Donald Trump held a town hall yesterday — a transparent attempt to do some prep before his town hall style debate with Hillary Clinton. It didn’t turn out so well. Shane Goldmacher at POLITICO summarizes the disaster:
This was not the debate tune-up that jittery Republicans were hoping for. [...]
On Thursday night, Howie Carr, a conservative radio host and Trump booster, played the role of moderator, and the crowd was hand-picked by his campaign. The audience didn’t even ask Trump their questions. Carr did so on their behalf. Before the event, Carr had said Trump would take 20 questions. He stayed for about a dozen.
And while Sunday’s debate will stretch for 90 minutes without a bathroom break, Trump bolted from his town hall in Sandown after barely more than one-third of that time.
Trump’s campaign did place a two-minute countdown clock in front of their candidate on Thursday. He repeatedly blew past that time limit anyway.
Emily Schultheis at CBS:
Trump denied that he was participating in the event as a form of practice for Sunday, saying “the narrative is foolish.” (Trump did not mention that he had a clock at his feet on stage, timing each of his answers to exactly two minutes.)
“It’s so disconcerting when you hear, even tonight, ‘Donald Trump is going to New Hampshire to practice for Sunday,’” he said. “This has nothing to do with Sunday—they make you, like, a child.”
Howie Carr, the conservative radio host, warmed up the crowd, saying: “We all love Trump, right?”
From there, the questions were all relative softballs for Trump.
Election law expert Rick Hansen writes about how Hurricane Matthew may impact the voting process in Florida:
Florida is seen as a state key to Donald Trump’s chances of victory over Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and this storm could have major impacts on voter registration and voting.
Voter registration in Florida closes in just five days. According to Professor Dan Smith of the University of Florida, in the last five days of registration in 2012, 50,000 Florida voters signed up to vote. Many who might normally sign up to vote at the last minute are now following Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s order to flee the affected areas of the state, and they are not likely to register to vote on their way out or drop ballots in closed post offices or soon-to-be-flooded post office boxes. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has already called for voter registration deadlines to be extended, but the Republican governor has already turned down that request.
Kyle Cheney reminds us how Trump used Hurricane Sandy to fuel his birther conspiracy:
As superstorm Sandy pummeled northern New Jersey and parts of New York City just a week before Election Day, Trump’s immediate instinct was to lament that the disaster appeared to be a political win for President Barack Obama and exploit it to further his birther conspiracies.
“Hurricane is good luck for Obama again- he will buy the election by handing out billions of dollars,” Trump tweeted on the morning of Oct. 30, less than a day after the storm devastated the region.
Just minutes later, he reiterated a call for Obama to produce his college records and passport application — part of his quest to undermine Obama’s legitimacy as president: “Because of the hurricane, I am extending my 5 million dollar offer for President Obama's favorite charity until 12PM on Thursday.”
Eric Zorn at The Chicago Tribune writes about Trump’s cringeworthy appearance in Nevada:
At a rally at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Wednesday, he didn't just get the pronunciation wrong, he got it gloriously, emphatically, defiantly wrong...
Yes, it was one thing for Trump to make the mistake — many pols have, and well-intentioned "Ne-VAH-dah"-"Ne-VAD-ah" confusion is so rampant that it was a running joke in the Season 5 premiere of the HBO comedy "Veep" earlier this year.
But it was another thing to make the mistake in such a smug, swaggering fashion. His errant and pointed repetition — wags called it "Nevadasplaining" — spoke both to Trump's obliviousness and lack of diligence. Who gives a speech in a state with six electoral votes, where the polls show a tight race, without getting this basic fact right?
The man is still just winging it. And this is just one of dozens of clues that if he wins on Nov. 8 he won't have the focus to thoughtfully execute the duties of the presidency.
And, on a final note, The Washington Post editorial board continues to argue against a Trump candidacy:
A PRESIDENT TRUMP could alter the face of this country and its role in the world, in many cases with Congress and the courts having little power to check him. In a series of editorials over the past several days, we have described the vast reach of executive power in areas where Mr. Trump has made his intentions clear. He could, in fact, unilaterally order mass deportations, resume torturing detainees, undo the preservation of natural treasures and tear up long-standing trade agreements.
But we should be clear: The scope of the damage a President Trump could do cannot be fully predicted or imagined. His candidacy forces us to confront the extent to which democracy depends on leaders adhering to a set of norms and traditions — civic virtues, to be old-fashioned about it. Mr. Trump has made clear his contempt for those virtues, norms and traditions: He despises the press, threatens his enemies, bullies the judiciary, disparages entire religions and nations, makes no distinction between his personal interest and the public good, hides information that should be revealed and routinely trades in falsehoods. Handed the immense powers of the presidency, what could such a man do? The honest answer: No one can be sure.