The Commentariat -- Sept. 2, 2016

Afternoonish Update:

Holt, Raddatz, Cooper & Wallace. Photos via the New York Times.John Koblin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have been selected to moderate this year's presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday. Mr. Holt, the anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News,' will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Ms. Raddatz of ABC and Mr. Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Mr. Wallace of Fox News will handle the final debate on Oct. 19." -- CW ... See also Akhilleus's comment in today's thread on the moderators.

Nick Gass of Politico: "Hillary Clinton opened up in a recent interview about the personal crisis she faced as first lady to Bill Clinton as scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky enveloped the political world and impeachment proceedings unfolded. 'It was really hard. It was painful. And I was so supported by my friends...," the Democratic nominee told CNN's Pamela Brown in a clip from a forthcoming documentary set to air Monday night.... CNN will also air a documentary about Donald Trump on Monday night following the Clinton special." CW: Yeah, Trump will probably open up about how painful it was to have to tell is potential dates to get HIV & other STD testing. "It's one of the worst times in the history of the world to be dating," he said in 1991."

Robert Salonga & Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News: "As he regained his freedom, Brock Turner faced protesters and heavy media scrutiny as an enduring public face of the issue of sexual assault on American college campuses. That was just with his first few steps out of jail. Turner's early release just after 6 a.m. Friday after three months in jail was met by a throng of television and press cameras from far-reaching parts of the country, as well as critics who continue to lament the light sentence given to the former Stanford swimmer for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman last year outside a campus party." -- CW

Presidential Race

Paul Krugman: Why Clinton, why not Trump? Because lead. CW: This is what I mean when I write "elections matter" on some news items that may seem tangential to candidates & elections.

Nate Silver of 538: "The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has tightened." And the Electoral College won't save Clinton because her position in important swing states is about the same as it is in the national polls." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's nonstop schedule of high-dollar fundraisers in August paid off, helping raise $143 million for her campaign and the Democratic Party -- her biggest monthly haul yet. Campaign officials announced Thursday that donors contributed about $62 million to her campaign committee and another $81 million to the Democratic National Committee and state parties in August. That's a huge growth from the $90 million that Clinton and the party jointly raised in July. However, her campaign fundraising stayed flat -- in both months, she raised about $62 million -- indicating that the increase was driven by large contributions to the party." -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Bernie Sanders will hit the trail for Hillary Clinton on Monday in New Hampshire, in the former Democratic presidential rival's first event campaigning solo since he announced his endorsement of the former secretary of state in July." -- CW

Ken Vogel of Politico: "Bill Clinton's staff used a decades-old federal government program, originally created to keep former presidents out of the poorhouse, to subsidize his family's foundation and an associated business, and to support his wife's private email server, a Politico investigation has found. Taxpayer cash was used to buy IT equipment -- including servers -- housed at the Clinton Foundation, and also to supplement the pay and benefits of several aides now at the center of the email and cash-for-access scandals dogging Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.... This investigation ... does not reveal anything illegal." -- CW: Sorry, Ken; there are no "cash-for-access scandals." What a bummer; there is Donald Trump, cheating on his taxes, which is illegal -- and there is Bill Clinton, husband of Hillary, but not actually Hillary doing something legal. So Crooked Hillary, amIrite?

Jessica Hopper of ABC News: "Sen. Tim Kaine ... today called Donald Trump a 'diplomatic embarrassment' when asked on 'Good Morning America' about the real estate mogul's trip to Mexico Wednesday. 'I think it was kind of a diplomatic embarrassment,' Kaine said of Trump's unexpected meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. 'He's been talking for a year about we're going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it and then he goes and he sits down and goes eyeball to eyeball with the president of Mexico and, what, he forgets suddenly to bring it up or he's too afraid to bring it up or he chokes in the meeting. It's just kind of an indication that the guy talks out of both sides of his mouth.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Cowardly Liar

The New York Times Has a Mole! Yamiche Alcindor: "Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, [a predominantly black church in Detroit,] Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things. An eight-page draft script obtained by The New York Times shows 12 questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the pastor, intends to ask Mr. Trump in the taped question-and-answer session, as well as the responses Mr. Trump is being advised to give. The proposed answers were devised by aides working for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee....

"After this article was published online Thursday night, Jason Miller, the senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign, said that Mr. Trump's plans had changed and that he would address the congregation for five to 10 minutes after the interview. Mr. Trump will then visit neighborhoods with Ben Carson...."

CW: I'd guess the mole was at the RNC, not the Trump campaign. Too bad. But think about the implications of this story. First we learned Trump was afraid to speak to black churchgoers. Now we learn that he is afraid to take actual questions from a black minister. Then, he is afraid to offer his own answers to prepared questions, so every single answer "he" gives will be something that a team of advisors wrote. Not only that, the team of advisors knows that Trump is an ignorant, loose cannon who cannot be trusted to keep his foot out of his mouth. This doesn't mean that other candidates, politicians & officials don't prepare for interviews. Of course they do. But reading off crib notes is not the same thing. And we thought Donald just wanted to be Donald. So vote for Hillary because she isn't afraid of black church ladies.

Nick Gass: "Just hours after reviving his harsh rhetoric on immigration, Donald Trump on Thursday morning insisted that there is actually 'quite a bit of softening' in how he's approaching his signature campaign issue. The Republican nominee's latest comment -- to conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, no less -- makes it even harder to pin down just where Trump is landing on the hot-button issue, and amplifies the pick-what-you-want-to-hear nature of his talk on immigration." CW: Trump is not only insane; he's trying to drive the rest of us crazy, too. ...

... Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "The Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump changed his speech on immigration at the last minute to include references to Mexico paying for his proposed border wall. The reason that Trump decided to make this change? Because he was apparently furious that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto just posted a tweet insisting that his country would never, under any circumstances, pay for the wall.... Leaders of other countries are likely taking notes right now about just how easy it is to manipulate Trump by challenging his manhood...." -- CW ...

... How Trump Got from Point A to Point A on Immigration. Jenna Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "For nearly two weeks, Donald Trump has publicly and privately debated how best to describe his position, especially when it comes to the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. On Wednesday, he decided to stick with the far-right positions that were key to his success in the GOP primaries." -- CW ...

Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again! -- George W. Bush ...

... Lauren Fox & Annie Rees of TPM: Trump's ballyhooed "pivot" "was all a ruse.... What we were left with was the Trump we have always known. He wants a border wall, he is certain Mexico will pay for it and he gave no indication that he wouldn't deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country." Fox & Rees reprise the Trump camp's feints delivered over the past two weeks. -- CW ...

... New York Times Editors: Donald Trump's "speech -- in 10 points, embellished with statistics, ad-libbed asides and audience hollering and chanting -- was as clear a statement of hard-core restrictionism as any he has given. It was a mass-deportation speech, even if he avoided that phrase. Its intent was hard to miss.... The entire speech, in fact, imagines that government at all levels will be used to hunt down and remove immigrants from their homes, families and jobs. Mr. Trump was describing a world of lockups and surveillance and fugitive-hunting squads, a vast system of indiscriminate catch-and-punish that works as hard to catch hotel maids and landscapers as it does gang members and terrorists." -- CW ...

... Charles Pierce on how Trump played the media for suckers Wednesday. "Quite simply, for almost 98 minutes, the presidential candidate of one of our two major political parties did a very convincing imitation of someone who should not be allowed out in public without a keeper, and whose keeper should not be allowed anywhere near him without a net, sufficient backup, and a tranquilizer gun capable of inducing coma in a herd of drunken elephants.... [The speech] obliterated the earlier dog-and-pony show in Mexico. It made a jackass out of every member of the media who ever has used the word 'presidential' in any connection with El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, and particularly those members of the media who got played for suckers on Wednesday afternoon." -- CW ...

... Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: "Making another one of his paid appearances as a CNN contributor late Wednesday night, former Trump campaign manager [Corey Lewandowski] made no bones about the fact that Trump's big immigration speech was aimed at white men. 'Look, I think Donald Trump's message tonight was the message that he started with back on June of 2015, which was "America First,"' Lewandkowski said. '... and if you look at the polling data, he's got about an 18 point lead in the demographic of white males who are voting in this election.... 'This speech is clearly geared at those individuals right now, to make sure they are there, he has locked them in for the election.'" -- CW

Zach Montellaro of Politico: "A founder of the Latinos for Trump group on Thursday warned that without Donald Trump in the White House, there would be 'taco trucks on every corner' in America. 'My culture is a very dominant culture,' the Mexican-born Marco Gutierrez said on MSNBC's 'All In With Chris Hayes.' 'It is imposing and it's causing problems. If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner.'" CW: I think the implication is that these "taco trucks" dispense as many drugs as they do tacos, but I'm guess. As Joy Reid, who was hosting the show, said, "I don't even know what that means, and I'm afraid to ask."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post : "David N. Bossie, the veteran conservative operative who has investigated the Clintons for more than two decades, has been named Donald Trump's deputy campaign manager. The Republican presidential nominee revealed his hire in a phone call with The Washington Post.... Until this week, Bossie was president of Citizens United, the hard-line advocacy outfit that has mounted digital, film and advertising campaigns against President Obama's agenda and against moderate Republicans. Bossie will take a leave of absence from Citizens United for the duration of the campaign. And he has left the 'Defeat Crooked Hillary' super PAC, which he had been running since June." -- CW ...

... BBC: "Melania Trump is suing a British newspaper and a US blogger for $150m (£114m) over allegations she was a sex worker in the 1990s, her lawyer says. The Daily Mail suggested Mrs Trump may have worked as a part-time escort in New York, and met husband Donald Trump, who is now running for the White House, earlier than previously reported. Blogger Webster Tarpley wrote that Mrs Trump feared her past becoming public." CW: Thanks to Gloria for the link. So Mrs. Trump sues a sleazy newspaper for making a false statement at about the same time Mr. Trump hires notorious Clinton scandalmonger (and audiotape doctorer) David Bossie. ...

... Here's the Daily Mail's retraction announcement. "The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations...." -- CW

Crooked Donaldo. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty this year, an official at Trump's company said, after it was revealed that Trump's charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Florida's attorney general. The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case." CW: A coincidence, I'm sure. But read on. Besides being a (legal) political bribe, the Trump Foundation went to some trouble to hide the donation to Bondi from the IRS. An official at the foundation called it "an honest mistake." You be the judge. ...

     ... There's a big difference between (a) being arrogant and/or lazy about your e-mail, and (b) cheating on your taxes. Trump had to have been tiny-hands-on on the Bondi bribe. The bribe & the false tax return were his doings, not an underling's. ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "The really good part is that Bondi solicited the donation while she was investigating Trump. Now substitute the words 'Clinton Foundation' for 'Trump Foundation' with the same facts, and ask what the response of both the media and Republicans would be."

Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "Donald Trump's aggressive rhetoric on illegal immigration has obscured a potentially historic policy shift -- [Trump] ... is the first major party candidate in modern memory to propose limiting legal immigration.... Trump talked about limiting immigration to its historic norms. The share of foreign-born people in the United States -- 13 percent of the population -- is at its highest level since 1920. By making the case in a nationally televised address that immigration overall has to be limited, Trump has embraced the ideals of a small group of activists who, for decades, have sought to sharply reduce all forms of migration to the United States." CW: Besides the supremacist-nationalist-isolationist aspects of this, limiting immigration would be an national economic disaster. Immigrants don't just fill jobs; they buy stuff with the money they make. They're an engine of U.S. economic growth. ...

Katie Glueck & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Several major Latino surrogates for Donald Trump are reconsidering their support for him following the Republican nominee's hardline speech on immigration Wednesday night. Jacob Monty, a member of Trump's National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned after the speech. Another member, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor, said Trump's speech likely cost him the election and said he'd have to reconsider being part of a 'scam.' And Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said in an interview that he is 'inclined' to pull his support." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Latinos Baggle Boy Genius. Nick Gass: "Eric Trump expressed incredulity Friday in reaction to the disavowal of two of the campaign's Hispanic surrogates in the wake of Donald Trump's immigration speech this week, suggesting that the campaign would try to reach back out to them and clarify his father's position on the issue.... 'Which is actually pretty amazing, considering the speech. It was actually very consistent and has been very consistent with his plan,' Eric Trump remarked during an interview on 'Fox & Friends,' calling it 'really interesting.'" -- CW

Jeremy Fugleberg of Cincinnati.com: "Online volunteers seeking to help Donald Trump by making phone calls might be signing up for more than they bargained for. To sign up on Trump's website, potential volunteers must agree to a 2,271-word non-disclosure agreement in which they also promise they won't compete against or say anything bad about Trump, his company, his family members or products -- now and forever.... Earlier this year, volunteers for Trump in New York had to sign non-disclosure agreements in person before making phone calls at Trump Tower." Via Paul Waldman. ...

     ... CW: I'm not sure an agreement of this sort is Constitutional. I just don't see how courts would uphold a lifetime limit on the free speech rights of people who have received nothing in return for their promise. In any event, it's pathetic that Trumpbots who are screaming for their freeedoms will voluntarily agree to give up their most fundamental Constitutional freedom for the remainder of their lives.

Senate Race

Erica Hellerstein & Josh Israel of Think Progress: "The Koch Brothers Are Spending Big To Buy Harry Reid's Senate Seat. Their groups have already spent about $6 million on the Nevada race." -- CW

Other News & Views

Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: "... a New York Times examination of WikiLeaks' activities during Mr. Assange's years in exile found ... [that] whether by conviction, convenience or coincidence, WikiLeaks' document releases, along with many of Mr. Assange's statements, have often benefited Russia, at the expense of the West." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Stepan Kravchenko, et al., of Bloomberg: "Vladimir Putin said the hacking of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails and documents was a service to the public, but denied U.S. accusations that Russia's government had anything to do with it. 'Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?' Putin said in an interview at the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Thursday. 'The important thing is the content that was given to the public.'" -- CW

Rachel Swarns of the New York Times: "Nearly two centuries after Georgetown University profited from the sale of 272 slaves, it will embark on a series of steps to atone for the past, including awarding preferential status in the admissions process to descendants of the enslaved, officials said on Wednesday. Georgetown's president, John J. DeGioia, who will discuss the measures in a speech on Thursday afternoon, also plans to offer a formal apology, create an institute for the study of slavery and erect a public memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution, including those who were sold in 1838 to help keep the university afloat." CW: Just you wait; some aggrieved white kid who doesn't get accepted to Georgetown will start screaming "discrimination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here is Gabriel Sherman's promised piece on Roger Ailes: "How Fox News women took down the most powerful, and predatory, man in media." -- CW

Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "Anthony D. Weiner confirmed on Thursday that the New York City Administration for Children's Services has opened an investigation into his treatment of his 4-year-old son, Jordan." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Concerned about the spread of the Zika virus across the South, local officials [in Dorchester County, South Carolina,] on Sunday targeted a 15-square mile area of the county, which is near Charleston, with naled [delivered by aerial spraying].... [Millions of bees died. A county official] acknowledged that a county worker had not followed the local government's standard procedure of notifying registered beekeepers about the deployment of pesticides." -- CW

Dan Sullivan & Anastasia Dawson of the Tampa Bay Times: "Hillsborough County sheriff's officials conferred with NAACP officials and church pastors Thursday night in an effort to tamp down rising tensions over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man earlier this week.... Two days of small protests followed the incident, which occurred as investigators searched a home in Clair-Mel, a hardscrapple cluster of neighborhoods southeast of Tampa. Publicly, the Sheriff's Office has released little about the circumstances of [Levonia] Riggins' death, and Sheriff David Gee has said nothing. The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is expected to investigate." -- CW

News Ledes

New York Times: "Capping two consecutive months of hearty jobs gains, hiring eased in August, with the government reporting on Friday that employers expanded their payrolls by 151,000 workers. The temperate performance is expected to bolster those within the Federal Reserve who favor a wait-and-see approach toward raising the benchmark interest rate when the central bank meets later this month. The official unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, remained at 4.9 percent. Average hourly earnings grew only 0.1 percent, bringing the 12-month increase in wages to 2.4 percent, modest though still ahead of inflation." -- CW

Tampa Bay Times: "Hurricane Hermine made landfall south of Tallahassee early today as a Category 1 storm, slamming the state's Big Bend region with 80 mph winds and ending a hurricane-free streak of nearly 11 years." -- CW ...

... A Weather Channel report is here, with links to related ongoing coverage. ...

