A FEW ODDS AND ENDS from the president’s fundraiser with Senate Republicans this week, from a number of sources at the Trump Lodge… THE PRESIDENT ribbed Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY’s (R-Iowa) voice. He stated Grassley sounds scary even when he’s making an attempt to not. Trump mentioned JIM COMEY’S testimony in entrance of Grassley’s Judiciary committee and stated the former FBI director copped to passing his memos to a Columbia professor because Grassley’s voice scared him into confessing.
-- HE SPOKE ABOUT wind turbines killing birds again.
-- HE SAID HE MET with an Asian man named Toyota and requested him if it was the identical as the automotive company.
HAPPENING TODAY … TRUMP TO LSU-ALABAMA … The Advocate: “On Saturday, Trump will make historical past because the second sitting Commander-in-Chief to attend an LSU football recreation. The first was William Howard Taft when LSU played Sewanee in New Orleans in 1909. It was a 15-6 Sewanee win, snapping the Tigers' 15-game profitable streak.” The Advocate (h/t @jmartNYT)
ONLY THE NEW YORK TIMES put JOHN BOLTON’S surprising letter on the entrance page: NYT: “BOLTON DANGLES VITAL KNOWLEDGE OF UKRAINE PUSH” NYT story … THE WASHINGTON POST went with a story about Alexander Vindman’s testimony: “‘No doubt’ about a quid pro quo, official testifies”
ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL … BIG STORY: “Giuliani Associates Urged Ukraine’s Prior President to Open Biden, Election Probes,” by Rebecca Ballhaus and Alan Cullison in D.C. and Brett Forrest in Kyiv: “Months before President Trump pressed Ukraine’s newly installed chief to investigate Joe Biden’s son and allegations of interference in the 2016 U.S. election, two associates of Rudy Giuliani urged the prior Ukrainian president to announce comparable probes in change for a state visit to Washington, in accordance with individuals acquainted with the matter.
“A late February assembly in Kyiv between Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took place on the workplaces of Ukrainian common prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, the individuals stated. It came soon after Messrs. Parnas and Fruman met with Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, and Mr. Lutsenko in New York in late January and again in Warsaw in mid-February, Mr. Giuliani has stated.
“Mr. Lutsenko additionally attended the late February assembly, the individuals stated. Mr. Poroshenko didn’t finally announce that he was opening these investigations. Mr. Lutsenko, the prosecutor, gave an interview to the Hill in March during which he stated he was opening an investigation into alleged interference by Ukrainians in the 2016 U.S. election.
“He also stated he had proof he needed to current to the U.S. Justice Division related to former Vice President Joe Biden and Burisma Group, a Ukrainian fuel company where Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, was a director. Two months later, in an interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Lutsenko stated he had no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.” WSJ
KYLE CHENEY and ANDREW DESIDERIO: “The unsolved thriller of frozen Ukraine help”: “House Democrats are building a case that President Donald Trump tried to extort a overseas leader, withholding desperately needed army assistance to Ukraine until the country’s president announced investigations into Trump’s political rivals.
“However a key part of their narrative, which Democrats have asserted is ironclad, stays a thriller — irritating their efforts to prove one of many extra damaging expenses towards Trump.
“How was Trump’s order to freeze the $400 million in army assistance handled on the highest ranges of his administration? What causes were given, if any, to the senior finances officials who carried out the abrupt freeze?
“Regardless of a mountain of evidence provided by cooperative diplomats — and a public admission and hasty retraction by appearing White Home chief of employees Mick Mulvaney — the uncertainty surrounding the maintain on the help has only deepened over time, in response to interview transcripts released this week as a part of the impeachment inquiry. The truth is, what has turn into more and more clear is that only a small cadre of finances officers — and Trump himself — has the answers. They usually have fought more durable than anyone to spurn Democrats’ demands for testimony.” POLITICO
JOSH GERSTEIN: “Mulvaney moves for ruling on House impeachment probe subpoena”: “Appearing White Home Chief of Employees Mick Mulvaney is asking to hitch a pending lawsuit aimed toward clarifying whether the Home of Representatives can require senior advisers to President Donald Trump to testify in the ongoing impeachment probe related to Ukraine.
“Mulvaney’s move in a courtroom filing late Friday night time might breathe new life into the go well with filed final month by former Deputy Nationwide Safety Adviser Charles Kupperman.
