One day before the election, Donald Trump campaigns in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan. Hillary Clinton goes to Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina.
- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton deliver their closing arguments to voters.
- Legal battles, a transit strike and poll monitoring are among the mechanics being worked out hours before the polls open.
- After the dust settles, Democrats will battle to define their party’s identity.
- FBI Director James B. Comey clears Clinton in the latest email investigation. Trump says the FBI knows Clinton is guilty.
- Play the race to 270 electoral votes.
Trump’s last rally: ‘We’re going to have real change, not Obama change’
Donald Trump closed his campaign for president early Tuesday with a final dash into Michigan, where he vowed to “bring back the auto industry bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”
“We’re hours away from a once-in-a-lifetime change,” Trump told thousands of supporters who waited until 12:30 a.m. to see Trump in a vast convention hall here in western Michigan. “We’re going to have real change, not Obama change.”
For a billionaire showman whose vow to make America great again has inspired millions of white blue-collar supporters, Michigan was a fitting place to wrap up a 17-month campaign premised on breaking Democrats’ dominance of the beleaguered Rust Belt.
The state remains a tough challenge for the Republican nominee, but the race here is close enough that Hillary Clinton and her No.1 surrogate, President Obama, campaigned in Michigan earlier Monday.
“I heard that crooked Hillary Clinton was coming to Michigan. I said let’s follow it up,” Trump told the crowd.
He recalled defeating 17 fellow Republicans in the primaries.
“Now we have one flawed candidate left to beat,” Trump said. “It’s going to be the very beginning of a new adventure.”
Clinton lost Michigan’s Democratic primary to Bernie Sanders, and tepid African American turnout in Detroit could jeopardize her standing.
Trump said a victory in Michigan would ensure that he wins Tuesday’s “historic election.”
Trump lamented the long decline of the region’s manufacturing base, faulting car companies for shifting operations to Mexico.
“Now the cars are made in Mexico, and you can’t drink the damn water in Flint,” he said.
But Trump also played up his hard line on illegal immigration, an approach that could ultimately help cost him the election if a surge in early voting by Latinos portends losses in Nevada, Colorado and Florida.
Trump reminded the Grand Rapids audience of his pledge to build a wall on the southern border.
“Who’s going to build the wall?” Trump asked.
“Mexico,” the crowd shouted back.
For Hillary Clinton, the campaign trail ends in North Carolina
It was officially election day on the East Coast when Hillary Clinton stepped to the podium here at the final rally of her campaign, a years-long crusade that will soon make her either the country’s first woman president or the victim of a crushing defeat.
This was Clinton’s fourth event of a marathon day that had already taken her to Pennsylvania, Michigan and back to Pennsylvania.
But Clinton looked giddy as she took the stage with her family in a college gymnasium, her arms pinwheeling in a mock jogging motion as she strode into the arms of Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi, the final two singers who lent their voices and star power to her candidacy.
“I believe that she will win,” the crowd chanted, jumping up and down and clapping in unison as Clinton approached the podium.
She beamed back at the audience.
“I’ve got to tell you,” Clinton said. “This is sure worth staying up for.”
She warned of difficult tasks ahead, reminding supporters they will need to “repair the breach” that has been exposed by this fractious campaign.
“This election will end,” Clinton said. “But our work together is just beginning.”
Clinton closed her final rally in the same way she had finished countless ones before, asking her supporters to “prove conclusively that yes, love trumps hate.”
On eve of election, questions build about fairness at the polls
In the final days before the presidential election, questions have been building about fairness at the polls.
Republicans have continued to warn of voting fraud by Democrats. Democrats have contended that minority voters are being intimidated by Republicans. Civil rights groups and supporters of the major candidates have launched poll-watching operations, while the federal government has sent its own voting observers and monitors across the nation.
Here’s a recap of election issues, voting glitches, court rulings and related news as the country prepares to choose its next president.
