A Republican candidate for Connecticut’s General Assembly has withdrawn following criticism over comments he made online about victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Steven Baleshiski, a 22-year-old college student from Southington, had been challenging six-term state Rep. Joe Aresimowicz for a House seat.

The Hartford Courant reports the Republican town committees for Southington and Berlin withdrew their endorsements of Baleshiski before he resigned. The two committees said they do not condone Baleshiski’s “hurtful and dividing behavior.” Committee chairs said they are looking for a new candidate.

In a social media post in March, Baleshiski said a survivor of the Parkland shooting who turned to gun-control advocacy “can burn in hell.”

Baleshiski did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.
…

Melania Trump says she loves President Donald Trump and has “much more important things to think about” than allegations he cheated on her with a porn star, a Playboy Playmate or anyone else.

Mrs. Trump, who was interviewed by ABC while touring Africa last week, said people are just spreading rumors about her marriage.

“I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage and circulate the gossip,” she said. “But I understand the gossip sells newspapers, magazines … and, unfortunately, we live in this kind of world today.”

She insisted allegations of her husband’s infidelities are not a concern.

Trump, who during the 2016 presidential campaign was heard on an old “Access Hollywood” tape talking about groping and try to have sex with women, has been accused of having multiple affairs. Porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal have said they had sex with him years ago.

Trump has denied the trysts with Daniels and McDougal but has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for a $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Mrs. Trump has generally kept quiet on the subject.

Asked in the ABC interview if she loves her husband, Mrs. Trump said, “Yes, we are fine. Yes.”

She played down a suggestion the repeated rumors of his philandering had put a strain on their marriage.

“It is not concern and focus of mine,” she said. “I’m a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do.”

But when she was asked if the repeated rumors had hurt her, she paused. Then she reiterated the “media world is speculating.”

“Yeah, it’s not always pleasant, of course,” she said. “But I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true.”

Portions of Mrs. Trump’s interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America.” Her full interview is set to air Friday night in an ABC News special, “Being Melania – The First Lady.”

Other portions of the interview aired earlier this week featured Mrs. Trump saying she could be “the most bullied person” in the world and saying women who make accusations of sexual assault need to “show the evidence.”

Donald Trump, on the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that became public during the 2016 campaign, says when he’s attracted to beautiful women, “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet.” He said when you’re a star, women let you.

“Grab them by the p—-,” Trump adds. “You can do anything.”

Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the National Enquirer tabloid were involved in buying the silence of Daniels and McDougal after they alleged affairs with Trump.
…

New York’s most conservative congressional district is unexpectedly in play as Republican incumbent Chris Collins, one of President Donald Trump’s first supporters, fights insider trading charges while seeking re-election.

Republican leaders in a western New York district that Trump swept overwhelmingly in 2016 are counting on party and presidential loyalty, even if it means voting for someone that even they wanted off the ballot.

“This district is Trump country, and it will continue to be,” said Erie County Republican Party Chairman Nicholas Langworthy. “It’s a conservative Republican district, and I expect that when the dust settles on election night it will re-elect a conservative Republican to the seat.”

Democratic challenger Nate McMurray is still the underdog but says his volunteers and donations have surged since Collins was charged in August, and his crowds have gone from handfuls to hundreds.

“It’s like an avalanche that started out with a little snowball that’s rolling downhill and getting bigger and bigger every day,” McMurray, a Grand Island town supervisor, said recently to a roomful of supporters. They included Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, who dropped in to drum up enthusiasm in what had been a little-watched race.

Once considered a sure win for Republicans, Real Clear Politics now lists the race as a “toss-up,” and the Cook Political Report in mid-September moved the seat from “likely Republican” to merely “lean Republican.” McMurray said this week his internal polling showed the race to be a dead heat.

With Democrats forecast to make gains in the House, for some voters in the Republican-advantaged district, the decision will be more about keeping the challenger out than Collins in, analysts said.

“The old phrase of ‘all politics is local,’ the Tip O’Neill statement? These local races are not so local anymore,” American University political science professor Jan Leighley said.

Accusations against Collins

Collins, with a reported net worth of $44 million one of the wealthiest members of Congress, is accused of illegally leaking confidential information about a biopharmaceutical company to his son and the father of his son’s fiancee that allowed them to avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock losses. The most serious charge carries a potential prison term of up to 20 years. If he wins and is later convicted and forced to resign, a special election would be held.

The 68-year-old Collins pleaded not guilty and initially vowed to continue his re-election campaign. He then agreed to be removed from the ballot “in the best interests of the constituents,” only to reverse course again and announce he would stay on the ballot — even as party leaders who had spent weeks exploring legal maneuvers to remove him were preparing to announce a replacement.

“The stakes are too high to allow the radical left to take control of this seat in Congress,” Collins said in a Sept. 19 statement. 

Collins is one of two Republican congressmen running for re-election while under indictment. Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California, has pleaded not guilty to spending campaign funds for personal expenses. Hunter and Collins were the first two Republicans to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, and their indictments drew a critical Sept. 3 tweet from Trump aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Tweeted Trump: “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time.”

Since entering the race, Collins has limited his personal appearances largely to friendly gatherings like the Republican Women’s Autumn Brunch and the Newstead GOP Sportsman Extravaganza. He declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

“A lot of folks just happy that I’m back in the race,” he told WIVB this week. “They know what’s at stake. … Every seat matters. As you read the pundits now, it’s going to be a very close election to see who is going to be in the majority of the House come next year.”

The campaigns

Collins, a businessman who made his money by buying distressed businesses and turning them around, proudly carries an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association and cites among his priorities never increasing entitlement programs, reforming the tax code and balancing the federal budget in 10 years.

He has been on the air with negative television ads, including one that was assailed by critics as racist. It showed McMurray speaking Korean as a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un floated in the background and captions falsely implied McMurray was talking about sending American jobs to Asia.

McMurray, a lawyer, studied the development of constitutional democracy in South Korea as a Fulbright scholar. His campaign has focused on health care for all, protecting Social Security, the environment and strengthening infrastructure. He said he supports gun rights but also universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks.

Out in the district, 23-year-old line cook Brett Schuman said the allegations against Collins were enough to sway him. “When there’s anything happening, criminal or otherwise, I’m going to defer to the other party.”

Retired engineer Don Lloyd said he liked McMurray’s background and education but would still vote for Collins, if only to help Republicans keep control of the House and preserve Trump’s agenda. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to take control of the chamber.

“Let’s face it, the election isn’t about Chris Collins — it’s about Trump,” said Lloyd, 70.

“So hold your nose, I guess.”
…

Facebook announced Thursday that it had deleted over 800 mostly U.S.-based pages and accounts that were posting politically oriented spam and engaging in “inauthentic behavior.” 

