WASHINGTON — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern):
10 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she won’t be going to Mexico before Election Day.
ABC News’ David Muir asked Clinton Monday if she would accept Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s invitation to visit, as Republican rival Donald Trump did last week.
Clinton responded, “No.”
The Democrat says she’s “going to continue to focus on what we’re doing to create jobs here at home.”
At a rally earlier Monday in Cleveland, Clinton called Trump’s meeting with Pena Nieto “an embarrassing international incident.”
___
8:30 p.m.
Donald Trump is praising Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who died Monday at 92, as “a patriot, a champion for women and a symbol of strength.”
Trump says Schlafly was “a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement and fearlessly battled globalism and the ‘kingmakers’ on behalf of America’s workers and families.”
Schlafly helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the right-wing Eagle Forum.
Trump says in a statement released Monday night, “She fought every day right to the end for America First.”
Schlafly endorsed Trump at a rally in St. Louis in March, and she co-authored a book called “The Conservative Case for Trump” that is being released Tuesday. Trump says he was “honoured to spend time with her.”
___
5:50 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says the U.S. has shown “great restraint” to a series of cyberattacks by state and non-state actors.
But Clinton told reporters travelling with her on her new campaign plane that “we are going to have to take those threats and attacks seriously.”
The Democratic nominee said that a Russian attack on the U.S. election system is “almost unthinkable.”
She said that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears “quite satisfied with himself” and the U.S. needs to “make clear that we’re not going to let anyone interfere with the decisions of the American people.”
Clinton’s comments follow reports that the Russian government may have been involved in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails just days before the party’s national convention. The emails, later revealed by WikiLeaks, showed that DNC officials had their finger on the scale favouring Clinton over her opponent Bernie Sanders.
___
5:43 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she is concerned about “credible reports about Russian government interference in our elections.”
“We are facing a very serious concern,” Clinton told reporters travelling with her to Illinois Monday, adding that the U.S. has never had a foreign power get involved in electoral system like the recent hacking of Democratic National Committee emails.
She added that there has also never been a candidate who urges a country to hack more, alluding to comments made by her opponent Donald Trump who said in a July news conference: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
He later said he was being sarcastic.
The Democratic nominee told reporters Monday that recent accusations that Russia is behind the DNC’s hacked emails “raises some grave questions about potential Russian interference with our electoral process.”
___
4:35 p.m.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is urging voters to remember that this election has never been about the people running for office, but about the voters.
Campaigning on behalf of his former rival, Hillary Clinton, on Labor Day, Sanders told a crowd of supporters that the election is “about you and your needs and the needs of the American people.”
For that reason, he said, Clinton is the best choice.
Despite a handful of protesters with the die hard “Bernie or Bust” movement and supporters of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Sanders’ speech largely stuck to the major points of intersection between himself and the Democratic nominee.
He pointed how that both he and Clinton will fight for increased funding for sustainable and renewable energy, a higher minimum wage, a Supreme Court nominee who supports overturning Citizen’s United, and increased infrastructure spending in order to create more jobs.
___
4:00 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is calling Donald Trump’s trip to Mexico last week an “embarrassing international incident.”
She said on Monday that Trump’s immigration speech in Arizona last week was one of his most “hate-filled, hard-line speech yet.” She suggested that he’s already set his position in stone when it comes to deporting everyone living in the country illegally, even as he continues to shift his language.
Clinton said Trump would “double down” on his “absurd plan” to use a deportation force to round up people living here illegally.
Trump told reporters Monday that immigrants living here illegally may not need to return to their countries of origin to obtain legal status.
His position on what to do with people living in the United States illegally continues to be unclear.
___
3:30 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are letting Ohio voters know they’re important while campaigning in Cleveland on Labor Day.
Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, asked at crowd at a Labor Day festival Monday if they felt “battle-tested and ready for the home stretch.” Labor Day typically marks the final and most intense period of presidential campaigning.
Ohio is a critical swing state. No Republican has won the White House without capturing the state in modern campaigns.
He says Ohio voters know how to work the grassroots to win on Election Day. Clinton, meanwhile, said Ohioans know firsthand the importance of selecting a president, noting President Barack Obama’s bailout of the auto industry that saved jobs in the state.
“I’m not taking anything for granted, that’s why we’re here today.”
___
3:20 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is having a rough start to her Labor Day rally, battling a stubborn cough.
