How will Trump handle losing the election?

Well if we cancel the election, doesn't that mean that Obama stays President until this circus leaves town. If there is no election, nobody votes so there is no winner or loser. Obama already knows his way around the White House, could be a win-win.

I'd vote for that. But we still have to hold Congressional and Senate elections.

$66 million is chump change, eh? Oh no! Trump has only invested $66 MILLION dollars! What a terrible person.

This year may teach us more about the constitution than we ever wanted to know.

Perhaps you missed the point (or points)
1) he lied
2) he obviously ain't going to risk much more on himself because... well, you know, right? He's too smart to back a loser.
3) I didn't say in my post that he is an awful person. Though of course he is an awful person.

"Cancel the election." Spoken like a true dictator.

Trump says a lot of stuff and this is what that guy is going to hang his shingle on? Pathetic.

Why not? You have been.

I bet Michelle could win.

Michelle is going to be a force to be reckoned with if she ever decides to run for an office. I'd certainly vote for her for my Senator.

He was clearly joking (and playing to his audience, that is, to that audience's worst tendencies). Remember when Bush Jr, in office, said at a press conference that "It would be easier if I was a dictator"?

It's possible that such statements are indicative of an authoritarian personality but I wouldn't be comfortable making that assertion on such statements alone.

Election Update: The FBI Is Back — This Time With Anthony Weiner

Trump has expressed his dictatorial tendencies more than once. He uses the pronoun I more than any other politician.

Oddly, no one here has mentioned the FBI announcement on Friday re emails. [edit: and rev just did while I was typing] At least no one who I don't have on ignore. There looks to be several important aspects to this:

1) The FBI doesn't have any idea what is in the emails, as Comey has said.
2) Those emails could even be duplicates found earlier/elsewhere which have already been investigated.

So at this point, there's nothing of substance here at all.

Politically, however, it has landed like the cliched bombshell. What's that about?

1) It permits Trump and anti-Clinton forces on the right to suggest that their charges of Clinton criminality have weight - "The FBI are STILL investigating her!". This utilizes the commonplace suggestion that where there's smoke, there is fire.
2) It serves the function of reviving their hopes for the election through getting their demoralized base of voters more likely to vote and/or continue activism.
3) It serves the function of filling the media space with a negative narrative about Clinton as a candidate and as the clear polling favorite. That helps with 2) above and it works to suppress negative coverage of Trump (the women, the crazy stuff, the lying).

And there is this weird institutional stuff in the mix as well.

As with Comey's earlier announcement back in June (I think it was), this present announcement violates the normal protocol of radio silence re FBI investigations. It is really quite unclear why Comey has acted as he has in both instances. Maybe he is trying to protect the reputation of the institution he heads. But it's not at all clear he is protecting that reputation and not harming it. One can appreciate that he is caught between powerful forces pushing in either direction and that he's in a no/win situation but that's kind of weird too because following the normal protocol would seem the relatively safe way to go. That suggests to me that he was getting an incredible amount of pressure from somewhere to go out on this limb. And that seems to me the most interesting and important aspect of all this.

I see that Trump has now claimed that this recent Comey announcement is "bigger than Watergate". It's possible that he is stupid enough and historically uneducated enough to make such a claim, but I doubt it.

He's just fronting a ridiculous falsehood and it is entirely predictable that he'd do so.

One last point here and it's very important.

If this is not resolved quickly (through release of the emails as Clinton has requested) or through a rapid processing by the FBI, then this "Clinton still being investigated" narrative will be used after the election and perhaps even after Clinton is sworn in to de-legitimatize her presidency and justify obstruction of any policies/appointments.

It might be simpler than that. Comey's report said that they had gone through every single Email. Now a possible source of new Emails has emerged, so Comey has to make official note of it.

Could be simple on the Election Side too. The more public attention is devoted to Emails, the better off it is for Trump and the Republicans. The more attention is paid to Trump's attitude toward women, minorities, and various other personal failings, the better it is for Hillary. That's why you can't engage a conservative for two posts on this board without them working it back to Emails, such as when people talk about Trump's character failings it's "But what about Hillary's character failings, she LIED about the Emails". Etc Etc.

Republican Trump voter arrested in Iowa for voter fraud after allegedly attempting to ‘rig’ election


http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/republican-trump-voter-arrested-in-iowa-for-voter-fraud-after-allegedly-attempting-to-rig-election/

Yesterday - Republican Trump voter arrested in Iowa for voter fraud after allegedly attempting to ‘rig’ election

Sarah K. Burris 28 Oct 2016 at 21:18 ET

An Iowa Republican voter has been arrested for attempting to vote twice in the election.



Terri Lynn Rote, 55, has been charged with first-degree election misconduct.

The Hill cites a Des Moines Register report that Rote allegedly voted early at an election office in Des Moines but then attempted to cast another ballot at another location.

Rote is one of three people in the state currently being charged with voter fraud. The two previous people allegedly voted in person and attempted to send mail-in ballots as well. However, Rote is the only person to officially be arrested.

According to The Blaze, Rote in an avid Trump supporter.

Trump has warned his supporters about the election being “rigged,” claiming that dead people are voting and Democrats are attempting to steal the election. He’s encouraged his supporters to stalk voters at the polls and observe polling places in communities of color.

And the first Iowa voter fraud case in 2016 is…

…a Trump supporter. https://t.co/Eu5guZ98VE pic.twitter.com/y6cZlYONur

— Kedron Bardwell (@KedronBardwell) October 28, 2016

Justice officials warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent...
Source: The Washington Post


By Sari Horwitz October 29 at 12:05 PM

Senior Justice Department officials warned the FBI that Director James B. Comey’s decision to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Comey told Justice Department officials that he intended to inform lawmakers of newly discovered emails. These officials told him the department’s position “that we don’t comment on an ongoing investigation. And we don’t take steps that will be viewed as influencing an election,” said one Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the high-level conversations.

“Director Comey understood our position. He heard it from Justice leadership,” the official said. “It was conveyed to the FBI, and Comey made an independent decision to alert the Hill. He is operating independently of the Justice Department. And he knows it.”

Comey decided to inform Congress that he would look again into Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails during her time as secretary of state for two main reasons: a sense of obligation to lawmakers and a concern that word of the new email discovery would leak to the media and raise questions of a coverup.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-officials-warned-fbi-that-comeys-decision-to-update-congress-was-not-consistent-with-department-policy/2016/10/29/cb179254-9de7-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation