“White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity,” the AP reports.

The White House said that President Biden believes his predecessor, Donald Trump, is a fascist, CNN reports.

“We’ve got to lock him up.”

— President Biden, quoted by the Washington Post, about Donald Trump, before correcting himself saying, “Lock him out, that’s what I mean.”

“An independent panel reviewing the failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July called on the Secret Service to replace its leadership with people from the private sector and focus almost exclusively on its protective mission,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: “In its 52-page report, the panel wrote that ‘the Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission. Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.’”

From the report:”The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved. It is simply unacceptable for the Service to have anything less than a paramount focus on its protective mission, particularly while that protective mission function is presently suboptimal.”

Seth Masket: “A lot of political science and punditry on US presidential popularity has tended to take some form of ‘the economy, stupid’ — when the economy is growing, voters like the president and his party, and when it’s shrinking, they don’t. And that was a good description of the politics of the second half of the 20th century. As John Sides and Robert Griffin have demonstrated, there was a strong correlation between presidential approval and economic performance from the presidencies of John F. Kennedy through George W. Bush.”

“But this correlation has essentially vanished during the past three presidents.”

“Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been blocking national security spokesperson John Kirby from joining her at the podium at White House press briefings,” Axios reports.

“It’s the latest twist in the years-long tense relationship between the White House’s two senior spokespeople.”

“President Joe Biden said Congress should come back to pass emergency relief after Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc overnight on Florida’s Gulf Coast, leaving millions without power and causing tornadoes that killed at least ten people,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Biden: “I think the Congress should be coming back and moving on emergency needs immediately.”

“Eight days into the fiscal year, the federal government has spent nearly half the disaster relief that Congress has allocated for the next 12 months,” Politico reports.

“The rapid spending — which is likely to accelerate as aid flows to states pulverized by Hurricanes Helene and Milton — soon will force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restrict spending unless Congress approves additional funding.”

“Under the spending restrictions, FEMA would cut off funding for disaster-related rebuilding projects nationwide and reserve its money for life-saving operations during disasters. The cutoff often halts major repairs to roads, sewer plants and water-treatment facilities.”

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned Tuesday that falsehoods related to hurricanes are significantly impeding their response efforts, and putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk as Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida and others pick up the pieces from Hurricane Helene,” Axios reports.

“President Joe Biden is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to focus on the response to Hurricane Milton, the second major storm in two weeks to impact the US southeast,” Bloomberg reports.

“Only $1.6 billion remains in a federal program to help small businesses impacted by hurricanes and natural disasters — enough funding for only a few more weeks without emergency intervention by Congress,” CBS News reports.

“The Small Business Administration has received at least 3,000 applications every day since Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris will mark Monday’s one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel at her Naval Observatory residence, where, along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, she’ll plant a memorial tree,“ CNN reports.

“Second families have traditionally planted trees on the grounds of the vice president’s residence. Monday’s planting of a pomegranate tree — which, among other things, represents hope and righteousness in Judaism — will mark the first for Harris and Emhoff while they’ve been at the residence.”

“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.

President Biden made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room — for the first time ever.

Washington Post: “With the nation’s economy — and much of the president’s legacy — hanging in the balance just weeks before the election, White House chief economist Lael Brainard told management that they needed to come up with a new offer to the striking longshoremen. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stressed that Hurricane Helene magnified the importance of a deal. Labor Secretary Julie Su expressed optimism that the union would agree to a temporary extension if raises were included.”

“And then, in a surprising move, as the call was wrapping up, Zients told the board members of the United States Maritime Alliance that he was going to tell Biden in about an hour that they had agreed to propose a new offer to the union. By that point, the shipping executives had agreed to do no such thing. Zients was saying they would.”

Said Zients: “I need the offer today — not tomorrow. Today. I’m going to brief the president in an hour that you believe you can get this done today.”

Axios: “Biden hasn’t scheduled public events in 43 of the 75 days since he dropped his re-election bid, a reflection of the 81-year-old president’s unpopularity and age limitations as he approaches his last three months in office.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris — who has praised Biden but doesn’t routinely talk about him in her speeches — has had just one campaign event with him along with a few official events in Washington.”

“First Lady Jill Biden also has largely withdrawn from campaign events, and Harris’ team hasn’t pushed for her to do them.”