It's Thursday now, fresh off a Wednesday, and that means we are now one day closer to the presidential election. That's the good news; the bad news is that Donald Trump continues to say and do things, thus necessitating actual coverage of the things he says and does. Which we shall now get on with.
Today was largely spent picking up the shrapnel from yesterday's stinkbomb of a candidate "forum", in which the two candidates were asked probing national security questions like what about them emails and do you think you would be a good president or a dumb president. Both candidates spent time talking to the press today—and both candidates spent their time talking to the press reflecting on Donald Trump's performance.
That's not to say that Trump didn't make news, however. His praise for the "strong" leadership (and poll numbers) of Vladimir Putin when compared to the sitting American president was almost certainly the most praise a Russian president has ever received from inside a United States aircraft carrier. Trump’s pro-Putin stance was backed up today by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who stated it was "inarguable" that Putin "has been a stronger leader" than Barack Obama, and by Trump-supporting Iowa Rep. Steve King, who concurred that the Russian president was stronger "because I watched as the Russian nationalism has been increased substantially. [...] And you have Russian hyper-nationalism and they are proud of being Russians today."
So apparently praise for a civil-rights-deficient Russian strongman is the newest Republican platform plank. In other news:
• One concrete outcome of the forum appears to be a collective national shudder at Trump's continued claims that he was against the Iraq War before the war began despite that being, to all available evidence, untrue. Moderator Matt Lauer was unwilling to press the point, which led today to a perhaps-more-hostile-than-usual round of fact checks explaining just how dumbfoundingly not-true Trump's claim continues to be.
• Also in the news: Trump's remarkable theory that the "body language" of the officials giving him his first classified national security briefings showed they were "not happy" with the sitting president. This was met with exasperation from former intelligence officials, who explained that briefers are trained to never give such opinions and expressed alarm that Trump would impugn his briefers in such a manner. Former CIA director Mike Morell: "It's the first time a candidate has politicized their intelligence briefing" and it "crossed a long standing red line respected by both parties."
• The Trump campaign's D.C.-based policy shop—yes, there was such a thing—is largely defunct after the campaign refused to pay the staff; ex-workers were also upset that the campaign and candidate largely ignored their work.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, a presidential contender himself at one point, on Trump's repeated praise for Putin: "I think this is the biggest miscalculation since people thought Hitler was a good guy."
• Conservative radio host Mark Levin has barred Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus from his show: "I have no use for this guy. I think he's contributed to dragging down the Republican Party. He's Donald Trump's new friend. He's the alt-right, nationalist, populists' new friend." Still invited on Levin's show, however: Trump's actual running mate, Mike Pence.
• Priebus was also lambasted today for a comment last evening opining that Hillary Clinton should have smiled more during the foreign policy forum.
• Donald Trump will be appearing tomorrow at the Values Voter Summit, a collection of virulently anti-LGBT groups (such as hate group American Family Association), conspiracy theorists, and the nation's most ardent theocrats.
• House Speaker Paul Ryan shows a bit of temper on being asked about Trump's latest proclamations: "I'm not going to stand up here and do a tit for tat on what Donald said last night."
• Rep. Joe Heck says he'd trust Donald Trump having a finger on the nuclear button. "Why wouldn't I?"
• Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi is now among those who see Trump's dismal campaign as a possible path to Republicans losing their House majority.
• After being asked to respond to Trump's pro-Putin comments, President Barack Obama laughed, then repeated his past statement that Trump is not qualified to be president of the United States. He also asked the press to resist normalizing "behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous."