**Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**
Buzz Cut:
• Digital dragnet closing in on Hillary emails
• Hillary, Trump up in primaries, but swing state voters not impressed
• GOP campaigns prepare for convention chaos
• PACs surge for Ayotte
• Thank God she didn’t say it was kale
DIGITAL DRAGNET CLOSING IN ON HILLARY EMAILS
Fox News: “The FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email has now expanded to include obtaining data from a second tech company, which is fully cooperating with the FBI probe that has threatened Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Fox News has learned. A source familiar with the investigation told Fox that the FBI contacted Connecticut-based Datto, Inc. in September and asked them to preserve all data they had which may be connected to Clinton. Datto was hired to help back up data in May 2013 by Platte River Networks, the Colorado-based tech company that managed Clinton’s server and has already been cooperating with the FBI investigation.”
What’s so shady, lady? - McClatchy: [Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.] offered the first public confirmation that Clinton or her representatives had arranged for a backup of her email server after she left office in early 2013. His letter also cited internal emails recounting requests in late 2014 and early 2015 from Clinton representatives for Colorado-based Platte River Networks, the firm managing Clinton’s primary server, to direct Datto to reduce the amount of her emails it was backing up. These communications led a Platte River employee to air suspicions that ‘this whole thing really is covering up some shaddy (sic) shit,’ according to an excerpt of an email cited by Johnson.”
Power Play: Hillary’s bid to beat the rap - Hillary Clinton is using an attack ad to paint Republicans investigating her scandals as politically-motivated bad guys. What’s behind her strategy and will it work? Chris Stirewalt has the lowdown, in just 60 seconds. WATCH HERE.
Pro-Biden PAC launches ads ahead of Dem debate - Fox News: “The super PAC urging Vice President Joe Biden to run for president is launching its first television ad. Draft Biden says it's spending upward of $100,000 to air the 90-second ad on national cable networks. The ad uses audio from a speech Biden gave in May at Yale University. Biden recalls the car crash that killed his wife and daughter just after he was first elected senator in 1972. Biden says he found redemption by focusing on his sons…The ad ends with white lettering that reads: ‘Joe, run.’”
Hillary hedging on trade deal - WSJ: “Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership as secretary of state but now finds it abhorrent to some inside her party and rejected by her closest challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. She is undecided now. Campaigning Tuesday in Davenport, Iowa, Mrs. Clinton said she would be ‘diving into that [Tuesday night]’ and discussing the agreement with advisers.”
HILLARY, TRUMP UP IN PRIMARIES, BUT SWING STATE VOTERS NOT IMPRESSED
First, the good news for the GOP and Democratic frontrunners: A new Quinnipiac University swing state poll finds Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton expanding or maintaining their leads among primary voters.
Now the bad news: Both Trump and Clinton are slipping with general election voters in the key states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
In every state polled, Trump maintains at least a 5 point lead over his next closest competitor Ben Carson. Trump blows away former home-state favorites Gov. John Kasich in Ohio and former Gov. Jeb Bush in Florida. Bush now runs fourth in Florida and Kasich has slipped to third place in Ohio.
Similarly, Clinton has expanded her leads over closest competitor, Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and potential candidate Vice President Joe Biden.
But assuming the two ended up the winners of their respective parties’ nominations, how would things go?
Both are broadly disliked among the general electorate, but Clinton (as well as Sanders and Biden) would have the edge on Trump in a head-to-head matchup. The top-tier GOP candidates that would fare best against Clinton appear to be Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
And while Trump fares worse than the rest of the GOP pack against Clinton, It’s Joe Biden who the GOP might really want to worry about. Biden crushes the GOP frontrunner Trump by more than 10 points in all three states. As with Clinton, Carson and Rubio do best of the GOPers tested in a Biden matchup.
And it’s no wonder. Voters in all three states have strongly unfavorable views on the two party frontrunners. Only Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie approach Clinton and Trump’s sky-high negative scores.
Oh, there’s one other category in which Clinton and Trump are alike: They are seen as the least honest and trustworthy candidates in the field, though she’s got the edge on her Republican rival. In Ohio, only one third of voters said they trusted Clinton, while Trump was closer to 40 percent.
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
It was on this day 14 years ago that then-President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan with a midday speech from the White House. His famous lines from those remarks – “We will not waiver. We will not falter. We will not tire. We will not fail.” – sound different these days. On Tuesday, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, painted a grim picture in testimony about the state of the Afghan military and the future of the country after the end of the U.S. military presence there. But for a brief time in an otherwise brutal and chaotic history, Afghanistan saw a hopeful mirage of a modern future before plunging back into the darkness. Look at this Atlantic collection of photos of Midcentury Afghanistan and you’ll better understand the scope of that national tragedy.
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 45.5 percent//Disapprove – 49.3 percent
Directions of Country: Right Direction – 27.2 percent//Wrong Track – 62.3 percent
GOP CAMPAIGNS PREPARE FOR CONVENTION CHAOS
David Drucker explains how the large nominating field could push the fight through the early states and into late-in-the-game primaries. Drucker writes, “Multiple party operatives said in interviews that it’s legitimately possible that two or more viable candidates could be competing for the nomination in March or April. In a close quarters fight, unbound delegate…and those newly uncommitted because the winner of a previous primary or caucus lacked support and dropped out, could prove pivotal to the outcome.”
