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Trump Supporters Unfazed By GOP Civil War At Low-Key Florida Rally

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Evan Vucci / AP

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Florida — Donald Trump’s evening rally here in the heart of the “Redneck Riviera” had all the markings of a classic Trump banger.

A huge, friendly, largely white, largely Southern crowd in a stronghold of the GOP’s most conservative elements awaited him. It was an evening rally, at which his theatrics — and the crowd's enthusiastic participation in his populist show of power — have often been at their best.

And, most important, Trump had a giant, elephant-shaped axe to grind with the GOP establishment, which he declared earlier in the day he’d been freed from his “shackles” to attack. He’d spent the early morning hours slamming House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain for the sin of refusing to support him, after he was caught on tape bragging that his wealth and fame gave him a free pass to sexually assault women.

And just hours earlier, he’d railed against them in person, first at a set of unannounced fundraisers in Texas and, later, in a taped interview with Bill O’Reilly in which he unloaded on Ryan in particular.

It should have been Trump at his most blazing, party-rending best. Sure, there was a teleprompter on stage, but when had that ever stopped Trump from unleashing his inner demons?

But for Trump to go Full Trump, he needs an audience that yearns for the give and take of anger and frustration that have produced most of his campaign's most Burn the World Down moments.

Unfortunately, certainly for the gathered press and the gawkers on cable TV and Twitter, neither fire-breathing Trump nor his blindly faithful masses showed up Tuesday.

Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images

The atmosphere at Panama City Beach before Trump took the stage was markedly different than previous rallies. Attendees largely ditched T-shirts with vulgar references to Monica Lewinsky in favor of tie-dye with depictions of the Republican and bald eagles.

There was none of the angry energy that marks many of his rallies, where while supporters are generally friendly even to the hated media, an undercurrent of frustration and urgency buzzes throughout.

While some of Trump’s evening rallies have had their fair share of drunken attendees, the crowd appeared almost entirely sober, and decidedly older than many of the Republican nominee's other crowds. The frat bros and the sorority girls who love them that were in attendance weren’t the normal, rabble-rousing sort that come looking for trouble with protesters.

Instead, the amphitheater at Aaron Bessant Park was more church picnic than populist rally. Vendors sold sausages, giant bags of fresh-made kettle corn, lemonade, and "butt fries" — fries covered in pulled pork and barbecue sauce — to families that spread blankets and beach towels on the lawn, and fathers and their children threw frisbees and Nerf footballs while they awaited Trump’s arrival.

A passerby who found themselves in the crowd would have been excused for thinking they'd wandered into a Jimmy Buffett concert rather than a campaign rally for one of the most divisive political figures in the history of the nation.

Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images

While the outrage against Ryan, McCain, and other elected officials is palpable on Twitter and Facebook thanks to the alt-right’s formidable online presence, at least here in Panama City Beach that vitriol simply didn’t exist — or stayed well-hidden.

Bruce Dietrich, a 64-year-old civil engineer from Tallahassee, is a lifelong Republican and a diehard Trump supporter. “I was just trying to send Paul Ryan an email to tell him how disappointed I was,” he said. “They’re too much in the establishment, they still haven’t gotten it.”

That disappointment in his party leaders was evident in his calm, quiet tone, as well as his measured assessment of what the break with Trump will mean for Ryan, who clearly has higher ambitions than speaker of the House. “It’ll have consequences for Paul Ryan, not for Donald Trump … I think a lot less of him,” Dietrich said, adding quickly, “I still think he’s a good man.”

But despite that disappointment, he’s still not ready to write off Ryan, as so many online commenters seemingly have. Asked if in a future presidential election he’d consider backing Ryan, Dietrich shrugged. “Depends on who he’s running against, I guess.”

Cathy Campbell, who splits time between Panama City Beach and her home in Georgia, put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Ryan and his colleagues. “They better get it together and support him wholeheartedly," she said. "We’ve got to have Trump."

Leaning against a barricade hours before Trump would speak, Campbell warned that if Ryan and the establishment don’t get back behind Trump, “I think they’re gonna be sorry.”

But even that warning, which in someone else’s mouth would almost certainly sound threatening, had little edge to it, and was more of an earnest caution than a statement of defiance against party leadership.

Mike Segar / Reuters

There were sparks of fire, to be sure. When one of the opening speakers warned ominously that Hillary Clinton wants to end the Second Amendment, the crowd booed loudly. “Hell no!” a young man yelled, adding “You got me with that one, girl!”

Later, during a particularly cranky stem-winder by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in which he accused Clinton of corruption, the crowd began chanting “LOCK HER UP!” a classic of the Trump rally circuit.

But Giuliani waved the crowd off, insisting “wait, wait, wait,” bringing the cheer, and the crowd’s energy, quickly to an end.

Mike Segar / Reuters

An hour after he was scheduled to begin, Trump arrived to loud, but not too thunderous, applause. Earnest, but not fervent.

Trump’s confidence was on full display when he took the stage, his stern face looking out in the crowd approvingly. At first, the scene had all the hallmarks of a classic Trump barn burner: seemingly at random he decided to instruct his Secret Service detail to spread out. “Give us some room!” he bellowed into the mic to the delight of the crowd. Pleased with the reaction, he once again put his security detail through the paces. “We want room!” he yelled. And the crowd yelled back.

“We want some room!” he yelled again, prompting a roar from the 10,000-strong crowd inside the amphitheater — a fact that Trump would quickly point out. There was an energy suddenly in the crowd, all of whom were on their feet, hands pressed to the sky trying to capture a bit of the scene on their phones.

But instead of a repeat of his performance on Twitter that morning or his evening interview with O’Reilly, the faithful gathered in Panama City Beach got teleprompter Trump — his version of a tightly scripted stump speech with only slight variations. There were references to the Haitian and Cuban communities of Florida.

He railed against regulations — except, of course, those that may hurt the Everglades, a state treasure. He referenced WikiLeaks and its damaging releases of Clinton’s emails, by name, well over 10 times. He even slammed Clinton for being anti-Catholic, despite his own bitterly personal fight with Pope Francis earlier this year.

But what Trump didn’t mention was the one thing he has poured all of his energy into over the last two days — his angry, personal war with the GOP establishment. He never called out, or even referenced, Paul Ryan, John McCain, or any of the dozens of other elected Republicans who have either withdrawn their endorsements or made clear they believe Trump is a lost cause.

Without that emotional fuel, the rest of his speech felt almost perfunctory, and the crowd could tell in many ways he was going through the motions, spent after more than 24 hours of waging relentless war.

The closest he and the crowd seemed to get to the pitched levels of frustration and anger his rallies are known for came during his sustained attacks on the “corrupt media.” In one particularly long riff, Trump called out CNBC reporter John Harwood by name, accused the New York Times of being in bed with the Clinton campaign, and lambasted the media generally as being “cogs in a corporate machine” working against the interests of average Americans.

The crowd roared in approval. “Thank you,” one young man yelled, while an older woman shouted taunts at “lying CNN” across the barrier between reporters and the crowd.

More than 30 minutes into the speech came the first rhythmic chant of his name. “TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!” the crowd cheered. Trump looked on approvingly, nodding his head at the earnest but short-lived adoration.

But that was largely it for the staples of Trump rallydom: a few faltering attempts at “lock her up!” and “build the wall!” chants were made, but none stuck the landing.

