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On stump for Clinton, Sanders will try to rally young voters Sep. 16, 2016, 3:52 pm by Jasper Craven Leave a Comment Bernie Sanders appears with Hillary Clinton to endorse her presidential candidacy in July in Portsmouth, N.H. File photo by Jasper Craven/VTDigger As national presidential polls tighten, the army of young voters who boosted Bernie Sanders throughout the primaries remains skeptical of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. In response, the former secretary of state is calling on Sanders to rally his troops — a voting bloc now seen as potentially crucial in ensuring the White House remains in Democratic hands. More than 2 million young people voted for the Vermont senator throughout the primaries, while Clinton and Republican Donald Trump netted a combined total of 1.6 million votes from millennials. While Sanders has endorsed Clinton and excoriated Trump as a bigot, a significant bloc of his supporters has yet to coalesce around her candidacy, polls suggest. Instead, many are flocking to the third party candidacies of Gary Johnson, a Libertarian, and Jill Stein of the Green Party. A recent New York Times poll showed that 26 percent of voters under 30 said they planned to vote for Johnson while 10 percent said they sided with Stein. In an interview Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Sanders acknowledged that he has long been a third party candidate, and had no negative words for Johnson or Stein. But he urged his supporters to realize the stakes of the election. “Before you cast a protest vote — because either Clinton or Trump will become president — think hard about it,” he said. “This is not a governor’s race. This is not a state legislative race. This is the presidency of the United States.” “Let us elect Hillary Clinton as president,” Sanders added, “and the day after, let us mobilize millions of people around the progressive agenda.” While Clinton is outperforming Trump among 18- to 35-year-olds, her margins are not nearly as strong as those of Barack Obama in past elections, according to the polling news site FiveThirtyEight. As the race enters its final weeks, Team Clinton is strategizing on how best to win millennials, and Sanders is emerging as one of the campaign’s best weapons. His first campaign appearance on Clinton’s behalf came on Labor Day, when he crisscrossed New Hampshire to urge his supporters to embrace his former opponent. Sanders won the Granite State by 20 points and will likely be Clinton’s most effective surrogate there. Recent polls suggest Trump, who also won New Hampshire in the primaries, is within striking distance of Clinton there. Over the weekend, Sanders will head west and is scheduled to speak in Ohio, a battleground state where Clinton appears to be losing ground. While the Vermont senator didn’t win the Buckeye State, a CNN exit poll at the time reported him picking up 81 percent of the youth vote. Sanders’ stump schedule will include a speech at the University of Akron, as well as stops in Akron, Kent and Canton. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is also scheduled to give speeches in Ohio for Clinton this weekend. A Clinton press release regarding the trip says “Sanders will emphasize Clinton’s plans to support millennials, including making free community college and debt-free college available to all Americans, protecting access to health care for young Americans, (and) reforming our immigration system.” So far, Sanders’ pitch to his supporters has had less to do with Clinton’s merits than with Trump’s shortcomings. Sanders made this appeal in an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Thursday. “Even if you have concerns about Clinton — you don’t like this aspect — I understand that,” Sanders said. “But look at the hard issues that impact your lives and your neighbors’ lives and then think whether or not you want Donald Trump to become president. I think if you frame it in that way, people will end up voting for Clinton.” Besides Sanders’ efforts, Clinton is scheduled to deliver a speech in Philadelphia on Monday aimed at responding to the concerns of millennials. A big selling point will likely be her updated college plan, which includes key ideas Sanders pushed during the primaries. In addition, The New York Times reported that the Clinton campaign is courting Al Gore to speak on the dangers of third party voting. In the 2000 general election, many blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader for spoiling Gore’s candidacy. Nader received roughly 90,000 votes in the key state of Florida, and George W. Bush officially won the state by 537 votes. “I can assure you from personal experience that every vote counts,” said Gore, who until now has been largely silent this election. “The stakes are high for so many Americans. So I will vote for Hillary Clinton, and I strongly encourage others to vote for her as well.”