[Cruz knows - Politico lays out Sen. Ted Cruz’s planned path to the nomination and explains why he’s courting voters in overlooked spots on the primary map.]
Trump: eminent domain ‘wonderful’ - GOP frontrunner Donald Trump sat down on “Special Report with Bret Baier” and made some controversial comments on the use of eminent domain, a right of government to take private property for public use with compensation. Trump said, “I think eminent domain is wonderful if you’re building a highway and you need to build as an example, a highway, and you’re going to be blocked by a hold-out…I think eminent domain for massive projects, for instance you’re going to create thousands of jobs and you have somebody that’s in the way. Eminent domain, they get a lot of money… I think eminent domain is fine.” Watch here.
Trump’s campaign book: ‘Crippled America’ - WaPo: “Central to the fall strategy is the release later this month of a book that will serve as a campaign manifesto. During the interview, Trump showed off the cover and title, ‘Crippled America,’ and held up pages of the galleys, which he was editing by hand.”
Jeb praises Trump: Moving toward the ‘right place’ - WashEx: “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush thinks Donald Trump has moved closer to the right direction as the presidential campaign has moved into October. Bush reportedly told Fox Sports 1’s Clay Travis that Trump was making much needed progress. He said he would vote for Trump if he became the GOP nominee. ‘I’m a conservative, I know Hillary isn’t,’ Bush said. ‘That’s one thing we know for sure. It’s not to say that she’s not capable of being president, but I think her world view is not the right one. And Trump’s views are evolving, at least, towards the right place.’”
Candy Carson talks about husband Ben’s run - On Tuesday’s “The Kelly File” Candy Carson appeared alongside her husband, Ben Carson, who’s been spending a lot of his time on the campaign trail. Mrs. Carson said, “After giving up my husband for 40 years to medicine, I really don’t want to give him up to our country. But then again, when I look at our grandchildren and you think of that deficit that we have…To saddle them with that kind of debt? We're the first generation in the history of this country to make it worse for the next one.” Watch here.
Christie launches new video ahead of New Hampshire swing - Gov. Chris Christie released a video ahead of his return to the Granite State today. The video is part of Christie’s effort to highlight the dysfunction in Washington.
PACS SURGE FOR AYOTTE
NH1: “A new pro-Republican third party group is spending big bucks to run TV commercials in New Hampshire defending GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s record on women’s healthcare. The organization, One Nation, Thursday will launch a 17-day $1.4 million broadcast, cable, digital and radio ad campaign in the Granite State, ad buying sources told NH1 News on Tuesday. The ad campaign, dominated by a 10-day $1.2 million broadcast and cable buy (including WBIN-TV) was later confirmed to NH1 News by One Nation.”
[According to a new poll from WMUR, Ayotte starts close race with a slight edge.]
Bolton PAC boosts Ayotte - Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is getting in the mix for Ayotte as well. His super PAC is chipping in more than $50,000 for targeted online ads backing the freshman Republican.
MCCARTHY TRIES TO COAX CRITICS
The three Republicans vying to replace John Boehner as House speaker made pitches to a coalition of the chamber’s most conservative members in a closed door meeting Tuesday night. Fox News: “Lawmakers who attended the forum said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the current favorite to become speaker, pledged changes to the House. ‘I think McCarthy’s pitch was “I’m not John Boehner, I’m going to run things differently, I’m my own man,”’ said Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas… Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Daniel Webster of Florida, also addressed the group. Chaffetz told Fox News he would support whoever emerged as the Republican nominee in Thursday’s secret ballot…The full House votes for a new speaker in open session on Oct. 29.”
[WaPo: “House Republicans are poised to create a special committee to investigate a wide range of practices related to abortions and fetal tissue procurement in the latest and perhaps most lasting consequence of an activist campaign targeting Planned Parenthood.]
THANK GOD SHE DIDN’T SAY IT WAS KALE
(Morris County, N.J.) Daily Record: “Not many people will say that eating bacon every day is the key to a long life, but the world’s oldest woman swears by it. Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116, keeps a steady diet of bacon, eggs and grits for breakfast. A sign in her kitchen reads: ‘Bacon makes everything better.’ … Jones credits her longevity to ‘lots of sleep,’ Guinness said. … Jones was born in a small farm town near Montgomery, Ala., on July 6, 1899. She was one of 11 siblings and attended a special school for young black girls. When she graduated from high school in 1922, Jones worked full time helping family members pick crops. She left after a year to begin working as a nanny, heading north to New Jersey and eventually making her way to New York.”
AND NOW A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“When he started out, [Donald Trump] wandered into a lot of Twilight Zone places – the deportation of the 12 million, the thing with John McCain. He didn’t do that [in his interview on ‘Special Report’]. He was a lot more disciplined.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
More from Politics