After the rally, the crowd slowly made its way out of the venue through the dark, swarming slowly around groups of young black men selling T-shirts, hats, and buttons. The further into the parking lots of the surrounding strip malls the crowd got, the cruder the wares, until finally one man stood, alone, selling “Hillary Sucks But Monica Sucks Better” shirts.

In the end, it may not really matter for Trump — or voters — which Trump or which crowd show up. Even before he took the stage, Campbell made clear she was content with her decision, and Trump. “I stopped listening to the debates. I made up my mind a long time ago,” she said. “I prayed about it.”


Obama Gave Himself A "Sulfur Test" After A Trump Supporter Called Him A Demon

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Obama responded Tuesday to a radio host's comments that he and the Clintons were demons who smelled of sulfur.

Speaking about the importance of understanding the relationship between diversity and democracy, Obama said at a Clinton campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, "there's only one candidate in this race who understands that democracy in a big, diverse country doesn't work if you constantly demonize each other.

"And I mean that literally, by the way. I was reading the other day: There's a guy on the radio — who, apparently Trump appears on his show frequently — said me and Hillary are demons. Said we smell like sulfur. Ain't that somethin'?"

The commander-in-chief then sniffed himself and laughed. "Now...I mean, c'mon people. Democracy does not work if you just say stuff like that."

The commander-in-chief then sniffed himself and laughed. "Now...I mean, c'mon people. Democracy does not work if you just say stuff like that."

C-SPAN / Via c-span.org

InfoWars radio show host and Trump supporter Alex Jones unleashed the diatribe on Monday, saying that Obama and the Clintons were demons, citing "high-up folks."

"I'm never a lesser-of-two-evils person, but with Hillary, there's not even the same universe," Jones said. "She is an abject, psychopathic, demon from hell that as soon as she gets into power is going to try to destroy the planet."

He also said there are "dozens of videos and photos of Obama having flies land on him indoors, at all times of year, and he'll be next to a hundred people and no one has flies land on them."

Then he talked about how they smell.

"I'm told her and Obama just stink, stink, stink, stink. You can't wash that evil off, man," Jones said. "And they say listen, she's a frickin' demon and she stinks and so does Obama. I go, like what? Sulfur. They smell like hell."

At White House, First Latino My Brother's Keeper Event Spotlights Hispanic Kids

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Adrian Carrasquillo / BuzzFeed News

WASHINGTON — As President Obama talked about the importance of family and mentorship during a town hall at North Carolina A&T State University where most of the crowd was black, more than 100 Latino youth at the White House were the first outside the university to see the remarks.

Obama was there to talk about the success of one of his signature programs, My Brother's Keeper, an effort to increase mentorship to black and brown boys across the country. While the events have previously incorporated Hispanic youth, their focus has primarily been on black young men, along with the stars brought in to meet with them, like rapper Kendrick Lamar and NBA star Stephen Curry.

Tuesday's White House event was the first My Brother's Keeper event focused on Latino kids, featuring NBA Cares ambassador Felipe Lopez and NASCAR's Daniel Suarez, a 2015 NASCAR rookie of the year.

The focus on mentorship for them, "is also important because the Latino community is growing so quickly," HUD Secretary Julián Castro told BuzzFeed News after addressing the audience, noting that 25% of youth in the country under 18 are Hispanic. The difference between engaging black and Latino youth was also on display with language and immigration coming up from the speakers and the audience.

Suarez stressed to the kids that five years ago, he wasn't even in the country, and didn't speak English. Despite the hard journey into NASCAR and American racing he told the students learning English on his own was one of his biggest accomplishments.

Lopez, who brought 25 students from the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan, said he had a bad story and a good story about his background and his journey in the U.S. after coming from the Dominican Republic at the age of 14.

Towering over every other student in eighth grade, he didn't speak English but he knew he could dunk, which gave him confidence. When students came up to him and said, "Felipe, you dumb?" He threw down a thundering fake dunk and answered affirmatively that yes, he was dumb, confusing the two words.

Years later, during his five year career in the NBA, he said Venezuelans, Colombians, Dominicans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, all different ethnicities, knew who he was and were drawn to him because of a sense of shared Latino culture.

My Brother's Keeper, which aimed to get 25,000 mentors in five years, accomplished the goal in just two years and Obama clearly views it as an important part of his legacy as president.

At the town hall, he said that when he was elected he needed to stabilize the economy and end two wars. But after that he wanted to focus on helping disadvantaged communities that needed help even before the recession, and My Brother's Keeper was born after the racially charged death of Trayvon Martin.

Answering a question about being a good parent from a young black mother, Obama said the message he had was more for her husband. He recalled a time he begged off a basketball game with friends because he had to "babysit" his daughter Malia. When he got off the phone Michelle Obama shot back, "you know if it's your own child, it's not babysitting."

He quickly learned about the level of responsibility and commitment needed to be a good man and good father, he said, a lesson that was simultaneously being delivered to the Latino teens and college students in Washington.

While My Brother's Keeper isn't perfect (Latino leaders have noted that the program doesn't translate well into Spanish, affecting community involvement and lack of media coverage), it has also had its agencies like the Department of Education key into issues like disproportionate suspensions of black and Latino students — as early as preschool — for the same infractions white boys were not being suspended for.

When it was time for questions from the students, Castro was asked if he ever was a victim of racism, and he said it was never overt, but more a feeling that some type of prejudice was perhaps behind the way people viewed him or spoke to him after he left predominantly Latino San Antonio to go to college.

He was asked advice on pushing an in-state tuition bill for students that had benefitted from Obama's DACA immigration program in deeply conservative Tennessee and said an argument on the economic benefits in other states like Texas that had passed in-state tuition might work.

Afterwards, Castro said that if Hillary Clinton wins, his hope would be that the program is continued in the next administration.

"This has been an effective initiative, it provides good mentorship for young people who often feel like they don't know where to turn because nobody in their family has been an engineer, or a doctor or a lawyer or a business owner," he said. "This kind of initiative makes sense for any president and my hope is that it will continue into the next administration."

For the students, who heard a lot about mentorship, race, language and immigration at the event, just being around people like them was a blast.

At one point, two Latinas towards the back of the audience who met for the first time at the event, made a breakthrough.

"Are you Salvadoran?!" one girl exclaimed, the other nodding, excitedly. "I'm Salvadoran!" the first said, as they high-fived.

Pence Makes The Case At Liberty University That Christians Should Forgive Trump

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Scott Morgan / Reuters

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence urged Christian college students on Wednesday to vote for Donald Trump despite his behavior, continuing his damage control efforts as the tape controversy continues this week.

Pence spoke to the convocation of Liberty University, an evangelical university that was founded by Jerry Falwell and is now run by Falwell’s son, who like other Christian right leaders has stuck with Trump even in the wake of the explosive tape showing Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women and using vulgar language. The appearance emphasized Pence’s role, especially in the context of the scandal, of interpreting and excusing Trump for more socially conservative audiences.

“As Christians we’re called to forgive,” Pence said. “My running mate showed humility, showed what was in his heart to the American people.”

Trump has called the comments “locker room talk” that he didn’t really mean. The tape rocked the presidential race, causing some top Republicans to flee from Trump and even eliciting censure from Pence himself, who condemned the remarks Trump made on the tape. Pence — a Christian conservative — was rumored to be considering dropping off the ticket over the weekend, but made clear after the debate that he was committed. In campaign stops this week, Pence has repeatedly praised Trump for supposedly showing “humility” about the tape.