(CNN) —Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's odds of winning the White House have dropped 14 points since Friday, according to CNN's Political Prediction Market. Clinton's odds were at 72% Friday but dropp ed two percentage points following her comments Friday that you can put "half" of Donald Trump's supporters into a "basket of deplorables" -- people who are racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic. However, a more significant drop came later, as fallout over her "deplorables" comment escalated and video of Clinton stumbling emerged. Her campaign said she is battling pneumonia. CNN's Political Prediction Market is an online game administered by the company Pivit, which functions like an online market and allows Internet users to predict the outcome of the election. It is not to be confused with polls from real voters. Clinton's odds of winning the presidency fell from 70% to 65% late Sunday morning upon abruptly leaving a September 11 memorial event after feeling "overheated," according to her campaign. Video later revealed Clinton's wobbly exit out of the event at Ground Zero and her campaign announced Sunday evening that the Democratic nominee is battling pneumonia. Clinton's numbers dropped to 62% by Sunday night and fell further to 58% Monday afternoon, as the Trump campaign slammed her for her "deplorables" comment. Meanwhile, Trump's odds of winning the presidency jumped from 28% on Friday to 42% on Monday afternoon.

(CNN)Hillary Clinton was preparing to announce her vice presidential running mate as early as Friday, aides said, with their first joint appearance expected Saturday in Miami. But then an attack in Germany appeared to put their time line in flux. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has emerged as a leading contender after a methodical search, several Democrats close to the campaign say, receiving the stamp of approval from President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. But the decision is Hillary Clinton's and hers alone, and a critical one in her quest to defeat Donald Trump and win the White House in November. In light of a shooting rampage in Munich, the Clinton campaign is discussing how to balance their plan to pull the conversation away from the GOP convention -- and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's acceptance speech -- to her vice presidential pick, according to a source familiar with deliberations. The campaign was going to put out the name of Clinton's running mate Friday afternoon, likely by a text message to supporters. But now they are dealing with a conundrum: how to avoid a split-screen situation with Clinton announcing her running mate alongside the attack in Germany. They considered the difficulties the Trump campaign had balancing the announcement of his running mate, Mike Pence, with the Nice attack, to show he could not recognize the significance of what was happening in France. They're trying to avoid same optics, especially since one of her assertions in campaign is she is the steady hand more equipped to deal with serious matters of international affairs and national security. The former secretary of state slowly whittled down her list to four top contenders: Kaine; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Labor Secretary Tom Perez; and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Clinton will call a number of the finalists who weren't selected for the vice presidential job before the pick is officially announced, according to multiple aides. John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, will call some of the vice presidential options who did not make it into the top tier. In selecting the battleground of Florida to make her announcement, Clinton is hoping to seize the spotlight from Republicans after their convention in Cleveland. She is set to visit Orlando and Tampa on Friday, but her new partner is not expected to join her until Saturday at a rally here at Florida International University, where the student body is more than half Hispanic. The Clinton campaign watched the closing day of the Republican convention with great interest, particularly Trump's acceptance speech, in part to gauge the best timing of her announcement. Her campaign is trying to rally excitement around the Democratic ticket heading into the party's convention next week in Philadelphia, aides said, in addition to blunting Trump's post-convention momentum. For her part, Clinton has intentionally held her pick close to the chest since the vetting process ended this week, Democrats close to the process said, in hopes of keeping her choice a secret until the last possible moment. All the finalists met with Clinton at different times during this process, Democrats said, including Perez, Booker and Warren during one-on-one meetings last Friday at Clinton's home in Washington. Clinton started her vice presidential process before her primary fight with Bernie Sanders ended with what aides described as a "fluid" list, including several potential running mates. Several were eliminated through the process, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and James Stravidis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO and a retired four-star Navy admiral.

Story highlights A majority of Americans disagree with the FBI's decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton, according to a poll Opinions on the FBI's decision were sharply divided along partisan lines Washington, DC (CNN)A majority of Americans say they disagree with the FBI's decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, according to a new poll. A Washington Post/ABC News poll, released Monday, found that 56% of American adults disapprove of the FBI's decision, while 35% said they approved. But a majority -- 58% -- also said the issue would not affect their vote in the 2016 presidential election. Opinions on the FBI's decision were sharply divided along partisan lines. According to the poll, nearly 90% of Republicans said Clinton should have been charged, while only about 30% of Democrats said the same. Republicans were most likely to say the non-indictment would affect their vote in the presidential election -- 47% say it makes them less likely to support Clinton, compared to 10% of Democrats. Independents were more split, with 58% saying the issue made no difference for their vote and 33% said it made them less likely to support Clinton. RELATED: Who is Hillary Clinton? Last week, FBI director James Comey announced that the agency would not recommend that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges related to Clinton's use of of a private email server during her term as Secretary of State, capping a year-long investigation into the matter that has roiled the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's White House bid. Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted the recommendation of the FBI not to bring charges. The Washington Post/ABC News poll was conducted July 6-7 and surveyed a random national sample of 619 adults. The margin of error is +/- 5 points.