The social media giant declined a request from VOA News to name the 559 pages and 251 accounts. Nation in Distress, a pro-President Donald Trump page identified by The Washington Post as being among the banned, had over 3 million followers.

Facebook said that many of the pages and accounts had posted political clickbait across multiple fake accounts to drive users to their websites, where they were often targeted with ads. 

“Many used the same techniques to make their content appear more popular on Facebook than it really was,” Facebook said on its news blog. “Others were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.”

Facebook said “the ‘news’ stories or opinions these accounts and pages share are often indistinguishable from legitimate political debate,” noting the proximity of the 2018 midterm elections.

In the past, Facebook has purged dozens of pages spreading fake news originating from Iran and Russia, countries that have antagonistic relations with the U.S. The company says most of the pages and accounts banned this time were from the U.S.
…

Missouri’s top election official on Thursday said the state was appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked enforcement of parts of a voter photo identification law, adding that the ruling was causing “mass confusion” ahead of a key election for a U.S. Senate seat.

Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in a statement said the state attorney general had appealed the ruling and asked it to be put on hold as that process plays out. 

At issue is Senior Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan’s recent ruling striking down a requirement that a voter lacking a valid photo ID must sign a sworn statement and present some other form of identification in order to cast a regular ballot. Callahan also blocked the state from advertising that a photo ID is required to vote.

Ashcroft said there’s confusion because Callahan’s ruling “directs the STATE not to use the statement.” But Ashcroft said it’s local election authorities who would have been responsible for requesting that voters without proper photo identification sign an affidavit, “so it is not clear if they are bound by the judge’s decision.”

“The judge’s decision has injected mass confusion into the voting process just weeks before an important election — an action the courts historically and purposely have not taken,” Ashcroft said, adding that many local election authorities already had trained poll workers to require voters to sign sworn statements.

Callahan’s ruling came as voters are preparing for a Nov. 6 election headlined by the race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and her Republican challenger, Attorney General Josh Hawley, whose office is defending the state law on behalf of Ashcroft.

Strategist Symone Sanders of Priorities USA, a Washington-based liberal advocacy group that sued on behalf of some Missouri voters, in a statement praised Callahan’s ruling and criticized the photo ID law as having “required voters to sign a threatening and confusing affidavit to receive a regular ballot if they didn’t have photo identification.”

“What’s confusing is the secretary of state’s support of limiting access to the ballot box,” she said.

Missouri’s 2016 law was enacted when the Republican-led Legislature overrode the veto of then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Voters in 2016 also approved a constitutional amendment intended to permit photo identification laws. The Missouri law was not yet in effect for the 2016 elections.

Voter photo ID requirements have been pushed by Republicans in numerous states as a means of preventing fraud. They have been opposed by Democrats who contend such laws can disenfranchise poor, elderly, disabled and minority voters who are less likely to have photo IDs.
…

Arkansas’ highest court on Thursday upheld a voter ID law that is nearly identical to a restriction struck down by the court four years ago.

The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed a judge’s ruling against the law approved last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and governor. A judge had blocked officials from enforcing the restriction, but justices in May stayed that ruling and kept the law in effect while they considered the case.

The high court in 2014 struck down a previous version of the voter ID law as unconstitutional.

The revised voter ID law, which was approved last year, requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Unlike the previous measure, the new law allows voters to cast provisional ballots if they sign a sworn statement confirming their identities. Opponents of the new measure had argued that it circumvented the 2014 ruling.

In the 5-2 ruling Thursday, justices said lawmakers had the power to enact the restriction by labeling it a change to a constitutional amendment related to voter registration requirements. “It is therefore constitutional,” Justice Robin Wynne wrote in the court’s ruling.

Arkansas officials argued the new law complies with part of the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the 2013 measure. Justices in 2014 unanimously struck down the previous voter ID law, with a majority of the court ruling that it unconstitutionally added a qualification to vote. Three justices, however, ruled the measure didn’t get the two-thirds vote needed to change voter registration requirements.

A majority of the court has changed hands since that ruling, and more than two-thirds of the Arkansas House and Senate approved the new measure last year.

A justice who disagreed with the ruling Thursday questioned the court’s argument that the law was related to voter registration, noting that the state doesn’t require photo ID in order to register to vote.

“If providing photo identification were required at registration, requiring presentation of the card at the polling place would be more defensible,” Justice Jo Hart wrote. “Asking for a photo identification card at the polling place strikes me as locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen.”
…

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he is optimistic about Republicans retaining control of both chambers of Congress in next month’s nationwide congressional elections, as well as his own re-election in 2020.

“I think the Republicans are very energized,” Trump told interviewers on his favorite news talk show, “Fox & Friends,” because of the robust U.S. economy and last week’s Senate confirmation of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. “I really believe we’re going to do well. I think we’ll be successful.”

Trump’s prediction on the Nov. 6 elections halfway through his first four-year White House term is at odds with historical trends favoring the political party out of power, the Democrats at the moment, in U.S. midterm elections.

In addition, independent analysts say polling shows Democrats are poised to take control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans are likely to retain their slim majority in the Senate.

‘Bunch of haters’

Trump said that if Democrats assume control of the House, “We’ll just have to fight it out” over the next two years “because there’s a bunch of haters” against him and his policies. Some Democrats have already said that if they have a majority in the House they plan to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump and investigations of his personal finances and government programs he has changed since he assumed power in January 2017.

Still, Trump said if there is a Democratic takeover in the House, “It’s possible we’ll get along,” because both he and Democrats could reach agreement on infrastructure spending they both favor to repair crumbling highways and bridges in the U.S.

2020

As for 2020, Trump declined to say whether there was any possible single Democratic opponent he feared most in his bid for a second four-year term.

“So far, I like ’em all, everyone of them,” Trump said. “I don’t see a name I don’t like.”

Several Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, say they will make up their minds by the end of the year whether to mount a nationwide campaign against Trump. Already, some of them have been making campaign-style speeches in states with early 2020 Democratic primaries that will play a pivotal role in determining Trump’s eventual opponent.

Republican prospects

Trump said that with the economy doing well, often a key determinant in U.S. presidential elections, “I don’t see why I wouldn’t do well in the election. We’ve done more in less than two years than anyone in history, and I don’t think it’s even close.”

Yet, national surveys show voters consistently disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, currently by about a 53 to 43 percent margin.
…

The question before a panel of U.S. appeals court judges: Should non-native residents of Guam have a say in the territory’s future relationship with the United States?

Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were at the University of Hawaii’s law school Wednesday to listen to arguments in an appeal of a federal judge’s 2017 ruling that says limiting the vote to those who are considered native inhabitants of the island is unconstitutional.