“Nowhere does it teach in the Bible that we are to sit on the sidelines of history,” Pence said. “And this is no time for the people of faith to sit on the sidelines.

“Shortcomings are no excuse for inaction,” Pence said. “If we were perfect, in a word, we wouldn’t need Jesus. But we’re far from perfect and we do need him.”

“I would submit to each and every one of you, when you think about this choice and how dramatic it is, now’s the time to stay the course,” Pence said. “Not to flinch in the face of harsh political winds.”

Liberty University often hosts political figures at its convocations, where attendance is “an agreed upon expectation that is clearly communicated to all applicants who desire to be a residential, undergraduate student at Liberty University,” according to the school’s website. Ted Cruz announced his presidential campaign there.

On Wednesday, Liberty students who spoke to BuzzFeed News mostly all condemned the Trump tape. But most said they felt they would vote for him anyway.

Greta Penix, a 20-year-old junior at Liberty from Oregon, said she would probably vote for Trump because “although I might agree more with a third party, and I really do not appreciate the comments Trump has made about women and I disagree with them and think he’s been completely disrespectful to people — where he stands on social issues, abortion, standing with Israel and religious freedom, that morally aligns with what I believe over what Hillary Clinton believes.”

Penix also said she felt reassured by Trump’s evangelical advisory council. “I’m not one to judge, I don’t believe he’s a Christian,” she said. “But he’s seeking guidance from people like that.” Pence, on the other hand, “more aligns morally with what I believe and I’ve never heard him say anything disrespecting women.”

“The way I try to look at it is, I’m not electing a friend,” said Rachel Rafferty, a 21-year-old senior. “I think what he’s going to get done, whether I like him as a person or not, is more in favor of what I feel and the way I look at things” than Clinton.

“As a person, I’m not a huge fan” of Trump,” Rafferty said. “I actually kind of wish Pence was running for president. I think I relate definitely a lot more to him.”

“I’m critical of Trump, I’ve always liked Pence,” said Matt Kuser, 18, a freshman. Trump is “all talk no show to me.”

“I grew up in public school, I’ve heard a lot worse,” Kuser said of the tape that shows Trump bragging about committing what amounts to sexual assault. “Should he have ever said it? Probably not. Do I believe he did it? Probably not. If he did, shame on him.” Kuser said he is “not solid” on voting for Trump and may vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin.

“I think the Trump video tape is disgusting and I’m not going to vote for Trump because I think he’s claiming to be a Christian but in my perspective that’s not how a Christian is,” said Haley Martin, 20, a junior from Virginia. “A Christian is supposed to show love.”

“I know there’s forgiveness in that, I know he could be changed,” Martin said, “but just seeing how this election cycle’s been, how he’s talked to different women and degraded them, I don’t know if he really has changed or if he’s just saying it to get the vote.”

Martin said it was possible Pence could convince her to vote for Trump, though she hadn’t heard much about him before.

“Personally, I would vote for him for president,” Thomas Lisa, 20, said of Pence. “Just by the way he presents himself — calm and composed. More politically in tune, I guess.”

Targeting Black Voters, New Pro-Clinton Super PAC Ad Analyzes Trump's Rhetoric

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Mike Segar / Reuters

WASHINGTON — "When you said that our president was illegitimate and that he was born in Africa, it would have been enough."

That's how a blistering new Priorities USA radio ad targeting black voter turnout in Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina begins.

A Priorities spokesperson said the ad is part of a multi-million dollar ad buy in Ohio, and that the PAC partnered with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to air the spot in North Carolina and Florida.

Titled "Enough," the 60-second ad will air on black radio stations in those three key battlegrounds. It mixes a narrator's summation of Trump's incendiary statements; his initial waffling on disavowing former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; and what Priorities is calling the "racist" birther conspiracy theory that Trump peddled for years.

Trump has recently come under fire as out-of-touch with black voters on social media for his use of the phrase "The African Americans" during the debate at Washington University on Sunday.

As far as ad messaging to those voters goes, the ad features an effective use of Trump's own sound, including a sequence yet from Democrats using Trump's "What the hell do you have to lose?" pitch to black voters in August.

"And when you dismissed all that we've accomplished in our communities, it certainly would have been enough," the narrator says before audio of a bellowing Trump takes over: "You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs—" Says the narrator: "Donald Trump, we've had enough. And now we'll vote to make sure you never become our president."

In an email to BuzzFeed News, Priorities spokesperson Justin Barasky said the ad is especially important less than 30 days before the election because black voter turnout can push Clinton over the top where she needs it most.

"If Democrats can carry North Carolina, Florida and Ohio it becomes nearly impossible for Donald Trump to win and we know African American voters are key in helping to put Hillary Clinton over the top," he said.

Listen to the ad here:

youtube.com



"Don’t Try To Defend Trump," Newt Gingrich Tells Republican Candidates

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John Sommers Ii / Getty Images

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of Donald Trump's strongest allies, advised GOP candidates in difficult re-election fights to ignore Trump's presence atop the Republican ticket and focus on their own races.

"I would say to candidates who are running this year: Don’t try to defend Trump. That’s Trump’s problem," Gingrich said Wednesday on a Wisconsin radio show. "Focus on Hillary and why she would be disastrous as president."

Gingrich said Trump made the right decision by leaving him off the ticket and selecting Mike Pence as his running mate: "I told Trump at the time, when we discussed it, that I'm aggressive and always on offense, and I don't know that you need two people who have that personality on the same ticket. I thought it was better to have someone who balanced him out by being calm and reassuring. I think that's something that Mike Pence does very well."

The former speaker predicted that "Trump will probably end up winning despite some of the mistakes that were made and despite some of the tension" between the nominee and Republican leaders.

More Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately

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Evan Vucci / AP

Donald Trump's treatment of women came under greater scrutiny Wednesday as four more women came forward with new accounts of the Republican nominee making inappropriate sexual advances toward them, decades apart.

One woman, Jessica Leeds, told the New York Times that Trump had groped her and reached under her skirt as they sat beside each other on a flight in the 1980s. Leeds, now 74, told the Times she had been upgraded to first class unexpectedly and chatted with Trump. About 45 minutes into the flight, he began to grab her breasts and under her skirt, she said.

"He was like an octopus,” she told the Times. “His hands were everywhere.”

Another woman, Rachel Crooks, told the Times she was working as a receptionist in 2005 for a development company with offices in Trump Tower. One day, she saw Trump while waiting for an elevator and introduced herself. She told the Times that they shook hands, and he began kissing her on the cheeks and directly on the mouth.

"It was so inappropriate,” Crooks told the Times. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”

The New York Times published the story days after Trump was put on hard defense regarding his behavior toward women. Though an Access Hollywood recording from 2005 captured the reality show star saying he could grab women "by the pussy" and kiss them because of his fame, Trump said during Sunday night's presidential debate that it was just "locker room talk."

He also insisted that he had never physically carried out that type of behavior, which would meet the definition of sexual assault.

In a statement Wednesday, the Trump campaign said that the Times article published Wednesday was untrue and that the Republican nominee had instead empowered women through his business opportunities.

