WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):
8:35 p.m.
Donald Trump says his children can handle the negative attention generated by series of controversial comments they've made in recent interviews.
Trump told a crowd in Laconia, New Hampshire, Thursday that, "the press likes to hit them," adding, "And they're such good kids."
Trump's son, Donald Jr., made what some took as a Holocaust-themed joke in an interview with a Philadelphia radio station on Wednesday, referring to "warming up the gas chamber."
He also told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that it would be unwise for his father to release his tax returns because it would "distract" from his father's "main message."
His daughter, Ivanka, usually an asset, also drew attention after a contentious interview with Cosmpolitan magazine.
Trump says his kids "can take it."
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8:20 p.m.
President Barack Obama is telling Hispanic leaders that it's important to push back against the bluster of political candidates urging tougher immigration policies this election season.
Obama is speaking at an awards gala in Washington before Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton takes the stage.
He says the talk around immigration is a "little meaner, a little uglier" this fall. He says the nation needs a solution on immigration that works for families and businesses.
Obama says the next president won't be able to do it alone, "no matter how tough she is."
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8:00 p.m.
Donald Trump is bragging about leaving his traveling press corps behind.
When the Republican nominee took the stage in Laconia, New Hampshire Thursday night the reporters who follow him from city to city were still in the air arriving from New York City.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Trump does not travel on the same plane as the press and departed New York first after taping The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Trump boasted to the crowd that "the press can't get here. I love it."
He then said he was asked by his staff to wait - and he refused.
"Absolutely not," he said.
Trump was speaking for about 25 minutes before the traveling press arrived.
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6:55 p.m.
Donald Trump's famous hair is being wildly mussed up on national television.
When Trump appeared Thursday for a taping of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," the talk-show host closed his interview by asking if he could do one silly thing with Trump since he could be president the next time he appears on the show.
Fallon then asked to mess up Trump's hair — and, after pondering it for a moment, the Republican nominee agreed.
Fallon sent Trump's locks flying out of control in every direction.
Though Trump is known for being sensitive about his hair, he smiled throughout. But press pool photographers were prohibited from taking a photo of the Republican candidate after the taping.
Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, is slated to appear with Fallon on Monday.
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4:59 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says the success of a deal for a cease fire in war-torn Syria is largely "up to the Russians."
The deal hammered out last week by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is designed to pause the Syrian civil war long enough for the two powers to focus their airstrikes on Islamic extremists taking advantage of the chaos in Syria.
The deal calls for Russia to persuade Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop shelling rebel-held areas and allow humanitarian aid to go in.
Only then would the U.S. and Russia combine to strike Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants. Some in the Obama administration are skeptical the Russians will hold up their end of the deal.
The Democratic nominee says it's up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring the conflict to the point where there can be political discussions about ending the brutal civil war.
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4:40 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says that lots of people "power through" when they get sick, and that's what she thought she would do, too.
The Democratic nominee says she made the decision to keep campaigning even after receiving a diagnosis of pneumonia in part because she wanted to attend Sunday's 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York.
Clinton was a senator from New York when terrorists struck the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan in 2001. She tells reporters at a press conference in North Carolina that she considers the annual memorial service at ground zero "a sacred moment."
Clinton fell ill at the ceremony, and needed the help of staff to stand up as she waited to depart the event. Her campaign later said she had pneumonia, and Clinton took the start of this week off to rest.
Her first day back on the campaign trail was Thursday, where she hosted in rally in Greensboro.
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4:42 p.m.
Back on the campaign trail in North Carolina, Hillary Clinton tells reporters that she's always said that her bid for the White House was "going to be a tight race."
The Democratic nominee says, "Those are the kinds of presidential elections we have in America."
Clinton took questions from reporters after her Thursday afternoon campaign rally. It was her first public event since taking a few days off to recover from a bout of pneumonia.
Clinton says her election against Republican nominee Donald Trump will be decided by who registers to vote, and which campaign is able to motivate those who do to cast a ballot.
Clinton's campaign has spent months building an extensive get-out-the-vote operation, and she says her team is working hard "every day to turn out every voter we possibly can."
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4:28 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump was wrong to criticize a Michigan pastor who interrupted him Wednesday as he spoke at her church.
The Republican nominee said Thursday morning in an interview on Fox News Channel that the Rev. Faith Green Timmons "was like a nervous mess" when she introduced him.
Speaking after a campaign event in North Carolina later, Clinton said: "That's not only insulting, it's dead wrong."
The Democratic presidential nominee said the pastor of Bethel United Methodist Church in Flint has been "a rock for her community in trying times."
Trump began his remarks on Wednesday at the church by paying tribute to the resiliency of the people of Flint, who are grappling with a contaminated public water system.
Timmons calmly cut him off when he moved on to criticize Clinton, saying: "Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we've done in Flint, not give a political speech."