... Washington Post Update: "Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, while at least one death was blamed on Hermine, which was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before 5 a.m., just a few hours after making landfall in Florida. Authorities warned Friday of powerful winds as the storm was expected to move through Georgia and into South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday. A tropical storm warning was issued from North Carolina to Delaware, while tropical storm watches were issued as far north as New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. " -- CW

The Commentariat -- Sept. 1, 2016

Afternoonish Update:

Nate Silver of 538: "The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has tightened." And the Electoral College won't save Clinton because her position in important swing states is about the same as it is in the national polls.

Katie Glueck & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Several major Latino surrogates for Donald Trump are reconsidering their support for him following the Republican nominee’s hardline speech on immigration Wednesday night. Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned after the speech. Another member, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor, said Trump's speech likely cost him the election and said he'd have to reconsider being part of a 'scam.' And Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said in an interview that he is 'inclined' to pull his support." -- CW 

Jessica Hopper of ABC News: "Sen. Tim Kaine ... today called Donald Trump a 'diplomatic embarrassment' when asked on 'Good Morning America' about the real estate mogul’s trip to Mexico Wednesday. 'I think it was kind of a diplomatic embarrassment,' Kaine said of Trump’s unexpected meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. 'He’s been talking for a year about we’re going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it and then he goes and he sits down and goes eyeball to eyeball with the president of Mexico and, what, he forgets suddenly to bring it up or he’s too afraid to bring it up or he chokes in the meeting. It’s just kind of an indication that the guy talks out of both sides of his mouth.'” -- CW 

Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: "... a New York Times examination of WikiLeaks’ activities during Mr. Assange’s years in exile found ... [that] whether by conviction, convenience or coincidence, WikiLeaks’ document releases, along with many of Mr. Assange’s statements, have often benefited Russia, at the expense of the West." -- CW 

Rachel Swarns of the New York Times: "Nearly two centuries after Georgetown University profited from the sale of 272 slaves, it will embark on a series of steps to atone for the past, including awarding preferential status in the admissions process to descendants of the enslaved, officials said on Wednesday. Georgetown’s president, John J. DeGioia, who will discuss the measures in a speech on Thursday afternoon, also plans to offer a formal apology, create an institute for the study of slavery and erect a public memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution, including those who were sold in 1838 to help keep the university afloat." CW: Just you wait; some aggrieved white kid who doesn't get accepted to Georgetown will start screaming "discrimination."

*****

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Democrat Hillary Clinton scoffed at the capabilities and worldview of Republican opponent Donald Trump on Wednesday, including his hasty trip to Mexico, as she courted support from veterans and conservatives concerned about national security.... Trump, she said, understands little about how American alliances operate or the principles of U.S. engagement abroad. She appealed to the patriotism and military experience of a conservative-leaning audience, many of whom she jokingly observed, had probably never voted for a Democrat.... The crowd of mostly elderly men gave Clinton a polite if somewhat tepid reception, and there were numerous empty seats. She drew applause when she said that if elected president she would never insult the families of war dead or prisoners of war, a reference to Trump's remarks about the family of Humayun Khan and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)." -- CW ...

... Guardian: "Hillary Clinton took a withering swipe at Donald Trump’s impromptu visit to Mexico on Wednesday, during an address to the American Legion convention in Cincinnati that was nonetheless once again upstaged by her opponent’s unpredictable antics. 'You can’t make up for a year of insults by dropping in on our neighbours for a few hours and flying home again,' insisted the former secretary of state, famed for clocking up hundreds of thousands of diplomatic air miles. 'That’s not how it works.' Instead Clinton stressed her experience in office and expertise on foreign affairs, in a speech that leaned heavily on the same patriotic tone she adopted at the Democratic convention last month.” -- CW ...

... Clinton's campaign produced a list of some of the incendiary tweets Trump has written about Mexico, the Mexican people & the Mexican government (especially the court system). -- CW 

Washington Post Editors: "HILLARY CLINTON made one of the most consequential announcements of her campaign on Monday — and hardly anyone is talking about it. The Democratic presidential nominee released a wide-ranging mental-health strategy — and, unlike much of what she has proposed this election season, it has a real chance of becoming law." -- CW 

Thanks, Al! Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Al Franken let his comedic past get the better of him on Wednesday, apologizing after joking that an injury to a Minnesota Vikings player was akin to [finding out] Hillary Clinton having an 'affair with Anthony Weiner.' New York Times writer Mark Leibovich tweeted Franken's (D-Minn.) response to a gruesome leg injury to Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater that shocked onlookers in practice on Tuesday.... [Franken] quickly walked back his remark. 'Pretty insensitive and stupid of me. Regret it and sincerely apologize,' Franken said on Twitter." -- CW 

Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In Arizona, Mr. Trump made his most brazen attempt yet to back away from his pledge to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, denouncing illegal immigration in vehement terms, while at the same time revising his policy agenda. Where he has, in the past, suggested creating a special force to achieve that goal, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that a new 'deportation task force' would focus on rounding up only the 'most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants.'... On Wednesday night, as the crowd in Phoenix grew more energized, he could not resist returning to his fiery form, even as he outlined his new approach to immigration control.... At one point, referring to Mrs. Clinton, he told the crowd that perhaps he should 'deport her.' And Mr. Trump, as is his pattern, created confusion for even his closest supporters as he appeared to embrace opposite sides of important issues as the day unfolded.” ...

By Driftglass.... Eli Stokols of Politico: "After playing at diplomacy in Mexico following two weeks of muddled messaging on his signature issue, Donald Trump shed any pretense of a softer message or general election 'pivot' with a declaration of his fealty to the hardline positions and inflammatory rhetoric that propelled him to the Republican nomination. Having ditched his traveling press corps, Trump’s lie that he and President Enrique Pena Nieto didn’t discuss who would pay for his border wall wasn’t exposed until the Mexican president tweeted that they had a few hours later. And minutes after he stepped onto another stage [in Phoenix, Arizona,] Wednesday night and began to speak to his raucous supporters, it was even more clear that the sojourn across the southern border, much like his campaign's two-weeks of gentle walkbacks, was a ruse — that Trump and his campaign had used Pena Nieto as a prop in an opening act that served only to set up an evening stem-winder. The farce was, in hindsight, clear even before Trump approached the mic, as two of his warm-up speakers, Rudy Giuliani and Jeff Sessions, donned Trump hats that read 'Make Mexico Great Again.'” CW: This is a straight news report. ...

... Josh Marshall: "This was as wild and as unbridled a speech as I've seen from Trump. Even if you couldn't understand English, it would be stunning to watch the slashing hand gestures, the red face, the yelling. It's hard to imagine any presidential candidate in living memory giving such a speech.... Watching this speech, compared to the press conference today in Mexico City, what kept coming to my mind was the contrast between Hitler's uniformed rally speeches from the hustings and the suited, statesman Hitler we see in the old news reels.... On balance, Trump doubled-down on just about everything. He'll build the Wall and Mexico will pay for the Wall.... On mass deportation, there was more obfuscation than change. Trump said everyone without proper documentation is subject to deportation.... There is no path to citizenship or legal residency for any undocumented immigrants.... This is a blood soaked white nationalist politics that has caught fire with a significant minority of the electorate." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. -- CW ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "... the Trump we saw in Arizona was a return to form. His entire speech was a long nativist tirade about the dangers immigrants of all sorts (the undocumented, refugees, and those who come on legal work visas) pose to America. The themes were familiar to anyone who has paid attention to Trump over the last year, but the tone was, if anything, even more strident and desperate. To go by Trump’s words, immigrants were nothing less than an existential threat to America’s very integrity as a sovereign state." -- CW ...

... Dana Milbank: "Trump landed in Phoenix for what was supposed to be a detailed 'policy address' on immigration but was a familiar, nativist rant. Preceded at the lectern by Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff and anti-immigration hard-liner, Trump launched into a lament for the 'countless Americans' who are 'victims of violence' by illegal immigrants who are 'dangerous, dangerous, dangerous criminals.'... Trump’s attempt at appearing diplomatic was only a feint.... It’s called America First! . . . There will be no amnesty! . . . You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country. After a trip to Mexico, it was the return of a nativist son.” -- CW 

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump’s latest deportation priorities could target more than six million individuals for immediate removal, according to a Washington Post analysis.... Trump spelled out hard-line immigration priorities in a fiery speech here in Phoenix. He not only called for removing all undocumented immigrants who had committed crimes, but also said he would prioritize those who have overstayed their visas for deportation.... [He] also said he would triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and create a “new special deportation task force” to track the most serious security threats. Together, those proposals represented his most specific comments on deportation policy — and they pointed to a massive undertaking.... If visa overstays are also included in the immediate priorities, as Trump said he would order during his speech, the number would grow by about 4.5 million individuals according to estimates that place overstays at about 40 percent of total undocumented population." -- CW ...