“Kupperman’s attorneys billed the lawsuit not as a problem to Congress’ authority however as an effort to get a definitive ruling on whether the previous Trump aide ought to comply with a subpoena he acquired to testify earlier than the House Intelligence Committee or whether to abide by instructions from the president not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.” The court filing
NYT’S CARL HULSE: “Senate Democrats Face Their Own Risks Over Impeachment”
CNN’S MANU RAJU, JEREMY HERB and MARSHALL COHEN: “What 2,677 pages of testimony reveals about Trump's Ukraine scandal”: “[A] assessment of more than 2,600 pages of transcripts released this week from eight witnesses who have testified within the Home impeachment inquiry over the past six weeks exhibits how controversy over Trump's Ukraine coverage had been brewing inside the US government for months. It roiled efforts to bolster a key strategic alliance after Trump enlisted his personal personal lawyer to work outdoors regular diplomatic channels in an apparent effort to bolster his reelection possibilities.” CNN
Good Saturday morning.
L.A. TIMES: “ICE is ignoring California’s ban on personal immigrant detention facilities,” by Andrea Castillo: “Final month, California turned the primary state to kick out privately run immigrant detention centers. A brand new regulation that also bans personal prisons prohibits new contracts or modifications to present ones after Jan. 1 and phases out present detention amenities totally by 2028.
“However on Oct. 16, five days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 32 into regulation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials posted a solicitation — a request for gives — on the Federal Enterprise Opportunities website for at least four detention amenities across the state.
“Democratic state legislators and advocates for immigrants say that ICE’s motion is a blatant try and circumvent the regulation as a way to proceed detaining immigrants in California. They’re now calling for answers from the company, which has remained tight-lipped concerning the state of affairs.” LAT
SENTENCED … JOSH GERSTEIN: “Manafort's former son-in-law gets 9 years for array of scams”: “As U.S. District Decide Andre Birotte Jr. imposed the sentence of 9 years and two months on Jeffrey Yohai, the decide blasted the would-be actual estate developer as a serial scammer whose ‘horrific’ crimes posed a big menace to the public, a spokesman for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Los Angeles stated. …
“Yohai pleaded guilty to a brazen array of frauds, together with renting out luxurious houses with out the permission of their house owners, selling non-existent backstage passes for the Coachella music pageant, and pawning band gear that belonged to somebody else.”
THE MOMENT FOR A NEW YORK CITY BILLIONAIRE … WAPO FRONT PAGE: “Democrats debate presidential subject on news of Michael Bloomberg’s potential candidacy”: “Even for a party accustomed to an anxious donor and political class — a gaggle of second-guessers that Obama adviser David Plouffe famously referred to as the “bed wetters” — billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s possible entry into the Democratic presidential main has supercharged a debate over whether the get together has the proper candidates, whether the time for entries has handed, and whether or not yet different candidates might increase the mountain of cash needed for a credible marketing campaign.
“Bloomberg’s choice, fueled by his dissatisfaction with the race’s leading average, former vice chairman Joe Biden, and worries concerning the rise of liberal chief Elizabeth Warren, injected renewed volatility into the primary race simply three months before voting begins with the Iowa caucuses. …
“Names being floated as potential candidates embrace former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and former U.S. lawyer common Eric H. Holder Jr. Former secretary of state John F. Kerry, the social gathering’s 2004 nominee, also has been mentioned, though individuals close to him insist that he won't enter the race.
“The celebration’s 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton, was fielding calls in current days about whether or not to get into the race, some close to her stated. While it's still unlikely that she is going to run, some allies have gone so far as to speak a few potential pathway that might bypass Iowa and New Hampshire and give attention to making a stand in South Carolina.” WaPo
-- MARC CAPUTO and SALLY GOLDENBERG: “What is Michael Bloomberg thinking?”:
-- JOHN HARRIS: “OK Bloomberg”: “Now that Mike Bloomberg signaled late Thursday extra clearly than ever his curiosity in turning into president, the former New York mayor wants a pithy catch phrase. I worked in a single day on words designed to seize the thrill and hopeful spirit of his imminent campaign.
“‘I am a sensible man with good intentions who has been super-successful and could truly win and it will be cool and I’d go a very good job.’ Ideas?....Please, don’t worry about my emotions. Nonetheless wants work, doesn’t it?
