The Latest: Trump to bring Obama's half-brother to debate
By Associated Press
Oct 18, 2016 6:12 PM CDT
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)   (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):

7:05 p.m.

Donald Trump's campaign is bringing President Barack Obama's half-brother to the third and final presidential debate on Wednesday.

The campaign confirms that Obama's Kenyan-born half-brother Malik will be in the audience during the final showdown between Trump and rival Hillary Clinton.

Malik tells the New York Post that he's "excited to be at the debate" and says, "Trump can make America great again."

Trump also tells the paper that Malik, "gets it far better than his brother."

The candidates have been using their debate guests as a tool to try to get inside their rivals' heads. Clinton is bringing frequent Trump critic and billionaire Mark Cuban and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman.

Trump invited to the most recent debate three of the women who accused former President Bill Clinton of sexually harassing or assaulting them years ago.

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7:00 p.m.

Mike Pence is campaigning on the idea that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would run a more ethical administration than Hillary Clinton.

The Republican vice presidential nominee told North Carolina supporters Tuesday that the Wikileaks hack of John Podesta's emails confirms "an avalanche of scandals" and "pay-to-play politics" in Clinton's world.

Trump has proposed barring anyone from federal lobbying activity within five years after leaving a congressional seat, a congressional member's staff or an executive branch post.

Trump also added a call for term limits on members of Congress. Pence didn't discuss that detail in North Carolina. He was a House member for 12 years.

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6:33 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's biggest super PAC helper is following her lead and trying to help deliver a Democratic Senate.

Priorities USA says it is beginning television advertisements aimed attacking Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick Toomey and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte. The two Republicans are in tight contests with Democratic hopefuls. The ads will also target Clinton's opponent, Donald Trump.

Feeling comfortable with her lead, Clinton has increased her down-ballot focus in these final weeks of the race.

The super political action committee has spent more on TV than anyone other than the Clinton campaign itself. Priorities also said Tuesday that it will spend more than $1 million trying to make a case to elect her in typically Republican-leaning Georgia.

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6:09 p.m.

Donald Trump says the media is "more crooked than crooked Hillary," Clinton, his Democratic presidential rival.

The comment in Grand Junction, Colorado, comes as Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, have complained that the Nov. 8 election is going to be, "rigged." They say there are two reasons: One, the news media is colluding with Clinton by reporting that multiple women accuse him of sexually assaulting them. Trump additionally insists there will be fraud at the polls on Election Day.

Trump earlier advised his supporters to ignore mainstream news outlets and instead "read the internet."

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6:06 p.m.

Donald Trump says that he doesn't believe polls showing he's lagging rival Hillary Clinton in Colorado.

Trump tells a rally crowd at an airplane hangar in Grand Junction, Colorado, that everywhere he goes, he draws crowds of thousands and thousands of people.

And he's predicting he'll win one of the greatest victories in political history.

Elections veterans caution that drawing large crowds doesn't equate to winning a general election.

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5:55 p.m.

Even Nobel prize winners make very public math mistakes, and this year it happened when they dabbled in presidential politics.

A group of Nobel prize winners sent out a public letter of endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president with a note saying that 70 of them signed on. The letter had 69 signatures.

Oops.

Nobel chemistry prize winner Martin Chalfie of Columbia University said he had left off the 70th Nobel laureate, neuroscientist Paul Greengard of Rockefeller University, because he was late addition. When a reporter pointed out the counting mistake, Chalfie sent out a correction with a math joke:

"There are three types of people in the world: those that can count and those that can't. I am clearly in the latter category."

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5:23 p.m.

Mike Pence is joining Donald Trump in relentlessly hammering the national media coverage of the presidential race.

The Republican vice presidential candidate told supporters Tuesday in Wilmington, North Carolina, that the election is not "exactly a fair fight" because "the media out there is doing half of Hillary Clinton's work for her every day."

Pence said the media is busy "chasing other stories" besides controversies surrounding the Democratic nominee. The Indiana governor went on to quote from a front-page USA Today story detailing "the nexus among private companies, Hillary Clinton's State Department and the Clinton Family Foundation."

The Indiana governor then cited ABC News reporting suggesting Hillary Clinton's State Department aides in 2010 played favorites with vendors and other entities during recovery efforts for a Haiti earthquake. The story cited emails showing aides concerned with identifying groups close to former President Bill Clinton.

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5:21 p.m.

Donald Trump is encouraging his supporters to ignore the mainstream news media in the final stretch of the presidential race because he believes they're trying to take him down.

Trump tells supporters at a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado to, "forget the press, read the internet, study other things, don't go for the mainstream media."

He said that, when it comes to the internet, "you do get some dishonesty, too, but at least you can separate. At least you have a choice."

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4:06 p.m.

Donald Trump is encouraging his supporters to ignore the mainstream news media in the final stretch of the presidential race because he believes they're trying to take him down.

Trump tells supporters at a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado to, "forget the press, read the internet, study other things, don't go for the mainstream media."

He said that, when it comes to the internet, "you do get some dishonesty, too, but at least you can separate. At least you have a choice."

Trump has been escalating his anti-press message in recent weeks, accusing news outlets of conspiring with rival Hillary Clinton's campaign to defeat him.

