A few quotes to consider when thinking about the FBI’s role in the final days before the election.
A list of election/numbers observations to peruse as you bite your nails and obsess over the polls.
It’s November 4 and the PollTracker Average stands at Clinton 46 percent, Trump 43.1 percent, a 2.9 percentage-point spread.
The TPM Electoral Scoreboard stands at Clinton 269, Trump 221. Florida, New Hampshire, and North Carolina are in the Toss Up category.
I hope you will join us here on election night. We will have live election results in every state for not just the presidential election, but every congressional race in the country, with breakouts down to the county level. We have one addition that I think real elections junkies and numbers nerds we’ll really like. Even if you’re neither you may find it very interesting. In each jurisdiction down to the county level, alongside the live election results, we’ll have the results from that county from the 2012 presidential election.
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US intelligence agencies are now looking at faked documents aimed at discrediting Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party as part of their probe of Russian efforts to disrupt and discredit the US presidential campaign.
From Reuters …
The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are examining faked documents aimed at discrediting the Hillary Clinton campaign as part of a broader investigation into what U.S. officials believe has been an attempt by Russia to disrupt the presidential election, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mark Hosenball has another look inside what’s been happening at the FBI. It’s another slice of the story but one that is consistent with Spencer Ackerman’s piece in The Guardian and the best reporting I’ve seen on James Comey’s role in this. I continue to think that one key part of Comey’s role was simply a mix of naivete and indifference about the effect of his letter. Another driving force, though, as Hosenball reports, was fear of leaks and the Republican criticism they would drive.
I don’t know how violent the Trumps are in practice. Donald Trump certainly seems to have a problem with forcible sexual encounters. Likely they can outsource their violence to others. But whatever they do in practice, there’s a clear propensity to think and speak and encourage violence.
Eric Trump told a Denver radio station that David Duke “deserves a bullet.”
I like to resist too knee-jerk a response to how people of different races and religions accused of crimes are described. Every incident is different. They need to be approached on their own facts and merits. But, man, quite often the contrast is simply too jarring and large not to state the obvious. Blacks and Muslim killers are part of political movements and socio-political forces. White guys are “troubled.”
Frankly, I can’t say I’m surprised by this. This is pretty clear based on what’s happened over the last week and it was somewhat apparent for months before that. Former TPMer Spencer Ackerman, who’s very well-sourced on this front, spoke to numerous FBI sources who described a climate of intense antipathy to Hillary Clinton with big support for Donald Trump driving a flurry of leaks.
From Spencer …
Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election.