     ... CW: In other words, Trump would prioritize mass deportations, and he has changed the name of his "deportation force" to "deportation task force." Since every undocumented foreigner who lives permanently in the U.S. has "committed a crime" by entering or staying illegally -- a point you hear many "real Americans" make -- all undocumented Mexicans are technically "criminals." So I'd put the figure back at 11 million. Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson was right: "He hasn’t changed his position. He has changed the word he is saying." ...

... One of These Men Is a Liar. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said he told Donald Trump that Mexico would not pay for the Republican nominee's proposed border wall, despite what Trump told the press after their meeting. 'At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," [Peña Nieto] wrote on Twitter.... During a joint press conference following their surprise meeting in Mexico City Wednesday, Trump told reporters..., 'We did discuss the wall, we didn't discuss payment of the wall, that will be for a later date...,' Trump said. 'What the president said is that Mexico, as he has said on several occasions ... will not pay for that wall,' Peña's spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told Reuters." -- CW ...

... Patrick Healy of the New York Times: Trump "displayed an almost unrecognizable demeanor during his afternoon in Mexico, appearing measured and diplomatic, while hours later he took the stage at his campaign rally and denounced illegal immigrants on the whole as a criminally minded and dangerous group that sows terror in communities and commits murders, rapes and other heinous violence." Straight news story. -- CW ...

     ... As Haley S. notes in today's Comments, Healy appears to have written his story prior to Trump's giving his speech. (News organization often get advance copies of prepared speeches.) Haley says Healy did a major rewrite later.

... Charles Blow: "Donald Trump is the internet troll of presidential politics. When he’s securely removed from the objects of his scorn, he’s tough as nails; when he’s in their presence, he quivers like a bowl of Jell-O.... When he is surrounded by supporters who cheer his base nature, he amplifies the enmity. When the applause of hostility is out of earshot, he tones down his vitriol to a whimper. He is not only a bully, it seems to me, but also something of a coward, who lacks the force of his convictions — or who lacks basic convictions at all. He seems to be simply playing to the audience, whatever that audience may be." -- CW ...

... Steve M: "Trump talks a big game about confronting people, then he meets those people and wimps out. The art of the deal? Call it the art of the kneel." CW: In most cases, one would use the cliche, "He doesn't have the courage of his convictions. Trump, however, has no convictions. He has poses. ...

... Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "A prominent Mexican TV news anchor is blasting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for inviting Donald Trump to Mexico City. Jorge Ramos, anchor for Univision and Fusion, criticized Peña Nieto for not holding Trump accountable for some of his previous rhetoric on illegal immigration and Mexican-Americans. Instead, during a joint press conference in Mexico Wednesday, Peña affirmed that the two men would work together to end illegal immigration if Trump is elected president. 'What a poor, lukewarm and fearful response by [Nieto] before Trump,' Ramos tweeted in Spanish Wednesday. Where is the indignation to Trump's insults?'" CW: Looks like Hellmann has the same view of "Mexicans" as Donald Trump does. Ramos, who was born in Mexico, is a naturalized American citizen, not a "Mexican." ...

... Alex Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump met in Mexico on Wednesday with President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is being criticized by many Mexicans for holding the meeting. In a subdued joint appearance before the press in Mexico City, the two men described the meeting as warm, despite maintaining significant disagreements on issues of trade and immigration." The report contains "highlights from the day." -- CW ...

... Joshua Partlow, et al., of the Washington Post: "Addressing the media after the meeting alongside Peña Nieto, Trump said the two discussed trade, illegal immigration, and border security — issues where their views do not align. 'I was straighforward in presenting my view on the impact of current trade and immigration policies on the Untied States,' said Trump.... Trump said the two discussed his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but, 'we didn’t discuss who pays for the wall.' Peña Nieto offered a polite and careful rebuke to many of Trump’s signature stances in his remarks. According to an interpreter, he said illegal immigration and border security is a shared challenge, but that undocumented immigration has slowed in recent years. He also praised the merits of free trade....” -- CW ...

... CW: The statements sounded like the kinds of remarks you hear when representatives of enemy states meet: "frank exchange of ideas," blah-blah. But, um, Mexico is an ally, not an enemy, of the U.S. ...

... "Mexican President Fact Checks Donald Trump to His Face." Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: “'Undocumented immigration from Mexico to the U.S. had its highest point 10 years ago and it has slowed down consistently, even to the point of being negative in a net effect at this point,' said Peña Nieto, referring to data that supports these claims. He added that Trump’s portrayal of the border as a one-way street is 'a clearly incomplete version' that 'doesn’t account for the illegal flow' of money and firearms that goes into Mexico from the United States. 'Every year, millions of dollars and weapons come in from the north that strengthen the cartels and other criminal organizations that generate violence in Mexico,' Peña Nieto pointed out, adding that criminals in the U.S. benefit from the sale of illegal drugs." -- CW ...

... Azad Ahmed of the New York Times: "... for many Mexicans, the surprising invitation from Mr. Peña Nieto — who has likened Mr. Trump’s language to that of Hitler and Mussolini in the past — is even worse [than Mr. Trump's many insults to the Mexican people]. Newspapers, television stations, social media and all manner of national communication were awash in vitriol at the idea of a meeting between the two men....  Protests were lined up for the day. Digital invitations designed like party fliers circulated on social media overnight, heralding the visit with a handwritten message: 'Trump, you are not welcome!'” -- CW ...

... Morgan Winsor of ABC News: "Donald Trump and Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox ... engaged in a bitter back-and-forth just hours before the Republican presidential nominee is scheduled to visit the country." -- CW ...

Hispanic citizens have been suffering under this president. Since President Obama came into office, another 2 million Hispanics have joined the ranks of those in poverty. … The number of Hispanic children living in poverty increased by 15 percent in that short period of time. — Donald Trump, at a rally in Tampa, Aug. 24 

... we should be pleased that Trump’s statistics are based on an official government report. But he cherry-picks the year to inflate the figures — and then uses raw numbers, which is misleading, especially when discussing a fast-growing population such as Hispanics. The net result is a claim that the ranks of Hispanics in poverty have grown, when in fact by basic statistical analysis the status of Hispanics has improved under President Obama. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post 

Trump Won't Speak to Black Churchgoers. Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press: "When ... Donald Trump comes to Detroit this weekend to try to strengthen his standing in the African-American community, he will be attending a service at a church and doing a one-on-one interview with the congregation's leader, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. That's about it. Trump won't be speaking to the black congregation at Great Faith Ministries International.... And his Saturday interview with Jackson on the church's Impact Network — which will not be open to the public or the news media — won't air for at least a week after the event." -- CW: Maybe he'll "drink his little wine and have his little cracker," though.

More on Trump's exploitation of illegal immigrants:

Steven Shepard of Politico: "After months of being swamped on the swing-state airwaves by Hillary Clinton and her allies, Donald Trump’s campaign this week announced a broad and extensive television advertising campaign that included ads set to run in nearly all the battleground states. But Trump’s actual investment over the next week or so falls far short of his campaign’s claims." -- CW 

A Messiah for Angry White Men. Paul Waldman: "If it's not about building walls and tossing out undocumented immigrants, Trumpism is about nothing at all, at least nothing having to do with anything he might actually do as president. His candidacy has transcended substance entirely. This isn't a 'pivot,' it's a kind of rapture, where Trump loses all flesh and becomes a being of pure affect." -- CW 

Brian Stelter of CNN: Joe Scarborough "is promoting his new name for Trump, 'Amnesty Don,' with a music video posted to Facebook on Wednesday. The 'Amnesty Don' song is virulently anti-Trump, describing the GOP nominee as a 'soft and flaccid man' with 'tiny little hands.'" -- CW ...

     ... CW: Sorry, Joe, the "soft and flaccid man" is in evidence only while on Mexican soil.