"This entire article is fiction, and for the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous," his campaign said.

A lawyer for Trump sent a letter to the Times's executive editor, demanding he issue a retraction and apology for the "libelous article."

"It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump's candidacy," reads the letter sent from Marc Kasowitz of the Kasowitz, Benson, Toress & Friedman lawfirm.

In a tweet sent Thursday morning, Trump insisted the New York Times story is not true.

The New York Times' attorney on Thursday responded to Trump's demand for a retraction, saying in a letter, "We decline to do so."

“Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself," Marc E. Kasowitz wrote.

Also on Wednesday, the Palm Beach Post reported that another woman said Trump groped her during an event at Mar-a-Lago in 2003. Mindy McGillivray told the Post she was helping a photographer during a Ray Charles concert. She told the Post she felt a grab or nudge, then turned around to see Trump.

"This was a pretty good nudge. More of a grab,’’ she told the Post. “It was pretty close to the center of my butt. I was startled. I jumped.’’

Donald Trump poses with about half of the competing State Misses on board his yacht in 1988.

Jack Kanthal / AP

Later Wednesday, People magazine published an article by writer Natasha Stoynoff, who visited Mar-a-Lago in 2005 to interview Donald and Melania Trump for their first wedding anniversary.

“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us,” Stoynoff wrote. “I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.”

He told her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you,” Stoynoff wrote. She said she was shocked, then later angry, afraid, and ashamed.

Trump used Twitter again Thursday to deny the story in People magazine.

In a statement, Hillary Clinton's campaign said the new allegations were disturbing.

"This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women. These reports suggest that he lied on the debate stage and that the disgusting behavior he bragged about in the tape are more than just words," the Clinton campaign said.

The Times and Post stories come after BuzzFeed News published accounts from four Miss Teen USA pageant contestants who said Trump walked into their dressing room in 1997.

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA, told BuzzFeed News.

Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”

At Rallies In Florida, Women Think Trump’s Past Is Past

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Donald Trump speaking at the Southeastern Livestock Pavillion in Ocala, Florida.

Gerardo Mora / Getty Images

OCALA, Florida — Gathered under the glare of a central Florida sun on Wednesday, Donald Trump supporters said they were ready to weather yet more allegations that the Republican businessman behaved inappropriately around women.

And later in the evening they would, after the New York Times and the Palm Beach Post published accounts of at least three more women who accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances.

Earlier on Wednesday, BuzzFeed News published an account of four former contestants in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant who said Trump walked into the dressing room while girls between the ages of 14 and 19 were changing.

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA, told BuzzFeed News.

In about dozen interviews, women supporting Trump, many of them mothers, seemed unfazed as they waited to enter the rally and the Teen USA accounts reverberated through the media cycle.

“Frankly, I think that was years ago. It didn’t kill anybody,” said Gay Light of Oxford, Florida. She echoed the sentiment of many here that the statute of limitations to be outraged by Trump's barging in had passed.

Gay Light and two friends, Rick and Rosemary Stagg, on their way back to their car after the rally.

BuzzFeed News / Dino Grandoni

“They should have done something back then,” said Mary Holt, stopping for a moment while waving an oversized “TRUMP PENCE” flag to talk. “Now that he’s wanting to be the president, all the dirty news comes out."

Mary Holt pausing to pose for a picture.

Dino Grandoni / BuzzFeed News

Other supporters trotted out a retort used by Trump himself in the most recent presidential debate: that his behavior pales in comparison to the infidelities and alleged sexual assaults of Hillary Clinton’s husband.

“He didn’t rape them, right?” Celeste Lovett said. “Well, Bill Clinton actually raped people.” She was referring to Juanita Broaddrick, who for decades has claimed that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978.

“It’s no different than the Secret Service walking in on a president with a woman on his desk,” Light said, perhaps referring to an ex-Secret Service officer who claimed to have discovered Bill Clinton “making out on the Map Room table” with the daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale.

At a rally in Lakeland later that afternoon, seven women likewise echoed the campaign's pivot to the Clintons, with some going even further. Trump supporter Debora Johnson defended the candidate against the former pageant contestants' allegations, saying "a lot of rich men, they would do that."

Glenda Starn suggested it was the teenagers' fault: "They want their name in the news, they want the glory of it. That’s my opinion. So give ’em the glory."

In Ocala, one supporter named Connie who declined to give her last name, echoed some Teen USA contestants that BuzzFeed interviewed who doubted Trump could have entered the dressing room.

“It’s not that I don’t believe the story,” Connie said. “But these are pageants with a lot of people going back and forth.”

Others, again echoing Trump, simply dismissed the story outright because they no longer trusted mainstream media, which they see as being in cahoots with the Clinton campaign.

“There’s just so much slander out there that Hillary’s been spreading on Trump,” Cindy Fox said over the loudspeakers at the rally. “You don’t know if half of that is true.”

Cindy Fox cheering as Trump entered the arena.

Dino Grandoni / BuzzFeed News

Lovett and her friend, Margaret Vafides, were suspicious of why the Washington Post published a video, which showed Trump saying he can grab women "by the pussy" without consent because he is famous, two days before a presidential debate.

"The media’s attempt at throwing up stories to take the attention away from the real issues is a disservice to the American people," Vafides said, referring to the Washington Post and BuzzFeed News stories.

Barbara Hamilton, another Trump supporter, conceded the Teen USA story gave her pause about the candidate.

“I might look at him a little differently,” Hamilton said, if the story were true. “They should make sure that he’s got security around him around women.”

Barbara Hamilton resting outside the rally entrance.

Dino Grandoni / Buzzfeed News

Hamilton added that she wouldn’t let a female family member compete in a pageant where older men are allowed in the dressing room. But that doesn’t change her vote.

“I just do not like Hillary at all,” she said. “Like Trump has said, she’s been in office for 30 years and she’s very corrupt.”

The crowd in Ocala on Wednesday.

Gerardo Mora / Getty Images

Holt, the flag-waving Trump diehard, said that she wouldn’t let her 17-year-old daughter participate in such a pageant, either. She added that she might change the way she felt about Trump if she spoke with a former beauty queen in person.

“I think he probably did it,” Holt said. “But we have a choice: We have Hillary or him. I vote him.”

LINK: More Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately

LINK: Teen Beauty Queens Say Trump Walked In On Them Changing



"The Apprentice" Producer Mark Burnett Says He Is Not A Trump Supporter

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Richard Shotwell / AP

Mark Burnett, the producer of The Apprentice, said Wednesday he is not a supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, issuing a tersely worded statement after reports surfaced that he had warned staff against leaking potentially damaging outtakes of the Republican candidate.

"I am not now and have never been a supporter of Donald Trump's candidacy," he said. "I am NOT "Pro-Trump."

"My wife and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign," Burnett added.

The statement came as more women went public Wednesday alleging they were groped or inappropriately touched by Trump, including two women who spoke to the New York Times.

Evan Vucci / AP

The Trump campaign denied the allegations, calling the entire Times article "fiction."

Calls for The Apprentice outtakes have grown louder after an Access Hollywood tape leaked last week revealed the presidential candidate making lewd comments about kissing women without warning and grabbing their genitals.

A sound engineer from the show also told BuzzFeed News that the star of the NBC reality show referred to him as a "fucking monkey" and regularly sexually harassed women on set.

