August 30, 2016

Fox News Slams Tantaros As ‘Wannabe’ And ‘Opportunist’ In Response To Suit

In its first court filing in response to Andrea Tantaros’ lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by former CEO Roger Ailes, Fox News characterizes Tantaros as “an opportunist” and “wannabe” and asked the court to push the case into closed-door arbitration.

The response, filed in New York Supreme Court on Monday, accuses Tantaros of piggy-backing on the torrent of sexual harassment allegations that eventually forced Ailes’ resignation. Tantaros sued the network and top executives last week, charging that she had been demoted after reporting sexual harassment by Ailes, whom she alleged was sheltered by the “Playboy Mansion-like cult” of the network.

“Tantaros is not a victim; she is an opportunist,” Fox News’ attorneys wrote. Tantaros’ complaint, which named Fox News executives Bill Shine, Dianne Brandi, Suzanne Scott and PR chief Irena Briganti as defendants along with Ailes, “bears all the hallmarks of the ‘wannabe’: she claims that she too was victimized by Roger Ailes, when, in fact, contrary to her pleading, she never complained of any such conduct in the course of an investigation months ago.”

The network says that Tantaros was pulled off the air in April for breaching her contract by not seeking the network’s approval to publish her book, which features her in “a submissive and sexualized position” bound in ropes on its cover. Tantaros remains on the network’s payroll.

The filing states that 21st Century Fox, the network’s parent company, “has made clear its commitment to providing a safe and dignified workplace” in “the last few weeks” by launching an independent investigation into the allegations against Ailes.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/andrea-tantaros-fox-news-suit-response

August 30, 2016

For the Love of Gilda: Gene Wilder’s Amazing Cancer Legacy

As co-founder of Gilda’s Club, Gene Wilder turned his grief over the death of his third wife, comedian Gilda Radner, into action around ovarian cancer, and helping those affected by cancer in all its forms.

TIM TEEMAN

08.29.16 10:14 PM ET

Lily Safani, the CEO of Gilda’s Club New York City, did not know that Gene Wilder was ill and was shocked to hear of his death, aged 83, on Monday from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. “This man is so much an integral part of Gilda’s Club, to think that he’s gone is very hard,” Safani told The Daily Beast.

Wilder co-founded the organization in 1991, two years after his third wife, the comedian Gilda Radner—most famous as one of the founding cast members of Saturday Night Live—died from ovarian cancer at the age of 42. “He helped raise money for Gilda’s Club, so we could have a house on West Houston Street,” Safani said of the group’s central meeting place, which opened in 1995. “The legacy of Gilda Radner is really also his legacy, so he is very dear to us at Gilda’s Club.”

In the last 20-plus years, “Gilda’s Clubs” have become places for anyone with cancer and their loved ones, and those whose loved ones have died of the disease, to come together to share their experiences, memories, and so much more.

“Everybody at the clubhouse is talking about this. I’m sure everyone is sitting around remembering Gene,” said Safani. “Now both he and Gilda have gone.”

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/29/for-the-love-of-gilda-gene-wilder-s-amazing-cancer-legacy.html

August 30, 2016

Lawsuits: Trump’s Doctor ‘Overmedicated’ Patients Who Died in His Care

Settled lawsuits alleged Donald Trump’s doctor Harold Bornstein overmedicated his patients—one with Valium and morphine ‘well above therapeutic levels.’

BRANDY ZADROZNY

08.29.16 9:14 PM ET

Penning Donald Trump’s enthusiastic clean bill of health in five minutes may have been one of Dr. Harold Bornstein’s least consequential mistakes. In 2002, he paid $86,250 to the husband of a former patient to settle a lawsuit alleging that Bornstein overmedicated his wife with powerful, unneeded prescriptions, which contributed to her addiction—and ultimately her death.

The 2002 lawsuit is one of three malpractice claims brought against Trump’s long-time gastroenterologist since 1992, two of which allege the doctor improperly administered powerful drugs which led to the death of patients. Both of those cases were settled before jury trials, with no finding of liability against Dr. Bornstein.

