Clinton’s Hamptons fundraising blitz is high-energy, high-profit

The east is green

Donald Trump keeps questioning her stamina, but when it comes to fundraising, Hillary Clinton seems as energetic as ever. A three-day spree in the Hamptons is yielding quite a haul — $11 million and still counting for her campaign and allied Democratic Party committees.

Clinton had at least six events scheduled, starting on Sunday. Donors at a garden party in Sag Harbor paid $33,400 apiece, and the top ticket for a reception hosted by singers Jimmy Buffett and Jon Bon Jovi Tuesday is $100,000. That includes “premium seating” and a private reception with the candidate, Newsday’s Laura Figueroa reports.

At a Monday stop, Clinton talked with contributors about her upcoming debates with Donald Trump.

“I’m running against someone who will say or do anything, and who knows what that may be?” she said.

Trump leaps at Weiner news

Trump was quick to offer an official campaign statement on Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s announcement of her separation from serial sexter Anthony Weiner.

“Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him,” said Trump, who then went on to his so far evidence-free theory that Abedin blabbed state secrets to Weiner.

“Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” he said. “Who knows what he learned and who he told?” See Emily Ngo’s story for Newsday.

The take-away: Dodge city

In a normal election, the presidential candidates’ talk-show surrogates would have well-crafted responses to easily anticipated questions.

But this time around, writes Newsday’s Dan Janison, the messages have become so murky and defensive that it’s almost embarrassing to listen to stand-ins for Trump and Clinton try to deliver them.

Trump to speak at black church

Trump will visit the Great Faith Ministries Church in Detroit Saturday to appear with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, who runs the Impact Network, the only African-American-owned and -operated national Christian television network.

Up to now, Trump’s pitches to black voters have been delivered in front of overwhelmingly white audiences. And the growing list of fiascoes on this front now includes Trump surrogate and pastor Mark Burns tweeting a satiric image of Clinton in blackface and subsequently apologizing. 

Latest from the polls

A Monmouth University poll shows Clinton with a 7-point lead — 46% to 39% — with 7% for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 2% for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

Emerson College polls have Clinton up 5 points in Michigan, 3 points in Pennsylvania and tied with Trump in Ohio.

What else is happening

• Neera Tanden, a top Clinton policy adviser, tells Politico that Bernie Sanders’ primary-season attacks on her character caused “significant damage to Hillary’s negatives” among voters, from which she has yet to recover.
• Trump weighed in on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem. “Maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try, it’s not gonna happen,” he told a Seattle radio show.
• Clinton released an agenda to put mental health on a par with physical health “when it comes to access to care or quality of treatment.”
• When Corey Lewandowski was fired as Trump’s campaign manager, security escorted him from Trump Tower. Now, he speaks to Trump almost daily and gets a Secret Service pin for access to restricted areas at rallies, ABC News says.
• Trump’s new 30-second ad on the economy paints a bleak current picture and says that Clinton would bring “more of the same, but worse.” The campaign said it is buying more than $10 million in ad time in nine states.
• Trump's ad clashes with GOP governors' claims in swing states that they are turning things around, the WSJ reports. 
• The GOP nominee's appeal to women, minorities and LGBTQ often involves setting one group against the other, the Washington Post notes.
• The Citizens United case is having its ripples felt in this election six years after it was decided. Now a US court moved to prevent the group from concealing donor info from state AG Eric Schneiderman.