During a particularly fiery campaign address in Raleigh, North Carolina, Donald Trump said the recommendation made by FBI Director James Comey to not charge Hillary Clinton for her improper use of her State Department emails was a setup. “This was set up a long time ago and [Obama] knew the FBI was going to do this,” Trump said. He claimed President Obama, who appeared in an earlier rally in North Carolina with Clinton, had known the outcome of the investigation, despite the fact that Comey explicitly said he had not discussed his prepared statement with anyone else prior to delivering it. In addition, Trump claimed Bill Clinton’s meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a tarmac last week was also part of the scandal and the former president had discussed the investigation into Clinton’s emails. In response to a story over the weekend in which Clinton suggested that Lynch may stay on for her term as president, if she were elected, Trump said: “It’s a bribe.” During an extended routine in which he fantasized about what Clinton and Lynch could have talked about, Trump speculated that it would have only taken the former president “30 seconds” to discuss his grandchildren, which was one of the reported topics. He went on to say that he knew more about golf than Clinton.
— Gideon Resnick