Health has become a central focus of the 2016 presidential campaign, with Donald Trump and his surrogates pushing conspiracy theories that Clinton suffers from several office-disqualifying maladies including strokes. On Sunday, Donald Trump challenged Hillary Clinton to release “detailed medical records” and said he had “no problem in doing so,” hours after the Clinton campaign published a takedown of Dr. Bornstein’s statement that questioned his professionalism and credentials.

In one of the complaints, reviewed by The Daily Beast, Kenneth Levin alleged Bornstein, “was negligent, careless, and unskilled in failing to properly diagnose the plaintiff” and in treating his wife, Janet Levin. The complaint also alleges Bornstein was negligent “in failing to make a referral to a mental health professional; in wrongfully prescribing tuinal, morphine, and valium, particularly in light of the history of drinking; in improperly and negligently seeing the patient without providing treatment; and in overmedicating the decedent.”

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/29/lawsuits-trump-s-doctor-overmedicated-patients-who-died-in-his-care.html

August 30, 2016

Trump campaign chief reaches out to former Carter adviser

Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump’s newly installed campaign chief executive, met over the weekend with Patrick Caddell, the longtime Democratic pollster who rose to fame as an adviser to President Jimmy Carter.

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Caddell’s huddle with Bannon came hours before Trump met Sunday with his top aides at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., for meetings and debate preparation. Bannon and Caddell have been speaking regularly since Bannon joined the campaign this month, the people said. Most often their conversations have revolved around what Trump could do in the coming weeks to expand his appeal, in particular with Democrats and independents.

Bannon sees Caddell, 66, as a seasoned hand and fellow anti-establishment agitator and has mulled bringing him onto the campaign, the people said. But since Caddell is busy with his own projects and television commentary, their exchanges so far have been informal.

Meanwhile, Breitbart has been prominently featuring Caddell’s political analysis.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/29/trump-campaign-chief-reaches-out-to-former-carter-adviser/?wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

August 30, 2016

These 2 polls on how Hispanics feel about Trump and Clinton may surprise you

By Aaron Blake August 29 at 1:45 PM

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A Gallup poll shows that Hillary Clinton maintains a very big advantage among Hispanic voters — just as you might expect. Democrats, after all, have won this group by increasing margins in presidential elections, and that's a major GOP sore spot, given how quickly the U.S. Hispanic population is rising.

But the poll also shows that there is a significant split in the Hispanic community between Hispanic immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics.

If you focus just on Hispanics born outside the United States, 87 percent have a favorable view of Clinton, while just 13 percent have a favorable view of Trump.

If you focus just on Hispanics born in the United States, though, it is much, much closer. Clinton's favorable rating drops to 43 percent, while Trump's jumps to 29 percent.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/29/hillary-clinton-dominates-among-hispanics-unless-theyre-english-speaking-or-american-born/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

August 30, 2016

A Putin-sponsored October surprise? - By Dana Milbank

The Russians have just given us an August glimpse of a potential October surprise.

We learned earlier this summer that cyber-hackers widely believed to be tied to the Kremlin have broken into the email of the Democratic National Committee and others. The Post’s Ellen Nakashima reported Monday night that Russian hackers have also been targeting state voter-registration systems. And, in an apparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, they’re leaking what they believe to be the most damaging documents at strategic points in the campaign.

Last week, we learned something else: The Russians aren’t just hackers — they’re also hacks. Turns out that before leaking their stolen information, they are in some cases doctoring the documents, making edits that add false information and then passing the documents off as the originals.

Foreign Policy’s Elias Groll reported last week that the hackers goofed: They posted both the original versions of at least three documents and their edited versions. These documents, stolen from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, were altered by the hackers to create the false impression that Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was funded by Soros. A pro-Russian hacking group, CyberBerkut, had inserted Navalny’s name, bogus dollar amounts and fabricated wording.

This raises an intriguing possibility: Are Vladimir Putin’s operatives planning to dump edited DNC documents on the eve of the presidential election?

