Not to be outdone, Hillary responded, “Okay, Donald, I know you’re into big diversion tonight—anything to avoid talking about your campaign exploding and the way Republicans are leaving you.”
Finally, Trump told the world that Hillary “has tremendous hate in her heart.”
It was an exhausting ninety minutes, and at the end a question from an audience member suggested that each of the candidates say something good about the other.
Hillary complimented the Trump children. Trump said Mrs. Clinton was persistent: “she doesn’t give up.”
Then Donald Trump extended his hand, and Hillary shook it.
With hate in her heart?
* * *
SIXTY-SIX MILLION AMERICANS watched the second debate, down about sixteen million viewers from the first one. That’s interesting because with the Access Hollywood tape, there was scandal, and that usually leads to a bigger audience.
Most pundits and reporters totally missed the most important story in St. Louis. With his campaign tottering, Donald Trump pulled off a bold strategy to avoid defeat before a single vote was cast. His audacity, going on the offensive, had worked again.
Thus, candidate Trump lived to fight another day. Two debates down, one to go.
Las Vegas beckons.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
OCTOBER 19, 2016
LATE AFTERNOON
America’s premier party town welcomes gamblers above all others, and the gambler-in-chief has arrived.
Donald Trump can easily see a hotel bearing his name just off the famous Las Vegas Strip. It’s another sweet deal for him: no direct involvement, the company that owns the building paying Trump millions simply for the privilege of using his name.
There is no casino inside the hotel, but it is a first-class operation. You would be comfortable staying there even if you didn’t approve of Trump. The food is good, the grounds spotless, affluence everywhere.
This is what candidate Trump is selling as he prepares for his third and final debate against an increasingly dour Hillary Clinton. Well-managed success for the entire country is what Trump constantly promotes. “Make America Great Again.” Don’t believe the candidate? Check out that hotel with his name on it.
But Donald Trump may not get the chance to impose “greatness” on the nation. Just this morning, a poll was released that cannot please the candidate. With less than three weeks until the election, Trump is running well behind Hillary Clinton, according to the national survey taken by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
It is Clinton 47 percent, Trump 40 percent among “likely voters.”
There is, however, another significant question in the poll: Is the news biased against Trump? Fifty-five percent say, yes, it is; 42 percent believe it is not.
So, potential voters are paying attention.
The data on the press suggests a certain amount of sympathy for candidate Trump. If voters despised him, they would not see negative coverage as “unfair.” Many folks believe American media power is now being used to help Hillary and the Democrats. Fair play is a traditional American attribute, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that when it comes to covering Donald Trump, the press is not in the fairness business.
While the Clinton campaign is happy with its lead in the polls, there are a few disturbing signals. Hillary’s trustworthy poll numbers are averaging around 30 percent, and her “likability” is very low as well. Just about every presidential poll confirms that.
In addition, there is uncertainty about African American support, which could be the deciding factor for the Democrats in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Four years ago, black voters turned out in record numbers to back Barack Obama’s reelection. In this campaign, more than a few observers believe Hillary Clinton is not really connecting with African Americans, as hard as she might try.
Nevertheless, as the two candidates take the stage at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the numbers indicate ultimate success for candidate Clinton.
Her White House dream may be just a few weeks away.
* * *
THE THIRD DEBATE is dull, perhaps because just ten days ago, Trump and Clinton tore each other up in St. Louis.
Tonight, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace tries to keep things moving, but the truth is that Americans have heard it all before and the political rhetoric is getting tiresome.
Yes, yes, yes, we know Hillary supports “reproductive rights.”
Sure, sure, sure, Donald will make great deals that will lead to prosperity.
We. Get. It.
There are less personal attacks this evening, although candidate Trump calls Hillary a “nasty woman” after she implies that he dodges taxes.
Sensing that the debate is a nothing, Donald Trump throws one verbal hand grenade, knowing it will be the only thing people will remember from the drowsy proceedings. When asked if he will accept the result of the upcoming election, Trump instantly becomes a provocateur: “I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense.”
Vintage Trump. He understands perfectly what will happen next. Social media will explode, cable news will yammer on about it for days. The news cycle will be Trump, more Trump, and, finally, Trump.
Was Hillary even at the debate?
It’s exactly like getting paid for lending his name to a hotel. His brand is in lights.
What many Americans still do not understand is that Donald Trump does not care if you dislike what he says or what he stands for. He does not spend time analyzing pros and cons. He wants action, reaction, and victory. He believes notoriety leads to winning. There are millions of Americans who respect decisiveness and simplicity. Trump has designed the MAGA hats for them.
That’s right! Make America Great Again! ’Cause it’s not that great right now.
