Campaign 2016 updates: Hillary Clinton on the air with new ad highlighting insults from Donald Trump

Donald Trump has a message for Hillary Clinton: Get well soon.

For a candidate who has castigated his rivals as “low energy” (see Jeb Bush) and questioned their military service (see John McCain), Trump in recent days has eschewed attacking Clinton’s health problems as she recovers from pneumonia.

“I just don’t want to get involved with it. I just hope she’s going to be fine and she’ll continue onward,” he said Tuesday night during an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

In recent days, Trump has been pressed with questions about Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis, which was disclosed after she publicly fell ill Sunday, and he’s offered the same subdued response.

Trump, seeking to make inroads with suburban women voters who polls have shown continue to strongly support the Democratic nominee, has focused instead on another target: Clinton's comments labeling half of his supporters as a “basket of deplorables.” Clinton has said she regrets saying that “half” of his supporters fall into that category.

Trump also continued to insist he’s not participating in any formal debate preparation.

He did, however, note that he’ll bring “respect” to the debate later this month – at least at the outset.

“I will treat her with great respect,” Trump said of Clinton. “Unless she treats me in a certain manner, in which case that will be the end of that.… I am not looking to go in and treat her with disrespect.”

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell labeled fellow Republican Donald Trump a "national disgrace” and a cheerleader of the “racist” birther movement that questioned President Obama’s legitimacy, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The website did not say how it obtained the emails, but when Powell declined to comment about their contents, he said, “I’m not denying it.”

As Donald Trump tries to increase his appeal to moderate suburban women, the GOP presidential nominee on Tuesday unveiled plans for paid family leave and child care.

“Many Americans are just one crisis away from disaster – a sick kid, a lost job, a damaged home. There is no financial security in our country, especially anymore,” Trump told supporters during a shorter-than-usual rally in a Philadelphia suburb. He described his plans as “pro-family, it’s pro-child, it’s pro-worker. These are the people we have to take care of.”

Trump proposed offering six weeks of paid maternity leave and a tax deduction for child-care and elder-care costs. Low-income workers who don’t have any taxable income would receive a child-care rebate in the form of an earned income tax credit.

Trump also called for the creation of a dependent-care savings account that is not tied to an employer, where parents could deposit tax-free money for child care, enrichment activities, school tuition and elder care. Low-income workers would receive matching funds from the federal government.

The Republican nominee does not say how he would pay for any of this, with the exception of the paid maternity leave that his campaign estimated would cost about $3.4 billion a year. Trump says he would fund the leave program by eliminating fraud and improper payment in the unemployment system. He pledged to outline on Thursday his full economic plan, which he said would be balanced through job growth and budget cuts.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has laid out a more expansive and costly plan, including 12 weeks of paid leave, that she would fund by increasing taxes on the wealthy.

After reminding reporters of controversial statements Trump has made about women, Clinton’s campaign dismissed Trump’s child-care and paid-leave plans as lacking seriousness and demeaning.

The plan is regressive with greater benefits for higher-wage earners, said Clinton senior policy advisor Maya Harris. And parts focus only on mothers, not fathers.

“We’re not living in the 'Mad Men' era anymore,” Harris said.

In his appearance in Pennsylvania, Trump was accompanied by his daughter Ivanka, who spoke out about these issues at the Republican National Convention. He credited her with shaping his plan.

Earlier in the day, he impersonated his 34-year-old daughter, a mother of three and an executive in the family business, cajoling him to focus on the issue.

“Daddy, daddy, we have to do this,” Trump said at a rally in Clive, Iowa. “She is the one that has been pushing so hard for it.”

Former President Bill Clinton received a celebrity welcome on Tuesday during his stop at a trendy coffee shop in Los Angeles, where he was filling in for his under-the-weather wife as she recuperates at home in New York. 

While Clinton was inside chatting with customers, the patio swelled with paparazzi who heard the former president was in the neighborhood. 

As he exited, the photographers shouted:

“Bill! Can I get you right here!"

"Thank you, Bill!”

One of the photographers, Vladimir Labissiere, 43, was taking pictures of Sofia Vergara shopping in Beverly Hills when he got a tip that Clinton was nearby.

“What? Bill Clinton? I’m out,” he said and biked over to the coffee shop, ditching the actress.

After Clinton left, Labissiere stood outside, ebullient and dripping with sweat. 