Congressional Race

Heather Caygle of Politico: "Rep. Ed Whitfield, the Kentucky Republican dogged by ethics problems around 'special favors'” he granted his lobbyist wife, is resigning from Congress next week. Whitfield sent a letter to Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing his retirement, effective Sept. 6, the day Congress returns from August recess.... Bevin said in a statement he will hold a special election on Nov. 8, the same day as the general election, to fill the remaining two months of Whitfield’s term.... James Comer, the GOP nominee running for Whitfield’s seat, has already said he plans to run to fill the vacancy. Whitfield, first elected in 1994, had already planned to retire after this Congress...." -- CW 

Other News & Views

Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "How Americans feel about the state of their lives have improved markedly in the eight years since Barack Obama was elected president, according to Gallup data released Tuesday. In 2008, fewer than half of Americans said their life was good enough to be considered 'thriving,' according to Gallup. But that's changed: 'The 55.4% who are thriving so far in 2016 is on pace to be the highest recorded in the nine years Gallup and Healthways have tracked it,' according to the report." -- CW 

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg: "An evenly divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate North Carolina’s Republican-backed voting restrictions for the November election, leaving intact a lower court’s conclusion that lawmakers intentionally discriminated against racial minorities. The high court rejected the state’s bid to halt much of the federal appeals court ruling, dividing 4-4 along ideological lines on the central questions. The rebuff -- issued without explanation -- is a victory for the Obama administration and civil rights groups, which challenged the North Carolina law and won a ruling that is likely to help Democrats in November." -- CW ...

... Robert Barnes' Washington Post report is here. -- CW ...

... Rick Hasen: "The fact that this petition got four votes should be very depressing to those who have been hoping that perhaps Justice Kennedy and the Chief Justice would have had a change of heart on voter id laws as Judge [Richard] Posner and Justice [John Paul] Stevens have since the Crawford case. The petition was exceptionally weak because North Carolina waited 17 days to file it and then claimed an emergency. So even apart from the merits, this was a weak case. And on the merits, we have a finding that the state of North Carolina engaged in intentionally racially discriminatory conduct.... [The deadlock in the Supreme Court] this really empowers the lower courts...." -- CW 

Reversal of Fortunes. Linda Greenhouse: Bill Clinton, Ken Starr, and a word to the wise from Antonin Scalia. CW: Not only a fun read, but also a glimpse at Scalia's rare moment of good judgment.

New York Times Editors: "Apple and the United States are crying foul over the ruling in Europe that Apple received illegal tax breaks from Ireland and must hand over 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion).... The money won’t be repatriated and taxed ... if Europeans ... get their hands on it first. And that ... is why members of Congress and Treasury officials are so upset about the Apple ruling.... But Apple and the United States have only themselves to blame for the situation. Apple has engaged in increasingly aggressive tax avoidance for at least a decade, including stashing some $100 billion in Ireland without paying taxes on much of it anywhere in the world, according to a Senate investigation in 2013. In a display of arrogance, the company seemed to believe that its arrangements in a known tax haven like Ireland would never be deemed illegal — even as European regulators cracked down in similar cases against ... multinational corporations.... Congress, for its part, has sat idly by as American corporations have indulged in increasingly intricate forms of tax avoidance.... The biggest tax dodge in need of reform involves deferral, in which American companies can defer paying taxes on foreign-held profits until those sums are repatriated." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway  

Eric Russell of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "Gov. Paul LePage apologized personally Wednesday to Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine for leaving a threatening and obscene voice mail on the lawmaker’s phone last week, but the governor said he will not resign and is ready to move on from the sustained controversy. Whether he’s successful, though, could depend on Senate Republicans, whose leader, President Mike Thibodeau, said he was glad the governor apologized but is still 'struggling' over LePage’s ability and willingness to change his behavior. 'I just know when something is wrong,' Thibodeau said of LePage’s actions. 'But what I’m sure of is that we can’t continue to have the explosiveness that we’ve seen. So we are in hopes that he is going to find a way to correct that.'” -- CW ...

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Maine Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday blamed a reporter in part for his fiery outburst to a state lawmaker last week and vowed never to speak with the press again. LePage last Thursday left an obscenity-laced voicemail on Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine’s phone after he was told by a reporter that Gattine had called the governor a racist.... 'After speaking with Representative Gattine, I think that the reporter who put the mic in my face owes the people of Maine an apology as well, because [Gattine] never called me racist,' LePage told reporters.... 'I will no longer speak to the press ever again after today,' LePage said, prompting laughter from reporters. 'And I’m serious. Everything will be put in writing. I am tired of being caught — the gotcha moments.'” -- CW 

Iowa Amateur Hour. Pat Rynard of Iowa Starting Line: "It seems all the targeted Republican state senate candidates had a big TV shoot recently, as they’ve all posted their first ads online in the past few weeks. The ads themselves are so-so at best.... However, one thing does stand out: each candidate is talking to the exact same group of students in the exact same school hallway." CW: I hope those kids earned better than scale for having to listen to all those dimwits. 

Way Beyond

Marina Lopes & Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazil’s Senate ousted Dilma Rousseff as president Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly to impeach the leftist leader in the culmination of a protracted process that has divided the country. The vote to impeach Rousseff was 61 to 20." CW: This is an update of a story also linked yesterday.

The Commentariat -- August 31, 2016

Afternoon Update:

New York Times Editors: "Apple and the United States are crying foul over the ruling in Europe that Apple received illegal tax breaks from Ireland and must hand over 13 million euros ($14.5 billion).... The money won't be repatriated and taxed ... if Europeans ... get their hands on it first. And that ... is why members of Congress and Treasury officials are so upset about the Apple ruling.... But Apple and the United States have only themselves to blame for the situation. Apple has engaged in increasingly aggressive tax avoidance for at least a decade, including stashing some $100 billion in Ireland without paying taxes on much of it anywhere in the world, according to a Senate investigation in 2013. In a display of arrogance, the company seemed to believe that its arrangements in a known tax haven like Ireland would never be deemed illegal -- even as European regulators cracked down in similar cases against ... multinational corporations.... Congress, for its part, has sat idly by as American corporations have indulged in increasingly intricate forms of tax avoidance.... The biggest tax dodge in need of reform involves deferral, in which American companies can defer paying taxes on foreign-held profits until those sums are repatriated." -- CW

Marina Lopes & Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazil's Senate ousted Dilma Rousseff as president Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly to impeach the leftist leader in the culmination of a protracted process that has divided the country. The vote to impeach Rousseff was 61 to 20." CW: This is an update of a story also linked below.

*****

Notre correspondant français est de retour! See also safari's comment below on Republican silence re: Russian hacking.

Congressional Races

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "Republican Sen. John McCain won an easy victory over his primary challenger on Tuesday in Arizona, defeating former state Sen. Kelli Ward -- the most prominent anti-incumbent Senate primary challenger of 2016 -- by a double-digit margin. McCain had 55 percent of the GOP vote to Ward's 35 percent when The Associated Press called the race soon after it started tallying the votes. The Arizona Republic's election results page is here. At 11:00 pm ET, no results were posted." Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick had no primary challenger. -- CW

As of 9:20 pm ET Tuesday, "In the Democratic primary for [Florida Congressional] District 23, embattled incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz holds a 58 to 42 lead over Tim Canova," according to the Miami Herald. ...

     ... Update @ 9:40 pm ET Tuesday: The AP has called the race for Wasserman Schultz, according to the New York Times.

Marc Caputo of Politico: "Hours after a dominating primary win, Sen. Marco Rubio sent a Wednesday morning challenge to U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy: face off in six live televised debates, including one on Spanish-language TV." -- CW ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Florida Sen. Marco Rubio won the Republican nomination for Senate on Tuesday night, a result that enhances Republicans chances of retaining that seat and the Senate majority. The former presidential candidate easily beat businessman Carlos Beruff in early GOP returns and will face Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy in November, according to Associated Press projections. Murphy dispatched fellow congressman Alan Grayson in the Democratic primary, the AP reported." -- CW ...

... Jeremy Wallace & Kristen Clark of the Miami Herald: "U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy defeated liberal firebrand Alan Grayson and three others to secure the Democratic nomination and set up a battle in November with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. It's the outcome that Democratic leaders have wanted for nearly 18 months. Shortly after the 33-year-old, two-term congressman declared his bid for U.S. Senate in March 2015, the party's establishment showered him with high-profile endorsements -- including one from President Barack Obama -- and lucrative financial support." -- CW ...