The Democratic nominee took the stage in Cleveland coughing uncontrollably, before turning it into a joke about her opponent, Donald Trump: “Every time I think about Trump I get allergic.”
Several people in the crowd began shouting “get her some water.”
She battled through the cough and delivered her speech with some difficulty. Both Clinton and Trump are in Ohio courting voters in this critical swing state.
___
3:00 p.m.
Former President Bill Clinton says the Clinton Foundation is doing good work around the world and says his wife’s political opponents are trying to distract voters from the issues by raising questions about the organization.
Clinton spoke Monday to the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic at the Coney Island amusement park near Cincinnati.
Based on the records released so far, the AP found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Hillary Clinton during her tenure as a Cabinet secretary had given money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. The AP’s analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.
Bill Clinton gave examples of Clinton Foundation partner projects, including with Cincinnati-based consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co. He says P&G’s clean water initiative has provided billions of water-purifying packets to help give safe drinking water in poor countries.
He asked: “Is there something wrong with that?”
___
1:25 p.m.
Donald Trump’s immigration speech in Arizona last week may have gotten mixed reviews, but Trump says it was the “enthusiasm of the crowd” that inspired him.
Speaking to reporters on his private plane in Ohio Monday, Trump said of his tough talk on immigration, “Some people loved it; A lot of people loved it.”
The Republican nominee has come under heavy criticism for flip-flopping on the issue of immigration. Some Hispanic leaders who have been advising his campaign also said they feel betrayed after his long-awaited immigration speech that definitively ruled out a pathway to legal status for people living in the country illegally.
Trump said Monday, “We had a very big crowd. It was unbelievably enthusiastic.”
The speech was delivered on the heels of his visit to Mexico, where he held a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The two said they discussed a number of issues on that visit, but not Trump’s controversial proposal to have Mexico pay for a border wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
___
1:20 p.m.
Donald Trump says he plans to take part in all three presidential debates against rival Hillary Clinton.
The Republican nominee was rumoured to be considering skipping at least one of the debates. But he told journalists aboard his private plan in Ohio on Monday that only something along the lines of a hurricane or natural disaster would keep him from participating.
“I look forward to the debates,” Trump told reporters, saying he regards them as “an important element of what we’re doing.”
As for preparation, Trump says he does not believe in doing mock debates, as is tradition for many candidates, saying, “I’ve seen people do so much prep work that when they get out there they can’t speak.”
The first debate between the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees is scheduled to take place on Monday Sept. 26.
___
1:20 p.m.
Donald Trump has allowed a handful of journalists on his private airplane on the same day that his rival Hillary Clinton invited journalist to join her on her new campaign plane for the first time.
Trump spoke with journalists Monday in Ohio before leaving his morning stop in Cleveland for Youngstown.
The Cleveland Airport offered a glimpse of how critical the fight for Ohio has become in the lead-up to the general election, as airplanes for both party nominees and their running mates were parked on the tarmac Monday morning.
Trump told reporters that he is open to inviting them on his plane more often. The billionaire businessman has repeatedly criticized Clinton for not holding a news conference since last year.
___
1:00 p.m.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager says there is a “very organized” effort underway to target Democrats in Ohio and beyond.
Kellyanne Conway said Monday that “voters who traditionally have not voted Republican or haven’t even voted in a very long time seem to be coming out to support” Trump and his message.
Trump was in Cleveland on Labor Day with Democratic Mayor Tom Coyne, of Brook Park, Ohio, who said he supported Trump in this spring’s Republican primary and would vote for him this fall.
Conway said Coyne’s support for Trump is “just one example of what’s happening across this country.”
___
12:25 p.m.
Former President Bill Clinton is warning organized labour that Donald Trump’s economic policies would cause millions of Americans to lose their jobs.
Clinton campaigned Monday for his wife, Hillary Clinton, at a United Auto Workers picnic in Detroit after walking in a Labor Day parade.
He said that when the country last adopted Republican policies that cut taxes on the rich and raised the debt, “it didn’t work out too well for us.”
Bill Clinton says his wife’s economic plan would create 10.5 million jobs while Trump’s would cut 3.5 million jobs. He is urging union members to support Hillary Clinton “because she has the best ideas.”
