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Donald Trump Warns of ‘Constitutional Crisis’ if Hillary Clinton Wins Big Names Campaigning for Hillary Clinton Underscore Donald Trump’s Isolation
(about 3 hours later)
ATKINSON, N.H. — Heading into the final weekend of the campaign, Donald J. Trump portrayed Hillary Clinton on Friday as bogged down in legal troubles while expressing optimism about his standing in a number of battleground states. Hillary Clinton campaigned Friday in the company of friends and celebrities, first flanked by the billionaire businessman Mark Cuban in Pittsburgh and then bound for a Jay Z concert in Cleveland. High-wattage political leaders fanned out for her around the country: Her husband, Bill, stumped in Colorado, as President Obama rallied voters in North Carolina.
At a rally near the Massachusetts border, Mr. Trump continued to assail Mrs. Clinton over her use of a private email server, while one of his prominent supporters joked that Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, did not have sex. By comparison, Donald J. Trump was a lonely figure.
Mr. Trump, too, referred to Mr. Clinton as he warned about electing Mrs. Clinton as the next president. In the final days of the presidential race, Mr. Trump’s political isolation has made for an unusual spectacle on the campaign trail — and perhaps a limiting factor in his dogged comeback bid.
“If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Mr. Trump said at the Atkinson Resort & Country Club. “What a mess. I mean, we went through it with him with the impeachment and the lies. Aren’t we tired of this stuff?” When it comes to bolstering Mr. Trump, the G.O.P. is not sending its best: As party leaders have disavowed him or declined to back his candidacy, Mr. Trump has been left instead with an eclectic group of backup players to aid him in his last dash for votes. Though polls show Mr. Trump drawing closer to Mrs. Clinton, the most prominent Republicans in key swing states still fear that his unpopularity may taint them by association.
“She’s likely to be under investigation for a long time, concluding in a criminal trial, our president,” Mr. Trump added. “America deserves a government that can go to work on Day 1.” Campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, Mr. Trump did not appear with either Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican seeking re-election, or Chris Sununu, the Republican nominee for governor. Ms. Ayotte withdrew her endorsement of Mr. Trump last month, and Mr. Sununu has kept an awkward distance from Mr. Trump in his closely divided state.
Before Mr. Trump spoke, one of his backers, John H. Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor, mocked the Clintons. “Do you think Bill was referring to Hillary when he said, ‘I did not have sex with that woman’?” he asked the crowd. But Mr. Sununu’s father, John H. Sununu, 77, a former governor of the state known for his irascible temper, introduced Mr. Trump with a crude joke about the Clintons.
Mr. Trump planned to hold rallies in two other battleground states on Friday, Ohio and Pennsylvania. “Do you think Bill was referring to Hillary when he said, ‘I did not have sex with that woman?’” Mr. Sununu cracked, drawing laughter from the crowd.
For months, polls showed Mrs. Clinton with an advantage in New Hampshire. But a Suffolk University/Boston Globe survey conducted this week found the race to be tied. Mrs. Clinton, in contrast, has sought to overwhelm the political map with popular advocates for her campaign, deploying them to reinforce her support in the biggest states that will decide the election. Her surrogates have matched their schedules to voting deadlines across the country: In Fayetteville, N.C., Mr. Obama implored voters to turn out and cast ballots before the end of early voting on Saturday, and read a letter from Grace Bell Hardison, a 100-year-old North Carolinian whom local Republican officials recently sought to disqualify from voting.
Mr. Trump plans to return to New Hampshire on the eve of the election: His campaign has scheduled a rally with his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, for Monday night in Manchester. In every speech this week, Mr. Obama has told his crowd the address of a nearby polling place; in Fayetteville, he notified them that there was an early voting location across the street.
In the last days of a long and tumultuous campaign, Mrs. Clinton holds an edge over Mr. Trump nationwide, bolstered by her support among women and nonwhite voters. On top of her and Mr. Obama’s travels on Friday, Mrs. Clinton had Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigning in Wisconsin and Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa. And following her appearance with Jay Z in Cleveland, Mrs. Clinton was due in Philadelphia on Saturday for a concert with Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder, ahead of what may be the biggest event of her campaign since the convention: an election-eve rally in the city with her husband, Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle.
In the final New York Times/CBS News poll before the election, conducted Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, Mrs. Clinton had the support of 45 percent of likely voters, compared with 42 percent for Mr. Trump. (The margin of sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points for all voters.) In Pittsburgh on Friday, Mrs. Clinton basked in the embrace of popular local figures, including Mr. Cuban and a phalanx of former Pittsburgh Steelers: Walking onstage, she hailed “my two escorts, Mel Blount and Franco Harris,” both football Hall of Famers, and promoted the support of the Rooney family, which owns the team.
But Mrs. Clinton’s advantage has shrunk since mid-October, leaving a more unpredictable contest as the candidates head into the final weekend of campaigning. Mr. Cuban, the colorful owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a television personality, delivered a denunciation of Mr. Trump, telling voters the Republican nominee would sell them out for a check from Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia or Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
At a rally Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh, Mrs. Clinton portrayed the election as representing a stark choice between a hopeful future and a dangerous one under Mr. Trump, who, she suggested, would start wars just as easily as he starts Twitter fights. “Do you think he cares more about you or his bank account?” Mr. Cuban asked the crowd. “Can you trust Donald Trump? Absolutely not.”
Advisers to Mr. Trump have argued publicly that he still has a path to victory in the race, while privately insisting to donors that they see new political opportunity in three states long seen as leaning toward Mrs. Clinton. They are particularly keen on Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada, according to Republicans briefed on their strategy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But in each of those states, the best-known local Republicans have shunned Mr. Trump: The Republican governors of all three states have withheld their support, and Representative Joe Heck of Nevada, the Republican nominee for Senate there, withdrew his endorsement of Mr. Trump last month. (Mr. Heck has given indistinct signals since as to whether he will vote for Mr. Trump.)
Mr. Trump’s surrogate operation took another blow on Friday with the news that two former associates of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey had been convicted of engineering a plot to snarl traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Mr. Christie, an ally of Mr. Trump who has been leading his presidential transition team, was scheduled to campaign for Mr. Trump in New Hampshire over the weekend.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign quickly seized on the convictions to try to embarrass Mr. Trump. Wryly invoking one of Mr. Trump’s signature lines, John D. Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, told reporters that Mr. Trump ought to “start by draining his own swamp and asking Mr. Christie to resign as the head of his transition.”
And certain leaders on the right who have given Mr. Trump their nominal backing have steered clear of appearing with him in public — or even uttering his name. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a former rival of Mr. Trump who campaigned this week in Iowa with Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, praised Mr. Pence warmly in a speech but declined to mention Mr. Trump.
The House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who has endorsed Mr. Trump but declined to campaign on his behalf, told a Wisconsin radio host on Friday that it was essential for Republicans to “come home” and vote for the party’s entire ticket. Mr. Ryan planned to campaign with Mr. Pence over the weekend in Wisconsin.
But while Mr. Ryan asked voters on Friday, forcefully and repeatedly, to support Senator Ron Johnson, the state’s embattled incumbent, for re-election, he mentioned Mr. Trump only once and in passing, as part of a list of Republicans worth supporting.
“Let that be a case for voting against Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Ryan said. “Let that be a case for voting for Trump, Pence, Johnson, Congress — everybody.”