BAGHDADI “DIED LIKE A DOG”… PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP introduced the killing of Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi from the White House this morning, laying out the scene in in depth, and typically grisley, element. TRUMP stated U.S. forces landed with eight helicopters, and Baghdadi -- “whimpering and crying and screaming all the best way” -- killed himself and his three youngsters, mutilating his physique. The president stated Baghdadi was and “the losers who worked for him” have been “very frightened puppies.”
TRUMP stated he watched the mission from the State of affairs Room, and it was “as though you have been watching a movie.” No U.S. personnel have been injured, the president stated, but a canine was harm. DEFENSE SECRETARY MARK ESPER stated on CNN’S “STATE OF THE UNION” that there have been “two minor casualties, two minor accidents, to our soldiers however a really profitable, flawless raid.”
TRUMP advised reporters he had been asking about Baghdadi for years. He stated the U.S. did seize and kill terrorists in his time in workplace, however “they weren’t the large names.”
“HE DIED LIKE A DOG,” Trump stated of Baghdadi. “He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.”
-- REP. MAC THORNBERRY (R-Texas), the former Armed Providers chairman, stated this CNN’S JAKE TAPPER on “STATE OF THE UNION” concerning the element with which TRUMP described the raid. “Oh, it in all probability makes me a little uncomfortable to listen to a president talking that approach. But, once more, Baghdadi was the inspirational chief for an ISIS community the world over from Africa to Southeast Asia. Should you can take a little of the glamour off you, if you can also make him less inspirational, then there is a value to that for all of those people who are on their computer systems or in these networks trying to attack.”
“WE KNOW THE SUCCESSORS,” Trump stated, and the U.S. has them in its sights. TRUMP also stated this was greater than Osama Bin Laden.
-- CHUCK TODD spoke with ROBERT O’BRIEN on NBC’s “MEET THE PRESS”: O’BRIEN: “Look I feel right now is a superb day for the USA of America and an excellent day for the world. This -- this was the number one needed individual in the world -- he’s a brutal vicious terrorist. Killed many individuals, the president went into element, we will speak some more about that. Nevertheless it’s additionally necessary for the world to know that the United States has an extended reach and the men and women of our armed providers executed this mission flawlessly, took him down, and his colleagues which might be nonetheless alive ought to be fearful.”
TRUMP stated he didn't tell Speaker NANCY PELOSI concerning the mission. “I didn’t do this,” he stated, saying he needed to ensure this was stored secret. “I don’t need to have men misplaced -- and ladies. I don’t need to have individuals misplaced.”
-- THE WHITE HOUSE WILL LIKE THIS ONE … HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) to MARTHA RADDATZ ON ABC’s “THIS WEEK”: “This can be a great day. A ruthless killer delivered to justice. It’s not the top of isis by any means, and we’ve had some current critical setbacks with the launch of over 100 ISIS fighters, that wrestle is going to have to go on, made harder by the truth that we’ve betrayed the Kurds and withdrawn our forces from part of Syria. Nonetheless an necessary victory towards this brutal killer.”
-- CHRIS WALLACE asked VP MIKE PENCE on “Fox News Sunday” why the president didn’t inform Pelosi. He didn’t instantly reply.
-- CNN’S JAKE TAPPER spoke with DEFENSE SECRETARY MARK ESPER on “STATE OF THE UNION”: TAPPER: “I’m not making an attempt to remove from the celebration, I agree it’s a great achievement, I’m simply looking for out as much info as attainable. There are Russian forces also working in this space of Syria. Should we assume that the U.S. de-conflicted with Russia, in different phrases informed the Russians we’re going to be here, just in order that there wasn’t any misunderstanding, miscommunication or kinetic motion between the two, between the U.S. and Russia?
ESPER: “I’ll just say broadly that we have now -- we now have communications to Russia. We deconflict all forms of issues. And -- and I’ll simply depart it at that.” …
TAPPER: “And clearly this can be a large blow to ISIS to have their chief, al-Baghdadi killed. Is there now concern that ISIS may lash out, that they could try to stage some kind of terrorist assault as a method of displaying to the world, hey, we’re nonetheless here?
ESPER: “Properly you prepare for every part, but you’re proper, this can be a devastating blow. This is not simply their chief, it’s their founder. He was an inspirational leader in many ways. He’s the one which when he -- he shaped ISIS in 2014, he lead to the establishment of bodily caliphate all through the area, so this can be a main blow to them. And we’re going to observe rigorously next steps and as a brand new chief and leaders pop up, we’ll go after them as nicely.”
