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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/down-in-polls-beto-comes-out-swinging-in-texas-debate

Down In The Polls, O’Rourke Comes Out Swinging In Texas Debate


SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Democrat Beto O’Rourke abandoned his usual message of unity and optimism on Tuesday and laid into Ted Cruz, hoping to reverse polls that show him fading against the Republican incumbent during the second debate of a Texas Senate race that’s become one of the nation’s most closely watched.

During the opening moments, Cruz criticized O’Rourke for past votes supporting a never-enacted oil production tax that might have hit oil-rich Texas hard. O’Rourke responded by evoking a moniker Donald Trump bestowed on the senator when the pair were bitter rivals during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, saying, “Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He’s going to make up positions and votes that I’ve never held.”

“It’s why the president called him Lyin’ Ted,” O’Rourke said “and its why the nickname stuck because it’s true.”

A former Ivy League debate champion, Cruz shot back, “It’s clear Congressman O’Rourke’s pollsters have told him to come out on the attack.”

Democrats have long dreamed about a growing Hispanic population helping to flip Texas from red to blue and shaking up the electoral map. But polls that once showed O’Rourke within striking distance of a monumental upset now suggest Cruz may be edging further ahead. No Democrat has won any of Texas’ nearly 30 statewide offices since 1994, the country’s longest political losing streak.

With Election Day just three weeks away, Tuesday might be one of O’Rourke’s last shots to gain ground. It was the race’s last scheduled debate after one in Houston was canceled amid Senate floor votes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Cruz wants to participate in a previously scheduled townhall featuring just O’Rourke in the U.S.-Mexico border city of McAllen on Thursday night, but it’s unclear if that will come together in time.

The pair used this matchup to clash on abortion regulations, climate change, the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and a border wall backed by the Trump administration. Things never got nasty or overly personal — the borrowed “Lyin’ Ted” was the only name-calling, but both candidates tried to impress voters by criticizing their opponent’s records.

When O’Rourke said he wanted to expand federally funded health care to more Americans, Cruz said the congressman agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and supported socialized medicine that would cost trillions and require sky-high tax increases. O’Rourke accused Cruz of not doing enough to stand up to Trump when it came to Russia and that the state needs a “full-time senator” rather than someone who concentrates on running for president.

Even when Cruz tried to say that he and O’Rourke were somewhat in agreement on opposing the Trump administration’s higher tariffs on foreign-made goods, O’Rourke drew laughs by replying, “Really interesting to hear you talk about the partisan circus after your six years in the Senate,” a reference to Cruz’s days as a tea party insurgent who battled the President Barack Obama at every turn.

O’Rourke, who is giving up his El Paso congressional seat to challenge Cruz, shattered Senate fundraising records with any eye-popping $38-plus million in the three-month period through September. The Democrat has a campaign war chest worth $22.9 million, more than double Cruz’s about $11.3 million in cash on-hand.

Cruz kept O’Rourke on the defensive when they debated last month in Dallas, and O’Rourke — who had stuck to a bipartisan, feel-good message for months — kept a promise to sharpen his tone Tuesday night’s in front of a live audience of 120 people hosted by KENS-5, the CBS affiliate.

He also noted that his monster fundraising has come without accepting donations from outside political groups, but Cruz said O’Rourke still “goes with the left-wing national activists and left-wing national donors.”

In response to a question about the #MeToo movement, O’Rourke said Cruz “inexplicably” voted against the Violence Against Women Act, saying the senator was “all talk and no action.” Cruz countered that the movement “had done an incredible amount of good for this country” and that people of both sexes need to be protected from harassment and abuse.

Even though Cruz looks to be in a better position than earlier in the race, Trump is taking the once unthinkable step of staging a rally in a state that’s so reliably conservative, heading Monday to an 8,000-seat Houston arena. The president carried Texas by a relatively small nine points in 2016. Still, Cruz has been a full-throated supporter of Trump’s since they battled during the presidential race — and hopes that the joint appearance will assuage some conservatives around the state who were angered by the past animosity.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ipped-turkey-details-khashoggi-alleged-murder

As Pompeo Remains Tight-Lipped, Turkey Details Khashoggi’s Alleged Murder


While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was taciturn with reporters Tuesday, saying things like “I don’t want to talk about any facts” and “we talked about the importance of the investigation” after his meeting with Saudi leaders, Turkish officials are being much more loquacious about the alleged slaying of Saudi journalist Jamel Khashoggi.

