Sep 28, 2016 9 min read

Wake Up To Politics - September 28, 2016

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

2 Days until the Government Funding Deadline (Sept. 30)
6 Days until the Vice Presidential Debate (Oct. 4)
11 Days until the Second Presidential Debate (Oct. 9)

42 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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Capitol Hill News

Congress At 9:30, the Senate will convene its session for the day. First order of business: the short-term continuing resolution (CR) offered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to fund the government through December 9. Current government funding will run out at midnight Friday, and if no CR is passed by both houses of Congress by then, the government will shut down.
Currently, the stopgap funding bill is being stalled in the Senate over aid for Flint, Michigan to address its water crisis; Democrats are demanding appropriations for Flint be included in the CR, since disaster aid for the Zika virus and the recent Louisiana flooding is included.
To protest Flint's exclusion from the proposal, all but four Senate Democrats voted to block the CR from advancing in the Senate, with a test vote on the measure failing 45-55 (60 "yea" votes were needed to advance). Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly (IN), Joe Manchin (WV), Bill Nelson (FL), and Jon Tester (MT) voted in favor of the CR; 12 Republicans voted against it, including Sens. Ted Cruz (TX), Mike Lee (UT), Lindsey Graham (SC). The GOP "nay" votes came for a variety of reasons: the conservative dissenters, including Cruz and Lee, were protesting the absence of language blocking the Obama Administration from giving oversight of the Internet domain system to an international group. Graham voted against the CR to protest financing restrictions on the Export-Import Bank.
A large part of the Democratic argument is that the Flint water crisis has lasted over a year and received no aid, while Louisiana is already getting appropriations for flooding that occurred last month. Both sides are negotiating in hopes that the Louisiana appropriation stays on the bill, although McConnell is calling the Democratic position "no Flint, no flood," and saying that dropping the flood aid would be the only way to add Flint aid.
Negotiations are currently being led by McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); it appears that their deal will result in passage of a CR with no mention of Flint, with a promise by Republicans to include Flint funding in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).
The House (which also convenes at 10am today) continues consideration of amendments to the WRDA. The Senate version of the bill, which passed earlier this month, included $220 million for Flint and other communities suffering from lead-contaminated water. House leaders had blocked any Flint funding from being added to the lower chamber's version; now, Ryan has agreed to put a WRDA amendment ensuring about $170 million in federal aid for Flint up for a vote today.
Also happening in the Senate today: at 10am, the chamber will resume consideration of the President's veto message on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). The bill, which allows families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, was vetoed by President Obama on Friday.
At about 12pm, the upper chamber will vote to override the President's veto. A two-thirds majority in each house of Congress is needed for a veto override, and at least the needed 67 senators are expected to vote to override today.
If both houses of Congress are successfully in rounding up two-thirds majorities, JASTA will become President Obama's first veto to be overridden by Congress.

2016 Central

Today on the Trail Donald Trump campaigns in two key states today, holding a 3:30pm rally at The Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa and a 7pm rally at Waukesha County Expo Center in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The Council Bluffs event will also feature faith leaders Tamara Scott and Steve Schleffler, co-chairs of Iowa Christian Conservatives for Trump, a new group being launched at the event, as well as Trump Iowa Coalitions Director Rev. Jamie Johnson and onetime "Apprentice" star turned Trump campaign senior advisor Tana Goertz.
Wisconsin and Iowa, both Midwestern swing states, are two of the most-contested states in this election cycle - the RealClearPolitics polling average in both states shows five-point leads, for Trump in Iowa and for Clinton in Wisconsin.
Hillary Clinton will campaign with primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) today, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. The 2:15pm event will focus on Clinton's student debt plan, a toned-down version of Sanders', and targets young voters (the Vermonter's best demographic) and the swing state of New Hampshire (where Sanders beat Clinton in the February primary). Clinton now leads Trump by 5.4% in the state, according to the RCP average.
Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence will hold a 6pm rally at Leetonia High School in Leetonia, Ohio today; his Democratic counterpart, Tim Kaine, will hold a 9am rally in his home state of Virginia, where he will be joined by former Sen. John Warner (R-VA), who endorsed Clinton on Tuesday.
Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton will also hit the trail today: the former will attend a fundraiser in Peoria, Illinois for her father, hosted by Trump Illinois finance chair Ron Gidwitz and Illinois Republican Party chairman Tim Schenider and attended by Illinois GOP Reps. Darin LaHood and John Shimkus. The latter will hold a College Affordability Forum at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina at 12pm and a 3:50pm Clean Energy Roundtable in Asheville, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein will speak at The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida at 6:30pm; Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Bill Weld will hold a 4pm rally at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Trump's Huge Fundraising Day One day after polls showing he lost the first presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump responded with his biggest fundraising day of the election cycle, bringing in $18 million in the 24 hours after the debate.
"With this kind of energy and generous support behind us, we are going to have President Donald J. Trump in the White House,” Trump finance chairman Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The campaign's haul, which was raised in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, was much larger than their $5 million for the National Call Day event held by the campaign.
The National Call Day push was headlined by a group of 100 top donors, who made calls for the GOP campaign at Trump Tower on Tuesday. The leaders of the fundraising calls were divided into teams: "Team YUUUGE" (including Trump Victory Fund finance chairman Lew Eisenberg, RNC finance director Cara Mason, and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson), "Team MAGA" (including Mnuchin and Los Angeles investor Elliot Broidy), "Team IRREDEEMABLES" (including Trump Organization special counsel Michael Cohen and New York investor Anthony Scaramucci), "Team DEPLORABLES" (including Dallas investor Gentry Beach), and "Team Trump" (including VP nominee Mike Pence, RNC chairman Reince Preibus, Trump's children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka).
The $18 million day will go far in Trump's efforts to match the Clinton fundraising machine, which the GOP nominee currently lags. Through the end of August, Clinton had raised almost $414 million to Trump's $166 million.
According to CNN, this is the general election's most expensive week yet, with nearly $28 million being spent by both sides combined on radio and television ads. The boost in ad spending comes in part from an increase in Trump's advertising buy: the Republican is now spending $6.4 million in nine key states. In addition, Trump super PACs including Save America from Its Government (funded by Dallas banker Andy Beal) and The 2016 Committee (a former pro-Carson group) are large spenders in the week's ad buys.
Democrats are spending $19.5 million on ads this week, much of it from super PAC Priorities USA; Republicans are spending $8.5 million