Election day has arrived: Clinton wins early vote in tiny New Hampshire town
Hillary Clinton is off to a very early lead in the 2016 presidential election, winning over the voters of Dixville Notch, N.H., by a 4-2 margin over Donald Trump.
Polls in the tiny New Hampshire towns of Dixville Notch, Hart’s Location and Millsfield opened just after midnight Tuesday and closed as soon as everyone had voted. These die-hard voters are proud to have the first word on the big vote.
Clinton won half the Dixville Notch votes. Trump got two votes, Libertarian Gary Johnson took one and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got a write-in vote.
Under New Hampshire state law, communities with fewer than 100 voters can get permission to open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.
In 2012, the Obama team was confident they’d win the election when their voter models proved accurate down to the vote in Dixville Notch.
Trump and Clinton will spend election night less than a mile apart
It is a rare celestial crossing that has both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spending election night not only in the same city but barely more than a mile apart in midtown Manhattan — and it is creating unprecedented security headaches for New York.
Not since they sparred with each other on the debate stage have the Clinton and Trump orbits overlapped in this way.
Clinton is planning a big bash in a symbolically glass-roofed atrium that is part of the Javits Convention Center. Trump will be ensconced in a Hilton a mere 15 blocks away.
Mexico is feeling jitters over the prospect of a Trump victory
On the eve of U.S. elections, the prospect of a Donald Trump victory is roiling Mexico’s national currency, unsettling markets and sending deep jitters throughout Mexican society.
While U.S. presidential races always generate interest in Mexico — which has deep economic, social and historic ties to its giant northern neighbor — the Republican candidate’s incendiary rhetoric has produced a singularly anxious focus.
With Biden and Kaine, a passing of the torch
Far from the excitement of Hillary Clinton’s last big rally in Philadelphia with her family and the Obamas, there was a passing of the torch in Virginia on Monday from the Bidens to the Kaines.
“I yield the floor to the gentleman from Virginia, the next vice president of the United States, Tim Kaine,” Vice President Joe Biden said, using the parlance of the Senate — a chamber both he and Kaine have served in — to introduce the man he hopes will succeed him.
Joined by their spouses on a college campus in vote-rich northern Virginia, both Biden and Kaine were reflective, Biden on the campaign and Kaine on his three decades living in Virginia.
“Anything I know, anything I’m good at, y’all have taught me,” Kaine said. “... My heart is full. And I can’t wait till the next chapter.”
Kaine also urged the crowd to vote and said Clinton was ready to make history.
Biden spoke of the need for the country to come together after the election.
“We can’t let this go on,” he said. “We have an obligation, a responsibility not only to vote but just as importantly to bring this country together when tomorrow is over.”
Biden said no one had been tougher on Donald Trump than he had, but he urged Democrats to reach out to Trump’s backers rather than continue the bitter campaign.
“When this election is over, we’ve got to let it go. We have to go and take a hard look at what drove the other side,” he said. “... There’s a lot of people who are going to vote for Donald Trump. We’ve got to figure out why, what is eating at them.”
Laser beams and dry ice make for a theatrical Trump rally in New Hampshire
Donald Trump returned to New Hampshire on Monday night for a theatrical election-eve rally in the state that launched his campaign for president by giving him his first victory in the Republican primaries.
A roar of cheers filled a packed sports arena as the former reality-television star emerged from behind a curtain with his adult children and other family members. They joined him on a long catwalk stroll to a center stage lit with laser beams and dry-ice vapor to enhance the dramatic effect.
His daughter Ivanka, who for months has sought to improve Trump’s dismal standing among women, offered a testimonial.
“He will never, ever let you down,” she told the crowd.
Trump sought to one-up Hillary Clinton on star local supporters by touting his endorsements by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick. The best Clinton could do, he said, was Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he branded “a terrible person.”
“I’ll make you a deal: You can have Pocahontas; I’ll take Tom Brady and Bill Belichick,” Trump told the cheering crowd.
