The Hill’s 12:30 Report

by Cate Martel - 10/17/16 12:32 PM ET

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RELEASED LATE THIS MORNING — CAN YOU HEAR THAT? IN THE DISTANCE? IS THAT HILLARY MUTTERING FROM BROOKLYN?: Via The Hill’s Julian Hattem, the FBI released roughly 100 new pages of material from its investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s private email server and the possibility that classified information may have been mishandled while Clinton was secretary of State. Backstory: Republicans refused to accept the FBI’s conclusion not to press charges against Clinton. Responding to pressure, the FBI released some of the notes from its investigation, including a summary of Clinton’s FBI interview. Now, the feds are releasing additional material to shed light on their probe. http://bit.ly/2elVPtW

OH, YEP. THIS SHOULD GO OVER WELL WITH REPUBLICANS. SWIMMINGLY, IN FACT!: A State Department official pressured the FBI to alter the “Top Secret” classification of an email regarding possible arrests in the Benghazi attacks because the code “caused problems,” FBI officials told investigators during the agency’s probe into Clinton’s email server. The two unnamed officials reported an alleged “quid pro quo” arrangement with the State Department, under which the FBI would declassify the document in exchange for expanded authorities abroad. Both the FBI and the State Department have pushed back fiercely on the allegations. http://bit.ly/2e9XmFU

Full text from the FBI, if you’re into that kind of thing: http://bit.ly/2dmyDe7

It’s Monday, and we have 22 days left of this campaign madness — hopefully! I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of what you missed this morning and what’s on tap for the rest of the day. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@digital-staging.thehill.com, @CateMartel and on Facebook.

{mosads}SPORTS TRIVIA FROM FRIDAY — A SAD D.C. BASEBALL STAT: Joseph Carretta of Pittsburgh was the first to answer correctly! 1924 was the last time a D.C.-based baseball team won a playoff series. 🙁 Some of you guessed 1933, when the Washington Senators lost in the World Series. But back then, the American League and National League teams with the best regular season records advanced directly to the World Series. So the Senators didn’t actually win a playoff series that year. More info (if you’re really over work today and want to read more about sports): http://nyti.ms/2eeEVhx

GETTING TRACTION — OH HELLO? SECRET SERVICE? SUP?!: A Trump supporter at a rally said, “Hillary needs to be taken out. If she gets into government, I’ll do everything in my power to take her out of power — which if I have to be a patriot, I will…” http://bit.ly/2dZunFq

LATEST IN WIKILEAKS — BOOM, POW, POW: WikiLeaks tweeted this morning that “[WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.” http://bit.ly/2egkF3x

OH AND…: Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) cheered on the release of stolen emails saying, “Thank God for WikiLeaks.” http://bit.ly/2e17tA6

REAL TALK — THIS IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: Via The Hill’s Niall Stanage, the Republican Party is in crisis mode, with everyone wondering what the party’s future holds. The forces behind Donald Trump’s movement are unlikely to disappear, even if Hillary Clinton annihilates him on Election Day. Here’s an interesting read on what that future could look like: http://bit.ly/2di2N7i

NEW TODAY — FOX ANCHOR COMES OUT: In a Huffington Post interview with Ryan Grim, Fox News anchor Shep Smith opened up about his sexuality as he defended former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.

— Smith said that reports that Ailes had prevented him from coming out publicly several years ago were false. “That’s not true. He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father,” he said. “I trusted him with my career and with ― I trusted him and trusts were betrayed. People outside this company can’t know [how painful that betrayal was]. This place has its enemies, but inside, it was very personal, and very scarring and horrifying.” http://huff.to/2dIK7K3

TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN STRATEGY IN A NUTSHELL: Via The Hill’s Ben Kamisar, Donald Trump is now focusing on four swing states: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Why these states are even more important now: Falling short in or losing once-Republican strongholds of Utah or Arizona would force Trump to string together a handful of other swing states to make up ground. Polling for each: http://bit.ly/2e0V0MJ

NEXT STORYLINE OF THE CYCLE — VOTER FRAUD: Donald Trump is getting his ducks in a row, preparing for a scenario where he loses. He tweeted this morning, “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!” And a new Politico/Morning Consult poll shows that 41 percent (!) of voters think the election could be “stolen” from Trump because of fraud. http://bit.ly/2dIyuma

NO IT ISN’T! YES IT IS! NO IT ISN’T: Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who supports Trump, disagrees. “This election isn’t rigged against Trump.” http://cnn.it/2ecWmQo

PREPARE YOURSELF — 2016 MAY NEVER GO AWAY IF THIS HAPPENS: Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly contacted a top dealmaker in the media industry in recent months about creating a Trump television network. But past a short conversation, there have been no other developments. http://bit.ly/2eJyXsC

WHAT TO KNOW IN INTERNATIONAL NEWS TODAY — ADVANCE ON ISIS-HELD TERRITORY: Via The New York Times’s Michael R. Gordon and Tim Arango, “Kurdish forces on Monday morning began advancing on a string of villages east of Mosul, the start of a long-awaited campaign to reclaim Iraq’s second-largest city from the Islamic State, which seized it more than two years ago, officials said.” Goal: Retake 10 villages in the next few weeks or months with 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops and with American warplanes providing air support. http://nyti.ms/2egoIwO

NOTABLE TWEETS:

Tech in Asia
Twitter is now worth less than its Chinese clone http://bit.ly/2dmyyag

ON TAP:

12:45 p.m. EDT: White House press secretary Josh Earnest delivers the daily press briefing.

2:45 p.m. EDT: Chelsea Clinton campaigns in Racine, Wis.

2:15 p.m. EDT: Bill Clinton campaigns in Keene, N.H.

2:30 p.m. EDT: President Obama, Vice President Biden and Jill Biden release the cancer moonshot report.

Tweet from healthcare reporter David Nather: “Feels like Biden’s cancer moonshot report is going to read like a collection of his speeches.” http://bit.ly/2dIEtaB

4 p.m. EDT: Bernie Sanders campaigns for Clinton at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

7 p.m. EDT: Donald Trump holds a rally in Green Bay, Wis.

2:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday: Tim Kaine campaigns with his wife, Anne Holton, in Detroit.

3 p.m. EDT Tuesday: Donald Trump holds a rally in Colorado Springs, Colo.

3 p.m. EDT: Bill Clinton campaigns in Blue Bell, Pa.

5 p.m. EDT Tuesday: Donald Trump holds a rally in Grand Junction, Colo.

WHAT TO WATCH:

Rescheduled — Trump-inspired “Law and Order: SVU” episode: NBC’s “Law and Order” franchise has a history of using real headlines for stories. This season, they have an episode titled “Unstoppable,” which features a wealthy businessman running for president. Well, because of backlash, NBC has rescheduled the airdate from Oct. 26 to after the election. Backstory from Variety: http://bit.ly/2dIriqk

NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF…:

Today is National Pasta Day!

OH, HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE SO GREAT: Via ESPN, the NFL enacted a new social media policy last week that forbids teams from posting highlights from television directly to social media or turning highlights into GIFs. Teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns are mocking this policy with some pretty funny social media posts. Worth checking out for a good laugh: http://es.pn/2dv3Jnf

And with that, we have our winner of Halloween — yes, already. This video of a kid in his costume has gone viral with over 130K retweets so far: http://bzfd.it/2ecMvdh

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Tags Bernie Sanders Bill Clinton Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Tim Kaine