OpEd: In early August the web site 538 predicted Hillary Clinton might be able to build a 7 percent lead over Donald Trump. She is near that now, and has the lead in six of six swing states.
She moved slightly ahead in Ohio this week for the first time, and Trump even lost his lead in Iowa, according to 538. She already had claimed leads in Florida, Nevada and North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Barring an upset in the final debate on Sunday, it may not be possible for Trump to catch up. Meanwhile, alleged lies keep hurting Trump. When the New York Times reported that he had lost nearly a billion dollars and used a loophole to avoid taxes, Trump tried to promote himself as a “genius.” Just as occurred with his claim that he wrote “The Art of the Deal,” it was widely reported that Trump had nothing to do with the preparation of his taxes. Trump had said: “As a businessman and real estate developer, I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit and to the benefit of my company, my investors and my employees,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I have brilliantly — I have brilliantly used those laws. I have often said on the campaign trail that I have a fiduciary responsibility to pay no more tax than is legally required, like anybody else, or put another way: to pay as little tax as legally possible,” Politico reported. Trump’s accountant virtually called him a liar. “I did all the tax preparation. He never saw the product until it was presented to him for signature,” Jack Mitnick, a former Trump family accountant, told Inside Edition’s Steven Fabian in an interview broadcast Tuesday. Tony Schwartz, who says he was the real author of “The Deal,” said this week that he would give away $55,000 in royalties he had made on the book because he was so ashamed it helped Trump’s candidacy. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” In particular, Schwartz has said he fears Trump would be mercurial and easily distracted as president and that he believes Trump has demonized Hispanic immigrants and Muslims for political gain,” the Washington Post reported. Washington Post http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/jack-mitnick-donald-trump-taxes-brilliance-229114 http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/iowa/
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Robert Weller
2016 US election news and other news from the USA
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Worked in journalism, including on the Internet, for more than 40 years. Started as a news editor at the Colorado Daily at the University of Colorado, joined a small Montana newspaper, the Helena Independent-Record, and then United Press International. Archives
November 2016
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