Knock Knock: Clinton Clinton bumps into Donald Trump in the street, "Pardon Me". Trump provides transportation for Hillary to the Al Smith Charity Dinner.

Speeches start at 1:15:00

Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump was so concerned about her health that he sent a car to take her to a dinner they both attended last night. “Actually it was a hearse,” she joked. Trump said that Clinton had accidentally bumped into him and said: “Pardon me.” He politely replied: “Let me talk to you about that after I get into office.”

This year’s campaign has been conspicuously short of humour, but Thursday night’s Al Smith dinner in New York provided a welcome dose of it. Because this is 2016, however, the white tie event came with a cutting Trumpian edge, as the Republican’s jokes gave way to unvarnished attacks taken from his stump speeches, which drew jeers from the great and the good of New York.

Joe Concha, a reporter for The Hill, said he sat near one man who repeatedly yelled at Trump: “You’re a jackass.” But he said Clinton got some boos too, including when she said Trump had dismantled a teleprompter because “it is harder when you are translating from the original Russian”.

The dinner came 24 hours after the third and final presidential debate, which yielded Trump’s refusal to pledge that he’d accept the election result, but probably didn’t change the race “bigly” (as Trump would say) one way or the other.

One Countdown source at the New York dinner said Clinton came across as far more relaxed and affable than usual, while Trump's staffers appeared downbeat. In the latest RealClearPolitics poll-of-polls, Clinton is 6 points ahead in a two-way national race and has consistently led by at least 4 points since October 6.

Not helping Trump’s case with female voters on Friday was Brian Babin, a Trump-supporting Texas congressman, who was asked on Fox News about Trump’s debate comment that his rival was “such a nasty woman”. Babin, having explained that he was a genteel southerner, replied: “I think sometimes a lady needs to be told when she’s being nasty.”

We’re now just 18 days away from the election. One Republican operative today told me he had some hope that with the unpredictable debates out of the way Trump might be able to get back on script and focus on hammering Clinton, as he did with some success in September. Still, he said, a win for the Democrat remained the most likely outcome.

I’m also thinking about bombshells. If anyone is sitting on explosive material that could wound either candidate – a secret video, a leaked email or something else – the prime time for releasing it is in the next two weeks. What could be out there?

Trump media feud moves from Megyn Kelly to ‘Morning Joe’







Donald Trump’s media feuds have moved from Fox News’s Megyn Kelly to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The Republican presidential nominee's fights with television personalities and reporters have been a consistent theme of his campaign, and one that has been a way to rally voters to his side.


Trump can still draw roars from a crowd by ripping the press, but political strategists say Trump’s feuds are limiting his efforts to build out his brand as he seeks to make a comeback in polls and bring in new supporters.

Much of Trump’s base watch him on Fox News, but Jennefer Witter, chief executive officer for the New York-based public-relations firm the Boreland Group, said he’ll have a hard time attracting undecided voters without appearing on other channels and shows.

“There simply are not enough voters within that category to get him into the Oval Office,” said Witter. “He needs independents and disaffected Democrats to build his numbers.”

While Trump battled with members of the media during the presidential primaries, he also had a strategy of appearing everywhere and doing countless interviews. That has now changed.

Trump has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business 18 times in August — and on all other networks twice.

Trump was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on Thursday, his first appearance on CNN since June 13. He also did a phone interview this month with CNBC.

Once a regular guest on “Morning Joe,” Trump has now gone 100 days without an appearance on the program.

The fighting between Trump and the widely watched hosts has also become intensely personal. On Monday, Trump tweeted that he would “tell the real story” of Scarborough and “his very insecure long-time girlfriend” Brzezinski. In another tweet, he called Brzezinski “a neurotic and not very bright mess!”

Scarborough fired back: “Neurotic and not very bright? Look in the mirror.”

Trump hasn’t been on CBS since July 17, when he introduced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his presidential running mate on “60 Minutes.”

He was last on NBC on July 24 for an interview with Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” and he appeared on ABC one week later for an interview with George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

Experts who spoke to The Hill were almost unanimous in saying that it would be difficult for Trump to broaden his audience without appearing on more networks.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump currently trails Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by 6 points nationally and in every battleground state by varying margins.

“Trump’s recent media strategy is odd, to say the least,” said Brian Hart, founder of Flackable, a national public-relations agency based in Wyomissing, Pa.

Hart noted that Clinton has her own press problems.

She hasn’t held a formal press conference since Dec. 4, 2015, and has come under increasing criticism from the media for avoiding questions.

“It’s left the door wide open for the Trump campaign, but instead of dominating the cable news circuit, as he did so effectively during the primaries, Trump has allowed his surrogates and members of his campaign to replace him on those networks,” Hart said.

Kelly was the first personality in the media with whom Trump really fought during the primaries, and the battle appeared to pay off for him, as he won headlines and emerged as an anti-establishment force within the Republican Party.

He, Kelly and Fox have for the most part put their ill feelings aside, though a few weeks ago he told Kelly to “get your facts straight” on his Islamic State in Iraq and Syria strategy.

Trump’s attacks on the media have gone well beyond the broadcast networks since he began his unorthodox campaign more than 14 months ago. He's also revoked the press credentials of The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and Politico.

Once a ubiquitous presence on CNN, Trump now rarely appears on the network. “Don Lemon is a lightweight — dumb as a rock,” Trump tweeted on Aug. 10 of the CNN host, who once frequently interviewed him.

