The Latest: Trump talks tough on Iranian boats vs. US Navy

September 10, 2016 5:30AM (UTC)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT):

9:15 p.m.

Donald Trump says he'd order an attack on Iranian boats if they harassed the U.S. Navy.

The tough-talking Republican made the charge Friday night at a crowded rally in Pensacola, Florida. He was referring to a recent incident in which Iranian boats harassed a Navy destroyer near the Strait of Hormuz.

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Trump says the boats were "taunting us" and "toying with us." He says if Iran's "little boats" circle our "beautiful destroyers" when he's president, "They will be shot out of the water."

Trump and Hillary Clinton have clashed over national security for much of the week. Each says the other doesn't have the temperament to be commander in chief.

The New York billionaire added another accusation Friday night, saying, "Personally, I think she's an unstable person."

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6:35 p.m.

Donald Trump hasn't publicity released his tax returns. The same can no longer be said of his running mate, Mike Pence.

The Republican vice presidential nominee and Indiana governor on Friday released a decade worth of returns, roughly a month after promising to do so.

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The campaign says Pence paid a state and federal tax rate that ranged between 10 percent and 16 percent over the past decade.

His income topped out at $187,000 while he was still a member of Congress, but dropped to $113,000 last year.

Spokesman Marc Lotter says the returns demonstrate Pence has not enriched himself during his years of public service.

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Major party presidential nominees have publicly released their taxes since 1976, but Trump is the exception. He says he is waiting for the conclusion of an audit.

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5:20 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says she is "disappointed" that Donald Trump would continue to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin on a Russia-funded television network.

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Speaking after a meeting she convened with security experts in New York, Clinton said: "Every day that goes by this just becomes more and more of a reality television show. It's not a serious presidential campaign."

The Republican nominee has faced backlash from both parties in recent days for praising the Russian leader.

Trump was interviewed Thursday by Larry King, a veteran American journalist whose current show airs on RT America. That network is funded by the Russian government.

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Clinton said it was "beyond one's imagination to have a candidate for president praising a Russian autocrat like Vladimir Putin."

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5:15 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says North Korea's latest nuclear test should prompt a "rethinking" of America's strategy to deal with the rogue nation.

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The Democratic presidential candidate promised Friday to impose tougher sanctions on the country. She also said that the latest test provides an opening to pressure China, which sees the country as an important.

Clinton said she will protect allies and treaty partners in the region including equipping them with missile defense systems.

It was the country's fifth atomic test and second in eight months.

She spoke after meeting with a bipartisan group of national security experts in New York City.

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3:50 p.m.

Donald Trump is promising religious activists that he will cherish, protect and defend Christian values like they've "never seen before."

The thrice-married New York billionaire delivered a speech Friday afternoon at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. It's among the largest gatherings of conservative Christians ahead of the November election.

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Trump declared that political leaders have "abandoned" people of faith in America. And he said that today's "media culture often mocks and demeans people of faith."

He made the religious conservatives a promise: In "a Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished, protected, defended like you've never seen before."

Trump also promised to repeal the so-called "Johnson amendment." The law prevents religious institutions and other tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates.

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2:15 p.m.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are sparring over which of them is better fit to respond to North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Clinton condemned Friday's test explosion, saying it shows the need for America to elect a president who confronts threats "with steadiness and strength."

Clinton said in a statement that the U.S. needs a commander-in-chief committed to reducing, not increasing, the number of nuclear weapons and nuclear states in the world.

Trump has previously suggested that he would be open to U.S. allies Japan and South Korea obtaining their own nuclear weapons.

Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said the North's nuclear test was another example of Clinton's "catastrophic" failures when she was the top U.S. diplomat.

He said Clinton had promised to work to end the North's nuclear program but it has "only grown in strength and sophistication."

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1:50 p.m.

Tim Kaine says Donald Trump was using his charitable foundation as a front to suppress fraud investigations into Trump University.

Kaine raised ethical questions about the foundation's donations to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and a new report from Yahoo News that the foundation helped fund a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sued Trump for fraud over Trump University. Kaine made his remarks to reporters Friday in Birmingham, Alabama.

Charities cannot legally donate to political activities.

Kaine said Trump was used the foundation to promote "a money-making fraudulent venture of Donald Trump's, which is not what charities are supposed to do."

Kaine suggested there could be more questionable donations form the foundation and argued people need to keep investigating.

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1:00 p.m.

Mike Pence has received his first national security briefing since becoming Donald Trump's running mate.

Pence's briefing Friday lasted about two hours and was held at an Indiana National Guard base in Indianapolis.

The Republican Indiana governor said afterward that he was "grateful" for the "thorough and informative" briefing.

Pence said he couldn't discuss specifics due to classified nature, but vowed that he and Trump would be "ready on day one" should they be elected in November.

He did not take questions afterward, but said he was honored to take part in the tradition, which he says extends back to the time of Harry Truman.

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11:35 a.m.

The Republican Party is storming into what it sees as 11 presidential battleground states on Saturday.

About 1,000 employees and 4,000 volunteers will be knocking on doors to speak with voters in states including Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia. The Republican National Committee expects to hit roughly 330,000 doors in a single day.

