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The Latest: Trump says minorities will be safer if he wins

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the U.S. presidential campaign. (all times EDT):

7:50 p.m.

Donald Trump is telling blacks and Hispanics that if he's elected president, "You'll be able to walk down the street without getting shot."

Trump made the comment Monday as part of his recent pitch to minority voters. He said Democratic policies have created inner cities so dangerous that for blacks, "now you walk down the street, you get shot."

The Republican presidential candidate said that the level of violence in some U.S. cities "is something no American should consider acceptable."

Trump said his economic and immigration policies would assist minorities land higher-paying jobs. He also said he will "get rid of the crime."

Repeating a plea he made recently to minority voters to back him, he declared, "What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance."

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7:10 p.m.

Donald Trump is pledging that as president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to probe the financial dealings of The Clinton Foundation.

Trump said Monday that the Department of Justice had "acted unethically" in probing Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

He also said the Justice Department and the FBI "can't be trusted" to investigate the foundation after declining to prosecute Clinton over the email scandal. He criticized Attorney General Loretta Lynch for meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton as the department's probe was underway.

"I've become increasingly shocked by the vast scope of Hillary Clinton's criminality," Trump told a crowd in Akron, Ohio.

He claimed that Hillary Clinton, his election opponent, had overseen corrupt pay-for-play practices while heading the State Department.

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6:55 p.m.

Donald Trump is declaring that "the era of economic surrender is over."

Trump, campaigning Monday in Ohio, has criticized trade deals put in place by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, husband of Trump's general election opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"If you are not prepared to put American workers first, you should be able to seek public office," Trump said at a rally in Akron.

He also bashed Clinton's immigration policy, saying it would lead to "open borders." Meanwhile, he doubled down on his own signature immigration plan.

"We're going to build the wall, folks. That wall will go up so fast your head will spin," Trump said. "You're going to say 'He meant it!' And you know what else I mean: Mexico is going to pay for it."

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6 p.m.

Donald Trump is postponing a speech in which he was to lay out his immigration policy.

The Republican presidential nominee had been slated to unveil the proposal Thursday in Denver. A campaign official not authorized to publicly discuss Trump's plans said it was being postponed, likely until next week, but did not say why.

Trump promised in an interview Monday that he would deliver a "fair but firm" policy toward the 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

That has raised questions about whether Trump is backtracking from previous pledges to push for mass deportations.

Trump has insisted he is not "flip-flopping" But he told immigration activists he may consider allowing those who have not committed crimes, beyond their immigration offenses, to obtain some sort of legal status.

-Jonathan Lemire

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5:50 p.m.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence is doubling down on running mate Donald Trump's call for Hillary Clinton to shut down her family's long-time charitable foundation.

Pence said Monday at a manufacturing facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Clinton must close the Clinton Foundation immediately. Trump issued the same call earlier in the day through social media.

Clinton's campaign announced recently the foundation will stop accepting foreign donations if she is elected president. Pence says that pledge isn't enough and the Democratic presidential nominee needs to "come clean" about the foundation.

The Indiana governor has made several stops in Iowa since securing the GOP vice presidential nomination. They include speeches in Sioux City and Council Bluffs and a stop at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

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4:25 p.m.

Donald Trump is suggesting he would resume the practice of giving surplus military equipment to local police departments.

The Obama administration banned police agencies from receiving military-grade equipment after 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the death of Michael Brown, a black man, in a confrontation with police.

Answering a question Monday in Akron, Ohio, Trump said, "I think it's ridiculous that they're not" given the equipment.

The Republican presidential nominee also said he believed that some rising crime is partly due to a decline in police manpower and vowed to change that.

Trump met with two dozen active and retired police officers at Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police. The union's national organization is expected to announce an endorsement next month.

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2:40 p.m.

Is a 12-year-old really running Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign in Jefferson County, Colorado?

Broadcast reports describe Weston Imer (EYE'-mer) as running the field operation in the state's fourth most populous county. The boy's mother, Laurel Imer, is technically in charge but says she's ceded responsibility to her son until school starts.

Trump's Colorado co-chair, Robert Blaha, says while the campaign likes to have Weston speak at rallies and knock on doors, he's not the campaign office boss.

Says Blaha in an interview: "There's not the possibility a 12-year-old can run an office."

Colorado is traditionally a swing state, but polls show Democrat Hillary Clinton opening a lead over Trump. Clinton and her allies have stopped advertising in Colorado and shifted money to more competitive states.

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2:20 p.m.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine says GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump owes it to the public to release more details about his income and debts.

Kaine says Trump should release his tax returns and provide more information about his companies' debts, particularly those held by foreign banks.

Kaine says, "We've got to know who Donald Trump is beholden to."

Kaine spoke Monday in Las Vegas at the ironworkers' union annual convention.

He is also criticizing Trump's resistance to efforts by employees to unionize at his hotel off the Las Vegas strip.

Kaine is also attacking Trump's policies on immigration. He says conflicting statements the Republican's campaign has issued on the subject show Trump can't be trusted.

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2:05 p.m.

Former President Bill Clinton is defending the work of his charitable foundation, saying it has "improved millions of lives around the world."

The former president is listing the accomplishments of the Clinton Foundation in an email to supporters. He says more than 11.5 million people in over 70 countries have access to HIV/AIDS drugs at a much lower cost and millions of American students have healthier food because of the foundation.

Bill Clinton said last week the foundation won't accept contributions from foreign governments and corporations if Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected president.

Republican Donald Trump says the foundation should be shut down immediately.

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1:10 p.m.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has launched an online petition demanding that Donald Trump take the U.S. citizenship test.