Trump also mocked Clinton for drawing her biggest crowds by appearing with superstars like Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen.
“She can’t fill a room,” he said.
New Hampshire, a crucial state for Trump to win in any plausible scenario for capturing the White House, was scheduled to be his final rally of the campaign. But from Manchester, he planned to take off for a late-night rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.
After his closing rally in Michigan, Trump plans to return home to New York, where he expects to vote Tuesday morning.
Campaigns court millennials on Snapchat
Hillary Clinton and a super PAC supporting her both purchased Snapchat features that allow users to show their support for the Democratic nominee on the eve of election day.
An animated Snapchat lens purchased by Priorities USA, the super PAC, allowed users to layer Clinton’s trademark blonde bob and pantsuit over a selfie. The pantsuit changes colors and shimmies as Clinton did during one of her debates with GOP rival Donald Trump. The tagline at the bottom reads: “Make history tomorrow. Love trumps hate tomorrow. Vote for her tomorrow.”
A filter purchased by the campaign allows users to layer Clinton’s trademark “H” logo over a photo, along with the slogan “I’m with her.”
Trump has a filter of his own coming Tuesday, according to Ad Age.
Snapchat has tens of millions of users in the United States, many of them the coveted millennials who are not reliable voters.
Trump crowd shouts down media at Pennsylvania rally
The incivility of the 2016 election was on raw display Monday night at Donald Trump’s closing rally in Pennsylvania as a few thousand supporters of the candidate screamed at the news media covering his campaign for president.
Egged on by Trump, a crowd tightly packed in the steep rafters of a Scranton school gymnasium shook their fists, stomped their feet and hurled insults at reporters, photographers and television crews penned behind metal barricades.
“See the dishonest people back there?” Trump told the crowd, repeating a staple of his campaign speech that prompted a more aggressive reaction than the usual round of boos.
“CNN sucks,” the audience hollered over and over. “CNN sucks.”
“New York Times is a total lie,” Trump said, taking aim at a newspaper that has chronicled his dodging of income taxes and unwanted sexual advances toward women. “It is so false ... such lies. Such fabrication.”
The crowd cheered when Trump said the Times was going out of business soon.
Trump went on to say Hillary Clinton was “being protected by a rigged system, and part of the rigged system is the dishonest media.” The audience erupted in loud boos, followed later by chants of “Lock her up!”
The crowd renewed its chanting against CNN when Trump said its former commentator Donna Brazile had leaked Democratic primary debate questions to Clinton. Brazile, now leader of the Democratic National Committee, left CNN after WikiLeaks released emails revealing her apparent tip-off to the Clinton campaign.
“So unethical,” Trump said.
“Disgrace!” a man in the crowd yelled at the media pen.
As the media left the gym, a man holding a toddler in one arm thrust the other toward reporters and photographers, waving his fist and shouting “traitor” at each one of them.
“You’re all traitors!” he screamed.
Clinton says she was ‘befuddled’ by latest FBI inquiry
Hillary Clinton on Monday made her first public comments about the latest FBI inquiry related to her emails, saying that she was baffled by handling of the investigation just days before election day.
“I was obviously a little bit befuddled by the whole process, but it’s behind us now, and I think everybody should focus on what is best for our country,” Clinton told Los Angeles radio host Ryan Seacrest.
She said she was not surprised that the FBI found no new evidence that would change its decision not to charge her. “I never expected them” to find anything new, Clinton said.
The Democratic nominee told Seacrest that if she wins the White House, she hopes rival Donald Trump will help heal the nation’s divides.
“I hope that he will, if I am successful, play a constructive role in doing just what I said, coming together, bringing people who supported him to the table so that we can have the kind of national conversation we should have,” Clinton said.
Clinton took two calls from Southern Californians, including 7-year-old Jesus from El Monte, who informed the Democratic nominee that he was “scared of Donald Trump.”
