Media Figures Laud Trump For Showing “Discipline” In Final Days Of The Campaign

NBC’s Savannah Guthrie: Race Has Tightened Because “Trump Has Probably Been The Most Disciplined Candidate Possible.” NBC Today anchor Savannah Guthrie told Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway that “the race really has tightened, and a lot of people are saying it’s because Donald Trump has probably been the most disciplined candidate possible in the last ten days.” [NBC, Today, 11/7/16]

CNN’s Jake Tapper: “Mr. Trump Has Been Very Disciplined.” CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Trump “has been very disciplined,” even when his surrogates, like former Gov. John Sununu, were “not so much.” [CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 11/4/16]

NBC’s Peter Alexander: “Suffice It To Say That Trump Has Been Very Disciplined.” NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander said, “Suffice it to say that Trump has been very disciplined. I’ve been with him over the course of the last eight or nine days now, and that’s what we've witnessed more than anything so far.” [MSNBC, MSNBC Live, 11/6/16]

CNN’s David Axelrod: Trump Has “Been A Much More Disciplined Candidate.” CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod said that since the presidential debates and the Access Hollywood tape showing Trump bragging about sexual assault released, Trump has “been a much more disciplined candidate.” [CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, 11/4/16]

Fox’s Maria Bartiromo: “Trump Has Pivoted Toward ‘Let’s Reveal A Positive Message.’” Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo said, “in these final few days, it feels like Trump has pivoted toward ‘let's reveal a positive message, let's talk about what we can do for the country,’ whereas [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary Clinton so far has been really on that attack mode of Trump.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, 11/6/16]

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: Trump Is “Being Very, Very Disciplined Right Now.” CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer commented that Trump is“sticking very closely to what his advisers have told him” like “keep to the teleprompter” and claimed he is “being very, very disciplined right now.” CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger agreed, saying, “If it ain't broke, don't fix. And that’s exactly the way they feel. He’s got a clear message now … He is sticking to his script.” From the November 4 edition of CNN’s Wolf:

WOLF BLITZER (HOST): Gloria, he's being very, very disciplined right now. We just saw Donald Trump. a little part of his speech. He’s doing at least three speeches today, but he’s sticking very closely to what his advisers have told him, basically saying to him, you know what? You're on a roll right now. Keep to the teleprompter.

GLORIA BORGER: If it ain't broke, don't fix. And that’s exactly the way they feel. He’s got a clear message now given the developments on the FBI. And he believes that this honing in on this message, this anti-Hillary Clinton, dishonesty, not trustworthy, unfit to be president -- which is turning the tables on her to a great degree because that's what she says about him -- that it is working for him. He is sticking to his script. It's a simple message. And for the first time in a long time he's got a message that he really shares with every Republican running down-ballot. So it works for him. It works for their candidates down-ballot, which is exactly what they need at this point in the campaign. [CNN, Wolf, 11/4/16]

Trump’s Final Campaign Stretch Colored By Race-Baiting, Lies, And Attacking Beyoncé

Trump Fearmongered Over Somali Refugees At Minnesota Rally. Trump “warned darkly of the danger posed by Somali migrants” at a November 6 campaign stop in Minneapolis, MN, according to The Guardian. Reverting to race-baiting anecdotes he’s used previously on the campaign trail, Trump said, “‘Here in Minnesota, you’ve seen first-hand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with very large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge, without your support or approval. … Some of them [are] joining Isis and spreading their extremist views all over our country and all over the world’”:

Donald Trump on Sunday warned darkly of the danger posed by Somali migrants in Minneapolis, a deeply segregated city that has the largest Somali-American community.

“Here in Minnesota, you’ve seen first hand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with very large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge, without your support or approval,” the Republican nominee told a rally in the solidly Democratic state, two days before the presidential election.

He then claimed: “Some of them [are] joining Isis and spreading their extremist views all over our country and all over the world.”

“Everybody’s reading about the disaster taking place in Minnesota,” he added, before claiming, falsely: “You don’t even have the right to talk about it.”

Trump has made warnings about refugees a staple of his stump speech, though he has most commonly targeted Syrians fleeing the five-year civil war that has devastated their country. [The Guardian, 11/7/16]

Trump Campaigned With Noted Racist Ted Nugent. Trump campaigned alongside National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, who has called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel” and earlier this year called for Clinton to be hanged for treason. Nugent also recently described Clinton as a “devilbitch.” At the November 6 rally, Nugent “grabbed his own crotch while speaking on behalf of Trump,” according to Politico. [Politico, 11/6/16; Media Matters, 11/6/16]

Trump Hit A “New Record” For False Statements He’s Made In One Day. According to Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale, who has been documenting, counting, and fact-checking Trump’s false statements daily on the campaign trail, Trump hit a “new record” of “FORTY (40) false things”said in one day on November 5. Those false statements including his common lies that the U.S. is the “highest-taxed nation in the world” and that Clinton created ISIS. [Twitter, 11/6/16]

Trump Threatened To Fund A Super PAC To “Punish His Enemies After Election Day.” On November 6, The New York Times reported that Trump “still privately muses about all the ways he will punish his enemies after Election Day, including a threat to fund a ‘super PAC’ with vengeance as its core mission.” [The New York Times, 11/6/16]

Trump Attacked Beyoncé And Jay-Z. After Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Jay-Z campaigned with Clinton, Trump claimed on November 4 that their participation in the campaign was “almost like a form of cheating” and blasted the “language” the artists use in their music. [Vanity Fair, 11/6/16]

Trump Claimed The FBI’s Conclusion Of No Charges Against Clinton Is Proof Of “Rigged System,” Casting Doubt On FBI Investigation. On November 6, after FBI Director James Comey announced that Clinton will not face any charges upon review of newly discovered emails, Trump “said Comey’s decision is proof that things in Washington are ‘rigged’ in Clinton’s favor.” Trump also claimed, “‘You can’t review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can’t do it, folks.’” [The Huffington Post, 11/6/16]

Media Have Long Searched For A Pivot From Trump, Only To Be Burned Time And Time Again

Pundits Hyped Trump Pivots At Every Step Of The Campaign, Though No Pivot Ever Actually Materialized. Stretching back to at least February, media figures repeatedly claimed that Trump was beginning to “pivot” to become a more “serious-sounding candidate” whenever he appeared to begin using “a more subdued tone” or briefly refrained from insulting his opponents. Some hyped Trump pivots the same day that Trump himself said, “I am who I am. … I don’t want to pivot.” NBC once touted “a new Donald Trump” the same day Trump hurled racial slurs and outlandish conspiracy theories, and several media figures hyped a pivot when Trump read off of a teleprompter that he “regret[ed]” “sometimes … say[ing] the wrong thing,” though just hours prior his spokesperson had said Clinton had brain damage. [Media Matters, 6/24/16, 6/26/16, 7/21/16, 8/16/16, 8/19/16, 9/1/16, 9/12/16]