The Nevada Democrat is an outspoken Trump antagonist. He argues that Trump would likely fail the citizenship test and that he should be forced to prove otherwise before setting rules for new immigrants to the country. Trump has called for "extreme vetting" of immigrants seeking admission to the United States.

"Donald Trump is nothing more than a spoiled, unpatriotic drain on society who has earned nothing and helped no one," Reid says in an email sent from his fundraising committee. "And before he degrades immigrant families who work hard and give up everything they knew to come to this country, he should put up - or shut up."

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10:55 a.m.

Hillary Clinton says she will visit flood-damaged Louisiana when "the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response."

In a statement Monday, the Democratic presidential nominee called the floods a crisis in need of a national response. She noted that she had asked supporters to contribute to the Red Cross to help recovery efforts for the more than 100,000 people affected by the floods.

Clinton added that she wants to make sure there is a focus on Zika prevention, so that the mosquitoes that carry the virus don't spread to Louisiana.

Republican nominee Donald Trump visited Louisiana Friday and President Barack Obama is expected Tuesday. Heavy flooding this month killed at least 13 people and displaced thousands more after water engulfed their homes.

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9:20 a.m.

Donald Trump is resuming his Twitter wars.

The Republican nominee is going after MSNBC's Morning Joe, tweeting that the show is "unwatchable!"

He says its host, Mika Brzezinski, "is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess!"

Trump's tweets come after he spent a rare week reading from teleprompters and sticking to message following a campaign shake-up.

Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, insisted on Sunday that Trump "doesn't hurl personal insults."

Trump also suggested that he has damaging information on Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough, whom he called "two clowns." Trump has targeted other people in similar style, claiming he has damaging information without ever releasing it.

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9:10 a.m.

Donald Trump says he is not flip-flopping on a plan to deport the 11 million people living in the United States illegally.

The Republican presidential candidate said Monday he wants to come up with a "fair but firm answer" on immigration.

He told "Fox and Friends" that he is working with Hispanic leaders to address illegal immigration. He said: "It has to be very firm, but we want to come up with something fair.'

Trump met over the weekend with Hispanic supporters, representatives of a community that has been wary of the billionaire businessman's proposals to build a border wall and deport people living in the United States illegally. Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, Sunday that Trump's policy on deploying a "deportation force" was "to be determined."

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9 a.m.

Donald Trump is calling on the Clintons to shut down their charitable foundation "immediately."

Trump says in a statement Monday morning that "the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history."

He says, "It must be shut down immediately."

The foundation announced recently that it would not accept donations from foreign contributors if Hillary Clinton were elected president.

The Clinton campaign has defended the foundation's work, insisting it is saving lives around the globe through vaccine work.

Trump donated to the foundation himself in the past.

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7:50 a.m.

Donald Trump's son says his father isn't flip-flopping on immigration policy.

The Republican presidential candidate plans to speak about his immigration plans this week. That has raised questions about whether he will continue to call for forcibly deporting the 11 million people living in the United States illegally. Questioned on whether Trump still intends to deploy a "deportation force" to carry that out, his campaign manager said Sunday: "To be determined."

Eric Trump, one of Trump's sons, was asked on "Fox and Friends" Monday whether this was a flip-flop. He replied: "My father hasn't flip-flopped on anything."

He declined to provide details of his father's plans, but said they will be "humane and ethical and treats everybody well, but we have to solve a problem," referring to illegal immigration.

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6:30 a.m.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is reserving an additional $80 million for fall campaign ads in eight battleground states. That brings the campaign's spending on television spots to $150 million, according to a campaign aide.

Clinton's team is also releasing a new ad that questions the judgment of GOP rival Donald Trump.

"All it takes is one wrong move," says a narrator, over the sound of a flying missile.

The ad is running in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina and Omaha, Neb. Clinton has paused ads in Colorado and Virginia, underscoring her confidence in those states.

Trump only began airing ads in recent days and has reserved just $5 million in battleground state spots over the coming week in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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6:00 a.m.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is pushing back against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's assertion that he suggested she use her private email account for non-classified information.

People magazine reported in a Twitter message that Powell said that Clinton's "people have been trying to pin" her email scandal on him.

Clinton has said that she and Powell were in agreement on the use of private email by secretaries of state. Clinton, though, had a private email server at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Questions about Clinton's handling of government email have dogged her throughout her presidential campaign. The Justice Department investigated her practices and concluded there was no basis to recommend charges be brought against her, although FBI Director James Comey called her handling of the emails "extremely careless."

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3:20 a.m.

GOP officials insist presidential nominee Donald Trump is finally hitting his stride and will catch up with Democrat Hillary Clinton by around Labor Day.

Clinton campaign officials dismissed the idea of a changed Trump as nonsense.

Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus (ryns PREE'-bus) said Sunday that "Donald Trump has been disciplined and mature. And I think he's going to get this thing back on track."

Polls now mostly show Trump lagging Clinton by 5 percentage points or more nationally, but Priebus predicted they will tighten up and Trump will be "ahead as we move through September."

Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, echoed Priebus' optimism, contending that the candidate just had the best week of his campaign, "mostly because he's able to be himself, the authentic Donald Trump."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump meets with active and retired law enforcement at a Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Akron, Ohio, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016. At right is Lodge #7 vice president Mike Leslie. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) The Associated Press
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. speaks at the International Ironworkers convention, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) The Associated Press
FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event in Scranton, Pa. This week Clinton will address Hollywood celebrities, financial titans and high-powered attorneys. Good luck finding out what she says. The Democratic nominee hold all of her fundraisers behind closed doors, leaving voters in the dark about what she's telling some of her most influential supporters. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) The Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) The Associated Press
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