Polls ‘phony,’ he’s winning, Trump insists
Clinton in N.H. to support governor in bid for Senate
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A defiant Donald Trump blamed his campaign struggles on “phony polls” from the “disgusting” media on Monday, fighting to energize his most loyal supporters as his path to the presidency narrows.
With just 14 days until the election, the Republi- can nominee campaigned in battleground Florida as his team conced- ed publicly as well as privately that crucial Pennsylvania may be slipping away to Democrat Hillary Clinton. That would leave him only a razor-thin pathway to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House on Nov. 8.
Despite continued difficulties with women and members of minority groups, Trump refuses to soften his message in the campaign’s final days to broaden his coalition. Yet he offered an optimistic front in the midst of a three-day tour through Florida as thousands began voting there in person.
“I believe we’re actually winning,” Trump declared during a round-table discussion with farmers next to a pumpkin patch, where he also railed against what he deemed “phony” polls and misleading reporting by “disgusting” media such as The New York Times.
A day after suggesting the First Amendment to the Constitution may give journalists too much freedom, he insisted that the media are promoting biased polls to discourage his supporters
from voting.
“The media isn’t just against me. They’re against all of you,” Trump told cheering supporters later in St. Augustine. “They’re against what we represent.”
Clinton worked to slam the door on his candidacy in swing state of New Hampshire while eyeing a possible Democratic majority in the Senate.
The former secretary of state campaigned alongside New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who in a U.S. Senate race is challenging Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte. Also with Clinton was Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who seized on recent revelations of Trump’s predatory sexual language and several allegations of sexual assault.
“He thinks that because he has a mouth full of Tic Tacs, he can force himself on any woman within groping distance,” Warren charged. “I’ve got news for you Donald: Women have had it with guys like you.”
Riffing on Trump’s reference to Clinton as “a nasty woman” during their third presidential debate, Warren suggested that women would be the ones to dash Trump’s White House hopes.
“Yeah, get this Donald: Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote.”
As Trump campaigned Monday in St. Augustine, his supporters said they were unfazed by Trump’s “nasty woman” comment or Warren’s attempts to raise it.
“Pocahontas has lied before,” said Cleta Van Horn, 78, of St. Augustine, referring to a disparaging nickname Trump often applies to the senator.
Trump has denied all of the recent allegations against him, and he addressed a new one Monday in an interview with WGIR radio in New Hampshire.
He called the accusations “total fiction” and lashed out at former adult film performer Jessica Drake, who said Saturday that he had grabbed and kissed her without permission and offered her money to visit his hotel room a decade ago.
“One said, ‘He grabbed me on the arm.’ And she’s a porn star,” Trump said. He added, “Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”
With Election Day two weeks away, Trump’s electoral map looks bleak.
The Republican National Committee ignored him altogether in mailers to New Hampshire voters set to be distributed later this week, according to material obtained by The Associated Press. The mail focuses instead on Clinton’s credibility, featuring a picture of her and former President Bill Clinton and the words, “No More of The Lying Clintons.”
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway outlined a path to 270 electoral votes on Sunday that banks on victories in Florida, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina along with New Hampshire and Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Assuming Trump wins all of those — and he currently trails in some — he would earn the exact number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency and no more.
Noticeably absent from the list was Pennsylvania, a state that a top adviser privately conceded was slipping away despite Trump’s aggressive courtship of the state’s white working-class voters. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.
Florida was largely the focus Monday as in-person early voting began across 50 counties, including the state’s largest: Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach. Remaining counties will start in the coming week.
Early voting by mail has been underway for weeks. Nearly 1.2 million voters in Florida have already mailed in ballots.
Clinton plans to visit today and Wednesday, while her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, was making two Florida appearances on Monday. He took a shot at Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the first, a reminder that Clinton’s team is fighting to retake a Senate majority.
Kaine noted that Rubio previously called Trump a dangerous “con artist,” though the senator currently supports him.
Democrats would take the Senate majority if they pick up four seats and Clinton wins the White House.
Trump’s difficulties are evident in this week’s travel plans, which include a possible stop in Arizona. A Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won there in 20 years, yet polls show Trump in a close race.
Republicans look worse in New Hampshire, a state Trump must win in the scenario his campaign manager outlined.
“Women voters can sway elections here,” said Republican strategist Ryan Williams. “And he’s doing nothing to reach out to them.”
$17M STORM CLAIM
Meanwhile, in investigating Trump’s claim that he received a $17 million insurance payment in 2005 for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, The Associated Press said it has
found little evidence of such large-scale damage.
Two years after a series of storms, the real estate businessman said he didn’t know how much had been spent on repairs, but acknowledged he pocketed some of the money. He transferred funds into his personal accounts, saying that under the terms of his policy “you didn’t have to reinvest it.”
“Landscaping, roofing, walls, painting, leaks, artwork in the — you know, the great tapestries, tiles, Spanish tiles, the beach, the erosion,” he said of the storm damage. “It’s still not what it was.”
Trump’s description of extensive damage does not match the versions of Mar-a-Lago members and even Trump loyalists. In an interview about Mar-a-Lago’s history, Trump’s longtime former butler, Anthony Senecal, recalled no catastrophic damage. He said Hurricane Wilma, the last of a string of storms that barreled through in 2004 and 2005, flattened trees behind the estate, but the house itself only lost some roof tiles.
“That house has never been seriously damaged,” said Senecal, discussing Mar-a-Lago’s luck with hurricanes. “I was there for all of them.”
Just over two weeks after Wilma, Trump hosted 370 guests at Mar-a-Lago for the wedding of his son Donald Jr. Wedding photographs by Getty Images showed the house, pools, cabanas and landscaping seemingly in good repair.
Valuations for Mar-a-Lago are subjective, but Forbes estimated the 110,000-square-foot property’s value at $150 million in its most recent appraisal of Trump’s net worth. Tim Frank, Palm Beach’s planning administrator at the time of the hurricanes, said $17 million in work would have required “dozens, maybe scores of workers.”
Palm Beach building department records showed no permits for construction on that scale after the storms. The only permits that appeared hurricane-related were $3,000 in repairs to storm-damaged outdoor lighting and the vacuuming of sand from the property’s beachfront pool. Likewise, records of the city’s Landmarks and Preservation Commission reflected no repair work conducted after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.
The $17 million Mar-a-Lago insurance payment surfaced during a 2007 deposition in Trump’s unsuccessful libel lawsuit against journalist Tim O’Brien, whom Trump accused of underestimating his wealth. As part of the case, O’Brien’s attorneys were permitted to review Trump’s financial records, including some from the Mar-a-Lago Club. They asked Trump to quantify the damage and explain why he had pocketed money instead of spending it on repairs.
Trump said he could not remember which hurricane had damaged Mar-a-Lago or when it hit.
“We continue to spend the money because we continue to suffer the ravages of that hurricane,” Trump said.
The insurance adjuster who assessed the insurance claim, Hank Stein of VeriClaim Inc., said there had been damage to Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach and damage to Mar-a-Lago’s roof and landscaping. Stein called his review “a thorough investigation” but could not remember details. Trump declined to provide the AP with records about the insurance claim or answer specific questions about damage at Mar-a-Lago.
Stein, who has since left VeriClaim for another firm, said he remembered water damage from rain after windows to an observation deck atop the mansion blew open. “I wish I could give you some more information on the breakdown,” he said.