“Make the leap, Mayor Bloomberg. There is a clear if slender opening for a candidate who can compellingly characterize the celebration’s average wing within the Democratic nomination battle. I am skeptical, on early evidence, about how he would truly propose to fill it.” POLITICO Mag
-- WHITE HOUSE MEMO … NYT’S ANNIE KARNI and MAGGIE HABERMAN: “As Marketing campaign Season Heats Up, Trump Has Turned the Official Into the Political”: “[M]r. Trump has not just blurred the strains between the two. He has turned presidential speeches into political ones, and official trips around the nation into campaign opportunities, full with taunts of his rivals, riffs about his enemies, pleas for votes and fear-mongering about what is going to happen if he loses.” NYT
-- L.A. TIMES: “Elizabeth Warren took down an Obama nominee from Wall Street. Was it for nothing?” by Noah Bierman
-- NYT’S REID EPSTEIN and LISA LERER in Waverly, Iowa: “Why Pete Buttigieg Annoys His Democratic Rivals”: “Joseph R. Biden Jr. was mingling with a handful of mayors backstage at a convention in Washington when an uninvited visitor appeared.
“It was Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who’d launched an exploratory committee for his presidential run the day before, stopping by to say hiya. Mr. Biden turned to greet Mr. Buttigieg, a man less than half his age. ‘Good day, Mr. President,’ Mr. Biden stated, in a voice dripping with condescension. In the still-crowded Democratic presidential area, one man has triggered an outpouring of resentment and angst.
“It’s not Donald Trump. As Mr. Buttigieg, the millennial mayor of a city smaller than a New York Metropolis Council district, rises within the polls, he has struck a nerve together with his Democratic rivals. Lots of their campaigns have griped privately concerning the attention and money directed towards Mr. Buttigieg. They are saying he is too inexperienced to be electable and that his accomplishments don’t benefit the outsize attraction he has with elite donors and voters. His public punditry concerning the race has prompted eye rolls from older rivals who view him as a know-it-all.
“And in a area where most candidates find themselves strapped for cash, they snipe at his means to boost more than anybody else in the main subject apart from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.” NYT
-- AP’S ALEXANDRA JAFFE: “Prime Iowa aide to Steyer’s campaign resigns after AP report”: “A prime Iowa aide to businessman Tom Steyer resigned Friday, a day after The Associated Press revealed he had privately provided marketing campaign contributions to native politicians in change for endorsing Steyer’s White Home bid.
“Steyer’s Democratic presidential marketing campaign announced the resignation of Pat Murphy, a former House speaker who served as a prime adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign. ‘After the conclusion of an investigation alleging improper communications with elected officers in Iowa, Pat Murphy has provided his resignation from the campaign efficient instantly,’ Steyer’s marketing campaign supervisor Heather Hargreaves wrote in a press release. ‘Our campaign policy is clear that we'll not interact in this type of activity, or any variety of communication that could possibly be perceived as improper. Violation of this policy shouldn't be tolerated.” AP
BOSTON GLOBE: “A Pennsylvania roofer beloved Bill Clinton and voted for Obama. This is how Trump lured him from the Democrats,” by Liz Goodwin in Erie, Pa.: “In this pleasant lakeside metropolis on the far western fringe of Pennsylvania, where residents can anticipate to be blanketed in eight ft of snow every winter, voting Democrat is a practice that has been passed down by way of households, along with a union card. But in 2016, the ties between working class voters here and the Democratic Social gathering snapped, helping Trump narrowly carry Erie County just four years after Obama gained it by 16 points.
“Voters like Klinzing jumped aboard the Trump practice, raising questions on this former Democratic stronghold about whether or not Democrats can win back white working-class voters in Western Pennsylvania this time around amid a stronger local financial system fueled by a regional development growth.” Boston Globe
RONNY JACKSON -- formerly the president’s physician and virtually the VA secretary -- is contemplating a run for Congress in a deep pink seat in Texas, per Roll Call.
THE PRESIDENT’S SATURDAY … AT 12:20 P.M., the president and first woman will depart the White House for Andrews, the place they’ll fly to Tuscaloosa, Ala. At 2:20 p.m., they'll arrive at Bryant-Denny Stadium for the LSU-Alabama recreation. At 5:45 p.m., they may depart the stadium for the airport, and at 6:15 p.m., the president and first woman will fly to New York.