Clinton called into the show on a day she was holding four rallies. She said she expected to get two, maybe three hours of sleep Monday night and she was wearing some favorite charms.
“I’ve worn the same bracelets, the same necklace. I am not talking to anybody about what they’re hearing in terms of early votes, and all the rest of it, because I am superstitious,” Clinton said. “But I’m just going to do everything I can in these next 24 hours.”
Did Trump’s staff take away his Twitter privileges? An investigation
Over the weekend, the New York Times broke some news about Donald Trump‘s tweets.
“Aides to Mr. Trump have finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to colorfully — and often counterproductively — savage his rivals,” the newspaper reported in its story about the final days of the Republican candidate’s campaign for president.
The paper also described Trump dictating a tweet to his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, who then did light editing on his remarks, and noted that Trump “seemed struck by an unfamiliar trend: News stories emphasized the intended message of his campaign rallies, not his improvised rants or stray tweets.”
OK. Except then Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, totally denied it.
“No, it’s not true,” Conway said Monday on NBC’s “Today” show when grilled about the Times’ report.
Whom to believe? Let’s review the evidence.
Brexit is a favorite talking point for Trump
Donald Trump predicted on Monday that the election results would be “Brexit plus, plus, plus,” a favorite talking point as he has argued that he would prove pollsters and pundits wrong.
Brexit, of course, was the nickname given to the British referendum in June over whether to leave the European Union. Polls were tight ahead of the vote for Brexit – or British exit – and though several predicted the outcome, betting markets downplayed them, as did pundits. So when a slight majority of Brits voted to leave the EU, a narrative developed that the result was unexpected, and Trump has built on that.
Trump dubbed himself “Mr. Brexit” and campaigned alongside Nigel Farage, the former leader of Britain’s Independence Party and a chief promoter of Brexit. In August, Trump predicted that the movement that would propel him into the White House was motivated by the same concerns that drove Brits to leave the EU.
“They voted to break away from rule by large corporations and media executives who believe in a world without borders. They voted to reclaim control over immigration, over their economy, over the government,” Trump said. “Working people and the great people of the United Kingdom took control of their destiny.... The same thing is happening right here in the United States. It’s happening.”
Bernie Sanders is heckled as a sellout in Los Angeles
Bernie Sanders was heckled Monday morning as he campaigned in Los Angeles for a ballot measure that would cap drug prices paid by the state.
“Sellout Sanders! Why did you sell out to the two-party system? You’re a sellout, Bernie Sanders,” a man can be heard screaming at Sanders as he arrived at a rally in Pershing Square, in a video posted by TMZ.
The man was apparently referring to Sanders’ decision to back Hillary Clinton after he lost a bitter Democratic primary battle with her. Sanders did not appear to react in the video.
Earning the backing of Sanders’ supporters is key for Clinton’s prospects, and the Vermont senator has held dozens of rallies urging his followers to vote for the Democratic nominee. While a vocal segment of Sanders’ supporters were bitter after he lost the primary, polling indicates most have lined up behind Clinton.
Sanders has been campaigning throughout California in support of Proposition 61, which would essentially prohibit the state from paying more for a drug than the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs does.
Time reporters covering his events Monday in Los Angeles and Sacramento did not witness any heckling.
Remember Trump’s tax returns? Hillary Clinton does
Unlike all other major-party nominees of the last four decades, Donald Trump has not released his tax returns. And on the eve of Tuesday’s election, Hillary Clinton didn’t want voters to forget.
“He is not going to release his tax returns between now and the time you start voting,” she said during a rally here Monday. “And that sort of suggests there must be something really terrible in those tax returns.”
Trump and his allies have offered varying reasons for his decision not to release his taxes.
Usually Trump insists that he’s under IRS audit and that his lawyers say it would be a bad idea to publicize any information during the process. But his son has also claimed it would simply be a political distraction.
