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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Donald Trump complained about every part of the first presidential debate, from his opponent to the moderator to the subsequent poll results, during a Thursday campaign appearance, TPM’s Esme Cribb reported. “I had to put up with the anchor and fight the anchor all the time on everything I said,” Trump said of the debate’s moderator, Lester Holt, at a rally in New Hampshire. “What a rigged deal.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “This morning NBC News got a leaked version of the ‘talking points’ the Trump campaign is giving surrogates discussing Alicia Machado. They almost perfectly mirror Trump’s stages of denial dealing with the Khans. Machado is ‘vicious,’ ‘desperate,’ her charges are ‘baseless and unsubstantiated,’ Clinton is a fake feminist, and what about Monica? Any halfway competent campaign would realize the ‘talking points’ on this issue are quite simple: Don’t talk about it! The ‘charges’ against Trump are nothing more than things he said on video. There are no charges. Just quotes. There is nothing in dispute. It’s just showing people what he said. But ‘not talking about it’ assumes, actually requires you can get Trump to stop talking about it – especially, stop talking about how overweight she was or what a stand up guy he was for trying to get her to lose weight. But he can’t.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “It seems clear she’s been holding her fire on this issue and anyone who thinks Hillary Clinton would not be prepared is fooling themselves. ‘She never quits’ was a theme in both Bill’s and Barack’s convention speeches. I personally feel it has the potential to be her most human moment. No one knows the pain and humiliation of being the politician’s wife whose husband was caught in a sex scandal but I’m sure Ivana and Marla Maples can relate.”
Related: Trump’s attack on Bill Clinton’s affair is a bizarre campaign strategy for a man whose own sordid affair made headlines in 1990.
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What We’re Reading
Paul Ryan’s precarious political future. (Politico)
Can money buy the perfect diet? (Motherboard)
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