Voters would have three choices: independence, statehood and free association with the United States similar to island states that allow the U.S. exclusive military access to their land and waters while their citizens have the right to live and work in the U.S.

The case

Arnold Davis, a white, non-Chamorro resident of Guam, sued in 2011 after his application to participate in the vote was denied.

Last year’s ruling concluded that even though Guam has a long history of colonization and its people have a right to determine their political status with the United States, it’s unconstitutional to exclude voters simply because they “do not have the correct ancestry or bloodline.”

The ruling cites a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows non-Native Hawaiians to vote in elections for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees.

Guam appealed.

The vote would only be a “symbolic, but no less sacred, nonbinding expression of a political opinion of a subset of Guam,” Julian Aguon, an attorney representing Guam, argued Wednesday.

The vote would have ramifications for all who live on the island, said Davis’ attorney, Lucas Townsend. 

“This is a taxpayer-funded, government-sponsored vote involving the territory’s election machinery,” he said.

Guam plans to submit results to the president of the United States, Congress and the United Nations, Townsend said.

Who is eligible?

Voters wouldn’t be limited based on their race, but would include only those who were granted U.S. citizenship through the 1950 Guam Organic Act, and their descendants, Aguon said. Court documents in the case cite 1950 census data showing that the vast majority of the noncitizens on Guam at the time were Chamorro.

About one-third of the U.S. territory’s 160,000 people identify as Chamorro, the indigenous group that is believed to have migrated to Guam from Indonesia and the Philippines an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. The U.S. took control of Guam in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. The Navy ruled the island until Japan took control in 1941. The U.S. installed civilian leadership and granted citizenship to Guam residents in 1950.

It’s not clear when the judges will issue a ruling.

Upholding the lower court ruling will effectively end Guam’s self-determination effort, Aguon said after the hearing.

“This case is so important because it’s about defending the sacred right of self-determination, even if it’s a symbolic vote,” he said. “It really matters to the community. Guam has been colonized for hundreds of years, and this would finally give us some semblance of dignity to be able to have just this non-binding vote. And that’s what it means to me as a Chamorro as well.”
…

President Donald Trump is stepping up his attack on Democrats over a health care proposal called Medicare for All, claiming it “would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives.”

One senator who has introduced a Medicare for All proposal dismissed Trump’s statements as lies.

Trump, omitting any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Democrats promise, wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in USA Today, “The Democrats’ plan means that after a life of hard work and sacrifice, seniors would no longer be able to depend on the benefits they were promised.”

But Medicare for All means different things to different Democrats. The plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, and current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Other Democratic plans would allow people to buy into a new government system modeled on Medicare, moving toward the goal of coverage for all while leaving private insurance in place.

Trump’s column came as he is looking to paint Democratic candidates as extreme ahead of next month’s midterm elections. A White House official speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to describe internal plans said that Trump’s health care attack would be echoed by the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups and that the president would continue to raise the attack during his campaign rallies.

​’No, Mr. President’

Sanders responded Wednesday in a statement, saying Trump “is lying about the Medicare for All proposal” that he introduced.

“No, Mr. President. Our proposal would not cut benefits for seniors on Medicare. In fact, we expand benefits,” Sanders said.

As Trump escalates his efforts on behalf of fellow Republicans, he is casting health care as one of an expanding list of choices for the electorate this year while seeking to raise the alarm about the consequences of Democratic control of the House or the Senate.

Medicare for All, also called single-payer over the years, was until fairly recently outside the mainstream of Democratic politics, but this year it has become a key litmus test in many party primaries and a rallying cry for progressive candidates. Under the plan by Sanders, all Americans would gain access to government insurance with no co-pays or deductibles for medical services.

Republicans contend that the proposal would be cost-prohibitive and argue it marks government overreach.

Trump has already sought to paint Democrats as extremists after the bitter confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and internal GOP polling obtained last month by the AP shows that the party believes the message will help galvanize Republican voters to the polls.

At a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump argued that the only reason to vote for Democrats “is if you are tired of winning.” He was to hold a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening. 
…

President Donald Trump says he has been speaking to one of his former advisers, Dina Powell, about the possibility of succeeding Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and he plans to speak with others about the post.

At the White House on Wednesday, Trump said Powell is one of many people being considered.

Haley announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as U.N. ambassador and would vacate the post by the end of the year.

“It has been an honor of a lifetime,” Haley said, sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office where they announced her pending departure Tuesday.

The former governor of the state of South Carolina has been seen by some as a relatively moderate voice in Trump’s Cabinet.

Her appointment as ambassador to the U.N. was seen as a surprise because she had been viewed as a critic of Trump’s confrontational style during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as a proponent of free markets and global trade, in contrast to the president’s “America First” policies.

The 46-year-old Haley, whose parents emigrated from India, is one of six women in Trump’s Cabinet and is regarded as a potential future Republican Party presidential contender.

“No, I’m not running for 2020,” Haley said, adding she would be campaigning for Trump’s re-election in the next presidential election.

Steve Herman contributed to this report.
…

Congress has approved a sprawling bill to improve the nation’s ports, dams and harbors, protect against floods, restore shorelines and support other water-related projects.

The massive Water Resources Development Act would authorize billions in spending for projects nationwide, including one to stem coastal erosion in Galveston, Texas, and restore wetlands damaged by Hurricane Harvey last year.

The bill also would help improve harbors in Seattle; Savannah, Georgia; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and extend a federal program to improve drinking water quality.

The bill also sets up a new framework for large water projects run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The changes are intended to increase local input and improve transparency.

The Senate approved the bill, 99-1, on Wednesday, sending it to President Donald Trump.

 
…

Michael Avenatti held court last month with a dozen Democratic strategists in the main dining room at The Palm — a see-and-be-seen table at one of Washington’s most prominent power lunch spots.

Avenatti did most of the talking. While he offered few details about how he planned to raise enough money or hire the staff to run a presidential campaign, one participant and another person briefed on the lunch said he cast himself as one of the few Democrats who knows how to go head-to-head with President Donald Trump. The sources requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss details of the meeting.

Avenatti’s brash confidence is being closely watched by Democrats in Washington and key political battleground states with a mix of intrigue and trepidation. Trump’s victory over more experienced politicians in the 2016 campaign has reshaped traditional views of who would make a viable presidential candidate. Yet some party leaders are worried about trying to replicate Trump’s approach by backing another untested and unpredictable candidate — a concern that was heightened after Avenatti’s involvement in the recent Supreme Court confirmation fight.

Still, Avenatti has so far managed to stand out among the senators, governors and mayors expected to vie for the Democratic presidential nomination. Early state operatives are offering him advice, and he’s sold out Democratic Party dinners in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s scheduled to be in South Carolina this weekend, and has another trip to New Hampshire planned on October 22.