The party will promote its presidential nominee Donald Trump and other Republican candidates for office. Door knockers will focus on voter registration and in places such as Florida and Iowa, will urge voters to request absentee ballots as a way to ensure more votes.

The all-day event follows what the RNC dubbed its "month of action" in August. Party leaders say they knocked on 2 million doors, more than in July and June combined.

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10:20 a.m.

Minnesota Democrats are asking the state's Supreme Court to remove Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from the ballot.

The state party filed a petition Thursday seeking to have Minnesota's secretary of state strip Trump and running mate Mike Pence from the ballot for the general election.

They argued that the Republican Party of Minnesota erred in how it sent in Trump's name for a spot on the ballot.

State law requires political parties to select alternate electors at conventions as part of putting a nominee on the ballot, and the clock is ticking for a resolution. Early voting in Minnesota begins Sept. 23.

But Democrats contend those GOP alternates were chosen last-minute by party leaders to meet a looming deadline last month. The state's Democratic party says that invalidates the GOP's ballot submission and that Secretary of State Steve Simon should have rejected it.

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10:10 a.m.

The number of retired generals and admirals endorsing Hillary Clinton for president has grown to 110.

The Democratic presidential nominee announced her newest supporters Friday. Clinton stressed that she has more military backing than rival Donald Trump, who touted endorsements from 88 retired U.S. generals and admirals earlier in the week.

The new endorsements include former Democratic Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral.

Clinton is continuing to promote herself as the best choice for commander-in-chief, questioning Trump credentials and judgment. On Friday afternoon, she plans to meet with foreign policy and national security experts in New York City to discuss ways to combat terrorism.

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9:55 a.m.

Hillary Clinton is now opting to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks with a visit to ground zero.

A spokeswoman for Clinton confirmed the visit to The Associated Press on Friday.

Clinton, who was a U.S. senator from New York in 2001, was not initially scheduled to visit the memorial site on the anniversary. But her campaign notified officials at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum late Thursday that she would attend the morning's events.

Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, is currently not slated to attend.

Clinton is not expected to make any public remarks but wanted to honor the attacks' victims.

Both candidates previously pledged to avoid campaigning on the somber anniversary.

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8:30 a.m.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is doing his share of fundraising to help fuel the final push toward Election Day.

Hillary Clinton's campaign said five people paid up to $500,000 each to attend a fundraiser with Kaine in New York on Thursday night. That's one of four fundraisers Kaine attended in New York that day. He did not do any public events.

He met with approximately 120 people who paid either $5,000, $10,000 or $50,000.

Kaine on Wednesday met with donors twice in Washington, D.C., and once in Potomac, Maryland. On Tuesday he raised money in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Kaine will raise money and campaign Friday in Birmingham, Alabama and attend a public event in Norfolk, Virginia.

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8:20 a.m.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says Donald Trump "demonstrates an irrational hostility" toward President Barack Obama.

In an interview with CBS "This Morning" Friday, the Virginia senator said Trump's comments favoring Russian President Vladimir Putin over Obama are "unpatriotic."

He said that Putin has invaded other countries, run the Russian economy "into the ground," and persecuted Russian journalists and members of the gay and lesbian community.

He said, "you wouldn't get out of a fifth grade civics exam if you don't understand the difference between dictatorship and leadership," referring to the Republican nominee.

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7:15 a.m.

Donald Trump's campaign manager says if he's president and North Korea fired ballistic rockets, Trump "wouldn't do what's done now."

Kellyanne Conway told CBS's Charlie Rose Friday that Trump's position is to put America first, but she offered no details for how the Republican nominee would handle North Korea's growing nuclear threat.

North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Friday, just eight months after it claimed it successfully detonated a small hydrogen bomb. It was the first time the Asian nation conducted two nuclear tests in one year.

Conway said that if Trump is president, North Korea will know that the Americans "aren't messin' around."

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7 a.m.

Voting in the 2016 election is getting underway.

Advance voting is beginning Friday in North Carolina — the first of 37 states that will allow balloting by mail for any reason or in person before Election Day, which is Nov. 8.

It's part of a nearly nine-week campaign frenzy during which millions of voters will have the ability to fill out a ballot for the 2016 presidential race.

Data compiled by The Associated Press shows that people who vote in advance are expected to make up between 50 percent to 75 percent or more of all ballots in some of the race's most pivotal states — North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.

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6:50 a.m.

A billionaire Facebook co-founder says he's giving $20 million to help defeat Donald Trump.

Dustin Moskovitz says the Republican presidential nominee is divisive and dangerous. And he says Trump's appeals to people who feel left behind are, in Moskovitz's words, "quite possibly a deliberate con."

By contrast, he says Democrats and nominee Hillary Clinton are running on what he says is "a vision of optimism, pragmatism, inclusiveness and mutual benefit."

Moskovitz wrote about the contributions in a Thursday night posting on the website Medium.

He and his wife, Cari Tuna, are giving half of the $20 million to the League of Conservation Voters and to the For Our Future political action committee.

That second latter group is a get-out-the-vote effort in battleground states. It's paid for primarily by labor unions and hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer.