The Note: Clinton Contemplates a Transition
— -- NOTABLES
--CLINTON'S WHITE HOUSE TRANSITION TEAM TAKING SHAPE: Clinton's White House transition team has officially launched. According to the campaign, former Interior secretary and Colorado senator, Ken Salazar, will chair the team, which has been dubbed the "Clinton-Kaine Transition Project." ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ reports that he will serve alongside co-chairs Tom Donilon, Jennifer Granholm, Neera Tanden and Maggie Williams. Top campaign policy advisers Ed Meier and Ann O'Leary will shift full-time to the team as executive directors, managing day-to-day operations. Heather Boushey, the Executive Director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will be the Chief Economist. (It was already announced that campaign chairman John Podesta is the transition team president.) Like Donald Trump, the team will use workspace provided by the current administration in Washington, DC.
--PENCE TO CAMPAIGN WITH RUBIO IN FLORIDA: Though he’s shied away from campaigning with Donald Trump, former presidential candidate Marco Rubio will be appearing with Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, an aide to the Indiana governor told ABC News. Scheduling is still being worked out, but the two plan to begin campaigning together in the battleground state of Florida in the next few weeks, said the aide. Pence and Rubio have also regularly chatted over the phone. Campaigning with Rubio would be the latest in a series of moves that Pence has made to mend fences within the party and rally Republicans behind their presidential nominee, according to ABC’s INES DE LA CUETARA. http://abcn.ws/2bATsav
--OBAMA ‘TIRED’ OF TALKING ABOUT DONALD TRUMP: President Obama took a brief break from his 16-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser on the island, where he made a strong case for Hillary Clinton as he seemed to brush off Donald Trump. “Frankly, I’m tired of talking about her opponent,” Obama said last night. “I don’t have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks, he makes the case against his own candidacy.” ABC’s ALEXANDER MALLIN has more. http://abcn.ws/2blqreu
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s ADAM KELSEY and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
TRUMP PROPOSES ‘EXTREME VETTING’ FOR IMMIGRANTS, WITH IDEOLOGICAL SCREENING TEST. To fight “radical Islamic terrorism” and to “make America safe again,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed administering a new, ideological test for immigrants who want to enter the United States. “We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio. “The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today.” ABC’s JOHN SANTUCCI and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI have more: http://abcn.ws/2aOGHb4
FACT-CHECKING DONALD TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH. ABC News fact-checked several of his claims that touched on his policy proposals, his position on the Iraq War and President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism track record. ABC’s JOHN KRUZEL, LUIS MARTINEZ and LAUREN PEARLE have more: http://abcn.ws/2aPblBl
BIDEN: TRUMP 'NOT QUALIFIED' TO KNOW NUCLEAR CODES. Vice President Joe Biden unleashed a litany of attacks on Donald Trump's foreign policy acumen, saying his ideas are a "recipe for playing into the hands of terrorists," notes ABC’s ARLETTE SAENZ. "No major party nominee in the history of the United States of America... has known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security than Donald Trump, and what absolutely amazes me, what absolutely amazes me, that he doesn't seem to want to learn it," Biden said in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as he campaigned with Hillary Clinton for the first time. http://abcn.ws/2buVWGl
GIULIANI CLAIMS THERE WERE NO 'SUCCESSFUL RADICAL ISLAMIC' TERROR ATTACKS IN US BEFORE OBAMA. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani blamed President Barack Obama for allowing acts of terrorism to occur under his watch, claiming that “successful” attacks did not happen until Obama took office. “Before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States,” Giuliani said at an event for Donald Trump in Ohio Monday. Giuliani was the mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, including 9/11, writes ABC’s ADAM KELSEY. http://abcn.ws/2bvkNKb
TRUMP KEEPS HINTING HE MAY LOSE THE ELECTION. Donald Trump has started hinting at the possibility that he may lose the presidential race in recent days. The man who has been talking about how he can "make America great again" has also begun acknowledging that he doesn't have a lock on the election. On Thursday, during an interview with CNBC, he recognized the closing gap toward Clinton in some swing states and how he plans to "just keep doing the same thing I'm doing right now,” ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY reports. http://abcn.ws/2bth78E
TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIR NAMED IN BLACK ACCOUNTS LINKED TO UKRAINIAN EX-PRESIDENT. Ukrainian anti-corruption officials have confirmed that Donald Trump's campaign chairman's name appears in a list of so-called black accounts made by the country's toppled president. Paul Manafort, who is playing an important role in this year's U.S. presidential election, has denied that he received any off-the-books payments from the Ukrainian government. Accounts of the controversial payments surfaced this weekend when The New York Times reported that Manafort's name appears on a list of payments amounting to $12.7 million from 2007 to 2012. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed the details in the Times story. In the period covered by the payment list, Manafort worked for former Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was supportive of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and was ousted in 2014. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY and PATRICK REEVELL have more. http://abcn.ws/2b6c2oL
RUSSIA'S RECURRING ROLE IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. The controversy surrounding one of Donald Trump's top campaign aides and his alleged ties to a pro-Russian Ukrainian party is just the latest development in an ongoing saga. Trump's seeming closeness — personally and in terms of policy making — with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been an issue throughout the campaign. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY has a rundown of Russia's role in the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as various statements Trump has made about Putin: http://abcn.ws/2buNjeY
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
TIM KAINE BREAKS OUT HARMONICA, SERENADES BREWERY. Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine attempted to woo North Carolinian voters last night by breaking out his harmonica and jamming with a band at an Asheville brewery. His wife, Anne Holton, got in on the fun, clogging as her husband played. This is the first time Kaine has publicly displayed his harmonica skills on the trail, ABC’s JESSICA HOPPER writes. He played backstage at the Democratic National Convention last month and on the campaign bus when he toured Ohio and Pennsylvania with running mate Hillary Clinton. http://abcn.ws/2bmwijt
WHO’S TWEETING?
@ABCLiz: So, @prioritiesUSA confirms: They've already stopped airing ads in VA; On 9/3 they'll stop airing ads in CO/PA. They'll resume ads on 9/20.
@EliStokols: Trump's new normal: When mendacity, recklessness no longer shock, it's harder for him to shock campaign back to life http://politi.co/2aWhI73
@AJentleson: Marco Rubio won't back away from calling Donald Trump a 'con man,' but he still supports him | Miami Herald http://hrld.us/2bvBHrP
@bpolitics: Trump’s taste for business hardball could have far-reaching foreign-policy consequences http://bloom.bg/2buVO6H
@jdickerson: Trump leads among whites without college degrees in VA by 24-point margin. Romney had a 44-point advantage in 2012.