NATION/WORLD
Trump’s primary plays leading him out of bounds
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Associated Press
ABINGDON, Va. — In the 2016
presidential campaign, it’s long been
an article of faith: The rules of political
gravity don’t apply to Donald Trump.
Maybe now they do.
After winning state after state while
bouncing between controversies in the
GOP primaries, Trump is still stum-
bling on the stump. His latest unforced
mishap: an off-hand remark that critics
quickly slammed as a suggestion that
gun-rights backers should take a literal
shot at Hillary Clinton should she win
the White House.
But rather than continuing to loat
above the criticism, Trump is losing
ground in preference polls and alien-
ating prominent Republicans by the
day. Even some of his supporters worry
Trump’s lack of a ilter is hurting his
White House chances, a concern they
say has only grown in recent weeks.
“You’d think it would be pretty
simple for a grown man to keep his
mouth shut sometimes,” said Seth
Walls, 18, a landscaper from Whitetop,
Virginia, who attended his irst Trump
rally on Wednesday. “These Twitter
rants and things he does in the media, I
deinitely think it’s hurting him.”
With early voting set to begin
next month in several states, time is
running short for Trump to make a
major change in his approach. As he
did in the primaries, the billionaire
continues to dismiss guidance from
senior Republicans, in and out of his
campaign. He has yet to return to
running television ads even as Clinton
ills the airwaves, and leads a campaign
team that remains badly understaffed.
But it’s not a surprise the latest
lap springs from a Trump rally, the
centerpiece of his campaign. Trump
revels in the energy provided by the
crowd, made up mostly of white,
working-class voters, as he delivers
hour-long speeches largely without
notes — and never with a teleprompter.
Trump rode such events to great
success in the primaries, when
each of Trump’s eyebrow-raising
statements — including a moment
when he appeared to mock a disabled
journalist and his repeated retelling of
a debunked story about U.S. soldiers
dipping bullets in pig’s blood —
earned him a tremendous amount of
attention and carried little electoral
consequence.
“He tries to amp up the crowd,
which he’s very good at,” said former
Trump adviser Barry Bennett, who
said the rallies may be large, but don’t
represent the broader coalition of
voters who typically decide general
elections. “The problem is there’s a
television audience watching at home
as well. They have a hard time under-
standing what he’s doing.”
Among that more diverse and
moderate general electorate, polls
ind Trump trailing Clinton nationally
and in most battleground states. The
Democratic nominee’s emerging
advantage comes at a key moment
after both political conventions are
over, when the state of a presidential
race tends to stabilize and leads are
dificult to surmount.
“He can’t seem to put himself
in a general election mindset,” said
Stephan Thompson, an aide to Repub-
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listen
to him speak during a campaign rally Wednesday in Sunrise, Fla.
Trump accuses Obama of being the ‘founder of ISIS’
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump accused President Barack
Obama on Wednesday of founding the Islamic State group that is wreaking
havoc from the Middle East to European cities. A moment later, on another
topic, he referred to the president by his full legal name: Barack Hussein
Obama.
“In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama,” Trump said
during a raucous Florida rally. “He is the founder of ISIS.”
He repeated the allegation three more times for emphasis.
The Republican presidential nominee in the past has accused his
opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, of founding the militant group. As
he shifted the blame to Obama on Wednesday, he said “crooked Hillary
Clinton” was actually the group’s co-founder.
Trump has long blamed Obama and his former secretary of state —
Clinton — for pursuing Mideast policies that created a power vacuum in
Iraq that was exploited by IS, another acronym for the group. He’s sharply
criticized Obama for announcing he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq,
a decision that many Obama critics say created the kind of instability in
which extremist groups like IS thrive.
The White House declined to comment on Trump’s accusation.
The Islamic State group began as Iraq’s local afiliate of al-Qaida, the
group that attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. The group carried out
massive attacks against Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, fueling tensions with
al-Qaida’s central leadership. The local group’s then-leader, Jordanian-born
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in 2006 in a U.S. airstrike but is still
seen as the Islamic State group’s founder.
Trump’s accusation — and his use of the president’s middle name,
Hussein — echoed previous instances where he’s questioned Obama’s
loyalties.
lican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin,
where a poll released Wednesday puts
Trump 15 points behind.
After the Democratic convention,
Trump sparked days of outrage across
the political spectrum by repeatedly
criticizing a Muslim family whose
son died ighting the war in Iraq. He
further alarmed Republican leaders
when he declared he wasn’t ready to
endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan —
a stance he later reversed.
Frustrated GOP oficials responded
by calling inancier Carl Icahn to help
persuade Trump to shift his approach.
Some were pleased with the results,
pointing to Trump’s economic address
on Monday in Detroit and the restraint
he showed in the face of repeated
interruptions by protesters.
