Ahead of Party Meeting, Hillary Clinton Sends Memos to Democrats Detailing Her Strengths

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Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign stop in Cleveland on Thursday.Credit Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

On the eve of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting on Friday, her campaign released four memos from the first voting states that detail the deep networks she has built in each one.

The four “state of the race” memos are a jumble of numbers and factoids from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

They outline the contours of months of organizational effort, a campaign foundation that is stronger than the one she built in 2008. But the memos, coming amid the looming possibility of a campaign by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., are more than a reminder to any anxious Democrats about the depth of her operation: They are also a blinking warning sign to Mr. Biden’s supporters.

For instance, the Iowa memo says that the campaign has been “engaging volunteers early” and “is now able to grow and do outreach to an increasing number of Iowans every day.” Citing a “volunteer leadership model from previous campaigns,” the team “continues to empower volunteers that were identified early on in the campaign. They are now phonebank and canvass captains or engagement directors who are reaching out to new members of the community and will be critical to building the structure needed to win the caucus.”

The Iowa memo also notes that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of the state, has endorsed Mrs. Clinton — the first member of the Obama administration to do so, a gesture many saw as timed to Mr. Biden’s considerations.

Her current closest challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has drawn large crowds to his rallies, but it remains to be seen whether he can convert that energy and his low-dollar donor base into a sturdy organization for the early states and beyond.

In South Carolina, the state memo says, more than 10,000 people have signed commitment cards.

“Through half a dozen town halls and forums, Hillary Clinton has made it a priority to listen to the concerns of South Carolinians,” the memo states. “Many of her ideas have come directly from the Palmetto State on issues like investments in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and technical schools, growing our apprenticeship programs, and strengthening and expanding programs that serve rural communities with high poverty rates.”

Draft Joe Biden Meeting Draws Small Crowd as Democrats Gather

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Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in the Oval Office in April.Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

MINNEAPOLIS – They weren’t exactly beating down the door shouting “Run, Joe, run!”

Only about 15 members of the Democratic National Committee – out of hundreds gathered here on Thursday for a party conclave – showed up for a noon briefing with advisers of Draft Biden, an independent group encouraging a presidential run by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. A briefing at 3 p.m. drew more than 25 Democrats.

Yet if the numbers were modest, the enthusiasm of those assembled was anything but.

“Biden’s great, terrific, and he would fill a slot that’s currently missing among our candidates,” said Larry Taylor, a Democratic committeeman from Oregon, after the first briefing. “Hillary Clinton has strong experience, but she’s just missing the ability to connect with people that Elizabeth Warren has,” he added, referring to the liberal senator from Massachusetts. “I think Biden can connect, while also bringing experience and knowledge and stature.”

After the briefings, which were closed to reporters, participants said they asked when the vice president would announce his plans (the Draft Biden representatives had no inside information, but Mr. Biden’s decision is expected in the next month) and about his priorities (fighting for the middle class and championing universal health care were among those mentioned).

“I liked everything I heard,” said Jake Quinn, a committeeman from North Carolina. “I’d like to see Joe Biden in the race – his poll numbers definitely look good,” he added, referring to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday that showed him rivaling, if not topping, Mrs. Clinton’s strength against potential Republican candidates in 2016.

Several Democrats said they were struck most by the group’s advisers’ saying that Mr. Biden would “continue to push the progressive policies of President Obama more than any other Democrat,” as Patricia Frost-Brooks, a committeewoman from Ohio, put it.

“It was very clear that Biden would run as President Obama’s partner and ally and seek to build on his record,” said Ms. Frost-Brooks, who described herself as a strong supporter of the president.

Josh Alcorn, who led the briefings as senior adviser to Draft Biden, confirmed that he told the Democrats that, in essence, if they love President Obama, they would love a President Biden.

“I think Vice President Biden’s been the last guy in the room on so many major decisions that the president has made, and there’s this connection and bond that they have,” Mr. Alcorn said. “So if someone can push forward on the Obama agenda, on the Obama-Biden policy framework, it’s the vice president.”

More than Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama’s former secretary of state?

