| | | | Obama rebuked: Congress overrides veto on 9/11 bill | | From CNN's Ted Barrett: Families of those killed in the terror attacks on 9/11 are now legally allowed to sue Saudi Arabia, after Congress voted Wednesday to override President Barack Obama's veto of the legislation, the first override of his presidency.
How the vote went down: The Senate approved the override on a 97-1 vote, with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid the lone senator voting to sustain the president's veto. Hours later, the vote in the House was 348-77, with one Democratic member voting "present." Members of both parties broke into applause on the House floor after the vote.
Obama called it a "political vote" in a town hall with CNN's Jake Tapper, set to air at 9 p.m. ET today. "It's an example of why sometimes you have to do what's hard. And, frankly, I wish Congress here had done what's hard," he said in a CNN town hall. "If you're perceived as voting against 9/11 families right before an election, not surprisingly, that's a hard vote for people to take. But it would have been the right thing to do."
So what's wrong with the bill? Here's how Obama put it: "If we eliminate this notion of sovereign immunity, then our men and women in uniform around the world could potentially start seeing ourselves subject to reciprocal laws."
No shutdown this time: The Senate today also approved a bill to fund the government, two days before funding for federal agencies was to run out. | | Trump wants allies to stop saying he lost the debate | | Donald Trump is angry that his aides and advisers have conceded to reporters -- largely without attribution -- that the Republican nominee struggled in his first presidential debate. In a conference call with surrogates today, Trump aides made clear the Republican nominee is upset that his allies publicly acknowledged they pushed him to change his preparation and tactics before his next bout with Hillary Clinton. And he wants them to stop it immediately.
The message was "not subtle," a source familiar with the call said. Trump wants his supporters to make an energetic defense of his performance and refuse to concede that he didn't nail it. Trump's team told surrogates to say that Trump successfully reinforced his outsider status, contrasting him with Clinton as a status quo candidate, and to zero in on one-liners that they saw as successful -- particularly his repeated line that Clinton has been in public life nearly 30 years with little to show for it.
What got all of this started? A report from The New York Times' Patrick Healy, Ashley Parker and Maggie Haberman that Trump's aides "plan to more rigorously prepare him for his next faceoff with Hillary Clinton by drilling the Republican nominee on crucial answers, facts and counterattacks, and by coaching him on ways to whack Mrs. Clinton on issues even if he is not asked about them." They wrote that seven aides and advisers privately "expressed frustration and discouragement over their candidate's performance Monday night."
Why Trump doesn't talk policy: BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski and Nathaniel Meyersohn picked up on Trump national policy adviser Sam Clovis' comments in a radio interview. He said: "Our approach has been to provide outlook and constructs for policy because if we go into the specific details, we just get murdered in the press." He added that "the American people, the American voter, will be bored to tears" if the presidential debate got into specifics. | | | Alec Baldwin will play Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" this season -- which kicks off this weekend with Baldwin's Trump vs. Kate McKinnon's Hillary Clinton in the sketch comedy's take on the first presidential debate. | | Clinton makes her case to millennial voters | | Hillary Clinton had two of her biggest campaign surrogates on the trail today: Bernie Sanders was alongside her in New Hampshire, while Michelle Obama was excoriating Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. Their goal: Make sure Clinton can hold together the Obama coalition -- and particularly young voters, many of whom are eyeing third-party options Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. CNN's MJ Lee and Dan Merica were on the scene in New Hampshire.
Can climate science help Clinton reach millennials? Trump's rejection of climate science has Clinton's campaign -- and her environmentalist allies -- sensing a fresh opportunity to reach millennial voters, for whom the issue is particularly important. Here's my story. | | Michelle Obama hammers Trump's birtherism | | Here's the first lady's hardest-hitting line: "There are those who questioned and continue to question for the past eight years whether my husband was even born in this country. And let me say: hurtful, deceitful questions deliberately designed to undermine his presidency -- questions that cannot be blamed on others or swept under the rug by an insincere sentence uttered at a press conference."
As important as what the first lady said: Where she said it -- Philadelphia. Local coverage of her scathing speech will reach the African-American voters in the city and the white suburban women nearby who Clinton needs in order to win the state that could swing the entire election. | | "All those days off, and then she can't even make it to her car. Isn't it tough?" -- Donald Trump, in Iowa today, with his most direct attack on Hillary Clinton's health. | | | | Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, attempted to keep the controversy over Donald Trump's attacks on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado's weight alive with this tweet this afternoon. | | | Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican Trump critic, joked that Donald Trump will throw him in Gitmo if he wins the presidency. ... Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham mocked Secretary of State John Kerry's tough talk on Russia. ... This is how Trump's feud with Rosie O'Donnell started. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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