Tag Archives: rigged

Clinton aims high in campaign’s final days

Hillary Clinton aimed to hit high notes in the campaign’s final days, hoping an uplifting message would wash away voters’ disgust with the grueling presidential contest. Donald Trump denounced what he called a “rigged” electoral system and told supporters he would never quit, charging into new and dangerous rhetorical territory for a presidential candidate — although not for the first time.

Clinton preached at a black church in north Philadelphia on Sunday, telling the congregation that Tuesday’s election was a moment to choose “hopes over fear, unity over division and love over hate.” She promised to continue the policies of President Barack Obama and accused the Trump of trying to destroy Obama’s legacy.

“I personally believe we have come too far to turn back now,” she said. “If we come together with the common vision, common faith, we will find common ground.”

During the campaign’s final days, candidates embarked on one their last tours of battleground states, presenting their closing arguments to weary voters deeply divided along racial, economic and gender lines.

With national polls showing her retaining an edge, Clinton enlisted allies and A-listers for help at stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire. She planned to campaign with Cavaliers star LeBron James in Cleveland, and rally voters in Manchester with Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father whose indictment of Trump delivered emotional high point for Democrats.

For his campaign’s final days, Trump planned a marathon on the campaign trail, with stops in five states, including Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania — states that have long proven unfriendly territory for Republican presidential candidates. But buoyed by a late surge of momentum, Trump’s campaign believes its loyal, white working-class voters will deliver an upset on Tuesday.

“Our secret weapon is the American people who are saying, ‘Enough is enough,’” vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said on Fox News Sunday.’

Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters Sunday that Trump planned to keep up the breakneck campaign pace during the campaign’s final days and right up through Election Day. After voting in New York tomorrow, Trump was expected to return to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and New Hampshire later in the day, Conway said.

Tension is running high in the final days. Trump was rushed off stage Saturday night at rally in Reno, Nevada, after someone near the stage had shouted “Gun!,” according to the Secret Service. The agency said a search revealed no weapon.

Trump returned a few minutes later to resume his remarks and declared, “We will never be stopped.”

The Republican candidate’s son and top campaign adviser later retweeted the false rumor that the incident was an “assassination attempt,” and a supporter at a subsequent rally in Denver repeated the suggestion.

Asked about the misinformation, Conway did not apologize, but said Trump’s son was acting out of worry: “It’s pretty rattling to think of what may have happened to your father. So, I will excuse him that,” Conway told CNN on Sunday.

The Clinton campaign says it is focusing on securing its firewall in the West and upper Midwest. Clinton started her day with the largely African-American congregation of Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia. And President Barack Obama planned rallied in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today before joining Clinton for a rally in Philadelphia featuring Bruce Springsteen.

Critical in both states is African American turnout. Black clergy were taking to the pulpits in a “Souls to the Poll” campaign to energize black voters, after early vote data shows some signs of diminished turnout from Obama’s two elections.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told NBC’s Meet the Press that the campaign believes if Clinton wins Nevada and Michigan, she “is going to be the next president of the United States.”

Clinton faced dark skies, intense rain and strong wind in Florida on Saturday before appearing in Pennsylvania with pop singer Katy Perry. The Democratic nominee was preparing to campaign Sunday with basketball superstar Lebron James, having shared the stage Friday night with music diva Beyoncé and hip hop mogul husband Jay Z.

“Tonight, I want to hear you roar,” a smiling Clinton said before introducing Perry for a Saturday night performance in Philadelphia.

Perry, who hugged Clinton while wearing a purple cape bearing the words, “I’m with Madam President,” shouted, “In three days, let’s make history!”

At least 41 million Americans across 48 states have already cast ballots four days before Election Day, according to an Associated Press analysis. That’s significantly than were cast early in 2012.

Peoples reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Wilmington, North Carolina, Kathleen Hennessey in Washington and David Eggert in Holland, Michigan, contributed to this report.

 

 

Rush Limbaugh wins children’s book award

Rush Limbaugh has won a children’s book prize designed to be chosen by kids themselves. But that doesn’t mean all of his voters were young people.

Last week, Limbaugh received the Children’s Choice Book Award for author of the year, defeating such superstars as Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” writer Jeff Kinney, the winner in 2012 and 2013. The conservative commentator won for “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,” a book that landed high on the best-seller lists of Amazon.com and other outlets despite limited mainstream coverage.