The next day, however, Trump
inlamed matters anew — and over-
shadowed a negative report about
Clinton’s use of a private email
account as secretary of state — by
going off script at a rally in North
Carolina. Trump said that if Clinton
were elected president, there would
be “nothing you can do” to stop her
from stacking the Supreme Court with
anti-gun justices.
He added ambiguously: “Although,
the Second Amendment people,
maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll
tell you what: that will be a horrible
day.”
Democrats pounced, immediately
slamming Trump for seeming to
suggest Clinton should be shot. Trump
was quick to blame the media for
that reaction, responding with a blunt
“Give me a break!” At an Iowa rally
Wednesday, Clinton said Trump’s
remark was a “casual inciting of
violence” that shows he’s unit to be
president.
Former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich denounced the reaction to
Trump’s comment as “absurdity.”
“He’s better than he was a week
ago — I think he’s learned some
very painful lessons,” Gingrich said,
predicting Trump will “continue to
grow” as a candidate.
Trump and his supporters have
pointed to positive signs, including a
signiicant boost in his at-irst-tepid
fundraising, bringing in nearly as
much last month as Clinton. And
while he is now lagging in polling, he
remains competitive, despite having
spent nothing on television ads.
BALTIMORE (AP) —
With startling statistics,
a federal investigation
of the Baltimore Police
Department documents in
164 single-spaced pages
what black residents have
been saying for years: They
are routinely singled out,
roughed up or otherwise
mistreated by oficers, often
for no reason.
The 15-month Justice
Department probe was
prompted by the death of
Freddie Gray, the black man
whose fatal neck injury in
the back of a police van
touched off the worst riots
in Baltimore in decades. To
many people, the blistering
report issued Wednesday
was familiar reading.
The Justice Department
looked at hundreds of
thousands of pages of
documents, including
internal affairs iles and
data on stops, searches and
arrests.
It found that one African-
American man was stopped
30 times in less than four
years and never charged.
Of 410 people stopped at
least 10 times from 2010 to
2015, 95 percent were black.
During that time, no one of
any other race was stopped
more than 12 times.
With the release of the
report, the city agreed to
negotiate with the Justice
Department a set of police
reforms over the next
few months to fend off a
government lawsuit. The
reforms will be enforceable
by the courts.
Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake and Police
Commissioner Kevin
Davis acknowledged the
longstanding problems
and said they had started
improvements even before
the report was completed.
They promised it will serve
as a blueprint for sweeping
changes.
Source: Boy was
decapitated on
waterslide at
Kansas park
KANSAS CITY, Kan.
(AP) — The 10-year-old
boy killed during a ride on
the world’s tallest waterslide
was decapitated in the
accident, a person familiar
with the investigation said
Wednesday.
The person, who spoke
on condition of anonymity
because the person was not
authorized to speak publicly,
gave no other details of
how Caleb Schwab died
Sunday on the raft ride at
the Schlitterbahn WaterPark
in Kansas City, Kansas.
Authorities have yet to
explain how it happened.
Two women who are not
family members were in the
raft at the time with the boy
and were treated for facial
injuries. The boy’s parents
— Republican state Rep.
Scott Schwab and his wife,
Michele — have requested
privacy and have not spoken
publicly since the death.
His funeral is scheduled for
Friday.
A spokeswoman for the
waterpark on Wednesday
declined to discuss the
circumstances of the boy’s
death on the ride called
“Verruckt” — or German for
“insane.”
Verruckt featured
multi-person rafts that make
a 168-foot drop at speeds
of up to 70 mph, followed
by a surge up a hump and a
50-foot descent to a inishing
pool. Since the accident,
investigators have removed
the netting above the 50-foot
section from the hump to the
inishing pool.
Riders, who must be
at least 54 inches tall,
were harnessed in with
two nylon seatbelt-like
straps — one that crosses
the rider’s lap, the other
stretching diagonally like a
car shoulder seatbelt. Each
strap is held in place by long
Velcro-style straps, not by
buckles. Riders also hang on
to ropes inside the raft.
The park reopened
Wednesday except for
the sprawling section that
includes the waterslide,
although its towering proile
greeted visitors as soon
as they drove through the
entrance.
Woman killed by
Florida oficer in
academy exercise
PUNTA GORDA, Fla.
(AP) — A police “shoot/
don’t shoot” demonstration
in Florida went shockingly
awry when an oficer shot
and killed a 73-year-old
former librarian with
what police said was real
Page 7A
Why it matters:
Voting rights
EDITOR’S NOTE — One
in an Associated Press series
examining issues at stake in
the presidential election and
how they affect people.
BRIEFLY
Scathing report
on Baltimore cops
vindicates black
residents
East Oregonian
THE ISSUE:
Who should be able to vote
and how easy should it be? It’s
a question that goes to the core
of democracy.
