Today in Trumpworld — Nov. 14

TRUMP’S SCHEDULE TODAY

12:15 p.m.: Trump will arrive in Hawaii from Manila.


1:45 p.m.: Trump will depart Hawaii en route to Washington, D.C.

10:45 p.m.: Trump will arrive back at the White House.

TRUMP’S TWITTER THIS MORNING: “One of the most accurate polls last time around. But #FakeNews likes to say we’re in the 30’s. They are wrong. Some people think numbers could be in the 50's. Together, WE will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! [With a picture touting a Rasmussen Poll showing his approval at 46 percent]. … THANK YOU to the amazing staff and their families of the United States Embassy in the Philippines. Keep up the GREAT WORK!”

THE BIG STORY: From The Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe: “Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. ‘A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,’ WikiLeaks wrote. ‘The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is “putintrump.” See “About” for who is behind it. Any comments?’ (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.) The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. ‘Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,’ he wrote on September 21, 2016. ‘Thanks.’ The messages, obtained by The Atlantic, were also turned over by Trump Jr.’s lawyers to congressional investigators. They are part of a long—and largely one-sided—correspondence between WikiLeaks and the president’s son that continued until at least July 2017. The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump’s tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States.”

PENCE PLEADS IGORANCE: From POLITICO’s Matthew Nussbaum: “‘The Vice President was never aware of anyone associated with the campaign being in contact with Wikileaks,’ said Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, in a statement. ‘He first learned of this news from a published report earlier tonight.’ Pence was asked in October 2016 if the Trump campaign was ‘in cahoots’ with WikiLeaks as it released droves of damaging information about Hillary Clinton. ‘Nothing could be further from the truth,’ Pence responded at the time.”

COMING ATTRACTIONS: From the New York Times’ Nicholas Fandos: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, testifying at 10 a.m. before the House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Sessions is almost certain to face questions about his contacts with Russians during last year’s presidential campaign and will be asked to clarify his past statements in light of recent disclosures that members of the Trump campaign had interactions with Russia. Mr. Sessions is also expected to be asked about his direction that the department consider a special counsel to investigate Mr. Trump’s political opponents, including Hillary Clinton.”

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CLINTONS: From the New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman: “The Justice Department said Monday that prosecutors were looking into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate political rivals President Trump has singled out for scrutiny, including Hillary Clinton. The department, in a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee, said the prosecutors would examine allegations that donations to the Clinton Foundation were tied to a 2010 decision by the Obama administration to allow a Russian nuclear agency to buy Uranium One, a company that owned access to uranium in the United States, and other issues. The letter appeared to be a direct response to Mr. Trump’s statement on Nov. 3, when he said he was disappointed with his beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and that longstanding unproven allegations about the Clintons and the Obama administration should be investigated. Any such investigation would raise questions about the independence of federal investigations under Mr. Trump. Since Watergate, the Justice Department has largely operated independently of political influence on cases related to the president’s opponents.”

THE LATEST ON MOORE: From POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim and John Bresnahan: “Senate Republicans are escalating their demands for embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to leave the race, including a growing faction calling for him to be expelled if he wins next month. But some senior Republicans are wary that the chorus of anti-Moore sentiment from Washington will only embolden Moore and his supporters. The former Alabama Supreme Court justice won the Republican primary battering Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP establishment.”

DONOR WATCH: From POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt and Josh Dawsey: “Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the GOP’s most prominent megadonor, is publicly breaking with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon over his efforts to oust Republican incumbents in 2018. ‘The Adelsons will not be supporting Steve Bannon’s efforts,’ said Andy Abboud, an Adelson spokesman. ‘They are supporting Mitch McConnell 100 percent. For anyone to infer anything otherwise is wrong.’”



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