After a New York Times report indicated that Trump might not have paid federal income taxes for years, he said he was only taking advantage of legal opportunities to limit his tax bill.
Hillary Clinton aims to shore up support in Michigan
We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. You can vote for a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America.
— Hillary Clinton
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to issue order on voter intimidation in Ohio
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request Monday from Ohio Democrats to issue an order aimed at preventing Donald Trump’s supporters from harassing or intimidating voters on election day.
The high court released a one-page denial, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noting that Ohio law already forbids voter intimidation.
The case was part of a flurry of courtroom efforts by the Democrats in crucial battlegrounds around the country to head off what they say is vigilantism by Trump’s presidential campaign and his friend Roger Stone’s political organization, Stop the Steal. Lower-level courts on Monday were weighing arguments in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada.
The Republican nominee has called on his supporters to act as election observers in certain parts of the country to help prevent fraud. That has stirred fears of minority voters being confronted and challenged by self-appointed poll watchers.
Last week, a federal judge in Cleveland issued a temporary restraining order warning that anyone, regardless of political affiliation, who engages in intimidation or harassment near or inside polling places will face contempt of court charges.
But a federal appeals court blocked the order on Sunday after the Trump campaign argued that it tramples on the 1st Amendment right to free speech and was issued without evidence of voter intimidation even though early balloting has been going on in Ohio for weeks.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate the restraining order.
Trump campaign says Clinton’s schedule proves she is on the defensive
Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday pointed to Hillary Clinton’s travel schedule to argue that the GOP nominee has gained an edge in the presidential contest.
On the eve of election day, Clinton is visiting “states she thought she had locked up months ago,” said David Bossie, Trump’s deputy campaign manager. Trump “is forcing her to make an unanticipated last-minute defense of these states, particularly Pennsylvania and Michigan.”
Three of Clinton’s four rallies on Monday are in those two traditionally blue states, which both last supported a Republican for president in 1988. Clinton leads in polling in Michigan and Pennsylvania, but the states are home to the disaffected working-class white voters who have been drawn to Trump’s message.
Bossie and officials with the Republican National Committee also argued that Republicans are outperforming expectations in early and absentee voting and Democrats are underperforming in Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.
The race for the White House is tight, but most political prognosticators believe Clinton has the edge because of the latest flurry of national and battleground states polls and because of the Democrat’s superior ground game.
Bossie pointed to the enormous crowds Trump is seeing as he ping-pongs around the country in the race’s final days to argue that the enthusiasm is on the Republican nominee’s side.
“We’ve seen an enormous surge of momentum in the last week and this race is extremely close,” he said. “Tomorrow will be the moment of truth.”
The stars are out for the final days of the presidential election
With only a few precious hours standing between the nation and the end of the 2016 election, the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went to their celebrity bench to boost enthusiasm at swing-state rallies across the country.
Trump says election will be ‘Brexit plus, plus, plus’
Transit strike in battleground Pennsylvania ends in time for election day
A transit strike that had paralyzed Philadelphia ended early Monday, alleviating fears that it would suppress voter turnout on election day in a critical battleground state.
Bus, trolley and subway services resumed after a tentative agreement was announced at 5:30 a.m. by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Transit Workers Union Local 234, representing 4,700 striking workers, according to local reports.
While most voters in the city live within walking distance of their polling places, the six-day strike led to extended commutes as residents sought alternate transportation to work and school, leading to fears that the strike would have affected voting in the city on Tuesday. SEPTA provides about 900,000 rides a day.
The agreement came hours before a scheduled court hearing over an injunction sought by the transportation authority to force workers back on the job for election day. The city had also planned to seek a similar injunction.
Pennsylvania — where Democrat Hillary Clinton leads GOP nominee Donald Trump by about three points in an average of recent polling — is a critical battleground.
Both candidates have spent a large amount of time courting the state’s voters. On Monday night, Clinton will bring together her most powerful surrogates, including former President Bill Clinton, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, for a major event in Philadelphia.