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4:00 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she'll never be as flashy as rival Donald Trump. And that's ok, says the Democratic nominee.
Clinton is pointing to Trump's Thursday interview about his health on the Dr. Oz talk show as evidence of what she calls his "showman" tendencies.
Clinton says she focuses intensely on policy details — a trait she argues should be important to a president.
"Like a lot of women, I have a tendency to over prepare," she says. "I sweat the details."
Clinton is delivering a speech about her commitment to helping children and families in North Carolina. She's back on the campaign trail after three days recovering from pneumonia in her suburban New York home.
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3:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she used her time recovering from pneumonia to reflect on her plans for the country.
Clinton said that having three days in her suburban New York home was a "gift." The Democratic presidential nominee said she spoke to old friends, played with her dogs and thought about the direction she wanted to take the United States.
She said: "Even I had to admit maybe some rest would do me good."
Clinton made her remarks in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she was speaking about her commitment to helping children and families.
Clinton was making her debut appearance back on the campaign trail after a video showed her stumbling leaving a 9/11 memorial service on Sunday. Her campaign revealed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.
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3:50 p.m.
Donald Trump's running mate is meeting with the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence met Thursday with Archbishop Demetrios of America in the church's ornate headquarters near Central Park in New York City.
Father Alexander Karloutsos began the meeting by talking about how the only church destroyed in the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center was Greek Orthodox.
Work is continuing to replace the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
The archbishop posed for pictures with Pence, his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte before the meeting was closed.
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3:25 p.m.
Tim Kaine is suggesting that Donald Trump's view of America is elitist.
Addressing a Democratic organizing event in Exeter, New Hampshire, on Thursday, the Democratic vice presidential nominee referred to Trump's 2015 book "Crippled America." It criticizes the direction of the country under Democratic leadership.
Kaine frequently blasts the book, saying it doesn't strike the positive tone of "Stronger Together," which he co-authored with running mate Hillary Clinton.
Kaine describes Trump as out-of-touch, saying the billionaire businessman's philosophy is "a view out of the penthouse of a tall tower." He continued: "I do not recognize this picture of our country. This is not who we are."
Clinton herself has faced criticism for being elitist after suggesting half of Trump supporters belong in a "basket of deplorables."
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2:52 p.m.
The Anti-Defamation League is calling on Thursday for Donald Trump's oldest son to apologize for making what appeared to be a Holocaust-themed joke.
In an interview with a Philadelphia radio station on Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. accused the Democrats of rigging their primary system.
"If Republicans were doing that, they'd be warming up the gas chamber right now," he said.
The ADL, an international anti-Semitism organization, tweeted Thursday that "trivialization of the Holocaust and gas chamber is NEVER ok."
The group then tweeted that its members hoped Trump Jr. understood the "insensitivity and hurt" caused by his joke and asked for an apology.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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2:40 p.m.
Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman is calling on Donald Trump to provide more information about his foreign business investments.
In a call with reporters Thursday, John Podesta cited a report in Newsweek about the Trump organization's foreign ties. He argued that the business dealings could influence Trump's judgment in national security matters.
Podesta said this information was not included in Trump's financial disclosures. He called on Trump to disclose his foreign business investments, pledge to divest from the Trump organization if he wins the presidency and to release his tax returns.
Podesta said it is "simply appalling that we don't know more about the depths in foreign business dealings of the man running to be president."
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1:46 p.m.
Tim Kaine is decrying Donald Trump's proposed child care plan as outdated, saying it could discourage employers from hiring women.
Addressing a forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday, the Virginia senator said the plan Trump recently unveiled has "kind of has a 1990s feel to it. It's not 2016."
Kaine and running mate Hillary Clinton are promising 12 weeks of maternity leave for all employees. He said: "We treat everybody exactly the same, so there's no disincentive to hire women rather than men."
The Democratic vice presidential candidate said Trump's plan, by contrast, offers six weeks of maternity leave just to women, which Kaine claimed could make women less desirable to potential employers.
Kaine said that, today, men often take leave to care for children as much as women.
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1:30 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she is "doing great" as she returns to the campaign trail after recovering from pneumonia.
The Democratic presidential nominee spoke briefly with reporters on her campaign plane Thursday as she headed to an event in Greensboro, North Carolina.
She did not take detailed questions, though was expected to do so later in the day.
Clinton hasn't campaigned since she became dizzy and dehydrated during a 9/11 memorial service in New York on Sunday. Her campaign later acknowledged that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.
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12:50 p.m.
Donald Trump is spelling out for the first time how much his plans for America's economy would cost if he's elected to the White House.
Trump says that his tax cut would cost $4.4 trillion over 10 years, including the childcare plan he announced this week.
But he says the cost would be compensated by economic growth, as well as an infusion of new money from trade, energy and regulatory reforms.
Trump also said he can save almost $1 trillion over the next decade by saving one penny from every dollar of federal spending on programs, excluding defense and entitlement programs.
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