From the moment Limbaugh’s nomination was announced, in March, conservatives were delighted, liberals angered and others simply puzzled — emotions only amplified by Limbaugh’s victory, which raised his book from No. 71 on Amazon the day before to the top 10 last Thursday.

Nominees are selected by the most objective method possible, sales, while the winners are supposedly picked by kids, who vote online. But executive director Robin Adelson of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, nonprofit organizations that co-founded the awards seven years ago, acknowledged that adults could easily vote and vote multiple times, a problem not uncommon for Internet competitions.

“Every one of our finalists gets fake votes every year,” Adelson told The Associated Press. “We like to think that’s the enthusiasm of adults who love children’s books.”

Adelson cited three ways that people can vote: a widget that can be embedded in such popular kids’ websites as www.poptropica.com, a link on the awards website (http://ccbookawards.com) that allows individuals to vote and a link on the awards site that allows teachers, librarians and others to submit bulk votes on behalf of their institution.

Adelson said she doubted that parents or other grown-ups were voting through Poptropica, but acknowledged the awards site was more likely to be manipulated. An individual voter can vote multiple times and does not need to provide a verifiable email address or proof of his or her age. Bulk voters are required to submit a verifiable email, but there is no guarantee that a given teacher or librarian is really expressing the wishes of others.

“We send emails and make phone calls. A lot of manual labor goes into verifying (bulk voters),” Adelson said. “Do we catch them all? Of course not.”

Limbaugh has touted his nomination on his radio show and on his website, www.rushlimbaugh.com . Adelson said Limbaugh initially enjoyed a wide lead, but that voting tightened considerably in the final weeks and the outcome was “fair and close.”

“It’s not as if he received millions of votes and everybody else and received 10,” she said. “It was far, far closer.”

Adelson said total votes this year only increased modestly, from 1.1 million to 1.2 million, and added that voting has generally gone up each year. She emphasized the awards have no mission beyond encouraging kids to read.

“We’ve received some hate mail,” she said. “We’ve been accused of endorsing Rush Limbaugh and supporting Rush Limbaugh. We endorse and support children.”

Former beauty queen must pay Miss USA pageant $5 million for defamation

A federal judge in New York has upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that a Pennsylvania beauty queen must pay the Miss USA pageant $5 million for defaming Donald Trump’s pageant organization.

Sheena Monnin resigned as Miss Pennsylvania last year, saying the Miss USA contest was rigged. She claimed another contestant learned the names of the top five finishers hours before the show was broadcast. Monnin said she decided to turn in her crown as soon as those same contestants were named during the show.

She posted a series of messages on Facebook and spoke publicly about her claims. Trump’s Miss Universe Organization sued Monnin for defamation and an arbitrator ruled against her in December. The arbitrator said Monnin’s allegations cost the pageant a $5 million fee from a potential 2013 sponsor.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken upheld the arbitrator’s decision. Monnin had sought to have it overturned based on three grounds: the arbitrator overstepped his authority, his decision disregarded law, and she didn’t know the arbitration hearing was taking place. The judge disagreed.

Monnin, of Cranberry, Pa., said in a Facebook post that she is glad the truth is out there, regardless of the outcome.

“This is not about me being a `sore loser’ or wanting my `15 minutes of fame'” she wrote. “This is about the MUO’s admission under oath that they manipulate the judges’ results to suit their own ends. This is not what they advertise to the public.”

Pageant organizers claimed Monnin resigned because she disagreed with a decision to allow transgender contestants. They made public text from an email they said Monnin sent citing the decision to allow natural-born males into the competition as the reason for her resignation. A transgender contestant was initially denied entry to the Miss Universe Canada pageant because she wasn’t born female, but Trump overruled that decision.

Olivia Culpo of Rhode Island won the Miss USA pageant that year.

Monnin wrote on Facebook page that her legal fees amount to more than $50,000 and she needed financial support, including a link for donations.

Trump’s lawyer said he applauded the judge’s decision but was surprised Monnin stood by her story.

“I’m shocked to see that she has yet to learn her lesson. I thought she would be smarter the second time around,” attorney Michael Cohen said.