Burnett has said he can't release The Apprentice tapes because he doesn't have the right to release the material. MGM owns the show's material, Burnett said in a previous statement, and was contractually prohibited from releasing the footage.

An attorney for MGM also repeated the company's stance that it would not release footage from The Apprentice, stating its contracts "contain provisions related to confidentiality and artist's rights."

"MGM has every intention of complying with its agreements with artists and honoring their right,s including with respect to The Apprentice," Marvin S. Putnam, MGM's longtime counsel said in the statement.

LINK: “The Apprentice” Producer Says He Can’t Release Any Trump Tapes

LINK: Source: Trump-Backer Mark Burnett Has Warned Staff On “Apprentice” Leaks

LINK: Trump Could Approve Release Of “Apprentice” Footage, Attorneys Say


Appeals Court Reverses Itself, Says Missouri Execution Drug Supplier Can Stay Secret

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Ohio's execution chamber

Kiichiro Sato / AP

A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the supplier of Missouri's execution drugs can remain secret — a reversal of the three-judge panel's ruling from last month.

Death row inmates in Mississippi are seeking information on how other states carry out the death penalty. In pursuit of that, the inmates subpoenaed information from the Missouri Department of Corrections, including documents that would identify the supplier of the state's lethal injection drugs.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster's office attempted to quash the subpoena, but a federal district court and a panel of conservative 8th Circuit Court of Appeals judges declined to step in, finding that the state's concerns were "hearsay" and "inherently speculative."

But on Thursday, after the state and the anonymous supplier submitted more information, the panel reversed course and granted the states request to quash the subpoena.

If inmates wish to challenge their executions, they have to argue a better method by which to be put to death. The Mississippi inmates sought out Missouri's supply of pentobarbital — Mississippi uses midazolam, a sedative used in several botched executions over the past few years.

But the supplier, filing under the pseudonym "M7," said that it would stop supplying execution drugs if its identity were revealed.

"[B]ecause M7 would not supply pentobarbital to Mississippi once its identity is disclosed, we conclude that M7's identity has no relevance to the inmates' Eighth Amendment Claim," the panel wrote.

"Second, even if M7’s identity had any relevance to the inmates’ claim, M7’s declaration also establishes that the disclosure of M7’s identity will result in an undue burden on" the Missouri Department of Corrections, as the supplier would stop selling the state drugs.

The supplier also argued it feared for its personal safety, something the Mississippi inmates disputed.

"But even if M7’s fears are unfounded, that does not change the fact that M7 has already declared a clear intention to cease supplying if M7’s identity is disclosed," the panel wrote. "Thus, we conclude that the harm to MDOC clearly outweighs the need of the inmates, and disclosure would represent an undue burden on MDOC."

The pharmacy also argued it has a First Amendment right to sell execution drugs, which it called "an expression of political views, no different than signing a referendum petition or selling a t-shirt." The court made no ruling on that claim.

Jim Craig, a lawyer for the Mississippi inmates with the MacArthur Justice Center, noted that neither Missouri nor M7 challenged the trial court's finding "that the Missouri Legislature did not shield lethal injection drug suppliers from production of information about their sales to a taxpayer-funded agency."

As to Thursday's reversal, Craig told BuzzFeed News, "Litigation is designed to be a search for the truth. But in this case, condemned prisoners like Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase have been denied the basic truth-seeking tools of the legal process. We are studying the Court of Appeals’ opinion to determine what steps we should take next."

The panel's ruling is likely to complicate death row inmates' efforts to challenge their executions. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, they have to argue a feasible and readily available alternative. But courts have so far been strict in limiting discovery or allowing subpoenas in furtherance of finding an alternative.

Read the ruling:

Here's Donald Trump's Response To Being Called A "Sexual Predator" In 2006

Major Latino Group To Endorse Clinton Ahead Of Final Las Vegas Debate

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Ed Zurga / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The political group affiliated with the largest Hispanic advocacy organization in the country is endorsing Hillary Clinton the day before the final debate in Las Vegas, four sources tell BuzzFeed News.

The nonpartisan National Council of La Raza has a separate 501c4 called the NCLR Action Fund, which is taking the step to endorse for the first time, reflecting the seriousness of the moment many in the Latino community feel the country is in due to Donald Trump's unrelenting negative rhetoric and policies concerning Mexicans and immigrants.

It was, despite months of movement toward an endorsement, unclear if it would actually happen. BuzzFeed News reported earlier this year that the organization was considering taking the step, and the NCLR Action Fund held a board meeting during the summer to discuss the prospect of an endorsement.

When it came time for NCLR's national conference, however, the organization decided against extending an invitation to either candidate — to Trump because of his caustic tone — and to Clinton to avoid an appearance of playing favorites.

NCLR Action Fund would not comment on the planned endorsement only saying that the Tuesday event will focus on the group's work during the cycle.

The Tuesday event at the East Las Vegas Community Center, situated in a largely Latino neighborhood, will feature AFL-CIO's Artie Blanco and Yvanna Cancela, the political director for the majority Latino and almost entirely immigrant Culinary Union in Las Vegas.

NCLR Action Fund will push the message that at a time when Latinos are being talked about negatively by Trump, the organization is mobilizing voters with door knocks, Latino voter programs through its 300 affiliates, and taking the major step of endorsing Clinton.

"It is definitely big news that the nation's largest Latino organization is taking the unprecedented move of endorsing a candidate for president," said Clinton superdelegate and veteran Democratic strategist Andres Ramirez. "In a state like Nevada where Latinos play a pivotal, NCLR's efforts will certainly help Hillary Clinton win the state."

Central Park Five Member Rails Against Trump's Appeals To "Mob Justice" In New Ad

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WASHINGTON — Yusef Salaam said Donald Trump's infamous full-page ad calling for the deaths of the Central Park Five would in an earlier era been the impetus that sparked "mob justice" — in a new ad against Trump.

"They had our names, our phone numbers and addresses in the papers so what would've happened? Somebody from the darkest places of society would've come to our homes, kicked in our doors, and drug us from our homes and hung us from the trees in Central Park. That would've been the type of mob justice that they were seeking."

The quote is in a new anti-Trump ad by For Our Future PAC and MoveOn.org Political Action provided to BuzzFeed News. It recounts the story of the Central Park Jogger Case — how Salaam and four others were convicted of rape, and later exonerated after DNA evidence linked another man to the crime, and the role the Republican nominee for president played during that era in New York City. Trump bought full-page ads in newspapers writing, "I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them."

"He was the fire starter," Salaam says.

The Central Park Jogger case, which dominated the New York newspapers and tabloids in the late 1980s, is back into public view this election as Trump's faces intense scrutiny over his negative rhetoric about minorities and criticism over his treatment of women — issues that have long dogged his campaign but been magnified by his conduct in recent days.

To racial justice advocates, the Trump's role in the case is a harbinger of what to expect under a potential "law and order" Trump presidency.

The ad plays footage from a video Trump did with Larry King about the case in 1989. "Let’s all hate these people, because maybe hate is what we need to get something done," said Trump.

Trump last week reiterated and defended his position that Central Park Five are guilty, although the convictions were overturned. In a statement, Trump said, “They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani told BuzzFeed News he believed Trump had a "pretty solid basis" for defending his position.


