Oct 18, 2016 5 min read

Wake Up To Politics - October 18, 2016

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

1 Days until the Third Presidential Debate (Oct. 19)
21 Days until Election Day 2016 + my 15th birthday (Nov. 8)I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!

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Election Central

2016 Rundown With three weeks to go until Election Day, here's what you need to know from Monday:
Melania Trump granted interviews to CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News' "Fox and Friends" on Monday, discussing for the first time her husband's 2005 comments on grabbing women's genitals and kissing them without consent and the related accusations since made against him.
In the "Fox and Friends" interview, Melania Trump insisted that her husband is "not the man that we saw...[and] heard on the tape." Mrs. Trump also blamed Billy Bush (the NBC host, since fired from the network, seen with Trump in the 2005 video) in part, and said she tries to stop Mr. Trump from going on shows like Bush's and Howard Stern's. "“Many times, I gave him an advice and I didn’t agree to do all the tapes on Howard Stern, with Billy Bush because I know those people," he said. "They hook him on. They try to get from him some — some unappropriate and dirty language.”
In the CNN interview, Melania Trump was asked if she was surprised by the video's release. "“I heard many different stuff, boys talk. I — the boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, oh, this and that, and talking about the girls and — but, yes, I was — I was surprised, of course,” Mrs. Trump said. “But I was not surprised that the tape came out. I was not surprised about that.”
Melania Trump also told CNN that if her husband is elected, her focus as First Lady would be to "teach [children] about social media," explaining that "I see a lot of negativity on it and we need to help them."
"It's very damaging for the children," Trump said.
National polls continue to show Donald Trump's stock dropping, registering 41% in a Rasmussen poll released Monday, 40% in a NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released Tuesday, 39% in a GWU/Battleground poll released Monday, 38% in a CBS News poll released Monday, and 38% in a Monmouth poll released Monday.
In each of the national polls released yesterday and today, Hillary Clinton has leads of two to nine percentage points. Politico noted today that Trump's standing in the high 30's to low 40's could put him "on a pace to earn a smaller percentage of the vote than any major-party nominee in at least 20 years."
Donald Trump proposed a five-point government ethics reform plan on Monday night, underling his political outsider status in contrast to his description of Clinton as a corrupt politician.
Trump's plan included a five-year ban on lobbying for officials and staffers in the Executive and Legislative Branches and a lifetime ban on senior Executive Branch officials from lobbying for foreign governments.
Trump also said that he would "expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants, advisers, all these different things."
Trump's plan even gained recognition from one of his harshest critics, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE). "[Donald Trump] is making a serious ethics reform proposal here. All five points have merit and are worthy of debate / consideration," Sasse tweeted Monday.
Battleground state polling is showing a much closer race than national polls. According to a Quinnipiac poll released Monday, Clinton and Trump are tied at 45% each in Ohio, while a CNN/ORC poll released Monday showed Trump leading, 48%
Today on the Trail Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will campaign in Colorado, where he trails Clinton by 8%, according to the RealClearPollitics polling average.
Trump's running mate Mike Pence will hold two rallies in North Carolina, at the Coastline Conference & Event Center in Wilmington at 3pm and at K3 Enterprises, Inc. in Fayetteville at 6pm. The Trump/Pence ticket trails the Democrats by 2.7% in the Romney-won Tar Heel State, according to RCP.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton continues to hold debate prep sessions in New York, and will have no public events again. In her place, running mate Tim Kaine will deliver an address on the economy in Detroit, Michigan, where Clinton's lead is 10.7%. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton holds an organizing event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania at 3pm. Clinton/Kaine have an edge of 6.8 percentage points in Pennsylvania.
Finally, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's primary rival turned surrogate, will headline an event for her at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Sanders' campaigning in Arizona represents a Democratic expansion into the deep-red state, which has voted
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson will speak at Tommy Wind Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada at 6:30pm, when he will unveil the "2016 Libertarian Voter Guide."
Green Party vice presidential nominee Ajamu Baraka campaigns in Michigan, speaking at Wayne State University in Detroit at 2pm.
Finally, Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin and his running mate Mindy Finn will hold two fundraisers at 201Bar on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C, with tickets going for $1,000 to the first and $100 to the second.

White House Watch

The President's Schedule President and First Lady Obama will host a State Dinner for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Mrs. Agnese Landini. Obama will also meet with Renzi and hold a joint press conference with him.

Today's Trivia

Yesterday's Answer Declaring that America "is busy being born, not busy dying," Jimmy Carter quoted newly-minted Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in his 1976 nomination acceptance speech.
Great job...Dan Filliol, Joan Zucker, Rick Isserman, and Janice Goodman, and thanks to Randy Fleisher for supplying the question!