FLASHBACK … @realDonaldTrump on Oct. 22, 2012: “Cease congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden. The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden. #debate”
SNEAK PEEK … THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK: Monday: THE PRESIDENT goes to Chicago to talk on the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference and Exposition. He then will take part in a roundtable and fundraiser. TRUMP and the first woman host Halloween on the White House. Tuesday: TRUMP may have lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and hold a fundraiser in D.C.
Wednesday: THE PRESIDENT may have lunch with VP Mike Pence and present a Medal of Honor. Friday: TRUMP will journey to Tupelo, Miss., for a political rally.
Good Sunday morning. WELL, NATS FANS, think of it this approach: it’s now a better of three collection with the first recreation tonight in D.C. Need optimism? Read WaPo’s Barry Svrluga THINK OF IT THIS WAY: Nats have Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg on the mound within the subsequent two video games.
NOTABLE … WAPO on Trump’s go to to Nats Park: “‘The first pitches are our call, and we felt there are numerous different candidates that ought to be thought-about before [Trump],’ [Mark] Lerner stated. ‘. . . We simply needed to have the appropriate individuals. I feel we received a pleasant mix of people.’
“The league confirmed Saturday that each one conversations with Trump about throwing out a first pitch had been instantly with MLB on Friday. Commissioner Rob Manfred advised reporters that MLB asked the President whether he needed to throw out the primary pitch, however he declined. Trump does not plan to arrive in time to see that first pitch; he is planning to arrive after the game begins. Manfred stated Trump made that call to alleviate the crush of fans getting into the ballpark with larger security constraints. …
“Manfred has been in contact with Trump instantly. On Saturday afternoon, he performed golf with Trump and Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) at Trump Nationwide Golf Membership, the White House confirmed.” WaPo
IMPEACHMENT CLIP PACKET … QUITE SIGNIFICANT… WSJ: “Sondland Advised Home Panels Trump’s Ukraine Strain Was Quid Professional Quo,” by Rebecca Ballhaus: “A prime U.S. diplomat informed Home committees last week that efforts by President Trump and his allies to press Kyiv to open investigations in trade for a White House assembly with Ukraine’s president amounted to a quid professional quo, his lawyer stated.
“Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, advised Home committees that he believed Ukraine agreeing to open investigations into Burisma Group—a fuel company the place Democrat Joe Biden’s son as soon as served on the board—and into alleged 2016 election interference was a condition for a White Home assembly between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Sondland’s lawyer Robert Luskin stated.
“Asked by a lawmaker whether that association was a quid professional quo, Mr. Sondland cautioned that he wasn’t a lawyer however stated he believed the answer was sure, Mr. Luskin stated.” WSJ
-- WEEKEND FUN! … ANDREW DESIDERIO: “Prime State official particulars chaos after Yovanovitch ouster to impeachment investigators”: “A prime State Department official informed House impeachment investigators on Saturday about his position in supervising the chaotic fallout from President Donald Trump’s ouster of his ambassador to Ukraine earlier this yr, together with his stymied efforts to situation a press release in help of the besieged diplomat, in line with an individual acquainted with the official’s testimony.
“Philip T. Reeker, the appearing assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, assumed his position in March, just weeks earlier than Trump pressured out Marie Yovanovitch, his prime diplomat in Kyiv. Reeker had to cope with the aftermath of the president’s choice, which disturbed senior American diplomats who seen the transfer as politically motivated.” POLITICO
-- INTERESTING NUGGET FROM WAPO’S GREG MILLER and RACHAEL BADE: “GOP members and staffers have repeatedly raised the identify of a person suspected of filing the whistleblower grievance that exposed Trump’s effort to strain Ukraine to conduct investigations into his political adversaries, officials stated.
“The Republicans have refrained during hearings from explicitly accusing the individual of filing the explosive grievance with the U.S. intelligence group’s inspector basic two months in the past, officials stated.
“But the questions have been interpreted as an attempt ‘to unmask the whistleblower,’ whose id is shielded underneath federal regulation, stated a number of officials with direct information of the depositions. Republicans look like in search of ways to discredit the whistleblower as well as different witnesses ‘by making an attempt to dredge up any info they will,’ one official stated.” WaPo
-- NYT’S PETER BAKER: “Waiting for Bolton: A Capital Speculates on What He Will Say”: “ The message that John R. Bolton, President Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser, despatched supporters of his newly reopened political action committee final week raised as many questions because it answered in a capital consumed by impeachment.
“Mr. Bolton implicitly criticized Mr. Trump’s overseas policy, declaring that ‘regardless of all the pleasant notes and photograph ops, North Korea isn’t our good friend and by no means can be.’ But he additionally wrote that the nation’s safety ‘is beneath attack from within,’ citing “radicalized Democrats.”
The conflicting alerts have been maddening.