“This was the best shot of the day," he said. 

President Obama prides himself on brushing off the slights of his political rivals. But it appeared Donald Trump's assertion that Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than him may have left a mark.

On a rare full day of campaigning, Obama regularly held Trump's praise for the Russian president against him, often with dripping sarcasm. 

Campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia, Obama recalled Trump going on Russian "state television" -- an interview with Larry King for Russia Today's American network -- to extol his leadership by citing his high poll numbers. 

"Saddam Hussein had a 90% poll rating!" Obama said. 

While he has to do business with Russia, "I don't go around saying that's my role model," Obama said. "Can you imagine Ronald Reagan idolizing somebody like that?"

Speaking at a high-dollar fundraiser in New York on Tuesday night, the president expressed his astonishment that the Republican Party appeared to have followed Trump's lead.

"This is the party that extols freedom and America and the flag and Ronald Reagan, and whose main criticism of me lately has been my tyrannical abuse of power," he said. "And [they nominated] the guy who actively promotes and admires a guy who jails dissidents and controls all state media, all media in his country. And hence has an 82% approval rating."

Pointing to the press corps seated in the rear of the penthouse apartment where he was speaking, Obama added: "Can you imagine what my approval rating would be if all those folks lined up in the back worked for me, if I was writing their stories? Wow! I would be doing really well!"

Someone in the audience then noted his own strong numbers -- 58%, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

"I’m doing OK as it is," Obama happily conceded.

Libertarian presidential contender Gary Johnson has qualified for the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, his campaign announced Tuesday, clearing a significant hurdle for his upstart third-party bid.

“With a majority of Americans wanting a choice other than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, today we now know for certain that on election day, every voter in America will have that alternative option," Johnson said in a statement. "And today we also know that the only other option on every American voter’s ballot will be myself and [former Massachusetts Gov. Bill] Weld."

The milestone marks the first time since 1996 that a Libertarian Party nominee has appeared on every state's ballot, according to party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark.

The Libertarians have notched more ballot eligibility than the other minor party getting significant attention this election cycle, the Green Party, which has tapped Jill Stein as its presidential nominee. That party will be on the ballot in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., according to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News.

Meanwhile, Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, is keeping his focus on another milestone: getting into a televised presidential debate.

In a full-page ad set to run in the New York Times on Wednesday, Johnson and Weld call on the Commission on Presidential Debates to let the Libertarian join the first televised debate on Sept. 26 -- even if Johnson does not hit the commission's qualification threshold.

The commission, the nonprofit panel that sets the guidelines for the fall debates, has said that in order to qualify, a candidate must receive at least 15% support in five national polls after Labor Day. Johnson has hovered just short of that mark, at about 9%.

But the campaign has been buoyed by a recent poll that found 62% of voters want Johnson to be included in the debates. Several prominent Republicans, including Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, have backed Libertarians in their quest to appear on the debate stage.

"Put a third podium on stage for the debate scheduled on September 26th," the letter reads. "Allow us to make our case to the American people. If, in the polls that follow, we fail to meet that 15% standard, we'll make no further efforts for inclusion in subsequent debates."

Arrest warrants for two men were issued on allegations of assaults inside and outside a Donald Trump rally, the Asheville, N.C., Police Department said Tuesday.

Video of the Monday night rally shows Thomas Vellanti Jr. slapping at and grabbing protesters as they were being led out of the arena. Vellanti turned himself in Tuesday.

Outside the rally, an older woman was assaulted, police said. They gave her a ride home and issued an arrest warrant for a man, the statement said.

Five additional arrests were made during the rally for charges such as obstructing an officer, trespassing and simple possession, the statement said.

More details about the circumstances of the arrests were not available Tuesday afternoon.

Hillary Clinton will resume campaign travel Thursday following a break to recover from pneumonia, according to a campaign spokesman.

The Democratic presidential nominee remained at home on Tuesday, said spokesman Nick Merrill.

“She has spent the day catching up on reading briefings, making calls, and she watched President Obama's speech in Philadelphia on TV,” Merrill said in a statement.

Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday but did not reveal the health development until hours after she struggled to stand and was forced to abruptly leave a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony Sunday.

She had planned to campaign and raise money in California and Nevada on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. She canceled those plans and dispatched husband Bill Clinton to some of the events.

On Thursday, Clinton is scheduled to speak at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala in Washington.

