This is so bizarre I’m wondering if it’s simply not true. But Rudy Giuliani is claiming that the Joint Defense Agreement his client, President Trump, had with Paul Manafort has continued even after Manafort pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation. That beggars belief. But Giuliani says he has continued to have discussions with Manafort’s lawyer Kevin Downing and he insists Manafort hasn’t provided anything incriminating against President Trump.
TPM Reader RW points out a key part Paul Manafort’s cooperation agreement which casts some doubt on Rudy Giuliani’s claims that he’s been assured that Manafort hasn’t provided any evidence against President Trump. Read More
So what’s with the timing of this caravan making its way up through Mexico? A lot of readers have been asking me this and I’ve been wondering myself. Read More
Key paragraphs in new Times piece on Erdogan’s handling of the Khashoggi crisis …
Mr. Erdogan has long publicly treated the crown prince as a respected ally to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia, an important regional power. But it was an open secret that the two men were bitter rivals in a feud over Arab democracy and political Islam that has divided the region.
Evidently sensing Saudi weakness after the skeptical reception that greeted the latest claims from the kingdom, Mr. Erdogan over the last two days has gone on the attack.
Across the country, Republicans are following Trump’s lead, closing with culture war themes, conspiracy theories and racist dog whistles. Cam Joseph has our story.
Here’s a video clip of Steven Bannon doing a presentation in Staten Island. It’s like an informercial real estate seminar at the local Marriott. Sad.
Here’s a clip of Bannon on Staten Island. pic.twitter.com/bqybNHNVqW
— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) October 23, 2018
Here’s the bottom line out today from The Cook Report, which has been a bit less friendly to Democrats this cycle than Nate Silver’s forecasting. “We continue to believe anywhere from a 20 to 40 seat Democratic gain is possible, but right now the likeliest outcome is a Democratic gain of between 25 and 35 seats.”
40 would be a great result for Dems. So would 30. Even 25 would be good enough. But these numbers are way too close for comfort with what’s on the line in two weeks.
Apparently off the radar of the US press, the President’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is headlining a oligarch-funded conference in Armenia celebrating the so-called Eurasian Economic Union, a so far low-energy Russian-backed counter to the EU. Joining Rudy there is Sergey Glazyev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned in March 2014 for his role in the annexation of Crimea.
A TPM Reader wrote in on Friday and asked a simple, but for me, unexpected question: what do the fees for Prime pay for? Not in the sense of what do you get but what do we use the subscription fees for? This question caught me off-guard because to me the answer is obvious: everything. Prime today is the backbone of our entire business model, our largest single source of revenue and almost half of total revenue. But perhaps it’s not as obvious on the other side of the screen. So I thought I’d explain it all in a bit more detail. Some of this will probably seem like inside baseball. But you may find it interesting if you’re a Prime subscriber or if you’re interested in the economics of digital publishing or both. Read More
Secretary of State announces that the Saudis actually implicated in killing Jamal Khashoggi won’t get visas to visit the United States. I would really think that people recently involved in targeted killings aren’t people we want visiting the country in general.