| | | | | President Trump greets residents beside a table of prepared meals Wednesday in New Bern, North Carolina, as he toured areas of the state pummeled by Hurricane Florence. Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images | | | Less Than 24 Hours Away from Decision: Senate sets deadline for Christine Blasey Ford
Facebook's Building an Election "War Room": How they're prepping for the midterms
Kim K Reps March For Our Lives: Kim Kardashian West takes a break from promoting her beauty line | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump travels later today to Las Vegas, where tonight he will hold a rally. He stays in the city overnight.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
What Trump will talk about in his rally "speech" tonight. Will he riff on the Brett Kavanaugh situation and/or his feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions? There has not been a single White House press briefing this week.
Less Than 24 Hours Away from Decision Deadline:
The Supreme Court showdown between Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh's potential appointment to the nation's highest court is scheduled to peak tomorrow at 10 am -- the Senate's deadline for Ford to say whether she will testify about her abuse accusations. Right now, it appears the FBI will not investigate her allegations, leaving Ford without one of the crucial asks she wanted fulfilled before she tells her story to the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Kavanaugh attends yet another day of preparatory meetings at the White House, where he was spotted this morning by CNN, the clock ticks on his future, and on Ford's.
New Time Cover:
Here's the new TIME, with a cover that echoes the similarities between the sexual harassment allegations against Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and what's currently happening with Kavanaugh. The cover ponders, "What's Changed," with an accompanying story by Molly Ball. | | Credit: TIME.com
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, Fences Mended, Now Allies:
CNN's Betsy Klein has a story of Trump and Cruz's fascinating evolution from campaign foes to needed friends. Trump is helping Cruz maintain his Senate seat in Texas, and Cruz is helping Trump navigate Congress and lend his support from Capitol Hill. As Ivanka Trump tours NASA with Cruz today in Texas, and Donald Trump Jr. campaigns there for him in the coming weeks, it seems clear the bad blood between Trump and Cruz is no more.
Trump's Advice to Spain Sounds Familiar:
Spain's foreign minister Josep Borrell in a speech in Madrid yesterday said he recently discussed his country's immigration crisis with Trump, who had some advice. "You need to build a wall around the Sahara," Borrell recalled the President told him. The White House disputes Borrell's account of the conversation. In his remarks, Borrell said Trump thought the Sahara border with Spain was shorter than the US's border with Mexico. It is not. Also, Spain does not border the Sahara: "The Sahara desert extends for nearly 3,000 miles across the African continent. Around a dozen countries lie wholly or in part within the Sahara, including Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Egypt, Algeria, Chad and Niger. Spain is not one of them, so any wall would have to be built entirely on other nations' land."
Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and Police Chief of COMMAS:
Secretary Pompeo is cracking down on ... commas. His senior staff has now sent State Department officials two emails regarding Pompeo's feelings about commas and their proper use. One states in part: "The Secretary has underscored the need for appropriate use of commas in his paper (both their inclusion and omission) .... effective use of the comma involves good judgment, with the goal being ease of reading." Hear, hear, Mr. Secretary. (Wait, did I use those commas right?)
Trump Administration Sued ... By Local Canoe Club:
The president's penchant for playing golf at his Sterling, Virginia, golf club has for the past year really upset several hundred canoe and kayak enthusiasts, who get bummed when a 1.6-mile stretch of the Potomac near the golf course is shut down each time Trump wants to play 18 holes. So, yesterday, the Canoe Cruisers Association of Greater Washington sued members of the administration, including the head of the Coast Guard and the head of the Department of Homeland Security. | | White House Fall Garden Tours:
Dates were announced yesterday for the free seasonal tours of the White House gardens (October 20 & 21). I say this all the time, but I would encourage you to at some point take advantage of one of the tours -- they are fun and a great way to get up-close to the White House. Details here.
Our Daily Melania, #TBT Fur Edition:
Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson just wrote an essay for The Guardian in which the longtime PETA activist says she's done wearing leather and she talks about how her fashion taste has evolved based on her beliefs about animals. In her piece, Anderson also takes credit for Melania Trump, once an avid fur-wearer, disavowing fur -- a change in her stance that I broke last year. As I showed in my story, Anderson sent Melania a custom faux fur coat at the White House, and the first lady in turn sent Anderson a thank you note. Here's a #tbt shot of Melania in 2003 in a fur wrap at a store opening in New York, along with the note she sent Anderson and the personalized label inside the faux fur coat Anderson gave Melania. | | | Credit: Robin Platzer/Film Magic via Getty images, @pamfoundation/Twitter, PETA | | What Washington is Talking About:
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, set Friday at 10 a.m. ET as the deadline for Christine Blasey Ford's legal team to respond to a request for testimony; The Alliance for a Better Utah, a progressive government accountability group, filed a complaint with the FEC over campaign contributions raised by Republican Rep. Mia Love; and an arrest has been made in connection with the death of 35-year-old Wendy Martinez, who was stabbed Tuesday while jogging in Washington's Logan Circle neighborhood in what authorities believe was a random attack.
