Taking a cue from pop star Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'video, the women of Saturday Night Live became the women of Donald Trump in a dead-on parody striking back at TRump for using them to further his ambition.
Kellyanne Conway, Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Omarosa Manigault were all represented by cast members, with host Emily Blunt stepping in to play Ivanka Trump.
In the video, titled 'Melanianade' and based upon Beyoncé's 'Sorry,' each woman has her complaint about Trump -- ranging from his infidelities to Melania to treating the oft-ignored Tiffany Trump as "the other daughter," not worthy of mention.
Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon reprised their roles as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for this week's show opening sketch on Saturday night live.
Trump and Clinton met again for their second debate, in which they refused to shake hands and then Trump stalked around the stage to the soundtrack from the shark attack film Jaws.
"They are undecided, uncommitted and not remotely camera-ready," said debate moderator Martha Raddatz of the voters who would be asking the candidates their questions. Then, she and Anderson Cooper each took a fortifying shot of whiskey.
When asked if he feels he is modeling appropriate behavior for an adult to demonstrate in front of children, Trump answered, "Anderson, I love the kids. I love them so much I marry them."
When Trump played his "power move" of introducing the four women who accuse former Pres. Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, Clinton made a great show of putting on the voice of a distressed Southern belle and pretending to beg him not to do it before snapping back to herself and quipping, "Get real, I'm made of steel. This is noting. Hi, girls!"
CNN political commentator Corey Lewandowski tried to hide his face from the media when he stepped off Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's plane in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday.
Politico's Ben Schreckinger tweeted Saturday afternoon, "Lewandowski just got off Trump's plane with a hood pulled down way over his face."
Weather.com reported that Saturday afternoon temperatures in Newark were in the low 70s, so presumably Lewandowski was not shielding his face from the cold.
NBC political reporter Sopan Deb confirmed that Lewandowski has been traveling with Trump's campaign this weekend. Normally media personnel do not travel with Trump and his advisors. The CNN correspondent has faced conflict of interest questions since he left the Trump campaign and started at CNN. FEC records confirmed in August that Lewandowski was double-dipping by continuing to take funds from Trump while pulling down a paycheck at CNN.
Former CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien confirmed that the arrangement appears to be ethically questionable.
"This is pretty unusual," she wrote on Twitter. "Generally speaking, a networks's Standards and Practices team would not be okay with this."
As Carlos Maza of Media Matters noted, Lewandowski has helped Trump prepare for debates and remained in contact with the candidate on a daily basis, essentially acting as an adviser and strategist for the campaign.
On Twitter, many users expressed anger at CNN for continuing to employ a commentator who is for all intents and purposes still an active campaign staffer.
In a video titled "CNN has a Trump surrogate problem," Carlos Maza of Media Matters hilariously torched the "professional bullshit artists" shilling for the Trump campaign on CNN, but made an important point about journalistic integrity in the process.
The quartet of dunderheads -- Corey Lewandowski, Kayleigh McEnany, Scottie Nell Hughes and Jeffrey Lord -- can be found sitting alongside ordinary, learned people of both parties on CNN virtually every day. The gamely go about their duty of defending whatever heinous, embarrassing thing Donald Trump has said or done in the last 24 hours and talking utter garbage as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"At first glance, this seems harmless enough," Maza said. "Need to show both sides, fair and balanced, yadda yadda yadda, we get it."
"But these aren't normal political commentators," he continued. "They are professional bullshit artists. They argue in circles, they change the subject" and use any tactic they can to "bring the segment to a screeching, unwatchable halt."
In the end, Maza said, the commentators set up to argue against these appalling liars are all either "tearing out their hair" or "just kind of blankly staring at the camera" in numb, shocked horror and disbelief.
Lewandowski, he said, has appeared as a "political commentator" on CNN while pulling down paychecks from CNN and Donald Trump simultaneously, blatantly, out in the open, and yet nobody seems to find this unusual in the slightest.
At the Media Matters website, Maza has details of the non-disparagement agreement Lewandowski signed as part of his contract with Trump that forbids him from saying anything negative about Donald Trump on the air even if he wants to.
But don't be mad at these four sad, morally bankrupt wind-socks who will defend any and every contemptible thing their candidate does, Maza said, "Be mad at CNN," because what's happening underneath all of this is that people are being "desensitized to bullshit."