<>... Lisa Hagen of the Hill: "Dena Grayson is projected to lose the Democratic primary for her husband [Alan Grayson]'s seat in the House. State Sen. Darren Soto won a crowded primary in Florida's 9th District, beating out Grayson, a biomedical researcher and wife of Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.).With 91 percent of the vote counted, Soto had 36 percent, according to the Associated Press. Grayson and Susannah Randolph were tied for second with 28 percent." -- CW

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Marco Rubio on Monday refused to commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate should he win reelection. And the former Republican presidential candidate subtly suggested that if he ran for the White House again, he would be prepared to leave politics behind if he lost. 'No one can make that commitment because you don't know what the future's gonna hold in your life personally or politically,' the Florida senator told CNN on Monday, opening the door for a presidential run when asked if he could commit to a full Senate term before seemingly slamming it shut in the next breath." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... MEANWHILE, in Another Senate Race. Nolan McCaskill: "Senate Republicans could relent on their hard-line stance in opposition to granting Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing this year, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Monday.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, has no intention of holding a hearing before Obama leaves office, his team told Politico on Tuesday." CW: McConnell is not up for re-election this year. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW Note to File: That scheming twit Rubio is more honest than Grassley.

Presidential Race

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton plan to ... pause the campaigns ... for ... the 15^th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.... Both campaigns have confirmed they intend to halt television ads for the anniversary, keeping with a tradition of avoiding partisan presidential politics on Sept. 11 and. Pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA confirmed it will also go off the air." CW: Better confiscate Trump's phone.

Evan Perez of CNN: "The FBI expects to publicly release as soon as Wednesday the report the bureau sent to the Justice Department in July recommending no charges in the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, according to multiple law enforcement officials. The release is in response to numerous FOIA requests including from CNN. Also to be released is Hillary Clinton's 302, the FBI agent notes from Clinton's voluntary interview at FBI headquarters. The report is about 30 pages, and the 302 is about a dozen pages according to the officials.Not yet being released are additional notes from interviews of Clinton aides or other investigative materials that were sent to Congress." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "One of President Obama's top priorities during his last months in office is to help make sure that Hillary Clinton succeeds him. To do so, the president will make at least a dozen campaign appearances in battleground states from now to Election Day on Nov. 8." -- CW

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Tim Kaine on Tuesday questioned whether a President Donald Trump would stand up to a Russian cyberattack aimed at destabilizing U.S. elections, citing questions about the Republican's foreign business dealings and the 'pro-Kremlin' views of some of his associates. 'He's encouraged Russia already to get in and screw around with our elections,' Kaine said during a rally [in Erie, Pennsylvania]. 'Donald Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy, unlike anything we've seen in any presidential election in my lifetime.' Kaine's pointed questions about Trump's coziness with Russia came amid a sweeping attack on the Republican candidate, whom Kaine lambasted for not making key records public related to his health, personal finances and overseas business interests." -- CW ...

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia ... challenged Donald J. Trump on Tuesday to be more forthcoming about his health, taking aim at Mr. Trump over an issue he has tried to use to undermine Mrs. Clinton. As part of a lengthy critique of Mr. Trump, Mr. Kaine mocked a four-paragraph letter signed last year by a doctor for Mr. Trump, which proclaimed the candidate's strength and stamina to be 'extraordinary'" and declared that he would be 'the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.'... 'Hillary Clinton has met every test of disclosure we expect of presidential candidates -- in many cases, has gone even further,' Mr. Kaine said. 'Donald Trump has failed all of these tests miserably.'" -- CW ...

... Here's the full speech. Kaine first mentions Trump at 11:08 min. in. He's quite a good "explainer":

Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump's meeting in Mexico with President Enrique Peña Nieto ahead of his immigration speech Wednesday night in Phoenix will not change anything about what he has previously said about the country or its people, a top aide for Hillary Clinton's campaign said." -- CW

Kimberly Hefing & Michael Stratford of Politico: "Hillary Clinton has named a progressive with close ties to Elizabeth Warren to her transition team in a move that seems aimed at mollifying liberals unhappy with earlier choices.... Rohit Chopra, who battled for-profit colleges and loan servicers as the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has joined the team. Chopra was an early hire at the consumer agency by Warren when she led it.... Bringing him onto the transition team may help quell liberals' criticism of the appointment of former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as the director. Progressives have assailed Salazar's positions in favor of fracking and the Asia-Pacific trade deal." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce: "I thought that [Maureen] Dowd's effort over the weekend -- which can be fairly summarized as 'The Republican presidential campaign is an obvious freak show but Hillary Rodham Clinton Still Has Cooties' -- might have been the height of the [NYT's style of Clinton coverage]. However, I had not reckoned with the paper's coverage of the unfortunate episode currently ongoing between Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner.... This is horrible. This is ghastly. This is cheap shot by deliberate imprecision." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rebecca Traister of New York takes on the Washington Post, New York Times & other media outlets for trying to make a Clinton Disaster story out of Anthony Weiner's sexting while parenting: "We are still in the fairyland of false equivalence. Consider the contrasting situations: Donald Trump, who wants to be the president, recently hired a purveyor of white ethno-nationalism who had been accused by his wife of assault and who is alleged to have fired a woman suffering from MS while she was on maternity leave, as the CEO of his campaign. Hillary Clinton, who wants to be the president, has employed since the 1990s a woman who in 2010 married a guy who turns out to be really skeezy." -- CW

Donald Trump, Statesman, Ha Ha Ha. Nick Corasaniti & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump will visit Mexico on Wednesday for a private meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto -- a trip that will take him to a nation he has repeatedly scorned -- before quickly flying back for what is billed as a major immigration speech in Arizona. Mr. Peña Nieto's office said Tuesday night that the meeting would take place at the presidential palace in Mexico City, and Mr. Trump, on Twitter, said he looked 'very much forward' to the visit." -- CW

... Robert Costa & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump is considering jetting to Mexico City on Wednesday for a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, just hours before he delivers a high-stakes speech in Arizona to clarify his views on immigration policy, according to people in the United States and Mexico familiar with the discussions.... Peña Nieto has extended an invitation for the businessman to come visit with him in Mexico to talk about various political and economic issues, the people said. Trump, sensing an opportunity, decided over the weekend to accept the invitation and push for a visit this week." CW: Trump will probably bring Peña Nieto a bill for the big, beautiful wall as his "opening bid" in "international negotiations." ...

     ... The story has been updated. New Lede: "Donald Trump will travel to Mexico City on Wednesday for a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, just hours before he delivers a high-stakes speech in Arizona to clarify his views on immigration policy." -- CW ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Current and former Mexican lawmakers angrily denounced reports late Tuesday that Donald Trump was planning to meet Mexico's president Wednesday. 'There is no turning back, Trump, your offenses towards Mexicans, Muslims and more, have led you to the pit where you are today. Goodbye, Trump!' former Mexican President Vicente Fox tweeted. 'Now you should quit out of dignity for yourself, get back to your "business,"' Fox added." -- CW ...

... Nick Gass: "Donald Trump may have accepted the invitation of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for a Wednesday meeting in Mexico City, but the Republican presidential nominee is getting the cold shoulder in a country where public views of its own president are already abysmally low. Within minutes of Trump announcing that he would travel to Mexico City on Wednesday before his speech laying out his immigration stance in Phoenix, reaction was fast and furious among those in the Mexican political cognoscenti." -- CW ...

... Eli Stokols of Politico: "Conflicting advice from Trump's remade inner circle of advisers -- including former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, newly installed campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and campaign CEO Steve Bannon -- and the outside counsel of conservative mega-donor Sheldon Adelson have led to a series of muddled statements that have left Trump sounding at times like President Barack Obama and his former GOP rivals on immigration.... Bannon ... who has long cheered and defended Trump's immigration policy, 'would never' urge Trump to go soft on the issue, according to a source close to the controversial adviser. 'He's still a bomb-thrower,' said another campaign source. 'But he knows that a few things need to be done to win this race.' According to that source, there is 'broad agreement' among the inner circle that winning the election will require Trump to put a more humane gloss on his immigration proposals without significantly watering them down." CW: That "humane gloss" is otherwise known as a con. ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "This is such an outlandish idea it is not easy to make sense of it or predict its outcome.... It's a general rule of politics not to enter into unpredictable situations or cede control of an event or happening to someone who wants to hurt you. President Nieto definitely does not want Donald Trump to become President.... He has zero interest in appearing in any way accommodating or helpful.... Peña Nieto will need to build a relationship with Hillary Clinton.... Trump is apparently traveling to Mexico with Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions as his minders. People with the political nimbleness and cultural awareness to manage and massage a good outcome? I should say not. They're also traveling on one or two days notice. It will show." -- CW ...

