2016 Election

Kurt Eichenwald reports at Newsweek: Trump has been surrounded by advisors and associates with economic and familial links to Russia. The publicized connections and contacts between former campaign manager Paul Manafort with Ukraine have raised concerns. Former Trump advisor Carter Page is being probed by American and European intelligence on allegations that he engaged in back-channel discussions with Russian government …

NBC News reports: The U.S. government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine next week’s presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling, American officials told NBC News. The effort is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, but reaches across the government to include the CIA, …

Via Politico: President Barack Obama should promise the American people that he will not offer a pardon to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for any crime she might be charged with, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday night, “whether she’s elected or not.” Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and associate attorney general, appeared on Fox News’s “Hannity” Thursday …

Reuters reports: The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are examining faked documents aimed at discrediting the Hillary Clinton campaign as part of a broader investigation into what U.S. officials believe has been an attempt by Russia to disrupt the presidential election, people with knowledge of the matter said. U.S. Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, …

You’ll note that the ad shows Hillary coughing and features very unflattering photos much like the one used in the attack on Ted Cruz’s wife. Via TIME: In a new ad released Thursday, Trump’s campaign highlights the FBI’s announcement that it found emails relevant to the investigation of Clinton’s private email server on a computer belonging to Weiner, the estranged …

Remember before Trump when elections didn’t include daily calls for people to be murdered, executed, or assassinated? CNN reports: Eric Trump said on Thursday that former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke deserves “a bullet.” “Ross, it’s disgusting and by the way, if I said exactly what you said, I’d get killed for it but I think I’ll say it …

ABC News reports: An elementary school in New York has canceled its mock presidential election after teachers and staff raised concerns about kids repeating “negative rhetoric about minorities,” according to the school’s principal. “Teachers have said they’ve heard some kids in the cafeteria chanting ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ or saying they don’t want Muslims here,” said Glen Rogers, principal of Jericho …

From woman whose husband is the undisputed king of cyber-trolling. Talking Points Memo reports: In her first appearance on the campaign trail since the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump touched only lightly on her husband’s policies, focusing instead on her family and her plans to fight bullying on social media if she becomes first lady. “I will be an advocate …

Raw Story reports: Fox News anchor Bret Baier admitted on Thursday that he had been wrong when he reported that Hillary Clinton would “likely” be indicted by federal authorities, a claim that sent conservative websites into a frenzy. “I want to be clear — I want to be clear about this,” he explained. “I pressed the sources again and again …

Grammy-nominated composer Lucian Piane, who has produced for RuPaul and served as a celebrity judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, has raised eyebrows for weeks with his vehement defense of Donald Trump. But for the last 24 hours Piane has been on a Twitter rampage, calling the Clintons “murderous,” President Obama a “shameful idiot,” and pinning a tweet to the top …

Via Mediaite: Things got feisty on CNN’s New Day when Chris Cuomo and Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway faced off on Thursday in a heated interview. As they talked about Trump steadying himself during a campaign rally last night, Cuomo asked Conway about why the mogul has such a hard time controlling his mouth before he runs into trouble. …

PlanPhilly reports: With Election Day less than a week away and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 234 still on strike, Democrats hoping for big voter turnout in Philadelphia are growing increasingly nervous. “I’m worried,” a senior campaign staffer for Katie McGinty told PlanPhilly. McGinty currently holds a 5 point lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, according to RealClearPolitics’ average …

The New York Times reports: Heading into the final days of the presidential campaign, the race has settled back into a tight contest, with Hillary Clinton holding an edge over Donald J. Trump after a month of tumult. Most voters say their minds are made up and late revelations about both candidates made no significant difference to them, according to …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Secret recordings of a suspect talking about the Clinton Foundation fueled an internal battle between FBI agents who wanted to pursue the case and corruption prosecutors who viewed the statements as worthless hearsay, people familiar with the matter said. Agents, using informants and recordings from unrelated corruption investigations, thought they had found enough material to …

Via Mediaite: Despite claims from the Republican nominee himself, if Donald Trump loses the election and launches some form of TrumpTV or Trump News Network, it will be a secret that’s about as badly kept as John Podesta‘s email password. And now, a casting notice is reportedly circulating for a “up-and-coming conservative media network currently in development” in New York …

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump, whose campaign has been defined heavily by large rallies in arenas, fairgrounds and stadiums, will spend election night in a more intimate setting: a hotel ballroom in Manhattan. The Republican presidential nominee will hold his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown, Trump spokesman Jason Miller confirmed Wednesday night. The hotel is …

Business Insider reports: Candidates vying for a Louisiana US Senate seat met on the debate stage in New Orleans on Wednesday night. Among the candidates — which included Republican frontrunner John Kennedy and Democratic candidate Caroline Fayard — was former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke. Duke invoked Trump’s name early and often during the debate, and compared himself to …

Reuters reports: Hillary Clinton led Republican Donald Trump by 6 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Wednesday, the same advantage the Democratic presidential nominee held before an FBI announcement that reignited the controversy about her email practices. The Oct. 28-Nov. 1 opinion poll was conducted almost entirely after FBI Director James Comey …

Politico reports: A woman who has filed federal lawsuits accusing Donald Trump of repeatedly raping her two decades ago, when she was 13, abruptly canceled a news conference Wednesday where she was to detail her extraordinary claims against the GOP presidential nominee. In the most recent suit, Trump’s accuser asserts that while she was exploring a modeling career in 1994, …

The Charlotte Observer reports: The North Carolina Republican Party has filed an elections board complaint against the Charlotte Observer and others who are planning a public forum about House Bill 2, alleging that the event will serve as an “infomercial” for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper. On Wednesday night, the Observer plans to host a forum on HB2, the controversial …