"It sets a dangerous precedent for all of us," he said.
As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump steps up his talk that the election will be "rigged" against him, his supporters are threatening violent reprisals if they don't get their way.
In an Boston Globe report about Trump's flailing campaign, the newspaper interviewed Trump supporters about how they plan to respond in November if their candidate loses.
Globe reporters attended a Trump rally in Cincinnati, Ohio last week and met Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contract worker, who spoke openly of assassinating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton should she carry the polls in November.
“If she’s in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That’s how I feel about it,” Bowman said. “We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that’s what it’s going to take...I would do whatever I can for my country.”
The Globe said that Trump's campaign has been "unraveling" since he made his attacks on the Khan family, parents of a Muslim-American soldier who died in combat in Iraq. His poll numbers looked as if they might briefly rally in September, but weeks ago, "the bottom fell out."
In the wake of the release of 2005 audio recordings, Trump's campaign appears to have gone into free fall. Clinton is edging ahead to the tune of double digits and the Trump campaign has responded by going darker, more hateful and -- according to some -- downright anti-Semitic.
Some Trump fans have pledged to "monitor" polling stations in minority areas of their districts in order to prevent "voter fraud."
Steve Webb, a 61-year-old carpenter, said he intends to be one of them.
“Trump said to watch your precincts. I’m going to go, for sure,” said Webb. "I’ll look for...well, it’s called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can’t speak American. I’m going to go right up behind them. I’ll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I’m not going to do anything illegal. I’m going to make them a little bit nervous.”
Some conservatives are spreading wild stories about President Barack Obama "opening up the borders" to let in thousands of "illegals" so they can throw the election to Clinton.
“We’re going to have a lot of election fraud,” said Jeannine Bell Smith, 65. “They are having illegals vote. In some states, you don’t need voter registration to vote.”
“We can’t have that lying bitch in the White House,” she told a reporter after the rally's opening prayer and singing of the national anthem.
“All I know is our country is not going to be a country anymore,” said Judy Wright, who traveled from Indiana to attend the Ohio rally. “I’ve heard people talk about a revolution. I’ve heard people talk about separation of states. I don’t even like to think about it. But I don’t think this movement is going away. We don’t have a voice anymore, and Donald Trump is giving us a voice.”
A woman has come forward with claims that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump grabbed her and kissed her against her will at a Mother's Day brunch in the late 90s at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Cathy Heller, now 63, told the Guardian that Trump forced himself on her during a Mother's Day brunch in about 1997 which she attended with her husband, three children and members of her husband's family.
Trump was making the rounds, Heller recalls, and stopped at their table. When introduced, she stood to shake hands with the former reality TV star.
“He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” she said.
Heller demurred, attempting to turn away, and nearly lost her balance.
“And he said, ‘Oh, come on.’ He was strong. And he grabbed me and went for my mouth and went for my lips," she said. Again, she turned her face and he planted a lingering kiss on the corner of her mouth.
“He kept me there for a little too long,” said Heller. “And then he just walked away.”
"I was angry and shaken," she told the Guardian.
Trump, she remembers, "was pissed. He couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity.”
Two other people offered similar accounts of the unsettling encounter. Heller's friend Susan Klein vividly remembers Heller telling her about the incident when it took place and one of Heller's relatives who was seated at the table -- but who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.
That person describes Heller as being "really freaked out" when Trump left the table. Trump had been physically intimidating with Heller and "got in her face."
“He was very forceful," they said. "She really was definitely affected by this man who was very aggressive toward her.”
Heller received an email from Klein on the day that the Access Hollywood tape was released in which the real estate tycoon can be heard boasting to Billy Bush that his fame allows him to force himself on women without their consent and never suffer any consequences.
“I keep thinking about how he treated you,” wrote Klein. “Obviously not an isolated incident.”
“You were one of Trump’s victims,” she said. “He said when he sees a pretty woman, he just kisses her, he doesn’t even wait.”
Klein told the Guardian, “(W)hen this tape came out, I couldn’t believe it, because it was exactly what he said he did and had done to Cathy.”
Since the tape was released, eight other women have come forward with similar stories of groping, unwelcome kissing and other forms of sexual misconduct on Trump's part. He and his campaign have denounced the women as frauds, accusing them of lying and -- in the case of People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff -- alleging that they aren't attractive enough to warrant Trump's attention.
