The Latest on the U.S. presidential campaign. (all times EDT):
1:05 p.m.
Donald Trump says the Arab Gulf states wouldn’t exist without U.S. help. But the U.S. relies on Gulf states too.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, all Arab Gulf nations, are part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria, conducting airstrikes and providing other support.
Trump told supporters in Ashburn, Virginia Tuesday that if he is elected president, he would require the Arab Gulf states to finance a safe zone in Syria. “They are going to pay,” Trump told the crowd.
The Arab gulf states, which make up a cooperative body called the Gulf Cooperation Council, are home to 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.
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12:55 p.m.
The chief executive of the Democratic National Committee has resigned in the wake of an email hack that embarrassed the party on the eve of its convention.
That’s according to three Democratic strategists familiar with Amy Dacey’s decision to leave her job. The people spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The Democrats say other personnel moves at the party are also expected Tuesday.
The content of the hacked emails exposed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with party officials disparaging Sanders.
Party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned her position before the convention began. After being booed at a later appearance in Philadelphia, she chose not to speak from the convention stage.
—By Julie Pace and Julie Bykowicz
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12:50 p.m.
Hillary Clinton has arrived with her husband in Rhode Island to attend the funeral of a longtime friend.
Former President Bill Clinton will give the eulogy on Tuesday for Mark Weiner, a major Democratic donor and fundraiser.
The service for Weiner (WEY’-ner) is being held at the Temple Beth-El synagogue in Providence.
Weiner died last week in Newport after a long battle with cancer. He was 62.
The Democratic presidential nominee walked to the front of the synagogue shortly after noon, holding her husband’s arm.
Attendees also include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and veteran political consultants James Carville, Paul Begala and Tad Devine.
Weiner has been friends with the Clintons since 1976, when he worked with Hillary Clinton on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign.
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12:20 p.m.
Donald Trump is joking that he wants a crying baby ejected from his rally in northern Virginia.
Trump, the Republican nominee, was interrupted Tuesday by the wails of a child.
“Don’t worry about that baby, I love babies,” Trump said. “I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a beautiful baby.”
But when the baby continued to cry, Trump followed up by saying “Actually, I was just get kidding — you can get that baby out of here!”
Trump then seemed to suggest that he was joking and that the baby could stay. The child soon stopped crying.
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12:15 p.m.
About a dozen protesters have been escorted out of Donald Trump’s rally in northern Virginia.
The group started chanting “Hillary” in support of Trump’s general election opponent Hillary Clinton during the Republican nominee’s rally in Ashburn.
One protester was wearing a shirt reading “Islam means peace.” Many of them raised fists when they were escorted out.
Trump did not acknowledge them as they were removed. Several other attendees were escorted out before the event started.
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12:10 p.m.
Donald Trump says that without the U.S., “the Gulf states won’t exist.”
Speaking to supporters in Ashburn, Virginia, Tuesday, Trump said that if he is elected president, he would require the Arab Gulf states to finance a safe zone in Syria. “They are going to pay,” Trump told the crowd.
The Arab gulf states, which make up a cooperative body called the Gulf Cooperation Council, are home to 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.
Trump also reiterated his stance that the U.S. “can’t have people coming in from Syria who have bad intentions.”
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12:05 p.m.
Donald Trump claims that 20 people have given Hillary Clinton a total of $60 million and he would like to know who those people are.
Speaking at a rally in Ashburn, Virginia., Tuesday, Trump said he wants to “find out how many of them I know,” referring to Clinton’s top donors. Trump did not specify a time frame in which Clinton allegedly raised that money.
Clinton’s campaign said the Democratic nominee raised $63 million in July for her campaign.
Trump continued his attack on the Democratic nominee, calling her “Crooked Hillary,” which prompted chants of “lock her up” from the crowd.
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11:55 a.m.
Donald Trump is saluting a veteran who presented the Republican presidential nominee with his Purple Heart.
Trump said the man approached him before a Tuesday rally in Ashburn, Virginia, and presented him the medal he received for being wounded in combat.
Trump said he was “honored” to receive it. He then joked that “I always wanted to get a Purple Heart. This was much easier”
His comments came amid his ongoing flap with the parents of a Muslim-American soldier who was killed in Iraq. Trump never served in the military, receiving medical and education deferments during the Vietnam War era.
