“Hillary Clinton is determined to get under” Donald Trump’s “skin at Monday’s debate, and is testing attack lines to try to rattle him. …Clinton has a thick dossier on…Trump after months of research and meetings with her debate team, including analysis and assumptions about his psychological makeup that Clinton advisers described as critical to understanding how to knock…Trump off balance.” Clinton “has concluded that catching Mr. Trump in a lie during the debate is not enough to beat him: She needs the huge television audience to see him as temperamentally unfit for the presidency, and that she has the power to unhinge him. …Clinton” is “largely devoting the next four days to mock debate sessions and drills in New York.” (New York Times)
SEVERING TRUMP FROM THE GOP. In May, a team of Clinton “aides in Brooklyn set out on a new approach, outlined for the Democratic National Committee in an internal email. … The email, made public along with 20,000 others on WikiLeaks as part of a massive cyberattack on the DNC this summer, is one of about two dozen exchanges that reveal a running tension this spring over the campaign’s decision to ‘disaggregate’ Trump from the Republican Party. The strategic shift made back in May didn’t just drive a wedge between Clinton’s team and the officials tasked with coordinating the party across the states. It fundamentally upended the way Democrats talk about Republicans. … Months later, Clinton’s strategy is unrecognizable from the first year of her campaign. She doesn’t tie Trump to the rest of the Republican Party.” (BuzzFeed)
MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE. “Bill and Hillary Clinton are expanding their Westchester spread by buying the house next door, The Post has learned. The Clintons shelled out $1.16 million for the three-bedroom, 3,631-square-foot, ranch-style home set on 1.51 leafy acres on Old House Lane in Chappaqua.” (New York Post) “The purchase makes it easier for the United States Secret Service to protect the former president and possible future commander in chief.” (CNN)
PRESSING ON TRUMP’S RUSSIAN TIES. Various Clinton supporters held a “conference call with reporters about Trump’s ties to Russia” on Thursday. The Clinton campaign is seeking “to keep talk of Trump’s unknown business ties to Russia and his praise for Vladimir Putin in the news.” (Washington Post)
ON AIR. A new Clinton TV ad, “Mirrors,” targets Trump for his offensive comments about women, and how they could impact how young women view themselves. (release)
ENDORSEMENT. The Los Angeles Times endorsed Clinton. The headline reads: Hillary Clinton would make a sober, smart and pragmatic president. Donald Trump would be a catastrophe.”
ACA PUBLIC OPTION. “Senate moderates, including Tim Kaine, have not signed onto resolution to add a government-run insurance plan to Obamacare. …Kaine’s absence is especially striking since Hillary Clinton embraced the public option in July.” (Politico)