The Guardian said that since Trump began campaigning for president, the topic of his sleazy, "entitled" treatment of Heller that Mother's Day has come up on multiple occasions.
One friend told the newspaper that "before all the stories came out I remember she said, ‘He grabbed me, he pulled me toward him, he tried to kiss me.’ It made her very uncomfortable.”
Heller -- who said that she is a supporter of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton -- said that she feels "validated and vindicated" hearing stories of other women who suffered at Trump's wandering hands. She decided to speak up after she heard him dismiss the 2005 audio as "locker room talk."
“He said this is just talk, but it’s not just talk,” Heller said. “This was him.”
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump threw a new wrinkle into his rambling campaign speech Saturday morning, suggesting rival Hillary Clinton may be using performance enhancing drugs to get through the rigors of electoral season.
Speaking in New Hampshire, the blustery Republican nominee took time out from trashing the seemingly endless parade of women who have accused him of sexual assault, to note that he believes Clinton is busy getting "pumped up" for the debate -- a not-so-sly reference to doping.
Trump's comments should come as no surprise, since the candidate has a habit of accusing his opponent of his own sins -- including racism and financial shenanigans -- and there has been an extraordinary amount of speculation about Trump's manic debate performances coupled with his uncontrollable sniffling.
In a speech in New Hampshire, Saturday morning, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that rival Hillary Clinton is using performance enhancing drugs and said drug tests should be administered before Wednesday's debate in Las Vegas.
Pointing out that Clinton has not been on the campaign trail in preparation for the debate, Trump said she was getting "pumped up."
"Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right. I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate," Trump said.
"Why don't we do that? We should take a drug test, prior, because I don't know what's going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, 'Oh, take me down,'" Trump shouted.
As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ramp up for their third and final televised debate, people are still trying to make sense of what happened at their second one. It was an odd sort of presidential debate, maybe the oddest ever – and it was certainly the ugliest and most tawdry.
Mere days after the release of a video in which Trump bragged about using his celebrity status to grab women by their genitals without consent, he was already collapsing in the polls. He responded by parading a number of women who have accused Bill Clinton of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the past, then bringing them along to the debate in an effort to both embarrass him and unsettle Hillary Clinton.
At first, at least, it seemed to work. You didn’t need to be a body language expert to see the discomfort on Bill Clinton’s face when he was led into the auditorium and seated in the front row.
Now Trump is seeing his numbers slide into the terminal zone, he’s increasingly resorting to the psychological tricks of the pugilistic. All boxers have little games they like to play to unsettle their opponents. They don’t see it as cheating; it’s just part of the game. That’s how Trump seems to think.
But Trump also has a penchant for name-calling, something boxers only resort to when they’re desperate. He’s called Clinton “Crooked Hillary” hundreds of times before on Twitter and in speeches to sympathetic crowds, but at the second debate he went so far as to call her a liar to her face multiple times. Anything for an advantage. Anything to rattle your opponent.
Their latest encounter was debating as street fighting, a metaphor widely used in the run-up to the debate. The idea was so pervasive it turned into a metaphorical frame that affected what we saw and what we noticed, and even how we judged the outcome of this battle.
Various commentators summed up Trump’s debate performances by speculating that he might have “stopped the bleeding” from the Republican faithful, despite his comments about how he views and treats women (“locker room talk, folks”).
Trump’s body language went through several periods of transition in the debate. Having to hold a microphone interferes with the natural two-handed gestures on which he relies heavily. We can all recognise them: arms outstretched, arms pointing downwards, palms forward, characteristically signalling his connection with the common man through the distinctive, demonstrative gestures of New York – gestures that work because they speak straight to the usually unconscious nonverbal system.
Trump is quite expert at using some gestures and sequences of gestures in particular. First comes a barrier signal: arms up, palms out. “Beware,” it says. “Danger.” Then he uses a precision hand gesture – a distinctive thumb-and-forefinger position – which alternates with an L-shaped gesture. The danger signal produces an immediate emotional effect, then he reassures the audience with his precision gesture. “I’ve got a plan,” he says nonverbally, “a precise plan. It’s time for a change.”