Here's the ad:

youtube.com


Trump Gets Desperate

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Mike Segar / Reuters

OCALA, Florida — Donald Trump was nearing the end of a raw, red-faced tirade at his rally here Wednesday afternoon when he paused to make an unexpected confession.

“If we don’t win this election,” said Trump, his voice ragged from shouting, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

The note of desperation was jarring amid the cacophony of machismo and triumphalism that defines a typical Trump rally — but, then, these are desperate times for the Republican nominee. Facing a party in revolt, a free-fall in the polls, and a feeding frenzy in the press as more than a dozen women have come forward to accuse him of inappropriate behavior, Trump is turning increasingly to his loyal crowds for reassurance — and redemption — in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Campaigning across Florida, the besieged candidate has appeared in recent days visibly agitated as he addresses his fired-up fans — careening unpredictably between angry chastisements, needy pleas for validation, and dark claims of martyrdom.

“Let's hope it all boils down to winning on Nov. 8 — because if not, I’ve wasted my time [and] you’ve wasted your time,” Trump told one crowd. “I will have spent over $100 million on running for office. That’s a lot of money. … If I don’t win, it will be the single greatest waste of time, energy, and money.”

Everywhere he goes, Trump compulsively reminds his supporters of what he gave up to run for president, as though unsatisfied with the electorate’s lack of gratitude.

“Folks, I didn’t need to do this,” he repeatedly told supporters in Panama City.

“My life was so simple. I had a beautiful, simple life,” he lamented in Ocala.

In West Palm Beach Thursday, Trump cast himself as a martyr beset by a sinister global establishment hell-bent on destroying him. He forcefully denied the latest round of sexual assault allegations against him, framing the claims as evidence of a vast political-media conspiracy.

“I knew they would throw every lie they could at me and my family and my loved ones,” Trump told a crowd of thousands. “I knew they would stop at nothing to try and stop me. But I never knew … that it would be this vile, that it would be this bad, that it would be this vicious.”

“Nevertheless,” he continued, “I take all these slings and arrows gladly for you. I take them for our movement, so that we can have our country back.”

This act is not entirely without a strategic rationale. As one senior campaign adviser explained, the aim is to reframe the election in its final month as a clash between “populist nationalists” and “elitist globalists” — with Clinton as the “guardian of [the] corrupt, remote … rigged system” and Trump as the “agent of change.” The approach is, in essence, simply an escalation of the us-versus-them-ism that has been at the center of Trump's candidacy from the beginning.

But at other times this week, Trump has seemed altogether unshackled from any kind of coherent campaign message — bitterly lashing out at reporters by name, ridiculing disloyal Republicans, and offering detailed critiques of whatever cable news segment most recently annoyed him.

During one campaign stop, he compared his burdens to the plight of the working-class voters he champions. “They’re older, working harder, and they’re making less,” Trump said. “Here’s the good news: I’m also older and working harder than I’ve ever worked before... I don’t know, maybe I’m wasting my time.”

He paused a beat. “Am I wasting my time?”

At the same time, Trump has taken to warning his fans in Florida that he may never forgive them if he loses their state. “I’ve created a lot of jobs in Florida. Miami, Mar-a-Lago — if you guys don’t vote for me, I’m going to be very angry at you.” (When these admonishments made it on TV, Trump complained that the cable news channels were taking him out of context to make him look like a “jerk.”)

Of course, Trump’s intense relationship with his crowds is nothing new. He has long taken pride in the throngs of admirers that assemble to watch him perform on the campaign trail. Aides say he draws energy from these fans, relishing the daily chance to entertain them, rouse them, whip them up into a frenzy.

But now, as Trump grapples with the implosion of his candidacy and the wide-scale defection of his allies, the crowds seem to provide more than just bragging rights for the candidate. They represent a political mirage — one that offers consolation, absolution, and a hazy vision of victory that looks almost within reach.

Many of Trump’s supporters seem to understand the role they’re now playing, and they are proud to help buoy their candidate. Elizabeth Breton waited hours on a baking tarmac in central Florida Wednesday to see Trump speak. “I almost passed out,” she said, “but I’m still here.”

Breton said the media and the GOP establishment had badly mistreated Trump, and she wanted him to know that she appreciated him — even if he was on the brink of defeat.

“I’m proud of him that he’s not quitting,” she said of Trump. “He’s sticking it out.”

Rosie Gray contributed to this story.

Trump Jr. Suggested Women Who Can't Take Harassment “Don’t Belong In The Workforce"

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Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images

w.soundcloud.com

Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., dismissed workplace sexual harassment in a 2013 radio interview — and suggested that women who couldn’t take it should become kindergarten teachers.

The comments came in a March 2013 episode of The Opie and Anthony Show, during a discussion of whether women should be allowed in all-male golf clubs. And they offer a glimpse of the family’s perspective on workplace sexual harassment at a moment when the elder Trump’s conduct toward women inside the workplace and out has become the center of the presidential campaign.

“If you have a guys' place you have a guys' place,” Trump Jr., the candidate’s eldest son and executive vice president at the Trump Organization, said, describing himself as a “guy’s guy.”

A host interjected that women “complain, ‘it’s harassment’ — that’s why we hate having them around. They stop us from doing what we want to do.”

“I’m of that mindset — and I’ll get into trouble, I’m sure I’ll get myself in trouble one of these days,” Trump began. “If you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, then you don’t belong in the workforce. Like, you should go maybe teach kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position.

“You can’t be negotiating billion-dollar deals if you can’t handle, like, you know,” Trump said, without elaborating. “But listen — there’s a place where you have to draw the line — but today the stuff you get in trouble for…”

The hosts then joked about pulling up pictures of naked women on the computer screen in their recording studio.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if we showed tits and then Donald sued?” one asked.

“I’d feel harassed!” Trump Jr. joked. “This is my get-rich-quick scheme. I’m now suing you guys because I feel uncomfortable.

“And by the way, that’s what happens in the world. I can play along, I can be fine, and then I can decide randomly — ‘Uh oh, you now have crossed the line, even though I’ve been going with it.’”


Leaked Polling Doesn't Reveal Plot Against Obama — But Does Show Clinton's Weaknesses

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Perhaps the most explosive thing to emerge from the Wikieaks' latest dive into John Podesta's email is an exchange about polling on, among other things, Barack Obama's Muslim ancestry and claim (doubtful, by the way!) to have used cocaine.

The polling, contained in an exchange among Podesta and a series of other Democratic heavy hitters — Harry Reid's former chief of staff Susan McCue, former Clinton aide Paul Begala — came from a pollster at the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

Some immediately interpreted it as, finally, the smoking gun that the Clintonites went darkly negative on Obama, which Begala immediately denied.

A cursory look at the names on the email supports that contention. One is Tom Matzzie, a former MoveOn staffer; he personally, and MoveOn, supported Obama. He told me that the group doing the polling was called the Campaign to Defend America, which was later renamed Progressive Media USA and met a fairly ignominious end after, in the eyes of some, misplaying nonprofit tax law.

"We had negative batteries we tested on BOTH Clinton and Obama in a hypothetical match-up against McCain. The research team that cooked up the Obama attacks eventually went on to work for the Obama campaign," he said. "Of course I have to leave open the possibility that the hackers did something to the emails but I don't doubt we tested all those things. Testing your opponent's attacks on you is Campaigning 101."