“After both resigning or being fired last month depending on whose version is to be believed, is Mr. Bolton so estranged from Mr. Trump that he may provide damaging testimony to House investigators? Or does he share the president’s view of out-of-control Democrats pursuing an illegitimate impeachment out of partisan excess?” NYT
WASHINGTON EXAMINER’S DAVID DRUCKER in Sea Island, Ga: “'I feel dangerous that I left': John Kelly warned Trump he can be impeached”: “John Kelly warned President Trump that hiring a ‘sure man’ to succeed him as White House chief of employees would lead to impeachment and, in hindsight, regrets his determination to resign. …
“‘I stated, no matter you do — and we have been nonetheless within the course of of looking for someone to take my place — I stated no matter you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ somebody who gained’t inform you the reality — don’t do this. As a result of in the event you do, I consider you may be impeached,’ Kelly recalled in an interview at the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner.” Washington Examiner
-- POLITICO, by way of Evan Semones: “Trump fired again at Kelly later Saturday, questioning the veracity of the retired Marine Corps basic's remarks. ‘John Kelly by no means stated that. He never stated anything like that. If he would have stated that I might have thrown him out of the office,’ Trump stated, in line with CNN. “He simply needs to return back into the action like everyone else.’
“White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham confirmed Trump’s response, adding, ‘I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President.’” POLITICO
NEW DEETS ON TRUMP/ROMNEY, by way of WaPo’s Michael Kranish: “In January 1995, Mitt Romney boarded Donald Trump’s airplane for a experience to Palm Seashore, Fla., the place the two toured Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier than attending the Tremendous Bowl in Miami. They bonded over football as they attended more NFL video games in subsequent years, and Trump stated it was a ‘real honor’ to endorse Romney’s 2012 presidential bid.
“Romney, nevertheless, refused to return the favor of an endorsement in 2016, calling Trump a ‘phony,’ and the 2 have been extensively seen as detesting each other. Romney, just before taking his seat as a Republican senator from Utah in January, wrote in an op-ed that Trump ‘has not risen to the mantle of his workplace.’
“Two months later, little recognized to the general public, Trump and Romney met for lunch at the White House. The topic was presupposed to be their shared belief that the USA needed to take robust action towards China’s commerce insurance policies. The trouble at a rapprochement, described in interviews by Romney and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who facilitated it, went additional and deeper than anticipated or publicly recognized.
“As had occurred again and again in some of the weird relationships in Republican politics, it fell apart in a blizzard of bitter phrases. Romney turned probably the most outspoken Republican critics within the Senate of Trump’s telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the president’s choice to withdraw troops from Syria.” WaPo
2020 WATCH …
-- N.Y. MAG COVER STORY … OLIVIA NUZZI: “The Zombie Campaign Joe Biden is the least formidable front-runner ever. Will it matter?”: “Biden is conscious that it’s not going properly. Nevertheless it’s not apparent that he is aware of easy methods to fix it. Just lately, in line with his employees, his anxieties have manifested more visibly. If he begins to question one thing small, he spirals, ultimately questioning all the things. Ought to he be saying this in his speech? Wait, should he be giving this speech in any respect? Ought to he even be focusing on this group? Is this even the suitable position?
“He freaks out over minor stuff on the path that staffers don’t consider he must be regarding himself with and yet is unable to make strategic changes. But the employees concern themselves with unimportant issues, too, operating what they assume is a general-election marketing campaign once they have to be operating a main. Contained in the campaign, the Biden brain trust appears to exist extra to consolation the candidate than to compel him, and strategy meetings inevitably devolve into meandering, ruminative roundtables that really feel purposeless besides to fill time in the day. No one will tell the candidate in plain terms what they assume he needs to change. Not that Biden actually listens anyway.” N.Y. Mag
-- AP’S MEG KINNARD in Florence, S.C: “AP Interview: Biden undeterred by rival Warren’s ascendancy”: “Joe Biden stated Saturday he is undeterred by the ascendancy of Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren, noting that some of his supporters are already treating the primary marketing campaign as a common election contest between him and President Donald Trump.
“‘She doesn’t have an effect on my strategy, period,’ the previous vice chairman stated in an interview with The Associated Press before a city hall meeting in South Carolina, house to the South’s first main subsequent yr. ‘And I’m not being facetious. I feel she’s a advantageous individual, a superb candidate, however I didn’t get involved in deciding to run due to polling or a specific strategy.’
“He additionally acknowledged that outdoors teams are contemplating operating advertisements to help him, a move that comes amid considerations within his marketing campaign that his fundraising efforts have lagged.