He questions Trump’s leadership and says his visit last week to Mexico “damaged America in every serious country in the world.” He says Trump played nice only to return home “to dump on them” for his own political benefit.
___
12:05 p.m.
Donald Trump says he would have refused to meet with Chinese officials if they treated him like they treated President Barack Obama over the weekend.
The Republican presidential highlighted the issue as he met with labour leaders Monday in suburban Cleveland.
Trump noted that Obama couldn’t use his traditional staircase to exit Air Force One when he arrived in China over the weekend. The president used an alternative exit instead, something Trump described as “a metal staircase in the back of the plane.”
Trump called it “a sign of such disrespect.”
“If that were me,” Trump said, “I’d say, ‘You know what folks, I respect you a lot, let’s close the doors, let’s get out of here.’”
Obama has downplayed the issue.
___
11:55 a.m.
Donald Trump says America’s manufacturing jobs are “going to hell.”
The Republican presidential nominee blamed the Obama administration for allowing companies to move jobs to Mexico. He also lashed out at the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership as “a catastrophe.”
The New York billionaire made the comments during a Monday round table discussion with labour leaders in suburban Cleveland.
He’s spending Labor Day campaigning alongside running mate Mike Pence in battleground Ohio.
The pair met with about a dozen current and retired union members, including teamsters, steelworkers, plumbers, police patrolmen and firefighters.
Trump noted that he’s often best known for immigration, but he’s also focused on jobs and the economy.
“We’re going to stop companies from leaving,” Trump vowed. He said it’s going to be “so easy.”
___
9:55 a.m.
Vice-President Joe Biden says there’s still work to be done to revive the American economy.
Campaigning in Pittsburgh Monday alongside vice-presidential hopeful Tim Kaine, Biden told a crowd of union workers that the policies of President George W. Bush deeply hurt the economy and crippled job growth.
He said the Obama administration “got the truck outta the ditch,” but that it’s still not going as fast as it could be.
___
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President Joe Biden is praising Tim Kaine, his possible successor, as a man who is highly qualified for the job and capable of handling any challenge that Hillary Clinton may throw his way.
Biden joined Kaine in Pittsburgh for a Labor Day event Monday, where they addressed several hundred union workers.
He said, “Hillary is really going to need him…because the plate is so full.”
Biden said Kaine has more experience that any vice-presidential nominee in the past, something Democrats frequently say about Clinton in her quest for the presidency. He said he expects Clinton and Kaine to build a partnership similar to the one he’s built with President Barack Obama, if they are elected.
Biden also described Kaine as a strong friend of organized labour, saying “no one has to tell Tim who built this country.”
___
9:20 a.m.
Tim Kaine is making Labor Day personal as he campaigns alongside Vice-President Joe Biden, the man he hopes to replace in the White House.
Speaking to a crowd of several hundred in Pittsburgh Monday, Kaine shared the story of his father’s iron-welding business in Kansas City. He told supporters his father built a “partnership” with his employees, teaching Kaine and his brothers the value of shared prosperity.
He said Democrats believe in management and unions working together, not against each other.
Hillary Clinton’s father also ran a small business. Kaine said that as the children of business owners, both he and Clinton have a unique perspective toward the value of labour.
He said, “We haven’t been sitting in an ivory tower.”
Biden is also expected to speak at the Pittsburgh rally.
___
8:00 a.m.
Hillary Clinton is travelling aboard a new Boeing 737 campaign plane for the first time this Labor Day.
Clinton was flying to events in Ohio and Illinois on Monday in a light blue-and-white campaign plane with her press corps.
The plane has Clinton’s slogan “Stronger Together” on the side and her “H” logo on the tail.
Clinton has travelled mostly by private jet during the campaign and has not held a formal news conference with journalists since December 2015 in Iowa.
___
3:30 a.m.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are making competing Labor Day pitches in Ohio, setting the stage for a critical month in their testy presidential campaign.
The Republican real estate mogul is joining running mate Mike Pence at a morning round-table discussion with union members in Cleveland. The Democratic nominee plans to arrive in the city for a Labor Day festival with union leaders and workers.
Trump is also expected to campaign at a fair in Youngstown, Ohio, in a nod to the state’s role as a make-or-break proving ground for Republican presidential candidates.
Labour Day has traditionally been the kickoff to the fall campaign. Both Clinton and Trump have been locked in an intense back-and-forth throughout the summer.
The Associated Press