... Greg Sargent: Trump is pulling this Hail Mary pass because he's losing. A person who's ahead doesn't do risky stuff. CW: Not sure that I agree. Trump is so cocky he pulls stunts like this for the fun of it. ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "The meeting could also be a bit awkward. In a March interview with Excelsior, a Mexico City newspaper, Nieto compared Trump with Hitler and Mussolini." --safari ...

.. Steve M.: "I think there's a bizarre belief in Trump World that he can be sold as a statesman.... They think we'll believe that Trump the trash talker is now a mature, thoughtful man we'd be proud to have as president. Then again, the mainstream media -- the Chuck Todds and Chris Cillizzas -- will probably swallow this BS. So maybe it's not so crazy." -- CW ...

... Anne Laurie of Balloon Juice: "Seeing [Steve] Bannon's greasy fingerprints convinces me, yes, it's all another publicity stunt to promote The Grift. Because even Deadbeat Don must have a dim idea by now that he's not gonna win the election, but he's got two months and counting of free media for his long con(s). And an all-networks tantrum about how he -- all True 'Mericans! -- have now been disrespected!!!! by a bunch of ingrate dark-skinned foreigners!!! -- is priceless advertising for mid-November's upcoming Trump-Breitbart News Network launch announcement." -- CW ...

... Washington Post Editors: "If it's Wednesday (or Friday, or Monday), it must be pivot day. Demanding consistency of Mr. Trump is like demanding it of the weather.... Yet is it really so pious to expect that a candidate for president might know his own mind with sufficient clarity to present it coherently for the American public?... According to Mr. Trump's (latest) campaign manager, his position on a deportation force is 'to be determined,' as is, well, just about everything else involving his views.... He has pandered so extravagantly, flip-flopped so brazenly and now pirouettes so audaciously that to guess his actual intentions, or even pretend that he knows them himself, is a fool's game. His rhetoric on immigration has been loathsome; it's been smarmy; it's been ambiguous." -- CW

By Driftglass.Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Donald Trump on Tuesday called the Democratic Party the 'party of slavery,' blaming them for oppressing African Americans. Speaking at a rally in Everett, Wash., Trump blasted Hillary Clinton and her party for taking black voters for granted. 'Remember .. the Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln. Not bad,' Trump said. 'It's also the party of freedom equality and opportunity -- people have forgotten it so long now. It is the Democratic Party that is the party of slavery, the party of Jim Crow and the party of opposition.'" -- CW ...

** Jamelle Bouie on what black voters hear when Donald Trump talks to about them: "The central issue is that Trump portrays black Americans not as able citizens who need to be convinced, but as mindless followers of a failed regime.... In [Trump's] narrative [which is similar to the "plantation" story described by other Republicans], black Americans are mere objects -- means to a partisan end.... [What Republicans don't get is that ]in much of the modern-day South, black Americans are the Democratic Party.... To understand [Northern cities] in terms of party affiliation -- neglecting the effects of deindustrialization, racism, and capital flight is to show profound ignorance of urban politics and problems. Beyond incoherent, the ideas underlying Trump's narrative are racist, full stop.... And if there's anything that defines the GOP in the present age for black voters, it's the outsized disrespect for [President] Obama...." ...

... CW: Now, isn't that odd. Republicans -- and especially Trump -- have spent eight years delegitimizing, disrespecting & diminishing our first black president, and black voters take it personally. Heads up, GOP. Your sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton aren't going over well with women, either.

Lisa Desjardins & Daniel Bush of NPR: "As the presidential election marathon breaks into a final sprint, the Trump campaign faces a jaw-dropping gap in the ground game: Hillary Clinton currently has more than three times the number of campaign offices in critical states than does Donald Trump.... As of Aug. 30, Hillary Clinton has 291 offices in those 15 battlegrounds. Donald Trump has 88.... Take three make-or-break states. Pennsylvania has two Trump offices right now. North Carolina, one. Florida, the biggest swing state prize, also has just one -- Trump's Sarasota headquarters. Those four Trump offices cover 165,000 square miles of critical election territory. Clinton has 100 offices in the same space." CW: Desjardins & Bush fail to mention that this isn't Trump's fault. With the school year beginning, Trump has had trouble finding enough 12-year-olds to run his field offices.

Donald Trump calls on Hillary to shut down her foundation. Meanwhile, we're all still begging him to choose a more natural color for his. -- Bette Midler, in a tweet

Stuart Rothenberg in the Washington Post: "For months, Donald Trump and members of his political team promised to put reliably Democratic states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Oregon into play. But now, with only two months until Election Day, it's clear that those promises were empty boasts.... Trump said in January, 'We are going to win New Jersey.' In May, he asserted, 'We are going to focus on New York.' He also promised, 'We're going to play heavy as an example in California,' along with, 'I put so many states in play: Michigan being one. Illinois.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** James West of Mother Jones: "[Trump's] New York modeling agency, Trump Model Management, has profited from using foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not permit them to work here, according to three former Trump models, all noncitizens, who shared their stories with Mother Jones.... Two of the former Trump models said Trump's agency encouraged them to deceive customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and told them to lie on customs forms about where they intended to live." A long read. --safari ...

     ... CW: The models allegedly also had to pay higher-than-market rents & other fees, plus Trump took 20 percent in commissions & charged the models additional "mysterious" agency fees. They said they felt they were treated like slaves. Donald Trump took "an active role" in the modeling agency.

Get to Know Your Trump Surrogates. David Edwards of RawStory: "Wayne Allen Root, who has spoken at presidential rallies with Donald Trump, this week called for stripping voting rights from welfare recipients and women who use 'free contraception' provided by the Affordable Care Act. During a discussion with radio host Rob Schilling on Monday, Root explained that conservatives would 'win every single election' if people who received government services were barred from voting. 'So if the people who paid the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we'd have landslide victories,' Root told Schilling. 'This explains everything! People with conflict of interest shouldn't be allowed to vote.'" --safari

Callum Brochers of the Washington Post: "After posting a cartoon Monday that depicts Hillary Clinton in blackface, pastor Mark Burns, a Donald Trump surrogate, quickly deleted the image from his Twitter account and apologized for spreading it. But the cartoonist who drew it, Tony Branco, is standing by his caricature.... 'I was just trying to point out in my way that she was pandering to black people, trying to fit in with black people.'... The media, Branco said, is 'trying to twist it into "Trump is a racist.'" That's how the mainstream press operates, he believes.'" CW: Branco sounds like a wonderful, sensitive guy.

Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: In her suit against Fox "News," former host Andrea Tantaros names a number of men, including former Sen. Scott Brown & correspondent John Roberts, as men who harassed her. She also names Bill O'Reilly in her complaint: O'Reilly "started sexually harassing her by, inter alia, (a) asking her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be 'very private,' and (b) telling her on more than one occasion that he could 'see [her] as a wild girl,' and that he believed that she had a 'wild side.'" In its motion responding to Tantaros' allegations, the network's attorneys rebut the allegations against Ailes and other non-defendants, like Brown, but they do not do so for O'Reilly. "Fox News left its meal ticket, the host of cable news’ leading program for years, dangling in the margins of a damaging lawsuit."

