Clinton seeks ‘boost’ from Sanders, Obama

Trump digs in after debate

WASHINGTON, Sept 28, (Agencies): Hillary Clinton sought Wednesday to build on her widely praised debate performance by making a direct appeal to younger voters whose enthusiasm drove Bernie Sanders’ unlikely campaign.

Clinton was joining Sanders on the campaign trail for the first time since they held a “unity” rally in July in an attempt to unify the Democratic Party. Since then, Clinton has continued struggling to win over young Americans who formed a critical pillar of the coalition that twice elected President Barack Obama.

The setting for the latest display of unity between Clinton and her primary rival — New Hampshire — was indicative of the areas where Clinton’s campaign believes she still has the most work to do. Sanders, from neighboring Vermont, resoundingly defeated Clinton in the February primary in New Hampshire, a battleground state in the November election.

Concerned that his supporters have yet to embrace Clinton’s campaign, Obama said he’s frustrated that people “just do not give her credit.” He suggested one reason was because she’s a woman and the US has never had a female president. In a radio interview airing Wednesday with host Steve Harvey, Obama implored his supporters to make sure they’re registered and to vote for Clinton.

Clinton

Legacy

“My legacy’s on the ballot,” Obama said. “All the work we’ve done over the last eight years is on the ballot.”

A day after Donald Trump appeared defensive over his debate performance, the Republican was working to flip the script. He’s claiming the debate was a success for him too, with his campaign saying it had raised about $18 million for Republicans in the day after Monday’s debate.

Both candidates were putting a renewed focus on facetime with voters in the most competitive states during the lull between the first debate and the next major campaign showdown: the vice presidential debate on Tuesday. Trump planned rallies Wednesday in Iowa in Wisconsin in addition to a speech in Illinois.

Trump was hoping to regain his footing after veering into problematic territory the day before, when he revived his decades-old criticism of a former beauty pageant winner for gaining “a massive amount of weight.” Trump’s combative tone after Monday’s debate — he also lashed out at the debate moderator and complained about his microphone — was perceived as a tell by the Republican nominee that he knew his debate performance had been lacking.

Aiming to demonstrate a broad base of support among both Democrats and Republicans, Clinton’s campaign was also dispatching Michelle Obama to hold a pair of events in Pennsylvania, a state Clinton is hoping to use as a firewall to prevent Trump from claiming the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Highly popular in her party, Mrs Obama has been one of the most effective campaigners for Democrats this year.

Clinton was also showcasing a new endorsement from a Republican: former Virginia Sen John Warner. He was to appear Wednesday in the Washington suburbs with Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate and Virginia’s current senator.

Defensive

Clinton sought on Tuesday to keep Trump on the defensive a day after their first US presidential debate with accusations he is a sexist, racist and tax dodger, while Trump suggested he would “hit her harder” next time by bringing up her husband’s infidelity.

While the New York real estate mogul found himself in another controversy over his fresh insults about the weight of a former beauty pageant winner, Clinton tried to keep up the momentum after her forceful debate performance.

She told reporters that during the debate, Trump “was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue, offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and off-putting.”

For his part, Trump, speaking at a rally in the battleground state of Florida on Tuesday, said of the debate: “On issue after issue, Secretary Clinton defended the terrible status quo — while I laid out our plan to bring jobs, security and prosperity back to the American people.”

A defensive Trump gave Clinton plenty of fresh material for the next phase of her presidential campaign on Tuesday, choosing to publicly reopen and relitigate some her most damaging attacks.

The day after his first general election debate, Trump blamed the moderator and a bad microphone and said he was holding back to avoid embarrassing Clinton. Next time, he threatened, he might get more personal and make a bigger political issue of former President Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities.

Things are already getting plenty personal. On Monday night, Trump brushed off Clinton’s debate claim that he’d once shamed a former Miss Universe winner for her weight. But then he dug deeper the next day — extending the controversy over what was one of his most negative debate night moments.

“She gained a massive amount of weight. It was a real problem. We had a real problem,” Trump told “Fox and Friends” about Alicia Machado, the 1996 winner of the pageant he once owned.

The comments were reminiscent of previous times when Trump has attacked private citizens in deeply personal terms. Earlier this month, he was interrupted by the pastor of a traditionally African-American church in Flint, Michigan, after breaking his agreement not to be political in his remarks. Though Trump abided by her wishes, he went after her the next morning on TV saying she was “a nervous mess” and that he thought “something was up.”

In July, Trump assailed the parents of Humayun Khan, a Muslim US soldier who was killed in Iraq in 2004, after the young man’s father spoke out against the Republican at the Democratic National Convention.

“I watched her very carefully and I was also holding back,” Trump said of Clinton, reflecting on the debate at an evening rally Tuesday in Melbourne, Florida. “I didn’t want to do anything to embarrass her.”

It’s unclear whether a Trump attack on Bill Clinton’s infidelities may help or hurt his appeal.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump battled to break out of deadlocked polls Tuesday after clashing in their first televised debate, lashing each other with insults on the campaign trail in critical states.

An exuberant Clinton came out swinging, condemning her Republican rival as “dangerously incoherent” with an energy that suggested she was exiting perhaps the worst period of her 15-month campaign beset by blunders in belittling Trump supporters and laid up with pneumonia.