| | | | Trump issues an apocalyptic call-to-arms | | Donald Trump issued an apocalyptic call-to-arms to his supporters today as he battled for political survival amid mounting allegations of sexual misconduct. Trump accused the press, the political establishment, international banks, the Justice Department and Hillary Clinton's campaign of conspiring against the American electorate. "The corrupt establishment knows that we are a great threat to their criminal enterprise," the Republican nominee said in West Palm Beach, Florida. "This is a struggle for the survival of our nation, believe me. And this will be our last chance to save it."
Facing sexual assault allegations, the billionaire savaged his accusers, saying their claims are "totally and absolutely false." He said: "These claims are all fabricated. They are pure fiction, and they're outright lies. These events never, ever happened."
Trump aimed a particularly personal rebuke at a People magazine writer who offered a first-person account, suggesting she wasn't attractive enough to sexually assault. "Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me. I don't think so," he said. Melania Trump also attempted to undercut her story, posting on Twitter a letter demanding a "prominent retraction and apology" for a small part of the story in which the writer says she ran into Trump's wife on Fifth Avenue after the incident.
Trump has reached his moment of reckoning -- and it is hard to imagine how his campaign will regain its footing with just 26 days to Election Day, CNN's Maeve Reston writes.
The latest: One of Trump's accusers, Jessica Leeds, told her story to CNN's Anderson Cooper. "The guy in the seat across the aisle could see. And I kept thinking, maybe the stewardess is going to come and he'll stop, but she never came," she said in an interview set to air at 8 p.m. ET. | | Michelle Obama: 'It has shaken me to my core' | | Making Donald Trump's challenge harder today: First lady Michelle Obama had just delivered a scathing, impassioned attack on his alleged behavior, telling a crowd in New Hampshire: "I can't believe I'm saying a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women."
"I can't stop thinking about this," she said. "It has shaken me to my core in a way I could not have predicted."
The first lady also undercut Trump's claim that his remarks on the "Access Hollywood" tape were just "locker room talk," saying: "This was not just a lewd conversation. This wasn't just locker room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turned on the TV." | | More on Trump's struggles...
Why his campaign didn't see this coming: Bloomberg's Kevin Cirilli reports he blocked his aides' requests to research his past in order to find potential political landmines -- standard operating procedure on presidential campaigns.
Going nuclear: Ten former nuclear launch control officers -- the people who held the keys needed to fire on the president's order -- have signed a letter saying they don't think Trump should be trusted with the nation's nuclear codes, reports The Washington Post's Carol Morello.
New national poll out tonight from Fox News: Clinton 45%, Trump 38%, Gary Johnson 7%, Jill Stein 3%. That's up from a 2-point lead for Clinton in the last Fox News poll. | | | Americans are suddenly looking for alternatives to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Google Trends data indicates the online searches for "write-in" surged over the last week by more than 2,800%, hitting a record high since 2004. The states with the highest rates of search are not battlegrounds, but Republican and Democratic strongholds. More from CNN's Juana Summers. | | Trump's plan to turn Bill Clinton 'into Bill Cosby' | | Bloomberg's Joshua Green reports that Donald Trump believes inviting three women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to the second presidential debate left Hillary Clinton "shaken" -- so he'll do it again.
Green writes: "A senior Trump adviser says the campaign will soon bring forward new accusers: 'Women are coming to us who have been groped or sexually abused by Bill Clinton.' Trump is considering featuring these women at campaign rallies to 'give witness to what Hillary Clinton actually did.'"
What's behind Trump's strategy? A belief that the attacks on the Clintons can a) rally Republican voters and b) depress turnout among young women.
The key quote, from Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon: "She's led a program of victim intimidation. This has nothing to do with consensual sexual affairs and infidelities. This is Bill. We're going to turn him into Bill Cosby. He's a violent sexual predator who physically abuses women who he assaults. And she takes the lead on the intimidation of the victims." | | "It is, at times, getting downright scary," CNN's Jim Acosta told Wolf Blitzer tonight about how Donald Trump supporters are treating media covering his campaign.
CNN's Brian Ries found the likely owner: | | Trump accusations: Lawsuit threats and legal fee offers | | Politico's Ben Schreckinger reports that Democratic operative David Brock and civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred -- two allies of Hillary Clinton -- are offering to help Donald Trump's accusers with legal fees and representation.
Said Brock: "We would pay for the legal defense of Trump accusers."
And Allred: "If any women who are making allegations of inappropriate (conduct) contact me, I would be happy to speak to them and then decide if I would be able to represent them."
This all comes amid a battle between The New York Times -- which reported two women's allegations of sexual misconduct by Trump last night -- and Trump's lawyers. Trump's lawyer demanded a retraction. The Times' David McCraw, in an absolutely scathing response, essentially wrote bring it on.
The notable part of McCraw's letter to Trump's attorney: "The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a 'piece of ass.' Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself." | | Trump pulls out of Virginia, narrows focus to four states | | NBC's Alex Jaffe and Ali Vitali have the scoop: "Donald Trump's campaign is 'pulling out of Virginia,' a move that stunned staff in the battleground state, three sources with knowledge of the decision told NBC News. The decision came from Trump's headquarters in New York and was announced on a conference call late Wednesday that left some Republican Party operatives in the state blindsided. Two staffers directly involved in the GOP's efforts in Virginia confirmed the decision."
Where are those resources going? It's a four-state race for Trump now -- all about winning Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. | | | Ivanka Trump quietly returned to the campaign trail today, with no questions about the allegations her father faces. ... A New Jersey judge has issued a criminal summons against Chris Christie over the Bridgegate scandal. ... Liberty University students are rebelling against Jerry Falwell Jr.'s support for Donald Trump. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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