Democrats rely on the state’s urban areas to offset the Republican vote in much of the rest of the state. Philadelphia is so liberal that in 2008 and 2012, the GOP nominees did not receive a single vote in dozens of the city’s voting wards, mostly black neighborhoods in the north and west parts of the city.
Obama in Michigan: ‘I am asking you to trust me on this one’
President Obama didn’t set foot in Michigan in the final months of his reelection campaign in 2012. But he started there one day before the 2016 election, telling voters that Hillary Clinton is the candidate best equipped to further the nation’s economic recovery.
He touted his administration’s controversial intervention that helped keep the auto industry afloat, and, in a statement that evoked his 2012 campaign against Mitt Romney, quoted Donald Trump as saying: “You could have let it go bankrupt.”
“Plants that were closing when I took office are working double shifts now. The auto industry has record sales. I think I’ve earned some credibility here,” he said. “Manufacturing jobs have grown at the fastest rate since the ‘90s, when another Clinton was president. I think we’ve earned some credibility here.”
“So when I tell you that Donald Trump is not the guy who’s going to look out for you, you need to listen. Do not be bamboozled. Do not fall for the ‘okie doke,’” he continued.
Obama, as he often does, took aim at what he called the “dust cloud of nonsense” and misinformation festering on social media. He also criticized mainstream media coverage that he said was not always “on the level.”
“I want you to tune out all the noise, and I want you just to focus,” he said. “I am asking you to trust me on this one. … I voted for Hillary Clinton, because I am absolutely confident that when she is president, this country will be in good hands.”
Obama noted that Monday was likely the last day he’ll campaign “for a while.”
Looking out on a crowd of University of Michigan students, he noted that when he was first elected president eight years ago, many of them “were, like, 10,” more likely to have been watching cartoons than news coverage.
“I had a soft spot for Sponge Bob,” he said.
Justice Department will deploy 500 poll monitors to watch for civil rights violations
The Justice Department said Monday it will send more than 500 staffers to 28 states on Election Day to monitor the polls, a 35% reduction from the number four years ago.
The personnel will be dispatched to 67 jurisdictions to watch for potential civil rights violations, such as discrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender.
The announcement comes amid rising concerns about voter intimidation, particularly aimed at minorities.
The number of personnel is fewer than the roughly 780 monitors and observers who were dispatched in 2012. The Justice Department has said its poll-watching presence has been curtailed by a 2013 Supreme Court opinion that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Acts. That has led to a reduction in trained observers, who enjoy unfettered access to the polls and cannot be removed from the sites.
Most of the more than 500 staffers will be monitors, who rely on the cooperation of local officials to do their jobs. Observers in this election are limited to a handful of jurisdictions around the country where federal court orders are in place that authorize their presence.
Justice Department officials say they hope voters will not detect any difference in the federal presence.
Among the states receiving federal monitors are those that have changed their voting rights laws since the last presidential election, including North Carolina, or that have reported problems in past elections.
“In most cases, voters on the ground will see very little practical difference between monitors and observers,” Vanita Gupta, head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “We work closely and cooperatively with jurisdictions around the country to ensure that trained personnel are able to keep an eye on the proceedings from an immediate vantage point.”
Clinton in Pittsburgh: ‘Tomorrow we face the test of our time’
Hillary Clinton’s schedule has been geared toward stoking turnout in early voting states like Florida, but on the final day of campaigning, she turned her attention to places where almost all the ballots are cast on election day.
Her first stop was Pittsburgh, where she urged voters to brave potentially long lines at polling places on Tuesday.
“In Pennsylvania, it’s all about election day,” she said. “Other places around the country have been voting for weeks.”
Clinton described the election as a turning point for the country, on par with the civil rights movement.
“Tomorrow we face the test of our time,” she said. “Will we be coming together as a nation, or splitting further apart. Will we set goals that all of us can help meet, or will we turn on each other and pit one group of Americans against each other.”
Her next stop is Michigan, which Democrats have won in every election since 1992 but where Clinton wants to shore up her firewall. Then she returns to Pennsylvania for a rally with Bill Clinton, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, before closing out the night with another event in Raleigh, N.C.
Trump’s closing argument: The U.S. is ‘the laughingstock of the world’
Donald Trump called the U.S. “the laughingstock of the world” on Monday as he bemoaned what he called a “rigged” political system on the eve of the presidential election.
“It’s time to reject the political and media elite that’s bled our country dry,” Trump told a few thousand supporters at a rally here on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
The election Tuesday “will decide whether we are ruled by a corrupt political class,” Trump said.
“I’m not a politician,” he said. “My only special interest is you.”
Trump also suggested the FBI’s closing of its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email was a disgrace.
“Our country is a laughingstock,” he said. “All over the world, they’re laughing.”
Trump’s Florida rally was the first of five on his final dash across battleground states crucial to his quest for the presidency. Trump planned to hit North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan before returning home to New York after midnight.
His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was slated to join Trump at a stop Monday night in Manchester, N.H. Pence will also appear with Trump at a final late-night rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Tim Kaine expects to extend his winning streak
Here’s Hillary Clinton’s closing television ad, a direct two-minute message to voters
Hillary Clinton will deliver one final closing message to the nation Monday night with a two-minute advertisement on prime-time television, vowing to “work my heart out” and be a president “for all Americans.”
Clinton speaks directly to the camera for the entirety of the spot, which the campaign says will air during broadcasts of “The Voice” on NBC and “Kevin Can Wait” on CBS - the primetime network shows with the greatest audience.
“It’s been a long campaign,” Clinton begins. “But tomorrow, you get to pick our next president.”
She says the choice in the election is between an America that is “dark and divisive, or hopeful and inclusive.” And she promises to be a president who will “keep America safe and strong, and make our economy work for everyone.”
“I believe in our people. I love this country. And I’m convinced our best days are still ahead of us if we reach for them together,” she said.
Hillary Clinton’s day begins: a video chat with her granddaughter, and a reality check
Kicking off her final day on the campaign trail Monday, Hillary Clinton acknowledged the difficult work ahead should she win Tuesday.
“We have some work to do to bring the country together,” she told reporters gathered outside her campaign plane in White Plains, N.Y. “I think these splits, these divides that have been not only exposed but exacerbated by the campaign on the other side are ones that we really do have to bring the country together.”
Clinton was also asked how much of a distraction the FBI’s eleventh-hour announcements — first that it was examining a new tranche of emails related to her email scandal, and then its conclusion that they did not change the agency’s assessment of her wrongdoing — was for her.
“We’re on a good track,” she said.
Clinton arrived at the airport in the middle of a FaceTime call with her granddaughter, Charlotte. Next up: stops in Pittsburgh, Michigan, Philadelphia and North Carolina.
Pantsuit Nation gears up for Tuesday’s election
A social movement has women gearing up for Tuesday’s election in rare form — pantsuits at the ready.
Pantsuit Nation, which started as a secret Facebook group, grew to a full Twitter, Instagram and online movement over the weekend. The private group has expanded from a few friends of group founder Libby Chamberlain to more than a million members.
“[Pantsuit Nation] is not a place to convince anyone how great [Clinton] is,” Chamberlain told Mashable in an interview published Sunday. “It’s a place to celebrate how great she is.”
People following the movement also use #pantsuitnation to tweet their support for the Democratic candidate and her signature style.
Posts by approved members can reflect on Clinton and her candidacy, their own challenges expressing their support for her in public this election and the concerns of racism, discrimination and fear this election has brought to some. But they can’t post poll updates, videos, news articles or memes, Chamberlain told Mashable.
