“Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the ‘Merchant of Death,’ walked out of a U.S. jail almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.”
“A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats were made against staff and a judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years behind bars and admonished her for her role in a data breach scheme catalyzed by the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump,” the AP reports.
Donald Trump said at a rally that it’s “very dangerous” for Kamala Harris voters to identify themselves because they’ll “get hurt.”
Rolling Stone: Trump reiterates he wants to be a “dictator” for “one day” at Wisconsin rally.
A group of imams endorsed Kamala Harris in an open letter, a critical boost as she steps up her efforts to win back disaffected Muslim voters amid the Israel-Hamas war, NBC News reports.
Kamala Harris criticized Donald Trump for calling himself a “protector” of women during an interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Axios reports.
Said Harris: “There are now 20 states with Trump abortion bans, including bans that make no exceptions for rape or incest. This is the same guy that said women should be punished for having abortions.”
New York Times: In interview with “Call Her Daddy,” Harris hits back at Republican criticism of childless women.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told RealClearPolitics that Donald Trump, if elected, would seek to end federal money for Planned Parenthood.
Said Vance: “We don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”
“President Joe Biden said on Sunday he ordered another 500 active-duty troops to move into western North Carolina and assist with the response and recovery efforts after the deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene,” Reuters reports.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “begging” wife Cheryl Hines not to file for divorce in the wake of his alleged “personal relationship” with journalist Olivia Nuzzi, People magazine reports.
Said one source: “She’s been talking about filing for divorce, but he’s begging her not to file. But how many times can you forgive a partner that’s dishonest and goes behind your back? It’s just ridiculous behavior from a grown, married man.”
“Donald Trump may lose the election, but Kamala Harris is largely conceding he has won the argument on the border,” Axios reports.
“Both Trump and Harris are now pledging to impose some of the most restrictive immigration, asylum and border policies in decades.”
New York Times: “A 2022 study by a pair of University of Montana scholars found that Mr. Trump’s speech complexity was significantly lower than that of the average president over American history…”
“The Times analysis found that Mr. Trump speaks at a fourth-grade level, lower than rivals like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who speaks at an eighth-grade level, which is roughly average for modern presidents.”
“The campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump made strategic adjustments to the content of their TV advertisements between August and September, a CNN analysis of ad tracking data shows, amid a contentious fight to define the transformed race for the White House,” CNN reports.
“Emphasis of key issues, including abortion, immigration and crime, shifted, with the Harris campaign moving away from defensive ads that stressed the vice president’s law enforcement background, and the Trump campaign leaning into economic appeals – the top issue for voters in this election.”
NBC News: “With just weeks left before the November election, former President Donald Trump has taken to promoting items and businesses that are not at all connected to his presidential campaign…”
“While running for president this cycle, Trump has also promoted a sneaker brand, boots and even Bibles — all of which are business and not campaign ventures. He has long mixed business with politics; prior to his legal battles that have raged for years now, those potential conflicts of interest were the subject of far greater attention.”
“But the fact that Trump is promoting his business interests again in the closing weeks of the campaign has his Democratic rivals saying it is proof he is unfocused, and even some of his allies saying the effort is unwise.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Sunday refused to say Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, USA Today reports.
Said Johnson: “You want us to litigate things that happened four years ago when we’re talking about the future. We’re not going to talk about what happened in 2020.”
Mother Jones: Top Trump allies help set the stage for election chaos.
“Andrew Cuomo wants out of the political wilderness. Many fellow New York Democrats wish he would stay there,” Politico reports.
“Concern over Cuomo possibly running for New York City mayor has led a nascent collection of labor, business and advocacy groups to consider an organized effort to counter any political comeback, according to a person familiar with the planning and fundraising who was granted anonymity to discuss the internal conversations.”
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to step in and immediately decide issues related to mail-in ballots in the commonwealth with early voting already under way in the few weeks before the Nov. 5 election,” the AP reports.
“The commonwealth’s highest court on Saturday night rejected a request by voting rights and left-leaning groups to stop counties from throwing out mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date or have an incorrect date on the return envelope, citing earlier rulings pointing to the risk of confusing voters so close to the election.”
“The Supreme Court returns to its bench Monday with an agenda that includes cases on guns, pornography and transgender medical care, as the justices brace for a slew of last-minute election fights and a new presidential administration that could drag the court deeper into politics,” CNN reports.
“Of the 40 appeals the high court has agreed to decide so far, only a handful are the kind of screaming political controversies that dominated its caseload in recent years. While the lineup may allow the justices to keep their heads down for now, there are signs the relative calm may be short-lived.”
Kamala Harris’ campaign is directly invoking special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation to attack Donald Trump with a new ad, Politico reports.
From the new ad: “We knew it was bad. But it’s worse than we thought. Much worse than we thought.”
“It’s a rare attack from the Harris campaign. While Harris — and President Joe Biden before her — have discussed the events of Jan. 6 on the campaign trail, Harris’ campaign has rarely made these attacks in paid advertisements. The digital ad will air in battleground states starting Sunday.”
“Florida is facing the threat of another major hurricane making landfall in the state, prompting state emergency officials to prepare for the evacuation of potentially more than 6 million residents as the state still recovers from its last direct hit,” Politico reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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