"My mission was to stop the Republican no matter the Democrat. We were facing McCain who wanted a bigger war in the Middle East, including bombing Iran," said Matzzie, who now works in the energy industry.

The hacked email, one of the thousands posted to WikiLeaks amid a wave of hacks into prominent Democratic and establishment figures that US officials have linked to Russian interests, also contains attachments with polling information on slides.

And indeed, while even testing the Obama attacks would have been shocking in 2008, the more interesting elements of the polling apply to the candidate running this year, Hillary Clinton. (Also interesting: Among the possible attacks on John McCain, warning voters that he was too old to be president ranked high.)

In the Clinton polling is more evidence of how clear and longstanding her flaws — that Americans don't trust her, first of all — are. Obama knew that. "Change You Can Believe In" was a tacit statement that his rival was the one you couldn't believe.

And as Clinton marches grimly toward the finish in 2016, this chart that John Podesta saw eight years ago still resonates:


Florida's New Death Sentencing Law Is Unconstitutional, State High Court Rules

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The Florida Supreme Court

Phil Sears / AP

WASHINGTON — Florida's new death penalty sentencing statute — to the extent that it allows juries to recommend death on a vote of 10-2 — is unconstitutional, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in a pair of cases on Friday.

Further, the state high court ruled that the death sentence of the man whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare Florida's old death penalty sentencing scheme to be declared unconstitutional in January is no longer valid. The justices tossed out Timothy Lee Hurst's death sentence on Friday and sent his case back to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing.

The decisions in Hurst's and Larry Darnell Perry's cases put new death penalty trials on hold while the state's legislature and executive branch decide how to respond to Friday's ruling.

The decision means that those on Florida's death row whose death sentences, like Hurst, have still not been finalized on direct appeal will be able to seek resentencing under the process laid out on Friday in Hurst's case.

As to others previously sentenced to death in Florida — the state has the second largest death row in the nation, with nearly 400 people awaiting execution — Friday's decisions did not address the outstanding question of whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision will apply retroactively.

Hurst had asked for his sentence to be converted to a life sentence, but the Florida justices rejected that request — ruling that such a move would only be appropriate under Florida law if "capital punishment as a penalty is declared unconstitutional generally."

The Florida court found on Friday that was not the situation in Hurst's case, characterizing the U.S. Supreme Court decision as "focused ... on [a] portion of the capital sentencing process."

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the old statute, it did so because the state relied on "a judge’s factfinding" and not "a jury's verdict" to sentence a person to death.

The Florida legislature passed a new statute, addressing the requirement that jurors make the sentencing decision. The new law, however, allows a non-unanimous decision of the jury — here, 10 of 12 — to impose a death sentence on a person.

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday held that is not permitted.

"[W]e hold that the Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst v. Florida requires that all the critical findings necessary before the trial court may consider imposing a sentence of death must be found unanimously by the jury," the court ruled in Hurst's case.

This, the court explained, included not just the existence of aggravating circumstances during the sentencing phase of a capital case, but also the sufficiency of those aggravating circumstances and the finding that those aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating circumstances.

Going further still, the court held that, "based on Florida’s requirement for unanimity in jury verdicts, and under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, that in order for the trial court to impose a sentence of death, the jury's recommended sentence of death must be unanimous."

The court went on to hold that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment also requires unanimity in sentencing recommendations of a jury.

Because Florida's new statute allows a 10-2 vote for the recommendation of death, the court held, the law is not constitutional. In Larry Darnell Perry's case, the court summarized it as such: "While most of the Act can be construed constitutionally under our holding in Hurst, the Act’s 10-2 jury recommendation requirement renders the Act unconstitutional."

In deciding how to handle Hurst's case going forward, the justices first declined Hurst's request to convert his death sentence automatically to a life sentence.

Hurst had pointed to a state law requiring such an action if the death penalty is declared to be unconstitutional. The Florida court, however, concluded, "Hurst v. Florida was decided on Sixth Amendment grounds and nothing in that decision suggests a broad indictment of the imposition of the death penalty generally."

As such, the justices found, that state law does not apply and it considered, instead, whether the January decision meant that Hurst should allowed to have a new sentencing hearing. That review usually entails a "harmless error" analysis — basically, might the error (here, an unconstitutional death sentencing law) have made a difference?

Hurst argued that a harmless error analysis wasn't appropriate here because the U.S. Supreme Court had identified a "structural" error that "results in a proceeding that is always fundamentally unfair."

The Florida justices disagreed, finding "that Hurst v. Florida error is capable of harmless error review." Nonetheless, it described a bar that most people sentenced to death under that pre-January sentencing statute would appear to cross: "Where the error concerns sentencing, the error is harmless only if there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the sentence."

The Florida Supreme Court concluded that "the error in Hurst’s sentencing has not been shown to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt" and, accordingly, vacated his death sentence and sent his case back for a new sentencing proceeding.

Read the Hurst decision:

Read the Perry decision:

Donald Trump Is Causing Bitter Fights Inside Cuban-American Families

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Matt Rourke / AP

MIAMI — Sitting under the neon green letters of Ball & Chain — a revamped version of a popular 1950s bar and lounge on Calle Ocho in Little Havana — Claudia Maria Alonso and her brother, Javier, tried to properly explain just how Republican their Cuban-exile parents are.

There was Christmas two years ago, when dinner transformed into an intense argument over President Obama's move to normalize US relations with Cuba, the country to which their parents say they will never return, unless it is democratic.

But the Alonso siblings agree that Elián González's arrival in Florida in 2000 dominates all others in their political education.

The young boy, at the center of a custody battle after his mother drowned trying to bring him to the United States, was seized by gun-toting federal agents. Miami's Cuban community revolted. Claudia wore "demonstration" clothes, as her parents put it, not protest clothes. They emphasized that it is the right of Americans to "demonstrate" — which they did over the Gonzalez saga.

"We were Elián; Elián was us," Claudia said.

The president at the time was Bill Clinton. And that moment, along with the rise of Fox News, cemented their parent's Republican affiliation.

But the Alonso siblings, now 27 and 24 years old, are part of a younger generation of Floridians Cubans, whose firm ties to the Republican Party have begun to fray in recent years. Obama won the Cuban vote in Florida in 2012 (though some still dispute the 49% to 47% exit poll result). Now, Donald Trump threatens to remove all doubt. And in the all important state of Florida, where small differences in one demographic or region can affect the final result, that's a troubling shift not just for Trump, but for the Republican Party.

That change will not be driven by older Cubans — the ones reporters interview outside the famous Versailles restaurant, with their strong political views and stronger cafecitos — but by their kids, the ones who don't like Hillary Clinton much, but are disgusted by Trump.

Party affiliation already appears to be going in that direction, according to Pew Hispanic data from 2013. A majority of "millennial" Cuban-Americans identified as Democrats or leaning Democratic (63%), while only 30% said they were Republican or lean Republican. The center's director, Mark Hugo Lopez, cautioned it was a small sample size, but more robust data for 18- to 49-year-olds showed similar shifts, and higher Republican identification among those over 50.

An FIU poll taken over the summer among 1,000 registered Cuban-American voters in Miami Dade County found that Clinton was leading Trump 43% to 21% among 18 to 39-year-olds with 26% saying neither and 10% undecided.