Pantsuit Nation launched a website and now runs several social media accounts. Beyoncé and her backup dancers even took the stage in pantsuit fashion during a performance Friday in Cleveland.
Trump hasn’t lost his Twitter privileges, campaign says
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is denying that he has lost his social media privileges in the late stages of the contest.
“No, it’s not true,” campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on NBC’s “Today” when asked about a New York Times report that aides to Trump had “finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to colorfully — and often counterproductively — savage his rivals.”
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Conway offered panelists a chance to call Trump to ask him if he still had access to his cellphone.
“He’s probably watching and he’ll probably call me after” the appearance, she joked.
Democrats have pounced on the report. President Obama said at a rally in Florida on Sunday that if someone couldn’t be trusted with Twitter, “they can’t handle the nuclear codes.”
Campaign managers on both sides find reason for optimism in closing hours
There’s nothing left to do but spin.
The campaign managers for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton began the last day before election day with a blitz of the morning TV news shows, each portraying confidence based on varying assessments of the political map.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Kellyanne Conway said Trump was a candidate riding a wave of momentum to victory, pointing to what she said were massive crowds the Republican nominee has been drawing in states that Democrats should have locked up.
“We’re going into her 248 blue wall,” Conway said, referring to the number of electoral college votes represented by typically blue states such as Minnesota, where Trump held a rally Sunday. “We have six different routes to 270,” she added, referring to the total number of electoral votes needed to clinch the White House.
Robby Mook, at the helm of the data-obsessed Clinton campaign, seemed to scoff when asked about the confidence Trump’s team was exuding based on enthusiasm and momentum.
“Those are subjective terms,” he said on “CBS This Morning.” “We think we have those on our side now. What I know we have as well is record turnout.”
Clinton’s campaign has placed great faith in the strength of its ground game. Volunteers made 14.5 million voter contacts this weekend in battleground states, the campaign said -- a mix of doors knocked on and phone calls made. The campaign said voter turnout is on pace to break records.
Both teams downplayed the latest news concerning the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s private email server. Director James B. Comey informed lawmakers Sunday that the agency’s review of newly discovered emails from a device shared by disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his wife, longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin, did not change its initial assessment clearing the Democratic candidate of criminal wrongdoing.
“We’re grateful that this matter is resolved now,” Mook said. We found it very puzzling, as you know, when Director Comey first brought this up a week ago. I don’t know why they couldn’t have resolved this behind the scenes and avoided all this ruckus. But it’s over now, and we’re in the closing argument.”
Conway’s take, on NBC’s “Today,” was to raise questions about whether there were still open questions to be probed.
“The investigation has been a hot mess from the beginning,” she said.
Conway also defended Trump’s reaction to the news, questioning whether the FBI could have reviewed 650,000 emails in just more than a week.
“I think he’s channeling the frustration of many Americans,” she said on “CBS This Morning.”
Lifting a cloud just before election, FBI clears Clinton in renewed inquiry of private email server
Nine days after throwing the presidential race into turmoil, FBI Director James B. Comey once more cleared Hillary Clinton of criminal wrongdoing Sunday for using a private email server as secretary of State.
The verdict, less than 48 hours before election day, left Democrats still fuming over what party leaders saw as improper political meddling, which caused polls to tighten across the country.
Republicans brushed off Comey’s findings and continued to accuse Clinton of poor judgment and negligence in handling classified information.
Win or lose on Tuesday, a Democratic battle looms
The roaring crowds and displays of Democratic unity around Hillary Clinton as the campaign ends have obscured a bumpier reality: Whatever happens Tuesday, Democrats face a struggle to define themselves.
The divisions in the party may be less dramatic than the parallel fight among Republicans, but Democrats have schisms both ideological and generational.
That suggests a dour potential for Clinton even as she moves closer toward victory in Tuesday’s election: Her presidency could be caught between Republicans who will have less reason than ever to cooperate and a corps of Democrats reluctant to compromise, both sides playing to opposite bases.