“‘There’s two issues we all know for certain: one, (Russian President) Vladimir Putin doesn’t need me to be president, in line with Fb taking down the Russian advertisements going after me. And two, certainly Trump doesn’t need to face me,’ Biden stated. ‘What I’m informed is, there are individuals out there who need to take these advertisements on, take him on now, because it’s a basic election, me versus Trump, of their minds proper now. However I’ve had no conversations with them.’” AP
-- BOSTON GLOBE: “An Ohio manufacturing unit closure stirs populist anger. Who will that help in 2020?,” by Jess Bidgood in Lordstown, Ohio: “Two years in the past, President Trump stated he would assist. He came to Northeast Ohio, a place the place many citizens gave him a shot after years of backing Democrats, which helped him win the state. He promised to revive the region’s struggling manufacturing sector, and to be an all-out advocate for blue collar America.
“It's a promise thus far not stored, a minimum of not in Lordstown. To many, it seems like things right here have only gotten worse, stoking the populist anger that has lengthy coursed by means of this corner of country increasingly divided by financial inequities.” Boston Globe
THE PRESIDENT’S SUNDAY … TRUMP and first woman Melania Trump will depart the White House at 7:50 p.m. to go to Nationals Park for Recreation 5 of the World Collection towards the Houston Astros.
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):
-- “How a Veteran Reporter Worked with Giuliani’s Associates to Launch the Ukraine Conspiracy,” by ProPublica’s Jake Pearson, Mike Spies and J. David McSwane: “Lev Parnas, just lately indicted for overseas influence in U.S. elections, collaborated intently with The Hill’s John Solomon to gasoline spurious allegations involving the Bidens and Ukraine.” ProPublica
-- “The Journalist vs. the President, With Life on the Line,” by Joshua Hammer in the NYT Journal: “Maria Ressa, editor of a well-liked information website within the Philippines, has incurred President Duterte and his supporters’ wrath by investigating his extrajudicial killing marketing campaign.” NYT Magazine
-- “I’m Part of the 0.1 % and I Need a Wealth Tax,” by Meghan Bell in The Walrus: “[T]he rich do not care about you (some may even hate you), and any rich individual claiming in any other case is conning you. Name their bluff. The rich won't assist you, won't prevent via ‘job creation’ or anything. Corporate-tax cuts are related to higher inequality, no more job opportunities. The typical rich individual is searching just for himself.” The Walrus
-- “Don’t Guess on John Bolton to Be an Impeachment Hero,” by John Gans in POLITICO Journal: “The president’s former national safety adviser may need opposed the Ukraine scheme. However he also spent his career preventing for the energy of the presidency and the bounds of congressional inquiry.” POLITICO Magazine
-- “How Brexit Will Finish,” by Sam Knight in The New Yorker: “Till lately, it was attainable to consider that there was a middle means, or to be in denial that a decisive moment would come. That’s not the case.” New Yorker
-- “Why Speak to a Pariah?” by Errol Morris, director of the upcoming Bannon documentary “American Dharma,” in Air Mail: “Most adversarial interviews exist not to procure info but merely to showcase the toughness of the interviewer. If the objective is to point out how robust you're, then the troublesome question works wonders. But if the aim is to study one thing new or something sudden or something totally different, it’s typically a disaster.” Air Mail ... Trailer
-- “A Suspect in the Family,” by James Rosen within the WSJ: “‘In Hoffa’s Shadow’ is ... a reckoning, as [Jack] Goldsmith confronts his disloyalty toward his adoptive father, and also a meticulous reconstruction of ‘the best thriller in American historical past.’ For that activity he reviewed the vast corpus of Hoffa literature: FBI information, wiretap transcripts, grand-jury proof. In contrast to different researchers, he had unfettered access to [Chuckie] O’Brien and carried out a whole lot of hours of interviews.” WSJ
-- “Tips on how to Mourn a Glacier,” by Lacy M. Johnson in The New Yorker – per Longreads.com’s description: “Essayist Lacy M. Johnson attends a funeral in Iceland for ‘Okjökull’ — once a glacier 16 sq. kilometers in floor, and now ‘solely a small patch of slushy gray ice.’ In personifying shrinking plenty of ice — key geographical options of the world, and the planet — officers hope to impress upon individuals the dire extent of local weather change, and the need for humans to cease dwelling in ways that threaten all life varieties.” New Yorker
-- “The Invention — and Reinvention — of Impeachment,” by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker: “It’s the ultimate political weapon. But we’ve by no means agreed on what it’s for.” New Yorker
-- “Two Ladies Joined GM More Than a Decade Ago. Their Futures Couldn’t Be More Totally different,” by Bloomberg’s Danielle Bochove: “Tentative labor deal aside, the transition to electrical and autonomous automobiles is leaving a era of staff behind.”
Src: POLITICO Playbook: Baghdadi is dead … But are the Nats alive?
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