But as the Nevada desert cools down from the night air, time is growing short. Donald Trump has used controversy and bold behavior to get close to the mountaintop. He has almost pulled off the most stunning political power play in American history. Whatever the vote turns out to be, he has done an amazing thing.
He now needs to close the deal. But he’s running behind. Something more will have to happen if Donald Trump is to win the White House.
And although he cannot possibly know it on the Nevada stage, that something more is on the way.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
WASHINGTON, DC
OCTOBER 28, 2016
FRIDAY MORNING
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the nation’s most respected law enforcement agency. That is, it was until it ran headlong into the duet of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Now no one really knows how much damage the Bureau will eventually suffer after all the investigations of it are complete.
It was the revelation that Secretary of State Clinton used her private email server to conduct State Department business that began the FBI’s spiral downward. President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch clearly wanted the investigation wrapped up quickly for political reasons—Mrs. Clinton was poised to take over for Obama if she could defeat Donald Trump.
But then things began to get “complicated.” Hillary Clinton had no defense; she did it. Her explanation was that she used her personal email account for “convenience.”
Then Loretta Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton in Arizona, putting the Justice Department in a very bad place. The attorney general said that she and the former president discussed “grandkids.” Except for an alert Phoenix reporter, that inappropriate thirty-minute conversation would have remained clandestine.
Even after public exposure of the meeting, Loretta Lynch did not recuse herself from the federal investigation into Mrs. Clinton, as she should have. The assumption on the part of some law enforcement analysts is that her boss, Mr. Obama, wanted her to stay on the case.
In July, as mentioned earlier, FBI director James Comey went public saying Hillary had screwed up, but not enough to be prosecuted in the opinion
of the FBI, which never should have rendered an opinion. The Bureau was mandated to turn over whatever evidence it had compiled to the attorney general, who, by job description, is tasked with the prosecution calls on high-profile cases.
But, again, it certainly looks like President Obama did not want to go through the regular chain of command in Hillary’s case.
Was the fix in? More evidence would have to be forthcoming in order to answer that question.
What is certain is that Director Comey is more of a bureaucrat than a crime fighter. A lawyer out of the University of Chicago, Comey was appointed FBI chief by President Obama in 2013. By his own statement, he believed Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump in the election.
Soon after he allowed candidate Clinton to avoid further legal scrutiny, the six-foot-eight Comey was part of a group that informed President Obama that Russian hackers had compromised a vast amount of emails from the Democratic Party. That was the first WikiLeaks dump.
Again, Mr. Obama chose to keep that information quiet, and Comey was directed to investigate the Trump campaign to see if it was working with the foreign hackers, certainly a legitimate probe by the FBI.
But, as we now know, Comey’s top investigators were not neutral fact finders. They were anti-Trump partisans. Thus, the Bureau is now diminished, with possible indictments looming.
* * *
JAMES COMEY KNEW all that when he decided to insert himself into the presidential race yet again.
With eleven days left until the vote, Comey revisited his July statement in a letter to some members of Congress. In effect, he was saying that new evidence had surfaced in the Hillary Clinton email case.
“The FBI has learned of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
What Director Comey failed to tell the public is that the new “pertinent” emails were captured on a computer owned by the notorious former congressman Anthony Weiner, whom the FBI had nailed on child-sexting felonies.
Weiner was married to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s close adviser. Apparently, the couple shared email accounts.
Even with the Weiner revelation kept quiet, there was consternation in the media. Realizing that their chosen candidate was now in jeopardy, the vast majority of the national press immediately condemned Comey.
On the other side, the conservative media convicted Hillary of high crimes and demanded her withdrawal from the race.
For Donald Trump, Comey became a member of the Magi, bringing gifts of great value. The candidate opined, “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the DOJ are now willing to right the horrible mistake they made.”
Of course, the Clinton staff immediately sought to downplay the FBI reveal. But all the king’s horses and CNN couldn’t put the Clinton campaign back together again.
A few hours after Comey put out his letter, a leak pinpointed Anthony Weiner’s tangential involvement, and things got even worse. To this day, Hillary Clinton believes James Comey cost her the election, and she said so in a book she wrote after the election.
As the Trump campaign celebrated and the national press gnashed its collective teeth, the question became “Why did Comey do it?”
The answer is simple: to cover his butt. That’s what bureaucrats do. A shrewd political player, James Comey knew that if Hillary Clinton were elected president and it later came out that he did not disclose the new email information, especially with the villain Weiner involved, he would be ruined. His July exposition had already put him in an ideological kill zone. He had to get out in front; it was survival.
But the chaos was not over for James Comey, who actually thought he would get through the political mess with his job intact.