According to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report, Turkish officials have evidence, including tapes, that captured disturbing details of Khashoggi’s alleged drugging, torture, murder and dismemberment.

The recording reportedly captures Khashoggi’s murder in the office of Saudi consul general Mohammad al-Otaibi minutes after he entered the building. He was not interrogated, but beaten, drugged and killed by a team of Saudi officials, per the Wall Street Journal.

The tapes also include a voice suggesting that the consul exit the room, while another man, identified as Saudi forensic specialist Salah Al Tabiqi, advises the remaining people to listen to music while he used a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi’s body.

Despite the steady trickle of horrific details from the Turkish government, American leaders, including Pompeo, seem content with leaving the investigation in the Saudis’ — the alleged killers’ — hands.

“They promised accountability for each of those persons that they determined as a result of their investigation deserves accountability,” Pompeo said after his meeting with the Saudis, which was punctuated by broad grins and capped with a statement expressing Pompeo’s gratitude for their “investigation.”

Pompeo is taking cues from his boss, as President Donald Trump has again and again shown his reluctance to punish or even seriously investigate his friend, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the other Saudis.

In an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, Trump likened the Saudis to Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, asserting that they were being unfairly accused of the murder.

“I think we have to find out what happened first,” Trump said. “Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.”

He made the comments shortly after a phone call with bin Salman, a close associate of both him and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/tru...rseface-dig-you-can-take-it-any-way-you-want/

Trump Deflects Criticism of ‘Horseface’ Dig: ‘You Can Take it Any Way You Want’

As part of his extensive interview with the Associated Press, President Trumpseemed to completely disregard the heat he’s been taking over his new personal insult to Stormy Daniels.

Yesterday, Trump called the adult film actress “horseface” as he gloated on Twitter about the news her defamation lawsuit against him was thrown out by a federal judge. When asked about this, Trump called the case “so obnoxious and so wrong” even as AP asked him if it was appropriate of him to insult Daniels as she continues to wage a legal battle against him.

“You know what? You can take it any way you want,” Trump said. “Did you see the letter? She put out a letter. I had nothing to do with her. So she can lie and she can do whatever she wants to do. She can hire a phony lawyer. You take a look at this guy, a stone-cold loser. Take a look at his past. They can say anything about me. I’m just saying, I just speak for myself. You take a look, and you make your own determination.”
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/gru...hoggis-murder-beaten-drugged-and-dismembered/

Gruesome Details Emerge in Reporting of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder: Beaten, Drugged and Dismembered


As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives in Ankara to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, new reports detail the gruesome alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to reports based on Turkish sources who claim to have audio recordings of the killing, the Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident was seized moments after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Middle East Eye reported that Khashoggi was “dragged from the consul-general’s office at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and onto the table of his study next door.” Then, the consul was taken out of the room, and a witness downstairs heard screams.

It took seven minutes for Khashoggi to die, a Turkish source told Middle East Eye, as Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, the head of forensic evidence for the Saudi security team, began to cut his body up on a table while he was still alive.

Tubaigy put on headphones to listen to music during the killing, and is allegedly heard on the audio instructing other members of the 15 member Saudi team to do the same.

Before meeting with Pompeo, Erdogan spoke out about the investigation into what happened to Khashoggi, which he said was hindered by a fresh paint job and “toxic materials” inside the consulate.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckr...s-investigating-trump-organization-foundation

CNN: Cohen Meets With State, Federal Prosecutors Probing Trump Entities


Michael Cohen met Wednesday with officials from state and federal law enforcement agencies investigating President Trump’s real estate business and defunct charity, CNN reported.

The conversation took place at the Manhattan office of Cohen’s attorney Guy Petrillo, according to the report.

Sources familiar with the meeting told CNN that federal prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office and officials from the New York Attorney General’s office were among those in attendance.