At Ball & Chain, with appetizers of mariquitas de maduros and congri fritters arrayed in front of them, Javier talked about his journey within the family, from putting up a large Obama campaign poster (his mother yelled his full name, his parent's threatened his inheritance), to voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary, and admitting to having some socialist views.

Now, it's no surprise that he's fully anti-Trump and voting for Clinton.

"I'm a single-issue voter in that I don't want to usher in the apocalypse," he said of Trump.

"The fact that my brother is a registered Democrat in our house is a tragedy," Claudia offered, in a way that left unclear if she was being sarcastic.

She considers herself a conservative — she researched the candidates in 2008 and 2012 and pulled the lever for John McCain and Mitt Romney. But she will vote for a Democrat for the first time in her life in November. ("I don't have a Hillary bumper sticker on the back of my car," she added, to be clear.)

But their parents are a different story — their mom Carmen doesn't like either candidate and doesn't like to divulge who she votes for. Their father Humberto only mentioned it once in front of Claudia. "I'm not voting for Hillary, she's a crook," he said. "The only person to vote for is Trump."

"We're not talking about this," Claudia said she replied (then literally drove away).

Claudia Maria Alonso and her brother Javier Alonso with their grandparents.

Courtesy Claudia Maria Alonso

Ari Gonzalez, Claudia's friend, has a similar problem. He's a 25-year-old who was born in Cuba, but has lived in Miami since he was three-years-old. The older members of his family are mostly for Trump, he said, but he supports Clinton.

"Older Cubans all come up with weird ideas," he said. "That Obama is gonna be like Fidel Castro, Hillary, too." He got into an argument recently because his family was trashing Obamacare, but he credits it with helping him have insurance.

Miami-native Cassandra Gonzalez — no relation to Ari — says her parents are "a little brainwashed" and voting for Trump. The 27-year-old nurse said that she and her boyfriend, who is also Cuban-American, are no fans of Clinton ("she's a liar") and they're both going to vote third party, for Gary Johnson.

But she saved her worst commentary for Trump, who she sincerely believes is not knowledgeable about any issue related to running the country.

"As far as how he might be as president, he'll start a war by opening his mouth," she said, disdainfully.

Her parents, haven't heard of recent controversies involving Trump and Cuba, she said, like a recent Newsweek report that alleged his companies had violated the Cuban embargo looking to make money off the island.

Many of the younger Cubans said they felt Obama was the turning point, where their traditionally Republican voting families considered or finally voted for a Democrat. Of her support for Clinton now despite coming from a long line of Republican family members, Kim Fraga, 25, said it can no longer be about party during this election.

"It's not about being Democrat or Republican," she said. "It's more of a moral thing, who do you want the younger generation to look up to?"

It's not the time for Democrats or young voters to protest by not supporting Clinton, she argued, and brought up Trump's damaging video tape that saw him bragging about forcing himself on women and touching their genitals because he could — because he was famous.

"I think it's just another clear sign of who he is as a person," Fraga said. "It's not OK to talk about sexual assault as freely and as easily as it comes to him."

With Clinton possibly in line for record Latino support in the face of never before seen unfavorable levels from Trump, she will have to grow her margin among groups that supported Republicans in the past, like Cuban-Americans. While they only make up 4% of the Hispanic population, 70% live in Florida.

Gonzalez said he's embarrassed by older cousins who say they support Trump and having already convinced his mom to vote for Clinton, he has a new strategy he's taking with other family members.

"I'm working on trying to get them to either not vote or open up a fact checker on the internet," he said.

Back at Ball & Chain, whose renovation and reopening coincided with the rise of Calle Ocho as a trendy place young Cuban-Americans wanted to hangout at again, Claudia and Javier polished off fruity cocktails and she told him about a Cuban-American friend living in New York City, who was sending in an absentee ballot to vote in Florida.

"Yes!" Javier shouted, shooting his arms in the air and bringing his hands down as if in prayer.

Justice Ginsburg Says Her Earlier Kaepernick Criticism Was "Inappropriately Dismissive"

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Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaks during the keynote address or the State Bar of New Mexico's Annual Meeting in Pojoaque, N.M., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Craig Fritz)

Craig Fritz / AP

WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in a statement on Friday that earlier comments criticizing the silent protests of athletes were "inappropriately dismissive and harsh."

Earlier this week, Ginsburg said that Colin Kaepernick and other athletes' protests of refusing to stand during the playing of the national anthem are "dumb and disrespectful" — although their constitutional right.

On Friday, in a statement issued by the Supreme Court's press office, Ginsburg walked back the earlier comments.

"Some of you have inquired about a book interview in which I was asked how I felt about Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who refused to stand for the national anthem," the justice said in the statement. "Barely aware of the incident or its purpose, my comments were inappropriately dismissive and harsh. I should have declined to respond."

The statement is the second time this year that Ginsburg has walked back an earlier comment. This summer, after harshly criticizing Donald Trump and his candidacy in a series of interviews, she issued a statement, saying, "On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them."

Two More Women Accuse Donald Trump Of Sexual Misconduct

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Summer Zervos, right, reads a statement alongside her attorney Gloria Allred.

Ringo H.w. Chiu / AP

Two more women came forward Friday with allegations that Donald Trump made unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances, from kissing to grouping and reaching up one of their skirts.

Summer Zervos, a contestant was fired on Season 5 of The Apprentice, told reporters at a news conference in Los Angeles that Trump groped and kissed her in his room at Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007 under the pretense of a job interview.

Kristin Anderson told the Washington Post that she was seated at a crowded Manhattan nightspot in the early 1990s when Trump slid his fingers under her skirt, up her thigh, and touched her vagina through her underwear.

Anderson, an aspiring model in her 20s at the time, told the Post she shoved his hand away and fled the couch.

"It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen,” Anderson told the Post. “There was zero conversation. We didn’t even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part.”

Both women recalled how they initially disclosed the encounters to people they knew but ultimately decided to let it go — that is, until Trump's comments about grabbing women "by the pussy," recorded in 2005 while on an Access Hollywood shoot, were made public and the Republican presidential nominee entrenched himself for the fallout.

"Mr. Trump, when I met you I was so impressed with your talents that I wanted to be like you. I wanted a job with your organization," Zervos said at the news conference, her attorney Gloria Allred, by her side. "However, after hearing the released audio tapes and your denials during the debate, I felt I had to speak out about your behavior. You do not have the right to treat woman as sexual objects just because you are star."

Zervos and Anderson join a growing list of seven other women who have recently come forward with their own stories of being groped, kissed, or having to endure other unwanted sexual advances.

Trump has described his 2005 "pussy" comments as "locker room talk" and in the second presidential debate, insisted he had never physically groped or kissed women without consent.

His campaign has also dismissed the allegations as false and a bid by the women to either get attention, money, or undermine the Republican nominee's prospects on Election Day.

Many of the women, however, have said they were reluctant to come forward, fearful of Trump's ire.

However, at the end of the day, Zervos said her interest was "to do the right thing, what feels right for me, and not to file a lawsuit."

"I imagine he will be up tweeting that I’m a big-nosed, broke dummy because he can't sleep and deal with who he is at night," she added. "I’ll be able to sleep when I'm his age."

LINK: “She Would Not Be My First Choice,” Trump Says About Woman Accusing Him Of Sexual Assault

LINK: Here Are The Women Who Say Trump Made Unwanted Sexual Advances Toward Them


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