Politico: “These senators, many of whom won for the first time in 2014, say they are merely reflecting the intensity of conservative voters who are outraged at what they view as Kavanaugh’s unfair treatment by liberal Democrats and the media. While many will face token challengers at a minimum, the key is to make sure they are aligned with Trump on key issues — and perhaps nothing is bigger going into the next election cycle than defending Trump’s beleaguered nominee.”
Flake Calls Trump Comments ‘Appalling’
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) criticized President Trump for his mocking comments at a rally about Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, calling Trump’s remarks “kind of appalling,” The Hill reports.
Said Flake: “There’s no time and no place for remarks like that. To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right, it’s just not right. I wish he hadn’t done it. It’s kind of appalling.”
Trump Obsesses About 2020
“President Trump is increasingly fantasizing in public and private about his 2020 campaign, using midterm rallies to talk as excitedly about his own re-election in 2020 as he does about the 2018 races that are just 34 days away,” Axios reports.
“Last night in Mississippi, he even promised ‘we will do a landslide’ in 2020, after a razor-thin electoral victory (and substantial popular vote loss) in 2016. ‘Who the hell’s gonna beat us? Look! Who’s going to beat us?’ Trump asked, after amping up his frequent riff about former Vice President Joe Biden as a lightweight he’d love to crush.”
Said one former aide: “The greatest moment in Donald Trump’s life was when Hillary Clinton called and conceded the 2016 election. Nothing about actually being the president has ever lived up to that.”
Grassley Demands Christine Blasey Ford’s Therapy Notes
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys, requesting evidence to buttress her sexual assault claim that has “put Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh on trial before the nation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Grassley said that Dr. Ford’s attorneys “have withheld evidence that senators need to evaluate the allegations before voting on the nomination of President Trump’s Supreme Court pick.”
“Mr. Grassley requested notes from Dr. Ford’s therapy sessions, recordings of the lie detector test she took, and exchanges she had with the news media. The two-page letter also questioned Dr. Ford’s truthfulness.”
Graham Says Klobuchar Should Apologize
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) should apologize to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Graham noted that Kavanaugh apologized during last Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for “snapping” at Klobuchar after she asked him if he had ever “blacked out” from drinking.
Said Graham: “Here’s what I think. Amy Klobuchar should apologize to Kavanaugh and his family for being part of a smear campaign that I haven’t seen for over 20 years of politics.”
White House Tells Candidates to Stick Close to Trump
New York Times: “The details of the president’s strategy for approaching the final five weeks before Nov. 6 elections were laid out in a memo from the White House political director, Bill Stepien, and circulated to West Wing aides.”
“The memo, obtained by The New York Times, essentially lays down a marker for once the dust has settled after Election Day, and it becomes clear which Republicans fared well and which did not. In the White House’s view, according to the memo, those Republicans who are running at a distance from Mr. Trump may come to regret it when the votes are cast.”
“Candidates who are looking for a path to victory need to ‘boldly align’ themselves with a president who is historically popular with Republican voters, Mr. Stepien wrote.”
DeVos Will Spend Nearly $8 Million on Security
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ security detail is projected to cost up to $7.74 million from now through the end of September 2019, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service told Politico.
FBI Expands Interviews In Kavanaugh Probe
Washington Post: “On Tuesday, the FBI moved beyond those initial four people, interviewing Tim Gaudette, a Georgetown Preparatory School classmate of Kavanaugh. Gaudette’s attorney, Kenneth Eichner, said an FBI interview took place but declined to comment further. Gaudette’s home was the site of a July 1, 1982, party that Kavanaugh references on his calendar and has become the focus of lawmakers’ concerns.”
“FBI agents have also interviewed Mark Judge, a key Kavanaugh high school friend who has denied any knowledge of a teenage gathering like the one described by Kavanaugh’s first accuser.”
”Another friend from Kavanaugh’s high school days, Chris Garrett, has also completed an FBI interview.”
Josh Marshall makes a pretty good case that Garrett is a key person in this story.
Trump Mocks Christine Blasey Ford
President Trump “for the first time directly mocked Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a rally in Mississippi, casting doubt on her testimony about her alleged sexual assault,” CNN reports.
