Oct. 12, 2016, 7:48 a.m.
Among Donald Trump’s favorite polls this election season is the USC/LA Times Daybreak tracking poll because it so often has shown him ahead when most other polls reported he was behind.
But Trump is unlikely to cite the poll on Twitter or during any of his campaign events Wednesday. For the first time since early September, even the USC/LA Times poll has Hillary Clinton leading.
The poll often is out of sync with other voter surveys because it uses different methodology. It asks voters to estimate, on a scale of 0 to 100, how likely they are to vote for a particular candidate and crunches the results for a daily forecast.
Oct. 12, 2016, 6:34 p.m.
Hillary Clinton's campaign called new allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump "disturbing," but said the account "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 is more than just words," campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said.
Oct. 12, 2016, 6:09 p.m.
One of Vice President Joe Biden's signature accomplishments as a senator for more than three decades was the Violence Against Women Act. And so as he ends his career, it is "astonishing," he said Wednesday, to see a presidential candidate acknowledge engaging in behavior that would be considered "textbook sexual assault."
"This is absolutely outrageous behavior," Biden said in an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," recorded before the publication of a New York Times story with accounts from women who allege that the Republican nominee assaulted them.
Biden expressed his disappointment "to come across someone like Trump" after having worked for years "trying to figure out how to change the culture in this country so that we treat women with respect and dignity."
Oct. 12, 2016, 6:06 p.m.
John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, had his Twitter account hacked on Wednesday.
The campaign was aware of the hack.
In recent days, WikiLeaks has published hundreds of personal emails written by Podesta.
Oct. 12, 2016, 5:31 p.m.
As Donald Trump reels from the fallout of his sexually aggressive comments caught on tape, two women alleged that the GOP presidential nominee accosted them in a new report published Wednesday.
Jessica Leeds, 74, told the New York Times that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to slip his hand up her skirt in the first-class cabin of a plane more than three decades ago.
“He was like an octopus,” Leeds told the paper. “His hands were everywhere.”
Oct. 12, 2016, 3:00 p.m.
The Commission on Presidential Debates released topics on Wednesday for the third — and final — presidential debate next week.
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and has selected topics focused on debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and the candidates’ fitness to be president.
The debate will be held Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and will consist of six segments that will last 15 minutes.
The topics are subject to change as the topsy-turvy campaign inches closer to the Nov. 8 election, the commission said.
Oct. 12, 2016, 2:45 p.m.
Hillary Clinton, who has been dealing with regular interruptions at her rallies by Donald Trump supporters, approached one heckler Wednesday with mock sympathy.
"You do have to feel a little sorry for them. They’ve had a really bad couple of weeks," she said before a crowd of more than 2,000 in Pueblo, Colo.
It was her take on how President Obama handled a similar interruption the day before, when he told another demonstrator to "try to get your own rally."
Oct. 12, 2016, 2:31 p.m.
A fiery and free-wheeling Donald Trump regaled supporters Wednesday with allegations of near-ubiquitous backroom deals and secret schemes all meant to undermine his presidential bid.
In a pair of rallies in Ocala and Lakeland, both in central Florida, Trump ticked off a litany of forces conspiring against him, including congressional Republicans, the media and even the panel that oversees the presidential debates.
"Ai yai yai, what a rigged deal this is," Trump said of the Commission on Presidential Debates, of which a former official in Bill Clinton's administration is a co-chairman, along with a former GOP party chair.
Oct. 12, 2016, 1:18 p.m.
Oct. 12, 2016, 1:18 p.m.
Shortly after Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy, her aides pondered how long they could go avoiding reporters' questions at campaign events, according to emails released Wednesday by Wikileaks.
"Can we survive not answering questions from press at message events," asked top aide Huma Abedin in a May 2015 email to the campaign's chairman, John Podesta.
Clinton's apparent concern was not having her message on issues such as immigration be overshadowed by questions she might receive from reporters at events.
Oct. 12, 2016, 12:40 p.m.
Publisher Larry Flynt, a longtime Democratic supporter, said he may leave the country if Donald Trump wins the White House.
“The thought of Donald Trump becoming president nauseates me in a big way,” Flynt said in an interview with Toronto-based HOSS magazine. Asked what he would do if Trump wins, he replied, “I don’t know, maybe move to Canada.”
Flynt, the Beverly Hills-based publisher of Hustler magazine and other publications, said one of his pastimes is staying up to date on politics.