Clinton campaign’s bank account grows with an additional $40.5 million raised in June
As Donald Trump struggles to mount an effective fundraising operation, Hillary Clinton reported another huge month.
The Clinton campaign said it raised $40.5 million for its own accounts in June, plus an additional $28 million that the Democratic National Committee and its affiliates in the states can use to register voters and organize Democrats. It is the most money the Clinton campaign has raised in a month yet, reflecting a considerable uptick since the campaign moved into the general-election phase.
The funds raised do not include the additional millions of dollars likely raised for the pro-Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA, which functions independently. Trump has been scrambling to catch up since reporting that his campaign was practically broke at the end of May, with just over $1 million in the bank. Clinton, by contrast, entered July with $44 million on hand.
Trump’s financial troubles stem from a reluctance of big donors to contribute to his campaign and a lack of organized fundraising structure. He sought to ease the concerns of big donors by announcing he would forgive $50 million worth of personal loans to his campaign, which he used to win the primary. The move would mean that money he collects now could not be diverted to paying back Trump for the primary.
But building a fundraising apparatus that resembles anything close to Clinton’s will still be extremely difficult for Trump. The enormous fundraising gap he faces puts him at a considerable disadvantage as Clinton has already started major television advertising campaigns in swing states.
Donald Trump could have wooed skeptical Republicans in Colorado. Instead, he brought up their old fights
Donald Trump’s visit to Colorado on Friday offered the presumptive GOP presidential nominee a chance to repair relations with Republicans in this pivotal swing state after a contentious primary season. But Trump instead dwelt on the divisions that threaten to split open the party.
In his address at the Western Conservative Summit, Trump repeatedly mentioned the fractious GOP primaries, particularly Colorado’s complicated delegate allocation process, in which the real estate mogul was outmaneuvered by GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Polls came out and I was going to win Colorado, doing really well in Colorado. It looked good, and I was looking forward to it,” Trump recounted. “And then, all of a sudden, I didn’t get the delegates!”
Back in April, Trump slammed the process, and the fierce outcry he triggered culminated in state GOP Chairman Steve House receiving death threats.
On Friday, House introduced Trump and spoke glowingly about his campaign, suggesting a detente.
Donald Trump says his family will speak at the Republican convention
Trump doesn’t have Ted Cruz’s backing, but he’s hiring key Cruz operatives
Former presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz has not backed Donald Trump, but his allies are being scooped up by the businessman’s team.
The Trump campaign announced Friday the hire of Kellyanne Conway, a pro-Cruz super PAC operative, as a senior Trump advisor, and picked up Cruz’s communications strategist, Jason Miller, earlier in the week.
Trump has been struggling to professionalize a campaign operation that many observers say suffers from self-inflicted setbacks and remains too reliant on isolated advisors.
Conway ran one of the most active pro-Cruz super PACs and then oversaw allied PAC operations amid donor infighting.
She will be an advisor to Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and, as a veteran pollster with her own firm, will join Trump’s polling operation headed by Tony Fabrizio.
Miller, who swiftly deleted the “#SleazyDonald” tweets he dispatched during his job handling communications for team Cruz, will be senior Trump communications advisor.
Cruz, the Texas senator, had once been on friendly terms with his rival, Trump, but the campaign became bitter as Trump criticized Cruz’s wife and suggested Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.
Cruz is among the leading Republicans in Washington who has not endorsed Trump. But he’s planning to attend the summer in Cleveland, a spokesperson said, to thank his own supporters.
Sanders: ‘I do not hate Secretary Clinton’
Bernie Sanders does not “hate” Hillary Clinton, as Donald Trump suggested this week.
Sanders denied that claim and laughed at Trump’s even suggesting it.
“He has read my mind; what a man, what a genius,” Sanders said sarcastically during an interview Thursday with MSNBC. “No, the answer is of course, you know, Trump is lying as he always does. No, I do not hate Secretary Clinton.”
Sanders also vowed to continue pressing Clinton on their differences over the Democratic Party platform, such as trade policy, college affordability and universal healthcare.
“We are trying to work with Secretary Clinton’s campaign on areas that we can agree on,” Sanders said, adding that his supporters expect some changes in Clinton’s positions before they can consider getting behind her.
Trump launches a Twitter attack on the Clintons
Donald Trump took to Twitter after Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch announced Friday she will remove herself from deciding about possible charges in the Hillary Clinton email probe. Lynch faced criticism for a conversation between her and former president Bill Clinton when they crossed paths at a Phoenix airport earlier this week.
Attorney general will accept prosecutors’ decision on possible charges in Clinton email probe
Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch will accept the recommendation of career prosecutors and the FBI director about whether to seek charges in the investigation involving Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State, a Justice Department official said Friday.
The decision comes after Lynch came under fire for having a private meeting Monday evening with Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, in her government jet on the tarmac of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport.
Despite assurances that they only discussed personal matters -- “our conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren,” Lynch told reporters -- the attorney general found herself being criticized for creating the appearance of impropriety. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called the meeting “so terrible.”
Lynch is expected to discuss the controversy during an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival at 8 a.m. PDT, said a Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A motley crew of pro-Trump super PACs fails to draw GOP donors
Donald Trump’s fundraising woes extend well beyond his campaign’s lackluster effort to raise money.
A hodgepodge of rival outside super PACs are now fighting — without much success — to attract rich GOP donors and the candidate’s implicit endorsement.
As the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action deploys some of its $88 million in contributions to flood the airwaves with anti-Trump TV ads, wealthy contributors wishing to invest in the pro-Trump effort are facing an odd assortment of super PACs with competing visions, questionable capacity and sometimes sketchy track records.
According to election finance reports, of the dozen or so pro-Trump super PACs established so far, only a few have reported raising significant amounts of money or interest — for a total of about $4 million as of the end of May. And most of that has already been spent.
Donald Trump: Americans should ‘pay a little bit more’ for U.S.-made products to save jobs
Donald Trump again defied Republican orthodoxy during an event at a former factory in New Hampshire on Thursday, declaring that “we’re better off paying a little bit more” for consumer products if it means protecting American jobs.
“The goods will also be of a higher quality,” Trump added. “We’re known for that.”
The comments came as Trump is building on the proposition that has surpassed immigration as his central campaign theme: that decades of trade pacts have depressed U.S. manufacturing and lowered wages.
Thursday’s speech, which included questions from an invited audience, supplemented a more formal address Trump delivered earlier this week in which he threatened to end trade pacts and impose tariffs. The speech drew criticism from the Chamber of Commerce and other longtime stalwarts of the GOP’s business wing, along with a lengthy rebuke from President Obama.
Trump pushed back against their criticism Thursday, saying that he is in favor of free trade but that the U.S. has done a poor job of making deals.