I’m not sure how I missed this. At the Family Research Council Action convention last week, where Trump spoke, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) both lamented and called for revolution and bloodshed to “redeem” what will be lost if Hillary is victorious.
Apparently this just happened, according to NBC News reporter Ali Vitali …
A Trump supporter just grabbed a protester by the neck then punched him. Protester escorted out, man stayed.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) September 12, 2016
Mike Pence refusing to label David Duke as “deplorable” is a good example of why “Deplorable” was always far more of a double-edged sword than the Trump crew seemed to realize.
As we noted over the weekend, the “half” part of Clinton’s remarks was what got her in trouble. Some argue that you should never attack a candidate’s supporters. That’s probably true if you place the percentage so high. But Trump’s white nationalism and embrace of dominance politics is both what gives his campaign fuel and keeps it locked at about 40% support nationwide. The racist demons Trump has brought openly into the public square are a major liability for him.
Veep candidate Mike Pence is currently being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer. And it’s not going terribly well. One key moment happened when Pence refused to call David Duke “deplorable.” Transcript after the jump …
For those still living in the fantasy world where people believe that Donald Trump, a man a man driven by an instinctive belief in control and domination, is a dove or a foreign policy Realist, here’s a wake-up call. Trump has chosen James Woolsey as his new foreign policy advisor.
The TPM Electoral Scoreboard now stands at Clinton 238, Trump 189. Trump is much closer than he was a few weeks ago. And we have many more electoral votes in the Toss Up category (111).
As of this morning, the PollTracker Average puts Hillary Clinton 3.8 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump. But there are two points that I think will be important to watch as we move through the last eight weeks of the campaign.
Laith Alkhouri is the author of “ISIS Has Lost Land, But It Still Has a Giant Foothold In Cyberspace” for TPM’s The Arch and a co-founder and director of Middle East & North Africa research at Flashpoint, where he heads the counterterrorism desk and directs the jihadist threat intelligence service. He has assisted law enforcement in terror investigations, and his team works on identifying latest trends in the Deep Web used by terror groups and their supporters.
Laith will be taking questions about online radicalization, the Deep Web, and how the Islamic State uses online media on Tuesday, Sept. 13th — drop them in now or between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
In case you missed it on Friday, check out the first episode of my new podcast. I talk to Romney top strategist from 2012, Stuart Stevens.