Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded barbs in their final pitch to voters as the curtain came down on the ugliest campaign in USA history and voting began Tuesday in the knife-edge polls that will elect America’s first woman president or put a political outsider in office. The victor inherits leadership of the world’s largest economy and a nation perhaps irreconcilably divided over immigration, trade and its role in the world. There were eye-popping numbers tossed around-650,000 new emails!
Trump was scheduled to make stops in five states Monday: Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and MI. As candidates running for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives wrapped up their campaigns, Republicans were seen as making some gains in their quest to hold onto majority control of both chambers.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says Obama called Trump early Wednesday while he was speaking to his supporters in NY, and so Trump called him back after he left the stage.
Trump would have to win all three.
She said the two had what she described as a “very nice talk”. “And people are hurt so badly”.
Some 40 million Americans have already cast ballots in states that allow early voting, and tens of millions more will turn today for what is shaping up to be a historic clash.
“But the years of betrayal will end – they will end and they’re going to end quickly”.
On Tuesday night, Trump said that he had received a call from his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wants to know how FBI Director James Comey arrived at his decision – again – that Hillary Clinton will not face criminal charges related to the former Secretary of State’s email scandal.
“I’m exhausted of the mudslinging”, said Laura Schmitt, a 54-year-old Republican from Woodbury, Minnesota, who is voting for Trump.
“Let’s get out and vote”, Clinton said. First, Clinton, against all possible odds, has run an excellent campaign, whose relentless attacks would have felled lesser candidates in days.
On the stump, Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of a “rigged” election, saying he was fighting an uphill battle against the media and the Washington political establishment.
“According to a Washington Post report, “senior Federal Bureau of Investigation officials” knew about the new emails related to Secretary Clinton’s email system ‘at least two weeks before Director James B. Comey notified Congress'”.
How Comey’s latest announcement will affect the race is an open question that will not be known until after the votes are counted.
The centerpiece of Clinton’s final campaign swing on Monday was a massive rally on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, where she was joined by her husband.
She said: “Give him a chance as your president-elect like we all did with President Obama and we all did with President Bill Clinton”.
July 21, 2016: “I am your voice”, Trump says as he accepts the GOP nomination for president.
Trump closed his improbable presidential bid in trademark style, flying across the country in his now-familiar private jet and headlining packed rallies filled with enthusiastic supporters. As he surveyed the crowd in Scranton he declared, “It’s been a long journey”.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says Hillary Clinton had more money and more people on the ground – but, Team Trump “outworked them, and frankly, we outsmarted and outclassed them in some cases”.
Clinton’s campaign, furious at Comey’s handling of the review, welcomed Sunday’s announcement, but Clinton did not mention the issue at her campaign events. In doing so, the director had ignored the advice of the attorney general and violated Justice Department guidelines for publicizing criminal investigations so close to Election Day, lest the public perceive the nation’s criminal justice system as having its thumb on the scale for one candidate over the other. But he warned it would all slip away if he loses today.”Go vote”, he urged. Share, if you think that Comey was trying to swing the election to Trump. “Voter ID laws, rationalized by demonstrably fake concerns about election fraud, were used to disenfranchise thousands; others were discouraged by a systematic effort to make voting hard, by closing polling places in areas with large minority populations”. People reported such problems in three Virginia precincts with long lines resulting.
Tammy Regis, 42, a disabled Army veteran who served in Iraq and now lives in Palmetto, Florida, said she would not trust the outcome if Clinton wins.