Raymond Buckley, a veteran New Hampshire Democratic strategist, said ticket sales for a recent Hillsborough County Democratic Party fundraiser tripled within 48 hours after Avenatti was announced as the featured guest.

“There is great interest in him,” said Buckley, who met with the high-profile attorney. “I take everybody seriously. Donald Trump has taught us all a lesson. It is a mistake to be dismissive of anybody.”

But Avenatti has suddenly found himself on the defensive over his role in the acrimonious Supreme Court confirmation fight for Brett Kavanaugh, raising questions about whether his relentless self-promotion could backfire before a presidential campaign ever gets off the ground.

After two women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, Avenatti revealed that he was representing a third accuser, Julie Swetnick. In a signed declaration, Swetnick said she witnessed Kavanaugh engage in sexually inappropriate behavior.

In the same statement, Swetnick said she had been the victim of gang rape — an explosive allegation that garnered significant attention, even though she never accused Kavanaugh of the crime. Avenatti’s promise to provide people to corroborate Swetnick’s account never materialized. He says he tried to bring more information to the FBI, but the bureau never investigated.

Republican congressional aides say Avenatti’s involvement helped turn momentum back toward Kavanaugh. When the deciding vote on the nomination, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, announced that she was supporting Kavanaugh, she cited Swetnick’s “outlandish allegation” and said it was “put forth without any credible supporting evidence.”

Democrats quickly found themselves having to answer for Avenatti’s actions. During an early-voting rally in Iowa Monday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker responded to questions about Avenatti’s client by stressing the validity of the other two accusers, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.

“What is obvious to most Americans, I think, is you have Dr. Ford and Ramirez come forward with credible claims,” said Booker, another Democratic weighing a presidential run.

Avenatti said he’s seen no drop in interest in his potential presidential prospects since he jumped into the confirmation fight, and cast the criticism of him as an inevitable response to his presidential prospects.

“It is being stoked by the Republicans and establishment Democrats that are very nervous about what my intentions are,” Avenatti said. “This is a direct response to individuals coming to the conclusion that I am a threat.”

To questions about his fundraising and planning, Avenatti said that he has not been providing details at introductory meetings, but stressed that he has donors lined up should he run and said that “we are going to have no problem raising money.” He also said he is hearing from people who are “very enthusiastic” about joining the campaign and “the only people that may be wary are establishment Democrats who are concerned because I don’t owe them anything.”

Avenatti’s uneven handling of the Kavanaugh allegations was a stark contrast to his role representing Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she had sex with Trump and was paid by the president’s lawyer to keep quiet. While Trump and attorney Michael Cohen initially denied Daniels’ claims, details of the payment have been verified during court proceedings. Avenatti became a media fixture in the process, spending hours a day racing from one television studio to the next.

His interest quickly shifted from taking on Trump in the courtroom to challenging him in the presidential election. On Monday, Avenatti formally launched a federal political action committee, The Fight PAC, giving him the ability to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, pay for political travel and build a list of supporters. The PAC will not accept money from corporate PACs.

Avenatti’s PAC is being advised by Tracy Austin, a Los Angeles-based fundraiser who has helped several California Democrats, including Gavin Newsom, Antonio Villaraigosa and Xavier Becerra; Stephen Solomon, a digital media strategist; and Adam Parkhomenko, an aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Ready for Hillary PAC that preceded her campaign.

During his visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests on the presidential calendar, Avenatti has also sought out local consultants and party leaders familiar with the caucus and primary races. During a trip to Iowa in August, Avenatti was joined by Matt Paul, an Iowa-based former strategist to Clinton, and Jeff Link, a longtime adviser to former Sen. Tom Harkin.

Avenatti’s handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation fight was met with a mixed reaction in the early presidential voting states.

Steve Shurtleff, the top Democrat in the New Hampshire state house, said Avenatti’s promotion of his client may have undermined the credibility of Kavanaugh’s other accusers.

“If there was any other attorney connected to that woman, it might have helped avoid the three-ring circus it became,” said Shurtleff, who said he doesn’t see Avenatti as a viable presidential contender.

But Iowa Democrat Randy Brown, who hosted Avenatti at a Democratic fundraiser in August, said the prominent lawyer’s involvement may have helped energize some voters who may not have normally paid attention to the confirmation process.

“It fired them up more,” said Brown, chairman of the Iowa Wing Ding fundraiser.

As for the impact on Avenatti’s presidential prospects, Brown said the lawyer was simply “doing what he does best — getting his name out there.”
…

Chants of “Lock her up!” rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as President Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night.

But this time, the staple of Trump’s 2016 campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton had a new target: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

Feinstein has denied her office was the source of the leak.

“Can you believe that?” Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman.

“Did she leak that? 100 percent,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t want to get sued, so 99 percent.”

In a statement, Feinstein called Trump’s remarks “ridiculous and an embarrassment.”

Ford had sought to remain anonymous when she brought the allegation against Kavanaugh to Feinstein’s attention. She later went public after reporters started trying to contact her. Kavanaugh staunchly denied Ford’s accusation.

“Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly,” Feinstein said. “Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn’t me or my staff.”

The rally in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, was Trump’s latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to midterms that will determine control of Congress. And it comes as the president is on a high wave following a series of wins, including Kavanaugh’s confirmation. It’s the second appointment Trump has made to the Supreme Court.

Indeed, Trump’s loudest applause came as he continued his victory lap, which has included bashing Democrats for attempting to sink the nomination. Trump and other GOP leaders say the effort energized Republican voters, who had long been considered less energized than Democrats.

“This is truly an historic week for America,” said Trump, praising Republican senators for standing up to what he called “the Democrats’ shameful campaign of political and personal destruction” against his nominee.

“They wanted to destroy that man,” Trump said. “What the Democrats did to Brett and his family is a national embarrassment, a national disgrace.”

Trump also rolled out new fuel standards that will be a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater ethanol sales. The long-expected change will lift the federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends and allow them year-round. The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days. Ethanol industry advocates say that fear is unfounded.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Trump said he was delivering a promise he’d made to Iowa voters years ago when he campaigned ahead of the state’s caucuses.

“Promises made, promises kept,” he said. He charged without offering evidence that if Democrats take control of Congress next month, they will seek to roll back his efforts.

The move was also seen as a reward for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who led Kavanaugh’s contentious but successful confirmation fight. Trump praised Grassley on Tuesday night as a “tough cookie” as he applauded local leaders including Iowa’s Republican Rep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who face tough re-election fights.

Trump also boosted Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who face voters next month. The pair received loud applause from the heavily Nebraskan crowd.