Mr. Alcorn replied that he believed that other Democratic candidates would not factor into Mr. Biden’s ultimate decision, adding, “The vice president is uniquely positioned to continue and build on the Obama record.”

As for the relatively small turnout at the briefings, Mr. Alcorn said he had no expectations about how many would show up.

“I was enthused by the turnout, and we’ll see how our two sessions go on Friday, and as we walk around the meeting hallways,” Mr. Alcorn said.

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Hillary Clinton Reaches Deal With Democratic Party on Fund-Raising

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Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigning Thursday at Case Western University in Cleveland.Credit Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times

Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Democratic National Committee have finalized a joint fund-raising agreement after months of negotiations, opening the door for the party to gain a significant head start on Republicans at roping in big checks from Democratic donors.

The agreement will allow Mrs. Clinton to participate in events that raise money simultaneously for her campaign and for the Democratic National Committee, allowing the party to capitalize on her celebrity and popularity with donors to fill the rooms at party events.

While party committees can accept far larger contributions than candidates — $33,400 a year versus the $2,700 Mrs. Clinton can accept for the primary — donors are sometimes more inclined to write those checks if a popular candidate or elected official is attending the event.

Party officials and a Clinton spokeswoman said the party organizations would face no restrictions on spending the money aside from those already mandated by law and that the cash and would be available no matter who the Democratic nominee was.

“Hillary Clinton has always been a believer in party-building and is thrilled to be able to partner with the D.N.C. in order to leverage her fund-raising efforts on behalf of the national and state parties’ work to elect a Democrat to the White House in 2016,” Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

The decision follows commitments by four state Democratic parties this week to jointly raise funds with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. The finalization of the agreement was announced at a D.N.C. meeting in Minneapolis on Thursday and was reported by The Washington Post. For any jointly-raised contribution, Mrs. Clinton will get the first $2,700 and the D.N.C. the next $33,400. Participating state parties would split any cash that remained.

The decision has even more import thanks to new rules passed by Congress that permit parties to raise large checks for new accounts reserved for legal fees, real estate costs and the quadrennial national conventions. Unlike in past years, party officials will be able to solicit commitments of up to a million dollars for each election cycle from their most generous donors.

Whether Mrs. Clinton and her party can capitalize on the agreement quickly remains to be seen. The party contribution limits apply annually, meaning that checks for the 2015 calendar year cannot be raised retroactively after Dec. 31. August and December are traditionally slow fund-raising months, effectively giving the Democrats September, October, and November to maximize the opportunity.

No events have been scheduled yet, a D.N.C. spokeswoman said.

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Pull on My Hair, Donald Trump Says: ‘I Don’t Wear a Toupee’

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Donald J. Trump campaigning Thursday in Greenville, S.C.Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times

Donald J. Trump brought his free-association presidential campaign to Greenville, S.C., on Thursday, following up a cavalier reference to the “silent majority” that supports him with an annotated reading of a New York Times front-page article about him and then with an invitation to a woman in the crowd to yank his hair (“I don’t wear a toupee — it’s my hair”).

Mr. Trump then moved on to discussion about how terrible a candidate Jeb Bush is, about how he has the appropriate energy level to be president (“We need tough tone”) about how “beautiful” the wall that he wants to build on the Mexican border will be, and — for his South Carolina audience — about how their senator, Lindsey Graham, is stuck at zero in the presidential polls while “even Pataki” — George, the former New York governor — had “an arrow that was pointing up.”

At a certain point, Mr. Trump also talked about the beauty of the Qatar airport, before adding, to the bewilderment of many in the crowd, a reference to a New York airport.

“I’m thinking La Guardia oy yoy yoy,” he said.

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Donald Trump’s Latest Target: The New York Times

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Trump Reads The Times at a Rally

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, reacted to an article about himself in The New York Times on Thursday at a campaign rally in Greenville, S.C.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date August 27, 2015. Photo by Travis Dove for The New York Times.

Theatricality is a staple of Donald J. Trump’s campaign events. On Thursday, during a speech in Greenville, S.C., he deployed a new prop: a copy of The New York Times, from which he read, on and off, for about eight minutes — alternately praising and mocking a front-page article about him. When he was done, Mr. Trump dramatically flung the newspaper into the air, allowing it to slowly descend over the audience.

