WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama’s is reserving his final state dinner for the prime minister of Italy, providing star treatment to a key ally who soon faces a critical leadership test in his home country.
But with three weeks to go until the election to succeed Obama, the two leaders also made remarks that can only be interpreted as thinly veiled commentary on the candidacy of Donald Trump.
In a sometimes heated exchange, Clinton supporter and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban sparred with Trump supporter and former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Trump’s campaign revealed late Tuesday that Barack Obama’s Kenyan-born half brother will be their guest in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s debate will be the last between Trump and Hillary Clinton, though it will not be the first time Trump has invited controversial guests. Trump’s feelings are mutual.
“Yes, and I know one”, Cuban said, “And it just didn’t happen recently”. Serious analysts, he said, “will tell you that instances of significant voter fraud are not to be found”. I wouldn’t recommend she come forward. Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett Packard, is a Republican who has nevertheless endorsed and raised money for Clinton.
The businessman-turned-politician has claimed the 8 November election will be “absolutely rigged” for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
In an online video, Trump called the records proof of collusion between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and the State Department “to try to make Hillary Clinton look like an innocent person”. Afterwards, he told CNN that Trump was “bats– insane”. “So, you know, it’s not anything that caught me by surprise”.
Trump has ramped up conspiracies about America’s election system as his poll numbers have plummeted in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him.
Clinton takes the stage facing challenges of her own.
Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, Mike Pence, took a softer tone than Trump during a campaign appearance in North Carolina, saying he was “confident” the integrity of the election would be ensured.
But it was on the issue of Trump’s businesses (which Giuliani brought up) that really got Cuban going. Obama admitted that his responses to a reporter’s question about Trump’s feelings toward Russian Federation were much more subdued than they tend to be on the campaign trail.
Throughout the election campaign, Clinton has argued that Trump, with his divisive rhetoric and attacks against Muslims and other minorities, is not qualified to lead the United States. The Clintons have long denied the accusations.
A senior campaign staffer confirmed that Obama and Smith would attend the debate. “In one case, he walked into a massage room where she was under a sheet and he hit on her”, Mark said.