The Note: Ryan vs. Clinton
— -- NOTABLES
--PAUL RYAN TO REBUKE HILLARY CLINTON'S VISION: House Speaker Paul Ryan is expected to condemn Hillary Clinton's governing vision and the “failure of liberal progressivism” in an address today to Republican college students in Wisconsin. It will be his first political event since last Friday's reporting on a damning 2005 video in which Donald Trump boasted of groping women without their consent, ABC’s BEN SIEGEL notes. “Liberal progressivism is not government for the people. It is government for the elites," Ryan is expected to say later today, according to his office. "You see, when Hillary Clinton says we are ‘stronger together,’ what she means is we are stronger if we are all subject to the state. What she means is we are stronger if we give up our ties of responsibility to one another and hand all of that over to government." http://abcn.ws/2dbAAic
--OBAMA SAYS TRUMP CAME FROM YEARS OF A GOP 'SWAMP OF CRAZY': President Obama blamed the rise of Trump on Republicans inciting their voting base for a very long time, in pointed remarks at an Ohio Democratic Party fundraiser las night. "The problem is not that all Republicans think the way this guy does," the president said, noting that many Republicans have confessed to him behind closed doors to him that they're "just trying to get through this." But, Obama said, he believes the current state of the GOP base is a result of the messages the party has been sending, ABC’s JORDYN PHELPS reports. http://abcn.ws/2ec8W0X
--CLINTON ACCUSES TRUMP OF 'STALKING' HER DURING DEBATE: During Sunday's presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Donald Trump appeared to loom over Hillary Clinton while she addressed the moderators and audience. And like the millions of people who watched the political slugfest, Clinton took notice, ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ writes. In fact, during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, airing today, Clinton didn't mince words about her GOP rival's behavior, saying he "stalked" her on stage while she addressed the moderators and audience. "Because of the revelation of the public video, and everything that came out on 'Access Hollywood,' you know, he was really all wrought up, and you could just sense how much anger he had,” Clinton told DeGeneres, referring to the recently-leaked video of Trump making lewd comments about women with show's former host, Billy Bush. "And so, he was really trying to dominate and then literally stalk me around the stage.” http://abcn.ws/2dOtnUK
ABOUT LAST NIGHT -- NORTH CAROLINA SENATOR RICHARD BURR STANDS BY DONALD TRUMP. While the number of Republicans withdrawing their support of Donald Trump continues to increase – amid his lewd comments about women and allegations of sexual assault -- Sen. Richard Burr stuck by the GOP presidential candidate during a debate in Durham, North Carolina, for the hotly contested Senate seat in a presidential battleground state. ABC’s ALI ROGIN notes, Burr doesn't believe Trump actually committed the acts he described in the 2005 video leaked last Friday, he said. “I think, if in fact he did it, that would be sexual assault," Burr said Thursday night of allegations against the real estate developer-turned-politician. "I take him at his word: He said he didn't do it." http://abcn.ws/2ecgIrh
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Who needs a top of the ticket anyway? Thursday night’s North Carolina Senate debate, moderate by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, showed in stark terms how little major-party candidates want to link themselves with the presidential contenders in key races. This race, pitting incumbent Sen. Richard Burr against former state Rep. Deborah Ross, actually is between candidates who have endorsed the presidential nominees, in a key battleground state that both tickets visit regularly. Both the Republican and the Democrat broke with their favored presidential candidates, and both found ways to criticize them. Those breaks are real, yet Burr and Ross are likely to come in for harsh criticism for the supportive things they said. Ross declared that Clinton “is prepared to be commander-in-chief on Day One.” Burr said the choice between Trump and Clinton is “not close to me,” and said he would “take him at his word” when Trump said he did not commit the kind of sexual assaults he was caught on tape bragging about. Less than a month out, it’s still not clear if the best down-ballot messaging is around partnerships or potential checks on the White House.
WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT -- MICHELLE OBAMA SLAMS TRUMP’S TREATMENT OF WOMEN. Stumping for Hillary Clinton yesterday, first lady Michelle Obama said the revelations over the last week about Trump’s treatment of women have “shaken me to my core” and called on voters not to dismiss the incident as “just another day’s headline.” “Last week we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. I can’t believe I’m saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women. I have to tell you that I — I can’t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted,” Obama said at a Clinton campaign event at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester. Growing emotional at times, the first lady urged Americans not to ignore Trump’s comments from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” interview, ABC’s JORDYN PHELPS notes. http://abcn.ws/2ebGRI2
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
A LOOK AT TRUMP'S SCORCHED EARTH CAMPAIGN IN THE HOME STRETCH OF THE ELECTION. There is a little less than a month left of the tumultuous 2016 presidential race, and Donald Trump, facing a scandal about allegedly inappropriately touching women, a deficit in the polls and abandonment from party officials, has gone on the offensive, talking in apocalyptic terms about the survival of the country should Hillary Clinton be elected. His scorched-earth campaign has included not only going after his Democratic opponent as a criminal who should be locked up for her email scandal, but her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as an abuser of women and much of the Republican leadership as weak-kneed hacks who wither at the first sense of trouble. He has also launched an all-out war against the "rigged" media, which he says is just an extension of the Clinton political machine, threatening to sue the New York Times for printing a story about claims from two women that Trump touched them inappropriately. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY and TOM LIDDY have more. http://abcn.ws/2e93OQd
NEW YORK TIMES RESPONDS TO TRUMP'S THREAT OF LAWSUIT. The New York Times has responded to a warning from Donald Trump's lawyers demanding the news organization take down an article in which two women claim to have been inappropriately touched by the real estate mogul. Trump has denied that the alleged incidents ever took place and accused the paper of libel, threatening to pursue legal action against the paper if the story is not retracted. The Times is refusing to take any such action, detailing in a letter from Times VP and Assistant General Counsel David McCraw to Trump's legal team why it believes that the story should not be considered libelous. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY has more. http://abcn.ws/2e14sO6
IVANKA TRUMP IGNORES SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIMS AGAINST HER FATHER ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL. At two consecutive campaign stops in Pennsylvania today, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, kept the focus on her view of her father as a “mentor,” declining to address the sexual assault allegations made against him in the past 24 hours. In front of a crowd of local Republicans, the majority of whom were female, at Thursday's second event, “Coffee with Ivanka," in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, Ivanka Trump stuck to comments detailing the campaign’s child care plan and discussed how she admired her father and sought to emulate him as a parent, ABC’s MARYALICE PARKS and ADAM KELSEY note. http://abcn.ws/2ewogcQ
TIM KAINE ON 'THE VIEW': TRUMP ACCUSERS SHOCKING, BUT NOT SURPRISING. In an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine discussed the accusations by a growing number of women alleging that Trump inappropriately touched or kissed them, calling the accusations “shocking,” but not surprising. ABC’s JESSICA HOPPER notes. "I guess I was shocked but not surprised. I mean the tape kind of made me sick to my stomach, but if you've been following things that he's been saying during his career and during the campaign, it wasn't completely surprising. I was surprised on stage Sunday night when he said, 'I just said that, I never did it.' Because I felt like, okay, well how many days is it going to be until folks are coming out and saying, that's exactly the way he treated me, and now we're seeing that happen," Kaine told "The View." http://abcn.ws/2ebs6Un
TRUMP CALLS 'VICIOUS' SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS 'OUTRIGHT LIES.' Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump emphatically denied allegations yesterday that he sexually assaulted women, attacking the news organizations that published the reports and assailing Hillary Clinton’s campaign for what he said was its role in perpetuating the claims. “These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false,” Trump said at a campaign event in West Palm Beach, Florida, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH, VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and ADAM KELSEY report. “And the Clintons know it. And they know it very well,” he continued. “These claims are all fabricated. They’re pure fiction. And they’re outright lies. These events never, ever happened. And the people that said them fully understand.” http://abcn.ws/2eb2tmz
WHO’S TWEETING?
@VeronicaStrac: Pence on Fox & Friends: "Paul Ryan is my friend, but honestly, I would like to see Republican leaders supporting the Republican nominee"
@InesdLC: Pence: "Stay tuned. There is more information that is going to be coming out that will back his claim that this is all categorically false"
@kevcirilli: SCOOP --> -- The latest: RNC's fundraising haul, shift to downballot races: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-14/rnc-transfers-6-35-million-to-down-ballot-races … via me
@amyewalter: Pence and Rs complain not enough attention on Clinton and revelations on WikiLeaks, but Trump makes that impossible w/ his own actions
@ProfHagle: At this point Trump's actions may not matter anymore. Even if he stayed on message accusations against him a better story.