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Joe Biden Has Meeting With Head of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

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Richard Trumka, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., at an economic conference last year in Washington.Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is meeting Thursday with Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., a person briefed on the get-together confirmed.

The agenda for the meeting, to be held at the vice president’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, was unclear. But it came at Mr. Biden’s request, according to the person briefed, and it will take place as the vice president is seriously considering whether to run for president in the 2016 campaign.

Mr. Trumka, who has promoted Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in national political talk, has been among those urging labor leaders to hold off on endorsements as the nominating process plays out. Mr. Biden met with Ms. Warren over the weekend.

Mr. Trumka has urged Hillary Rodham Clinton to be more vocal about issues related to income inequality.

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Hillary Clinton Likens Republican Views on Women to Those of Terror Groups

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Hillary Rodham Clinton with supporters in Cleveland on Thursday. She said that Republican presidential candidates have "extreme" views of women.Credit Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times

Hillary Rodham Clinton compared Republican presidential candidates to terrorist groups when it comes to their views on women, arguing that their “extreme” positions are not right for 21st-century America.

At a rally in Ohio on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton scolded Senator Marco Rubio of Florida for his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest. She hit former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida for wanting to defund Planned Parenthood. And she criticized Gov. John Kasich of Ohio for banning public financing of some rape crisis centers.

“Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.”

Calling such policies out of date and out of touch, Mrs. Clinton dared her rivals to face mothers who caught breast cancer early because of screenings and girls who did not get pregnant because of access to contraceptives that were made available through government funding.

Republicans immediately took offense to Mrs. Clinton’s remarks. Amelia Chassé, press secretary for the conservative America Rising PAC, called the comments outrageous and desperate.

Alison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Mrs. Clinton had reached “a new low.”

Mr. Bush added on Twitter that Mrs. Clinton’s priorities are wrong.

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Former Hewlett-Packard Board Member Praises Carly Fiorina’s Business Leadership

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Carly Fiorina, who was chief executive of Hewlett-Packard in 2005, posed in a selfie taken by the singer Gwen Stefani at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A “super PAC” supporting Carly Fiorina is defending her record as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard in a full-page ad in The New York Times that promotes her strength as a leader of the technology company.

Tom Perkins, the founder of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a member of the board that ultimately ousted Ms. Fiorina in 2005, described the Republican presidential candidate as a visionary executive who helped to revive the company during hard times.

“Not only did she save the company from the dire straits it was in, she laid the foundation for HP’s future growth,” Mr. Perkins wrote, pointing to an increase in revenues and patents during her time there.

The endorsement from Mr. Perkins comes a week after The Times’s Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote a column detailing Mrs. Fiorina’s woes at Hewlett-Packard and calling her business record “not so sterling.”

Mr. Perkins said that the much maligned merger with Compaq turned out to be a good thing, and that Mrs. Fiorina was the victim of board members — some of whom were family members of the company’s founders — who were protecting their own interests.

“While Carly fought to save the company and the employees within, some board members fought for their own power or advancement,” Mr. Perkins wrote.

While Mr. Perkins was one of the board members who voted to fire Mrs. Fiorina, he now calls that move a mistake.

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Before Obama’s Alaska Trip, Climate Group Charges Hypocrisy

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The Transocean Polar Pioneer, a submersible drilling unit in Port Angeles, Wash., on its way to an Arctic destination.Credit Daniella Beccaria/seattlepi.com, via Associated Press

President Obama’s environmental critics are using his own words and images against him as they argue that his planned trip to Alaska next week is proof of what they call his “self-defeating hypocrisy” on global warming.

The progressive social-change group Credo on Thursday will release a mash-up of a slick, White House-produced video previewing the trip in which the group criticizes Mr. Obama for allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic at the same time as he is traveling there to call for urgent action to combat climate change.

“Really?!? Is President Obama trolling us?” reads a message at the start of Credo’s version.

“Here’s your wake-up call, Mr. President,” it says, echoing Mr. Obama’s oratory in the video, in which he speaks directly to a camera to appeal for swift action to deal with climate change.