Early voting in Iowa began on Monday, and Trump urged those gathered to cast their ballots now. “Go! Just vote. Get it over with,” he urged.

Early voting accounted for 41 percent of the Iowa vote in 2016, according to the White House.
…

Lynn Fedele sits at a booth at a natural-food deli, next to a wall painted light jungle green with bright red accents. She sips a steaming cup of peppermint chamomile tea and talks politics. 

“I think it’s very important to take the House out of the hands of the Republicans,” she sighs, referring to the battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fedele describes herself as a left-leaning progressive. She didn’t vote for Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016. Nor did she vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, knowing Clinton would win New Jersey. (Clinton won 55 percent to Trump’s 41 percent.)

She instead voted for Jill Stein, hoping that her Green Party would get 5 percent of the vote and the federal matching funds that go with it. Stein finished with just over 1 percent of the U.S. vote.

The U.S. midterm congressional elections, held halfway through a president’s term, typically signal the public’s judgment of the performance of the incumbent president. If voters turn against Trump, they could change the control of Congress. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats in the House to take control of that chamber and two seats in the Senate to achieve a majority there.

Key bloc

Many analysts agree the key voting bloc that could flip Congress consists of women like Fedele.

White? Check.

Suburban? Check. She lives in Montclair, N.J.

Educated? Check. She has a master’s degree in English and has been teaching high school English for 27 years.

Education is on top of her list of political priorities, followed by housing inequality, environmental protection, health care and Planned Parenthood.

​Who’s voting?

A Politico poll taken in mid-September showed more than 64 percent of women were “very motivated” to vote in the midterms. Among Democratic women, that number jumped to 71 percent.

Fedele believes the bitter battle to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and the sexual assault accusations that were brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez will prompt many more women to vote for Democratic congressional candidates. Fedele said the way Ford was treated and mocked by Trump and Republican senators “is an affront to any woman who has been assaulted.”

On the other hand, Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders insist the Kavanaugh debate — and what they characterized as an “angry mob” of Democratic protesters — will motivate Republicans to vote for Senate candidates to confirm more conservatives like Kavanaugh.

Even so, Kate Smith, 49, is not planning to vote.

“It’s so contentious. I just don’t enjoy politics anymore,” she said.

Smith, the mother of a 5-year-old, is a registered independent. She said if she suddenly decided to vote, she would support someone who is fiscally responsible, who supports curbing government regulatory programs. Smith has a doctorate and runs a financial business.

Women and the 2016 race

Democrats have typically won the women’s vote since 1992, according to Pew Research. In the 2016 presidential election, Clinton won the overall women’s vote with 54 percent. But she lost the white women’s vote — 52 percent of them voted for Trump. However, college-educated white women were more inclined to vote for Clinton than Trump, and they are overwhelmingly supporting Democratic candidates in their congressional districts this year, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School survey.

Chris Elliott backed Trump. She emigrated from Ireland as a child and now lives in New Jersey. Her political hot buttons are jobs and education. She’s voted for the past 40 years but said she’s never seen partisan acrimony like this.

Elliott blames the president and said he’s turning female voters away because they don’t like how he “acts like a bully.” Though she regrets voting for Trump, she will remain a Republican voter in the midterms because of the administration’s strict immigration rules that have cracked down on illegal immigrants.

“That illegal alien,” Elliott said, “I’m not for that.”

Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., and author of Women in American Politics, said she’s seeing presidential “buyer’s remorse” like Elliott’s among white Republican women, specifically young white women. That remorse, she thinks, will determine the outcomes of many competitive House races.

“Perhaps some of these women will now flip to the Democratic side, or young women will be increasingly mobilized to vote,” she said.

New Jersey’s 11th District

Political analysts are looking at New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Montclair, as an illustration of that pushback by women voters.

The 11th, formerly a Republican stronghold, is a wealthy suburb west of New York City. Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen has held the district since 1995 but is not seeking re-election. Currently, the Cook Political Report shows the 11th District race competitive, but leaning left.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor, is a political newcomer. Her Republican rival, Jay Webber, is a New Jersey assemblyman. Sherrill recently filled a banquet hall with screaming supporters as former Vice President Joe Biden arrived to campaign with her.

“A lot of our women voters are concerned about the same economic issues that all of our voters are,” Sherrill told VOA. “We have infrastructure needs. We have health care needs here, like the rest of the country. So a lot of women, some of them heads of the household [or] … single mothers, they’re very concerned about the economy as well.”

Webber said female voters want the same thing as men, and that’s what he’s campaigning on: “A thriving economy. The opportunity to have a job and provide for their families. And save for retirement and their kids’ education.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held after U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6.

Speaking to reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally, Trump said: “It’ll be after the midterms. I just can’t leave now.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that plans were being made for his second summit with Kim and that he thought “incredible” progress had been made in U.S. talks with the long-isolated North Asian country.

He said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had very good talks with Kim over the weekend and that three or four locations were being considered.

Pompeo echoed Trump’s comments when he spoke briefly to reporters during a Tuesday afternoon visit to the White House.

“While there’s still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea,” he said.

Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore on June 12 at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. His actions have fallen short, however, of Washington’s demands for a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities and irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, which could threaten the United States.

‘No Rockets Flying’

Still, Trump was upbeat on progress so far.

“You got no rockets flying, you have no missiles flying, you have no nuclear testing,” Trump said in the Oval  Office. “We’ve made incredible progress – beyond incredible.

“But I have agreed to meet,” he said. “We have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I like him, he likes me, the relationship is good.”

Pompeo said on Monday the two sides were “pretty close” to agreeing on details for a second summit.

He added that Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the United States and North Korea agreed on logistics.

But experts questioned what Pompeo achieved on Sunday on his fourth visit to Pyongyang this year. They said the North Korean leader appeared simply to be repackaging and dragging out past pledges.

Trump noted that the United States had not lifted the “very big sanctions” it has imposed on Pyongyang.

“I’d love to remove them, but we have to get something for doing it,” Trump said.

North Korea is very interested in reaching some sort of agreement on denuclearization so that it can grow economically with the benefit of the foreign investment closed to it now, Trump said.

The U.N. World Food Program said on Tuesday that the supply of food remained precarious in North Korea, where one in five children is stunted by malnutrition. More than 10 million North Koreans, nearly 40 percent of the population, are undernourished and need humanitarian aid, it said.

“I will tell you they’re calling, wanting to go there and wanting to invest,” Trump said. “At some point, when Chairman Kim makes that decision, I think he’s going to unleash something that’s going to be spectacular, really spectacular. And I think he knows it and I think that’s one of the reasons that we’re having very successful conversations.”
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US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, a highly visible face of Donald Trump’s administration on the world stage, is the latest top official to exit the president’s inner circle.

