| | | | | President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump host trick-or-treaters Monday on the South Lawn of the White House. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | | | Halloween at the White House: Angry tweets from a "seething" Trump and special presidential M&Ms for the kids
White House Releases Official POTUS and Veep Portraits: Coming soon to a federal building near you
Betsy DeVos as Ms. Frizzle: Education secretary comes in costume to White House Halloween event | | | | Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return Thursday. | | What Washington Is Talking About:
Representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter are scheduled to testify at 2:30 p.m. today about Russian ads and foreign interference before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.
What America Is Talking About:
It's Halloween, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against eating too much black licorice, and hosts from the "Today" show dressed as country stars, including Matt Lauer as Dolly Parton and Megyn Kelly as Shania Twain.
Today's Washington Post A1:
Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos all get photos above the fold, with the headline "3 Trump campaign officials charged," and a big photo of Manafort climbing into his vehicle Monday after leaving US District Court in Washington. | | Credit: The Washington Post
Papadopoulos Dismissed as "Low Level Volunteer":
President Donald Trump tweeted this morning that a former campaign foreign policy adviser was a "young, low level volunteer" who "few people knew," and at Monday's briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders called Papadopoulos' role in the campaign "extremely limited." She said he had "a volunteer position" and that "no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard."
You can read a 14-page court document unsealed Monday about Papadopoulos here. It describes conversations he had with an overseas professor who claimed to know Russian officials who had "thousands of emails" damaging to Hillary Clinton. According to court documents, Papadopoulos made false statements to the FBI, including downplaying the conversations and the timing of them.
How Trump Handled the News:
The President watched cable news Monday in the White House residence and was "seething," a Republican close to the White House told CNN. White House lawyers advised Trump to avoid criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller, while former chief strategist Steven Bannon and other allies called for Trump to push back. A senior Republican in contact with top staffers told The Washington Post the feeling inside the White House is that "the walls are closing in" and "everyone is freaking out." However, Sanders said during Monday's press briefing that Trump "responded (to the news) the same way the rest of us in the White House have, and that's without a lot of reaction because it doesn't have anything to do with us."
Poor Other Guys Named George Papadopoulos:
Michael Bolton feels your pain. | | Credit: @jenanmoussa/Twitter
Kelly Praises Robert E. Lee, Says He'll Never Apologize to Lawmaker:
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly appeared Monday night on the debut of Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" and called Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee "an honorable man," said "the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War." He also said that he'll never apologize to US Rep. Frederica Wilson, whom he inaccurately said boasted about securing funding for an FBI building named for slain agents during a speech dedicating the building. He asserted she made the comments, but not during her speech.
Here Are Trump's and Pence's Official Portraits:
The White House announced this morning the official portraits of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, which will be distributed to federal buildings and no doubt be subtly displayed in future movies set in this decade so viewers know the time period. | | Credit: White House
Trump Not Going to the DMZ:
A senior administration official told the press this morning "there is not enough time in the schedule" for the President to visit the Demilitarized Zone while he's in South Korea and that visiting the spot has become "a little bit of a cliche."
First Daughter Cuts Her Asia Trip Plans Short:
Ivanka Trump has canceled meetings in South Korea and China, and will instead travel back to the United States to push for tax reform, meeting with lawmakers, traveling to House districts and making media appearances, CNN's Betsy Klein has learned. The first daughter still has an address to the World Assembly for Women 2017 in Tokyo on her schedule Friday.
Sneak Peek at Facebook's Written Testimony:
Ahead of today's hearing, CNN's Dylan Byers got hold of Facebook's written testimony, by the company's general counsel, Colin Stretch, who wrote that 29 million people directly saw content from the Russia-connected troll farm the Internet Research Agency, while about 97 million others may have seen this content after users shared it. Stretch writes that this is still a small number compared with all the content on Facebook. "If each of these posts were a commercial on television, you'd have to watch more than 600 hours of television to see something from the (Internet Research Agency)," he wrote.
Netflix Will Air Sixth Season of "House of Cards":
The streaming service and producers Media Rights Capital issued a joint statement Monday, saying they were "deeply troubled" by sexual misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey. "House of Cards" will air its sixth and final season next year, but a source close to production told CNN the decision to end the show was unrelated to Spacey and two sources said the production team was told the show was ending months ago.
The Rock Hints at Presidential Ambitions:
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was at Los Angeles Comic Con this weekend to promote the upcoming "Jumanji" reboot he stars in and said, "I think the 'People's President' has a really nice ring to that. I'll just say that." So he's definitely maybe running for president, possibly.
Comey's New Avatar:
Former FBI Director James Comey has uploaded a photo to his Twitter account and he has a bio that describes him as "taller and funnier in person." I love that he faved this tweet. | | Credit: @FormerBu/Twitter
White House Halloween:
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is *the* place in town to go trick or treating. At a Halloween event Monday, kids from more than 20 schools in the area got goodies from the Trumps, including cookies from the White House pastry kitchen and special presidential M&Ms, per the White House.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos dressed as Ms. Frizzle from the animated TV series "The Magic School Bus," and Kellyanne Conway donned an orange blazer. | | | Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | | | | | | |
