Hillary Clinton calls Donald Trump’s plans to ‘stick it to the rich’ a myth

Once again, Hillary Clinton’s carefully laid campaign plans have been disrupted by old emails.

On a day in which Clinton was hoping to inflict considerable damage on Donald Trump — this time, by ripping into his economic agenda — her campaign was on the defensive, scurrying to clean up the latest damaging revelations in years-old messages that were sent by Clinton and her staff and released as the result of a lawsuit.

The ongoing email dispute undermined the potency of a speech for which Clinton’s campaign had been laying groundwork all week, one in which she presented her economic agenda in full and tried to brand her self-styled populist rival a fraud.

Read More

At wedding receptions, barbershops and on park benches, this year’s unusual presidential campaign is often an unavoidable topic of discussion.

As usual in presidential races, it’s also seeping into houses of worship across the nation.

From Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, and from abortion to immigration, many Americans are hearing politics from the pulpit, according to a survey released this week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Nearly 14% of respondents said they had heard their clergy speak for or against a specific presidential candidate this year, according to the survey.

About 9% said their clergy had offered support for a candidate, with far more praising Clinton, the Democratic nominee, than Trump, the Republican.

Similarly, 11% heard clergy speak against a candidate, with more hearing opposition to Trump than to Clinton.

The survey polled about 4,600 adults between June 5 and July 7. About 40% reported attended a religious service at least once in recent months.

Nearly two-thirds — 64 % — said they had heard clergy speak about issues in the campaign, including religious liberty, immigration, abortion, homosexuality, environmental issues and economic inequality.

The largest group — 40% — said clergy had discussed religious liberty, which is no surprise. Close behind was homosexuality, at 39%, and abortion at 29%.

Churches and synagogues long have been involved in political campaigns, with Democrats frequently appearing in black urban churches and Republicans often approaching evangelical congregations.

Helping voters get to polling places — dubbed “souls to the polls� in some churches — is an election day staple in some communities.

Churches also have helped rally supporters against restrictive election laws in some states, arguing that bans on early voting or on weekends effectively disenfranchise the working poor.

For all his incendiary rhetoric, Trump has not drawn the ire of religious leaders that John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee, did when he ran against President George W. Bush in 2004.

A group of bishops blanketed Catholic churches around the country with fliers denouncing Kerry’s support for abortion. Kerry, a Catholic, was even denied communion while campaigning in St. Louis.

When he was still a New York businessman, Trump had described himself as “very pro-choice.� He now describes himself as pro-life “with exceptions� and has drawn support from conservative evangelical groups.

He also clashed with Pope Francis in February after the pontiff said the candidate’s proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border was “not Christian.� Trump called the comments “disgraceful.�

Clinton has spoken at numerous black churches across the country.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

Donald Trump expanded his economic advisory team to include women Thursday, after being widely criticized for the group’s original makeup of all men.

Trump announced nine new advisors for his team, eight of whom are women. In a statement, he called the newly appointed advisors “some of the best economic minds around right now.�

Trump announced his original 13-person, all-male advisory board last week, which included wealthy bankers and investment managers, to skepticism and criticism.

Hillary Clinton joked that Trump’s economic policy was written by “six guys named Steve, apparently,� continuing to attack the Republican nominee for pushing economic policies that she says would benefit the rich.

Hillary Clinton branded her self-styled populist rival a fraud whose plans will do nothing to boost the fortunes of struggling workers, delivering an address Thursday in which she laid out her economic plans.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s speech in Warren, Mich., came days after Republican nominee Donald Trump had visited Detroit to offer his own economic proposals.

The two speeches highlight the pitched fight for swing voters in the Rust Belt states crucial to winning in November.

Clinton described Trump’s economic agenda as “just a more extreme version of the failed theory of trickle-down economics, with his own addition of outlandish Trumpian ideas that even Republicans reject.�

She argued that Trump’s proposals on taxes, child care and easing government regulations would benefit only corporations and rich people like him.

“There is a myth out there that he will stick it to the rich and powerful because somehow he is really on the side of the little guy,� Clinton said. “Don’t believe it.�

Clinton’s speech was part political attack, part policy treatise. It was laden with progressive proposals.

Clinton vowed to launch the biggest infrastructure spending program since World War II, expand the Affordable Care Act, make public college debt-free and penalize large companies that move their operations abroad.

In a part of the country where her past support for free trade deals has become a political liability, she also made a forceful vow to block any future deals that are not in the interest of American workers, and sought to reframe the attacks Trump has launched.

“Mr. Trump may talk a big game on trade, but his approach is based on fear, not strength,� Clinton said. “Fear that we can’t compete with the rest of the world even when rules are fair, fear that our country has no choice but to hide behind walls.