Dozens of White House aides – from press secretary Sean Spicer to chief of staff Reince Priebus to counsel Don McGahn – have either left or been sacked from their posts since Trump took office on January 20, 2017.

Here is a sampling of senior departures:

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

Haley was a shining star of the administration from the start. Thrust onto the international stage, she quickly became an astute advocate for Trump’s foreign policy, using forceful language against North Korea, Syria and Iran.

The former South Carolina governor was also unafraid to speak her mind, often in fairly undiplomatic language, and built a reputation for standing up to Trump when she felt it was warranted.

Her aggressive criticism of Russia won plaudits, even as she stepped beyond the position held by the White House.

Her Tuesday announcement dramatically boosted speculation about her political future. But she quickly denied any plans to challenge her boss in 2020, instead saying it was “time to stand aside” and that she would remain loyal to Trump.

Environment chief Scott Pruitt

Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt’s tenure was beset by scandal, and Trump pushed him out in July.

A former Oklahoma attorney general with ties to fossil fuel industries, Pruitt was accused of using his position to enrich his own family’s lifestyle in violation of federal law.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump in March, ending a rocky tenure for the former Exxon chief executive as the nation’s top diplomat.

Tillerson was frequently at odds with the mercurial president and Trump said that while the pair got along well, they “disagreed on things” – notably the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew in May.

During his brief stay at Foggy Bottom, Tillerson frequently found himself out of the loop and caught unawares by policy shifts announced in Trump tweets.

Chief Strategist Steve Bannon

The architect of Trump’s nationalist-populist campaign and his election victory, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was nicknamed the Prince of Darkness and the Shadow President.

His economic nationalism became the lynchpin of Trump policies, even as many of Bannon’s other ideas were rebuffed by policy rivals.

Bannon’s constant clashes with other advisors became untenable, as did his ties to the extreme right, which drew accusations that Trump fostered racists. Bannon left in August 2017.

Top Economic Advisor Gary Cohn  

Gary Cohn, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs, resigned as Trump’s top economic advisor on March 6, 2018 in protest against the president’s decision to levy new global trade tariffs.

A long-time Democrat, Cohn had always been an uneasy fit in an administration propelled to power by strident nationalism.

National Security Advisors Flynn, McMaster 

Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, was being investigated for his contacts with Russians and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

He lasted only 22 days as national security advisor, ousted amid concerns he could be compromised by false statements he made over his contacts with Russian officials.

Flynn’s replacement HR McMaster, also a lieutenant general, lasted barely a year. He never really clicked with the president, who bristled at McMaster echoing the US intelligence establishment consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

 
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The newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, took his seat Tuesday and heard his first arguments, just days after he narrowly won Senate confirmation to fill a vacancy on the country’s highest court.

A handful of protesters opposed to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment to the court gathered outside, chanting, “This isn’t over, we’re still here.”

Trump, in a Twitter comment, claimed without evidence that demonstrators against Kavanaugh were hired to protest. But he said that “the paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they haven’t gotten their checks – in other words, they weren’t paid! Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious – less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!”

Kavanaugh’s first Supreme Court case involved arguments over the federal criminal sentencing law and came hours after Trump staged a ceremonial swearing-in for Kavanaugh at the White House. The jurist had already been officially sworn in Saturday soon after the Senate voted 50-48 to confirm his appointment.

Kavanaugh’s appointment roiled Washington for weeks, after university professor Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting him more than three decades ago when both were teenagers growing up in suburban Washington. Ford told lawmakers she was “100 percent” certain Kavanaugh attacked her, but Kavanaugh forcefully denied he had assaulted her or any other woman.

At Monday night’s ceremony, Trump declared, “On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. You, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent.”

Kavanaugh said, “Every American can be assured that I will be an independent and impartial justice.”

As Trump, the other eight court justices and a number of Republican senators crucial to the confirmation process watched, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy administered the judicial oath to Kavanaugh.

“The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. That is now over,” Kavanaugh said. He added that the Supreme Court “is not a partisan or political institution,” promising to “always be a team player on a team of nine.”

Hours before the White House ceremony, Trump accused opposition Democrats of plotting to remove Kavanaugh from the bench.

Kavanaugh was “caught up in a hoax set up by the Democrats,” Trump told reporters, without elaborating. “And now they want to impeach him.”

Speaking before boarding the Marine One helicopter on the White House south lawn, Trump predicted the attack on Kavanaugh would cost the opposition party in next month’s nationwide congressional elections.

The president and his fellow Republicans are hoping the confirmation of the 53-year-old conservative jurist will energize their supporters in the midterm voting when political control of Congress is at stake.

“The American public has seen this charade, and it was a disgrace. And I think it’s really going to show you something come November 6,” Trump said.

Kavanaugh replaces Kennedy, a conservative jurist who often cast the deciding swing vote on ideologically divisive issues, upholding abortion and gay rights and the use of affirmative action aiding racial minorities in college admissions.

Independent court analysts, however, predict Kavanaugh is likely to concur with more conservative interpretations of the law, giving a solid 5-4 ideological edge on the court to those who lean to the right.
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Rapper Kanye West will meet with President Donald Trump for lunch at the White House on Thursday.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders said West will also meet with Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. “Topics of discussions will include manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago,” Sanders said in a statement.

An equally controversial and influential figure, West became one of Trump’s highest-profile celebrity supporters shortly after the 2016 election, visiting the president-elect at Trump Tower and posting pictures of himself on social media wearing a Make America Great Again hat. West has been booed during concerts for supporting Trump, most recently during his appearance as a musical guest on the television program Saturday Night Live.

Trump has called out the homicide rates in Chicago, West’s hometown. At the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando on Monday, Trump said, “The crime spree is a terrible blight on that city” and “There’s no reason for what’s going on there,” calling for city police to reinstate a “stop and frisk” policy.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel responded by noting that “overall gun violence was down…about 20 percent” in 2017 in the city, and continued to decline through the first nine months of this year. The city does also have a “stop and frisk” policy, though subject to restrictions agreed to in 2015 by police after a study by the American Civil Liberty Union found the practice largely targeted minorities.

Trump’s comments come at a time of racial tension in the city. Just last week, a jury convicted white Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke in the 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, an African American.
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Joe Biden has said it’ll be at least January before he decides whether to enter the 2020 presidential race, but the former vice president is continuing to keep his name prominent in early voting states like South Carolina as voters there go to the midterm polls.

On Monday, the Democratic nominee seeking to become South Carolina’s state treasurer announced backing from Biden. In a news release, Biden called small business owner Rosalyn Glenn “the real deal.”