“Climate leaders don’t drill the Arctic.”

The video takedown is part of a campaign the group is starting, five days before Mr. Obama becomes the first American president to visit the Alaskan Arctic, to call attention to the dissonance between aggressive actions he has taken to tackle the planet’s warming and policy choices he has made that could exacerbate it.

Mr. Obama’s decision last week to allow Royal Dutch Shell to go forward with planned drilling in Arctic waters makes for a particularly vivid and timely contrast.

Mr. Obama is scheduled to leave on Monday for the three-day trip to Alaska, where he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and hopscotch the state, including journeying to the Arctic city of Kotzebue, to witness the damaging effects of rising temperatures.

Using Mr. Obama’s stunning pictures of melting sea ice and crumbling glaciers, the group is asking activists to sign a petition and phone the White House to urge Mr. Obama not to allow Arctic drilling.

First Draft Focus: Throwback Thursday — A Stampede, Before the Stampede

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A herd of elephants marched in procession in Indianapolis to greet the Republican presidential candidate, Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, in October 1936. The animals wore lettered blankets that spelled out "Welcome Landon." A month later, Mr. Landon lost to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an electoral landslide. Credit Times Wide World Photos

Today in Politics: Ad Portrays Donald Trump and His Rivals as a Single Voice on Immigration

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Daniel Zambrano of Tijuana, Mexico, at a border wall near San Diego.Credit Gregory Bull/Associated Press

Good Thursday morning. Donald J. Trump‘s heated back-and-forth in Iowa on Tuesday with a respected anchor for a Spanish-language station was a clear display of Mr. Trump’s quirks, but it also highlighted the rising tension his statements and policies on immigration have caused in the party. And a group with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton is about to pounce.

The immigration ad wars have arrived, at least digitally.

Priorities USA, the “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, has released a digital ad that uses Mr. Trump’s statements to paint the entire Republican presidential field as hostile toward immigrants, focusing in particular on Jeb Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

The super PAC will start airing the 30-second spot, titled “This Is the Republican Party,” in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, states with large Hispanic populations.

It makes a clear suggestion that there is no daylight between Mr. Trump and the 16 other candidates. The ad opens with Mr. Trump’s announcement speech in June, in which he said many Mexican immigrants were “rapists.” The video then cuts to audio of Mr. Bush using the term “anchor babies,” for which Democrats have criticized him for days. Mr. Walker makes the briefest cameo, stating the first of what became three competing positions in the last week on the question of ending birthright citizenship.

The ad buy won’t be close to what a super PAC will ultimately spend on television spots. But it signals the approach that the outside group will use in the coming months, as Republicans fight it out while Mr. Trump shows no sign of slowing down.

— Maggie Haberman

Stay tuned throughout the day: Follow us on Twitter @NYTpolitics and on Facebook for First Draft updates.

What We’re Watching Today

Days after the South Carolina Republican Party announced that it would require candidates to pledge their support to the ultimate Republican nominee in order to compete in the state’s critical primary, Mr. Trump, the clear target of the Republican litmus test, is scheduled to bring his show to Greenville on Thursday morning.

Mr. Trump, the leader among Republican presidential candidates in most polls, has not ruled out a third-party bid if Republican voters change their minds between now and next year. The South Carolina party has given candidates until Sept. 30 to register their candidacy, an application that now must include a form with a signed pledge to “hereby affirm that I generally believe in and intend to support the nominees and platform of the Republican Party in the Nov. 8, 2016, general election.”

Asked by reporters this week whether he intended to follow suit, Mr. Trump said his campaign was “looking into it.” Mr. Trump, the real estate developer/reality show celebrity/favorite of the Republican base, was alone among candidates on a crowded debate stage this month to raise his hand when asked who would not rule out a third-party bid, a move criticized by his rivals and party leaders, even if it seemed to have little effect on his poll numbers.

— Jason Horowitz

And Mrs. Clinton‘s use of a personal email server while at the State Department, the Democratic National Committee’s debate schedule, and the potential of a campaign by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. are all likely to be part of the discussion at the committee’s meeting in Minnesota, which starts Thursday.

