Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was yesterday pressing into reliably Republican Arizona as she tried to steal a state away from her Republican counterpart Donald Trump.
Her rival, reinvigorated by the FBI’s latest e-mail review, was laser-focused on Florida, a battleground state he cannot win the White House without.
With less than a week until election day, both candidates were warning of dire consequences if the other is elected.
Photo: AP
Trump said Clinton would be under investigation as president, sparking a “constitutional crisis,” though the FBI has declined to prosecute her for her handling of classified information.
Clinton has vowed the FBI will have “no case” after reviewing new e-mails, but her campaign is nervous about tightening polls and ramping up attacks on Trump, hoping to scare away voters who could still be persuaded to back him.
On her own Florida swing on Tuesday, Clinton hammered Trump as dangerous and divisive, highlighting in particular his treatment of women.
“When I think about what we now know about Donald Trump and what he’s been doing for 30 years, he sure has spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women,” she said.
Always important in presidential contests, Florida has emerged as this year’s most crucial state on the road to the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House. Trump cannot win without carrying Florida, meaning Clinton can deliver a knockout blow if she captures its 29 electoral votes.
Even with the national polls narrowing, Clinton has several more paths to 270 than Trump. Her campaign was underscoring that political reality with a stop in Arizona yesterday, a state that has voted for Republican presidential candidates all but once since 1952.
Her team also sees opportunities in North Carolina, a state that voted for US President Barack Obama in 2008, before going Republican in the election four years later.
Obama was hosting a rally with Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter James Taylor in Chapel Hill yesterday, the first of two visits he has planned this week to the swing state.
African-American turnout is down in early voting in the state, raising concerns about a slump that could hurt Democrats.
The president yesterday told the Tom Joyner Morning Show that the lagging turnout could threaten Clinton’s prospects. He said people who care about his presidency must understand that all his accomplishments are based on his being able to “pass the baton” to a like-minded successor.
Trump spent Tuesday relentlessly on message, eschewing wild tangents and political fights in favor of carefully scripted remarks focused on healthcare and attacks on his opponent. He cautioned that Clinton’s plan to strengthen “Obamacare” would lead to dire consequences, although he offered few specifics about his own plan.
Still, frustrated Republicans were encouraged that Trump was focusing on policy prescriptions — for one day, at least — after a roller-coaster campaign marked by self-created controversy and political missteps.
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REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from