The Latest: Trump claims NSA has missing Clinton emails

WASHINGTON – The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

Donald Trump claims the National Security Agency has Hillary Clinton’s missing emails and suggests that the agency release them publicly.

Trump made the assertion during a Friday evening rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and riled up the crowd by asking them whether the NSA should release the emails. The crowd responded in unison that it should.

The NSA has never said that it has Clinton’s emails. Trump appears to be referring generally to the widespread assumption that the NSA has information about millions of people.

Clinton’s legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that the legal team deemed private and personal. The FBI has reconstructed some of the missing emails.

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6:50 p.m.

Donald Trump is warning his Pennsylvania supporters about potential voter fraud in the state and suggests that they volunteer to monitor the election.

Speaking at a Friday evening rally in Altoona, Trump says, “We don’t want to see people voting five times, folks,” and adds: “We have to be very careful.”

In 2014, a Pennsylvania judge struck down a law requiring voters to produce state-approved photo ID in order to vote.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the nation’s voting system, an unprecedented assertion by a modern presidential candidate.

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6:35 p.m.

Donald Trump is offering effusive praise for Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Trump tells rally-goers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that Priebus is doing a great job. He says he and Priebus are friends and work well together and that they have “great unification.”

Priebus is joining Trump this week as he campaigns amid increasing frustration among many Republicans about their nominee. Priebus and Trump are working to dispel speculation that the GOP may abandon Trump.

Trump says he’s been putting “a lot of money” into the Republican Party.

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6:20 p.m.

Donald Trump is in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, touring a facility that builds mineral and agricultural equipment, McLanahan Corp.

Trump walked through the factory with company executives and workers. He was joined by campaign staffers and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

The Republican presidential nominee inspected the metal-shaping foundry, the fabrication area and the rest of the plant before sitting down with workers at a small table.

Meeting with voters in small, intimate settings is a new development for Trump, who has typically preferred large rallies. He’s sought this week to focus attention on economic issues in rural parts of the country.

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3:15 p.m.

Donald Trump is repeating his claim that he was “being sarcastic” when he called President Barack Obama “the founder” of the Islamic State terror group.

But then Trump added that he was “not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”

Trump has drawn criticism from Democrats this week for falsely claiming that Obama helped start the notorious extremist group. But Trump initially doubled down on this remarks, repeating the claim several times without any sense he was joking.

But he tweeted early Friday that he was being sarcastic and reiterated that at a rally Friday in Erie, Pennsylvania. He suggested he was also kidding when he called Obama “the MVP” of the Islamic State.

Trump said: “Obviously, I’m being sarcastic — but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”

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3 p.m.

Donald Trump is urging former Republican rivals to “get over it” and support him for president.

At a rally Friday, Trump recalled the pledge all of the Republican contenders signed to support the eventual nominee. That pledge was organized by the Republican National Committee, whose chairman, Reince Priebus, was attending the rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Some of Trump’s former rivals, including Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Jeb Bush, have declined to endorse Trump.

“Some of them just can’t get over it,” Trump told the crowd. “Get over it! We were just having fun.”

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2:40 p.m.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is introducing Donald Trump at a campaign rally in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Priebus’s appearance in Erie on Friday comes amid a series of bad polls for Trump and increased frustration among many Republicans about their nominee.

Priebus alluded to the negative headlines, imploring the crowd to ignore “the garbage you’re reading” and vowing to put Trump in the White House.

“This man is going to win,” said Priebus. “He’s going to save our country.”

Trump’s campaign has placed strong emphasis on winning Pennsylvania, which last went for a Republican candidate in 1988. But polls consistently show him trailing Hillary Clinton there.

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1:35 p.m.

Donald Trump plans to return to Wisconsin next week and once again the state’s top Republican leaders won’t be there.

Trump is holding a pair of fundraisers in La Crosse and Milwaukee on Tuesday. The campaign has not released details, but Trump typically also holds public campaign stops while in battleground states.

Gov. Scott Walker was previously scheduled to be in Colorado on Tuesday as part of a Republican governors’ panel at the Aspen Institute. And House Speaker Paul Ryan will be on a trip with his family.

Walker is listed as an honorary host on invitations for both fundraisers.

A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by 15 points among likely voters in Wisconsin.

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12 p.m.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign says the Democratic nominee and her husband paid a federal tax rate of 34.2 per cent and donated 9.8 per cent of their income to charity last year.

The Clintons are releasing their 2015 filings on Friday. Her campaign is also releasing returns from running mate Tim Kaine and his wife.

The campaign says the Kaines have donated 7.5 per cent of their income to charity over the last decade. They paid an effective tax rate of 25.6 per cent in 2015.

Clinton is trying to undercut the trustworthiness of rival Donald Trump. He has refused to disclose any returns, breaking tradition with all recent presidential candidates.

Trump says he won’t release them until Internal Revenue Service completes audits of his returns.

The Clintons have disclosed returns for every year since 1977.

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11:55 a.m.

Hillary Clinton says she brings a lot of stamina to her campaign — rebutting Donald Trump’s suggestion that she’s not up to the rigours of the presidency.

Clinton is describing a typical day on the campaign trail in the launch of her campaign’s podcast, “With Her.” She says she’s typically awake by 6:30 a.m. and gets news updates on her phone and from advisers.

She adds she has “a lot of stamina and endurance which is necessary in the kind of campaign that I’m engaged in.”

Trump has criticized Clinton’s stamina in recent weeks. He said Thursday that her speeches are short and then she goes back home to sleep.

The Clinton interview was conducted Tuesday in Miami with Max Linsky, a Clinton supporter who hosts a podcast.

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10:50 p.m.

Donald Trump has reached a confidential settlement in a legal dispute with a former political consultant. The Republican presidential candidate had accused him of violating a nondisclosure agreement.

Attorneys for Trump and former aide Sam Nunberg filed court papers late Thursday ending the case. It was Trump’s latest move to aggressively enforce terms of a nondisclosure agreement that he requires nearly every employee in his businesses and campaign to sign.

Trump had sought $10 million in damages from Nunberg after accusing the former aide of leaking information to reporters after he was fired. In response, Nunberg filed a lawsuit in New York state court. It accused Trump of trying to silence him because he eventually supported Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the Republican primary

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7:15 a.m.

Republican Donald Trump is now saying that his description of President Barack Obama as a founder of the Islamic State group was sarcasm.

At a rally Wednesday, Trump said that Obama “is the founder of ISIS,” using one acronym for the group. He repeated that in two interviews Thursday.

But in a tweet Friday criticizing CNN’s coverage, he said the network reported his claim “so seriously.” Trump tweeted: “THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?”

Trump’s comments were seen as accusing Obama of creating conditions that allowed IS to thrive. But asked about that Thursday, Trump seemed to go further. He told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt “No, I meant that he’s the founder of ISIS, I do.”

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3:45 a.m.

In a rare show of humility by the boastful billionaire, Donald Trump is acknowledging that his presidential campaign faces challenges and could ultimately fall short.

The Republican presidential nominee is straying from his signature bravado as he campaigns in the battleground state of Florida. He told a gathering of evangelical ministers Thursday he’s “having a tremendous problem in Utah.”

The same day, Trump acknowledged that his lack of political correctness could cost him the election if Americans reject his blunt approach.

After trouncing 16 challengers in the Republican primary, Trump is encountering worrying signs as his campaign moves into the general election.

Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead over Trump in national polls has widened in recent days, while a growing number of fellow Republicans have declared they won’t support him.