I’ll do more for African-Americans than Clinton – Trump

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday promised to do more for the African-Americans than his rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could do in her lifetime.

Trump, at the third and final presidential debate with Clinton broadcast live early Thursday, claimed that Clinton and President Barack Obama had not made much impact on them.

“Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store. They have no education. They have no jobs. I will do more for African-Americans and Latinos than she can ever do in 10 lifetimes.”TrumpTrumpTrump

“All she has done is talk to the African-Americans and to the Latinos. After they get your votes and then they come to say we’ll see you in four years.

Trump, however, stressed that his administration would not take care of illegal immigrants or their debts.

He cautioned against voting for Clinton, saying a vote for her is a vote for the continuation of Obama’s administration.

He claimed that America “have been depleted militarily" adding, “our policemen and women are disrespected; we need law and order but we need justice too”.

“We’re going to make America strong again. We’ll make America great again, and it has to start now.

“We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama and that is what you get when you get her,” he said.

In her remarks at the debate, Clinton pledged to reach out to all Americans irrespective of their affiliations.

“I would like to say to everyone watching that I’m reaching out to all Americans, Democrats, Republicans and independents because we need everyone to help make our country what it should be.

“I know that we have the awesome responsibility of protecting our country and incredible opportunity of working to try to make life better for all of you,” she said.

According to her, she has made the cause of children and families the centre of mission of her life’s work adding, “that’s what my mission will be in the presidency”.

“I will stand up for families against powerful interests, against corporations, I will do everything I can to make sure you have good jobs with rising income,” she said.

The Democratic candidate also pledged to ensure that America children had better education.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Trump had during the debate, pledged to cut taxes and focus on growing the economy.

Clinton, however, disagreed with Trump, saying that “we need to put more money in social security trust fund”.

“We will make sure we have sufficient resources and that will mean raising the cap… I want to raise health benefits for women.

“If Trump repeals the America healthcare, healthcare will get worse…,” she said.

NAN reports that 52 per cent of American voters remain unchanged in their position that suggest that Clinton was ahead of Trump by nine per cent before the final debate, according to Reuters’s poll.

Clinton hammers ‘dangerous’ Trump after Putin praise

Hillary Clinton portrayed herself Thursday as a steely stateswoman ready to fend off the dangers facing the United States, as she denounced Republican rival Donald Trump as "unpatriotic" and unfit to lead.

With just 61 days before America chooses a new commander in chief, the Democrat went on the offensive highlighting the risk of electing a political novice who praises Russia's leader while dismissing the US president, and who has no real plan to combat IS jihadists.

Trump pushed back just as hard, accusing Clinton of being a failed and "trigger-happy" secretary of state whose policies triggered mayhem across the world.

Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, have clashed repeatedly over foreign policy, but their battle rose to a new level Wednesday night when the two were separately grilled over their national security credentials at a New York forum.

"One thing you didn't hear from Donald Trump last night is any plan to take on ISIS, one of the biggest threats facing our country," Clinton said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

"He says his plan is still a secret, but the truth is he simply doesn't have one. And that's not only dangerous, it should be disqualifying."

Instead of laying out a Middle East strategy at the forum, she said, Trump praised Putin and suggested the strongman is "far more" of a leader than US President Barack Obama.

"Even I was shocked by this," Clinton said later at a rally in Charlotte, in the battleground state of North Carolina.

"That is not just unpatriotic, it's not just insulting to the office and to the man who holds the office. It is scary, it is dangerous."

Clinton invoked one of the nation's most popular Republican presidents in driving home her point.

"What would Ronald Reagan say?" Clinton asked, "about a Republican nominee who attacks America's generals and heaps praise on Russia's president? I think we know the answer."

The seniormost elected US Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, distanced himself from Trump's praise of Putin just one day after returning to Congress after a seven-week break.

"Vladimir Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests," Ryan said, citing US authorities who believe Moscow is conducting cyber-attacks on the US political system.

Seeking to strike a commanding tone, Clinton called for the United States to track down and kill Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as it did Osama bin Laden.

"Getting al-Baghdadi will require efforts at the top levels, but it will send a resounding message that nobody directs or inspires attacks against the United States and gets away with it," she said.

With the campaign now in the final two-month stretch, Clinton was wasting no opportunity to harangue Trump over his missteps, accusing him of having "trash-talked" US generals.

"We've never seen anything like this," she said, highlighting Trump's call to bring back interrogation techniques deemed to be torture, and to kill relatives of terrorists.

Clinton pointed to the US military code of honor, saying "that, Donald Trump,... is what we're going to stand up and defend in the face of your outrageous, disgraceful attacks on the men and women of our armed forces."