With all eyes on the FBI, Comey had another moment of reckoning coming up. This one would take Donald Trump by surprise.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
WASHINGTON, DC
NOVEMBER 6, 2016
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Donald Trump is closing in fast. With just two days until the nation votes for president, Trump is now two percentage points behind Hillary Clinton, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. The same outfit has 216 electoral votes “safe” for Hillary, 164 solid for Trump.
Two hundred seventy electoral votes are needed to win.
Nevertheless, the media and the Clinton campaign, sometimes actually working together, as we saw when CNN’s Donna Brazile slipped Hillary debate questions, still believe their candidate will prevail, perhaps by a large margin. The forecast from the political website FiveThirtyEight gives Donald Trump a 35.7 percent chance to win. Hillary Clinton’s chances stand at 64.2 percent.
On television, I said that my analysis showed Mrs. Clinton fading and that she could well lose on Tuesday. I based my belief on her tepid campaign appearances and slippage in the polls.
To me, Hillary Clinton was just hanging on, while Donald Trump had some momentum. Trump’s voter turnout is pretty much guaranteed because his supporters are so rabid. It’s hard to tell which emotion is stronger: the enthusiasm for Trump or the loathing for Hillary.
On Mrs. Clinton’s side, there is little emotion. “She’s not like you. She was never like you.”
Then a knock at the proverbial door. A tall man once again is on the porch with another letter. But it’s Sunday, not a time when federal employees are usually on the job. Couldn’t it wait until Monday?
No, it could not.
James Comey is back with an additional message for congressional leadership.
“I write to supplement my October 28, 2016, letter that notified you the FBI would be taking additional investigative steps with respect to former Secretary of State Clinton’s use of a personal email server.…
“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.”
Wow, that was fast. Nine days. Hillary Clinton is not guilty of a crime again.
But instead of joy, outrage erupts in the left-wing precincts. Senator Dianne Feinstein puts forth: “Today’s letter makes Director Comey’s actions nine days ago even more troubling.”
No love for James Comey on either side. That’s what you get when you blend politics with law enforcement.
Donald Trump doesn’t really care what James Comey says. The candidate has convicted Hillary of far worse than an email rap. “Hillary Clinton is guilty,” Trump tells supporters shortly after Comey’s exposition. “The FBI knows it.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Hillary press is going into full-tilt attack mode. The uber-left New Yorker magazine sums it up: “There has always been a radical imbalance in measuring Clinton’s email practices against Trump’s raw bigotry and authoritarian-minded contempt for the rule of law.”
Sure. A possible national security breach by a high-profile secretary of state could never stand up to alleged “raw bigotry.”
The Sunday-with-Comey thing continues to bother me. Did Comey’s FBI agents sit around on an autumn Saturday summarizing their conclusions? The actual letter is a short statement that could have been written in less than an hour. Comey’s timing seems contrived to me.
I could be wrong. I have no evidence. But I do know the White House was growing increasingly worried about the vote.
Which would be on Tuesday.
Hillary already has her victory outfit picked out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
NEW YORK CITY
NOVEMBER 8, 2016
ELECTION DAY
Biggest news day in four years, and I am not covering anything until 8 p.m. That’s because until most of the polls close, Fox News wants reportage, not O’Reilly Factor commentary. I completely understand: let the voters cas
t their ballots for president with clear heads. There’s been more than enough preelection opinion.
Over at CNN, however, it’s a different story, and the candidate graphics illustrate it best. Two tight headshots will appear on the screen all day and into the night. To the left, Donald Trump frowning with squinty eyes. The subliminal message: mean guy. To the right, Hillary Clinton shown smiling with dimples. The message: nice mom.
Most of the polls are predicting a Hillary win, and the national media are already in a celebratory mood.
So is the Clinton campaign.
With the voting about to begin, the contrast to the Trump campaign is striking.
* * *
IT WASN’T UNTIL 3:23 this morning that Hillary Clinton’s campaign jet touched down at Westchester County Airport, north of New York City. The entire day before the vote had been quite a ride, with four events starring Hillary and her mega-famous entourage: Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Jon Bon Jovi all appearing at various places, igniting Clinton pep rallies.
Mrs. Clinton wrapped up her campaigning after midnight in Philadelphia, where Barack and Michelle Obama gave her hugs as Bill and Chelsea Clinton looked on.
There was champagne on the short flight home and, as Robert Duvall said in Apocalypse Now, “the smell of victory.”
* * *
DONALD TRUMP WAS also up late (because he’s always up late). He had done five rallies on Monday and was finishing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which Hillary had also visited.
But no famous people trailed Trump, and there was no champagne because he doesn’t drink. At 1:49 a.m., he was still telling supporters he would “drain the swamp.”
The United States of Trump Page 20