A Republican governor warned that blood might have to be shed if Hillary Clinton is elected president, while another state GOP leader called the Democratic presidential nominee “subhuman.”

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin invoked Thomas Jefferson’s quote about the tree of liberty being watered with “the blood of patriots and tyrants” as he spoke to conservative voters over the weekend,

"I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically,” Bevin said. “But that may, in fact, be the case…. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren."

Asked to clarify his remarks on Monday, Bevin told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he was talking about military sacrifice.

Days earlier, Rhode Island GOP Chairman Brandon Bell called Clinton “subhuman” during a radio interview. He made the comment on Wednesday, and then told WPRO-AM the following day that he meant to say “subpar.”

He declined to apologize, saying he would do so if Clinton apologized for her email scandal, according to the Associated Press.

A British man has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from an incident in which he grabbed a police officer's gun with a plan to shoot Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Las Vegas.

Michael Steven Sandford could face about two years in a U.S. prison and be deported for his pleas Tuesday to possession of a firearm while in the U.S. illegally and disrupting an official function.

The 20-year-old Sandford could have faced up to 20 years in prison if he'd been convicted at trial of both charges.

Court documents say Sandford acknowledged reaching for the gun while Trump was onstage June 18 at the Treasure Island hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Sandford didn't get the gun before he was arrested, and no shots were fired.

The documents say Sandford later told a federal agent that he drove from California to Las Vegas with a plan to kill Trump.

Family attorney Saimo Chahal says Sandford was delusional at the time.

Much of the coverage of Hillary Clinton’s illness has focused on the secrecy over her pneumonia diagnosis, and the video of her struggling to stand as she abruptly left a 9/11 ceremony.

But the Democratic nominee’s decision to try to keep working through her illness, or “power through it” in Clinton’s words, also reflects a common trait in the modern-day workplace: people insisting on going to work when they are sick.

It’s so common, it has a name: presenteeism.

More than half of employees who regularly interact with others in workplaces such as hospitals and restaurants reported going to work when ill, according to a study this year by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Among the reasons for going to work while sick: too much work to be done, needing the wages, bosses who expect employees to work sick and not trusting others to complete one’s tasks, according to a 2014 survey by the National Sanitation Foundation.

But there are downsides beyond feeling sick at work – notably decreased productivity. One study found that presenteeism in the U.S. costs $150 billion per year.

And there is the risk of spreading a contagious illness to co-workers or customers. Large-scale illness outbreaks have been traced to a single ill employee at a restaurant.

In the backlash, one strain of criticism argued that Clinton was under fire because she's a woman. 

Her defenders argued that Clinton was simply doing what women across the country frequently do.

Wendy Sherman, former undersecretary of State for political affairs, recounted multiple instances of working while ill or hurt, including testifying at a congressional hearing moments after rupturing several tendons in her hand.

“Working women have known for decades that even when you’re sick, you work,” Sherman wrote in Time magazine. “Mothers joke that they aren’t allowed to get sick, and advertisers rake in profits for cold and flu relievers that allow moms to go on doing their jobs. And women in the workplace, often judged for how strong or weak they are, regularly come to work even when they should be home in bed — even when society should allow for rest and recovery.”

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm tweeted, “To press lamenting @HillaryClinton’s health/transparency: ‘powering through’ illness is what women do: Stoically, every. single. day.”

What's old is new — at least for the Clintons. 

Hillary Clinton's campaign has been engulfed this week by questions surrounding her health and renewed complaints of a lack of transparency while she recovers from pneumonia, a diagnosis disclosed only after she publicly fell ill.

Twenty years ago Tuesday, as then-President Bill Clinton traversed California raising money for his reelection effort against Republican Sen. Bob Dole, White House officials were pressed about why they would not release Clinton's full medical records, as The Times detailed in a Sept. 13, 1996, report.

And, just as Donald Trump has called on Hillary Clinton to release detailed medical records, Dole repeatedly insisted on more information from President Clinton about his health. 

"Dole's chief spokesman hinted darkly that [the] president was trying to conceal a medical 'mystery," wrote Times reporter John M. Broder.

It was even an issue in Clinton's 1992 campaign, when he authorized only a partial release of his medical records. 

At the time, his physician issued statements noting that Clinton enjoyed overall good health but did not provide detailed data from his annual medical exams.

As for Hillary Clinton, she plans to release additional medical records this week, her campaign said. 

