The President likely will claim a small out that he said he would make Elizabeth Warren a bet for a million dollars to a charity of her choice at a future presidential debate. But basically, he dared her and said he’d pay $1 million to a charity of her choice if she took a DNA test. Here’s video of him making that bet, followed by him denying it a few moments ago before boarding Marine One.
President says at debate he'll offer Warren $1 million to charity if she'll take DNA test, followed by him denying it just moments ago. https://t.co/mdN2qd8NB2 pic.twitter.com/vaArKopp2v
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 15, 2018
Trump just for the first time floated the possibility of “rogue killers” being behind the Khashoggi disappearance.
President suggests "rogue killers" may be behind Khashoggi disappearance. https://t.co/cP6Wu2wIn1 pic.twitter.com/m6flzfiDvK
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 15, 2018
There was one thing that came up yesterday in our Inside briefing with Marc Elias that I wanted to share – just a general point, not something new or secret. In discussing the voter suppression issue Marc said that he thought 2008/2009 was a watershed. That was when the current version of the Democratic electorate came into full view – one which disproportionately drew voters not only from non-white minority groups but also disproportionately from the young. As we’ve discussed here before, this has a particular significance because with that demographic breakdown really across the board everything that makes voting harder hurt Democrats and helped Republicans. Read More
Keep an eye on this. Sure hope Wilbur Ross didn’t lie to Congress about coordinating or getting his department’s plan to rig the 2020 Census to disenfranchise blue state and district voters from a couple white nationalists.
In a few months we may have access to the President’s tax returns, which will likely shed a great deal of light on his foreign policy decisions.
With news that gubernatorial candidate and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is currently blocking 53,000 predominantly African-American voters from voting in this election, Cam Joseph’s report on this critical and historic showdown over voting rights is even more of a must-read.
Would you like to join our conversation with Nate Silver next Wednesday? Any Prime member can join us. Click here for instructions.
Is this the story? There is a lot that is hard to figure about the apparent killing of Jamal Khashoggi. But one of the biggest for me is, why? He was a critic and a dissident. But he actually didn’t oppose the regime itself. He wasn’t calling for a change of government. He even supported a number of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s initiatives. Consolidating autocrats don’t like critics, period. But still it doesn’t quite fit. If Khashoggi died as described, it was an incredibly high stakes and visible move to silence someone who just doesn’t seem to have been that much of a threat. Read More
The Post is reporting that Turkish officials have told their U.S. counterparts that they have audio and video recordings that prove Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. It appears that the claimed video evidence is more circumstantial. The audio evidence would appear to be from listening devices either within or targeting the compound. According to the Post, the tapes the Turks claim to have essentially have the audio of Khashoggi being interrogated, tortured and then finally killed.
As the Post describes it, the Turks are extremely leery of sharing the evidence. And it’s not clear they’ve shared it with the U.S., as opposed to describe it to their U.S. counterparts. It’s a dicey situation. They clearly don’t want to out themselves or at least out the ways they bug diplomatic compounds.