“Trump imitated Ford during her testimony before the crowd, mocking her for not knowing the answer to questions such as how she got to the party.”
Said Trump: “How did you get home? I don’t remember. Where is the place? I don’t remember. How many years ago was at? I don’t remember. I don’t know. I don’t know. What neighborhood was it in? I don’t know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember. A man’s life is in tatters. A man’s life is shattered.”
Senate GOP Coy on Final Kavanaugh Vote
The Hill: “GOP leadership wants to take up the nomination by the end of the week, and senators say they have been told to be ‘on call’ to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination during a rare weekend session. But they’ve been wary of publicly locking down a timetable for floor action — beyond saying a vote will take place ‘this week.‘“
”A specific timing plan could spook swing votes and/or look like they are rushing the FBI to wrap up its ongoing investigation on Kavanaugh.”
Kavanaugh Letter Admits He and His Friends Were Drunks
New York Times: “The beachfront property was rented, the guests were invited and an ever-organized Brett Kavanaugh had some advice for the seven Georgetown Preparatory School classmates who would be joining him for the weeklong escapade.”
“In a 1983 letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times, the young Judge Kavanaugh warned his friends of the danger of eviction from an Ocean City, Md., condo. In a neatly written postscript, he added: Whoever arrived first at the condo should ‘warn the neighbors that we’re loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us. Advise them to go about 30 miles…'”
Republicans Fear ‘Selective Leaking’ of Kavanaugh Report
“Some Senate Republicans fear their Democratic counterparts will selectively leak parts of the FBI’s final report about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in order to make him look bad just as the Senate prepares to vote on him,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“As of Tuesday, the plan was to only have the report go to senators so they can decide whether to support Kavanaugh, and vote on him sometime this week… But that has some Republicans worried about partial leaks aimed at turning the public against Kavanaugh.”
Sherrod Brown Has No Interest In Running for President
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he is not the kind of guy who looks in the mirror every morning and sees a future president.
Said Brown: “I love this job. The other people on those lists are people that are out talking about it, are out campaigning across the country. I am not doing that.”
New York Reviewing Trump Tax Fraud Allegations
New York state tax officials are investigating allegations detailed in an exhaustive New York Times investigation into Donald Trump and his family’s business dealings, CNBC reports.
Meanwhile, the state tax department already is investigating the president’s charity, the Trump Foundation.
GOP Candidate’s Adventure Claims Challenged
Steve Watkins (R), “a political novice who rode his profile as an outsider-adventurer to the Republican nomination in a competitive Kansas congressional district. is facing scrutiny about some of the biographical details he shares with voters,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“Watkins’ campaign website featured a since-removed testimonial to his ‘heroic leadership’ when a deadly earthquake shook Mount Everest during an expedition. He has acknowledged inaccurately claiming that he started a Middle East business, expanding it from three to 470 people. And there are doubts about Watkins’ self-description as a devoted, sixth-generation Kansan.”
The Cook Political Report rates the seat a Toss Up.
FBI Probe of Kavanaugh Will Be Done Soon
Wall Street Journal: “GOP aides on the Hill and another person familiar with the process said they were expecting the bureau to conclude its report as soon as late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Agents had interviewed at least four key people as of Tuesday in its background investigation of Judge Kavanaugh. The White House had given the bureau until Friday to wrap up the probe.”
“Senators would then be shown the FBI’s findings, but it wasn’t clear if the public would get a look as well.”
Trump Engaged in Suspect, Fraudulent Tax Schemes
“President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents,” an investigation by the New York Times has found.
“Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire… But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.”
“Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents… Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”
The Times also provides a good summary of the 11 takeaways from their investigation.
Bloomberg Gives Senate Democrats Cash Infusion
Michael Bloomberg “will give $20 million to the main Democratic Senate super PAC this week — jolting the national battle for control of the chamber just five weeks away from the midterm elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“Bloomberg’s intervention bolsters the Democrats’ Senate chances by infusing significant late-season capital into the Senate Majority PAC, a group that had $29 million on hand at the end of August and has been purchasing advertising in expensive media markets.”
“Bloomberg believes the emotional national debate over sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has energized Democratic voters and provides an opening for the party to be more competitive in rallying women and swing voters.”
