weeks before Election Day. | | Anti-social: Trump staff's posts under the microscope | | The AP reviewed social media posts from Trump campaign staffers past and present, 50 in all, and found that "at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims."
Some ugly examples from the story:
- A graphic designer "posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children";
- A field organizer "declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America";
- A state director posted a meme saying "people should be forced to eat bacon before they can purchase firearms." (Islam has a restriction against eating pork.) | | | From the weekend ... another day on the 2016 stump | | John Oliver's modest proposal | | The "Last Week Tonight" host offered Trump some unsolicited campaign advice on Sunday: "Drop out" now.
Here's Oliver's logic:
"If you keep going, you're going to spend the next 11 weeks ramping up hatred in speeches, injecting poison into the American bloodstream that will take generations to remove, and denying the country the contest of ideas that a presidential campaign should actually be."
Then, after arguing that Trump truly desires neither victory (work!) or defeat (embarrassment!), Oliver offered a third way:
"Simply drop out, and tell America this entire candidacy was a stunt. A satire designed to expose the flaws in the system."
CNNMoney's Chloe Melas has the recap.
| | Florida man (running for Congress) loses it | | Politico's Marc Caputo had a question for House candidate Dan Bongino: What exactly was inaccurate about a local paper's report that Bongino had raised only 6% of his campaign cash from within the district he was hoping to represent?
Well, we never quite got an answer. But we did get this: A 17-minute recorded phone call in which the candidate says a whole lot of very colorful, nasty things to the reporter. (WARNING: Not appropriate for children.) | | Former Red Sox pitcher and Boston sports legend Curt Schilling has been thinking about running for office. He's even hinted at challenging Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
Last night, he confronted the rumors with a very intense blog post that went from zero to "I don't possess a racist bone in body" in less than three paragraphs.
That meme pictured here got Schilling suspended from his job as a baseball analyst at ESPN. Another (anti-transgender) post he shared on Facebook got him fired in April. | | | The New Yorker's Jelani Cobb details President Barack Obama's gradual "drawdown" of the "war on drugs"... America won so much at the Olympics that Americans became tired of winning, posits Justin Peters in Slate ... and the Gawker valedictory posts are rolling in now that the end is near. Choire Sicha's declaration of "Mission: Demolished" is my favorite (so far), but you should also read this from founder Nick Denton. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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