White House Watch

The President's Schedule President Barack Obama begins his day at 11am with an event honoring 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch and his team.
At 12:35pm, the President will depart the White House for Richmond, Virginia, where he arrives at 1:30pm.
At 2:25pm, he will participate in a CNN town hall on national security and veterans issues. At the event, which takes place in Fort Lee, Virginia (home of the Combined Arms Support Command), Obama will take questions from service members and veterans in the audience, as well as from moderator Jake Tapper, CNN's chief Washington correspondent. The event airs at 9pm tonight.
According to a Wake Up To Politics analysis, this is the 19th town hall CNN has held in 2016, a fairly new event to hold as primetime television. The first such event was also with President Obama, on the issue of guns, before CNN began holding town halls relating to the election, hosting six town halls with GOP presidential candidates, four with Democratic candidates, two with the Libertarian ticket, and one with the Geen party tickey. CNN has also held a town hall with House Speaker Paul Ryan, as well as town halls with experts on specific issues (such as police violence, the Stanford rape case, and the perscprtion drug epidemic). According to reports, CNN plans to continue holding the primetime town halls beyond the 2016 election.
At 4pm, the President will speak directly to the troops in Fort Lee, before he departs Richmond at 5:20pm and arrives back at the White House at 6:15pm.
FLOTUS Schedule First Lady Michelle Obama will campaign for Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania today, holding an event at LaSalle University in Philadelphia at 12pm and at the University of Pittsburgh at 1pm.

Daily Data

84 million According to Nielsen, the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was viewed by an average of 84 million total viewers on the 13 TV channels carrying the debate live.
Already, that makes the Trump/Clinton showdown the most-watched presidential debate in U.S. history, surpassing the record set by the 1980 presidential debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, which had 80.6 million viewers. The Nielson number does not include the millions who livestreamed the debate online, or those who watched outside of their homes (including watch parties at restaurants and office buildings). C-SPAN, which aired the debate on two channels, is also not included by Nielsen.
Of the television networks Nielsen did include, NBC (home of the debate's moderator Lester Holt) had the largest audience, over 18 million people.
The Nielsen data also shows that viewership remained mostly steady over all 95 minutes of the debate, with the vast majority of viewers tuning in until the end. Before the debate, many had expected viewership to drop after the first 30 minutes; the Clinton campaign sees cause for celebration in the fact that it did not, as the first 30 minutes of the debate were also believed to be Donald Trump's best.
On Tuesday, Wake Up To Politics reported the results of a CNN/ORC poll showing that registered voters who watched the debate believed that Hillary Clinton was the winner. Wake Up To Politics held our own poll during the debate to see who people thought was winning: interestingly, our very unscientific data tracks very closely with CNN/ORC's.
About 300 people voted in the Wake Up To Politics Twitter debate poll, finding that 53% thought Hillary Clinton was winning, compared to 40% who thought Trump was. 7% said "neither."

Today's Trivia

Today's Question What was the last presidential veto to be overridden? (you just have to name the bill)
Email trivia@wakeuptopolitics.com with your answer; correct respondents will get their name in tomorrow's newsletter!