Slicing and pointing
That’s what Trump can do, at least when he’s not forced to hold a microphone in one hand as he was at the second debate. I was surprised he didn’t complain about this, since he complained about everything else: the “bias” of the moderators, “it’s three against one”, the fact that Clinton got more time – anything, like a child who thinks that the world isn’t fair.
Looking tired, he started quietly rocking on his feet as Clinton spoke, a telltale sign of negative emotion leaking out nonverbally. Clearly he wasn’t comfortable with the fallout from the leaked tape. He started sniffing when he talked, as he did throughout the first debate. It’s a distraction, and it noticeably gets more pronounced when he’s on the spot.
He started gesturing demonstratively for the first time when he talked about his wealth. “Batonic” gestures – stress-timed gestures that have no iconic content, such as the up-and-down beat of a hand – tend to mark out content that’s highly significant for the speaker, but when Trump begins his personal attacks, the more complex and abstract metaphoric gestures start up in earnest. These are a core part of Trump’s implicit message, and they have an immediate effect. Their meaning is processed simultaneously with his speech.
As he went on the attack in the debate, his use of beat gestures duly increased. He chopped, he pointed, he sliced. Trump was now fully armed. He heckled, he interrupted, he glowered as Clinton talked, issuing a nonverbal running commentary on what she was saying.
All in all, this was a bully’s performance, a physical attempt to dominate Clinton and manipulate our interpretation of her words. Clinton quoted Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high”, but with Trump expressing himself as he did – stalking her as she talked, prowling behind her like a big beast of the jungle – the tone of the encounter remained firmly at the lower end of the scale.
The American linguist George Lakoff has commented that Trump “uses your brain against you”. Much of everyday thought is unconscious, and it’s that psychological spot that Trump targets, much as a boxer or street fighter does.
The fact that he got us all thinking that only a “knockout” would constitute success for Hillary Clinton was therefore a victory of sorts. He was on the ropes that night, and he knew it, and he bobbed and weaved to fight another day, despite everything we now know about this most unpresidential of men.
Nonetheless, his slide in the polls has continued since round two. The way he comports himself in round three, scheduled for October 19, will be telling indeed.
A very curt Megyn Kelly talked over -- and then down -- to a Trump-backing attorney who attempted to make the seemingly endless sexual abuse accusations being lobbed at GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump go away by asserting the presumption of innocence.
Appearing on The Kelly Files Friday night with Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky, attorney David Wohl first attempted to undercut the statement given by Trump accuser Kristin Anderson who gave a statement on Friday claiming Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York nightclub in the 90's. He then attacked the credibility of fellow Trump victim, Summer Zerbos.
"Miss Zerbos, by the way, she looked like she was reading directly from a script," Wohl asserted. "Like she was reading a book."
"What's wrong with that?" Kelly shot back.
"Hard to believe she has a lot of credibility when she reads from a script!" he insisted.
"Oh, c'mon, David, she was nervous," Kelly replied.
"Because Megyn, why doesn't she just speak from the -- Why can't she just tell the story?" he argued.
"Because she was nervous and she wanted to get it right. The stakes are very high," Kelly lectured him before Wohl attempted to pivot to talking about a Wikileaks release of Democratic Party emails -- earning him a terse, "We'll get to that," from Kelly.
Wohl later admitted he disapproved of Trump's hitting back at the women by saying they weren't attractive enough to assault, but tried to diminish it by saying if you strike out at Trump he hits back "twice as hard."
Pressed by Kelly if Trump could get past all the accusations being thrown his way before the election, Wohl said that the Trump being described by his accusers is "not the man I know."
“Generally the sexual predators don’t do it to their guy friends,” Kelly said as she cut him off.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign rallies have turned into eruptions of barely contained emotions from his impassioned followers, who urge him to fight on despite a series of gut punches that have put his chances of winning in doubt.
With the Nov. 8 election now only weeks away and polls turning against him, Trump is spending precious time in campaign speeches defending himself from accusations from several women who say he made unwanted sexual advances toward them.
What he would do if elected is covered, but much of his speeches are spent belittling his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. He also accuses the U.S. news media of a plot to bring him down, and charges that the women who have made the accusations against him might be doing it for a taste of fame.
Opinion polls show a gloomy picture for Trump. A week after a video surfaced of him bragging in lewd terms about groping women, the latest Reuters-Ipsos poll on Friday showed Clinton up, with 44 percent to Trump's 37 percent.