Other News & Views

Sarah Wheaton & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 111 federal prisoners on Tuesday, bringing his total to 673 as the administration tries to ramp up relief for nonviolent felons hit by decades-old sentencing requirements. Obama has granted 235 commutations in August alone, more than any other president in a single month, and he has granted more clemencies than the previous 10 presidents combined." -- CW

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Thousands of employees who review patents for the federal government potentially cheated taxpayers out of at least $18.3 million as they billed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for almost 300,000 hours they never worked, according to a new investigation. The investigation scheduled for release Wednesday by the independent watchdog for the Commerce Department, the patent office's parent agency, determined that the real scale of fraud is probably double those numbers.... The hours not worked could have helped the patent office whittle down a [huge] backlog it has struggled for years to shrink, the report said.... The watchdog's findings will not result in repercussions for any no-show employees.... The report faults agency leaders for failing to give managers crucial tools to prevent and detect time and attendance abuse despite ample evidence that it occurs." -- CW

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "... residents of the West Calumet Housing Complex [in East Chicago, Indiana,] learned recently that much of the soil outside their homes contained staggering levels of lead, one of the worst possible threats to children's health.... About 1,100 ... poor, largely black residents of West Calumet, including 670 children, [are] ... scrambling to find ... new home[s] after Mayor Anthony Copeland of East Chicago announced last month that the residents had to move out and the complex would be demolished.... [Residents] are asking why neither the state nor the federal Environmental Protection Agency told them just how toxic their soil was much sooner, and a timeline is emerging that suggests a painfully slow government process of confronting the problem.... People in this heavily industrialized city just south of Chicago are also asking why their governor, Mike Pence ... visited flood victims in Baton Rouge, La., this month while campaigning with Donald J. Trump, but has not found time to come to East Chicago." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Scott Bland of Politico: Billionaire financier George Soros "has channeled more than $3 million into seven local district-attorney campaigns in six states over the past year -- a sum that exceeds the total spent on the 2016 presidential campaign by all but a handful of rival super-donors. His money has supported African-American and Hispanic candidates for these powerful local roles, all of whom ran on platforms sharing major goals of Soros', like reducing racial disparities in sentencing and directing some drug offenders to diversion programs instead of to trial. It is by far the most tangible action in a progressive push to find, prepare and finance criminal justice reform-oriented candidates for jobs that have been held by longtime incumbents and serve as pipelines to the federal courts -- and it has inspired fury among opponents angry about the outside influence in local elections." CW: Yeah, because it's terrible to want to put the "justice" back in "criminal justice system."

Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The first scheduled passenger jet service in history from the United States to Cuba will take off Wednesday morning from Fort Lauderdale, another important step toward normalized relations between two former Cold War foes. It has been so long since an airline in the United States flew a regularly scheduled flight to the island that the last time it happened, the passengers flew on a propeller plane, said Marty St. George, the executive vice president of JetBlue. JetBlue ... is expected to become the first American airline to fly scheduled service to Cuba in more than 50 years. The 9:45 a.m. flight will land in Santa Clara, about 175 miles east of Havana. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will be on board." -- CW

Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "... Apple told shareholders it did not consider the European commission's decision to collect $14.5bn in back taxes final on Tuesday and was 'confident that it will be overturned', but analysts warned the picture was more complex. In a note posted to the company's investor relations page, the company said it did 'not expect any near-term impact on our financial results' and that it was prepared to pursue the matter in court for years to come." -- CW ...

... Silicon Valley Tax Evaders Have a Sad. Olivia Solon: "The reaction in Silicon Valley -- which has long used creative accounting to outsmart the tax man -- as well as the wider tech community has been one of shock and disappointment." -- CW

Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Facing multiple allegations of sexually harassing female employees along with lawsuits from two of his accusers, to say nothing of advising Donald Trump on presidential debate prep, ousted Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes apparently still has time to plot the downfall of perceived foes.... In what seemed timed as a preemptive strike [against Gabe Sherman, whose expose' of Ailes will be published in the upcoming issue of New York], two of Ailes's attorneys -- Susan Estrich ... and Mark Mukasey -- contacted The Daily Beast in the past day to attack the journalist in slashing, nasty, and deeply personal terms." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Michael Wines of the New York Times: "... a federal appeals court overturned much of North Carolina's sweeping 2013 election law last month, saying it had been deliberately intended to discourage African-Americans from voting.... In each of the state's 100 counties, local elections boards scheduled new hearings and last week filed the last of their new election rules with the state. Now, critics are accusing some of the boards, all of which are controlled by Republicans, of staging an end run around a court ruling they are supposed to carry out. Like the law that was struck down, say voting rights advocacy groups and some Democrats who are contesting the rewritten election plans, many election plans have been intentionally written to suppress the black vote.... In [one] county where Democrats outnumber Republicans by better than two to one, and four in 10 voters are black, the election plan limits voting to a single weekend day, and on weekdays demands that residents, including those who are poor and do not own cars, make long trips to cast a ballot." -- CW

Frank Main & Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times: "The Chicago Police Department formally moved Tuesday to fire five Chicago Police officers in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald -- including Officer Jason Van Dyke, who fired at the knife-wielding teen 16 times -- and four other officers who allegedly lied in their accounts of what happened. The Chicago Police Board, which metes out discipline in cases of alleged officer misconduct, received administrative charges seeking the firings of Van Dyke, Sgt. Stephen Franko and Officers Daphne Sebastian, Janet Mondragon and Ricardo Viramontes." -- CW ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Chicago police superintendent [Eddie Johnson] on Tuesday recommended firing the officer who shot and killed Laquan McDonald, the black teenager whose death in 2014 continues to reverberate through the country's second-biggest local police force. The move comes not long after Chicago police officials said they would recommend firing officers for lying about McDonald's death, a decision that followed an inspector general's report calling for them to be dismissed. These officers had been relieved of policing powers this month after being accused of delivering false reports, a spokesman said.... The city's top police officer also called for firing four other officers whom he accused of lying about the fatal shooting" -- CW

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Expanding the definition of what it means to be a parent, especially for same-sex couples, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a caretaker who is not related to, or the adoptive guardian of, a child could still be permitted to ask for custody and visitation rights. The ruling emerged from a dispute between a gay couple from Chautauqua County, known in court papers only as Brooke S.B. and Elizabeth A. C.C." -- CW

Boing Boing. Eric Russell of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "Gov. Paul LePage [R-Nuts] sent sharply conflicting signals Tuesday about how he would respond to mounting pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to amend for his recent actions. In a morning radio interview, LePage raised the possibility that he may not finish his second term. But six hours later, in a tweet posted from his Twitter account, he discounted that possibility." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Scott Thistle of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "The [Maine] House Republicans decided they would stand by the governor Tuesday following a more than two-hour private meeting where they discussed recent racially charged comments LePage has made at series of public meetings and an obscenity-laced voice mail the governor left for a Democratic lawmaker last week." CW: IOW, Maine Republican "leaders" are okay with describing minorities as "the enemy" and threatening a legislator. Voters may want to keep this in mind.

David Edwards of RawStory: "Tennessee state officials confirmed this week that state Rep. Jeremy Durham (R), who has been accused of sexual misdeeds with 22 women, invested campaign funds in a company owned by a top Republican donor.... Earlier this year, a report from the state attorney accused Durham of sexual misdeeds with 22 women, including sexual harassment allegations and sexual intercourse with a 20-year-old college student in his legislative office.... Although the personal use of campaign funds is against the law in Tennessee, [State Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance Executive Director Drew] Rawlins said that the bureau had not determined if the investments were illegal." --safari

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "The FBI thinks that Lyle Jeffs, the polygamist religious leader accused in a multimillion-dollar food stamp scheme, disappeared from house arrest this summer by coating his ankle monitor in olive oil and sliding it off.... But in court documents filed last week, Jeffs's attorney has put forth a divine reason for his disappearance -- the miracle of rapture.... The FBI isn't buying the heavenly intervention angle. The organization issued a wanted poster for Jeffs...." CW: You can see why people don't trust the government: the feds are a bunch of heathens!

Way Beyond

Marina Lopes & Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazil's Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from power, in the final act of an impeachment process that has divided the country. If a two-thirds majority of senators -- 54 out of 81 -- votes to oust Rousseff, as is widely anticipated, she will be dismissed." -- CW

Anne Barnard &> Douglas Schorzman of the New York Times: "The Islamic State;s spokesman and overseer of external terrorist operations, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in the Syrian province of Aleppo, the group's news outlet reported on Tuesday. A founding member of the group, Mr. Adnani, a 39-year-old Syrian, was its chief propagandist, running an operation that put out slickly produced videos of beheadings and massacres that shocked the world and sent a rush of recruits running to join the group in Syria." -- CW

Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "An American consultant who has been detained in China for more than a year has been formally charged with spying, news that could further complicate U.S.-China ties ahead of President Obama's trip to Asia. Sandy Phan-Gillis, 56, of Houston, was arrested in March 2015 while traveling in southern China with a trade delegation and has been held without charge since." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

CW: The photo below relates to a comment by Ophelia M., below. I cropped it, a lot.

He shoulda worn a burkini.