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-putin-sponsored-october-surprise/2016/08/29/d7f21d16-6e33-11e6-9705-23e51a2f424d_story.html?utm_term=.779f4cdfa8d3&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

August 30, 2016

Trump’s deportation waffle highlights campaign weaknesses

SEATTLE (AP) -- Donald Trump and his aides used to say that voters didn't care about the nitty-gritty of policy details. But now those details are tripping up his campaign.

For more than a week now, as he's tried to shine the spotlight on his rival, Trump has appeared to wrestle with one of his signature proposals: A pledge to expel everyone living in the U.S. illegally with the help of a "deportation force."

At a Fox News town hall taping last week, in the face of pressing questions, the GOP nominee proceeded to poll the audience at length on the fate of an estimated 11 million people. It was a stunning display of indecision from a candidate who has asked voters to put enormous faith in his gut instincts.

Trump is now planning a major speech Wednesday, during which he's expected to finally clarify his stance. Supporters are hoping for a strong, decisive showing. But the episode underscores how little time his campaign has invested in outlining how he would accomplish his goals as president, especially when compared with the detailed plans of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. And for critics, many already disposed to vote against him, his wavering on what has been his signature issue seems like a warning that he's unable to handle a central element of any president's job - making decisions.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CAMPAIGN_2016?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-08-30-03-19-00

August 30, 2016

Meg Whitman to campaign for Clinton on Tuesday

Meg Whitman, a Republican fundraiser and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO, will campaign for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in Denver. Whitman will meet with business leaders in Colorado to discuss Clinton’s job-creation plan, as well as investments in tech and small businesses, according to a release from Clinton’s campaign.

Earlier this month, Whitman, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in 2010, announced she would back Clinton over GOP nominee Donald Trump and promised she would give a “substantial” contribution to the former secretary of State’s campaign. Whitman said she doesn’t agree with Clinton on many issues, but slammed Trump as “a dishonest demagogue” and said he has “undermined the character of the nation.”

“Time and again history has shown that when demagogues have gotten power or come close to getting power, it usually does not end well,” Whitman said in an interview with The New York Times.

Whitman is one of a growing number of Republicans who have bucked Trump and have instead decided to support and vote for Clinton in November. The list of GOP defectors includes many national security officials and former aides who worked in George W. Bush’s administration.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293739-meg-whitman-to-campaign-for-clinton-on-tuesday

August 30, 2016

Poll: Majority of GOP voters wish they chose another presidential nominee

Source: The Hill

A majority of Republicans wish they had selected a different presidential nominee than Donald Trump, a new poll finds.

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll released Monday found that 54 percent of Republican and GOP-leaning voters believe Trump isn’t the best choice as the party’s nominee, while 35 percent are satisfied with the real estate mogul as the party's standard-bearer.
There’s a jump in dissatisfaction since the same poll in June, which at the time found that 44 percent believe Trump was the best option, while another 44 percent didn’t.

Trump was one of 17 Republican candidates running for president. When asked whom they’d like to win in a primary do-over, 29 percent of those selected Trump, 15 percent picked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), 14 percent chose Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and several other names received less than 10 percent each.

On the other side of the aisle, 56 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are content with Hillary Clinton as their party’s nominee, while 32 percent believe there’s a better option. This is up by 3 percent since the same poll in June.

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Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293746-poll-majority-of-gop-voters-wish-they-chose-another

August 30, 2016

Trump’s popularity with African-American voters polling at zero

Public Policy Polling released a preview of a new poll on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday night that showed Donald Trump’s favorability rating among African-American voters at 0 percent.

Jesse Ferguson
?@JesseFFerguson

New PPP poll released on @maddow right now ---
TRUMP FAV/UNFAV with African American voters is:
Fav: 0%
UnFav: 97%
Undecided 3%

RETWEETS 616 LIKES 788

The liberal-leaning firm asked African-American voters a set of questions, asking whether they preferred Trump to things such as bedbugs, junk mail, carnies, bubonic plague and middle airplane seats.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293752-trumps-popularity-with-african-american-voters-polling-at