| | | | New York's AG is probing the Trump Foundation | | New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office is ninvestigating Donald Trump's charitable foundation "to make sure it's complying with the laws governing charities in New York," he said today. "We've inquired into it," Schneiderman told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead." "We've had correspondence with them. I didn't make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference. But we have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it's complying with the laws governing charities in New York."
The Trump campaign called Schneiderman "a partisan hack who has turned a blind eye to the Clinton Foundation for years and has endorsed Hillary Clinton." Said spokesman Jason Miller: "This is nothing more than another left-wing hit job designed to distract" from Hillary Clinton's "disastrous" week.
House Democrats want the Justice Department to investigate the Donald J. Trump Foundation, following reports about a $25,000 donation he gave to Florida's attorney general, Pam Bondi, in 2013 -- around the time she decided not to open an investigation into Trump University. Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee penned a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, saying "these payments may have influenced Mrs. Bondi's official decision not to participate in litigation against Mr. Trump." From CNN's Drew Griffin and Tom LoBianco. | | Trump rolls out child care plan -- with help from Ivanka | | Ivanka Trump appeared with her father, Donald Trump, at a campaign event in Philadelphia, where the Republican nominee is outlining his new child care policy. The proposal comes largely from Ivanka Trump, who crafted it -- working with the highest-ranking woman in Congress, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington.
The policy's details: Child care expenses would be fully tax-deductible, capped at the average cost of child care in the taxpayer's state. The plan also calls for guaranteeing six weeks maternity leave to working mothers whose employers do not guarantee the time off by offering six weeks of unemployment insurance benefits.
Panned by the left: Hillary Clinton's senior policy adviser, Maya Harris, called Trump's plan "out-of-touch, half-baked and ignores the way Americans live and work today." The Clinton campaign's criticism: It benefits wealthy taxpayers who can deduct at a higher income tax rate, it takes money from an unemployment insurance fund that needs it, and it doesn't guarantee workers a percentage of their actual pay while on maternity leave. And, by only covering maternity leave, it casts women as sole caretakers, giving companies incentives to discriminate against women and undercutting working fathers and gay couples.
Back on the air: Rebuilding America Now, the main super PAC backing Trump, is returning to the television airwaves this week with nearly $100,000 in four Pennsylvania markets so far -- its first buy since its strategy shift away from negative ads, CNN's Theodore Schleifer reports. | | | Obama appeared excited to return to the campaign trail. CNN's Daniella Diaz rounds up 11 memorable quotes from his speech today. And here's one scene from Philadelphia: | | Is the 'deplorables' debate good for Clinton? | | Hillary Clinton backed off her Friday night claim that "half" Donald Trump's supporters belong in a "basket of deplorables" -- but Clinton's campaign might actually be happy the moment occurred, and that Trump's campaign responded by putting it in an ad. The reason: It's opened a window to raise all Trump's most controversial attacks on groups of Americans. A new TV spot Clinton is airing nationally takes aim at Trump over all those remarks -- including Mexicans, a disabled reporter, African-American communities, the Khan family, John McCain and women. It ends with Trump's own words: "You can't lead this nation if you have such a low opinion of its citizens."
Trump running mate Mike Pence has struggled with questions about whether David Duke, the white nationalist who is backing Trump, qualifies as "deplorable." "I have no idea why this man keeps coming up," the Indiana governor told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. "Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly. We have said that we do not want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him."
Pence's tactics were questioned by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway (long Pence's pollster), who said on CNN's "New Day" that Pence should have called Duke deplorable "so that he doesn't get headlines saying, 'Mike Pence will not say [David Duke] is deplorable' and people can get satisfied."
Was Clinton right? The Washington Post's Dana Milbank argued yes on Monday in his column, and defended his case in an interview with CNN's Brooke Baldwin today. "You actually can unpack those numbers," he said. "It's really quite shocking. Something like 62% of white voters have these sorts of sentiments, and by better than two-to-one, they vote Republican."
Clinton is getting back on the road Thursday, spokesman Nick Merrill says. "She has spent the day catching up on reading briefings, making calls, and she watched President Obama's speech in Philadelphia on TV," he said today. | | | Just 367 days ago, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was running for president. Now, he's on "Dancing with the Stars." Perry made his debut last night. CNN's Brenna Williams put together a play-by-play in GIFs, and it is amazing. | | Evan Bayh's new ad is really corny | | Last night we told you Indiana's Senate race -- one key to determining whether Republicans can hold their majority -- is tightening. Today Democrat Evan Bayh is out with a new ad pushing back on GOP criticism of his DC-based jobs since his 2010 retirement, insisting that he's not a lobbyist ... and it's really corny.
"Lobby? No way. Lobs? You bet." That's how the spot ends -- with Bayh tossing a basketball one-handed and backwards over his head and into a hoop, shocking his two sons. (Trevor Foughty, the campaign manager for Bayh opponent Todd Young, mocked Bayh on Twitter by citing the "unedited version" -- linking to Michael Scott's "flippity flip" scene from "The Office." Bayh spokesman Ben Ray swears it happened on his first shot.)
The comparison Bayh doesn't want, from The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin: He could be the general election's Jeb Bush. | | | Bryan Pagliano, the State Department IT staffer who was also paid by Hillary Clinton's family to manage their private email server, refused to answer questions from a second congressional committee. ... Zika funding and the Export-Import Bank have stalled progress on a short-term government funding measure. ... Where we are in the 2016 race: Clinton's campaign has distributed "pneumonia" talking points to surrogates. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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