Biden has used the phrase in other states to characterize candidates who have his backing. In Arizona earlier this year, Biden called attorney general candidate January Contreras – a former Obama administration official – “the real deal” in a statement provided to the Arizona Republic. In May, Biden used the same language to refer to U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Florida while stumping on behalf of Murphy’s U.S. Senate bid.

This is at least the fourth South Carolina race this year into which Biden has waded, although he’s had public affiliations with the other two candidates for years. Biden voiced support earlier this year for the state Senate bid of Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian, a longtime political ally who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Biden to enter the 2016 presidential race.

Biden, 75, has also announced support for Democratic gubernatorial nominee James Smith, for whom he’ll help raise funds in Charleston later this month. He’s also backing Joe Cunningham in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.

Glenn’s campaign didn’t immediately return a message seeking information on her ties to the former vice president.

Biden’s continuing political activity in South Carolina keeps him visible in this early-voting state, where other possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are also making the rounds. Later this month, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is set to headline a Democratic fundraiser in Orangeburg that will include many of the state’s most prominent black leaders and activists.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has made several recent trips to the state, including a keynote appearance at the Charleston County Democratic Party’s Blue Jam.

Rob Godfrey, who was a longtime adviser to former Gov. Nikki Haley and worked with the South Carolina Republican Party during the 2008 cycle, said the lower-tier endorsement primarily serves as a way for Biden to keep his identity alive as activists gear up for the next round of presidential campaigning but potentially cheapens the value of his backing, overall.

“This endorsement means more for Joe Biden and Joe Biden’s political future in South Carolina than it does for the candidate for treasurer,” Godfrey said. “When someone comes in and endorses an entire slate of candidates, it looks as though that person is looking out for himself rather than looking out for the people he’s endorsed.”
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Taylor Swift’s decision to break her silence on politics triggered a storm on Monday, with fans and commentators divided over whether one of pop music’s biggest stars should have spoken out.

Swift, 28, has notably stayed out of the U.S. political fray in contrast to her more vocal peers, like Democratic supporters Katy Perry and Beyonce, and Republican backer Kid Rock.

But on Sunday Swift told her 112 million Instagram followers that she was backing — and would vote for — two Democrats running in Tennessee in the U.S. congressional midterm elections on Nov. 6.

“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote.

The “Speak Now” singer said she was a supporter of gay rights and women’s rights, and against racism.

“I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love,” Swift wrote, saying she would vote for Democrats Phil Bredesen for the U.S. Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives.

Bredesen, a former Tennessee governor, is facing Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn in what has become an extremely close race for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Bob Corker.

Swift said in her comments that while she typically tries to support women running for office, Blackburn’s voting record “appalls and terrifies me.”

Swift’s comments got 1.5 million likes on her Instagram page. But they enraged many conservatives, especially those in the country music community where Swift got her start as a teenager and went on to win 10 Grammys.

“What I used to love about Taylor Swift is she stayed away

from politics,” Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative non-profit student organization Turning Point, said on Fox News television on Monday.

Some sought to play down Swift’s influence outside her predominantly young girl fan base.

“So @taylorswift13 has every right to be political but it won’t impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote,” tweeted former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who twice sought the Republican presidential nomination.

Former “Star Trek” actor George Takei was among those welcoming Swift’s declaration ahead of what are expected to be polarizing elections in November.

“Guys, things have gotten so dire that even Taylor Swift had to say something,” Takei tweeted.

Model Chrissy Teigen, actress Blake Lively and singer Perry were among those adding “likes” to Swift’s Instagram post.

Swift is currently on a world tour to support her top-selling 2017 album “Reputation,” and will perform live at the American Music Awards show in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

“Respectfully, be quiet and sing!” wrote a Twitter user named Janice @theemporersnew. “I guess you’re more pop than country now anyway. You’re country fans are gonna be disappointed.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit challenging the validity of a $130,000 hush money agreement over a tryst she claimed they had more than a decade ago.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Trump’s lawyer said the lawsuit by Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is moot because Trump never signed the agreement and has said he will not try to enforce it.

“There is no actual controversy between plaintiff and Mr. Trump,” the president’s lawyer Charles Harder wrote.

Michael Avenatti, who represents Daniels, has said keeping the case alive serves the public interest, and wants Trump to give sworn testimony.

“This was anticipated and we are not concerned about it,” Avenatti said in an email, referring to the dismissal request.

Daniels has claimed to have had a sexual liaison with Trump at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border.

Trump has denied having had sex with Daniels. A hearing on his dismissal request is scheduled for Dec. 3.

The case is separate from Daniels’ defamation lawsuit against Trump over his April tweet challenging as a “total con job” her claim that an unknown man threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 if she went public about the alleged tryst.

U.S. District Judge James Otero, who oversees both lawsuits, appeared poised at a Sept. 24 hearing to dismiss the defamation case.

He called Trump’s comment “hyperbole” that appeared to be protected free speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

The judge has yet to rule in that case.

Daniels had struck the hush money agreement with Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen pleaded guilty on Aug. 21 to campaign finance violations, saying Trump told him before the election to arrange hush money payments to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed she had an affair with him.

Trump has denied having an affair with McDougal.

Avenatti has become a frequent critic of Trump and has said he may run for the White House in 2020.

The case is Clifford v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 18-02217.
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While President Donald Trump celebrates a major victory, the elevation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington is bracing for political fallout after a bruising Senate confirmation process that concluded one month before midterm elections. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, the mobilization of liberal voters who opposed Kavanaugh could be matched by an awakening of conservatives who rallied to defend him.
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The bitter battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has exacerbated the nation’s political divide and left many Americans emotionally raw. It’s also given new definition to the high stakes of November’s election.

Until now, the fight for control of Congress has largely been viewed as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s first two years in office. But the turmoil surrounding Kavanaugh has transformed the midterms into something bigger than Trump, with implications that could endure long after his presidency.

The election is suddenly layered with charged cultural questions about the scarcity of women in political power, the handling of sexual assault allegations, and shifting power dynamics that have left some white men uneasy about their place in American life.

Both parties contend the new contours of the race will energize their supporters in the election’s final stretch. Both may be right.

Republicans, however, may benefit most in the short term. Until now, party leaders, Trump included, have struggled to rev up GOP voters, even with a strong economy to campaign on. The president’s middling job approval rating and independent voters’ disdain for his constant personal attacks have been a drag on GOP candidates, particularly in the more moderate suburban districts that will determine control of the House.

But Republican operatives say internal polling now shows Kavanaugh’s acrimonious confirmation has given the party a much-needed boost, with GOP voters viewing Democrats as overzealous partisans following the public testimony by Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the judge of trying to rape her while they were both in high school. Ford said she was “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh was her attacker; Kavanaugh steadfastly denied her allegations.

