Daily Digest: A quiet weekend. Not!

Good morning and welcome to a Monday that for some is a holiday and for the rest of us is the start of the work week. Let's see, did anything happen this weekend? Oh yes, there was that 2005 video of Donald Trump, the leaked Hillary Clinton emails and the second presidential debate last night. And maybe, just maybe, if the ghost of Abraham Lincoln still walks the halls of the White House he was heard to say last night, "Hey, don't drag me into this thing." Let's go to the Digest.

1. So where are we? We are so far away from a normal issues-based campaign it's hard to tell what to think. Amid calls from dozens of Republicans to end his campaign, Trump vowed to continue. He held an event before the debate with women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. Once the debate started, he tried to shift to issues, including terrorism, the economy and Obamacare. The moderators and Clinton though, wanted to talk about the video tape. Trump called his vile remarks "locker room talk." He said if he were president Clinton would be in jail. Clinton said Trump lives in an alternative universe. It was a nasty, nasty debate. (New York Times)

2. An instant poll of 537 registered voters by CNN said 57 percent thought Clinton won the second debate compared to 34 percent who thought Trump did, but many analysts said Trump did well enough to stabilize his position within the party. What about what they actually said during the debate? Here's a fact check. (Politifact)

3.  Hacked emails released by WikiLeaks late last week claimed to show excerpts of some of the speeches Clinton gave to big businesses. Clinton made millions from the speeches. Among other things excerpts of some of the speeches showed Clinton's dream was a hemisphere wide free trade zone with open borders. They also showed she thought Wall Street banks should suggest regulations they think would be effective. In short, they showed Clinton was a big business friendly free trader, which is sort of the way she was positioning herself before her campaign against Bernie Sanders. The Clinton campaign would not say whether the emails were genuine, nor did they release transcripts of her speeches so people could verify their accuracy. (NPR)

4. Donald Trump is still on the Republican ticket, but the man he was talking to in that 2005 video has been suspended from his job. Billy Bush will not be appearing on NBC's Today show for an indefinite period of time. An internal memo said staffers on the program have "all been deeply troubled" by the video tape. (USA Today)

5. Three of Minnesota's top Republicans withdrew their support for Trump Saturday after the video surfaced. House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Zimmerman and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty Saturday called for Trump to abandon his campaign, while 3rd District U.S. Rep. Eric Paulsen said he would not vote for Trump. Oddly, after the debate Daudt tweeted that Trump exceeded his expectations. Other Republicans condemned Trump's remarks in the video but stopped short of saying they would not support him. State Democrats tried to step up the pressure against them. (MPR News)

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