CLICKER -- “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker -- 17 funnies
GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):
-- “‘He Had, Like, This Massive Round Mattress with Mirrors on the Wall’: How the Personal Jet Turned the Singular Fetish Object of the Trendy Billionaire,” by William D. Cohan in Vainness Truthful’s December difficulty: “Personal planes are the communal dwelling area for probably the most rapacious, acquisitive individuals on the earth. And the eternal question is: Whose is greater?” VF
-- “Iran’s hostage manufacturing unit,” by WaPo’s Jason Rezaian: “In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking dozens of People captive. Forty years later, Iran has increased the arrest of overseas nationals with out proof of wrongdoing, creating a brand new sort of hostage disaster.” WaPo
-- “When America Tried to Deport Its Radicals,” by Adam Hochschild in The New Yorker: “A hundred years in the past, the Palmer Raids imperilled hundreds of immigrants. Then a wily official obtained in the best way.” New Yorker
-- “The Porch Pirate of Potrero Hill Can’t Consider It Came to This,” by Lauren Smiley in The Atlantic: “When a longtime resident began stealing her neighbors’ Amazon packages, she entered a vortex of sensible cameras, Nextdoor rants, and cellphone surveillance.” Atlantic (h/t Longform.org)
-- “The Unmistakable Black Roots of ‘Sesame Road,’” by Bryan Greene in Smithsonian: “This yr, as the present commemorates its 50th anniversary and is broadcast in more than 150 nations, it’s worthwhile to have a look back at how since its inception, ‘Sesame Road’ has been rooted in African-American tradition, extra specifically the historically black group of Harlem. The New York Metropolis neighborhood played such an outsized position in the improvement of the program ... the answer to the question from the ‘Sesame Road’ opening music, ‘Are you able to tell me the way to get to Sesame Road,’ should be Duke Ellington’s ‘Take the A Practice.’” Smithsonian
-- “Liberalism Based on The Economist,” by Pankaj Mishra in The New Yorker: “Founded in 1843 to unfold the doctrine of laissez-faire, the journal has wielded affect like no different. But at what value?” New Yorker
-- “The Schooling of Billy Barr,” by Marie Brenner in Vainness Truthful’s December problem: “Many in Washington marvel why the stiff-spined, fastidious lawyer basic is carrying the water for somebody as impetuous and morally untethered as Donald Trump. The answer might lie within the classes William Barr discovered from his father, a combative and deliberately provocative New Yorker—not in contrast to the president himself.” VF
-- “To Have or To not Have Youngsters in the Age of Local weather Change,” by Katie O’Reilly in Sierra Journal’s November/December concern -- per Longreads.com’s description: “An environmental journalist struggles to reconcile her want to be a mother with the effect procreation has on the warming planet she writes about.” Sierra
-- “Way of life Farming Is the Newest Addictive Pastime for Banker Varieties,” by Lydia Mulvany in Bloomberg Businessweek: “Through the week, Chris Andersen runs his Manhattan investment banking agency, G.C. Andersen Partners LLC, from behind a desk that’s a reproduction of 1 owned by Lorenzo de’ Medici. On the weekends, he heads to his farm in New Jersey, the place he shovels out corn cobs and bruised watermelons to feed his herd of Mangalitsa hogs, an particularly tasty breed of pig from Hungary. Andersen, 81, calls himself the Colonel Sanders of the Mangalitsa.” Bloomberg Businessweek
-- “The Wing: how an unique ladies’s membership sparked a thousand arguments,” by Linda Kinstler in The Guardian: “The Wing is a personal members’ area for ladies that claims to be an ‘accelerator’ for feminist revolution within the U.S. – and now it’s coming to the UK. But how progressive is it really?” Guardian (h/t Longform.org)
-- “Ralph Nader Is Opening Up About His Regrets,” by Rob Brunner in Washingtonian: “A niece died in one of many 737 crashes. Now he’s launching one last security crusade—and having to reckon with the very real contempt that is still from the 2000 election.” Washingtonian
-- “Unique: Veterans want solutions as new knowledge exhibits rise in cancers over 20 years of conflict,” by McClatchy’s Tara Copp, Shirsho Dasgupta and Ben Wieder: “[S]ome army families now question whether or not their publicity to toxic environments is to blame ... McClatchy discovered that the rate of most cancers remedies for veterans at [VA] health care centers increased 61 % for urinary cancers ... from fiscal yr 2000 to 2018. The speed of blood most cancers remedies — lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia — rose 18 % ... Liver and pancreatic most cancers remedy rates elevated 96 % and prostate most cancers remedy charges elevated 23 %.” McClatchy
-- “The happiness ruse,” by Cody Delistraty in Aeon Magazine: “How did feeling good develop into a matter of relentless, aggressive work; a never-to-be-attained objective which makes us depressing?” Aeon (h/t Longform.org)
-- “The Making of the World’s Biggest Investor,” by WSJ’s Greg Zuckerman, writer of the brand new ebook “The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution” ($18.02 on Amazon): “Jim Simons was a..
Src: POLITICO Playbook: What Trump said behind closed doors
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