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11:45 a.m.
President Barack Obama says that Donald Trump is unfit to be president and “he keeps proving it.”
Obama was speaking during a news conference with the prime minister of Singapore, who is visiting the White House.
The president is challenging Republican leaders to withdraw their endorsements of Trump.
Obama says Trump’s criticism of a fallen Muslim-American soldier’s family is the latest evidence that the GOP presidential nominee is unfit to lead America.
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11:40 a.m.
President Barack Obama is challenging leading Republicans to repudiate Donald Trump.
Obama says Trump’s criticism of a fallen Muslim-American soldier’s family is the latest evidence that the GOP presidential nominee is unfit to lead America.
Obama is also citing Trump’s misstatements on global crises.
At a news conference Tuesday, Obama noted that many leading Republicans in Congress have denounced various Trump statements.
But he asked why they are still endorsing him. Obama said there has to be a point when people break with the party’s standard-bearer. Otherwise, he said, the denunciations are hollow.
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11:10 a.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan is airing a campaign ad in which he says he is “committed to securing our borders” with an image of a fence as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump repeatedly promises to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The ad comes a day after Trump thanked Ryan’s primary challenger Paul Nehlen (KNEE-lin) in a tweet. Nehlen, a longshot candidate who hopes to knock out Ryan, defended Trump in the face of criticism over his dispute with Muslim parents of a decorated Army veteran killed in Iraq in 2004.
The primary is Aug. 9.
Ryan’s ad, the third in his race against Nehlen, is titled “A Safe America.” The incumbent speaks directly to the camera, calls the U.S. an exceptional nation and vows to do what’s necessary to protect the U.S. from terrorists who “want to destroy our freedom and security.”
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10:15 a.m.
Donald Trump’s son says that his father’s comments about the family of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq were “honestly blown out of proportion.”
Speaking Tuesday to CBS This Morning, Eric Trump said his father is “a great patriot,” who “doesn’t want to see more Americans dead.”
The Republican nominee had implied that Ghazala Khan, mother of Capt. Humayun Khan, stood silently alongside her husband at the Democratic National Convention because her Muslim religion restricted her from speaking. That comment and others Trump made about the family prompted criticism from fellow Republicans and demands for an apology from the families of fallen soldiers.
Eric Trump added Tuesday that Pat Smith, the mother of a Benghazi attack victim who is highly critical of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, has not received the same amount of airtime as the Khan family.
Clinton’s policy, he said, “crippled Libya and Syria and Iraq.”
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9 a.m.
A Republican congressman from New York says he will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
Richard Hanna asked, in an op-ed published in The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse, New York, “where do we draw the line,” responding to Donald Trump’s attack on the parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier.
“He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country,” Hanna said. “He is unrepentant in all things.”
While he noted that he disagrees with Clinton on many issues, he concluded that she “has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime.”
Hanna doesn’t have to worry about a backlash from Republican voters for supporting Clinton. He’s not seeking re-election.
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8:10 a.m.
Hillary Clinton says she raised $63 million for her campaign last month.
The Democratic presidential nominee raised another $26 million in July for the Democratic National Committee and state parties.
Clinton has been focusing on improving her online fundraising, and the campaign says it saw its best 24-hour period in that area last week as she accepted the nomination. She raised $8.7 million online that day, the campaign says.
Both Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — who earlier said he raised $35.8 million in small donations last month — must report their fundraising information to federal regulators by Aug. 20.
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3:27 a.m.
For Donald Trump, it’s become a familiar pattern. The Republican nominee can’t let go of a perceived slight, no matter the potential damage to his presidential campaign or political reputation.
Trump spent the days after winning the Republican nomination criticizing a U.S. district court judge’s Mexican heritage. The morning after accepting the Republican nomination at the party’s convention, Trump re-litigated months-old grievances with primary rival Ted Cruz.
Now, he’s sparring with an American Muslim family whose son was killed in Iraq.
Republican leaders have urged Trump to drop his attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan. It’s not just the optics of picking a fight with a military family that has GOP officials eager for Trump to move on, but the timing of his attacks: Election Day is three months away.
[source:- Tulsa World]