Witter said Trump should cast a broader net and “reach out to outlets that he has banned such as the Washington Post; to those with which he has disagreements, such as MSNBC; and to the black and Latino media — TV One and Telemundo among many — that he has thus far shunned.”

Trump was once a regular on “The Howard Stern Show,” where he discussed a number of topics you wouldn’t expect a presidential candidate to talk about.

Nonetheless, some observers think it wouldn’t be crazy for Trump to go back on Stern.

“I think it would be wise for Trump to go back and appear on ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and other non-predictable broadcast outlets,” said Chad Wilkerson, a former cable news executive producer and current CEO of Philadelphia-based Liberty Media Strategies.

Clinton appeared on Kimmel’s show this week and made fun of Trump’s questions about her health.

“I also think Trump should appear on 'The Howard Stern Show.' Howard is a great interviewer and the two have always had great chemistry on the air,” Wilkerson said.

Jeff McCall, a professor of media studies at Depauw University, agrees there's an opportunity for Trump to draw a sharp contrast with Clinton, who also has issues engaging with the press as a whole.

“If Trump were to more broadly engage the broader media landscape, he can provide a clear contrast to Hillary Clinton, who is clearly playing a 'run out the clock' strategy with regard to the press,” McCall said.

“Trump should speak to any and all news outlets and mention during each of those interviews that he is there to speak to the electorate while Hillary ducks the tough questioning and won't even hold a press conference.”

But a more-exposed Trump, McCall said, only works if he stays on the narrative the campaign wishes to articulate.

“If he expands his media range, but has flimsy or off-target messages, he will just contribute to the perception that his messaging and campaign are rather untethered,” he said.

God save America from Donny T .... the Meshuganah TrumptheRump gets his knickers in a knot with CNN

Have you read the Constitution, Mr. Trump?

Donald Trump attacks CNN in tweetstorm

Trump: Khan has 'no right' to claims


By the looks of Donald Trump's Twitter feed, you might think he is running against CNN, not Hillary Clinton.

On Monday afternoon Trump fired off six tweets in a row attacking CNN's news coverage and accusing the network of being the "press shop for Hillary Clinton."


He commented that "people believe CNN these days almost as little as they believe Hillary....that's really saying something!"

Later Monday, he returned to the subject again with three new tweets accusing the network of biased coverage.

It is unclear if Trump personally posted the messages or if a campaign staffer posted them under his name.

Some of the anti-CNN tweets were posted at the exact same time the network was televising an interview with a high-profile Clinton critic -- Pat Smith, the mother of an American who was killed during the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. But Trump made no mention of that.

The tweets came just a couple of hours before CNN was due to release a new national poll about the presidential race, leading to speculation that perhaps Trump was pre-emptively assailing CNN in an attempt to discredit the poll results.

The timing was also noteworthy because Trump has been playing defense for days amid widespread coverage of Khizr Khan's anti-Trump speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Khan, the father of a Muslim-American Army captain slain in Iraq in 2004, repudiated Trump and paid tribute to his son in the Thursday night speech.

Khan's speech -- and Trump's critical comments about the Khan family -- have been a top story on CNN and other channels ever since.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he does not watch CNN, but his tweets seem to hint otherwise.

On July 17, he said "I don't watch," but one week later, after the Republican convention, he wrote, "The @CNN panels are so one sided, almost all against Trump. @FoxNews is so much better and the ratings are much higher. Don't watch CNN!"

Then the Democratic convention happened and Khan's speech made news. On Sunday evening Trump tweeted, "Wow, it is unbelievable how distorted, one-sided and biased the media is against us. The failing @nytimes is a joke. @CNN is laughable!"

On Monday morning he tweeted a fresh complaint about Khan "viciously" attacking him at the same time Khan was on CNN.

Then on Monday afternoon, shortly before taking the stage at a town hall event in Ohio, Trump lashed out in his tweetstorm of sorts.

"CNN anchors are completely out of touch with everyday people worried about rising crime, failing schools and vanishing jobs," he wrote.

He asked if CNN would "send its cameras to the border to show the massive unreported crisis now unfolding -- or are they worried it will hurt Hillary?"

In fact, CNN and other news outlets have covered border issues in depth for years.

Trump also asked, "When will we see stories from CNN on Clinton Foundation corruption and Hillary's pay-for-play at State Department?"

CNN has published numerous investigations into Clinton controversies, including issues involving the family foundation and connections between foundation donors and State Department activities. So have many other news outlets.

Some of CNN's stories about these subjects have quoted Trump.

At the rally on Monday afternoon, Trump said he is refusing to grant any interviews with CNN, calling the channel's reporting dishonest, and saying Fox News has been better.

For more than a month, Trump has been appearing regularly on Fox and eschewing most other TV network interview requests.

Accusations of media bias tend to rally Trump supporters to his side.

Monday's tweetstorm was just the latest salvo in a year-long anti-media campaign by Trump. The GOP nominee has taken media criticism to new heights -- or new lows, depending on your perspective. He frequently uses the news media as a foil during his speeches and interviews.

Last week, he aroused a crowd by falsely claiming that CNN had turned off its camera in the back of the room.

The anti-media messaging, while effective with Trump's base of supporters, may get in the way of his other general campaign themes.

Journalist Justin Green of Independent Journal called Trump's CNN complaints "exhausting" in a tweet on Monday.

He noted that "7 out of Trump's 15 tweets in last 24 hours have been about CNN."