Donald Trump’s final, punishing campaign blitz
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have a string of campaign stops scheduled today — all of them in the critical battleground states that could swing the election.
Our latest CBS News Battleground Tracker poll shows Trump and Clinton locked in virtual ties in both Ohio and Florida.
The Trump campaign arrived in Sarasota, Fla., just after 4:00 a.m. Monday morning, after stops Sunday in Denver; Sioux City, Iowa; Minneapolis; suburban Detroit; Pittsburgh; and Leesburg, Virginia.
“One day — can you believe it?” Trump told the crowd in Leesburg. “One day, one day, one day, one day. I can’t believe it.”
CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett, who has been following the Trump campaign, reports that throughout Sunday, Trump’s description of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton evolved with the news of the day, starting with promises of sure-fire indictments before shrinking to laments about justice possibly thwarted.
After midnight Sunday, in northern Virginia, Trump defined the election as a contest between corrupt elites versus the abused middle class, and he said the FBI’s announcement it would not recommend charges after reviewing newly-discovered Clinton emails is proof of a system badly off-track.
“Hillary Clinton is guilty,” Trump said. “She knows it. The FBI knows it.”
It echoed a call he had made throughout the night in Pennsylvania (“She’s being protected by a rigged system”), and in Michigan (“You can’t review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can’t do it, folks!”).
When the campaign day began in Iowa, before news of Comey’s letter clearing Clinton, Trump lionized the FBI and its investigative zeal: “FBI Director Comey and the great special agents within the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence,” he told a Sioux City audience.
Trump’s whirlwind weekend of roaring rallies was marred by a disturbance in Reno Saturday night.
When Trump supporters confronted a lone protester holding a “Republicans Against Trump” sign, someone shouted “Gun!,” and agents whisked Trump off stage.
There was no gun, and the protester was later released. Trump came back to finish his appearance.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy for us,” he said.
- Donald Trump rushed off stage at campaign rally in Reno
- Trump protester: Police saved my life after disturbance at rally
Trump’s schedule is so punishing because, while his top advisors say they’re confident of victory, they cannot describe a clear path to 270 electoral votes.
Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan, they say, hold the key. Not surprisingly they are the last three stops on Trump’s schedule today.