President Trump insisted that the U.S. had nothing to do with the apparent launch pad explosion of an Iranian rocket, CNBC reports.
“Trump’s denial also included what looked to be an aerial photograph of the launch site, complete with graphics and annotations describing the scene.”
“A U.S. defense official told CNBC that the picture in Trump’s tweet, which appeared to be a snapshot of a physical copy of the satellite image, was included in a Friday intelligence briefing. Experts told CNBC that the shot was likely never meant for public view.”
“This will have global repercussions,” said Joshua Pollack, a nuclear proliferation expert and editor of the Nonproliferation Review. “The utter carelessness of it all,” Pollack said. “So reckless.”
If Obama had done this….. And after continuing to attack Hillary since 2015 for supposedly being careless with classified information and documents by using a private email server…..
“As the president’s top aides prepared for a high-stakes meeting on the future of Afghanistan earlier this month, one senior official was not on the original invite list: national security adviser John Bolton,” the Washington Post reports.
“The attendance of the top security aide would normally be critical, but the omission was no mistake, senior U.S. officials said. Bolton, who has long advocated an expansive military presence around the world, has become a staunch internal foe of an emerging peace deal aimed at ending America’s longest war.”
“His opposition to the diplomatic effort in Afghanistan has irritated President Trump, these officials said, and led aides to leave the National Security Council out of sensitive discussions about the agreement.”
“A company owned by the wife of Brad Parscale, President Trump’s campaign manager, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the President’s flagship political action committee, which is barred from coordinating with the campaign,” CNN reports.
“Brad Parscale and his wife both insist their arrangement is legitimate and that there is no coordination.”
“Madeleine Westerhout, who left her White House job suddenly on Thursday as President Trump’s personal assistant, was fired after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he perceived her as overweight,” Politico reports.
“Westerhout also jokingly told the journalists that Trump couldn’t pick Tiffany out of a crowd.”
New York Times: “Inside the faction-split White House, Trump loyalists cheered Ms. Westerhout’s departure as a move that was long overdue, and said they hoped it served as something of a wake-up call for Mr. Trump to bring in more loyalists into the West Wing. But current and former officials also expressed alarm about what information Ms. Westerhout could share down the road, not just about the president, but her colleagues.”
“Adding to the concern was the fact that, unlike most other officials, Ms Westerhout was not thought to have signed a nondisclosure agreement, a document that Mr. Trump has frequently used in effort to tamp down on leaks.”
“At least one publishing house on Friday had discussions about trying to approach Ms. Westerhout for a book.”
“The Democratic National Committee will recommend rejecting a plan for ‘virtual caucuses’ in Iowa and Nevada, introducing a level of uncertainty in the caucus states ahead of the upcoming election season,” Politicoreports.
“A source with knowledge of the decision said late Thursday that the DNC will recommend rejecting Iowa’s virtual caucus proposal ‘due to security concerns.’ Sources confirmed to the Associated Press that Nevada’s system faced similar peril.”
President Trump tweeted that “badly run and weak companies” have blamed his trade war with China for flagging business in order to mask “bad management.”
CNBC: “His tweet comes as more companies from a range of industries have started to slam his tariffs on about $550 billion in Chinese goods. Earlier this week, more than 160 industry groups criticized Trump’s latest move to slap duties on Chinese products.”
Corn farmers in Nebraska are “outraged by the Trump administration’s lack of support for the American farmer,” according to a press release by the Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Corn Growers Association.
Axios: Farmers across the U.S. have had to cut costs, take up side gigs and go without health insurance to stay afloat during the U.S.-China trade war. The Trump administration has promised billions in aid to affected farmers, though an analysis showed that most paid so far went to the country’s largest and wealthiest farmers.”
Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist from Sweden, has joined a protest outside the United Nations headquarters in New York to demand action on the climate crisis, the Guardian reports.
Thunberg arrived in New York after crossing the Atlantic via a solar-powered yacht.
Said Thunberg: “It’s insane that a 16-year-old has to cross the Atlantic in order to take a stand, but that’s how it is. It feels like we are at a breaking point. Leaders know that more eyes on them, much more pressure is on them, that they have to do something, they have to come up with some sort of solution. I want a concrete plan, not just nice words.”
“Fox News host Neil Cavuto delivered a scorching rebuke on Thursday to President Trump’s recent criticism that the cable network ‘isn’t working for us anymore,’ and called out his tenuous relationship with the media,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Cavuto: “Mr. President, we don’t work for you. I don’t work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you. Just report on you.”
He later added: “It is called being fair and balanced, Mr. President, yet it is fair to say you’re not a fan when that balance includes stuff you don’t like to hear or facts you don’t like to have questioned.”
“Lawyers for the U.S. government and for Michael Flynn said on Friday they disagree about whether President Trump’s former national security adviser is ready to be sentenced for lying about his discussions with a Russian ambassador,” Reuters reports.
“In a status report, Flynn’s lawyers, who were hired earlier this year, said they have not had enough time to review the case, and want 90 days before updating the court on the case.”
“Government lawyers, in contrast, said Flynn is ready for sentencing, and proposed that he be sentenced between October 21 and 23 or between November 1 and 15.”
New York Times: “In the power circles of Tehran, where ‘Death to America’ is regularly chanted, the idea has taken hold that Iran must eventually negotiate with President Trump, according to several people with knowledge of the shift.”
“These people said Iran’s leadership had concluded that Mr. Trump could be re-elected and that the country cannot withstand six more years of the onerous sanctions he has imposed.”
President Trump said he’s not inclined to do an interview with CNN because he thinks it would be “disloyal” to his supporters, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “They are begging me to do an interview, and I just think it would be disloyal to my followers.”
He added: “I think it would be very disloyal to people that are Trump fans and people that voted for me and people that are going to vote again.”
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), who was elected in 1996, announced that he would not run for re-election, Roll Call reports.
It’s likely a safe Republican district as President Trump carried the district by 46 points in 2016.
Shimkus is the 14th Republican incumbent in the House to announce plans to retire, resign or seek another office.
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