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86 posts · Wednesday
“Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Guilfoyle, in a message on Signal: “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express. Please.”
“The Democratic Party’s national organization filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully using government money to pay for video advertisements lauding the president that have been airing on cable and broadcast television stations across the U.S. in recent weeks,” Bloomberg reports.
Washington Sun: DNC sues Trump administration, alleging taxpayer-funded ads violate propaganda law.
Bloomberg: “Policymakers at the Fed, whose day job is to control inflation, are warning that borrowing costs are going to have to push higher if prices are to be brought under control.”
“Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Sept. 15-16 meeting, where officials decided to raise interest rates for the first time since 2023, showed that all 19 Fed policymakers backed the decision with several indicating there’s more work to do.”
“On Tuesday, President Trump told reporters that the second round of renovations for the Reflecting Pool — necessary after the pool’s new ‘American flag blue’ coating peeled because of what the Justice Department deemed a ‘rushed and botched installation’ — are ‘totally complete,'” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “I think they’re going to fill it up this week. The Reflecting Pool is totally complete, and we changed the old pipes. We wanted to get open for July Fourth, and now we went and got rid of all of the old pipes, which we were going to do later during the winter. We did it, and I think it’s almost complete… I’m going to visit.”
“I could’ve done very bad things to Hillary Clinton. I could’ve done very, very bad things to Joe Biden. I could’ve done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama. I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect. Then I found out that they impeached me. Twice. And … I can do whatever I want, if I want. They’ve done some very bad things.”
— President Trump, quoted by the New Republic.
“These midterm elections may be remembered as the year the wealthy dominated in political spending for congressional and state elections — to questionable results,” the Washington Post reports.
“The elections are on track to break spending records… And some of the richest Americans and corporations are dominating the spending.”
“But money doesn’t seem to be solving Republicans’ problems yet, and all the spending can even backfire amid voters’ discontent with the economy and their government.”
“Colorado minister and Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx has declared that he shoved his wife in the past—and he’d do it again,” the New Republic reports.
“The admission came by way of a campaign video call with his supporters Tuesday evening, during which Marx shamelessly confessed that he pushed his wife against a door supposedly to teach her a lesson about self-defense.”
“There’s never been anybody in the history of the Nobel Prize that deserves it more. I settled eight wars. I stopped the total obliteration of the world.”
— President Trump, speaking in the Oval Office.
Ed Kilore: “The first is that his party is frantic to save him from an increasingly plausible loss to Democrat James Talarico. Both statistically and symbolically, losing a Senate seat in the second-largest state, a GOP bastion for a generation, could be catastrophic for Republicans…”
“The second thing to know is that Paxton is, in a word, unlovable. Yes, he is an ideological MAGA warrior of the highest order with a base of loyalists in Texas that has saved his career again and again. But he’s a man of many vices, a serial adulterer (or so his estranged wife has suggested) with questionable financial ethics who seems perpetually on the brink of the scandal that will finally bring him down…”
“The third important thing to understand is that even as Republicans go to the mat for this difficult man, spending money they’d far rather spend elsewhere, Paxton is undermining the effort to help him with comments that enrage his would-be saviors.”
“The fact that President Donald Trump was photographed flashing a suit tag from a bargain brand of imported suits should not really be news,” CNN reports.
“Any woman in politics would tell you we should not dwell on how a politician dresses.”
“But the fact that Trump, a billionaire, was photographed wearing a suit jacket with tags from Jos. A. Bank, the relatively inexpensive brand, is interesting for a number of reasons.”
“Nearly nine in 10 voters say using taxpayer money to pay for election-related ads featuring the president or Cabinet members is inappropriate, including 80% of Republicans, according to a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll,” Axios reports.
“President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. does not think the death of a Russian laboratory worker from a suspected case of plague is the result of a bioweapon,” CNBC reports.
Phoenix New Times: “It was just after 2 a.m. on a pitch-black Friday morning when Bernadette Greene-Placentia’s life changed. The Democratic candidate for Congressional District 8 strolled across a parking lot to repair a damaged campaign sign. It was a routine she’d followed all summer. This time, she only made it a few yards.”
“An attacker smashed her over the head. She blacked out. She woke up to find a strange man on top of her.”
Member feature
“Cargoes of American-made fuel and crude to parts of the country that badly need them have dropped in recent weeks after the White House pared back a waiver of longstanding shipping requirements, raising the risk of even higher pump prices while frustrating oil traders,” Bloomberg reports.
“Yet another leaked recording of Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton has landed,” the New Republic reports.
Said Paxton: “It’s the war, it’s gas prices… It’s over $6 a gallon for diesel. People are feeling that pinch. So I’d say that’s probably the biggest problem… food prices, everything else… That’s by far our biggest problem, and I think that’s why we’re having a hard time with numbers.”
“This is at least the third time Paxton has unknowingly been recorded sending either subliminal or direct messages to Trump in recent days.”
New York Post: Ken Paxton rips into Iran war in another shocking audio leak: “People are feeling the pinch.”
A new State Navigate poll in Vermont finds Phil Scott (R) leading Amanda Janoo (D) in the governor’s race, 46% to 43%.
Aaron Blake: “It has become abundantly clear that Republicans in tough races aren’t especially eager to campaign with President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm election.”
“Few of them showed up to Trump’s midterm convention last month. His travel schedule since then has rather curiously featured lower-tier states like Alabama, Oklahoma and New York and only a handful of real battleground races. And even in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott is skipping Trump’s upcoming rally (citing scheduling conflicts, of course).”
“Trump increasingly appears rather sensitive about this dynamic — which makes sense, given he’s latched onto the theory that he alone can push his party to victory in less than four weeks, despite his low approval numbers.”
“He went on a tear about his rallies on Tuesday, bringing it up at least five separate times.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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