The Democrats’ “strategy to capitalize on the ‘Me Too’ movement for the political purposes backfired on them,” Republican strategist Alice Stewart said. “The fact that they were willing to use Dr. Ford’s story that was uncorroborated to launch character assassinations on Judge Kavanaugh did not sit well with voters. A lot of people looked at this as a bridge too far.”

The surge in GOP enthusiasm could recalibrate a political landscape that was tilting toward Democrats throughout the summer. Though Democrats still maintain an advantage in competitive House races, the past two weeks appear to have shifted momentum in the fight for the Senate majority back to the GOP.

In North Dakota, Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer has pulled comfortably ahead of Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who voted “no” on Kavanaugh. GOP operatives say they’re also seeing renewed Republican interest in states such as Wisconsin, where Democratic candidates for both Senate and governor have been polling strong.

“It’s turned our base on fire,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Saturday, moments after the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh.

To be sure, some tightening in the race was likely inevitable this fall. Wavering voters often move back toward their party’s candidates as Election Day nears, and most of the competitive Senate races are in states that voted for Trump by a significant margin.

With just over four weeks until Election Day, there is still time for the dynamics to shift again. And the political headwinds from the Kavanaugh confirmation are unlikely to blow in just one direction.

To Democrats, Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Supreme Court in spite of decades-old sexual misconduct allegations will only deepen the party’s pull with female voters, including independents and moderates who may have previously voted for Republicans. Democrats point to the flood of women who have spoken out about their own assaults following Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Party operatives also believe the optics of the all-male GOP panel that presided over the hearing struck a chord with female voters.

“Kavanaugh’s confirmation will leave a lot of outraged and energized women in its wake,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster.

Democrats argue that some of the same tactics that have helped energize Republican voters also motivate their base, particularly Trump’s attacks on Ford. During a campaign rally in Mississippi, the president mocked Ford for not remembering key details of the alleged attack, including the date and location of the party she says she and Kavanaugh attended 36 years ago.

“You’ve seen some shifts, but I still think that we’re in a strong place,” said New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “I still think that it gives us a lot of enthusiasm on our side because there are a lot of people out there that are really upset, not just with the testimony that came from Judge Kavanaugh but the way the president was even mocking (Ford) days ago.”

Trump remains the fall campaign’s biggest wild card. White House advisers and Republican senators are encouraging him to keep Kavanaugh in the spotlight in the campaign’s final weeks. But they’re well aware that the president often struggles to stay on message and can quickly overshadow his political victories with new controversies.

Given that, Stewart said Republicans can’t assume that this burst of momentum will sustain itself through Election Day.

“The question is whether this is the October surprise or the calm before the storm,” Stewart said.
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The rancor over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a U.S. Supreme Court justice roiled Washington again Sunday, hours after he was sworn in to fill the vacancy on the country’s highest court.

Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican whose support for Kavanaugh was key to him winning Senate approval by a 50-48 count, told CNN she concluded that Kavanaugh did not sexually assault a teenage girl more than three decades ago, an explosive allegation by university professor Christine Blasey Ford against Kavanaugh that threw his nomination into turmoil in the last three weeks.

“I do not believe Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant,” Collins said.

“I’m not saying she was not assaulted,” the lawmaker said. “I believe she was assaulted by someone.”

But Collins contended there “was no corroborating evidence” that it was Kavanaugh, a claim that drew a sharp rebuke from Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democratic opponent of Kavanaugh, who called Collins’s conclusion about lack of corroborating evidence “insulting” to Ford.

Contemporaries of Ford and Kavanaugh whom Ford alleged were at the 1982 suburban Washington house party where she says the attack occurred said they had no recollection of the incident. But Hirono said that Ford, years before President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, had told her husband and a therapist about the attack and passed a lie detector test about the incident.

Ford told lawmakers two weeks ago she was “100 percent” certain it was Kavanaugh who had attacked her, while Kavanaugh said he was equally certain he had never attacked Ford or any other woman.

One of Kavanaugh’s most vocal supporters, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, told Fox News, “I’m happy because the effort to railroad and humiliate this man failed…Those who tried to destroy his life fell short…I had never been more pissed [angry] in my life.”

Kavanaugh could give conservatives a solid 5-4 ideological edge on the country’s top court and shape rulings for decades.

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to the 53-year-old Kavanaugh in a private ceremony just hours after the Senate voted in favor of his life-time appointment to the nine-member court.

Kavanaugh’s nomination, one of the most contentious in U.S. history, had captured the U.S. political scene for weeks. He appeared headed to certain confirmation until Ford made her allegations against him in a Washington Post story in mid-September. But in the end her accusations did not derail the appointment of the appellate court judge one level up to the high court.

The narrow Republican majority in the Senate nearly unanimously supported his appointment to become the country’s 114th Supreme Court justice while all but one Democratic lawmaker opposed his nomination.

President Donald Trump, who now has won Senate approval for two appointments to the court, said on Twitter, “I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court…. Very exciting!”

On Saturday night, Trump portrayed his successful confirmation vote on Kavanaugh as a reason voters should elect Republicans in next month’s nationwide congressional elections, when the political control of Congress is at stake.

“You don’t hand matches to an arsonist, and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob,” he said. “Democrats have become too EXTREME and TOO DANGEROUS to govern. Republicans believe in the rule of law – not the rule of the mob. VOTE REPUBLICAN!”

Kavanaugh replaces retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative jurist who often cast the deciding swing vote on ideologically divisive issues, upholding abortion and gay rights and the use of affirmative action aiding racial minorities in college admissions. But independent court analysts say Kavanaugh is likely to lean toward more conservative rulings, giving the court’s four-member conservative bloc a 5-4 edge over the court’s four liberals.

As the senators voted, protesters in the Senate gallery screamed, “I do not consent,” and, “shame,” forcing Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the chamber, to repeatedly call for order.

The Senate narrowly voted Friday to limit debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination, advancing it to Saturday’s final confirmation vote. Senators have been confronted by protesters who oppose the Kavanaugh nomination and police at the U.S. Capitol have arrested hundreds of demonstrators.

Another woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct during his time at Yale, Deborah Ramirez, said in a statement Saturday that the senators discussing the impending vote brought her back to the moment of the alleged misconduct.

“As I watch many of the Senators speak and vote on the floor of the Senate I feel like I’m right back at Yale where half the room is laughing and looking the other way. Only this time, instead of drunk college kids, it is U.S. Senators who are deliberately ignoring his behavior,” Ramirez said. “This is how victims are isolated and silenced.”

Shortly before the vote, Trump said Kavanaugh “will be a great justice of the Supreme Court.”

“He’s just an extraordinary person… and I think he’s going to make us all very proud,” Trump added.
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