Cohen entered into a plea agreement in Manhattan federal court in August. He pleaded guilty to five counts of personal financial wrongdoing and one of campaign finance violations related to hush money payments he helped broker to women who alleged sexual liaisons with Trump. Ahead of his mid-December sentencing, he has offered his enthusiastic cooperation to law enforcement bodies probing Trump-related entities.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office has continued to investigate whether others at the Trump Organization engaged in campaign finance violations by paying off women. Separately, the New York attorney general’s office has brought a civil lawsuit against the Trump Foundation for serving as a “personal piggy bank” for Trump rather than a legitimate charity.

Cohen has also spent hours meeting with prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller.
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He trying to cast doubt in order to eventually impose martial law at border and ultimately parts of Chicago
 
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https://www.mediaite.com/online/wif...-book-party-im-the-racist-and-hes-the-rapist/

Wife of White House Comms Chief Bill Shine Jokes at Book Party: ‘I’m the Racist and He’s the Rapist!’

Darla Shine, the wife of White House communications chief Bill Shine, introduced herself and her husband as “the racist” and “the rapist” — respectively — while at Seb Gorka’s book party on Tuesday night.

She was referencing Mediaite’s July story on the racially charged remarks Darla made before her husband accepted a presidential appointment.

“That’s off the record,” Bill Shine said after his wife’s “rapist” and “racist” comment, per the Washington Post.

However, Darla opted to double-down, saying, “I’m always on the record.”

The report states that a young man attending Gorka’s book party defended Darla as she recounted the news coverage of her comments.

“They twisted your word [and] made it seem something different,” the person said, which Darla agreed with by shouting “yes!”

Darla faced heavy criticism shortly after her husband accepted the White House communications position, as it was revealed that she had spread conspiracy theories about autism rates among “black boys,” complained about “blacks” being able to say the n-word, even though she’s not allowed to, and mocking African countries for being backward.

Darla’s comment about her husband being a “rapist” is presumably a reference to his role in the sexual misconduct allegations that rocked Fox News, where he served as co-president before being ousted amid the scandal
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/french-hill-democrats-lynching-ad

Radio Ad Supporting AR Rep: White Dems ‘Will Be Lynching Black Folk Again’

In a radio ad supporting Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the narrator says that black Arkansans should vote Republican because if Democrats could accuse white Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault with “no evidence,” white Democrats in charge would start “lynching black folk again.”


The commercial, paid for by a group called Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, seems to be narrated by two black women who punctuate their talking points with “girllll” as they trade statements.

Neither the Hill campaign nor Black Americans for the President’s Agenda immediately responded to TPM’s requests for comment.

“Our congressman French Hill, and the Republicans, know that it’s dangerous to change the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt, especially for Black men,” one of the women says in the ad.

“I’m voting to keep Congressman French Hill and the Republicans, because we need to protect our men and boys,” one of the women says at the end of the ad. “We can’t afford to let white Democrats take us back to the bad old days of race verdicts, life sentences and lynchings when a white girl screams ‘rape’.”

FEC filings show that the group made expenditures for radio production, though it’s unclear if that spending went into the production of this specific commercial.

According to the Arkansas Times, a North Carolinian man named Vernon Robinson is behind the ad. Robinson is a conservative activist and takes far-right stances on social issues like gay rights and immigration.

Robinson has run for congress multiple times, and is known as a “perennial candidate.” During his 2006 run, he aired a campaign ad likening immigrants coming to America to aliens coming to Earth in a Twilight Zone episode.
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https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-p...ter-anyone-who-can-body-slam-is-my-kinda-guy/

Trump Praises Rep. Gianforte For Assaulting Reporter: Anyone Who Can Body Slam is ‘My Kind of Guy’


During a Thursday night rally for Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), President Donald Trump recalled the congressman’s assault of a journalist amid cheers from a supportive crowd.

“We endorsed Greg very early but I had heard that he body slammed a reporter,” Trump said to the Missoula audience as they shouted and clapped. “And he was way up…this was like the day of the election, or just before, and I said, ‘Oh, this is terrible he’s going to lose the election,’ then I said, ‘Wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him,’ and it did.”

The reporter mentioned was The Guardian‘s Ben Jacobs, who in May 2017 was physically attacked by Gianforte after approaching him with a question on a healthcare bill. The politician eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was required to begin anger management classes.

However, that didn’t appear to trouble Trump who praised Gianforte for the crime, stating, “Any guy that can do a body slam — he’s my kind of guy.”
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