Dozens of Democratic National Committee members are flocking to the state, including most of the candidates themselves, for the summer meeting, where the party will conduct its official business.

Presidential Coalition to Commemorate Katrina’s 10-Year Anniversary

President Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are coming to New Orleans on consecutive days to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Obama will be the first to arrive, touching down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport just after noon. Mr. Obama will hopscotch around the city to highlight its rebuilding efforts and give a speech to “celebrate the remarkable revival of an American city,” according to Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary.

“You know, if you think back nine and a half years ago, I don’t think anyone would have envisioned the dramatic progress that the city of New Orleans has made,” Mr. Earnest said on Wednesday. “And that’s a testament to the grit and determination of the people of New Orleans.”

But Mr. Obama will do more than celebrate the revival of New Orleans, Mr. Earnest said. He will also use the occasion to talk about the dangers of climate change, a subject that has become something of an obsession for him, by pointing out that “there is reason to be concerned about these storms getting worse and more violent,” Mr. Earnest said.

On Friday, Mr. Bush will arrive with his wife, Laura Bush. They will visit the Warren Easton Charter School, which benefited from a special fund set up by the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.

On Saturday, Mr. Clinton, who established the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with former President George H.W. Bush, will headline the Power of Community gathering, the city’s signature event on the official anniversary of the storm’s landfall.

— Gardiner Harris

Our Favorites From Today’s Times

While campaigning in Iowa, Mrs. Clinton laid out her plan to help rural America. She also said that using the private email account at the State Department “clearly wasn’t the best choice,” even if it was allowed.

In a conference call on Wednesday, Mr. Biden told Democratic National Committee members that he was uncertain if his family had the “emotional fuel” for another presidential campaign.

And former Senator Tom Harkin, a fixture in Iowa Democratic politics for more than four decades, and a supporter of Mrs. Clinton‘s campaign, said that he did not think it would be “a wise move” for Mr. Biden to run against her, suggesting that, if elected, she could name him to a top diplomatic post instead.Mr. Harkin, who served with Mr. Biden in the Senate for nearly 25 years, called Mr. Biden “a good friend of mine — I love Joe,” but said that there were “other ways Joe can serve the country.”

What We’re Reading Elsewhere

Mr. Bush, Jewish Insider reports, “is in the process of reaching out to top Jewish leaders and donors to form a ‘National Jewish Leadership Team.'”

The Des Moines Register writes, “Leaked emails show that the Iowan who is Donald Trump’s new national co-chairman was throwing bombs at him as recently as last month, expressing grave misgivings about the authenticity of Trump’s religious faith and his conservatism.”

And Politico says that party leaders in South Carolina “are getting antsy” because they don’t think Senator Lindsey Graham can win the Republican nomination, but they feel they are unable to endorse anyone else.

Mrs. Clinton is building a firewall of Super Tuesday states where she hopes to clinch the nomination on March 1, when 11 contests are held, Politico reports.

Many donors who supported Mr. Obama‘s two presidential bids are not donating to Mrs. Clinton as they wait to see whether Mr. Biden jumps into the race, according to The Washington Post.

Despite a Recent Lunch, Biden and Warren Have Tangled Histories

Last weekend’s lunch between Mr. Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts accelerated the talk of his possible presidential candidacy. It also put new focus on the vast differences in their records, especially in the financial services industry.

Ms. Warren is known as the scourge of big banks and credit-card companies. Mr. Biden, as the longtime representative of Delaware, was just as well known for his political ties to the financial institutions with headquarters there and for his past role in shaping industry-friendly legislation that made it harder for consumers to win bankruptcy protection.

Now, The Boston Globe reminds us that Ms. Warren, then a law professor at Harvard, wrote a bankruptcy bill critique in a 2002 Op-Ed in The New York Times in which she took Mr. Biden to task.

In the piece, she says that “Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware — where many banks and credit-card issuers are incorporated — agreed to vote with Republicans on almost all the issues that were holding up the bill.”

Significant time has passed, and perhaps the views of both have evolved, though neither the vice president’s office nor the senator’s would comment. But should he run for the White House and enlist the support of Ms. Warren, it could require serious explanations from each on the financial issues central to their images.

— Carl Hulse

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