WASHINGTON — The Latest on Campaign 2016 (all times Eastern):
7:21 p.m.
If elected president, Trump says he will give his top generals a “simple” instruction: Within 30 days, come up with a plan for “soundly and quickly defeating” the Islamic State group.
Trump made the comments at a Tuesday night rally in Greenville, North Carolina.
The Republican presidential nominee has been aggressively courting veterans this week. The group marks a traditionally loyal Republican constituency, although some have expressed concerns about Trump’s readiness to serve as commander-in-chief.
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6:57 p.m.
Donald Trump is charging that new documents released by the FBI prove that Hillary Clinton “fails to meet the minimum standard for running for public office.”
The Republican presidential nominee is unveiling the line of attack in prepared remarks for a speech set for Greenville, N.C.
Trump says “Clinton lied about her handling of confidential information.” Her conduct, he says, “is disqualifying.”
Late last week, FBI published scores of pages summarizing interviews with Clinton and her top aides from the recently closed criminal investigation into her use of a private email server in the basement of her New York home. She told the FBI she relied on her staff not to send emails containing classified information. Clinton has said her statements on the matter were truthful.
Trump charges that, after the server was revealed, Clinton’s “staff deleted all the emails and wiped it clean using a software designed to prevent any recovery.”
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3:46 p.m.
Tim Kaine says Donald Trump is disrespectful of the American military and has no credible plans to defeat the Islamic State group.
Delivering a national security speech in North Carolina, Kaine running mate is hitting Trump as clueless and talking up Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy credentials.
To make his point, Kaine is pointing to news interviews in which Trump has appeared to be confused about the nation’s nuclear triad and said that he knows more than some American military generals.
Kaine also claims that the Islamic State is rooting for a Trump victory in November.
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3:35 p.m.
Neither New Yorker vying for the presidency is expected to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks with a visit to the site where two hijacked airliners took down the World Trade Center towers and killed thousands of people.
A spokesman for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not slated to attend the annual commemoration at the former World Trade Center site on Sunday.
There is precedent for presidential candidates to visit the former Ground Zero on the anniversary of the terror attacks. In 2008, Barack Obama and John McCain made a joint appearance at the site in New York.
Neither Clinton nor Trump has unveiled their schedules for Sunday.
But both have pledged to refrain from campaigning or advertising that day.
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3:25 p.m.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is venturing onto Georgia airwaves, but if metro Atlanta residents blink they might miss it.
According to a contract with WSB-TV, Clinton has purchased $5,000 for 30-second spots during four Wednesday time slots: the early morning local news, Good Morning America and the local news shows broadcast at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Georgia is a GOP-leaning state but polls suggest Republican nominee Donald Trump’s struggles among college-educated whites, particularly in the Atlanta suburbs, could make the state competitive for Clinton.
Still, the small ad buy suggests Clinton, for now, is more interested in coaxing Trump or independent groups that back him into spending money in Georgia.
Separately, the Clinton campaign has confirmed it will invest money to pay for more field staff to work out of Democratic Party offices already open in Georgia.
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3:25 p.m.
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine is talking up his own national security credentials as he begins a speech on the topic in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Kaine, a senator from Virginia and former governor, is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee. And his son is a member of the U.S. Marine Corps based at Camp Lejeune. All of this, he says, makes national security issues real and personal to him.
He says Hillary Clinton, like any president, needs a “solid partner” in the White House. He’s arguing that Clinton is a president who would have a “steady demeanour, solid judgment and really thick skin.”
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3:00 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says her Republican rival is insulting veterans with his campaign rhetoric.
The Democratic presidential nominee questioned Donald Trump’s readiness and foreign policy expertise for the White House as she campaigned in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday. She said his presidential bid has been “one long insult to all those who have worn the uniform.”
Clinton said that “a man who is so wrong about our veterans isn’t right to serve as commander in chief.”
Clinton attacked Trump for seemingly contradictory plans to combat ISIS, saying he’s both promised to send American ground troops into Syria and let Syria become a free zone for the militants.
Both candidates will address national security issues at a forum in New York City scheduled for Wednesday night.
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2:30 p.m.
Donald Trump says his Democratic opponent would treat immigrants in the country illegally better than veterans.
The Republican presidential nominee attacked Hillary Clinton as he courted veterans Tuesday in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He referenced Clinton and President Barack Obama’s policies, saying, “You have illegal immigrants that she wants and he wants treated better than veterans.”
Trump promised he would fix bureaucratic problems in the Veterans Administration. In the meantime, he said veterans waiting for care could go to private doctors or hospitals and the government would pick up the bill.
Trump and Clinton are aggressively courting veterans this week ahead of a national security forum scheduled for Wednesday evening.
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1:57 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says that the military officials who have backed her candidacy for president believe she will “protect our country and our troops.”
Clinton was asked about a letter signed by 88 retired military officials in support of Donald Trump during a briefing with reporters on her campaign plane Tuesday. She responded, “I think we’re up to 89, but who’s counting?”
Said she was proud to have endorsements of military, intelligence and defence officials like retired Gen. John Allen, Mike Morell and Mike Vickers.
She said that they “know they can count on me to be the kind of commander in chief who will protect our country and our troops.”
She added that those same individuals view Trump as “a danger and a risk.”
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1:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is blasting Donald Trump for saying that he would have left a G-20 summit in China after a logistical flap over the staircase that President Barack Obama used to depart Air Force One.
Clinton told reporters aboard her campaign plane en route to Florida that Trump’s views offer “yet another strong piece of evidence as to why he should never be anywhere near the White House.”
Clinton said sometimes these types of logistical dust-ups are “annoying” but they’re not the reason a president attends these types of meetings. She said Obama made “exactly the right decision to get off the plane and go to those meetings.”
Obama got off his presidential plane from a secondary exit after arriving in China. It was viewed as a snub by Chinese officials. Trump said it was a sign of disrespect and he would have left immediately if he had been president.
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1:10 p.m.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence will return to his old stomping grounds and speak to House Republicans next week.
Pence represented Indiana in the House for 12 years. He left Congress in January 2013 before becoming governor.
Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders invited Pence to address Republican lawmakers. Ryan spokesman Zack Roday says Pence agreed to speak to them next Tuesday.
Pence will appear less than two months before Election Day.
Two months ago, Donald Trump, now the GOP presidential candidate, addressed House and Senate Republicans in separate closed-door meetings. Trump lambasted some GOP critics at those meetings.
Ryan has had a cool relationship with Trump. Ryan called Pence “a great friend and a true conservative” and said Pence has “added tremendous value” to Trump’s campaign.
The Associated Press