Trump, who is 70 to Clinton's 68, released a short statement from a doctor boasting about the GOP nominee's good health, and his campaign has also said he will release additional medical records this week on "The Dr. Oz Show."

Barack Obama’s presidency appears to have profoundly shifted the voter coalitions behind the two major parties, with older and blue-collar whites moving to the Republicans as college graduates and secular voters have accelerated their shift to the Democrats. 

The result, as this election season moves toward a snarling finale, is two parties whose voters differ more from each other than at any point in a generation, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, based on interviews of approximately 8,000 voters this year.

That finding helps explain the fraught tone of the campaign, with warnings from each side of catastrophe if the other wins, and the continued close nature of the contest. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each have weaknesses, but voting has become more and more tribal, and voters are unlikely to shift based on a particular candidate’s abilities.

Those attempts to court Latino voters appear to be faltering for Donald Trump. 

A Univision poll of Latino voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Nevada released Tuesday shows Hillary Clinton trouncing the Republican nominee among this critical voting bloc. 

In Florida, Trump trails Clinton by 24 percentage points — the closest margin out of the four states. Clinton leads Trump 68% to 18% in Arizona, 65% to 19% in Nevada and 62% to 17% in Colorado.

Florida, Colorado and Nevada are three battleground states where Latinos are likely to make up more than 10% of the electorate this year.

Trump’s invective this election cycle — he denounced Mexicans as “rapists” and drug runners in his first campaign speech —  has hindered his standing with Latinos.

Throughout the Republican primary, Trump insisted that anyone in the country illegally would be deported under his administration. He also questioned the constitutional guarantee of U.S. citizenship to anybody born here.

In an attempt to become more appealing to Latinos, he has dialed back, saying that mass deportation is unlikely and that he would focus on immigrants without legal status who have criminal records. But he has yet to clarify what his immigration policy would entail, and many on his Hispanic advisory council withdrew their support after a hard-line speech last month on immigration. 

While Clinton's support with Latinos far outpaces Trump, she does lag behind the level of support President Obama had among Latinos around this time four years ago, according to the Univision survey.

In each of those states, Obama, who campaigned for her in Philadelphia on Tuesday, outpaced Clinton's numbers when it comes to Latino support by an average of 8 percentage points. 

Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence visited his GOP allies on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but quickly found himself in a debate over what's worse: Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" label or Donald Trump's support from white nationalist David Duke.

The argument is not likely to end well for either presidential candidate.

Clinton has potentially offended countless undecided voters after she lumped "half" of those backing Trump in a "basket of deplorables."

But team Trump is not pleased with having to spend another day trying to distance itself from the white nationalists eagerly supporting his campaign.

​​​​​"I have no idea why this man keeps coming up," Pence told reporters when questions about Duke's support dogged him for a second day.

"Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly." Pence said. "We have said that we don't want his support and we do not want the support of people who think like him."

Pence, a former congressman, brings a mild-mannered affability to Trump's operation, a reminder of his political assets as a running mate to the blustery nominee.

Pence quickly pivoted to an attack on Clinton, saying her comments were so disdainful of Trump's supporters that they disqualify her from being president. He called on her to retract the comments and apologize.

"I've never heard a major-party candidate in the United States speak about the American people with such contempt," Pence said.

"Millions of Americans were shocked and saddened to see Hillary Clinton refer to people across this country as a 'basket of deplorables' in a prepared speech before wealthy donors."

As for Duke, the former Klansman now running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, Pence has declined to say he's "deplorable." Pence said he's not one for name-calling.

"We live in a free country and people of ill motives can associate themselves with politics," he said.

Duke, however, has embraced the label, tweeting: "Of course I'm deplorable, according to the media."

For Hillary Clinton, the most politically damaging aspect of her recent health scare is not any new revelation but the reemergence of an old pattern.

The image of her buckling at the knees Sunday pushed doubts about her personal well-being from the crazy realm of conspiracy mongering squarely into the mainstream of serious discussion.

Making things much worse, though, was her campaign’s handling of the episode — the delays, the half-explanations, the grudging trickle of information — which played to some deep concerns going back to Clinton’s White House days and controversies over openness and candor.

Far and away the biggest impediment standing between Clinton and the White House is the fact that a great many voters, including some with every intention of voting for the former first lady and secretary of State, simply do not trust her.

The events Sunday did nothing to reassure them.