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3:26 p.m.

Donald Trump says he wants a constitutional amendment to impose term limits of members of Congress.

The Republican presidential nominee told supporters at a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Tuesday that the limits should be part of a bigger plan to "drain the swamp" of Washington corruption.

He says Democratic rival Hillary Clinton is part of the problem.

Currently, House members can serve an unlimited number of two-year terms, while senators can serve an unlimited number of six-year terms.

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3:23 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's campaign says Donald Trump is warning of a rigged election to distract from bad press about his treatment of women and discourage Democratic voters.

Clinton aide Jen Palmieri says Trump is "losing and he wants to blame somebody else — and that's what losers do."

The Clinton campaign says they expect voting to run smoothly. Palmieri says Trump is trying to "turn off" Clinton backers. "They're not gonna be deterred," she says.

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3:08 p.m.

Tim Kaine says he's proud Hillary Clinton hasn't "backed away" from the promises she made during the Democratic primary.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee made the comments Tuesday while highlighted Clinton's progressive economic agenda during a speech at a Detroit job training center.

The Virginia senatgor said he's "proud that Hillary hasn't backed away from the bold, principled commitments that she made when she won a very fairly, and vigorously contested Democratic primary."

Battling Sen. Bernie Sanders in a heated Democratic primary, Clinton tacked left on trade and other economic issues. But in private speeches to Wall Street firms she expressed a philosophy that clashes in some ways with the progressive vision she has articulated while campaigning. The private speeches were disclosed by Wikileaks.

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2:58 p.m.

Billionaire Mark Cuban and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman will attend Wednesday's last presidential debate as guests of Hillary Clinton.

Both have been outspoken backers of the Democratic presidential candidate. Cuban is famous for his role on a television game show and has questioned Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's business acumen. Whitman is one of Clinton's highest-profile Republican backers.

Trump's campaign has invited as a guest Pat Smith, whose son, Sean, was one of four Americans killed during the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, when Clinton was President Barack Obama's secretary of state.

Smith gave an emotional speech the Republican National Convention blaming Clinton for her son's death. Republicans have tried to make Benghazi a central issue in the campaign.

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2:50 p.m.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence is struggling to defend his running mate's assertions that the Nov. 8 election will be "rigged."

Pence once again said that Donald Trump was talking about biased media. The Indiana governor was speaking to reporters Tuesday in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

But reporters noted that Trump has made frequent, though unsubstantiated, claims that there will be widespread voter fraud. Pence responded that there have been documented instances of voter fraud in the past. He suggested that Trump is only encouraging his supporters to "respectfully participate" at the polls "to ensure the integrity of the election."

Pence did not directly answer when asked whether the Trump campaign wants more than the longstanding tradition of having poll watchers from the Democratic and Republican parties at every precinct.

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2:30 p.m.

People magazine is reporting that six people have come forward to corroborate its former writer's account of being sexually assaulted by Donald Trump.

Trump has denied the accusations by the writer, Natasha Stoynoff.

Stoynoff wrote last week that Trump grabbed her and kissed her in 2005 while she was working on a story about the celebrity businessman and his wife for the magazine.

The magazine posted a story Tuesday quoting six of Stoynoff's friends who say the writer told them about the alleged attack soon after it happened.

One of them, Liza Herz, said she was with Stoynoff when she ran into Melania Trump in the weeks after the attack.

Mrs. Trump has denied that she encountered Stoynoff and has demanded a retraction from the magazine.

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2:15 p.m.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence is condemning the firebombing of a local Republican office in North Carolina as "an act of political terrorism" and "an attack on the American political system."

The Indiana governor on Tuesday toured the charred interior of the Orange County GOP office on his way to two rallies elsewhere in the state.

He praised Republican volunteers Hillsborough, North Carolina, for their "courage and resilience."

Pence noted political figures across the spectrum have condemned the act committed over the weekend. But he complained that national media have paid little attention. He speculated that a similar attack on a Democratic office would get much wider coverage.

No one was hurt, and police are still investigating.

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1:48 p.m.

Bill Clinton is headed for North Florida to campaign for his wife in an area that is whiter and more conservative than other parts of the state.

Hillary Clinton's campaign says the former president will start in Orlando on Friday and continue in Jacksonville and the Florida panhandle on Saturday.

It's Bill Clinton's second Florida swing this month. He's also had recent bus tours in Iowa and Ohio.

The former president has a complicated legacy in South Florida's Cuban community because of his handling of the Elian Gonzalez case in 2000. The Clinton administration sided with the young boy's Cuban father in a custody dispute with other relatives in South Florida and returned the boy to the communist island.

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1:40 p.m.

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is visiting a local North Carolina Republican Party office that was damaged by a firebomb.

The Indiana governor is meeting Tuesday with local Orange County Republicans ahead of two rallies elsewhere in North Carolina.

North Carolina has emerged as key battleground and is a must-win state for Republican Donald Trump.

No one was injured in the bombing last weekend. Police are still investigating. Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have condemned the attack.

Orange County is a heavily Democratic county at the edge of the Raleigh-Durham metro area. President Barack Obama won 70 percent of the vote there in 2012, though he lost the statewide vote.

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