Voting rights are in lux
in the inal months of Barack
Obama’s two terms as the irst
black president.
Citing a need to combat
fraud, Republican-controlled
legislatures are tightening
voter laws by limiting early
voting and same-day regis-
tration, by requiring IDs at
polling places, and more. In
2013, declaring “our country
has changed,” the Supreme
Court invalidated a key
provision of the 1965 Voting
Rights Act, which required
mostly Southern states with a
history of discrimination to
get advance federal approval
to change election laws. The
court decision made it easier
for states to impose new
restrictions.
This year, 17 states were set
to have restrictions involving
voter ID or other require-
ments for the irst time in a
presidential election. Among
them: the battlegrounds of
North Carolina, Virginia,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona and
Georgia.
The Obama Justice Depart-
ment has challenged voter
ID and other laws, saying
they could restrict access for
minorities and young people.
In recent weeks, lower courts
temporarily staved off some
of the toughest requirements
in North Carolina, Texas and
Wisconsin after judges found
no evidence of rampant voter
fraud.
With
the
November
election looming, litigation
remains knotted up with
Supreme Court appeals likely.
Bills in the GOP-led Congress
to restore the voting act are
stalled.
WHERE THEY STAND:
Without offering speciics,
Republican Donald Trump
has emphasized the dangers
of voter fraud, calling
America’s electoral system
“out of control” with people
who are “voting many, many
times.” He has said — without
evidence — that dead voters
helped elect Obama. Trump
opposes same-day voter regis-
tration, saying it could allow
people to “sneak in through
the cracks.”
Democrat Hillary Clinton
is urging Congress to restore
the Voting Rights Act. She
ammunition used by mistake
at an event designed to
bring police and the public
together.
Authorities didn’t
immediately say how a gun
with a live round came to be
used at Tuesday evening’s
demonstration, noting
blank rounds are typically
used in such classes. The
oficer has been placed on
administrative leave, and
the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement is
investigating.
“We were unaware that
any live ammunition was
available to the oficer,”
Punta Gorda Police Chief
Tom Lewis said at a news
conference Wednesday.
“The oficer involved is grief
stricken. We’ve got oficers
assigned to him to make sure
he’s psychologically stable.”
Mary Knowlton, a
well-known community
volunteer, was shot after
being randomly selected to
take part in the role-playing
scenario illustrating the split-
second decisions an oficer
must make about iring.
It was part of a popular
citizens academy attended
by 35 people, including her
75-year-old husband, and the
police chief.
Her son, Steve Knowlton,
said his father was
“devastated.”
Punta Gorda Police Lt.
Katie Heck said oficers
in such demonstrations
normally use “simunition
guns,” which are real-
looking weapons that ire
a non-lethal projectile with
reduced force. But Knowlton
was mistakenly struck with a
live round, oficials said.
seeks a national standard of at
least 20 days of early in-person
voting and urges automatic
voter registration for eligible
18-year-olds. Clinton backs
voting rights for ex-felons. Her
campaign has joined lawsuits
to stop policies that may
burden minorities, including in
Arizona, where voters had to
wait hours in March after cuts
in polling locations.
WHY IT MATTERS:
Who gets to vote, and how
easily, matters because it can
determine who wins elections.
The issue is particularly
salient for black Americans,
who for much of U.S. history
were disenfranchised and then
effectively barred from voting
until passage of the 1965 law.
It’s also become more partisan
with the rapid growth of
minorities such as Latino and
Asian immigrants, who tilt
Democratic.
In 2008, Obama was elected
with the help of a record black
turnout rate that rose even
higher in 2012, surpassing the
white turnout rate.
That was noted by Chief
Justice John Roberts, who led
the 5-4 ruling that the Voting
Rights Act was outdated. In
dissent, Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg argued the law is
needed to stop new forms of
discrimination — redrawing
districts to reduce Hispanic
voting, for instance, or
restricting early voting near a
historically black university.
It’s unclear how much
voting
restrictions
may
suppress turnout. The Govern-
ment Accountability Ofice
in 2014 found voter ID laws
could reduce voting by 2 to 3
percent, particularly among
young people, blacks and
newly registered voters. That
can tip a race in close contests.
Still, voter enthusiasm for a
candidate and mobilization
can offset that.
GOP legislatures cite voter
fraud, including those who
impersonate dead people on
voter registration lists. Studies
found the number of actual
cases was minuscule.
States and the lower courts
largely shape who can vote.
But the next president will
set the tone on federal over-
sight — through legislation
in Congress, the prosecutorial
stance of the Justice Depart-
ment and nominations to the
Supreme Court, which is
certain to revisit Voting Rights
Act powers.
If minorities continue to
back mostly Democrats, the
issue could decide which
party gets the upper hand in
elections.
—Associated Press
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