“Before he tweets about how he is really the one who is going to put America first in trade,� Clinton said, “let’s remember where Trump makes many of his own products. Because it sure is not America.�

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he was confident that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, she would move forward with the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland rather than select a new candidate.

“She can do whatever she wanted but I am convinced she would move forward with Garland. He’s a fine man,� Reid said in a conference call with reporters. “I think she and all the people around her would say, ‘Why do we need to rock the boat here. Let’s get him confirmed quickly and move on to the next one, whenever that comes.’�

Asked whether he had direct knowledge of Clinton’s intentions because of discussions with her campaign or her advisors, Reid did not answer directly but responded, “I think that I can say that with some degree of credibility.�

Over the weekend, Clinton running mate Tim Kaine said the decision on whether to stick with Garland “will be for the president and the president-elect to decide,� and didn’t answer directly when asked if he knew whether Clinton would retain Garland.

During the conference call, Reid blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for not holding nomination hearings for Garland, whom President Obama nominated to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Reid also said that Democrats were considering a procedural maneuver to force a vote in order to get Republican senators on the record about Garland, though he did not offer details about what such a move would look like.

Donald Trump doubled down Thursday on his accusation that President Obama created Islamic State, insisting that he didn’t simply mean that Obama’s troop draw-down in Iraq left behind chaos in which the terrorist group thrived.

The Republican nominee first called Obama the “founder of ISIS,� another term for Islamic State, during a rally Wednesday in Florida. He was asked Thursday in an interview on CNBC whether that was appropriate.

Trump responded: “He was the founder of ISIS, absolutely.�

Islamic State grew out of Iraq’s Al Qaeda affiliate founded around 2004, a half-decade before Obama took office. Its capabilities ebbed and flowed over the next decade as the group merged and split with other extremists. Around 2013, it increasingly began carrying out attacks in Iraq, and the group began overtaking large swaths of territory in both Iraq and neighboring Syria a year later. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for attacks elsewhere, branching out as coalition-led forces roll back its territorial gains in the Middle East.

Trump, though, suggested that Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton deserve MVP awards for what he views as their involvement in the creation of Islamic State. And although Trump said, incorrectly, that he opposed the Iraq war from the start, he added that he does think Obama’s troop draw-down in Iraq destabilized the Middle East.

In a separate interview, when asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt specifically whether he was referring to Obama’s actions creating a power vacuum in Iraq, Trump said, “No, I mean he’s the founder of ISIS.�

(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)

Actress Rose McGowan (“Charmed�) released an open letter Wednesday that blasted the media, Donald Trump and the family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, saying they are poisoning the public with hateful rhetoric.

“We, the public, are being sickened by an ever expanding assault on our right to live a healthy and free life. Donald & you ratings driven colluders, are holding us the public hostage and exposing us to disease,� McGowan wrote.

McGowan described the disease in question as “terror cancer,� and the symptoms as “knots in our shoulders, sick feelings in the pit of our vaginas, stomach tightness, shortness of breath, wildly elevated stress levels.�

She went on to say that it is not the American public who should feel shamed, but those individuals continuing to propagate hateful propaganda.

“Stop poisoning humanity. Go rogue, reverse course, be BRAVE,� McGowan wrote, before urging the media to unplug Trump’s microphones and stop covering the Republican presidential candidate.

“Think different. Do better. It’s that easy to be a better person and to do the right thing no matter the cost. The time is now,� she wrote.

This is not the first time McGowan has used her voice to take on the system, making headlines in 2015 for her criticisms of a casting note for a film that instructed her to “read the script for context,� a direction she found condescending.

For more information about where celebrities stand on the upcoming election, check out our celebrity endorsement tracker.

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

If his presidential campaign doesn’t work out, Donald Trump has a backup plan — a long vacation.

“At the end it’s either going to work or ... I’m going to have a very, very nice, long vacation,� Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box� Thursday.

The Republican nominee also said he doesn’t worry about polls that show Hillary Clinton leading and remains confident that support for her will fade, so he doesn’t plan on changing his tactics.

(Chuck Burton / Associated Press)

Donald Trump called President Obama the “founder� of Islamic State on Wednesday, the latest in a series of remarks suggesting that Obama sympathized with Muslim terrorists in the Middle East.

“ISIS is honoring President Obama,� Trump told supporters at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., using an acronym for Islamic State. “He is the founder of ISIS.�

After making the allegation twice more, Trump added, “And I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.�

Trump’s charges came moments after he said that Russia had seized Crimea “during the administration of Barack Hussein Obama,� a rare use of Obama’s middle name that was notable given Trump’s past insinuations that the Christian president was secretly Muslim.

Read More