US 2016 Presidential Election: Candidates Clash in Must-win States
Local Editor
As the day of election approaches, Donald Trump is fighting to preserve his narrow path to the presidency in must-win Florida Monday as Hillary Clinton is trying to slam the door on her Republican opponent in New Hampshire.
Trump's team conceded both publicly and privately that his electoral map is bleak. And GOP leaders are growing increasingly worried that his weak standing jeopardizes vulnerable Republican Senate candidates in battlegrounds like Florida, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
The New York billionaire Monday lashed out at the media, a regular target of his struggling campaign: "Media in the tank for Clinton but Trump will win!" he declared on Twitter.
The day before, Trump told a Florida television station that the First Amendment to the Constitution may give the press too much freedom. He suggested that America adopt a system like England's, which makes it easier to sue the media.
"England has a system where if they are wrong, things happen," Trump told Miami's CBS4.
Monday was the second day of Trump's three-day swing in Florida, which is essential to his White House hopes. There is no scenario in which he can lose Florida and win the 270 electoral votes needed to become president, based on current polling. Even if he wins the toss-up state, his path to 270 requires victories in several more swing states, including North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and Nevada.
The Trump campaign acknowledged its challenge in a Monday fundraising email, conceding that victories even in those swing states wouldn't be enough.
Early voting by mail has been underway for weeks. Nearly 1.2 million voters in Florida mailed in ballots. The state has 13 million registered voters.
Meanwhile, Trump's schedule in the penultimate week of the campaign reflects the narrow path he faces in his White House bid.
After three days in Florida, Trump plans to make stops in North Carolina Wednesday. He will spend all day Thursday in Ohio with other stops in the Midwest - Iowa and Wisconsin - the next day before a Western swing to Colorado and Nevada this weekend.
Trump's difficulties are evident on that Western swing. Instead of focusing on just those pair of battlegrounds, his team is also mulling a stop in Arizona. A Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won Arizona in 20 years, yet polls there show Trump in a close race.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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