The bitter back-and-forth was likely to be on display for the campaign's duration. Trump joined the fray Thursday with attacks on Clinton, whom he accused of having "raced to invade, intervene and topple regimes."

"Hillary Clinton is trigger-happy," with policies that "produced ruin" in Libya, Iraq and Syria, Trump said in Cleveland, Ohio in a 10-minute anti-Hillary riff before delivering planned remarks on education.

"Her policies unleashed ISIS, spread terrorism and put Iran on a path to nuclear weapons."

Trump has gained on Clinton over the past 10 days, but the former secretary of state still maintains an advantage of 2.8 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average.

A new Quinnipiac Poll of battleground states shows Clinton ahead 48 percent to 43 percent in Pennsylvania and ahead 47-43 in North Carolina. But Trump leads in Ohio, 46-45, while the two are tied in Florida, 47-47, according to the poll.

A Suffolk University poll shows a different story in North Carolina, with Trump ahead by three points.

Clinton's tarmac address to reporters marked the first podium press conference in nine months for the candidate, who broke a long media drought by speaking to journalists at length on her campaign plane this week.

She also rebuked an "undisciplined" Trump for discussing elements of a recent classified intelligence briefing during Wednesday's commander-in-chief forum, in which he said he learned that Obama and other US leaders "did not follow" the advice of US national security experts.

"I would never comment on any aspect of an intelligence briefing that I received," Clinton said.

FBI releases Clinton email probe files

The FBI on Friday poured fresh fuel on the fire sparked by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, releasing heavily redacted notes on its probe which White House rival Donald Trump seized on to attack her fitness for office.

The 58 pages — 14 of which were entirely blacked out — showed that the FBI found no evidence her email system was compromised but decided it could not be ruled out because some of her mobile devices weren’t recovered.

“The FBI did find that hostile foreign actors successfully gained access to the personal email accounts of individuals with whom Clinton was in regular contact and, in doing so, obtained emails sent to or received by Clinton on her personal account,” the notes said.

Clinton’s use of a private server has been the subject of simmering controversy as she runs for president against Trump, the Republican candidate.

The documents’ release follows the FBI’s recommendation in July not to prosecute Clinton for sending unsecured emails with classified material through the server, though it found her to have been “extremely careless.”

Clinton’s campaign said it was “pleased” with the report’s release.

“While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case,” it said in a statement.

But Trump’s campaign pounced, charging that the notes “reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty.

“Clinton’s secret email server was an end run around government transparency laws that wound up jeopardizing our national security and sensitive diplomatic efforts,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement.

Revelations

Embarrassing revelations include a passage in the report in which the 68-year-old Clinton told investigators she was unaware that confidential material was marked with a “C.”

“Clinton stated she did not know what the ‘(C)’ meant at the beginning of the paragraphs and speculated it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order,” the report said.

“When asked of her knowledge regarding TOP SECRET, SECRET, and CONFIDENTIAL classification levels… Clinton responded that she did not pay attention to the ‘level’ of classification and took all classified information seriously,” it added.

The report also revealed that Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, “warned” Clinton to “be very careful” regarding emails.

“Powell warned Clinton that if it became ‘public’ that Clinton had a BlackBerry, and she used it to ‘do business,’ her emails could become ‘official record(s) and subject to the law,’” the report said, noting Clinton had emailed Powell after taking office in 2009 to ask about his use of a BlackBerry.

“Powell further advised Clinton, ‘Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.’”

Clinton told the FBI that “Powell’s comments did not factor into her decision to use a personal email account,” the report said.

Concussion

The FBI notes said investigators identified 13 mobile devices that “potentially were used to send emails using Clinton’s Clintonemail.com email address.”

It said eight of the devices were BlackBerries that she used while secretary of state, and the other five were devices, including BlackBerries, that she used after leaving office.

In its summary of the interview with Clinton, the agency said she had received no instructions or directions on preserving or producing State Department records while transitioning out of her post.

However, Clinton noted that she had suffered a concussion in December 2012, less than two months before leaving office, and then had a blood clot around New Year’s.

“Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received,” the summary said.

The apparent suggestion that Clinton’s blood clot led to memory loss could be potent fodder for the Trump camp — as it seeks to portray the Democrat as lacking the stamina for the job.

Clinton’s campaign spokesman Brian Fallon sought to cut short any such notion, tweeting: “Asked abt briefings in late ’12, Clinton said 2 things: (1) she couldn’t recall each briefing (2) she missed part of that time due to health.”