And the crowds have gotten more protective of their hero. One woman at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday wore a homemade T-shirt that said "Trump Can Grab My," with an arrow pointing to her crotch.
On Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina, a man wearing a "Gays for Trump" shirt punched a protester who held up an upside down American flag. Both were ejected.
Trump's message has gotten through to his supporters in a big way about Clinton, who Trump calls a criminal for her handling of classified information as secretary of state. "She would be the most dishonest and corrupt ever elected to high office," he said.
'SO JADED ALREADY'
A crowd of young voters had a ready response when he brought up Clinton at an event in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday.
"Lock her up!" they chanted, mimicking the lines voiced by older voters at other events.
Trump could only smile and shake his head.
"So young and so jaded already," he said.
The New York businessman feeds off the energy generated by crowds that pack his rallies by the thousands. But he is easily distracted, lurching from topic to topic based on whatever happens to sprint to mind.
On Wednesday in Lakeland, Florida, Trump jumped from bashing the news media as "the most dishonest people you'll ever see," to tout his performance at a debate in St. Louis on Sunday - "which I won big league" - to Clinton's stroll across the stage in front of him at that event.
"And the papers said I invaded her space," he said. "Believe me, the last space I want to invade is hers."
There are moments of levity. A woman who recovered from a brief fainting spell in the heat of Lakeland was pointed out by Trump.
"That woman was out cold and now she is recovered -- a little ding to the head," he said, approvingly.
Trump can form an attack line against Clinton out of pretty much anything that springs to mind.
Venting about Chinese trade practices before a raucous crowd of perhaps 20,000 in Cincinnati on Thursday night, Trump suddenly imagined how China might treat Clinton given her bout of pneumonia a month ago, which had caused her to nearly collapse at an event in New York.
"If she goes down in Tiananmen Square, they'll just leave her," he said. "They're tough people."
Trump's crowds sometimes get agitated.
Many of his supporters are upset at the news media, whipped into a frenzy by both Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who in Cincinnati introduced Trump by condemning "the insanity of the media, the insanity of the way they cover him."
Upon entering the arena, Trump's traveling press corps was booed by thousands of people who chanted "tell the truth." Trump boosters near the media work area repeatedly cursed and taunted reporters.
"When are you all going to be ashamed of yourselves?" one man shouted. "Lower than Congress -- that's what your approval rating is."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham)
Producer and hip hop artist Lil Jon confirmed on Twitter late Friday night that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump referred to him as "Uncle Tom" when he was a cast member on 'The Apprentice.'
According to Lil Jon, the New York businessman and star of the reality show star began using the racially-charged name after the recording artist -- real name Jonathan Smith -- wore an Uncle Sam suit on the show.
“I can’t say if he knew what he was actually saying or not, but he did stop using that term once we explained its offensiveness," Lil Jon said in the statement tweeted out, before adding, “I also want to be clear that I don’t agree with many of the statements Mr. Trump has said during his current run for President."
According the staffers from 'The Apprentice' who have remained anonymous, Trump upset crew members when he used Uncle Tom, and that afterward he claimed to have no idea that it was an offensive term used to demean African-Americans.
During a panel discussion on HBO's Real Time, host Bill Maher wondered what exactly GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump had to do before hardcore Republican voters would get in touch with their humanity and refuse to vote for him.
Speaking with writers Rebecca Traister, Andrew Sullivan and former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, Maher posed the question: The GOP "can get rid of Donald Trump, but can they get rid of Trumpism?"
According to Traister, the worst of Trump has been a major part of the Republican Party for some time.
"The fact is, Republican voters who knew they were going to be facing Hillary Clinton, who hate Barrack Obama, who object to the people who vote for Democrats, people of color and women, selected a candidate who embodies the racism and sexism that are the very forces that kept people of color and women disenfranchised for centuries and away from the White House until now, "she explained before adding, "They picked him."
"When I look at the electoral map, "Maher replied, "I see states that Trump apparently cannot possibly lose. The pink are likely Republican and the red are, like he said, "I could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Avenue and they wouldn't leave me.'"
Listing off several deep red states, Maher asked, "I know they're Republican mostly, but they're human, right?"
"These are human beings," he continued. "What the f*ck does it take, in this country, to have being a human being supersede being a Republican?"
