By Jonathan EasleyWelcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.
Don’t look now, but the polls suddenly show a tighter presidential race than they have for weeks.
With less than two weeks to go before Election Day, new surveys show Democrat Hillary Clinton’s national polling edge narrowing and Republican Donald Trump performing more strongly in swing states like Florida and New Hampshire.
Trump still faces a steep uphill climb, and the Electoral College map is extremely challenging for him. But the movement in the poll numbers gives his campaign hope after perhaps the worst phase of his campaign.
Meanwhile, the unconventional GOP candidate spent Wednesday in an unconventional way, swinging through Washington, D.C. to cut the ribbon on the lavish new luxury hotel that bears his name.
It’s part of a pattern by Trump of mixing business and campaigning.
Trump was aware that the event might appear unseemly this close to the election and used his speech to weave in themes that have long been the hallmarks of his campaign.
He used the hotel launch to draw a parallel to his own presidential run, saying he would restore the nation in the same way he turned the Old Post Office building — formerly a decaying government building erected out of granite in 1899 — into a five-star hotel.
Clinton, meanwhile, made two appearances in Florida and hammered Trump over the opening, accusing him of using undocumented workers to build the hotel.
Check back at The Hill all night and into the morning as we cover all the breaking news around the frantic final 13 days before Election Days. |