The Trail 2016: Man your battle stations

by Ben Kamisar - 09/07/16 6:00 PM ET

Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will take the battle for the White House to the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier Wednesday night, as the two look to flex their military muscles in a candidate forum.

Trump previewed the event during a Wednesday speech where he attacked Clinton’s foreign policy experience, which many see as her strength. Labeling her “unstable” and “trigger-happy,” he prosecuted the charge that she failed her commander-in-chief audition with a legacy from her time at the State Department that “produced only turmoil, suffering and death.”

But Clinton will likely seek to fight back tonight, as she and her allies have long sought to cast Trump as too dangerous to trust with the nuclear codes and an improper steward of troops and veterans.

Check out our own Jonathan Easley’s preview of tonight’s 8 p.m. ET clash and be sure to stay tuned to The Hill for coverage of the entire event.

On top of that, we’ll have more from our fantastic team including on Senate Democrats looking to light a fire under their party to retake the body, how Republicans on Capitol Hill view the direction of Donald Trump’s campaign, whether Clinton can energize her base to turn out and more from our interview with independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

EARLY VOTE CHANGES SPARK EARLY WORRIES: The Hill’s Reid Wilson reports: Election officials in nearly two dozen North Carolina counties have approved reductions in early-voting hours ahead of November’s elections, cuts that Democrats warn could disenfranchise many low-income voters.

IS TRUMP LOSING UNIONS?: The Hill’s Tim Devaney reports: An internal poll from the AFL-CIO shows that Trump’s support from rank-and-file union members in battleground states is dropping.

FUNDRAISING WOES: The Huffington Post reports: Donald Trump held a fundraiser for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi after she chose not to further an investigation into Trump’s controversial real-estate seminars.

FRIENDS IN HIGH (BRASS) PLACES: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Hillary Clinton’s campaign rolled out endorsements from almost 100 retired generals and admirals the day after Trump announced 88 retired military endorsements of his own.

TEXAS TWO-STEP: The Hill’s Kyle Balluck reports: The Dallas Morning News, which has endorsed the GOP presidential candidate in every race since World War II, announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton one day after it lambasted Donald Trump in an editorial.

FBI DEFENDS LONG WEEKEND DUMP: The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports: FBI Director James Comey pushed back against assertions that politics dictated his agency’s Friday afternoon release of a report on Hillary Clinton’s email investigation.

SECOND GUESSING: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry, the House Armed Services chairman, admitted that he had concerns about Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy.

ODDS AND ENDS

SANDERS GROUP ENDORSES DOWN BALLOT: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: The nonprofit birthed out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid is backing a handful of progressive state-level candidates, as well as one U.S. House candidate in Wisconsin.

PRESSING CHARGE: The Hill’s Timothy Cama reports: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is facing vandalism charges after a protest in North Dakota.

STUCK ON YOU: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin listed a placeholder name as his running mate while he decided on a permanent pick. But in some states, it’s too late to change the ballot, meaning he will be saddled with the placeholder.

CROSS THE LINE: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: President George H.W. Bush’s Health and Human Services secretary is backing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, saying that while her enthusiasm “is somewhat tempered,” Clinton is an “infinitely better” choice than Trump.

POLL POSITION

CLINTON HOLDING ON: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Hillary Clinton holds just a 2-point lead in a new national poll from George Washington University, within the margin of error.

TIGHT RACE IN SUNSHINE STATE: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Both presidential candidates are effectively tied in a new Public Policy Polling survey out of Florida.

ARIZONA TURNING BLUE?: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Arizona is also too close to call, with a less than 2-point lead for Hillary Clinton in the new Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll, within the margin of error.

TROOPS FOR TRUMP: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton in a new NBC/Survey Monkey poll of military and veterans.

BORDER WALL? NO THANKS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Almost six in 10 likely voters don’t back Donald Trump’s proposal for a wall on America’s southern border, with a similar number doubting the likelihood that Mexico would pay for it, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

THE DAILY TRUMP

BLACKLIST REDLINED: The Hill’s Joe Concha reports: Donald Trump’s campaign has stopped denying credentials to various media outlets, a practice it maintained for months in response to what it viewed as unfair coverage.

HARSH WORDS: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid bashed Donald Trump as an “American nightmare” and a “bigot” Wednesday.

ADIOS: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: The Mexican finance minister is reportedly resigning after helping to arrange Donald Trump’s visit to the country last week.

NERVOUS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, said in a radio interview that Hillary Clinton’s recent coughing fit made him nervous.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I accept his birthplace … I just don’t know where he’s coming from on foreign policy and on economics and on ObamaCare.”

— Republican vice presidential hopeful Mike Pence, breaking from running mate Donald Trump, who has not repudiated previous questions about Obama’s birthplace.

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

BIG MONTH: The Hill’s Jonathan Swan reports: Outside groups backing Senate Republicans had their biggest fundraising month ever, bringing in $42 million.

SEVEN FIGURES: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) is out with a new biographical TV ad ahead of November’s primary election fight for Republican Sen. David Vitter’s opening Senate seat. While not mentioned in the ad, Fleming has made impeaching the IRS commissioner a main piece of his campaign.

MONEY WATCH

ALL IN THE FAMILY: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of a Republican mega-donor increasingly wielding his influence inside Donald Trump’s campaign, will take over daily operations for a pro-Trump super-PAC.

AIR WAR HEATS UP TARGETING HISPANICS: The Hill’s Jonathan Swan reports: A handful of groups, including the Clinton campaign, are slated to bombard Hispanic voters with ads in battleground states in hopes of tilting the scales in the presidential race. And another group is hitting Republican Rep. Joe Heck with a Spanish-language ad in his race for Nevada’s open Senate seat.

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW

(All times Eastern)

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will appear at the Commander-in-Chief forum sponsored by MSNBC and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and broadcast from the U.S.S. Intrepid Museum in New York at 8 p.m.

Hillary Clinton will campaign in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday at 10 a.m. and then address the National Baptist Convention in Kansas City, Mo., at 6 p.m.

Donald Trump will swing through Cleveland, Ohio, for an event at the Cleveland Arts and social Sciences Academy at 2 p.m.

TWEET OF THE DAY

I hope voters get to see former GOP Governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld on the debate stages this fall.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 7, 2016