Clinton, Trump stump in battleground states
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Hillary Clinton focused on plugging down-ballot Granite State Democrats in a play to swing the Senate and House back under her party’s control, even as Donald Trump insisted that victory is in sight despite “phony polls” and heavy-handed rigging by the “crooked” media.
“Folks, we’re winning,” Trump told a crowd in Florida yesterday. “We’re winning. We’re winning. These thieves and crooks — the media — without the media she would be nothing.”
Trump at a separate roundtable yesterday predicted, “We’re going to win Florida big” and blasted polls, “heavily weighted with Democrats,” designed to lower the turnout in Clinton’s favor.
“What they do is they try to suppress the vote,” Trump said. “This way people don’t go out and vote.”
Yet Trump did tout an Investor’s Business Daily tracking poll showing the race tied and a Rasmussen survey putting him up 2 points.
Meanwhile, Clinton spent considerable time during a rally at St. Anselm College firing up supporters for down-ballot Democratic races, appearing on-stage with Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is in a close Senate race against U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte; Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Ann Kuster; and gubernatorial candidate Colin Van Ostern.
That could be a sign the Clinton campaign feels more confident in her own White House chances and now wants to secure a Democratic House and Senate.
Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren tried to mobilize female voters at the Clinton rally by riffing on Trump’s “such a nasty woman” comment from last week’s third presidential debate.
“Nasty women have really had it with Donald Trump,” Warren told a packed crowd that the Clinton campaign estimated at 4,000.
“Nasty women are tough. Nasty women are smart. And nasty women vote. On Nov. 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever,” the Cambridge Democrat said.
Trump’s “such a nasty woman” remark came during the debate as Clinton suggested Trump would find a way to avoid paying the taxes she plans to level on the wealthy.
“Donald Trump aggressively disrespected more than half the human beings in this country,” said Warren. “He thinks because he has money he can call women fat pigs and bimbos. ... He thinks because he has a mouthful of Tic Tacs that he can force himself on any woman in groping distance.”
Both campaigns have now successfully used insults from the opposition against them, with Clinton’s camp trying to rally “nasty women” and Trump’s side riling up his “deplorables,” a term the former secretary of state used at a fundraiser to dismiss her rival’s backers.
Clinton also went after Trump’s claim that he will keep the nation “in suspense” over whether he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election.
“That is a direct threat to our democracy,” Clinton said. “I’m not going to try to call it anything else. All this talk about the election being rigged ... that is a direct threat to our democracy.”
Trump continues a threeday swing through three battleground states, beginning in Florida today before heading to North Carolina and Ohio later in the week.
Clinton will also hold rallies in Florida the next two days and continue to rely on a network of surrogates including Warren, who will be in North Carolina today. Clinton will also campaign with first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday in North Carolina.