| | | | | President Trump gestures with a snake staff that was part of a Halloween costume at Sunday evening's White House festivities. Credit: Mike Theiler/pool/Getty Images | | | All the Hours of Executive Time: The President has a lot of non-presidential-stuff time on his hands
Halloween, White House Style: Where we reveal how many baskets of candy Trump handed out last night at the White House Halloween
Dress Like the First Lady: Yellow and black and meh all over | | | What the White House is Talking About:
With the exception of receiving his morning intelligence briefing, President Trump has nothing else on his public schedule.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
A White House briefing IS on the schedule for today at 2 p.m. with Sarah Sanders.
Another suspicious package was intercepted, this time addressed to CNN's Atlanta headquarters. As a precaution, since last week, all of CNN's domestic mail to all of its bureaus is being screened at off-site facilities to prevent any potential danger to staff and employees.
The pipe bomb suspect appears in court at 2 p.m. today.
Meanwhile, Trump Tweets This:
Literally, there was at least one potential bomb in the mail to CNN when he posted this tweet this morning: | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump Twitter
What Responsibility, Asks POTUS:
Wherever you fall on the question of accountability for the rise in hate speech in this country, this Peter Baker/Maggie Haberman joint in the New York Times today was a solid read. As the President contemplates a visit to Pittsburgh, where his presence is unwanted by many Jewish community leaders, what price does he pay for responsibility, be it real or perceived?
All the Hours of Executive Time:
An unscheduled day leads to lots of free time for tweeting and TV watching for the President. Politico got its hands on Trump's schedule from last week and reviewed time spent on official meetings and policy and the other, you know, stuff a president typically does to run the country, and it is remarkably (and alarmingly?) little. Last Tuesday, for example, Trump spent just three hours doing official work -- and had three times that for "executive time," what we all now call the time the President spends watching cable news, calling friends, and tweeting.
Trump 2020 Campaign Manager Tries to Explain the Strategy:
It's worth the time to read Dana Bash's excellent sit-down interview with Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager. Parscale explains the unprecedented move the campaign made to spend $6 million per ad buy to support Republicans in mid-terms.
Must Be Interesting at the Conway Household These Days:
Today George Conway, husband of Kellyanne Conway and outspoken Twitter critic of his wife's boss, tweeted the below, an outtake from Patti Davis' scathing op-ed in the Washington Post. It's interesting because it's literally the opposite of what Kellyanne said this morning during an appearance on CNN's "New Day," when she called Trump's words "very moving" and "uplifting." | | Credit: @gtconway3d/Twitter
HALLOWEEN ... :
I covered the President and first lady at the White House last night handing out candy to kids from local military families and to schoolchildren. Have to say, they stayed out there for a long time -- like, a while. I watched Trump need at least four big baskets of candy, swapped out by an aide, because he was so generous with the giant Hershey bars and Twizzlers. I took a close-up shot of what was being handed out. Also, hats off to the design team who did last night's decor. It was pretty awesome. The lighting was amazing, and so were the corn husk-covered columns. Slow clap that. | | Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images, Kate Bennett (middle and right)
Dress Like the First Lady:
Gotta say, I didn't love the coat that Melania Trump wore to the Halloween fest at the White House last night. It was just sort of unflattering and meh. But, fashion is in the eye of the beholder! It's a Bottega Veneta, available here for $3,950. | | Credit: Mark Theiler/pool/Getty Images, net-a-porter.com
Remember That Couple? FOUND!:
Thanks to the interwebs, photographer Matthew Dippel found the couple he captured getting engaged on a precipice in Yosemite National Park. Dippel had searched for the two and turned to Twitter and Instagram to try to find them -- and it worked! | | Credit: @dippelmatt/Twitter
I Still Can't Find the Words:
I'm going to be honest here and profess that I am having a lot of trouble dealing with the synagogue shooting -- I can't quite wrap my head around that kind of hate. Sadly, we're all being forced to face it. I am half-Jewish, not that it matters, because I feel like we all grieve as human beings for those 11 people killed. I just wanted to talk about it down here a bit because I'm quite honestly loathe to put a news item in this particular newsletter about the mass murder -- but I do want to honor the victims. Please read about them here. I took this shot of the White House flag at half-staff last night when I was leaving work and I keep thinking about it: what this flag is, what it means, how the decision to lower it came about, and what the person who lives in the people's house will do moving forward. In short, I'm still sad, but we all need to remember that kindness and words matter in ways big and small. Have a good week! | | | | | | |
