Clinton Picks Up Big GOP Endorsement

Another prominent Republican has endorsed Hillary Clinton, and this one might sting Donald Trump more than most: Meg Whitman, a major GOP donor, says she now plans to raise funds for his rival. "I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her," the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive tells the New York Times. In a Facebook post, Whitman, who was co-chair of Chris Christie's campaign and ran for governor of California in 2010, describes herself as a "proud Republican," but she says she cannot "endorse a candidacy that I believe has exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia, and racial division." She adds: "Donald Trump's demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character." In other developments:

• Trump has fired back at Obama's accusation that he is "unfit to serve as president." Obama "will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States," he tweeted. He later told Fox's O'Reilly Factor that Obama has been a "disaster"—but Clinton could be even worse.

• As the Trump-Khan controversy rumbled on, Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson offered a new spin on it by telling CNN that Obama probably caused the death of Capt. Humayun Khan. He died in Iraq in 2004, when Obama was still a state senator in Illinois, and Pierson was soon mocked on Twitter under the hashtag #KatrinaPiersonHistory, reports USA Today.
• The Los Angeles Times reports on another setback for Trump: On Tuesday, US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled that the Trump University racketeering lawsuit can proceed this fall. He did, however, agree with Trump's lawyers that Trump's video depositions in the case shouldn't be released to the media. Curiel is the judge targeted by Trump for his Mexican heritage, which Trump claims creates a conflict of interest.
• French President Francois Hollande came out with his strongest criticism yet of Trump on Tuesday, saying the candidate makes him sick, the AP reports. "Some excesses make your stomach turn, even in the United States, especially when—as did Donald Trump—he speaks ill of a soldier, of the memory of a soldier," he told members of the French Presidential Press Association.
• Politico reports that Trump's refusal to back down from the Khan feud has split the GOP, but it has "energized" anti-Trump Republicans who have been feeling adrift since the convention. But they are frustrated by the limited options: A few have decided to support Clinton, more have decided to back Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, but many have opted to simply focus on GOP House and Senate campaigns while hoping that Trump loses in November.

(Trump has refused to endorse Paul Ryan and John McCain in their primary battles.)