What America is Talking About:
Maroon 5 is reportedly performing at the Super Bowl and people are upset (guys, come on, you know you loved Songs About Jane, and imagine if they bring Christina out for "Moves Like Jagger" 😏); LeBron James will star in a "Space Jam" sequel to be produced by "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler, so you know it's going to be dope; and Livingston, Texas, mayor Judy Cochran, a great-grandmother, shot and killed a 580-pound alligator she believes ate her miniature horse.
Poll of the Day:
Women seem to hold their elected officials to a higher standard than men, according to a Pew poll released today on what qualities Americans value in their office holders. While women and men said being "honest and ethical," working "well under pressure," and being "able to work out compromises" were essential for political leaders are roughly the same rate, women were more likely than men to say it was essential for politicians to be civil, respectful, compassionate, empathetic and role models. | | Credit: Pew
Trump-Kim Summit II?:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in got back this week from a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, where he and Kim Jong Un agreed to an "era of no war." Moon said Kim would like to meet with Trump for a second summit, and Kim said he's willing to make progress on denuclearization, allowing in inspectors if the US takes "corresponding measures." Moon and Trump will be together in New York next Monday for the United Nations General Assembly.
Facebook's Building an Election "War Room":
Facebook is building a dedicated "war room" at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters, where a team of about 20 will monitor the social network for disinformation and fake accounts ahead of the midterm election, according to the New York Times. Facebook's efforts are "probably the biggest companywide reorientation since our shift from desktops to mobile phones," Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's head of civic engagement, told NYT.
Back when Facebook was making the transition from desktop to mobile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg required all product presentations to lead with mobile, COO Sheryl Sandberg said in 2017, so I found Chakrabarti's comments significant. The "war room" is scheduled to open Monday.
Chicago's Giving the Obama Library a Great Deal:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's office is expected to submit proposals relating to the Obama Presidential Center to the city council today. It will include a $10, 99-year deal to allow the library to be built in Jackson Park, per the Chicago Sun-Times. | | Credit: Obama Presidential Center
Sarah Palin Doesn't Seem Particularly Keen on Trump Right Now:
In an interview in her Wasilla, Alaska, home with The Daily Mail, Palin was asked what she thought of the job Trump was doing. She sidestepped the question and said she was "very thankful for the Trump movement" and described Trump as "a candidate in the field who fit the bill to win that election." Not exactly a glowing endorsement. When asked if she agreed with the way Trump says things, she said, "not always." Her husband Todd was more direct: "Not at all." | | Credit: Daily Mail
Kim K Reps March For Our Lives:
Kim Kardashian West often uses Instagram stories to promote her beauty line, but she recently posted some photos wearing March For Our Lives gear. She posted herself in a $19.99 baseball hat and a "United We Stand" shirt, which comes in black-and-white tees, long-sleeve shirts and hoodies. She wrote "Register To Vote" over the story. | | Credit: @marchforourlives/Instagram
Look Who Was at Michael Moore's Premiere Last Night:
Omarosa posed for a red carpet photo with Moore at the premiere Wednesday night of his "Fahrenheit 11/9" documentary at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. | | Credit: Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images
Stormy Daniels is Now a Comic Book Character:
The comic book is called "Political Power: Stormy Daniels" and it's from Tidalwave Productions, which has released other limited-run comics on people including Lady Gaga, "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer, Obama, and Trump. The writer and illustrator, Joe Paradise, said in a press release he didn't know much about Daniels when he started the project, but, "Between the ludicrous denial of the Daniels affair and the accounts of what's contained in the steel dossier I started to think there might be something else going on." The comic has three covers, two of which include the infamous Forbes magazine. | | Credit: Tidalwave Productions
Street Art Sighting:
I'm beginning to think there is no limit to the number of ways artists and activists can vandalize Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. An anonymous artist put jail-like bars over the star yesterday. | | Credit: Plastic Jesus
If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE. | | | | | | |
